Delegates at LandWISE 2015 formed small groups to specify a “robot” that would address some issue of relevance.
Development of any such machine should follow a systems engineering approach. Four critical features of systems engineering described by Marcel Bergerman are:
- Take a top down approach
- Focus on the “what” not the “how”
- Formally define requirements
- A thorough test plan can be developed before the product/system is
- Have a life cycle orientation
- Consider all aspects from the cradle to the grave
- Inter-disciplinary in nature
- Systems are too complex to do it all on your own
For this exercise, delegates were asked to concentrate on the first two; define what their dream machine had to achieve and describe the constraints under which it must operate.
It is important to take this approach to avoid limiting the possible solutions too early. Deciding your scout robot would be electrically powered three wheel drive eliminates aerial, two wheel or four wheel and wind or fuel powered machines. Sure, the answer may seem obvious, but the final form of many creative solutions that are optimal are not envisaged at first.
Some examples from the exercise include:
A root vegetable harvester that must have minimise soil compaction, remove soil from the produce, minimise mechanical crop damage, and work in a range of weather conditions
A bird scarer for seed crops that must keep birds off the crop, not damage the crop, and must stay within the boundaries of the crop or farm
A pea crop sampler that picks plants randomly through the crop, analyses samples on the go in the paddock and sends the resulting information back to the office. It must cope with the height of the crop and not damage it, and work in a wide range of weather conditions and cope with pugging and mud
An automated machine to remove weeds from vegetable crops grown on beds. It may also monitor plant population and variability, health and vigour, and pests and forecast yields. Working in a range of weather and soil conditions it must have high productivity (ha/hr)
Determine insect populations across field prior to planting of spring crops, including density, location and spread of identified species – include a lure for underground species
Harvest ripe mandarins after determining brix and colour levels and sort according to quality and size with rejects dumped and in-grade fruit transferred to bins for transport
An automatic pine tree pruner that removes every branch up to a height of 6m. Cuts must be clean with no damage to branch or trunk, and it must operate in difficult terrain
An apple harvester that harvests only export grade fruit such that no post-harvest grading is required. Must work 24/7 during harvest within current tree architectures
A fresh broccoli with automated cutting, picking and packing into bins. Will select/sort according to size and colour with no flowering heads.