Development and validation of a prototype of a manual intra-row mechanical weeder in vegetable beds

Aim of study: The present work addresses aspects related to the development of a prototype of a weeder capable of managing invasive plants in vegetable beds. Area of study: The investigation was performed in the Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro, Seropédica (Brazil). Material and methods: The methodology was divided into defined steps from planning and conceptual design, obtaining preliminary and detailed designs, to evaluating the performance of the physical prototype. The variant considered most appropriate was selected according to the project’s feasibility index and was chosen for the development of the preliminary design and detailed design. Main results: Based on the results obtained, it can be stated that the concepts used, and the prototype developed were functional and innovative for weed control in a lettuce crop, enabling the mechanical removal of weeds from 70.3% of the plants and increasing the working area by 49.3%. This indicates improved efficiency in the vegetable production process in raised beds. Research highlights: The developed and validated mechanical weeder prototype allowed efficient weed removal and greater operational efficiency during lettuce cultivation in raised beds.