G150031 Development of the robot to inhibit growth of weeds in the paddy field

Abstract

Recently, pesticide-free production of vegetables and cereal crops have attracted much attention, and the rice-duck farming is recognized as one the most useful implementation methods for pesticide-free production of the rice cultivation. However, the rice-duck farming has other problems such as breeding and slaughter of the duck because this method uses creatures. To solve such problems, the authors develop the weeding robot which employs a unique weeding method to hinder the germinating of weeds. The robot has the floating-rounded body which does not damage the rice seedlings, and the equipment which hinder the budding and growth of weeds by scratching the earth. Developed robot is tested in the test environment like a paddy field, and its behavior and effectiveness are confirmed.