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

Results and discussion
Distribution [%]
30
25
20
15
10
110
5
0
20 30 40 50 60 70 80
Distance from the plant centre position [mm]
40
Duckfoot 3 Duckfoot 1
35
Distribution [%]
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
49 56 63 70 77 84 91 98 105
Distance from the plant centre position [mm]
Figure 5.31 Distribution of the total number of cuts based on their
distance from the plant centre position for a series of
experiments with constant speed
For duckfoot knife 3, around 91 % of the cuts were normally distributed inside
the area distanced from the plant centre position between 30 and 55 mm, while
90 % of the cuts done by duckfoot knife 1 were ranged between 60 and 90 mm
with normal distribution.
Another important aspect of the evaluation was to observe the behaviour of the
system and the distribution of the cuts when the forward speed accelerates or
decelerates. Experiments were done with conditions similar to previous
experiments: hoeing dept hdmax=15 mm, arm length 495 mm and average
distance between plants 200 mm. Only the forward speed was changed during
the forward motion of the system. Graphical results of two experiments with
acceleration and deceleration are shown in Figure 5.32 and Figure 5.35.