Autonomous Crop Weeding Blades With Adaptive Gap Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current agricultural technologies lack an efficient and autonomous method for weeding crops in agricultural fields, often resulting in manual labor and potential damage to target plants.
Innovation Solution
An autonomous agricultural vehicle equipped with a weeding module that adjusts its blade gap width and speed based on crop type, maturity, and soil conditions, while also requesting verification from a remote human operator when parameters deviate significantly.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If manual weeding is used, then labor flexibility is maintained, but labor costs and time consumption increase
Solution Approach 1:
The autonomous vehicle performs weeding operations independently by detecting target plants, adjusting blade parameters, and executing weeding actions without continuous human intervention. The system serves itself by autonomously navigating fields, identifying weeds, and performing mechanical weeding, thereby eliminating manual labor while maintaining operational simplicity through automated decision-making algorithms
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces manual mechanical weeding with an automated mechanical system. The autonomous vehicle uses computer vision and control systems to substitute human operators, while the physical weeding action remains mechanical through blade-based plant removal. This substitution maintains the simplicity of mechanical weeding while eliminating labor-intensive operations
2Reliability
If fixed blade gap width is used, then device simplicity is maintained, but plant damage risk increases
Solution Approach 1:
The blade gap width transitions from a fixed parameter to a dynamic parameter that adjusts in real-time based on detected plant characteristics. The system continuously monitors target plant size and modifies blade gap width accordingly, enabling the mechanical weeding system to adapt to varying plant dimensions and prevent damage to larger target plants while maintaining simplicity through automated control
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the blade gap width parameter dynamically during operation based on detected plant characteristics. The system measures target plant dimensions and adjusts the blade gap width parameter to ensure safe passage of larger plants while effectively removing smaller weeds. This parameter adaptation improves plant safety without requiring complex mechanical reconfiguration
3Ease of operation
If autonomous operation is implemented, then labor requirements are reduced, but system complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The autonomous vehicle integrates multiple functions into a single platform: navigation, plant detection, parameter adjustment, and mechanical weeding. By combining these functions in one universal system, the patent reduces overall operational complexity despite increased device complexity, as the unified system manages all tasks through integrated control algorithms and shared hardware components
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements closed-loop feedback by continuously detecting target plants, measuring their characteristics, adjusting blade parameters based on detected information, and verifying weeding effectiveness. This feedback mechanism enables autonomous operation with simplified decision-making logic, where each operational cycle learns from previous detections and adjustments, reducing the need for complex pre-programming
Data Source
AI summary
One variation of a method for executing agricultural actions on an agricultural field includes: based a type of a crop planted on the agricultural field and a maturity of the crop, setting a nominal blade gap width of a weeding module installed in an autonomous agricultural vehicle; and, at the autonomous agricultural vehicle, while autonomously traversing the agricultural field, detecting a first target plant passing under the autonomous agricultural vehicle and aligned with the weeding module, triggering the weeding module to open a set of weeding blades to the nominal blade gap width at a nominal blade speed in response to the first target plant approaching the weeding module, and triggering the weeding module to close the set of weeding blades in response to the first target plant passing the weeding module.