Development and Performance Evaluation of Battery Powered Weeder

Abstract

This study focuses on the widespread challenge of weed management in crop newlineproduction, emphasizing the labor-intensive nature and substantial costs associated newlinewith manual weeding. This study presents the concept of an e-power source and a newlinecombination of weeding mechanism to carry out the weeding operations in crop rows. newlineA battery powered mechanical inter-row weeder was designed, developed at CTAE, newlineMPUAT, Udaipur. The field experiments were conducted at the Instructional Farm newlineCTAE, MPUAT, Udaipur for to study the effect various machine parameters such as newlinethe number of blades, blade angle, and height of blades and type of tool on weeding newlineefficiency, power consumption, and performance index of the weeder. The results newlinerevealed that the selected variables had a significant effect on performance of the newlineweeder at 1% and 5% level of significance. The average weeding efficiency, plant newlinedamage and power consumption was observed to be 91.47%, 2.37%, and 176 W newlinerespectively at the operating speed of 2.5-3 km/h. The optimal performance index of newline2312 was achieved at 10 number of blades, 20 degree blade angles, and 35 mm blade newlineheight. Field performance evaluations of the weeder carried out and compared with the newlinemanual wheel hoe in fenugreek and coriander crops. The weeder achieved average field newlinecapacity (0.048 ha/h) and efficiency (89.26%) compared to the manual tool (0.015 ha/h newlineand 73.80%, respectively). The weeder significantly reduced labor requirements by newline69.59% man-hours and the operating cost by 51% as compared to the manual wheelhoe. Moreover, the weeder significantly reduces labor requirements, providing newlinepotential solutions for efficient and labor-saving weeding operation. The break-even newlinepoint and payback period of the developed weeder was found to be 132 h and 1.49 newlineyears. In addition, the study assessed the mechanical vibrations during weeding newlineoperations, revealed a range of 1.2 to 3.92 m/s² during weeding and 0.13 to 0.33 m/s² newlineduring transportation. The electric drive system effectively reduced peak r.m.s newlineacceleration, ensuring hand vibrations below recommended limits. The developed newlinebattery-powered weeder represents a significant advancement in addressing weed newlinemanagement challenges, offering small-scale farmers an efficient, cost-effective, and newlinelabor-saving tool for weeding operation. newline