Path planning of the root-cutting blade for the automatic spinach harvester in consideration of movement of soil

Abstract

This paper describes about path planning for a root-cutting blade of an automatic spinach harvester. Automatic harvesters for spinach have not been widely used among farmers because mechanical harvesting easily spells bruises to stems and leaves. We have been developing the harvester which successfully harvests spinach without bruising stems and leaves. The path which blade moves in soil is very important in order to attain desired performance and to reduce the amount of soil which is pushed by the blade is the most meaningful factor for successful execution. In this paper, first, we discuss about a method to reduce the amount of soil and proposed a constraint equation for the method. Next, an appropriate path of the blade of the harvester is proposed by using the equation. The effectiveness of the proposed path is verified by numerical simulations based on the Discrete Element Method (DEM).