With a project list that includes machines, drones, artificial intelligence and robots, it might seem that Luan Oliveira’s research is far from the fields that support Georgia’s No. 1 industry, agriculture. On the contrary, growing up in Brazil in a family devoted to farming and business sparked his passion for agricultural engineering and precision agriculture.
“Because of my upbringing, I’ve always been exposed to farming operations, directly and indirectly,” said Oliveira, precision agriculture specialist for University of Georgia Cooperative Extension. “When I was in my early teenage years, my father opened a small auto parts store, and I learned the machinery side, since we were selling parts for local farmers.”
When he arrived at Brazil’s Federal University of Paraíba for his undergraduate program in 2011, Oliveira knew he liked two things: machines and agriculture.
Bridging research and community through Extension
Oliveira, who also serves as an assistant professor in the Department of Horticulture at the UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, quickly realized that his campus did not have an undergraduate research program focused on agricultural machinery.
“It was then when I found another passion: university Extension,” he said. “During the four years of my undergraduate program, I was funded by a scholarship to bring gardens to schools where kindergarteners and first graders were able to produce vegetables and were exposed to knowledge on healthier foods.”
After finishing his undergraduate degree in 2016, Oliveira knew he liked three things: machines, agriculture and Extension.
Transforming farm operations through Extension and precision agriculture
Fast-forward nearly a decade — during which he earned master’s and doctoral degrees, gained land-grant university research experience in Alabama and Nebraska, and started a family with his wife, Karoll — Oliveira now uses his three-part passion to lead the UGA Precision Horticulture Lab based on the university’s Tifton campus.
“We are working with the distinct goals of increasing awareness and knowledge of products on the market, educating growers and county Extension agents on how those technologies might be valuable to them, and creating a sustainable ecosystem — not only environmentally speaking but also socially and economically,” Oliveira said.
Oliveira’s team works with farms of all sizes to develop, research and implement integrative precision agriculture tools. Using robotics and artificial intelligence technologies, his lab has worked with weeding and spraying robots and launched the lab’s award-winning Drone Dock, a refueling and reloading station designed for large spray drones that can cover several acres in a day.
The Drone Dock, which won the Grand Prize Innovation Award in the Farm Robotics Challenge earlier this year, is a fully automated platform that supports spray drone operations by automating the calculation, dosing and mixing of pesticides — transforming a formerly time- and labor-intensive task into a process that is now easily accessible via a mobile app.
While the project is still in development, research indicates that it could reduce human exposure to chemicals, as the station measures and mixes all solutions. More accurate dosing and mixing also reduce the overall amount of chemicals used in the process, thereby helping reduce environmental impact.
“We’re already looking ahead to develop a platform that will support other robotic operations,” Oliveira said.
A commitment to Georgia’s agricultural future
Oliveira considers it an honor to serve as the state’s precision agriculture Extension specialist for specialty crops, a role he’s held since August 2023.
With a program that focuses 75% on Extension, 20% on research and 5% on service, Oliveira values the fact that his research and Extension efforts grow directly out of what Georgia farmers need most.
“To be able to serve as a bridge between UGA, Georgia growers, industry collaborators and the scientific community has been one of my proudest accomplishments,” Oliveira said.