The drones that Mintchev is developing are equipped with flexible materials, tactile sensors and smart steering to help them spot obstacles, survive collisions and navigate sensitive plants, crops and leaves safely and reliably.
Once at the University of Bonn, he will be working on improvements to interactive drone technologies for agriculture, environmental monitoring and biodiversity research. These systems are designed to collect environmental DNA (eDNA), work in the field to trace volatile compounds released by plants, and log information from crops and natural ecosystems in high resolution.
In the long term, Mintchev’s research aims to improve biodiversity monitoring, make it easier to detect pests at an early stage, and unlock new applications in precision agriculture, such as targeted harvesting and the automated monitoring of crop health and quality.
Mintchev will be working at the Institute of Agricultural Engineering, part of the University of Bonn’s Faculty of Agricultural, Nutritional and Engineering Sciences. Its dean, Professor Heiko Schoof, is delighted by his new recruit: “In Professor Mintchev, our faculty is gaining a proven expert in robotics whose agricultural research is making a key contribution to issues affecting the whole of society, such as climate change, global food security and environmental protection.”
The appointment was made possible thanks to financial support from the Wübben Stiftung Wissenschaft foundation. Mintchev is currently Assistant Professor of Environmental Robotics at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich.
Media contact:
Jutta Wolter-Sadlers
Appointment Management Advisor
Faculty of Agricultural, Nutritional and Engineering Sciences
E-Mail: aei-berufung@uni-bonn.de
Phone: +49 228/73-2134
