Study of passive suspensions for a rover applied on precision agriculture

• Grant number: 13/22006-0
• Support type: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Effective date (Start): February 01, 2014
• Effective date (End): August 31, 2014
• Field of knowledge: Interdisciplinary Subjects
• Principal researcher: Marcelo Becker
• Grantee: Junior Marques Moreira
• Home Institution: Escola de Engenharia de São Carlos (EESC). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Carlos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

According prognosis of FAO (Food Agriculture Organization of United Nations) for the year 2050 will be necessary to increase on average 70% of agricultural production in order to feed a growing population, taking as reference the indices of production of 2009. This requirement leads companies of agricultural industry to seek greater productivity and efficiency simultaneously, aiming cost reduction. In this scenario one of the important parameters is the pest control, which stands as one of the main strategies for improving yield of grain per area. In grain crops like such as soybeans, corn, cotton the difficulty of monitoring the plantations it is due to the extension of properties, so the pests can only be perceived after spread over a considerable area. For a better monitoring of plantations robots can be used, they can get around efficiently on rough terrain and do pest wakefulness. In this scenario we can apply Rovers, which aim to have autonomous navigation, technologies embedded in it allow for a precise localization, the prevention for obstacles and construction of maps in terms of changes in the environment that it is. This project will analyze some existing type of Rovers, and will be modeled a Shrimp model using CAD software (Computer Aided Design) and it will be simulated to evaluate its performance.