LITERATURE SURVEY

Agricultural Robotics is the logical proliferation of automation

technology into bio systems such as agriculture, forestry, green house,
horticulture etc. Presently a number of researches are being done to
increase their applications. Some of the scientist contributions are
mobile robot, flying robot, forester robot. A brief discussion is being done
about the types of robots which increase the accuracy and precision
of the agriculture. Experiments are being done on newly proposed
worlds smallest, weightless robot for using them as scouts in fields. Even
in developing countries, such as India and Brazil, farmers are interested in
using robots to tend fields of crops, pick fruit, or even maintain animal.
At present time, agriculture robots must have human interaction in
order to compensate for programming complexity issues.

The idea of applying robotics technology in agriculture is very new. In

agriculture, the opportunities for robot-enhanced productivity are
immense - and the robots are appearing on farms in various guises and in
increasing numbers. We can expect the robots performing agricultural
operations autonomously such as spraying and mechanical weed control,
fruit picking, watching the farms day & night for an effective report,
allowing farmers to reduce the environmental impact, increase precision
and efficiency, and manage individual plants in novel ways.

The Present project aims at designing an intelligent robotic vehicle which

can be controlled wirelessly through RF communication. The main aim for
our project has been to develop a solar operated digging machine, which
is solar powered. In this machine we used a solar panel to capture and
convert solar energy into electrical energy which in turn is used to charge
a battery, which then gives the necessary power to a shunt wound DC
motor. This power is then transmitted to the rear wheel through gear
drives. In this project an attempt is made to make the electric and
mechanical systems share their powers in an efficient way. Thus taking
into consideration the ever increasing pollution levels and the stringent
pollution norms set up by the POLLUTION CONTROL BOARDS, and since
the fossil fuels are depleting, probably may last within the decades to
come or earlier, and to reduce the running cost of the digging, Seed
sowing, Mud leveller and other purpose. we are in an attempt to
incorporate the above mentioned features in our Multi-Purpose
Agricultural robot.

The applications of instrumental robotics are spreading every day to cover

further domains, as the opportunity of replacing human operators
provides effective solutions with return on investment. This is especially
important when the duties, that need be performed, are potentially
harmful for the safety or the health of the workers, or when more
conservative issues are granted by robotics. Heavy chemicals or drugs
dispensers, manure or fertilizers spreaders, etc. are activities more and
more concerned by the deployment of unmanned options.

Robots which already used in agriculture are Demeter (used for

harvesting), Robot for weed control, Forester robot, Robot in horticulture,
Fruit picking robot, Micro-flying robot. Let say some real examples like
LSU's Agribot, Harvest Automation is a company founded by former iRobot
employees to develop robots for greenhouses, Strawberry picking robot
from Robotic Harvesting and Agrobot.Fieldrobot Event is a competition in
mobile agricultural robotics, HortiBot - A Plant Nursing Robot, Rice
planting robot developed by the Japanese National Agricultural Research
Centre, Agriculture Robotics at the Australian Centre for Field Robotics
(ACFR), The University of Sydney. Application areas include autonomous
mapping, phenotyping and weeding for crops and livestock monitoring.
The prototypes of robots include the Merlin Robot Milker, Rosphere,
Harvest Automation, Orange Harvester, lettuce bot and weeder.

Another field of application is horticulture. One horticultural application is

the development of RV 100 by Harvest Automation Inc. RV 100 is designed
to transport potted plants in a greenhouse or outdoor setting. The
functions of RV100 in handling and organizing potted plants include
spacing capabilities, collection, and consolidation. The benefits of using
RV100 for this task include high placement accuracy, autonomous outdoor
and indoor function, and reduced production costs.

The robots mentioned here come under are Field robots and some are
Mobile robots. Field robots work with respect to environment and medium.
They change themselves according to the required condition. Mobile
robots are those which possess mobility with respect a medium. The
entire system moves with respect to environment.

Flying micro robot which is a newly proposed robot for same applications.
Scientists from around the world are reverse-engineering the mechanics
of insects as they design midget robots to scout battlefields, search for
victims trapped in rubble, and record images in agricultural fields. The
worlds smallest micro robot was placed in the geniuses book of world
record. The experiments have been conducted so as to know the fields of
operation. The micro robot consists of propeller by which it can fly to
heights these features include the ability to zero in and land precisely on a
potato chip and then flap their wings to buzz off with blazing speed. It is
expected that it can be used in agriculture for the control of weed and
insects.

Although a periodic human presence in the field is likely to be necessary

as well as the culture or emotional appeal of agriculture possibly will
change but operation can be performed with closer tolerances (so every
round is at full field capacity), very little errors and at higher speeds
(because Robot does not get sick or tired and does not need time off).
The opportunities for robot-enhanced productivity are immense and the
robots are appearing on farms in various guises and in increasing
numbers. The other problems associated with autonomous farm
equipment can probably be overcome with technology. This equipment
may be in our future, but there are important reasons for thinking that it
may not be just replacing the human driver with a smart phone. It may
open a brand new area for research of how crop production is done by
smart phone. Crop production may be done better and cheaper with a
swarm of small machines than with a few large ones.