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robot hedge cutter

cutting hedges automatically
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Hello all I am half way building the robotics hedge cutter. Problem:- Long hedges approx 60 feet x 20 feet height x 4 feet width requires lot of trimming regularly as if you miss a few days the branches become thick and over grows not to form a even straight hedge. Now i have a couple of hedges which require a lot of maintanence from time to time. so i thought why not make a automatic hedge trimmer that would automatically trim and make evenly very nice looking straight long hedges. I am half way in design, My first part is the top as that is the main part who will climb over 20 feet to trim the top every 15 days? Phase 1 top section so the top part is the first priority, my robot is light runs on wires, first trims the width 4 feet and then moves a step forward and again trims the next 4 feet , like that it will move for 60 feet, powered by solar and battery backup , it has over 6 sensors to detect the end and when to move the next track , as here encoders is not needed, as the task would compleate in a days charge of sunlight and would run for 30 mts, and by that time the 60 feet x 4 feet top will be trimmed. next is phase 2 the side section. Still not yet decided how to make a lift for 20 feet on both ends, maybe next week will work on that.
macx75, Dec 15 2010

long hedges http://2.bp.blogspo...40/LaurelHedge1.jpg
long hedges link [macx75, Dec 15 2010]

[link]






       To use on hedge funds?
normzone, Dec 15 2010
  

       //[MB] Are you aware ...// It's worrying. I suppose it was a mistake to send my last head gardener off on "gardening leave".   

       It strikes me, [macx], that this is using a sledgehammer to crack a molehill in a teacup.   

       Why try to make it fully automated? Better, shirley, to make a slightly-improved version of the hedge trimmers that farmers use? They already do the job pretty well, and can drive from site to site so that they are well-used.
MaxwellBuchanan, Dec 15 2010
  

       [MaxwellBuchannan] Don't be a party-pooper. Shirly [macx75] is doing this for the sheer love of tinkering.   

       And, why do you have a head gardener, anyway? Do you grow so many cabbages that you require a specialist?
mouseposture, Dec 16 2010
  

       Head gardener. Sounds like sixties slang for a user or supplier of recreational intoxicants.
normzone, Dec 16 2010
  

       //Shirly [macx75] is doing this for the sheer love of tinkering. //   

       Well, true. However, a tinkerly minded halfbaker would surely be using lasers?
MaxwellBuchanan, Dec 16 2010
  

       //However, a tinkerly minded halfbaker would surely be using lasers?// Either that, or a hail of shurukien.   

       Or explosives.   

       Possible biotechnology/nanotechnology niche for perimiter-aware hedge-phage.   

       A finely focused super-sonic air-vortex might also be a consideration.   

       Or a goat, on stilts.
zen_tom, Dec 16 2010
  

       //Or a goat, on stilts.// sp. Giraffe   

       //it has over 6 sensors // Seven?
marklar, Dec 16 2010
  

       I wouldn't have thought robot hedges needed cutting.
hippo, Dec 16 2010
  

       I just see uncut big hedges overgrowing in height and sides which require good trimming. and just focusing on making my lovely robots cut them very well and keep their specific task to just maintain the hedges for years together on their own. Building Smart Robots for specific jobs. The Hedge cutting Robot that trims your hedges always.
macx75, Dec 17 2010
  

       I like this very much especially after getting a look at the hedges in question. Nothing would please me more than to see video of the little robot in action. By making it frequent one would not need the power requires to cut big twigs.   

       The top seems easiest. If wires are allowed then maybe tracks, and putting an electric hedge trimmer in tracks seems very doable.   

       The challenge is going to be those big side swaths. Here is my idea of how it could be done. Consider the hedge clippers hanging from the track at the top and center of the hedge. The bottom is attached to a wire leading down to a small robot which runs along a track at the bottom of the hedge. As the robot moves along from one side to the other of the hedge, the electric clipper clips out a semicircle of hedge. The clipper then drops one clipper length and clips out another larger semicircle. mm but there would be large unclipped bits at the far and near ends.   

       Perhaps a nichrome wire the height of the fence which glows red hot - adequate for pruning leaves and twigs. The wire rolls slowly along, anchored on tracks at top and bottom, burning away leaves and sprouts in its path. Advantage - no need for the wire itself to move and it does not need to stay sharp. Laurel smoke smells great. One could impede rust with an oil reservoir at the top and the oil will drizzle down with gravity (when the wire is off). Disadvantage: best used on rainy and wet days due to fire risk.
bungston, Dec 17 2010
  
      
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