Paper
Novel Long Range Compound Linear Motion Mechanisms For use in the Design of Affordable Agricultural Robots
Brian Onang'o
In all robotics applications, mechanical complexity is one of the major sources considerably increasing the cost and leading to low adoption. This paper presents the designs of 5 novel compound linear motion mechanisms with essentially unlimited range of motion for use in both fixed and mobile robots — making it possible to affordably scale fixed robots to commercial-size farms and to remove the complexity and related costs introduced by precise navigation sensors in mobile agricultural robots. Three of the mechanisms meet all the design aims required for adoption in agricultural robots.