Semi-Autonomous Arecanut Tree-Climbing Robot

Sourcing skilled labour for agricultural sector has become a tedious job in today's time. There is a need for mechanization of the farming process in order to cope with the lack of manpower. The need of the hour is automation in the field of agriculture. This paper describes an intuitive mechanized robot, which would eliminate the need of manually climbing the Arecanut tree in order to harvest the nut itself as well as spraying the neighboring tree. Technology which is economically suited for the job specified, safe and which can be easily understood and implemented by the farmers is the goal of the final system. The robot is divided into two units. While one unit clamps itself to the tree the other one lifts itself vertically which is done using two X-bar mechanisms mounted on opposite sides. The X-bar mechanism can compress and expand which is achieved with the use of high torque DC motors with encoders. An onboard battery is the power source. The clamping involves a 4-bar mechanism. The robot has semi-autonomous control and makes the use of arduino microcontroller.