Motivation
Reliable and low-latency communication is vital for effective communication and teleoperation in mobile robotics. In agriculture robots are increasingly deployed for tasks such as crop monitoring, spraying and selective harvesting. Yet most agricultural environments lack robust wireless infrastructure, and standard Wi-Fi often fails over large distances or within obstructed areas such as polytunnels.
This project explores the use of long-range and alternative wireless technologies, including LoRa, nRF, ESP-NOW, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, to extend communication capabilities in agricultural settings. The key challenge is balancing communication range, bandwidth and latency, while long-range links such as LoRa can reliably transmit control signals, they offer limited capacity for higher-bandwidth data such as video. Students will investigate hybrid communication strategies that combine different technologies, for example using long-range links for command and control while maintaining short-range or higher-bandwidth connections for data feedback. The aim is to design robust communication systems that can function in challenging environments where traditional communication solutions are impractical.
Required Skills
- Understanding of wireless communication principles and protocols
- Basic knowledge of networking concepts
- Programming skills in Python or C++
- Familiarity with Robot Operating System (ROS2) or willingness to learn
- Interest in hardware and software integration (e.g. RF modules, embedded systems, robots)
- Problem-solving skills and an experimental mindset
Skills to be Gained
Students will develop hands-on expertise with a range of wireless communication technologies and their integration into robotic systems. You will learn how to evaluate links in terms of range, bandwidth and latency, and how to design hybrid communication architectures that exploit the strengths of multiple technologies. The project will provide experience with both agricultural robots (e.g. Thorvald in strawberry farms) and/or small laboratory robots, offering opportunities to test and evaluate solutions in real-world scenarios. Skills developed will include network configuration, ROS2 integration, experimental data collection and performance analysis. These skills are highly transferable to careers in robotics, telecommunications, IoT and autonomous systems development.
This project is suitable as a final year project for students at Lincoln studying Computer Science, Games or Robotics, or as an internship in robotics research. If you are interested, fill out our Expression of Interest Form, choosing Dr Jonathan Cox (jcox@lincoln.ac.uk) as the researcher to supervise the project.