Embedded Files
Problem Statements
Problem Statements
Real-time Detection: The robot needs to accurately identify weeds in a garden, ensuring that only weeds are sprayed with weed-killer while the wanted plants are left undisturbed.
Mobility: The robot needs to navigate autonomously within the garden, detecting obstacles and reacting appropriately to avoid collisions
Sleekness: The robot needs to have its hardware components neatly contained in a compact enclosure.
Source/cause Approach
Source/cause Approach
Problem: Manual weeding is time-consuming and physically demanding.
Source/Cause: Weeds are invasive plants that sabotage the growth and development of desired plants in gardens.
Dunker Diagram
Dunker Diagram
Kepner-Tregoe (KT) situation analysis
Kepner-Tregoe (KT) situation analysis
Weed Identification
Weed Identification
Timing: The project team should focus first on implementing accurate weed detection. Weed identification is the first step in a series of steps to eliminate the weed. Without quick and accurate weed identification, the robot could miss weeds and would be less effective.
Trend: Weeds have evolved very little and look very similar to their ancestors. Thus, the robot should be able to recognize weeds for a long time before the weeds evolve into an unrecognizable form.
Impact: Accurate weed identification has a great impact on the project. The team should focus on minimizing false positives (plants misidentified as weeds) and false negatives (weeds not identified as weeds).
Weed Elimination
Weed Elimination
Timing: The project team should focus on weed navigation after other tasks are completed. While weed elimination is desired, it would not be possible if the other tasks are not completed first, such as weed identification and autonomous navigation.
Trend: Weeds grow very fast compared to desired plants. Thus, the robot needs to be constantly eliminating weeds and have high efficiency.
Impact: Weed elimination is the ultimate objection of the project. Without weed elimination, the robot will mindlessly wander around the garden without actually achieving anything.
Navigation and Obstacle Avoidance
Navigation and Obstacle Avoidance
Timing: The project team will work on the robot’s autonomous navigation system after or in conjunction with working on weed identification. It is important that the robot can navigate within a garden to find and drive up to weeds. At the same time, a basic navigation system can be implemented first and further optimization can be implemented later if there is time.
Trend: Autonomous navigation has a lot of research behind it, yet it is still a developing field. For instance, engineers are still working on autonomous vehicles. At the same time, the basics of autonomous navigation is fairly simple for engineers to understand and the project team programmed robots with obstacle avoidance in their design 2.
Impact: Autonomous navigation is very important for the robot. Without obstacle avoidance, the robot risks collisions, thereby damaging plants and itself. Autonomous navigation is also important for the robot to drive up to weeds once detected to effectively apply weed-killing spray.
Compact enclosure
Compact enclosure
Timing: The project team will work on the compact enclosure last. The project team needs to complete the other tasks first to know which hardware components and wires are included in the robot before creating an enclosure for them.
Trend: Compact enclosures are important to market robots. Wires get tangled and people often favor aesthetically-pleasing designs over messy-looking designs.
Impact: A compact enclosure for a sleek design is crucial for marketing the robot. At the same time, it is not important for the functionality or efficiency of the robot.
Tasks to be performed (in order):
Tasks to be performed (in order):
Weed identification
Navigation and obstacle avoidance
Weed elimination
Compact enclosure
Further optimization for all of the above
KT problem analysis
KT problem analysis
Example of a problem the project team may encounter: the robot sprays weed-killer at the wrong time, either missing weeds or spraying plants.
Identity: The robot sprays weed-killer at the wrong time
Location: The robot worked in the lab when it was shown computer images, but the problem arose when testing the robot in a garden
Timing: The problem was noticed when testing in the garden
Magnitude: The robot incorrectly sprays plants 20% of the time and misses weeds 10% of the time.
Possible Causes/Subproblems
Possible Causes/Subproblems
Weed Identification Error: The weeds in the garden are different from the set fed to the robot so the robot does not recognize the weeds. The plants look similar to the weeds and the robot
Environmental Factors: Shadows on the plants may affect weed identification. Dew may have gotten on the camera lens, distorting the robot’s view of the garden.
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