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

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3.2 Research objectives<br />

Definition <strong>of</strong> the problem and research objectives<br />

The main objective <strong>of</strong> this research was the development and realisation <strong>of</strong> an<br />

autonomous intra-row <strong>weed</strong>ing <strong>system</strong> based on <strong>mechanical</strong> elimination <strong>of</strong><br />

<strong>weed</strong>s in row crops which can be used in different plant spacing <strong>system</strong>s,<br />

various plant intra-row distances and growth stages. The main objective can be<br />

split into three different sub-objectives:<br />

� <strong>Development</strong> <strong>of</strong> a hardware solution <strong>for</strong> detection <strong>of</strong> the crop plants’<br />

centre position in real-time;<br />

� Design <strong>of</strong> a virtual prototype <strong>of</strong> the intra-row <strong>weed</strong>ing tool and<br />

kinematical analysis <strong>of</strong> the suggested tool solution concerning hoeing<br />

trajectories in different plant <strong>system</strong>s and<br />

� <strong>Development</strong> <strong>of</strong> a physical prototype, based on a servo motor, which<br />

uses the in<strong>for</strong>mation about the crop plants’ centre position <strong>for</strong><br />

accurate controlling <strong>of</strong> the hoeing tool. The developed <strong>system</strong> needs<br />

to demonstrate ability to hoe the area between two successive plants<br />

inside the crop row in laboratory conditions in real-time.<br />

31

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