Seed Maester: Seed Dispenser With Auto-Adjusting Release Speed

grabcad

This design is an accessory for the Horus Kestrel 3D Drone to allow it to autonomously plant seeds. The design is fully mechanical and is printed together in the assembled state. It uses the wind from the drone's movement to rotate a turbine blade, which rotates an Archimedes' screw. The screw pulls seeds from the hopper and releases the seeds at a rate directly related to the speed of the drone's horizontal movement. This seed dispenser was designed to fit between the bottom of the drone and the landing surface of the landing gear. Because of this, the seed hopper size is relatively small, so a feature was added to allow the user to occasionally refill the hopper with seeds without removing it from the drone. This is currently designed to release seeds in an accurate line on the ground. My friend suggested creating a second design that includes an additional rotary part (powered by the main rotary shaft via bevel gear) at the seed exit that sprays the seeds for grass seed spreading. This can be printed in FDM or on the Objet, and requires soluble support material. For maximum geometrical accuracy and best performance, print with the fan pointing up. This was inspired after reading about the great work being done by BioCarbon Engineering: http://www.biocarbonengineering.com/ Let me know if you think of any ways to make this better :)