febinjames21@yahoo.com

Kerala, the land of kera and god’d own country is blessed as said by its name with lots of coconut trees in an area of 82,863sq.km

But nowadays, due to high cost and increasing wages of labours, increasing accidents, the cost of production and processing has also gone up

In this context, I present my model device “COCONUT HARVESTING MACHINE”

This is a unique model which will be the machine-front of the coconut industry of kerala and inturn will serve as a great help and boon to coconut farmers in kerala

The model

Rising cost of production

Rising labour wages Limited number of

coconuts by manual labour method

Serious accidents

Made of recylable raw materials Can be utilised for plucking more

coconuts than manual method Saves money Remote controlled Precise control and user friendly Low cost

3 unitsClimbing unitRobotic armElectronic unit

Climbing unit is the part of device which will be used for climbing

It consist of Propeller 1- for moving up and downPropeller 2- for moving side to sidePropeller shift switchValve – for preventing downward

movementPower window motor (gear)Main framePropeller 3- propeller shift switch in

association with ,propeller1,gear->up/down mov

Propeller 1- consist of 12V 1000rpm motor (crank shaft motor) and to it is attached wheel with spikesGripping Not in action at rest

# shaped beam

Climbing motor with spikes

C1 (cable)

Spring

Propeller 2- for moving side to side Consist of

Stepper motor and 2 metallic wheels with spikes at horizontal plane

In action when propeller 1 is off actionBelt for grip

Propeller shift switch Consist of

Gearing motor (only at gear A, this functions as propeller shift switch)

Metallic cableFor controlling both propellers (1 & 2) and

allowing 1 to dominate at one time over the other

Propeller 2

Side to side motor

Propeller 1

Spring

Valve

Up and down wheels

C2 (cable)

Valve pushing motor

Propeller 1 Side-to side movement

Valve

Valve driving motor

Projection on wheel

Valve- metallic valve of unidirectional movements and locking purposes for propeller 3 once it is on climbing position and once it has reaches the target and also for controlling the speed while climbing down

CB

MOTOR

Gearing motor Power window motor (gearing motor) It has 3 gears A ,B & C If at A propeller 1 rail assembly Propeller 3 lock wheel assembly is put

to action C – retracting the movable beam- B-robotic arm Small motor to move b/w a,b,c

Main frame- basic platform in which propellers rest

It consists of Basic frameFixed beamMovable beam

A hash (#) shaped frame made up of aluminium

Holds the climbing motor and assembly units

Also the gearing motor and its units Base of the robotic arm Holds the electronic circuit 4 beams are attached to either side of

the basic frame (2 upper & 2 lower) Upper and lower are symmetrical

Are fixed to the right end of the upper horizontal frame

For side to side movements in association with movable beams

In neutral position side to side movement is dominant

This action is driven by a 12V stepper motor capable of precise movements

Attached to the motor is wheels with spikes on them which is helpful gripping (HZ & VT)

Wheels rotate in horizontal axis Also attaches the propeller 3 which will be

get locked by a valve which helps in unidirectional movement

Propeller 2

Side to side motor

Propeller 1

Spring

Valve

Up and down wheels

C2 (cable)

Valve pushing motor

Propeller 3

Attached to the left end of the horizontal frame This beam has to move along the horizontal

axis of the frame for about 10cm to and fro on a railing

This beam is about 30cm and has around 10 roller wheels attached for side to side and up and down movements

At the free end of the beam a small rod of 10cm is attached to it which will remain upright position in neutral mode

If this rod is brought parallel to ground the electronic circuit gets completed ->starts

Emergency piston Free end switch

Emergency piston

Roll able wheels

Spring

Upper part of # shaped beam

Inward & outward

<switch>

Roller wheels (around 5) are attached to the rod so that it helps in balancing the device

Metallic springs are fitted for to and fro actions of the beam as well as for rod position changing

In the case the springs attached for beam fails a hydraulic piston comes into action and bring the beam close

to the coconut tree

Model not real

Robotic arm-anatomy The anatomical work is over head

abduction at shoulder joint & flexion +extension at elbow,

Robotic arm performs the function of plucking coconuts and cutting unnecessary branches

Consist of Arm 1Arm 2Camera attached to arm 1

Arm 1

Piston 1

Catcher driving motor

Piston 2

Piston 3

Branch cutting motor

Catcher

Arm 2

Camera 2

Camera 1

Hydraulic piston

Distal arm <not fully completed>

Proximal arm

Vga camera, placed at an angle

Motor- hydraulic system

Hydraulic conveyer

Has up and down action at a range of 90-120 degrees

In action when gearing motor is of gear b

Has 2 parts Flexion and extension

2 sub arms 1–for holding/fixing coconut

2 -For cutting unnecessary branches

-Cutting bunch

Purpose- to fix and pluck the coconut Mechanism- on receiving the signal sub

arm moves on a metallic rod driven by a piston through hydraulic action, this makes the motion stable, also assist the action

A ball bearing motor assembly is fitted so that rotating arm is also supported

Purpose- to cut unnecessary branches Mechanism- on receiving signal the

piston drives the motor which is placed at 900 horizontal on which a single cutting blade is fitted

When subarm 1 is on action subarm 2 is automatically off action, this is made possible by a hydraulic mechanism

Catcher <cross section b.b

<b.b>

Attached to catcher driver motor

Hydraulic mechanism Pascals law

Cutter motor

blade

A bike battery is used in case to make it wireless

If wired dtmf-mobile can be avoided Wireless or mosecode mechanism can

be used instead of dtmf cheep

In order to increase the range thin wire hanged down

Camera – fixed to the proximal arm at an angle such that image seen through it can be targeted at that particular angle of the arm 1

Also another to distal arm

VGA camera wireless, range increased by using thin wires hanged from the sides

Control mechanism Wireless Dtmf radiofrequency Wired mosecode

Dtmf Electronic unit- works on MT 8870 DTMF

decoder This IC takes DTMF signal coming via

telephone line and converts that signal into respesctive BCD numbers

Demultipler Bike battery 12V Joy stick (natural interactive methods) cutters

demultiplexer

4 to 16 demultiplexer

This device works on remote controlled, cable or mobile phone technology in my model I prefer mobile phone technology

Here DTMF mechanism is used The used software has 2 menus

Main menu 1-16Sub menu 1-16

Using microcontrollers Switch 1 in main menu is for climbing

unit (up and down) Switch 2 side to side movement Switch 3 for robotic arm functions Switch 4 for any extra function to be

added Switch # return to main menu Like that we can allot 16 functions Each main menu switch we can allot

16 submenus switches

Machine is positioned onto the treeSTARTING INSTRUCTION

Adjust the movable beams so that its wheels touch the tree

Bring the rod attached to the movable beam from the upright position to the horizontal position

Now the circuit is completed and the machine is ready to start function

On pressing the switch 1 of main menu (climbing

unit) is put to action Then select submenu 1- the gearing motor is

put to action

As a result the gearing motor is moved to A position with effect the climbing motor & Propeller 3 touches, the tree

Press 2 then the climbing motor moves up simultaneously valve comes to action resulting in constant unidirectional movement

Press 3 the climbing motor pauses Press 4 valves opens, climbing motor

climbs down

Action of propeller 1 and propeller 3 (up and down movements), both these propellers come forward and attaches to the tree by their wheels

Action of valves- unidirectional movement and locking of propeller 3

Now the machine has reached target height of the tree (with the aid of camera)

On pressing switch 2 of main menu side to side action can be performed,

Submenu 1-the horizontal wheel (propeller 2) would be in action

Submenu 2 right Submenu 3 left Submenu 4 pause

On pressing 3 of main menu robotic arm comes to action

Submenu 1- up proximal arm Submenu 2- down proximal arm Submenu 3- distal arm closer to device Submenu 4- distal arm away from

device Submenu 5- catcher arm into action Submenu 6- cutter arm into action

Proximal arm moves at a range of 90-120

Distal arm moves 45-180

It has 2 subarms attached, it performs the function of holding and fixing the coconut and also for cutting unnecessary branches

A camera is fitted to the proximal arm at an angle so that it views through the arm angle span of the distal arm

The 2 subarm are driven by hydraulic mechanism which is motor driven

Signal

Piston action

Pushes the sub arm through metallic tube

Ball bearing motor assembly works

Holds on to the coconut

Rotates the coconut

Plucks