Design and Development of a Smart Electric Stubble-Harvester and Integrated Baler toward Sustainable Agro-Residue Management

In order to prepare the fields quickly for the subsequent cultiva-tion, farmers take recourse of stubble-burning, which causes major air pollution in the Northern India. Moreover, the uncon-trolled burning contributes to the waste heat as well as loss of valuable crop residues for bio-degradable composites, battery-cells etc. This project proposes the development of electricity-driven integrated harvesting mechanism with smart soil mois-ture monitoring, and robotic uprooting system. The system will have 4 major components - the end-effector unit, Bale-chamber, Continuous Wheel-Tracks, and Control-Unit. The uprooted stubbles will be compacted in bale form and carried to the thermal powerplant for energy generation.