ALBERT

Description: Autonomous mowers are becoming increasingly common in public and private greenspaces. Autonomous mowers can provide several advantages since these machines help to save time and energy and prevent operators from possible injuries. Current autonomous mowers operate by following random trajectories within areas defined by a shallow-buried boundary wire that has the purpose to generate an electro-magnetic field. Once the electro-magnetic field is perceived by the autonomous mower, the machine will stop and change direction. Mowing along random trajectories is considered an efficient solution to manage areas with a variable number of obstacles. In agriculture, autonomous technologies are becoming increasingly popular since they can help to increase both the quantity and quality of agricultural products by reducing productive cost and improving the production process. Thus, even autonomous mowers may be useful to carry out some of the agricultural operations that are highly time consuming. In fact, some autonomous mowers designed and realized to work in vineyards and home vegetable gardens are already available on the market. The aim of this study was to compare the work capacity of six autonomous mowers that move along random trajectories in areas with a high number of obstacles to assess if these machines may be employed in some agricultural contexts. The six autonomous mowers were split in three groups based on their size (large, medium, and small) and were left to work in two areas with equal number of obstacles but different layouts. The first area (Site A) had a square shape and an extension of 23.04 m2, in order to keep the autonomous mowers enclosed inside it. The second area (Site B) had a square shape and an extension of 84.64 m2, in order to have a part of the area with no obstacles. The layout and the size of the two areas affected the autonomous mowers performances in different ways. The six autonomous mowers working on Site A obtained similar results and higher performances compared to the same mowers working on Site B. All the autonomous mowers proved to be able to mow more than 89% of Site A after 2 h and more than 98% of Site A after 5 h. On Site B small size autonomous mowers obtained the best results mowing more than 83% of the area with obstacles after 2 h and more than 98% of the area with obstacles after 5 h. However, specific work settings allowed larger autonomous mowers to improve their efficiency, obtaining similar results compared to smaller autonomous mowers.

Description: The establishment of permanent cover crops is becoming a common practice in vineyard floor management. Turfgrass science may provide species and techniques with a high potential for improving the sustainability of vineyard floor management. Based on this assumption, an experiment was carried out during 2018 and 2019 at the Donna Olimpia Vineyard, Bolgheri, Italy. The trial aimed at comparing an innovative floor management system based on a turf-type cultivar of bermudagrass mown with an autonomous mower with a conventional floor management system. Ground cover percentage, energy consumption, CO2 emissions, grapevine water status, leaf nitrogen content, fruit yield and must composition have been assessed in order to perform the comparison. The innovative vineyard floor management produced an almost complete ground cover (98%) at the end of the second growing season, with the resident species reduced to a small percentage (4%). Resident species growing under-trellis were efficiently controlled without herbicide applications. A lower primary energy consumption and a reduction in CO2 emissions were observed for the innovative management system compared to the conventional management system. Grapevine water status, leaf chlorophyll content, soil–plant analyses development (SPAD), fruit yields and must composition were similar between the different soil management systems. Based on results obtained in this trial, turf-type bermudagrass and innovative mowing machines may contribute to enhance the sustainability of vineyard floor management.

Description: Turfgrass mowing is one of the most important operations concerning turfgrass maintenance. Over time, different mowing machines have been developed, such as reel mowers, rotary mowers, and flail mowers. Rotary mowers have become the most widespread mowers for their great versatility and easy maintenance. Modern rotary mowers can be equipped with battery-powered electric motors and precise settings, such as blade rpm. The aim of this trial was to evaluate the differences in power consumption of a gasoline-powered rotary mower and a battery-powered rotary mower. Each mower worked on two different turfgrass species (bermudagrass and tall fescue) fertilized with two different nitrogen rates (100 and 200 kg ha−1). The battery-powered mower was set at its lowest and highest blade rpm value, while the gasoline-powered mower was set at full throttle. From the data acquired, it was possible to see that the gasoline-powered mower had a much higher primary energy requirement, independent of the turf species. Moreover, comparing the electricity consumption of the battery-powered mower over time, it was possible to see that the power consumption varied according to the growth rate of both turf species. These results show that there is a partial waste of energy when using a gasoline-powered mower compared to a battery-powered mower.

Description: Autonomous mowers are battery-powered machines designed to mow turfgrass autonomously and continuously improving turfgrass quality and helping the person who takes care of the turf to save time and energy. However, autonomous mowers work in a way that sometimes does not match with the greenspace’s design. The aim of this study was to analyze greenspace features that can be a hindrance for autonomous mowers in order to provide greenspaces design suggestions and management solutions when using an autonomous mowing system. Seven greenspaces managed by autonomous mowers ranging from 200–9000 m2 were selected and studied. Interviews with the owners and on-site inspections were carried out to understand if manual interventions were required and to identify local plant communities. The results of the interviews showed that manual finishing work such as mowing grass along curbs and walls was needed in all the cases. Some cases needed manual interventions since autonomous mowers got stuck on because of shallow tree roots. Among the seven areas studied, the largest was chosen to be thoroughly analyzed in order to suggest two alternative design and management solutions and to carry out an economical comparison with the current state. When the inspection of this area was carried out, three autonomous mowers were used. Analyzing different management solutions showed that using only two autonomous mowers with specific technological devices was more advantageous. The costs of the current management solution using three autonomous mowers exceeded the costs of the suggested scenarios respectively of 2118.79 € and of 1451.15 €. Moreover, redesigning greenspaces with curbs slightly lower than grass and choosing trees with tap-root systems will help to avoid manual interventions. In this way, the efficiency of autonomous mowers will be enhanced, helping to obtain all the benefits derived from using autonomous mowers.

Description: Thermal weed control technology plays an important role in managing weeds in synthetic herbicide-free systems, particularly in organic agriculture. The use of hot foam represents an evolution of the hot water weed control thermal method, modified by the addition of biodegradable foaming agents. The aim of this study was to test the weeding effect of different five hot foam doses, in two sites of different weed composition fields [i.e., Festuca arundinacea (Schreb.), Taraxacum officinale (Weber) and Plantago lanceolata (L.)], by evaluating the devitalisation of weeds, their regrowth, the weed dry biomass at the end of the experiment and the temperature of hot foam as affected by different foam doses. The results showed that the effect of the hot foam doses differed with the different infested weed species experiments. In the Festuca arundinacea (Schreb.) infested field, all doses from 3.33 L m−2 to 8.33 L m−2 led to a 100% weed cover devitalisation and a lower weed dry biomass compared to the dose of 1.67 L m−2, whereas the weed regrowth was similar when all doses were applied. In the Taraxacum officinale (Weber) and Plantago lanceolata (L.) infested fields, doses from 5.00 L m−2 to 8.33 L m−2 in site I and from 3.33 L m−2 to 8.33 L m−2 in site II led to 100% of weed cover devitalisation. The highest doses of 6.67 L m−2 and 8.33 L m−2 led to a slower weed regrowth and a lower weed dry biomass compared to the other doses. The time needed for weeds to again cover 50%, after the 100% devitalisation, was, on average, one month when all doses were applied in the Festuca arundinacea (Schreb.) infested field, whereas in the Taraxacum officinale (Weber) and Plantago lanceolata (L.) fields, this delay was estimated only when doses of 6.67 L m−2 and 8.33 L m−2 were used in site I and a dose of 8.33 L m−2 in site II. Thus, in the Festuca arundinacea (Schreb.) field experiments hot foam doses from 3.33 L m−2 to 8.33 L m−2 were effective in controlling weeds, and the use of the lowest dose (i.e., 3.33 L m−2) is recommended. However, for Taraxacum officinale (Weber) and Plantago lanceolata (L.) the highest doses are recommended (i.e., 6.67 L m−2 and 8.33 L m−2), as these led to 100% weed devitalisation, slower regrowth, and lower weed dry biomass than other doses. A delay in the regrowth of weeds by 30 days can lead to the hypothesis that the future application of hot foam as a desiccant in no-till field bands, before the transplant of high-income vegetable crops, will provide a competitive advantage against weeds.

Description: Enhancing vineyards sustainability and reducing herbicides usage is a crucial theme, thus alternative weed management methods are starting to be studied. Cover crops have been shown to provide for several environmental services such as performing an efficient weed control and promoting biodiversity, thus improving the sustainability of the overall management system. However, the use of cover crops is usually confined to the interrow area in order to avoid competition with vines. Under-trellis weed management in vineyards is an important challenge, conventionally fulfilled by cultivation or repeated herbicides applications. Autonomous mowers are small autonomous machines that have shown a great efficiency when employed in agricultural contexts. Due to their reduced size, they can easily prevent the excessive vertical growth of weeds both in the interrows and under trellis without the use of chemical applications. The aim of this trial was to evaluate if the combination of cover crop species and autonomous mowers management could improve vineyard sustainability. Vineyard floor cover that was managed with an autonomous mower had a shorter canopy height and a lower weed dry biomass compared to the conventionally managed vineyard floor cover. Vineyard floor management providing cover crops and autonomous mowing had a significantly lower weed cover percentage compared to conventional floor management, especially under-trellis. The results of this trial suggest that the combination of cover crops and autonomous mowers may be a sustainable and reliable technique to include in vineyards floor management.

Description: Vegetable transplanting is an important and advantageous practice in vegetables production systems. In recent years, the development of vegetable transplanting tools has increased, as well as the interest for automatic and robotic transplanters. However, at present, the feeding of transplanting machines is often still performed by hand. This paper presents the design, development and testing of a needle gripper and a two-finger gripper for vegetable transplanting. Both grippers were self-designed and tested for picking, lifting and transplanting plug seedlings. Tests have been conducted on fennel (Foeniculum vulgare L.), leek (Allium ampeloprasum L.) chicory (Cichorium intybus L.) and lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) seedlings to determine the impact that gripper typology might have on the further growth of plants after transplanting. The average success rate of the two-finger gripper in the transplanting experiment was 95% and of the needle gripper 81.75%, respectively. Although neither gripper typology affected the growth of the seedlings after transplanting, several design implications were identified in order to improve the performance of both grippers. Furthermore, the two-finger gripper is more reliable for lettuce and chicory, while the needle gripper requires root plugs with higher firmness and cohesion to prevent shattering.