DESC:ROBOTIC MACHINE FOR CLIMBING COCONUT TREES AND HARVESTING COCONUTS
BACKGROUND
Technical Field
[0001] The embodiments herein generally relate to a coconut tree climbing and harvesting machine. Specifically, the embodiments described herein relate to a robotic machinefor climbing coconut trees and harvesting coconuts using a flexible robotic arm and robotic body.

Description of the Related Art
[0002] Coconut harvesting plays an important role in the economy because of its domestic, commercial and industrial uses. The productivity of coconuts has been increasing significantly year by year since coconut is formed as the main ingredient in many dishes. Also other parts of the coconut, like coconut husk, are used in the coir industry, kernel is used for making oil and the hard shell is used for making charcoal. Handicraft works can also be carried out using coconut husks and shells. Coconut tree leaves are used to prepare brooms and also people utilize coconut leaves for roofing their homes.
[0003] Commonly, human resources are utilized to climb the coconut trees for plucking and cutting the coconuts. But, there is a major risk in climbing the tree due to the constant cylindrical structure and single trunk. Traditionally coconut plucking was carried out by a set of people who had less opportunity for education and economy, but were particularly skilled in this trade. As literacy rates are increasing day-by-day, no one wants to take up this job. So the percentage of population taking up coconut plucking as their means of living are steadily decreasing. Hence, coconut harvesting becomes a huge challenge for the agricultural industry. Moreover, the ratio of coconut trees and persons climbing up the trees is in large variation, and this creates an increasing demand for coconuts with a decreasing percentage of manual cutters.
[0004] In prior arts, attempts have been made to develop coconut climbing machines which can allow the person to use and carry the machine to climb on the coconut trees. However, the existing coconut climbing machine suffers from requirement of a person to climb on the tree with the help of such machines.
[0005] To solve the problem associated with the known coconut climbing machine, remote controlled coconut harvesting machines have been developed.These machines are provided with a long retractable arm, which has a cutting device at one end and a twisting device at the other end. Though this machine can be connected to the coconut tree and detached from the coconut tree easily, it also suffers from many drawbacks. A main drawback is that all the parts are made from mechanical joints as well as pneumatic actuators to make the movements, thus it makes it cumbersome as well as reduces the lifetime of the machine. Further, it has been observed that such machines have less accuracy for the arm positioning in order to cut the coconuts.
[0006] Therefore, there exists a need in the prior art to build a wireless, minimum cost and eco-friendly machine which not only overcomes the problems associated with the prior art machines, but also provides a flexible robotic arm that mimics a human arm for ease and accuracy of cutting and plucking of coconuts. Further, it should provide a robotic and simple mechanism which can be controlled remotely to climb on the tree and cut the coconuts and other parts of coconuts trees.
SUMMARY
[0007] In view of the foregoing, an embodiment herein provides a robotic machine for climbing coconut trees and cutting coconuts, the robotic machine may include a machine unit and a ground station, wherein the machine unit comprises a robotic arm, a robotic body and a base rod connecting the robotic arm and robotic body. The robotic arm may include plurality of servomotors, a wireless camera, DC motors to operate the servomotors and a cutter. Further, the robotic arm may include an arm unit, a control unit and a processing unit, wherein the arm unit consists of base rod, links, joints, motors, joint detecting sensors, end effecter and cutter, wherein the control unit consists of a microcontroller, motor drivers, actuators, joint detecting sensors, power unit, wireless interface, wherein the processing unit can allow the operator to program and control the actuator accordingly. The robotic body may include a circular body, plurality of wheels, plurality of torsion spring, and a channel for the circular motion of the arm. Further, the robotic machine may include a rechargeable battery or power supply for operating DC motors and servomotors. In another embodiment, the robotic arm and the robotic body are connected by an extendible link.
[0008] According to an embodiment, the machine unit is controlled from the ground station using at least a control technique, wherein the machine unit includes a joy stick, glove based control, gesture based control, mobile based control and voice control. The wheels are provided inside the circular body to hold and climb the machine unit on the trunk of coconut tree. The wireless camera captures video in the vicinity of the cutter and transmits the video to the ground station for displaying to the operator. Based on the video, the operator at the ground station can command/operate the machine unit and perfectly position the cutter to cut the coconut.
[0009] According to an embodiment, a system for robotic machine for climbing coconut trees and harvesting coconuts is provided, wherein the system comprising: a machine unit for climbing coconut trees and cutting coconuts comprising: a robotic arm having an arm unit, a control unit and a processing unit for cutting and harvesting coconuts and a robotic body having plurality of DC motors, a circular body, plurality of torsion springs, and plurality of wheels for climbing the coconut trees. A wireless module for transmitting and receiving operational commands to the machine unit and maintaining effective communication between an operator and the machine unit by enhancing the remote functionality of the machine unit. A processing unit for programming the necessary features of the machine unit to enhance the operation in a better and faster way and controlling actuators in the robotic arm unit to support an operator. A display for visualizing the position of the coconuts from a transmitter of the robotic arm unit and the operator views the position of the coconuts and decides to chop the coconut by using flexible arm movements supported by control module.
[00010] These and other aspects of the embodiments herein will be better appreciated and understood when considered in conjunction with the following description and the accompanying drawings. It should be understood, however, that the following descriptions, while indicating preferred embodiments and numerous specific details thereof, are given by way of illustration and not of limitation. Many changes and modifications may be made within the scope of the embodiments herein without departing from the spirit thereof, and the embodiments herein include all such modifications.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[00011] The detailed description is set forth with reference to the accompanying figures. In the figures, the left-most digit(s) of a reference number identifies the figure in which the reference number first appears. The use of the same reference numbers in different figures indicates similar or identical items.
[00012] Fig. 1.1 illustrates a schematic diagram of a robotic machine for climbing coconut trees and harvesting coconuts, in accordance with an example embodiment herein;
[00013] Fig. 1.2 illustrates a schematic diagram of a robotic machine for climbing coconut trees and harvesting coconuts with an extendible link connecting the robotic arm and the robotic body, in accordance with an example embodiment herein;
[00014] Fig. 2 illustrates a sample network environment of a ground station in order to operate the robotic machine in accordance with an example embodiment herein;
[00015] Fig. 3 illustrates a block diagram for architecture of a robotic machine for climbing coconut trees and harvesting coconuts in accordance with an example embodiment herein; and
[00016] Fig. 4 illustrates a gesture based control method for controlling the robotic arm in accordance with an example embodiment herein.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
[00017] The embodiments herein and the various features and advantageous details thereof are explained more fully with reference to the non-limiting embodiments that are illustrated in the accompanying drawings and detailed in the following description. Descriptions of well-known components and processing techniques are omitted so as to not unnecessarily obscure the embodiments herein. The examples used herein are intended merely to facilitate an understanding of ways in which the embodiments herein may be practiced and to further enable those of skill in the art to practice the embodiments herein. Accordingly, the examples should not be construed as limiting the scope of the embodiments herein.
[00018] As mentioned above there is a need to provide a robotic machine for climbing coconut trees and harvesting coconuts. The embodiments herein achieve this by providing a robotic machine having a flexible robotic arm which can enable an operator to operate the robotic machine for climbing coconut trees and harvesting coconuts. Referring now to the drawings, and more particularly to FIGS. 1 through 4, where similar reference characters denote corresponding features consistently throughout the figures, there are shown preferred embodiments.
[00019] It is to be noted that even though the description of the invention has been explained for a coconut tree, it should, in no manner, be construed to limit the scope of the invention. The robotic machine of the invention can be used with any trees including palm tree, areca nut tree, mango tree, and any tree having slightly straight trunk.
[00020] In accordance with an embodiment, the robotic machine may include a machine unit and a ground station, wherein the machine unit comprises a robotic arm, a robotic body and a base rod connecting the robotic arm and robotic body. The robotic arm may include a plurality of servomotors, a wireless camera, and DC motors. Further, the robotic arm may include an arm unit, a control unit and a processing unit, wherein the arm unit consists of base rod, links, joints, motors, joint detecting sensors and end effecter, wherein the control unit consists of a microcontroller, motor drivers, actuators, joint detecting sensors, power unit, wireless interface, wherein the processing unit can allow the operator to program and control the actuator accordingly. The robotic body may include a circular body, plurality of wheels, plurality of torsion springs, and a channel for the circular motion of the arm. Further, the robotic machine may include a rechargeable battery or power supply for operating DC motors and servomotors.
[00021] According to an embodiment, the machine unit is controlled from the ground station using at least one of the following control methods, wherein the machine unit includes a joy stick, glove based control, gesture based control, mobile based control and voice control. The wheels are provided inside the circular body to hold and climb the machine unit on the trunk of coconut tree. The camera captures video in the vicinity of cutter, and transmits the video to the ground station for displaying to the operator, and based on the video, the operator at ground station can command/operate the machine unit and perfectly position the cutter to cut the coconut.
[00022] Fig. 1.1 illustrates a schematic diagram 100a of a robotic machine for climbing coconut trees and harvesting coconuts, according to an embodiment. The robotic machine includes a machine unit 100a and a ground station unit, wherein the machine unit 100a comprises a robotic arm unit 102 fixed on a base rod, and a robotic body unit 116 connected to the robotic arm unit using the base rod. The robotic arm unit 102 comprises an arm unit 102a and a control unit, wherein the arm unit consists of base rod, links, joints, motors, actuators, joint detecting sensors and endeffecter. The control unit consists of microcontroller, motor drivers, joint detecting sensors, power unit, wireless interface and a processing unit that allows anoperator 118 to program the machine 100a and control the actuators accordingly. Further, the robotic arm unit 102 includes a wireless camera 101, a DC motor 103, a cutter 104 and servo motors 105,106,107,108. The wireless camera 101 can be attached to the flexible arm unit 102a of a machine which is used to capture the live video of the coconut position and pass the video to the ground station using a transmitter in the wireless camera 101. The cutter 104 can be placed close to the wireless camera 101 to provide a better view of orientation of the coconut to the operator 118 to cut the coconuts and the cutter 104 is driven by high rpm DC motor 103. A contact sensor 119 can be attached to the frame connecting the cutter 104 for sensing the collision of an object such as coconut. The servo motors 105,106,107,108 can be placed at the joints of the arm 102a for the flexible twisting of the robotic arm unit 102.
[00023] According to an embodiment, the robotic body unit 116 includes plurality of DC motors 109, plurality of torsion springs 110, plurality of wheels 111, a circular body 112, a battery 113, a space 114 for placing battery and circuits, and a channel 115 for the circular motion of arm. The torsion spring 110 can be a flexible elastic object that can store mechanical energy when it is twisted in order to support the robotic body unit 116 with the trunk of tree for climbing. The wheels 111 provided in the circular body 112 can enable to climb on the coconut tree 117 up and down, wherein the wheels 111 are driven by DC motors 109. The robotic body unit 116 and the robotic arm unit 102 can be connected using a base rod on which the flexible arm unit 102a is placed. The base rod enables the flexible arm unit 102a to rotate about circumference of the coconut tree 117 trunk to chop-off/cut coconuts hanging at any orientation. The channel for circular motion of hand 115 can be used for supporting the robotic body unit 116 in a circular motion for climbing on the coconut tree 117. In an embodiment, the power supply for DC motors and servomotors can be from the 230V A/C mains or via a rechargeable battery 113.
[00024] In an example embodiment, the robotic machine100a for climbing coconut trees 117 and harvesting coconuts can also be used for cleaning tree tops as there can be old leafs and/or infected leafs present at the top of the tree can bring hazard at any time by falling down on people below the tree. The operator 118 at the ground station can operate the cutter 104 by viewing the video received in the display from the transmitter of the wireless camera 101 in order to cut the old leafs and/or infected leafs.
[00025] In an example embodiment, the robotic machine100a for climbing coconut trees 117 and harvesting coconuts can also be used for spraying pesticides to the infected leafs and/or to all of the leafs for specific seasonal periods. The robotic arm unit 102 can carry the pesticide and the operator 118 at the ground station can operate the machine unit 100a with the help of the video obtained from the wireless camera 101 for spraying pesticides.
[00026] Fig. 1.2 illustrates a schematic diagram 100b of a robotic machine for climbing coconut trees and harvesting coconuts with an extendible link connecting the robotic arm and the robotic body, according to an embodiment. In an embodiment, the robotic machine includes a machine unit 100b and a ground station unit, wherein the machine unit 100b comprises a robotic arm unit 102b and a robotic body unit 110b. An extendible link connects the robotic arm 102b and the robotic body 110b. The robotic arm unit 102b comprises an arm unit and a control unit, wherein the arm unit consists of base rod, links, joints, motors, actuators, joint detecting sensors and end effecter. The control unit consists of microcontroller, motor drivers, joint detecting sensors, power unit, wireless interface and a processing unit that allows an operator 118 to program the machine 100b and control the actuators accordingly. Further, the robotic arm unit 102b includes a wireless camera 101b, a DC motor 103b and a cutter 104b. The wireless camera 101b can be attached to the flexible arm unit of a machine which is used to capture the live video of the coconut position and pass the video to the ground station using a transmitter in the wireless camera 101b. A contact sensor 111b can be attached to the frame connecting the cutter 104 for sensing the collision of an object such as a coconut. The cutter 104b can be placed close to the wireless camera 101b to provide a better view of orientation of the coconut to the operator 118 to cut the coconuts and the cutter 104b is driven by high rpm DC motor 103b. The servo motors can be placed at the joints of the robotic arm unit 102b for the flexible twisting of the robotic arm unit 102b.
[00027] According to an embodiment, the robotic body unit 110b includes plurality of DC motors 105b, plurality of torsion springs 106b, plurality of wheels 107b, a circular body 108b and a channel 109b for the circular motion of arm. The torsion spring 106b can be a flexible elastic object that can store mechanical energy when it is twisted in order to support the robotic body unit 110b with the trunk of tree for climbing. The wheels 107b provided in the circular body 108b can enable to climb on the coconut tree 117 up and down, wherein the wheels 107b are driven by DC motors 105b. The arm unit 102a can rotate about circumference of the coconut tree 117 trunk to chop-off/cut coconuts hanging at any orientation. The channel for circular motion of hand 109b can be used for supporting the robotic body unit 110b in a circular motion for climbing on the coconut tree 117.
[00028] In an embodiment, the machine unit 100b is the most important part of the robotic machine for climbing coconut trees and harvesting coconuts as it includes the robotic arm unit 102b, wireless camera 101b and the cutter 104b. The robotic machine 100b supports the weight of all these modules along with its own weight and should be stable when attached to the tree trunk and also while moving up. The robotic body unit 110b can be a circular model for climbing and rising up the tree by means of springs. The channel 109b moves around the body, which allows the free movement of the robotic arm around the tree trunk. The arm is attached to an extendable link connected to the robotic body 110b. The extendable link enables the movement of the arm towards or away from the coconut. So, the operator 118 can be stopped at a safe distance from the tree and the link can be extended from that position to reach the top of the tree. The arm is attached with the cutter 104b and at the other end the wireless camera 101b on one of the links.
[00029] According to an embodiment, the robotic arm unit 102b has to reach every nook and corner of the coconut tree, so that the coconuts at all different places can be cut. The degrees of freedom for the arm need to be optimum and the arm can include three degrees of freedom, which is similar to that of human arm. In the place of palm, cutter is attached. The joints of the arm include servomotors which are attached at the joints for motion. The servomotors are controlled wirelessly by means of potentiometers.
[00030] In an example embodiment, the control signals for the robotic arm 102b are given from potentiometers which are connected to an operator arm holder, the one operator wears, so that the signals can be taken from the motion of the operator arm itself. The potentiometers as mentioned for the robotic arm 102b were connected to the Arduino board with the Xbee transmitter and it is received at the robotic arm 102b and the required motion is replicated there.
[00031] Fig. 2 illustrates a sample network environment 200 of ground station in order to operate the robotic machine, according to an embodiment. The ground station can include a power management module 202, a haptic display unit 203, and a wireless module 206. The power management module 202 is provided to manage the power for the entire machine. In an example, a power supply 202 can be from the 230v A/C mains or via a battery 202a.
[00032] In an embodiment, the wireless camera 101 can include a transmitter in order to send the video and position of the coconuts to the ground station 200 and a receiver 204 in the display 203 can get the details of video 204 at the ground station 201. An operator camera output 205 is a camera with the operator in the ground station to view the video. Using the video displayed on display 203 unit, the operator 118 can easily operate the machine unit 100a from the ground station 201. Further it can also help the operator 118 at the ground station 201 to decide as when to move the robotic arm 102 and trigger the cutter 104 to cut the coconuts. The machine unit 100a can be operated from ground station 201 by using any of the control methods including but not limited to using a joy stick, a glove based control, a voice control and a gesture based control.
[00033] In an embodiment, the wireless module 206 comprises a transmitter and a receiver for transmitting operational command to the machine unit 100a to perform climbing coconut trees and cutting the coconuts. The wireless technology in the wireless module 206 can include but not limited to Bluetooth, Zigbee or any other wireless technologies. The wireless module 206 can form as the effective communication between the ground station 201 and the machine unit 100a by enhancing the remote functionality of the machine unit 100a. Wireless data transmission and reception can become easier since the ground station 201 is mobile.
[00034] Fig. 3 illustrates a block diagram of architecture 300 of the robotic machine for climbing coconut trees and harvesting coconuts, according to an embodiment. The robotic arm unit 102 can include a wireless camera 104 to transmit the video of the coconuts to receiver 204 made available at the ground station. The received video signals are displayed using the display 203 provided at the ground station 201. With the help of video signals, the operator 118 can move the machine unit upward or downward direction in the coconut trees, and also use the cutter 104 to chop the coconuts perfectly.
[00035] In an embodiment, a wireless module 206 can enable for linking between the machine unit 100a and the operator 118. The wireless module 206 can collect the visual and analog data simultaneously from both the machine unit 100a and operator 118 to set up a transfer of communication between both ends. Thus the support of the wireless module 206 can carry out the process of robotic machine for climbing coconut trees and harvesting coconuts.
[00036] In an embodiment, a processing unit 302 can be used to program the necessary features of the machine unit 100a to enhance the operation in a better and faster way. Accordingly, the processing unit 302 can control the actuators in the robotic arm unit 102 to support the operator 118.
[00037] In an embodiment, a display 203 can include a receiver to get the visual position of the coconuts received from the transmitter 301a of the robotic arm unit 102. With the display output, the operator 118 can view the position of the coconuts and decide to chop the coconut by using flexible arm movements supported by control methods.
[00038] Fig. 4 illustrates a gesture based control method for controlling the robotic arm, according to an embodiment. In an example, Microsoft Kinect is used to recognize gesture movement of the operator 118. Kinect infrared sensors may be placed at track points of the operator to recognize gesture movement. Kinect can recognize the motion command from the operator and differentiates between move-up, move-down and stop signals. The microcontroller can receive the signal from the transmitter of Kinect following which; the receiver at ground station can generate signals to control the actuators. For example, if the command “up” is given, all the motors will move in the counter clockwise direction and the climber unit moves up. The Kinect infrared sensors capture the frame-wise information about the operator from the sensor. Further, a RGB camera can capture the movements of the user. This information can be used to calculate the joint angles by using forward and inverse kinematics. The joints angles data can be transmitted to the receiver and the receiver can analyze the transmitted signal. The microcontroller can generate signals to control the actuators based on the transmitted signal. The advantage of the gesture based control method is that the robotic arm can be controlled in a better way using Microsoft Kinect. This can improve the dexterity of the entire model as the arm is designed to imitate the gestures of the operator’s arm. The gesture based control design can be segregated into three modules such as Kinect data processing, structural design, and communication interface.
[00039] In an example Kinect data processing, the gesture data to be sent to the Coco-bot can be obtained through the joint position derived from the Microsoft Kinect. The Kinect device can track 20 essential joints out of which tracking 4 joints can enable the controller to stimulate locomotion of arm of the Coco-bot. Further, Kinect can gather the color and depth information using the RGB and Infra-red camera respectively. The Kinect SDK then can utilize the camera’s data to recognize a human blob. Thereafter, it can create an approximate skeleton of all the limbs based on the blob detected. From this, the Kinect can make out the location of the various joints (hands, neck, head, etc.) of the human body. Then, the SDK can provide this information about the joints in an event that is fired regularly based on the camera frame-rate. The data from the Kinect SDK can be processed using Microsoft Visual Studio 2010.
[00040] In an example, the program is configured to identify the shoulder-elbow joints, elbow-wrist joints and wrist-hand joints as three-dimensional vectors. As shown in Fig. 4, various joints from the operator can be utilized for gesture based control. The program may run at a frame-rate equal to that of the Kinect camera and the angles between these vectors, obtained using dot-product, and give the angles that the joints of the operator should move. These angles can be driven to the Arduino board through a serial port. The Arduino board may be connected to a Wi-Fi shield. The controller-side is equipped with monitors for analyzing the visual data sent from machine unit 100a through the dedicated Wi-Fi network setup in the area.
[00041] In an example structural design, the robot body may consist of a circular chassis with wheels and motors for climbing up/down the tree. The chassis may have a circular track on which the arm is mounted. This enables the arm to rotate about circumference of the tree trunk to chop-off coconuts hanging at any orientation.
[00042] In an example communication interface, an interaction module may act as the link between the controller and the robot. It may be required to setup a dedicated network for transfer of control signals from the controller-side to the robotic-side simultaneously with the collection of visual and other analog data from the cameras mounted on the robotic arm and sensors and make it available for the controller-side for analysis. Wireless interaction can enable remote functionality of the robot.
[00043] In an example embodiment, the haptic display unit 203 provides information of the collision of the flexible arm unit 102a with an object such as coconut or leaves that the operator 118 intends to cut. This haptic feedback information provides an additional modality of certainty to the operator 118. Further, it also helps to ascertain the contact between the cutter 104 and the object to be cut. The cutter 104 breaks contact with the felled object, when the task is completed.
[00044] In an example embodiment, the sensing of collision can be visually comprehended or by the use of a contact sensor 401 attached to the frame supporting the cutter 104. For accurate visual sensing, a wireless camera 101 can be a stereo camera or a depth sensing camera or a regular RGB camera feed in combination with a depth generating algorithm can be utilized.
[00045] In an example embodiment, for provisioning the haptic feedback, the haptic tactile actuator 401 can be mounted at either the operator module body, or on a joystick or alternatively strapped to the operator arm with sensible joint collocation such that the flexible arm joints co-relate with the strapped locations of the haptic tactile actuators 401 on the operator arm.
[00046] In an example embodiment, the nature of haptic feedback provides tactile responses to states of contact and no contact and of the instant at which contact is made or broken between the cutter 104 and the object.
EXPERIMENT
[00047] The robotic arm was built using aluminum plates cut in shape of rectangles and L-angles. The plates are connected at the required positions using 3mm diameter screws. The joints of the arm are replicated using servo motors i.e. three servo motors at the shoulder for the three degrees of freedom; two motors one at elbow and the other in between the elbow joint and shoulder joint to account for the twisting of the elbow. The blade to be attached to the wrist of the arm is a driven by a DC motor of high rpm. Cameras are aligned close to the blade to provide a better view of the orientation of the coconuts. The design of the robotic machine was carried out by designing of the arm and successful testing of the arm in laboratory. The response lag while using Kinect to control the arm was found to be negligible.
[00048] The foregoing description of the specific embodiments will so fully reveal the general nature of the embodiments herein that others can, by applying current knowledge, readily modify and/or adapt for various applications. Such specific embodiments without departing from the generic concept, and, therefore, such adaptations and modifications should and are intended to be comprehended within the meaning and range of equivalents of the disclosed embodiments. It is to be understood that the phraseology or terminology employed herein is for the purpose of description and not of limitation. Therefore, while the embodiments herein have been described in terms of preferred embodiments, those skilled in the art will recognize that the embodiments herein can be practiced with modification within the spirit and scope of the appended claims.
,CLAIMS:We Claim:

1. A robotic machine for climbing coconut trees and harvesting coconuts comprising:
a machine unit having a robotic arm and a robotic body wherein a base rod connecting the robotic arm and the robotic body; and
a ground station unit having a control module for controlling the machine unit;
wherein the robotic arm having at least three degrees of freedom includes a plurality of servomotors, a wireless camera, a transmitter, a DC motor, and a cutter; and
wherein the robotic body having a circular body, a plurality of wheels, a plurality of torsion springs and a channel for the circular motion of the arm.
2. The robotic machine of claim 1, wherein said base rod enables the arm unit to rotate about circumference of the coconut tree trunk to chop-off/cut coconuts hanging at any orientation.
3. The robotic machine of claim 1, wherein said servo motors are placed at the joints of the arm for the flexible twisting of said robotic arm unit, wherein said wireless camera captures video in the vicinity of the cutter and transmits the video to said ground station and wherein said cutter is placed next to the wireless camera to provide a better view of orientation to cut the coconuts.
4. The robotic machine of claim 1, wherein said robotic arm further comprises an arm unit, a control unit and a processing unit, wherein said arm unit comprises of base rod, links, joints, motors, joint detecting sensors, end effecter and cutter, wherein said control unit comprises of a microcontroller, motor drivers, actuators, joint detecting sensors, power unit and wireless interface, and wherein said processing unit controls actuators in the robotic arm.
5. The robotic machine of claim 1, wherein said robotic body includes a plurality of wheels inside the circular robotic body to hold and climb said machine unit on the trunk of the coconut tree, wherein said torsion spring is a flexible elastic object that can store mechanical energy when it is twisted in order to support said robotic body unit with the trunk of tree for climbing, and wherein said channel for circular motion of hand supports the robotic body unit in a circular motion for climbing on the coconut tree.
6. The robotic machine of claim 1, wherein said ground station comprises a power management module, a haptic display unit, and a wireless module,wherein said power management module manages power for said robotic machine, wherein said haptic display unit comprises a receiver to get the details of video and an operator camera output to view the video, wherein said wireless module comprises a transmitter and a receiver for transmitting operational commands from the operator viewing haptic display unit in said ground station to the machine unit to cut the coconuts and wherein said control module includes a joy stick control, glove based control, gesture based control, and voice control.
7. The robotic machine of claim 1, wherein said robotic machine comprises a rechargeable battery or power supply for operating DC motors and servomotors, and wherein said robotic machine can be used for cleaning tree tops and spraying pesticides.
8. A robotic machine for climbing coconut trees and harvesting coconuts comprising:
a machine unit having a robotic arm and a robotic body wherein an extendible link connecting the robotic arm and the robotic body ; and
a ground station unit having a control module for controlling the machine unit;
wherein the robotic arm having a plurality of servomotors, a wireless camera, a transmitter, a DC motor, and a cutter; and
wherein the robotic body having a circular body, a plurality of wheels, a plurality of torsion springs and a channel for the circular motion of the arm.
9. The robotic machine of claim 1 or 8, wherein said haptic display unit provides information on the collision of the flexible arm unit and provides a haptic feedback information about an object that an operator intends to cut, wherein said haptic feedback information provides an additional modality of certainty to the operator and helps to ascertain the contact between the cutter and the object to be cut, wherein said collision is sensed by visually comprehending through said wireless camera which can be a stereo camera or a depth sensing camera or a regular RGB camera feed in combination with a depth generating algorithm or contact sensor attached to the cutter, wherein said haptic feedback provision utilizes haptic tactile actuators which are mounted on the operator module body, or on a joystick or alternatively strapped to the operator arm with sensible joint collocation such that the flexible arm joints co-relate with the strapped locations of the haptic tactile actuators on the operator arm, wherein said haptic feedback provides tactile responses to states of contact and no contact and of the instant at which contact is made or broken between the cutter and the object and wherein said cutter breaks contact with the felled object, when the task is completed.
10. A system for robotic machine of climbing coconut trees and harvesting coconuts, the system comprising:
a machine unit for climbing coconut trees and cutting coconuts comprising: a robotic arm having an arm unit, a control unit and a processing unit for cutting and harvesting coconuts; a robotic body having plurality of DC motors, a circular body, plurality of torsion springs, and plurality of wheels for climbing the coconut trees;
a wireless module for transmitting and receiving operational commands to the machine unit and maintains effective communication between an operator and the machine unit by enhancing the remote functionality of the machine unit;
a processing unit for programming the necessary features of the machine unit to enhance the operation in a better and faster way and controlling actuators in the robotic arm unit to support an operator; and
a haptic display unit for visualizing position of the coconuts from a transmitter of the robotic arm unit and the operator in a ground station views the position of the coconuts and decides to chop the coconut by using flexible arm movements supported by control module.