2022 LSU Gumbo - Book - Page 169
More than 100 million pounds of crawfish are
harvested in Louisiana between March and June of
every year. The unique flavor, non-demanding growing
conditions and sustainability of crawfish caused the
expansion of aquaculture across the country. The
harvesting and sale of crawfish is now a multi-billion
dollar industry which requires technological evolution
to cope with the ever-increasing demand.
Spotting the need for new harvesting equipment,
six engineering students worked together to build a
robotic arm to automatically harvest crawfish from
their traps.
The robotic arm prototype can be stationed on the
side of the boat to grab the trap from the water, empty
the crawfish onto the boat, re-bait the trap and place it
back in the water.
“The arm is controlled remotely by a PlayStation
controller,” engineering senior David Vercher said.
“The operator must use the sticks on the controller to
position the claw. Once positioned the operator hits
the right trigger to close the claw and grip the trap,
then the operator only needs to press triangle. Triangle
triggers an automated sequence that lifts the trap out
of the water, dumps the crawfish, re-baits the trap, and
sets it back down into the water.”
The project was pitched and designed by LSU
Professor Chandra Theegala, who said the idea was
brought to his attention by J.B. Hanks, chairman of the
Louisiana Farm Bureau Federation’s Crawfish Advisory
Committee. The harvesting and baiting of crawfish
accounts for 50% of the total costs in the crawfish
industry. This huge cost also accounts for the intensive
labor and labor shortages within the industry.
“Unless we address the labor scenario, the crawfish
industry couldn’t expand further,” said Theegala. “That
is when I saw the similarities with the garbage trucks
with side-loader arms and how they addressed a similar
labor problem.”
This realization is how the idea of the robotic arm
crawfish harvester was born.
“We were then tasked with making it happen,”
Vercher said. “Each of us had individual attributes that
were essential to the design and building of the robotic
arm.”
With the successful invention of this mini
prototype, the creators hope for the development of
a field-ready robotic arm. The long-term goal is to
make a fully autonomous harvesting boat, according
to Theegala. If the plan is brought to fruition, the
autonomous harvesting boat would revolutionize the
crawfish industry.
“For this project, if we had not been limited by
COVID-19, I think it could have been improved,”
engineering senior Bryan Tassin said. “I believe that
being online for the first semester of senior design
really set us back and limited my group on what our
finished product would be, but overall I’m happy with
the outcome of the project and with how our team was
able to come together through this tough time and
create such an amazing product.”
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