TY  - JOUR
T1  - Design and Feasibility Study of a Surface-Irregularities Adaptive Tracked
Crawler based on Oil Palm Tree Morphological Features
AU - Sowat, Sharence Nai AU - Ismail, Wan Ishak Wan AU - Bejo, Siti Khairunniza AU - Mahadi, Muhammad Razif AU - Kassima, Muhamad Saufi Mohd 
JO  - Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences
VL  - 12
IS  - 22
SP  - 5949
EP  - 5955
PY  - 2017
DA  - 2001/08/19
SN  - 1816-949x
DO  - jeasci.2017.5949.5955
UR  - https://makhillpublications.co/view-article.php?doi=jeasci.2017.5949.5955
KW  - Tracked crawler
KW  -track propulsion
KW  -tree climbing robot
KW  -track-type locomotive mechanism
KW  -robots
KW  -matrix
AB  - In the oil palm industry, there is an exigent need for the development of climbing robots in order to
cope with the impending shortage of manual labour for the pruning and harvesting operations. On tall oil palm
trees, harvesting and pruning are extremely labor intensive processes. Therefore, research of this kind will
potentially lead to an increase in productivity and efficiency in daily operation. Several relevant studies are
discussed in this study to identify the trends and challenges in an attempt to identify the most suitable
locomotive mechanism for an oil palm climbing robot. Morphological studies of oil palm trees and its
surrounding environments were conducted to identify design challenges. Concept selection matrix was utilized
to determine the most suitable locomotion followed by a force analysis of the tracked crawler. The developed
prototype of the Polyurethane (PU) tracked crawler was presented. Finally, outdoor trials were conducted to
study the effectiveness and feasibility of the tracked crawler design. The results indicates huge potential of the
PU track being used on future climbing robots to climb irregular surface of oil palm trunks.
ER  -