Introduction to Robotics Agriculture in Pest Control: A Review

Agriculture is one of the latest industries that uses robotic technologies. Cultivation of crops with high yield and quality can be enhanced when technological sustenance is involved. Pests are nuisance and cannot be completely eliminated, but with effective control and management. damages caused by pests could be minimized below economic threshold. Automation in agriculture is stable and accurate and is mainly incorporated in mechanized farming system. However its numerous application in different agricultural practices is not well noticed. Hence this paper attempts to provide profound awareness on robotic technology in agriculture. Robots could have a specific or multiple functions and, most commonly, they are made up of five basic components; sensors, effectors, actuators, controller and arms. Use of automation in weeding, weed mapping, micro spraying, seeding, irrigation and harvesting are progressions which promote sustainable agriculture and food security. In future, solar robots with battery inverter may be invented

Evaluation of sensors for poplar cutting detection to be used in intra-row weed control machine

For Short Rotation Coppice (SRC) cultivation, it is common practice to use herbicides during the first year, even if mechanical weeding is becoming an alternative practice for environmental and agronomic reasons. Much attention was paid to non-chemical weeding within the rows, but the low level of efficiency of available machinery has led to the development of automatic systems that are capable of weeding the spaces in the row and avoiding the plants.In the framework of this study, a photoelectric and a capacitive sensor (the latter specifically developed for identifying poplar cuttings), was tested. A small platform pulling the sensors was moved along a monorail in order to assess the capability of the sensors for localizing cuttings along the row. The study was conducted on one-year old poplar cuttings. At this stage the plants have little mechanical strength and are unable to withstand the impact of traditional mechanical probes situated on the retractable elements of weed control machinery (hoes, cultivators). Each sensor identified the plant according to its own functional parameters. The divergence between the response of the sensors and the actual position of the cuttings allowed for the accuracy assessment of detection.The capacitive sensor showed a higher amplitude of response in presence of a poplar cutting than the photoelectric sensor. No significant differences were observed for the various distances (0.15, 0.20 and 0.25m) of the detection system from the row and for the different speeds (1.0 and 1.5kmh-1) of the rail.The first results showed that the testing apparatus accurately detected poplar cuttings at the same speed used by common mechanical weed control machines. The sensors tested proved to be suitable to be included in intra-row weeding machines. This will be the main goal of future activities, an interesting prospect for firms producing agricultural machinery for biomass crops

Diseño y validación mediante software de un deshierbador manual para uso en pequeñas áreas de terreno

Debido a la excesiva maleza presente en los cultivos se ha visto la necesidad de diseñar y validar mediante el software ANSYS un deshierbador manual empleado en el sector agrícola especialmente para su uso en pequeñas áreas de terreno que están siendo cultivadas. Como el Ecuador es un país agrícola se busca aportar con esta máquina a los agricultores para que sus labores sean productivas en el menor tiempo posible. De esta manera se investigó sobre el suelo, sus clases y características y sobre las herramientas agrícolas. Se realizó un análisis QFD para determinar cuál es la mejor alternativa que cumpla con los requerimientos técnicos que necesita el usuario; se ejecutó también el diseño mecánico del deshierbador manual para luego proceder con el diseño CAD en el software NX de acuerdo a las especificaciones requeridas por el usuario. Para validar el diseño del deshierbador manual se empleó el software ANSYS mediante el módulo de Static Structural, obteniendo algunos parámetros importantes como la deformación total, el esfuerzo y el coeficiente de seguridad de cada elemento que conforma el deshierbador manual; los resultados obtenidos en este software fueron fiables gracias al análisis de convergencia que se realizó para verificar la confiablidad de los mismos, mostrando una variación mínima entre ellos, también se estableció un rango de resultados debido a que el MEF casi nunca da resultados exactos porque se basa en métodos numéricos. Se analizó finalmente la estructura y se observó que es mejor trabajar mediante superficie debido a que la misma está formada por perfiles estructurales, dando al primer análisis un resultado satisfactorio. Se recomienda analizar la estructura a través del software SAP 2000 para verificar los resultados obtenidos en ANSYS.Due to the excessive weeds present in the crops, it has been seen the need to design and validate through the ANSYS software a manual weeding used in the agricultural sector especially for use in small areas of land that are being cultivated. As Ecuador is an agricultural country, it is sought to contribute with this machine to farmers so that their work is productive in the shortest possible time. In this way, the soil, its classes and characteristics, and agricultural tools were investigated. A QFD analysis was carried out to determine which is the best alternative that meets the technical requirements that the user needs; The mechanical design of the manual weeder was also executed and then proceeded with the CAD design in the NX software according to the specifications required by the user. To validate the design of the manual weeder, the ANSYS software was used through the Static Structural module, obtaining some important parameters such as total deformation, stress and the safety factor of each element that makes up the manual weeder; the results obtained in this software were reliable thanks to the convergence analysis that was carried out to verify their reliability, showing a minimum variation between them, a range of results was also established because the MEF almost never gives exact results because it is based on numerical methods. The structure was finally analyzed, and it was observed that it is better to work by surface because it is made up of structural profiles, giving the first analysis a satisfactory result. It is recommended to analyze the structure through SAP 2000 software to verify the results obtained in ANSYS