Design, development and application of a compact robotic transplanter with automatic seedling picking mechanism for plug-type seedlings

Automation of agricultural operation such as seedling transplanting is needed to ensure efficient as well as timely operation. Robotics is the area that needs to be focused for the future of automatic seedling transplanter. This paper presents the design, development as well as working of the robotic transplanter (RT) for plug seedlings. The developed RT consists of three systems: (1) robot initiation; (2) seedling picking mechanism (SPM); and (3) vehicle movement system (VMS). The SPM consists of a main frame, manipulator, end-effector and control unit. Whereas, the VMS is having photoelectric sensor, robot controller and DC motor. The stepper motors were mounted on the main frame for movement in XY direction. The manipulator was on the crossbar that used to move the end-effector in Z-axis. The pick-up mechanism consists of an end-effector having jaw-type gripper controlled by servo motor. The control unit consists of microchip 16F877 and the system is controlled with computer programming. The gripper moves to each seedling in the pro-tray, grasp and pick-up the seedling, moves to the delivery point and then release the seedling. The manipulator was tested and analyzed for pickup and releasing of 96 seedlings with soil base from pro-tray. The initial experimental result showed that the seedling success rate, leakage rate and successful transplanting of 30 days old chilli seedling was 95.1%, 7.6% and 90.3%, respectively. Robotic technology seems to be expensive but the scope lies in the non-availability or high cost of manual labour and to ensure timeliness of repetitive field operations.