An Agricultural Robot That Looks Ready For The Field
Unlike large-scale farming operations, smaller farms with more intensive crops and diverse terrain require unique automation solutions. The Agrofelis serves as a compact, four-wheeled autonomous carrier platform designed to assist smaller farms efficiently. Its versatile design is demonstrated as it operates in a vineyard, equipped with a pesticide duster that gives it a futuristic, weapon-like appearance.
The Agrofelis is built on a sturdy tubular frame housing the battery bank and its computational brain. Four bicycle-derived motorized wheels with disk brakes provide the motive power, and the robot employs mechanical steering rather than skid-steering. At the top of the frame, a two-degrees-of-freedom rotating mount acts as the implement system, similar to a tractor’s 3-point linkage. This mount accommodates the pesticide duster mentioned earlier and interfaces with a Nvidia Jetson Nano, which processes data from various sensors, including GPS and LIDAR.
The Agrofelis showcases meticulous attention to detail, making it a potential asset for smaller farms facing time-consuming and repetitive tasks. With its ability to automate such tasks, it could become an indispensable tool for farmers in the coming decades, alleviating their workload and improving efficiency.
Links you might need for your own automation projects and insperation:
Read more: Hackaday Prize 2023: An Agricultural Robot That Looks Ready For The Field
