Design and Development of a Climbing Robot for Spraying Pesticide on an Arecanut Tree

Abstract

Arecanut crop majorly grows in coastal region of India like Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal and also in some non-coastal region like Assam and Meghalaya. There is a very long process of getting arecanut in a row form from top of a tree. In this whole process spraying pesticide and harvesting are two initial processes which related with climbing on an arecanut tree. One has to climb on a tree a minimum of five times a year for successful harvest - twice for the preventive spray against fungal disease and thrice to harvest the areca bunches. As this involves real hard work, physical exertion, younger generations of labourers are losing interest, with potentially harsh implications for arecanut cultivation. Conventional method of spraying and harvesting is very risky method and also labour charge is very high. There are number of machines available in market for spraying and harvesting. There are some basic requirements like stability, weight carrying capacity, high climbing speed etc. that one tree climbing machine should have for efficient spraying and harvesting. But none of these machines can satisfactory fulfill all above requirements. The existing machine made by Mr. Ganesh Shetty (innovator) is better than other products so it is selected for further modification. The work done in this project includes modification of existing machine which has better load carrying capacity, stability and other advantages. It is in more standardized form with less self weight and high climbing speed so making the manufacturing easy. The machine has better transmission system with less power loss and with unique gripping and self-locking mechanism.