Development of a Novel Reconfigurable Omnidirectional Robot for Precision Agriculture in Greenhouses

Precision agriculture is a recent approach used in the primary sector aimed at optimizing agricultural production at various levels. This paper introduces the preliminary design of AGRIMARO, a novel omnidirectional mobile robot tailored for precision agriculture tasks in greenhouses or relatively small fields. The robot features three swerve-drive units, i.e., independently steered hub motors, for agile omnidirectional movement and incorporates a straight-line mechanism to enable the reconfiguration of the robot's footprint, allowing for adjustable track width between 800 mm and 1200 mm. This design, thanks to its flexible and modular architecture, facilitates versatile applications, making it suitable for diverse monitoring and agricultural tasks in protected crop cultivation.