Development and testing of a low-cost multi-function robotic arm for agriculture

Researchers at GTRI and UGA Tifton are collaborating on the design, fabrication, and deployment of a low-cost robot arm that is over 80% 3D-printed from plastic. The targeted first application is inspecting bell pepper leaves for the early detection of pests, for which the robot arm will be mounted onto one of UGA's autonomous rovers that are capable of navigating up and down rows of a crop autonomously. The arm will be able to carry multiple sensors or grappling packages and used in sensing and harvesting tasks. The intent of this particular study is to demonstrate the efficacy of using consumer-level 3D printing technology for an application that requires both precision and repeatability. Due to the particular geometry of the rover and the layout of the bell pepper plantings, the reach of the arm is about 5 feet measured from its anchor point on the rover. The payload for this application consists of a suite of sensors that are approximately 2 pounds. Two challenges result from the design parameters of this application: (1) the long reach of the robot arm, made mostly from relatively flexible plastic, can lead to imprecision and vibrations during motion control and (2) a 2-pound payload cantilevered several feet represents a significant weight to support.