# Evaluation of Autonomous Mowers Weed Control Effect in Globe Artichoke Field
## 3 Results
### Performances of the Three Autonomous Mowers
#### 3.1.2 Energy Consumption of the Three Autonomous Mowers  
The energy consumption estimations of the three autonomous mowers are shown in Table 4.  
AM2 presented a higher movable area per week than AM1 and AM3, with an increase of 168.94% and 20.21%, respectively. The lowest weekly energy consumption was estimated for AM1, followed by AM2, then AM3. To manage 1 ha per week 2.2 autonomous mowers of the AM2 type are required, while for AM3 and AM1 2.62 and 5.85 autonomous mowers are required, respectively. Table 4 shows that the total primary energy consumption per year (considering the management of 1 ha per week, for a total of 18 weeks) of AM2 is higher than that of AM1, but lower than that of AM3, with an increase of 11.89% and a decrease of 21.19%, respectively.  
Based on these results, the AM2 was selected and used in the artichoke crop cycle for weed control. Details about the choice of the autonomous mower are reported in Section 4 (Discussion).  
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c} \hline \hline  & \multicolumn{3}{c}{**Autonomous Mower Type**} \\ \cline{2-4}  & & **AM1** & **AM2** & **AM3** \\ \hline  & Unit & & Values \\ Effective moving time per day & h & 9.71 & 19.64 & 18.47 \\ Effective charging time per day & h & 8.29 & 4.36 & 5.53 \\ Effective time for moving 150 m\({}^{2}\)1  & h & 2.98 & 2.24 & 2.54 \\ Mowable area per day 2  & m\({}^{2}\) & 488.30 & 1313.22 & 1092.45 \\ Mowable area per week & m\({}^{2}\) & 1709.03 & 4596.28 & 3823.57 \\ Weekly electric energy consumption during mowing & kWh-week-1 & 1.70 & 4.81 & 5.17 \\ Annually electric energy consumption during mowing & kWh-year-1 & 30.57 & 86.60 & 93.09 \\ Annually electric energy consumption considering the mowing of 1 ha per week & kWh-ha\({}^{-1}\)-year–1 & 178.88 & 188.41 & 243.46 \\ Number of autonomous mowers required to move 1 ha per week & 5.85 & 2.2 & 2.62 \\ Primary energy consumption of the autonomous mowers per year & kWh-ha\({}^{-1}\)-year–1 & 349.77 & 368.40 & 476.05 \\ Electric energy consumption of the charging base with the boundary wire per week & kWh-week–1 & 0.17 & 0.81 & 0.76 \\ Electric energy consumption of the charging base with the boundary wire per year & kWh-year–1 & 3.06 & 14.60 & 13.73 \\ Electric energy consumption of the charging bases with the boundary wires of all necessary & kWh-ha\({}^{-1}\)-year–1 & 17.89 & 31.76 & 35.91 \\ Autonomous mowers to move 1 ha & kWh-ha\({}^{-1}\)-year–1 & 34.98 & 62.10 & 70.22 \\ Primary energy consumption of the charging bases with the boundary wires per year & kWh-ha\({}^{-1}\)-year–1 & 384.75 & 430.50 & 546.27 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table}
Table 4: Estimated energy consumption values for each type of autonomous mower according to the chosen work schedule.  
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c c} \hline \hline  & \multicolumn{6}{c}{**Effective Time (min)**} \\ \hline
**Autonomous Mower** & \(\mathbf{d}\) & \multicolumn{2}{c}{\(\mathbf{e}\)} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**ET50**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**ET80**} \\ \hline AM1 & 98.275 & (4.025) & 111.144 & (8.265) & 77.039 & (5.729) & 178.879 & (13.302) \\ AM2 & 94.808 & (2.504) & 83.616 & (4.739) & 57.958 & (3.285) & 134.575 & (7.627) \\ AM3 & 93.803 & (3.066) & 94.544 & (6.149) & 65.533 & (4.262) & 152.163 & (9.896) \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular} \(d\) corresponds to the upper limit of the curve; \(e\) determines the steepness of the increase as time; ET50 is the time (min) to move 50% of the area; ET80 is the time (min) to move 80% of the area.  
\end{table}
Table 3: Parameters of the nonlinear asymptotic regressions (2) and effective mowing times of each autonomous mower estimated from the two-stage meta-analysis dose-response model.