Development of a snake-shaped robot for weeding rice paddies

Abstract

In recent years, the aging of farmers and the lack of successors have become problems. Weeding in paddy fields is one of the most time-consuming and physically demanding agricultural tasks, so there is a need to develop a weeding machine that can solve these problems. The weeding method focuses on chain weeding, in which mud is agitated and photosynthesis is inhibited for weeding. One of the advantages of the snake-like robot is that it can prevent tangling of water plants caused by the rotating mechanism because it can propel itself only by bending motion, and minimize contact with rice plants because it passes on the same trajectory. In this study, we propose a new weeding robot for weeding in paddy fields based on the duck farming method and a snake-like propulsion mechanism. In this paper, we develop a snake-like robot that moves and weeds in paddy fields.