Friday, October 28, 2011
Hall 1-2 (San Jose Convention Center)
Precision Agriculture first emerged in the early 80's, in America, and its main aim is to optimize the processes in this area, saving time, money and reducing environmental impact. The Center of Automations and Robotics (CAR) belonging to CSIC in Spain, in conjunction with other research centers and European universities are working on the development of autonomous systems for the application of Precision Agriculture techniques using robots. This work is focused on the design of the possible actuating systems for the position control of the nozzles where the air comes out, for the fumigation process in olive trees. The options included hydraulic, pneumatic and electric system. By analyzing parameters such as characteristics of the tractor in which the system was going to be installed, the price, performance, advantages and disadvantages of each system it was decided that the electric system was the indicated. In addition, the design of a system to control the flow of outing air in the nozzles was performed, a butterfly valve was first thought to be the best choice but after seeking more options it was decided that the most appropriated solution was an iris diaphragm valve. I had very good results in this summer internship keeping in mind the fact that they considered my suggestions.