Design and Development of a Tracked Robot to Increase Bulk Density of Flax Fibers

This article presents an integrated mechanics study for the design and the development of a service tracked robot able to move inside a truck container and roll over flax raw material by compressing it to increase its overall bulk density. A series of flax material properties have been used to properly characterize the robot's locomotion parameters and to obtain an optimal ground pressure and a correct floating capacity over the material. First, the performance of the proposed robot is evaluated in an emulated container. Then, results acquired during compression tests in a real scenario are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the developed robot for industrial applications.