Development of the Structural Framework for the Agri-rover
摘要
The agricultural industry, like other industry sectors, is subject to change in terms of production, methodology, and modernization. Agricultural robots can change the farmer’s way of working in the field. The major benefit that the Agri-rover can provide the farmer is the reduction in time consumed for the sowing of the seeds in the field. Also, other farming processes can be automated. The rover designed in this project endeavors to achieve automated sowing and ploughing for the farmers. This project aims at building the wheels for the model of such an Agri-rover. Agricultural robots or “Agri-rovers” generally represent a fusion of modern technology and farming equipped with precision machinery. The wheel and tire system is required to maneuver easily in rough, dry, and wet terrains. Appropriate wheels are thereby selected. The constraints faced in this project were the size of the machinery and its weight. Too many joints and links increased the weight of the rover and also deemed it complicated to manufacture. The selection of material for the rover is necessary to make the rover capable of handling intense temperature variations throughout its operation year-round. This is so, since, the rover would operate in every season, from the season of planting the seeds to the season of harvest. The wheels of the rover are designed keeping in mind the load that each of the wheels would have to endure. The wheels would experience dynamic and varying loads at different intervals of time. The appropriate material and the mechanism need to be selected. The wheel size and dimensions are chosen as per a standard set of dimensions in the market. Stress analysis, load analysis, and deformation were simulated by modelling in Ansys.