Author Topic: What about an automated weeding robot? (For gardening.)  (Read 2749 times)

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Offline corrado33Topic starter

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What about an automated weeding robot? (For gardening.)
« on: June 20, 2011, 06:19:34 PM »
I was thinking the other day...  It'd be really cool to have a nice garden with my own fresh veggies and stuff.

But alas, I have no time for tedious gardening!

So I thought, "Well, what if I could make a bot that pulls weeds for me?  As everything else with gardening isn't that bad.  Planting is a one time thing, watering is easily taken care of with a scheduler...

So I had thoughts rushing through my head....

I'd need to make it have something to pull the weeds.  Maybe one of those mini augur things that you twist into the ground and it uproots weeds?  (As seen on TV)  Or a simple grabber that grabs and pulls.  Regardless, it'd have to be powerful.  The ground is tough stuff.  

Ok so it'd also need a system of locomotion.  That's easy enough.

The hardest part (I thought) would be recognizing what is and what is not a weed.  I first thought of a camera of sorts identifying the plants.  That'd be really complicated, so I scratched that idea.  Then I thought, well, what if the camera looked for GREEN outside of where it knows good plants are?  So it'd have a map of the garden, and it'd have the locations of where the plants are.  Wherever else GREEN appears, it'd have to be a weed.  Identifying a simple color is easy enough right?  

I also thought, well maybe it could be connected via bluetooth or wifi to your home computer.  It could then take pictures of suspecting plants and send them to your phone.  You could then send an e-mail back to your computer, which would set off a program to tell the robot to either DESTROY or let alone.  The computer programming stuff would be easy.  A few scripts could accomplish that. 

I dunno, I'm just throwing ideas out there.  I did a quick google search and only found a giant yellow gardening bot thing.  While cool, I wouldn't need my bot to plant things.  Just weed.  I hate weeding.  

« Last Edit: June 20, 2011, 07:15:54 PM by corrado33 »

Offline Soeren

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Re: What about an automated weeding robot? (For gardening.)
« Reply #1 on: June 21, 2011, 05:26:03 PM »
Hi,

I was thinking the other day...  It'd be really cool to have a nice garden with my own fresh veggies and stuff.
plant grass, buy cow to eat grass, wait, slaughter cow, eat beef (which must then be distilled veggies, but with a much nicer taste ;))


[...] well, what if the camera looked for GREEN outside of where it knows good plants are?
Look to the farmers for how it's done, after all they do it for a living.
just plow between the rows of yrrchh-plants - the rows should be a little higher than the space between them, a bit like this _/\_/\_/\_ then you don't need all that elaborate schemes for distinguishing.

If you'r really serious about it, look into small scale ecology farming. Those that have the vits for it mixes the plants in a row to keep weed and snails somewhat at bay.
Oh yes, start thinking on how you'll fight off snails and other bad stuff, if you hope to eat some of it yourself.


[...] You could then send an e-mail back to your computer,
And SPAM goes well with asparagus I'm told   ;)


[...] I wouldn't need my bot to plant things.  Just weed.  I hate weeding.  
Get girlfriend (she can milk the cow as well).
Don't know if they're best programmed in C or Do for this though.
Regards,
Søren

A rather fast and fairly heavy robot with quite large wheels needs what? A lot of power?
Please remember...
Engineering is based on numbers - not adjectives

Offline Gertlex

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Re: What about an automated weeding robot? (For gardening.)
« Reply #2 on: June 22, 2011, 07:14:04 AM »
Here's a farming bot I recently ran across: http://forums.trossenrobotics.com/showthread.php?t=4669

It's definitely a challenging topic.
I

Offline corrado33Topic starter

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Re: What about an automated weeding robot? (For gardening.)
« Reply #3 on: June 22, 2011, 05:15:14 PM »
That's a cool idea.  But I think the whole hexapod thing was a bit much for a simple planting bot.  Tracks would have been much more practical right? 

Offline Gertlex

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Re: What about an automated weeding robot? (For gardening.)
« Reply #4 on: June 22, 2011, 05:17:53 PM »
That's a cool idea.  But I think the whole hexapod thing was a bit much for a simple planting bot.  Tracks would have been much more practical right? 

Maybe. I'd ask a farmer :)  E.g. crossing between rows of plants without damaging plants might be a benefit of using a walking bot.
I

Offline corrado33Topic starter

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Re: What about an automated weeding robot? (For gardening.)
« Reply #5 on: June 22, 2011, 05:21:55 PM »
That's a cool idea.  But I think the whole hexapod thing was a bit much for a simple planting bot.  Tracks would have been much more practical right? 

Maybe. I'd ask a farmer :)  E.g. crossing between rows of plants without damaging plants might be a benefit of using a walking bot.

True, or you could plant in rows like farmers do now.   ;)  Besides, plants are resilient, I wouldn't imagine they'd be too damaged if you drove over them once.  And the walking bot would have to be pretty tall to get over most plants.  And that'd just be creepy looking.  Big tracked bot is a lot less "OMG robots are taking over the world" than a big hexapod...  :D :D

 


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