Date of Award

6-2017

Document Type

Open Access

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science

Department

Mechanical Engineering

First Advisor

William Keat

Language

English

Keywords

robotics

Abstract

The overall goal of this research project is to fully design, manufacture, and test a robot for tick collection. The robot will be designed to collect ticks in regions with thickly branched vegetation, specifically including shrubs, trees, and leaf liter. The robot will be useful to biologists who collect ticks for research or disease control purposes, because it will reach areas that are inaccessible to human-powered collection methods and thus provide them with a more accurate estimate of the tick density in a given region. Obtaining a more precise tick density is crucial, because it provides more detailed information about certain regions and the likelihood of encountering a tick species that transmits a harmful disease. The robot design incorporates several features that will enable it to succeed in tick collection. The small compact size of the robot will allow the robot to maneuver in between obstacles such as branches and trees in the environment. The primary method of collection that will be implemented is dragging. The environment that the robot is designed to navigate is the Albany Pine Bush, which contains an uneven terrain mainly consisting of dirt, shrubs, and leaf liter, and the robot chassis is designed for this environment.

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