Urodela Vertical Landscaping Robot by Eduardo Sanchez Cruz |
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| DESIGN DETAILS | |||||
| DESIGN NAME: Urodela PRIMARY FUNCTION: Vertical Landscaping Robot INSPIRATION: Vertical farming is an emerging field in agriculture due to its deployment flexibility on vertical surfaces, especially in limited land space urban cities, However, this comes with major challenges, namely difficult access to plants placed on the vertical plane, making mundane tasks like monitoring and harvesting difficult. Additionally, The robotic technology for vertical farming is not as mature as traditional farming, thus Urodela is developed to overcome these shortcomings. UNIQUE PROPERTIES / PROJECT DESCRIPTION: Urodela is a rail guided robotic platform that assists in vertical farming. It monitors plant health using artificial intelligence, and performs basic gardening tasks with its arm manipulator on vertical landscapes. The arm manipulator is modular and can be swapped for different end effectors like a spraying nozzle or pruning device. It uses permanent magnets as the primary adhesion system. Urodela is designed to look like a ladybug to homogenise with the greenery of the vertical landscapes. OPERATION / FLOW / INTERACTION: When Urodela is activated, it will start to move and capture data along the vertical garden rail track. When it detects that a plant pot needs to be replaced, it will stop and pick it up with the arm manipulator and transport it to a designated area. Besides, it will communicate with the irrigation system when it detects the plants need water. At the track will be a charging station where the robot will move when it needs to recharge the battery. PROJECT DURATION AND LOCATION: The project started in March 2020 in Singapore and will be exhibited in the Singapore Pavilion at the Dubai World Expo 2020 in October 2021. |
PRODUCTION / REALIZATION TECHNOLOGY: The structural components were made of Aluminium alloy 6061, a non ferromagnetic material to avoid interference with the permanent magnets, fabricated by laser cut and CNC. The driving wheels are designed with a concave shape to increase the surface in contact with the rail for sufficient friction to climb vertically. The outer cover is 3D printed using Nylon for the floor and inner shell that needs to take loads, and ABS or SLA resin for the head and the outer wings. SPECIFICATIONS / TECHNICAL PROPERTIES: Dimensions, wings closed and arm folded: Width 630mm x Length 708mm x Height 460mm Weight of the robot: 21Kg Maximum Linear Speed: 0.2m/ sec Arm Manipulator DOF: 5 and gripper Arm Manipulator Payload: 700g Max Operation time per charge: 30 minutes Charging method: wireless On board sensors: Temperature, Humidity, Pressure, PM and CO2. Camera resolution: 1.3 Megapixels Location System: PXV absolute position system Wheels: 6 concave shaped driven wheels and 12 support wheels TAGS: Climbing robot, vertical landscape, landscaping, vertical gardening, vertical farming, modularity, vertical garden maintenance, plant pot picking robot, garden monitoring robot. RESEARCH ABSTRACT: Urodela's research objective is to explore and solve problems with the current maintenance of vertical gardens. Urodela was designed to help humans build more extensive and more vertical gardens in any shape and orientation by tackling the dangers and complexity of maintaining a vertical landscape. Surveying field experts help to gather the design requirements. CHALLENGE: The most formidable challenge to overcome for this design was to create a frame able to provide enough adhesion to the rail but at the same time must be flexible to overcome straight and curved sections of the track. The body is mounted on three modules interconnected with a biaxial-hinge in between. It can also adjust the magnetic force by adding or removing magnet units and by increasing or decreasing the air gap between the magnets and the surface. ADDED DATE: 2021-01-13 09:33:12 TEAM MEMBERS (3) : Designer: Eduardo Sanchez Cruz, Dr. Abdullah Aamir Hayat and Professor Mohan Rajesh Elara IMAGE CREDITS: Image #1 - Creator Eduardo Sanchez Cruz, Urodela Front Perspective View, 2021 Image #2 - Creator Eduardo Sanchez Cruz, Urodela Bottom View, 2021 Image #3 - Creator Eduardo Sanchez Cruz, Urodela Back Perspective View, 2021 Image #4 - Creator Eduardo Sanchez Cruz, Urodela on Metal Rails, 2021 Image #5 - Creator Eduardo Sanchez Cruz, Urodela Mounted on Metal Rails Running on Vertical Landscape, 2021 |
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| CLIENT/STUDIO/BRAND DETAILS | |
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NAME: Singapore University of Technology and Design PROFILE: The Singapore University of Technology and Design is established to advance knowledge and nurture technically-grounded leaders and innovators to serve societal needs, with a focus on Design, through an integrated multi-disciplinary curriculum and multi-disciplinary research. |
| AWARD DETAILS | |
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Urodela Vertical Landscaping Robot by Eduardo Sanchez Cruz is Runner-up for A' Design Award in Robotics, Automaton and Automation Design Category, 2020 - 2021.· Press Members: Login or Register to request an exclusive interview with Eduardo Sanchez Cruz. · Click here to register inorder to view the profile and other works by Eduardo Sanchez Cruz. |
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