Design of autonomous vehicle for greenhouses

The aim of this thesis is to produce a prototype mobile vehicle that can apply pesticides automatically in greenhouses. The vehicle consists of a chassis, rail wheels, removable pesticide tank, a battery and a pesticide spraying system. Vehicle velocity, energy consumption, pesticide spraying pressure are the significant design parameters. The vehicle is driven with a DC motor and required power is provided by the battery system. The pesticide spraying system and a small tank are located on top of the vehicle. The small tank is filled by pumping the fluid from the main tank where is in the hall. The vehicle moves along two pipelines, which are placed on the ground and also used for heating. After the vehicle is placed on the row, it sprays the pesticide by moving automatically with the small tank. The following automated movement is fulfilled through the connected sensors. Systematic movement of the vehicle inside the greenhouse starts after it is located on the line, in which the plants exist, and the movement covers a course until the end of the corridor and a comeback. The design and the assembly of all vehicle parts have been carried out in SolidWorks software. CosmosWorks, ANSYS and CosmosMotion software have been used for the machinery dynamics, static and frequency analyses. According to the analysis results, driving system has been chosen, and the thickness of the vehicle body and chassis have been determined. The final design has been obtained by evaluating the analyses results and optimizing the predesign. Production process has been started after design work. The control program has been integrated after completing the assembly of the vehicle. Automated movement of the vehicle has been achieved through inductive distance sensors and PLC unit. Both the velocity of the vehicle and the distance can be programmed, moreover the spraying pressure can be regulated. The pesticide spraying tests of the prototype vehicle has been successfully conducted in the Agrobay Greenhouse, Izmir-Dikili. Keywords : Static analysis, vehicle design, automatic spraying, greenhousev