Smart Areca Nut Plucking Robot

Due to scarcity of skilled labourers, areca growers are finding it difficult to harvest their crop. Arecanut tree climbing is a risky job which requires skilled labourers. If a person slips while climbing, it will be irreparable damage to him and as well as to his family. In recent years, getting labourers who climb arecanut tree is a major challenge. Arecanut trees grows to a height of about 60 to 70 feet. It is required to climb the arecanut tree around four to five times in a year for harvesting. Only skilled labourers can carry out these operations. In this project, a Smart Arecanut Plucking Robot is designed through which some of the above difficulties are addressed. This robot is designed to climb the arecanut trees of varying diameter. In the project, the robot can be operated either in manual mode or in automatic mode. Six pneumatic cylinders are used with an air compressor for robot movement. Arduino UNO is used for controlling the pneumatic cylinders. The robot climbs as human climbs the tree and a camera is mounted on the robot to get the live video streaming. Raspberry Pi is used for interfacing camera to get live video streaming of the plucking operation. By watching the live video, position of the cutter can be adjusted. The android application RaspiCAM Remote installed in users android phone is used to watch the live video stream sent by the Raspberry Pi present in the robotic unit. Robot is successfully tested on an arecanut tree of varying trunk diameter (upto 7 inches) and heights (upto maximum of 45 feet). The user is successfully able to guide the robot to cut the ripened arecanut bunch.