Because of environmental legislation, small-scale organic farmers must remove weeds on their land manually. This is physically very demanding. The few mechanical solutions that exist to replace chemicals are based on large-scale monocultural crops, but organic farmers often grow many different crops. Additionally, attention must be paid to the fact that the financial resources are limited in organic farming.
The design is based on ideas from organic farmers Wilm Michels and Sander Van himste and blacksmith Hans Luyten. They are enthusiasts who often had to deal with the problem of manual weeding but lacked the knowledge to carry out their ideas into practice.
The cycle weeder allows users to move over crop fields by lying face down. Users can avoid bending down and use both arms to pull weeds. The steering mechanism allows users to lock the cycle-weeder to move straight only or to turn when needed.
The main focus of this concept was ergonomics. The chair consists of a frame and four sliding elements in order to adapt to each user to guarantee a comfortable position even after several hours of working. The frame is covered with breathable fabric.
The weeder is driven by a pedal mechanism. The user can move forwards by pushing the
pedals backwards. This mechanism was chosen because it is inexpensive to maintain and easy to repair.
pedals backwards. This mechanism was chosen because it is inexpensive to maintain and easy to repair.
Prototype test
