Development of Robotic System for Automated Seedling Production (Part 1)

Main Body of the Robot and its Traverse Method

Abstract

A robotic system for automating vegetable seedling production is developed and tested under the condition of low development costs and the realization of high performance. The main body of the robot and 8 types of its attachment devices are adopted to attain the automation of seeding, cultivating and controlling, transplanting operations.
The main body of the robot is composed of two parts, controlling and driving parts. A programable controller (sequencer) is adopted as a simple base unit of the robot control. Many sensors and actuators are connected to the sequencer through input and output pins for the precision control of operation. A manual controller has buttons for manually starting the operation. It installs 25W motor and moves on the rails tracting various cultivation devices.
The travers device transfers the robot and its devices into another lanes according to the orders from robot controller combined with the limit switches.