Iran-Made Flying Robot Helps Pollination of Walnut Trees

“The steps for designing this system were taken through the SOLIDWORKS software and then it was used to transfer to ADAMS and ANSYS FLUENT software. A PID controller was used to control this system and its coefficients were obtained by trial and error method,” said Mohammad Dehqani, an assistant professor of the faculty of Agriculture and Natural Resources of University of Tehran.

“The MATLAB and ADAMS software were synchronized with each other to control the flying robot, and simulation in ANSYS FLUENT software was also conducted to check the air flow under the robot and predict the pollen path,” he added.

Dehqani noted that given the results of the simulations, the assessment of the robot’s work was carried out in real conditions and in a walnut garden, adding that the pollens were collected manually and then mixed with different percentages of talcum powder and poured into a tank.

“Three treatments of 50%, 60% and 80% pollen were poured on three rows of trees by the robot. After checking and comparing with the control treatment which was carried out by the backpack and operator systems, the results indicated that the robot has a good performance for pollination of walnut trees,” he underlined.

Pollination is the act of transferring pollen grains from the male anther of a flower to the female stigma. The goal of every living organism, including plants, is to create offspring for the next generation. One of the ways that plants can produce offspring is by making seeds.

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