AGRICULTURE ROBOT

CONTENTS

 ABSTRACT

 Introduction:

 How do conventional techniques differ with automized one

 TYPES OF ROBOTS USED IN AGRICULTURE:

 GOALS AND PURPOSES:

 OPERATION OF AGRICULTURAL ROBOTS:

 DEMETER: Robot farmer:

 Weed Controller:

 Robots used in forest:

 Robot In Horticulture:

 Fruit picking robot:

 WHY GREEN HOUSE SHOULD BE AUTOMATED:

 HAZARDS TO HUMANS:

 FUTURE SCOPE:

 Advantages/Disadvantages

 CONCLUSION:

Dept. Of Electronics HHM JDT IPTC

  REFERENCES:

Dept. Of Electronics HHM JDT IPTC

 AGRICULTURE ROBOT

INTRODUCTION
The idea of applying robotics technology in agriculture is very new. In
agriculture, the opportunities for robot-enhanced productivity are immense
and the robots are appearing on farms in various guises and in increasing
numbers. We can expect the robots performing agricultural operations
autonomously such as spraying and mechanical weed control, fruit picking,
watching the farms day & night for an effective report, allowing farmers to
reduce the environmental impact, increase precision and efficiency, and
manage individual plants in novel ways. The applications of instrumental
robotics are spreading every day to cover further domains, as the opportunity
of replacing human operators provides effective solutions with return on
investment. This is specially important when the duties, that need be
performed, are potentially harmful for the safety or the health of the workers,
or when more conservative issues are granted by robotics.Heavy chemicals
or drugs dispensers, manure or fertilizers spreaders, etc. are activities more
and more concerned by the deployment of unmanned options.

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How do conventional techniques differ with automized one?

Figure 1 agreculter robot

Conventional techniques depend on human power for lifting, dragging,

weed control, fruit picking. Humans are prone to work in hazardous
environment while spraying chemicals and pesticides. The tractors compact
the soil, as they are larger in weight. They cannot move in terrain conditions.
These methods cannot identify the crop and soil in close proximity. In the
case of automated agriculture (which uses field robots) is exemplified from
above problems. Robots can work restlessly in all environments; all you
have to do is set a program to perform the desired activities. Although, large
sized wheels are required in muddy soils, robots small sized wheels perform
well. Robot scouts are employed to get detailed information about the crop
such as the presence of diseases, weeds, insect infestations and other stress

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conditions. The lightweight of the robots is a major advantage, since they do

not compact the soil as larger machinery does. Robo will Roam on fields to
take care for plants.

TYPES OF ROBOTS USED IN AGRICULTURE:

1. Demeter (used for harvesting).

2. Robot for weed control.
3. Forester robot.
4. Robot in horticulture.
5. Fruit picking robot. 6. Micro-flying robot.
The robots mentioned here come under are Field robots and some are
Mobile robots.
Field robots work with respect to environment and medium. They change
themselves according to the required condition. Mobile robots are those
which posses mobility withrespect a medium. The entire system moves with
respect to environment.

2.1 GOALS AND PURPOSES:

1. To provide access to hazard environment.

2. Reduced operating costs due to lower cost of employing robots.
3. Higher overall availability of robot workers (no lunch breaks or
vacations)
and many more.
4. To complete large amount of work in less time.

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OPERATION OF AGRICULTURAL ROBOTS:

3.1 DEMETER: Robot farmer:

"Labour requirements to grow and harvest the crops must be reduced

through
automation". The main area of application of robots in agriculture is at the
harvesting
stage. Demeter is a robot that can cut crops like wheat and alfalfa. It is
named for the
Roman goddess of agriculture. Although, it may look like a normal
harvester, Demetercan drive by itself without any human supervision.
Unfortunately, people get tired and bored, and their productivity goes down.
With a robotic harvester, however, it never getstired and can operate 24
hours. Demeter has cameras on it that can detect the difference between
thecrop that has been cut and crop that hasn’t. This information tells it where
to drive, whereto put its cutter head, and when it has come to the end of a
crop row so it can turn around.Demeter has a cruise control function. An
operator can ride along with it. Demeter candrive, steer, and control the
cutter head while the operator can focus on other tasks. TheDemeter robot
can also be driven by remote control. Or, Demeter can be taught a path,and
then follow that path using its on board sensors and computer control
systems. It canfollow the path with an accuracy of up to 3 centimeters.

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Figure 2 demeter harvesting the crop in holland

The Demeter system strives to provide three levels of automation to

harvesters, and eventually to tractors and combines. First, a “cruise control”
feature, which will automatically steer, drive and control the harvesting
header, will be provided to harvesteroperators. This feature will allow the
operator to focus on other in-cab controls andharvest conditions, and to
better handle contingency situations. Secondly, a “drone”feature will be
provided, allowing one operator to remotely control several harvesters.
Thirdly, a fully autonomous machine will be developed that will allow a
harvester to completely harvest a field with no human supervision. Benefits:
The first two levels of the Demeter system allow fewer, lesserskilled
operatorsto provide performance equal to or better than the current harvester
performance on the average farm. At the final level of automation,
performance will be maintained with no human supervision.
3.2 Weed Controller:
Farm working usually involves a harsh environment such as limited work
space and soft, unstable or uneven surfaces. The development of novel
weeding technologies that can reduce manual effort by 50% to 100% in
organically grown sugar beets and vegetable and herbicide usage by

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75100% in high value crops. They can also be used in plants, which are
widely separated. This techniques use robots in the field, to replace
operators on
steerage hoes.

Figure3 inter row cultiveter

A four-wheel-drive weed-seeking robot was developed by the Danish Farm

Research Authority. The task of the weed-removing device is to remove or
destroy the weed. Crops that are grown in rows can be weeded by running a
hoe between the crop rows. Labour consuming systems that involve an
operator driving the tractor, with a second person controlling the hoe. An
intelligent hoe uses vision systems to identify the rows of crops, and steer
itself accurately between them, considerably reducing the need for
herbicides Weed identification is based on colour photography. The
equipped robot helps production of weed maps identifying plant.

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Visionguidedintra-row cultivator,able to perform mechanical weed control

within the row of sugar beets plants, thus totally eliminating the need for
chemical weed control. An Autonomous mobile robot for agriculture
operations is driven by its two wheels at the back, each independently
driven with a DCservo motor equipped with encoder, tachometer and
brakes. The steering mechanism is an Ackerman-steering controlled with a
DC-servo-motor.The electrical power is provided by batteries or by a fuel-
driven generator the systems looks at a certain environment containing
several plants. Knowing that the sugar beet plants are sown in rows and with
a certain constant distance among them, it is possible to classify the sugar
plant from the weed plant. It could be saving farmers money right from the
starting. For safe night work, field obstacles can be programmed into each
field map so the tractor can automatically take avoidance action.

3.3 Robots used in forest:

3.3.1 Treebot:
A fearless mobile robot is helping scientists monitor environmental
changes in forests.The hi-tech Tarzan of the robot world, nicknamed
Treebot, is the first of its kind to combine networked sensors, a web cam,
and a wireless net link. It is solar-powered and moves up and down special
cables to take samples and measurements for vital analysis. Treebot has
been developed by scientists at the US Center for Embedded Network
Sensing in California. Pinpoint precision Programmed with open-source
computercode,Linux, the Treebot is a vital addition to researchers'
environmental monitoring kit, according to one of the project leaders,
Professor William Kaiser. "One of the objectives is to make use of
distributed sensors to acquire information about the environment," he said.
"It is very important in the biology community to understand the interaction
between the atmosphere and the forest environment." Understanding subtle

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changes in light, humidity, and carbon dioxide levels give scientists crucial
indications and predictions about environmental change. But 90% of all
interaction between the environment and atmospheric conditions happens
high up in the forest canopy, and it is a challenge taking detailed
measurements and monitoring conditions over a period of time.The Treebot,
which in scientific terms is a node in a Networked Info mechanical
System(Nims), helps by being stealthy enough to travel through the forest
canopy along specially constructed cabling, night and day.

3.3.2 Forester robot:

This is a special type of robot used for cutting up of wood, tending trees,
and pruning of X- mas tree and for harvesting pulp and hard wood and in
the forests. It employs a special jaws and axes for chopping the branch. The
forester robot with six legged moves in the forest.

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Figure 4 forester roboat

The picture shows the robot moving wood out of the forest. The leg
coordination is
automated but still the navigation is done by the human operator on the
robot.

3.4 Robot In Horticulture:

Robot is used in lawns to cut the grass the grass in lawns. This type of robo
was already released in the market. What all is to be done is to lay a wire
along the garden and connect it to the perimeter switch. The Robomower's

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patented technology allows it to negotiate and move around obstacles. And

because it moves in a triangular pattern from many different directions, it'll
cut any lawn, regardless of its geometric shape. In automatic mode, a fully
charged Robo-mower can typically mow a lawn of 2500 to 3200 sq. ft.,
depending on the number of obstacles in its path, slopes, height of grass,
humidity, etc. It operates electrically on rechargeable batteries, mulching
blades and whisper quiet operation. No fumes or oil leaks. No pollution.
Whisper quiet operation.
About as quiet as a hair blower.
1. Runs on rechargeable power pack--no need for oil and gas.
2. Press one button and mover starts working, you are not needed on the
lawn while it operates
3. An excellent mulcher, so you won't need to collect and bag any grass
clippings.
4. Loaded with built-in safety features to protect children and pets.
5. No need to worry about theft with the new theft deterrent system.

3.5 Fruit picking robot:

The principles of fruit picking robots have been developed since the early
1980's. These principles have opened up new approaches to the harvesting
of crops. However, to fully develop the fruit picking robotics technology,
contributions from high-tech industry, agricultural commodity groups and
farm equipment manufacturers must be sought.

Dept. Of Electronics [13] HHM JDT IPTC

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Figure 2 a fruit picker

To start with, the fruit picking robots need to pick ripe fruit without
damaging the branches or leaves of the tree. Mobility is a priority, and the
robots must be able to access all areas of the tree being harvested. It goes
then without saying that the robots must be intelligent, and have a
humanlike interaction with their surroundings through senses of touch,
sight, and image processing. The fundamental blocks of these robots are
shown in the (fig.5) The robot can distinguish between fruit and leaves by
using video image capturing. The camera is mounted on the robot arm, and
the colours detected are compared with properties stored in memory. If a
match is obtained, the fruit is picked. If fruit is hidden by leaves, an air jet
can be used to blow leaves out the way so a clearer view and access can be
obtained.The robot arm itself is coated in rubber to minimize any damage to
the tree. It has 5degrees of freedom, allowing it to move, in, out, up, down,
and in cylindrical and spherical motion patterns. The pressure applied to the
fruit is sufficient for removal from the tree, but not enough to crush the fruit.
This is accomplished by a feedback process from the gripper mechanism,
which is driven by motors, hydraulics, or a pneumatic system. The shape of
the gripper depends on the fruit being picked, as some fruits, such as plums,
crush very easily, while others, like oranges are not so susceptible to
bruising. The robots should have access to all areas of the orchard in order
to reach all of the fruit.Significant work has been done in the production of
end effectors in France. They are capable of harvesting apples and citrus.

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Figure 5 robote picking apple from orchard

The limitations of these systems were mainly in their inability of picking the
fruits, whichwere covered by the branches. This resulted in robots being in
capable of harvesting morethan 75%.

3.6 Robot for greenhouse operations:

Robotics in agriculture has experienced a significant development in the last
decade. Inparticular, research has been devoted to plant inspection,
transportation, grafting and especially, harvesting of fruits and vegetables in
horticulture. Research has also been carried out in the field of mobile robots
that carry devices for agricultural operation.

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Figure 6 : Robot working in garden

WHY GREEN HOUSE SHOULD BE AUTOMATED:

Greenhouses are translucent glass or plastic buildings for rearing or

hastening the growth of plants. The distribution of plants inside greenhouses
usually consists of an alternation of double rows of plants and narrow
corridors for human operation. This kind of agricultural technique is
massively used for intensive production of horticultural products in regions
with otherwise adverse natural climatic conditions, since it allows an
improved use of water and daylight. The favorable atmosphere created
inside greenhouses for plant growth causes pests and undesirable organisms
to thrive as well, making necessary the use of pesticides and other chemical
products that must be sprayed directly on the plants.

4.1 HAZARDS TO HUMANS:

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Recent studies have reported evidence that spraying operations have

hazardous effects on the health of knapsack sprayer human operators, who
are specially exposed when working inside greenhouses, in conditions of
high temperature and poor ventilation. Therefore, the automation of
spraying, as well as other greenhouse operations like measurement and
control of environmental conditions, harvesting

Figure 3multipal graasping element

The multi grasping system proposed aims at picking single leaves from a
plant; the operation, actually, is performed by men using two hands one to
hold the stem and the
other to tear the leaf. The fixture has two pickers; when they approach the
leaf to be detached, the connecting link of the lower picker keeps the leaf
against the upper one, until the carried blade cuts the sample. The sprinklers
or nebulisers are other rigs required for the specialized delivering of
chemicals; a tip clamp is endowed with a nozzle, so that administration is
localized (with proper dose), while holding the piece to be vaporized. The
different mechanical components, due to dust and dirty scattered into the
glasshouses surrounding, are protected by tyre hulls, that can be tided with
compressed air at beginning of the duty cycles or whenever required.

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FUTURE SCOPE:
Flying micro robot: (a newly proposed robot):
Scientists from around the world are reverse-engineering the mechanics of
insects
as they design midget robots to scout battlefields, search for victims trapped
in rubble, and record images in
agricultural fields

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Figure 8 flying microroboat

The world’s smallest micro robot was placed in the geniuses book o world
record. The experiments have been conducted so as to know the fields of
operation.. The micro robot consists of propeller by which it can fly to
heights these features include the ability to zero in and land precisely on a
potato chip and then flap their wings to buzz off with blazing speed. It is
expected that it can be used in agriculture for the control of weed and
insects.

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Advantages/Disadvantages

ADVANTAGES:
1. The Robo does not get sick or tired and does not need time off.
2. It can operate with closer tolerances (so every round is at full field
capacity), Fewer errors and at higher speeds
3. Because machines can be made lighter and cheaper if the drivers
seat, controls and cab can be eliminated.
4. It can be used in various fields like agriculture, medicine, mining,
and space
research .
5. It can be sent to another planet to study their environmental
conditions.
6. The machines could easily work around trees, rocks, ponds and other
obstacles.
7. Small suburban fields could be worked almost as efficiently as large
tracts of land.
DISADVANTAGES:
1. One of the key disadvantages of driverless machines for agriculture
is liability.
2. Access to the technology.
3. Not currently scale neutral.
4. Better sensors would help. Improved scouting programs would be
essential. Nevertheless, a periodic human presence in the field is
likely to be necessary for the near future.
5. Robots could change the culture /emotional appeal of agriculture.
6. Energy issues,costly.

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CONCLUSION:

In agriculture, the opportunities for robot-enhanced productivity

are immense – and the robots are appearing on farms in various guises and
in increasing numbers. The other problems associated with autonomous
farm equipment can probably be overcome with technology. This equipment
may be in our future, but there are important reasons for thinking that it may
not be just replacing the human driver with a computer. It may mean a
rethinking of how crop production is done. Crop production may be done
better and cheaper with a swarm of small machines than with a few large
ones.
One of the advantages of the smaller machines is that they may
be more acceptable to the non-farm community. The jobs in agriculture are a
drag, dangerous, require intelligence and quick, though highly repetitive
decisions hence robots can be rightly substituted with human operator. The
higher quality products can be sensed by machines (colour.firmness, weight,
density, ripeness, size, shape) accurately. Robots can improve the quality of
ourlives but there are downsides.
REFERENCES:

 IEEE ROBOTICS &AUTOMATION SOCIETY, SUB

COMMITTEE FOR ROBOTICS AND AUTOMATION.
 ROBOTICS TECHNOLOGY AND AUTOMATION BY S R DEB.
 INDUSTRIAL ROBOTICS BY MIKELL P. GROOVER.
 EPSON MICRO FIYING ROBOT.

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