Treebot: A Tree Seed Planting Robot
Format
SOECS Senior Project Demonstration
Faculty Mentor Name
Rahim Khoie
Faculty Mentor Department
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Abstract/Artist Statement
Global climate change is a growing and inevitable problem that must be addressed. One of the best ways to mitigate climate change besides reducing carbon emissions is to increase the number of carbon sequestration organisms, i.e., trees. Unlike some other commercial tree seedling planters that are large systems that plant tree seedlings, our robot will be a more cost-effective tree seed planting solution that can dig a small trough in the ground, drop a seed, and use a rear tamping wheel to compact the soil.
Our robot has three main functional components: locomotion, control, and navigation. The front differential drive wheels are powered by motors with encoders to track wheel rotation, a bump and ultrasonic sensor to avoid obstacles, and a GPS unit and goal setting navigation algorithm to reach a target location. The motor is controlled by a motor controller, which in turn is controlled by a Raspberry Pi 4 computer. The rear wheels are connected to an undriven axle. The motors and motor controller are powered by a 12V lead acid battery and the lower powered devices by a 7.4V Li-ion battery. A fixed position gouge underneath the robot digs a small trough in the soil for dropping seeds. The back tamping wheel will run over the soil to flatten as the robot moves. The development of the project involved bringing up components separately first to verify functionality and bringing the various modules together with a command user interface program to test robot motion before programming the robot to move semi-autonomously.
Location
Chambers Technology Center, 3601 Pacific Ave, Stockton, CA 95211, USA
Start Date
6-5-2023 2:30 PM
End Date
6-5-2023 4:30 PM
Treebot: A Tree Seed Planting Robot
Chambers Technology Center, 3601 Pacific Ave, Stockton, CA 95211, USA
Global climate change is a growing and inevitable problem that must be addressed. One of the best ways to mitigate climate change besides reducing carbon emissions is to increase the number of carbon sequestration organisms, i.e., trees. Unlike some other commercial tree seedling planters that are large systems that plant tree seedlings, our robot will be a more cost-effective tree seed planting solution that can dig a small trough in the ground, drop a seed, and use a rear tamping wheel to compact the soil.
Our robot has three main functional components: locomotion, control, and navigation. The front differential drive wheels are powered by motors with encoders to track wheel rotation, a bump and ultrasonic sensor to avoid obstacles, and a GPS unit and goal setting navigation algorithm to reach a target location. The motor is controlled by a motor controller, which in turn is controlled by a Raspberry Pi 4 computer. The rear wheels are connected to an undriven axle. The motors and motor controller are powered by a 12V lead acid battery and the lower powered devices by a 7.4V Li-ion battery. A fixed position gouge underneath the robot digs a small trough in the soil for dropping seeds. The back tamping wheel will run over the soil to flatten as the robot moves. The development of the project involved bringing up components separately first to verify functionality and bringing the various modules together with a command user interface program to test robot motion before programming the robot to move semi-autonomously.