Mobile Robot Weeder Prototype

Robots are becoming more integrated in the manufacturing industry. Though, most of the manufacturing environment is not as complicated as outdoor, recent advances on sensors and algorithm provide an interesting outlook on how robots will be working outdoor with humans. Commercial small unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) or mobile ground robots with navigation sensing modality provides a platform to increase farm management efficiency. This paper will present a robot prototype which can be used for weeding. The same waypoint navigation on selective harvesting was used for this work. The robot was retrofitted with a mechanical weeder with adjustable width. There were 6 individual prongs on each side where each prong measured approximately 6 inches. The prong was designed to penetrate approximately 1.5 inches to the soil. Wheels were used to ensure the prongs would be kept at a constant depth into the soil. A slider mechanism was designed to make the width of the two-prong holder adjustable. Performance test on the speed of Husky using the weeder will be presented.