Design and development of a prototype orchard-oriented mowing agricultural machinery

To address the limitations of traditional mowing machinery, characterized by limited adjustable parameters and poor adaptability, a novel four-wheel-drive mowing agricultural machine was designed, featuring a three-degree-of-freedom (3-DOF) robotic arm mounted on its chassis with a cutting tool attached to the end-effector. Controlled by a Jetson Nano embedded system and a wireless remote handle, the machine achieves forward, backward, left, and right movement, while simultaneously enabling precise motion control of the robotic arm for tool lifting/lowering and lateral swinging to execute continuous mowing operations. A functional prototype was fabricated and subjected to mowing performance tests. Results demonstrate that the robotic arm offers a rotational radius range of 150–280 mm, a tool height adjustment range of 0–200 mm, and a lateral swinging angle of ±90° relative to the vehicle's forward direction. The prototype demonstrates a novel approach and provides technical support for semi-automated, remote-controlled mowing applications adaptable to diverse requirements.