From the problem of deforestation to the use of extra resources global warming is to blame for the current problem of diminishing forest cover, resulting in river flooding, not just in Thailand. However, the rate of reforestation has slowed. Based on the issues, the Better Life RMUTP team, made up of mechatronic engineering students from the Faculty of Engineering at Rajamangala University of Technology Phra Nakhon (RMUTP), led by a team led by Mr. Fahim Musor and Ms. Piyawadee Nakkong, and BrainStorm rally participants, invented a robot for planting forests and automatically exploring the forest. For the aim of planting trees replace massive quantities of time-consuming human labor while also assisting officials in properly surveying and caring for forests. Dr. Watchara Songserm and Mr. Rungrot Supongwiboonpan work as project consultants and lecturers in Mechatronics Engineering at the Faculty of Engineering.
According to Mr. Fahim Muso, the forest planting robot is 70 cm broad, 120 cm long, and 80 cm high. The construction is made of aluminum profile (Aluminum Profile), it has a battery power source, it permits charging via the panel, and it contains a solar cell. The Arduino Mega 2560 Microcontroller board with complete TCP/IP WIFI capability may be used to control the functioning of an intelligent system (Ai Control System).
The robot is made up of the following parts: 1. Drive unit Designed with a 4-wheel drive system that uses a stepping motor drive and a tractor tire that can run on the ground to boost the efficiency of simply passing past various obstacles. 2. Slide drill set Install the robot’s center part. Ball screws (Ball Screws) can be used to raise and lower the spreader shaft. Powered by a 24 V motor. 3. Scheduled tree release. It is a pickup truck that transports 10 seedlings at a time in preparation for planting. The pickup vehicle will have a round form. A motor rotates the tree seedlings into the seedling releasing location. 4. The soil leveling set employs Electric Linear to level the soil via a microcontroller board instruction.
According to Mr. Fahim, the survey system Classifying photos of trees in the planting area for surveying and data collection. AI technology for machine vision was employed. Coordinates are received by the camera from the Google Map satellite system. The operating idea of the robot is to gather data (Data) from each tree and then create a tree. Landscape planting design provides forest management information and can be utilized for a variety of other purposes. Precision, intelligence, and automation are all factors in the robot’s design. The speed, efficiency, strength, and stability of the robot, as well as its preparedness and usage safety. According to Dr. Watchara Songserm, the robot’s success in planting plants in forest conservation areas was evaluated using rubber seedlings Sri Trang flowers, purple flowers, persimmon trees, and Takian Hin trees. It was discovered that trees might be planted for less than the cost of human labor. Section on Testing Detection Capability Data analysis, size measurement, age computation, and the number of trees planted indicated that was discovered that it can detect in a vast radius of 3-4 trees at a time, necessitating the use of manpower to study the surrounding area. It takes a long time to study one tree at a time, and environmental testing is also time consuming. Because solar cells power the robot. Therefore, neither humans nor the environment is affected. The study’s conclusions resulted in the granting of the autonomous mobile robot competition. Smart Agriculture 2021 (Smart Agricultural Robot Competition 2021) on the issue of forest management robots at the Artificial Intelligence and Holistic Technology Innovation Center Faculty of Engineering Kasetsart University, more information is available from the Majoring Mechatronics at the Faculty of Engineering, RMUTP, Tel. 02 913 2424 ext. 4228.
