Speaker
Description
The aim of the project was to develop an autonomous robot for planting forest crops and reforesting reclaimed and post-agricultural land. Unlike traditional planting methods, the advantages of the innovative automated system include: elimination of manual labour – the worker only remotely controls the operation of the machine, increased efficiency – extended operating times, selection of the optimal driving trajectory, reduction of energy consumption – elimination of surface soil preparation in favour of planting, shortening of the technological process – planting with seedlings grown in standard cassettes, increase in crop yield associated with reduced post-planting stress by eliminating the need to remove seedlings from cassettes in advance, causing drying out and crumbling of the root ball, and optimisation of seedling verticalisation and root ball compaction, adaptation to work in unploughed and steeply sloping terrain – use of satellite navigation and automatic levelling systems, potential for system expansion, e.g. retrofitting with working units for crop maintenance.
The drive system of the machine is designed so that each wheel is driven by a hydraulic traction motor and can be independently set at a different angle to the axis of the driving platform, allowing it to move in any direction and rotate around its own axis. In addition, each wheel is mounted on an independent swing arm, which allows the platform to be levelled over a wide range both along and across the direction of travel. The first agrotechnical operation performed by the machine is the preparation of the site by a three-pronged roller. Then, a stake, into which a seedling has been previously placed, is driven into the ground. The innovative design of the stake releases the seedling as it rises and spreads apart. The machine can take 600 seedlings at a time in standard growing trays, placed in a carousel-type storage unit. The manipulator consists of five grippers, whose task is to grasp (by the root collars) the seedlings from one row of the growing container, lift them vertically upwards from the target and move them over the buffer conveyor, into which the seedlings are thrown in order to move them further to the planting stick. This solution increases efficiency by providing time for subsequent manipulator work sequences.
| Keywords | planter; automation; container seedlings |
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