Mirã Rover Characterization

Abstract

The Mirã rover was developed as a cooperation project between LabRom (EESC - USP) and Embrapa Instrumentação. It used an embedded LIBS technology to analyze essential soil nutrient elements for precision agriculture applications, the knowledge of soil components is an important task to know the nutritional variability of the soil, which makes possible to develop strategies to reduce the financial and environmental costs. The study of characteristics and performance of rover robot type in agricultural applications is the aim of this paper, furthermore, studies the feasibility of using these kinds of devices for such applications. This work focuses on the evaluation of the prototype MIRÃ in uneven terrain, the results are the comparisons between simulations and results obtained from fields testing. The prototype was subjected to different types of maneuver, the study variables were: time of scouting, energy consumption and torque. Prototype tests were performed in the Maringá citrus farm.