Development of a Snake Robot to Weed in Rice Paddy Field and Trial of Field Test

We have been continuously research and developing new robots for the purpose of rice paddy weed control. During the period of one month following rice planting, utilizing a robot that moves within the water paddy field to stir and cloud the water can lead to effective weed control by inhibiting weed photosynthesis. However, paddy fields contain suspended matter such as floating water plants, and there are obstacles like growing rice plants, making it impossible to use existing mobile robots. To address this issue, we are developing a new snake robot capable of swimming on the water surface to move. In this paper, we present the development of a snake robot and report field tests conducted in the real environments.