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

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Materials and methods<br />

capabilities, Pro/E is the world's most commercially adopted 3D product design<br />

solution (Anonymous 4 2007).<br />

The combination <strong>of</strong> powerful <strong>mechanical</strong> and mathematical tools built into<br />

Pro/Engineer s<strong>of</strong>tware application helps designers to understand, evaluate, and<br />

optimise the complex motion behaviour <strong>of</strong> developed assemblies against<br />

functional per<strong>for</strong>mance design targets. There is a possibility to rapidly evaluate<br />

multiple design alternatives early in the design process, as well as to test and<br />

refine the digital prototype until the optimal <strong>system</strong> per<strong>for</strong>mance is achieved.<br />

Another benefit is the use <strong>of</strong> multiple simulation scenarios, which can be<br />

evaluated simultaneously.<br />

Pro/MECHANICA is capable <strong>of</strong> several different kinds <strong>of</strong> analysis, including<br />

structural, thermal, fatigue and kinematical. By using the Pro/MECHANICA’s<br />

simple structural analysis interface, there is a possibility to per<strong>for</strong>m standard<br />

analysis types, including linear static, modal, buckling, contact, and steady state<br />

thermal. Pro/MECHANICA also contains an interesting feature named Global<br />

Sensitivity Study (ProCAD Engineering 2004). This feature assigns a range <strong>of</strong><br />

values to a particular dimension rather than a fixed value. Successive test<br />

iterations can then be run, each time providing data that Pro/E can compare to<br />

previous results, resulting in a fast and efficient geometry optimisation.<br />

Additional more advanced tools are also available within the same package.<br />

There is a fatigue advisor option that can predict the damage that cyclical<br />

<strong>for</strong>ces, even if relatively small in magnitude, can have on a design when<br />

repeated over long periods <strong>of</strong> time. The fatigue advisor is capable <strong>of</strong> checking<br />

and optimising <strong>for</strong> design durability and predicting the lifespan <strong>of</strong> a design<br />

(Anonymous 4 2007).<br />

The Mechanism/Pro built in kinematical toolbox allows analysis <strong>of</strong> the<br />

interaction <strong>of</strong> moving joints even when a model is either too crowded or simply<br />

too complex <strong>for</strong> visual inspection. If two parts are found to interfere with each<br />

other, the kinematical analysis within Pro/E can in<strong>for</strong>m the user which <strong>of</strong><br />

geometrical parameters need to be changed and exactly what the optimal<br />

46

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