Design and Field Evaluation of a Robotic Cotton Harvester with Improved Structural Balance and Suction Mechanism

Van Patiluna, Joe Mari Maja, Aashish Karki, Edward Barnes

2025

Abstract

Mechanization in the cotton industry increased efficiency and productivity by reducing reliance on manual labor and improving overall output. Automation and robotics have been increasingly integrated into cotton production in the United States to address various challenges and enhance agricultural efficiency. Using robotics and automation in agriculture is a widespread idea whose technical feasibility has already been proven in several studies. The objective of this study is to design and implement a new robotic cotton harvester addressing the problems encountered with the previous design. It featured a redesigned finger roller and an optimized chassis to improve balance and structural integrity. The new design utilizes the same Amiga robotic platform that is capable of heavy loads such as the header assembly and power generators. A field experiment assessed harvesting efficiency under three different duty cycles corresponding to the speed of front finger rollers. During the experiment, the new design experienced clogging of the eductor inlet hindering the movement of cotton bolls to the collecting bin, which reduced harvesting efficiency. Although the harvesting efficiency was lower than ideal, it was still slightly better than the previous design. Adjusting the speed of the front finger rollers has no significant effect on the boll and trash collected, suggesting that lower speeds are ideal. The static stress simulation of the chassis revealed a better balance and structural integrity than the previous design. Overall, the new design of the cotton harvesting robot had better structural integrity, however, it requires further improvements to address clogging of the eductor inlet to move the fibers from the header assembly to the collecting bin, minimize the trash content and improve harvesting efficiency.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Patiluna V., Maja J., Karki A. and Barnes E. (2025). Design and Field Evaluation of a Robotic Cotton Harvester with Improved Structural Balance and Suction Mechanism. In Proceedings of the 22nd International Conference on Informatics in Control, Automation and Robotics - Volume 2: TISAS; ISBN 978-989-758-770-2, SciTePress, pages 647-654. DOI: 10.5220/0013945700003982

in Bibtex Style

@conference{tisas25,
author={Van Patiluna and Joe Maja and Aashish Karki and Edward Barnes},
title={Design and Field Evaluation of a Robotic Cotton Harvester with Improved Structural Balance and Suction Mechanism},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 22nd International Conference on Informatics in Control, Automation and Robotics - Volume 2: TISAS},
year={2025},
pages={647-654},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0013945700003982},
isbn={978-989-758-770-2},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF

JO - Proceedings of the 22nd International Conference on Informatics in Control, Automation and Robotics - Volume 2: TISAS
TI - Design and Field Evaluation of a Robotic Cotton Harvester with Improved Structural Balance and Suction Mechanism
SN - 978-989-758-770-2
AU - Patiluna V.
AU - Maja J.
AU - Karki A.
AU - Barnes E.
PY - 2025
SP - 647
EP - 654
DO - 10.5220/0013945700003982
PB - SciTePress