Design and evaluation of hedge trimmer robot

• One of the most relevant problems in the design of such kind of robots is the robot navigation through the streets sidewalk and doing the operation with perfect quality using the CCD camera mounted on the robot. • The vision-based system is sufficiently accurate and fast to control the robot navigation in a closed-loop fashion and the accuracy of hedge detection performance under various conditions of the street sidewalk was about 96%. • An autonomous shaping robot would provide better quality of shaping at a much faster rate and can work for extended periods compared to what a human could accomplish. • Also the vision-based navigation system could reliably capture the feature objects from the images and vision system will then be utilized to recognize the plants among the hedge. An autonomous hedge trimmer robot was developed to reduce the harmful effects of traditional hedge trimming method (gasoline-powered hedge trimmer) on operators' bodies and increase the speed and quality of the operation. The robot had five degrees of freedom (PRRRR) structure and was geometrically optimized to simplify the control strategy, enabling it to trim simple, stepped, and circular forms. The control system, consisting of a host computer, servo motors and servo drivers, and controller, guided the robot platform, manipulator, and end-effector as it approached and trimmed the hedge. By using a recognition algorithm and vision-based navigation system, the robot was able to detect the path and trim the hedge automatically. Experimental tests showed the vision-based system is accurate and fast enough to control the robot. The accuracy of hedge detection performance under various conditions was about 96% and the success rate of trimming was 88%.