1. Autonomous Mobile Robot for Monitoring and Control of the Cotton Boll Weevil

The cotton boll weevil (Anthonomus grandis Boheman) is the key pest of Brazilian cotton, accounting for about 12% of production costs and, together with yield losses, reaching roughly R$ 2,470 per hectare per season. Because its immature stages develop protected inside the plant, insecticides reach only the adult, which entrenches calendar-based broadcast spraying and an average of 18 full-field applications per season. Conventional scouting samples as few as 0.1 points per hectare, leaving... R. Balducci Borges, N. Smaal, P.V. Santos, W.G. Bendinelli