“Appuhamy” - The Fully Automatic Rubber Tapping Machine

AMIE (SL), B.TechEng. Hons (OUSL) Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Senior Lecturer CEng, MIE(SL), BSc Eng.Hons (Moratuwa), MSc (Manitoba) Being a major export good from the colonial times, rubber still can greatly contribute to the national economy. However, lack of labour for rubber tapping has been a major factor contributing to the downfall of the Sri Lankan rubber industry. As a solution to the shortage of labour for rubber tapping we present the design of a fully automated rubber tapping machine which is capable of moving from tree to tree in a rubber plantation and tapping each tree automatically. Capability to automatically detect the tapping path, nodules, tree condition and many other important parameters makes the proposed rubber tapper much more superior over all existing rubber tapping machines and techniques