BenchBot V3.1 Image Collection Protocols and Checklist

Supplies

1. Batteries

   1. 1x Camera Battery

   2. 1x Flash Battery

   3. 4x Amiga Batteries with 4x Keys

2. Camera with Attached Lens (handle with care)

3. Flash

4. USB-A to USB-C Cable

5. Measuring Tape

6. Color Checker

7. Stool

1. Setup Bench Bot and Camera

1. Attach the camera and lens if separated.

2. Replace the battery in the camera if low. I have found that

3. Attach camera to the flash bracket. It is held in place by a screw and two washers. Try to align camera lens to parallel with the ground as best you can, and tighten as much as is reasonable. If the camera is too loose, it does not have a risk of falling but the BBot’s movement can jostle it and cause it to be pointed at an angle, which can lead to the amiga being in frame, pot edges being cut-off, etc. if this was not anticipated.

4. Attach the camera to the BBot bracket. The black triangle piece on the back of the flash bracket will slide into the piece toward the bottom of the BBot z-axis. Make sure to have a strong grip on the flash/camera and always have a hand below the camera. It can take a couple tries to properly hook it on (sometimes only one side will slide in), so you want to ensure you do not drop it.

5. Unscrew the cap on the BBot box USB port. At this point, you may attach the camera to the box via the USB-C to USB-A cable. If using a long cable, make sure it does not hang below the camera so that it does not get in any of the photos.

6. Place the four amiga batteries into the BBot. There is a battery slot above each wheel that they will slide into. Make sure it slides into the bench bot’s internal track, it can be easy to slide one of the sides on top the track instead of in it.

7. Once all batteries are inserted, you may put the keys into the battery. When turning from “Unlocked” to “Off”, a little peg will push out of the battery (on it’s bottom side) to enter a hole in the frame of the Amiga. If you cannot change the battery from “Unlocked,” then it is likely the peg cannot extend down into the hole due to a misalignment. You may just have to wiggle the battery around a little bit, or the battery may not be in the tracks and you may have to slide it out and slide it back in properly.

8. Plug the dangling power cables into their batteries. Each battery has its own power cable.

9. Turn on the batteries with the key.

10. At this point BBot will begin booting up. The Amiga interface will be immediately available to use, while the BBot app interface will take a minute or two to boot. Remove the cover from the amiga interface, and press start. Reduce the motor speed to 4 bars (a value of 80). We do not want to BBot moving too fast.

11. Adjust the BBot alignment if needed using the joystick. At MD, the bench itself is a little curved so it can be difficult to get a straight alignment. Try your best to get the BBot wheels to be as parallel as you can with the left and right edges of the pots. It is okay to pause the BBot when it is running to make quick alignment adjustments later when you are conducting the batch collection. When choosing a starting place, make sure the camera is above the first row.

12. On the Amiga interface, click the “Auto” tab on the left (it is an A surrounded by a circle). On this page, turn auto-control on. The light on the joystick should be orange or blue. When this is on, the BBot will be able to control itself (so the Y-axis is now controlled), but the joystick will be unresponsive. To make further BBot adjustments with the joystick, you may turn this off when needed. Make sure to turn back on after making your adjustments, however, because if BBot is started with this “off,” then it will be unable to move forward and will continuously take images of the same row.

2. Thin and Weed Potting Area

Discard non-target weeds or overlapping plants by placing them in a bucket or bag. Do not leave removed weeds or plants on pots or on the landscape fabric. This is to avoid detecting them in the images that we collect.

1. remove overlapping target weeds in all pots

2. remove non-target weeds from pots and from the background area

   1. check inside the pots for non-target weeds

   2. check and remove weeds growing from underneath the pots

   3. check for and remove weeds growing on the landscape fabric

3. Check Camera and Flash Settings

Make sure that the camera settings match what is listed in the camera settings table

1. Check aperture is correct

2. check that the focus is correct

3. Check the flash power

4. Check height of the lens from the potting soil surface using a measuring tape

5. Place the colorchecker next to the pot

6. Take a test images

Camera and Flash Settings Table

4. Check Bbot App settings

BenchBot App Programmed settings table

5. Collect images

1. Initiate bbot collection

6. Break Down Collection Equipment

7. Trouble Shooting

Can’t connect to wifi or can’t remote into the mini computer

• check that the emergency break isn’t activated

• restart benchbot

Examples of Plant Spacing and Non-Target Weeds

Non-target weeds

Plant spacing

Avoid overlapping plants. Thin plants when they do overlap. Be liberal when thinning plants. We don’t need to worry about having enough plants. It’s more important to have no overlap than it is to have more plants per plot.

Prioritize no-overlap for plant within a pot and no-overlap of plants from different pots. View below for examples of good plant spacing.

Within-Pot Plant Spacing

Between-Pot Plant Spacing