I interned at Blue River Technology for 12 weeks in the summer of 2017 as a Mechanical Engineering Intern on the R&D team. Blue River Technology is an agricultural robotics startup that was acquired by John Deere for $300 million in Fall 2017. Blue Rive develops smart ‘see and spray’ tractor modules that, using computer vision, differentiate real-time between weeds and crops, and selectively spray only weeds with pesticides.

During my internship I worked with the R&D team to better automate the module’s spray process. I did this by evaluating the effectiveness of different nozzle designs, as well as by working with the algorithms team to pinpoint the time delay of the electro-mechanical system. For both of these tasks, I built an electromechanical rig for our Sunnyvale office that could mimic the activity of our huge tractor-sized modules at a smaller scale.

To evaluate various nozzle designs that varied parameters such as material selection, orifice manufacturing processes, and size I built an electromechanical rig that could mimic the activity of our tractor-sized modules at our Sunnyvale office. The electromechanical rig is pictured below. See below for more details on how I compared nozzle designs and how I investigated the system time delay.