AUTOMATED SMART SOWING AUTOMATED SMART SOWING MACHINE FOR PORT TRAYS MACHINE FOR PORT TRAYS

( AGRI ROBOT) ( AGRI ROBOT)

by Ponnanna. K. M Sanjay. G. R Gowrima. K. J Shabareesh N under the guidance of

Mr. C. S. Suresh Babu., M.Tech

Assistant Professor

DEPARTMENT OF INSTRUMENTATION TECHNOLOGY MALNAD COLLEGE OF ENGINEERIN

HASSAN, KARNATAKA 1

ContentsContents Present Scenario Polyhouse Survey Motivation Objective Methodology Block Diagram Flowchart 2-D sketch of Agri-Robot Different configurations of Robot Mechanical Fabrication Agrirobot Electronic Fabrication Results Analysis Future Scope References

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Open field : Present scenario …Open field : Present scenario …

Low germination percentage leading to wastage of seeds.

Creation of gap due to non-germination of seeds.

Declination of total yield.

Scarcity of labour, demanding high wages.

Remedy : POLYHOUSE

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Polyhouse

Meant for growing high valued agricultural crops

Protective shade made up of polythene.

Crops grown in port tray are protected from extreme climatic conditions.

.

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SURVEYSURVEY

Cost of production (for 1 year) for 100 m2 polyhouse with hired labour is as follows

Cost of labour = Rs. 6400.00 Cost of inputs = Rs. 1500.00 Cost of structure = Rs. 3000.00 Total = Rs. 10900.00

Gross income from cropping sequence is given as, Tomato + Palak + Tomato + Cucumber = Rs. 19500

Some types of seeds being sown costs Rs.10,000 per gram.In Hassan district, farmers grow vegetables with saplings obtained from polyhouse.Around 40 nursery units have been established.

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Drawbacks in manual seeding of PORT TRAYS

Increased time consumption

Production rate declines.

Laborer may put more than one seed resulting in wastage of precious seeds.

Remedy?

Automation of the process.

Motivation…

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Global objectiveGlobal objective

To design a robot hand that picks and drops one seed in each cup in the port tray to reduce the process time.

Secondary objectiveSecondary objective

To sense the presence of each port tray.To punch a hole at the centre of soil filled cups.To pick seeds from the seed-container and drop the same to punched holes.To develop a program to achieve horizontal and vertical movements of the fabricated robot hand with the above two tasks in precise manner.

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METHODOLOGYMETHODOLOGYImplementation:

Input devices Optical sensor: To sense arrival of the port tray

Keypad: To key-in the no of trays.

Pause and Resume: To pause and resume the on-going process at any instant of time.

Output devices

Stepper Motor SM1 to drive Assembly unit A.

Stepper Motor SM2 to drive Assembly unit B.

Stepper Motors SM3 and SM4 to drive the rear wheels. Geared DC motor to drive picker unit .

Controller Micro-controller AT89C51.

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BLOCK DIAGRAMBLOCK DIAGRAM

KeypadKeypadKeypadKeypad

Optical Optical SensorSensorOptical Optical SensorSensor MicrocontrollMicrocontroll

ererAT89C51AT89C51

MicrocontrollMicrocontrollerer

AT89C51AT89C51

Geared DC motor to drive

punch unit

Geared DC motor to drive

punch unit

Stepper motor to drive picker

unit

Stepper motor to drive picker

unit

Stepper motor to

drive Assembly B

Stepper motor to

drive Assembly B

Stepper motors to drive the wheels

Stepper motors to drive the wheels

Pause and Pause and ResumeResume

Pause and Pause and ResumeResume

SSDSSD

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Different configurations of Robot

Articulated

Cylindrical

Cartesian

Polar

SCARA- Simplified Compliance Assembly Robot Arm

Cartesian Form10

Chassis

Foundation of the machine housing vacuum pump , control unit, Assembly A, Assembly B , wheels, punch unit et al.

Dimension: 500*330*260mm.

Fabricated from 20mm hollow square pipe.

A set of optical sensors are mounted on either side of chassis to sense the presence of port tray.

MECHANICAL MECHANICAL FABRICATIONFABRICATION

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Punch assembly

Dimensions : 300*65mm

Mounted in the front end of the chassis.

Array of 7 punching pins punch holes to a depth of 1cm.

Geared DC motor facilitates vertical movement of punching array.

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Suspended from Assembly B.

Consists of hollow pipe and needles.

Hollow pipe has length of 280mm and diameter of 33mm, holding the needles and suction unit’s inlet pipe.

Needles are 40mm long. Seven needles pick one seed at a time.

Picker Unit

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Suction unit

Provides suction force for the picker unit to pick and hold a seed.

It has the voltage rating of 230 Vac and 50 Hz, wattage of 800W. The suction pressure created is 15680 pa.

Pressure switch

Dimension: 100*50*125mm

It consists of Geared DC motor with voltage rating of 8 Vdc and current rating of 1A.It facilitates to and fro movement of cork, during picking and dropping of seeds. 14

Assembly Unit A

It consists of stepper motor SM1, screw rod S1, guideways & free end bearing.

It facilitates precise movement of Assembly unit B (picker unit) along X axis.

Dimension: 220*70*90mm

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.Assembly Unit B

It consists of stepper motor SM2, screw rod S2, guideways & free end bearing.

Dimension:108*60*170 mm.

It facilitates precise movement of picker unit along Y axis.

It is suspended from the screw rod S1 of assembly unit A.

Guideways support picker unit.

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Wheels

Front wheels are the free wheels with diameter of 100mm, wheel base of 45mm.

Rear wheels, powered by stepper motors, SM3 & SM4 have the diameter of 110mm.

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AGRIROBOT

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AT89C51 controls various operations to be performed by the Agrirobot in desired sequence.

Comparator circuit is used for the tray identification.

ELECTRONIC ELECTRONIC FABRICATIONFABRICATION

Microcontroller and SCC unit:

Timer circuit indicates various operation performed by the robot by blinking LED.

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Interface unit

4 octal D flip-flop IC are used to receive the data from port 1 databus and send to SM1, SM2 and SSD driving circuits.

ULN2803 driver IC is used to drive the stepper motor SM2 and SSD.

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Motor Driving Unit

The set of 8 relays & DS882 transistor to perform the switching of high current to SM3 and SM4 to obtain the wheel movement.

The SL100 &TIP31C transistors are used to form Darlington array to boost the switching currents from microcontroller to stepper motors up to 3A.

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User interface unit.

4*3 matrix keypad facilitates the user to enter the number of trays to be sown.

Keypad unit

Reset option enables the user to reset the entire control unit at once.

Pause and resume option enables the user to pause the robot at any instant of operation and remain there until the robot is reinitiated.

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FLOWCHART FLOWCHART

Blink LED & machine

movement

Blink LED & machine

movement

N

Display no of trays entered

Display no of trays entered

Y

N

Y

A

B

B

A

AN

Y

N

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2- dimensional sketch 2- dimensional sketch of robot of robot

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Results

Optical sensor senses the presence of port tray successfully.

Number of trays to be sown was fed through keypad and displayed in SSD successfully.

A hole of 1cm depth was punched successfully by punch unit.

Precise vertical and horizontal movement of picker unit, vertical movement of punch unit and forward movement of Agri-Robot by 3.6 cm was achieved.

Picking and dropping of seeds were carried out efficiently.

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Analysis

Screw rod with pitch 1.5mm facilitated precise movement of picker unit, assembly unit A and B.

This model demands calibration to maintain uniform differential pressure.

Non-availability of efficient picking and placing of seeds demanded picker needles with 0.5mm diameter.

Insufficient number of I/O ports of 8051 demanded multiplexing of ports.

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How Does it solve the problem?Comparative study of Cost of Production / year)for 100 m2 poly house:

Poly house with hired labor: Poly house with AGRI - ROBOT:

Cost of labor = Rs. 6400.00Cost of inputs = Rs. 1500.00Cost of structure = Rs. 3000.00Total = Rs. 10900.00

Cost of labor = Rs. 0000.00Cost of inputs = Rs. 1500.00Cost of structure = Rs. 3000.00Cost for maintenance = Rs. 1500.00Total = Rs. 7000.00

Note: Approximated Cost of the designed Automated machine, AGRI –

ROBOT = Rs.10,000/-

It is an initial investment and avoids the cost of the labor in the

process..

The difference in cost of production is approximately Rs.4000.00/ crop.

Benefits to the industry: On account of the advantages of Agri-robot, it can

become an admirable agriculture aid for the farmer; . The high cost of labor and the increasing need for assisted living has led to the development of the service robotics market.

As Agri-robots are in greater proximity to humans, the technology involves more safety concerns over human-machine interaction. However, developments in the manufacture of intelligent and safer robots are expected to soon address the issues of safety, manipulation, and sensing….

The market for higher quality products will be definitely increased if the industries establish very high standards agri-robot and promptness of delivery and regularly canvas their customers for suggestions of ways to improve their product and service .

Benefits to the society: This automated system will be most essential

appliance for our society as India is the 2nd largest producer of vegetable crops in the world.

The developed model avoids the wastage of precious seeds as it is designed to pick and drop only one seed at an instant, consequently it increases the percentage of germination which leads to profit to the formers who are the backbone of our nation.. As a result the formers/society will be the beneficiaries.

The concept of Automation incorporated in the intended system avoids the labors’ cost and reduces the process time. Consequently it is cost effective.

Future scope

Cartesian form of robotic configuration has been employed in this work.

To achieve the precise wheel movement of 3.6am, wheel radius had to be a fractional number, which posed constraint in fabrication of wheel.

Non-availability of stepper motor specifications posed constraints on torque requirement , voltage and current ratings.

Introduction of conveyer belt makes Agrirobot stationary, overcoming the problem of high torque requirement.

Screw rod, bearings and couplings may be replaced by the concept of hydraulics.

Wooden wheels can be replaced by castor wheels.

Audio unit could be introduced.

Water dripping unit could be included.

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References

Response of Vegetable Crops in a Solar Aided Polyhouse Ecosystem by Er.R.Kavitha, Non-Member, Prof A Tajuddin, Fellow, Prof N.C.Vijayaraghavan, Non-Member

Vegetable Production under Protected conditions in Neh Region- Problems and Prospects by S.K.Sanwal, K.K.Patel and D.S.Yadav, Division of Horticulture, ICAR.

Electronic Devices and Circuit Theory by Robert L.Boylestad and Louis Nashelsky.

Operational Amplifiers and Linear Integrated Circuits by Robert F.Coughlin and Fredrick F.Driscoll.

8051 Microcontroller and Embedded Systems by Mohammad Ali.Mazidi, Janice Gillespie Mazidi.

Robot Mechanism and Mechanical devices by Paul E.Sandin.

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