Development of a novel mechatronic system for mechanical weed ...

Results and discussion
With a hoeing tool with odd number of arms it is possible to achieve even
number of cuts between every two following plants, but in that case hoeing
pattern cannot be optimised by angular adjustment and the distance between
cuts stays constant. The reason why such a limitation exist is the fact that a
duckfoot knife alternately hoes every following plant first from the front and after
from the back, or vice versa. Hence, for full adaptation of the hoeing tool to the
hoeing strategy with odd number of cuts, the number of arms needs to be odd
also. A simulation of a hoeing scenario with a hoeing tool with 4 implemented
arms demonstrates the ability of angular adjustment when two cuts between
every two following plants are required. Again, segments of the trajectories
under the soil surface are highlighted and the expected crop positions are
x=200 mm, 400 mm, 600 mm; y=0. Trajectories are marked with numbers from
1 to 4 corresponding to duckfoot knives. Results of this simulation are
presented in Figure 5.17.
Horizontal position (x) [mm]
Vertical position (y) [mm]
400
200
0
-200
-400
100 200 300 400 500 600 700
Travelled distance (z) [mm]
50
0
1 3
1
+ 4 2
4
+
+ + +
1
-50
100 200
4 3
300 400
2 1
500 600
4
700
Travelled distance (z) [mm]
Figure 5.17 Hoeing trajectories of the hoeing tool with four arms
providing two cuts between following plants in a field with
200 mm intra-row distance between plants (arm length
440 mm, angular position of arms adjusted to:
duckfoot1= 20°, duckfoot2= -20°, duckfoot3= 20°,
duckfoot4= -20° , � - position of the plant)
+
85