We started a discussion in a Signal group, but wanted to move it here for more involvement. The proposal on the table is to use own source hardware and software to hack together an autonomous weeding machine, maybe using AI to recognize weeds versus crop plants.

  • perestroika@slrpnk.net
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    3 days ago

    I once considered building one, but never got started because my agriculture took a turn away from field cultures towards trees / bushes (cherry and sea-buckthorn). Now, sadly, I’m involved with far more destructive robotics projects than weed-whacking. :( If the insanity ends nearby, maybe I’ll get back to peaceful projects.

    Some notes:

    • imaging: I strongly recommend Raspberry Pi and libcamera, can provide directions and sample code if anyone needs

    • navigation: I considered a tall mast (fishing rod / plastic pipe / other) made rigid with shroud lines and a downlooking camera, information plates with QR or Data Matrix codes embedded in ground (find the information plate by contrast, pass to decoding algo, get reference point coordinates out)

    • weed detection: missing, I never got there

    • motors: I considered extremely slow geared stepper motors with bicycle sprockets and chains, ordinary 4 amp industrial stepper drivers

    • wheels: I considered bicycle rear wheels without a freewheeling mechanism

    • steering: I considered bicycle front forks, stepper motors and toothed belt (oversized 3D printer parts)

    Basically, it would have been 2 bikes in parallel, rear wheels driven by steppers, front wheels steered by steppers. No brakes. Tall mast, navigation camera at mast top, instrument camera on a movable arm.