Modelling and simulation on a hydraulic driven bellow mechanism of a flexible robotic arm for intelligent irrigation

Abstract

Automation of agriculture is one of important characteristics of modern agriculture. Sprinkler irrigating equipment plays a necessary role in automation agriculture by spinning the facet and operating with timer, which has no enough DoFs to meet the demands of precise and intelligent irrigation. A flexible robotic arm using hydraulic driven bellows gives potential of multiple DoFs manipulation for precise irrigation and makes it possible for energy saving by using an underactuator configuration. A hydraulic driven bellow mechanism is a core part of a flexible robotic arm, which dynamic response is one of critical performances to system designer especially for situations when multiple flexible robotic arms operate coordination in precise irrigation. The essential operating modes of the arm are discussed deliberately to explain the reasonable hypothesis on modelling of the hydraulic driven bellow mechanism and its mathematic model for dynamic analysis is given. Parametric influences on dynamic response are discussed subsequently using MATLAB which may supply a fundamental contribution to engineers for designing a precise and intelligent irrigating system using a flexible robotic arm based on the hydraulic driven bellow mechanism.