A group of students from Aarhus School of Marine and Technical Engineering has reinvented the method of cleaning lakes and streams for plants. The students have developed a remote controlled aquatic weed mower that will make the task both cheaper and easier.
The aquatic weed mower moves forward like a paddle steamer by means of two paddle wheels driven by two Hydro-Mec worm gearboxes. The worm gearboxes have a gear ratio of 15:1, which ensures that the machine can move with the optimal speed. Additionally, the aquatic weed mower is equipped with a cutter that cuts the aquatic plants at the desired height. Afterwards, a screw pump carries the cut plants up to a chamber in the machine.
The project group explains that they have chosen to focus on the optimisation of an aquatic weed mower, because the work usually is carried out manually which means hard and expensive work. The reason for this is that you are dependent on a specialised driver to operate an amphibious vehicle with adapted agricultural equipment. Furthermore, the driver has poor working conditions as it involves many hours of sedentary work on a machine that vibrates a lot.
The project group decided to develop a remote controlled aquatic weed mower from scratch. The group’s intention is to further develop the aquatic weed mower to be GPS-controlled using an app.
In addition, they wish to equip the machine with an actuator which, by means of a sensor, notifies the machine when the chamber with cut plants is full. The machine then returns to its base station to unload the plants.
