Agricultural Robot Designs

 
Agricultural robot designs have been worked on for many years. Some are more practical than others!

Here are a selection of agricultural robot designs I have been involved with and found on the web.

1. The Scamp seeder. A concept vehicle for micro tillage and individual seed placement

2. The Scamp scout. A concept vehicle for non contact sensing of growing crops. Note the sprayer in the background

3. The Scamp Weeder. Concept vehicle for mechanical weeding

4. The Scamp Harvester. Concept vehicle for selective harvesting.

The intended purpose of designing these vehicles was to start a discussion on how these vehicles could look in the future.

Designed 2007 by Simon Blackmore and Massey Ferguson / AGCO

Graphics by CrimsonCat

Papers describing this concept

1. Systems Requirements For a Small Autonomous Tractor
2. A Specification for an Autonomous Crop Production Mechanization System
3. Decomposition of Agricultural tasks into Robotic Behaviour
4. A Specification of Behavioural Requirements for an Autonomous Tractor
5. Agricultural robots: an economic feasibility study
6. Agricultural robots—system analysis and economic feasibility
The Valtra RoboTrac concept tractor. This model has been incorporated into the SAFAR simulation

Designed in 2007 by Hannes Seeberg
Thw Weedmaster is an industrial design project of a robotic weeder by Fabian Zimmerli. This design was also fabricated from plastic parts.

Circa 2003
 
The SLU forestry robot designed for felling and trimming trees. A wooden prototype was made to help visualise the real thing.

Circa 2000
This drawing is of a wire following tractor. The cables were laid into the ground and the tractor followed the cable using inductance sensors.

Circa 1960
A steam robot replacing a man. Note the steam dinosaur cultivating behind.
The Steam man. Again, using the concept of a mechanical man to do the work.

Circa 1865