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Remote contrtolled manipulator to eradicate common wild oat

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eskoilola:
As every Project this one starts with planning. It has to, since I am on an assignment in Germany and my home is back in Finland.

So what is this common wild oat and why should it be eradicated from a field ?

Common wild oat is a plant that competes with oat, wheat and other cultivated plants. It is considered as noxious weed. If a field is infested by this plant, some countries demand a guard period of several years during which the field has to be treated in such a way that nothing grows on it. You do the math.

The common wild oat (Avena fatua) is really hard to eradicate. There are chemicals to do that but those are really expensive and cannot be used with all cultivated plants.

Usually this weed is eradicated mechanically by picking it up and then burning the weed. This is a tedious process since it is not easy to pinpoint the weed among the cultivated plants especially if it is oat that should be grown.

Therer are vechiles that are designed to be used on the field and then inspect the field just by driving and eyeballing. This Needs 2 persons to do the Job efficiently and even then the result might not be perfect. Further more, this weed has to be picked when it is possible to pinpoint it. Not sooner, not later. So there is no bad weather.

What if this Job could be done sitting on Your Coach ?
What if the System could help in pinpointing the weed ?
What if there were more than just one eradicator on the field - say 10 of them

So I have been thinking over this. Some might call it a Robot - IMHO it is NOT a Robot - it is a rermote controlled Manipulator with some autonomy to make it more manageable.

The very first thing is to decide the General structure of this Manipulator. There are some requirements that originate from the very Environment it is goint to be used.
- There are ditches and other formations that the Manipulator should be able to cope with
- The Manipulator should be able to turn the right side up  no matter how it is oriented
- The Manipulator should be water resistant. It is not a submarine but it should be able to move over shallow Ponds
- It should not crush the cultivated plants when moving.

My personal winner at the Moment is a 6 legged walker.

JHovel:
I will read your project log with great interest if you continue to report here. This is a very complex design issue and fascinating to me - although I have no need for such a device, of course. But the fundamental design process is of great interest.
Thanks for the introduction!
Cheers,
Joe

hermetic:
Can't imagine how you would build a robot or remote controlled vehicle to pick wild oats, AND make it cheaper, faster and more reliable than people. I used to do this for a local farmer friend of mine, really easy because we did it shortly before harvest, and at that time the wild oats are about a foot taller than the crop, just walk along the field in the sunshine pulling them up and putting them in a bag. Very pleasant way to spend a day! You would have the cost of a machine that would only get a couple of weeks work in a year, and spend the rest stored up getting damp and breaking down. Most problems with combine harvesters are due to them being left idle most of the year.

eskoilola:
So 6 legs. Symmetric or asymmetric....

I think it might be a good idea to make this walker symmetric because:
- all legs would be identical and could be fabricated more easily. For example the number of molds will be less
- symmetric design is able to walk to any direction without complex turning. There is no direction
- replacement of a broken leg is simple. Just make another one
- each leg can have it's own dedicated controller with some degree of autonomy. Makes software design somewhat easier
- each leg would also have it's own power controls, valves and other stuff like that which is another benefit of symmetric design

Asymmetric design might give less complexity as all legs do not need all the freedoms. Asymmetric design might also contribute to speed. Fortunately the speed is not an issue here. This device does not need to run like a cheetah.

So I think it will be a 6 legged symmetric walker. Unfortunately it most likely will have top and under sides. Getting rid of that would certainly give some advantages. Some of the on-board devices will have their own orientation requirements. Power supply for one. This cannot run on batteries - there must be some sort of a generator onboard the alternative being very short working time or very costly batteries.

eskoilola:

--- Quote from: hermetic on October 02, 2017, 01:01:13 PM ---Can't imagine how you would build a robot or remote controlled vehicle to pick wild oats, AND make it cheaper, faster and more reliable than people.
--- End quote ---
You are VERY right on making it faster. Also, the ideology behind means that there is at least one real person steering the device. So that might save the cost of one person.

Being MORE reliable - maybe not. Being easier to work with ... depends on how well the thing was designed.
The cost of a device like this depends also on design. With mass production the cost can be pushed down to unbelievable figures. I am also sure that the camera system can use filters to make the weed stand out better.

Many nordic countries have fluctuating weather conditions around August and September (the harvesting time). If it is raining cats and dogs the crop will be somewhat spoiled - too wet to be harvested or has to be dried with high cost. However, no matter what kind of weather it is or whether the harvesting succeeds - the wild oat MUST be eradicated. The alternative is a multi-year long quarantine which is really costly.

There is yet another point of view into this. The great internet.
How about playing weed-hunt and get paid to do that ?
If You are a person with disabilities and want to do something meaninful then this might be one way to go.

Also, it does not need to be limited on picking weed into a plastic bag for burning - one could also harvest some actual crop like apples or herbs.

Finally - I like challenges - and finally after finally this might never become a commercial product but it will be fun to fabricate it.

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