Development of the snow dragging mechanism for an autonomous snow eater robot

The development of one part of the autonomous robot specialized in the snow removal task is presented in this paper. With a small size and light weight this robot will be a helpful partner in winter season. This study is focused in the dragging mechanism of the snow eater robot. The dragging mechanism had three screws, two transversal screws for the incoming snow and one longitudinal screw for the incoming and inner movement of the snow. The development of this part in order to reduce the front load during the operation was the aim of this study. During the experiment the rotary speed and the incoming angle of the snow was changed granting a smooth and stable operation. First the navigation program settings where selected in order to change the crawler speed and the screws speed by itself. Then, using a strain gauge the incoming snow load was measured. Finally, the rotary pattern of the dragging mechanism coordinated with the speed of the crawler mechanism was tested and proved has a solution to avoid any unstable behavior during the operation.