Authors

Abstract

In a weeding machine, the weeder component determines overall working performance, while the weeding blade influences soil-cutting quality, weeding efficiency, resistance, and power consumption. In this paper, a bionic design for a weeding cutter inspired by the soil-cutting process of the cicada nymph has been proposed and the intent is to promote the performance of the bionic design. The weeding cutter introduced in this paper has been equipped with lightweight and simplified rotary robotic-machinery commonly utilized in hilly and mountainous areas. To assess the performance of the bio-mimetic weeding cutter during rotary, the forces in 3 directions (X, Y & Z) and the resistance torque have been investigated. An experimental platform with a 4 m long soil bin has been utilized for tests indoors. Meanwhile, the discrete element method (DEM) simulations with different conditions like the operated angle, the rotation speed, the forward velocity, and different cutting edges, have been carried out. Either the experimental result or the simulative result indicated that the bio-mimetic weeding blade ameliorated the performance of soil-cutting, energy consumption and weeding efficiency. Specifically, the bio-mimetic weeding blade exhibits a notable reduction of 14.19% in average torque and 14.95% in horizontal resistance compared to the traditional weeding blade. Finally, it could be found that the bionic rotary cutter proposed in this research could be a better choice for the weeder machine used in hilly and mountainous areas.

Abstract in Chinese

对于旋耕除草机械来说，除草刀是决定其工作性能的关键因素。具体而言，除草刀片决定了土壤切割的质量、除草效率、阻力和功耗。本文提出了一种受蝉若虫土壤切割过程启发的除草刀仿生设计，旨在提高除草刀的性能表现。本文介绍的除草机配备在丘陵山区常用的轻量化旋耕除草机械上。本研究为了评估仿生除草刀在旋转过程中的表现，研究了3个方向（X、Y和Z）的力和阻力扭矩。试验主要在4米长土槽平台中进行，之后，在参数标定的基础上进行了不同条件下的离散元法（DEM）模拟，主要变量包含操作角度、转速、前进速度和不同的切削刃。无论是土槽试验结果还是仿真模拟结果都表明，仿生除草刀片改善了土壤切割性能、能耗和除草效率。具体而言，与传统除草刀片相比，仿生除草刀片的平均扭矩显著降低了14.19%，水平阻力显著降低了14.95%。整体而言，本研究提出的仿生旋转切割器可能是丘陵山区除草机的更好选择。