Project Koorma - Weed cutter Payload

Background

Once our Koorma Chassis development was complete, we planned on building some payloads to demonstrate how the Koorma Platform can be extended with different payloads for doing real world tasks! Also it was an opportunity to build a Payload module which demonstrates how Koorma Platform can control both electrical drives and Fuel engine based drive mechanisms.

Trials conducted using this payload proved that the weed cutting process becomes easier with less strain and effort on the robot operator compared to the conventional method where a person does the operation of brush cutter. Further, it improves safety of the operator as the operator can run the robot from a safe distance!

We consciously chose to keep the Brush cutter a Petrol (Gasoline) driven one, because the motor runs at around 4,000 to 12,000 rpm and will required a 1.5 to 2kW BLDC motor to make the brush cutter electric. It would not only add cost to the product, but also increase battery size drastically and reduce battery endurance.

Further, this payload helped us to demonstrate control of Fuel based engines on Koorma Platform as well. With this payload, the chassis is a battery driven remote electric vehicle, while the payload is a remotely driven petrol engine device.

The Payload remote control just plugs into the Mobility Remote of Koorma and piggy backs on its RF communication stack to send commands to the payload. The payload remote of brush cutter has:

• Remote Engine off Switch which can be used as a safety function in case of any urgent emergency to switch off the rotating head of the brush cutter
• Remotely controlled tilt angle control (angle of attack) of the brush cutter
• Fine Grained Throttle Control for the brush cutter to be operated from remote

We consciously chose to keep the Brush cutter a Petrol (Gasoline) driven one, because the motor runs at around 4,000 to 12,000 rpm and will required a 1.5 to 2kW BLDC motor to make the brush cutter electric. It would not only add cost to the product, but also increase battery size drastically and reduce battery endurance.