Agriculture Drone for Spraying Fertilizer and Pesticides

Project Title

Agriculture Drone for Spraying Fertilizer and Pesticides

Project Area of Specialization RoboticsProject Summary

In this project, we will design and build the remote control based agricultural drone for smart and precision agriculture. the drone will be capable of holding the 1kg of pesticide chemical as payload for spraying over crop. The drone will only be operated by an authentic user. The user will get the notification (ALarm/LED) when the level of battery or pesticide chemical will goes below the threshold value. 

Project Objectives

The main objectives of our project are:

1. To design and build the prototype of remote control based agricultural drone that can carry 1Kg of pesticide chemical as payload for spraying over crop. 
2. To design a mechanism for user authentication.
3. To design the on-board circuit that continuously monitors the level of battery and pesticide chemical and inform the farmer/Labour/user. 

Project Implementation Method

Our project is divided into three parts:

1. Confirmation of user through password
2. Operate the drone using the remote control
3. Monitor the status of battery and pesticide chemical and inform the user when they go below the threshold value.

1. Confirmation of user through password

The remote control panel contains the keypad for entering the password. The panel gives access of the drone to the user once he/She enters the right password on the keypad.

       2. Operate the drone using the remote control

After successful user authentication, the drone can be operated. The remote control sends signals to the receiver of drone which contains a flight controller that controls all actions of the drone. The main part of the flight controller is a microcontroller that communicates to four brushless DC motors (BLDC).  These BLDC motors are controlled by the Electronic Speed controllers (ESC). After reaching the desired location, the sprinkling system attached at the lower section of the drone will be activated by the farmer which contains the nozzle for sprinkle the pesticide. A pressure pump in the sprinkler system pressurizes the pesticide to flow through the nozzle. A motor driver integrated circuit is used to pressure the pump as per the requirement.

      3. Monitor the status of battery and pesticide chemical and inform the user when they go below the threshold value

The two separate level monitoring circuits will be designed on the drone for measuring the battery and pesticide chemical. Their status will be continuously monitored with the threshold value. If their value goes below the threshold value, then the microcontroller sends a signal to the user via the transmitter. At the remote control panel, the receiver receives the signal and turns on the respected Alarm/LED.    

Benefits of the Project

Pakistan is an agricultural country that engages around 42.3% of its population as labor in the farming sector. In addition, this field contributed to 18.9% of the total GDP. However, agriculture production in Pakistan is mainly affected by biological factors such as pests and insects which directly affect all quarters. These biological factors can be minimized and controlled with the help of pesticides. In Pakistan, farmers usually used the spray tank which contains the poisonous pesticide to kill the diseases that enhances the quality and production of the crop. As per the World Health Organization (WHO), around one million labors in the world are affected by the manual spraying of pesticides. To address this problem, developed countries already used Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) – aircraft or drones to spray pesticides to avoid the health problems of labors in their smart and precision agriculture. However, in Pakistan, this technology is still not properly utilized and commercially available. The drone can perform this task faster and efficiently than airplanes and vehicles. Furthermore, the drone also saves time and reduces the expenses and workload of the farmer. The farmer can evenly spray all over his farm from a safe and secure location.

Technical Details of Final Deliverable

The remote control based agricultural drone will be designed and ready for the operation that can easily carry 1Kg of a pesticide chemical for spraying over crop. The drone will only be operated by an authentic user. The user will get the notification (Alarm/LED) when the level of battery or pesticide chemical will goes below the threshold value. 

Final Deliverable of the Project Hardware SystemCore Industry AgricultureOther IndustriesCore Technology RoboticsOther TechnologiesSustainable Development GoalsRequired Resources

Item Name	Type	No. of Units	Per Unit Cost (in Rs)	Total (in Rs)
			Total in (Rs)	79650
frame	Equipment	1	2000	2000
BLDC motors	Equipment	4	2500	10000
battery lipo	Equipment	1	6000	6000
charger	Equipment	1	5000	5000
flight controller	Equipment	1	5000	5000
landing skid gear	Equipment	4	200	800
transmitter	Equipment	1	10000	10000
reciever	Equipment	2	3000	6000
LCD	Equipment	2	1000	2000
Propellers	Equipment	4	200	800
glue gun	Equipment	1	1000	1000
jumper wires	Equipment	10	50	500
water pump	Equipment	1	1000	1000
submersible water pump	Equipment	1	1250	1250
motor driver	Equipment	1	500	500
transistors	Equipment	5	150	750
Microcontroller	Equipment	2	1000	2000
sensor	Equipment	2	1000	2000
keypad	Equipment	1	2000	2000
nozzles	Equipment	2	700	1400
electronic speed controller	Equipment	1	2000	2000
spilitter	Equipment	1	500	500
buzzers	Equipment	2	200	400
LED	Equipment	5	50	250
PWB	Equipment	1	1000	1000
Water tank	Equipment	1	500	500
ESC motor speed controller	Equipment	1	5000	5000
stationary and printing	Miscellaneous	1	10000	10000