Development of ATV Mounted Seeding Mechanism

Project Title

Development of ATV Mounted Seeding Mechanism

Project Area of Specialization RoboticsProject Summary

Agriculture contributes about 21 percent in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Pakistan. In traditional farming, conventional seeding techniques are mostly used which require manually operated mechanisms and demand labor. It results in less accurate farming e.g. uneven seed and row spacing, and it also consumes a lot of time. The goal of this project is to make a cost and time efficient All-Terrain Vehicle (ATV) mounted seed sowing mechanism which has 3 modes of operation i.e. Manual, Remote Control and Autonomous. The main objective is to make farming efficient which requires minimum man power and less time to obtain more accuracy. Gear mechanism is used to control variable seed spacing. In remote control mode, the vehicle motion is controlled by the farmer via a controller. In autonomous mode, sensors are used for obstacle avoidance and path planning.

Project Objectives

Automation in agriculture will increase efficiency not only because automation is much faster than manual labor but also because it reduces errors by reducing human interference. This project aims at the development of a seed sowing mechanism operational at two major modes, i.e. manual and autonomous.

Project Implementation Method

This project aims at the development of a seed sowing mechanism operational at two major modes, i.e. manual and autonomous. To accomplish this goal, the designing and analysis of CAD model was performed. The seeding mechanism was fabricated, assembled and installed on ATV. Algorithms for autonomous mode were designed. All relevant sensors were incorporated and filters were designed. After integrating the entire circuitry with sensors and algorithms, field testing was performed. As far the mechanical domain is concerned, the ATV was mounted with a reaper mechanism that performed two major tasks, i.e. crop cutting and crop collecting. Any seeder requires seed specific parameters for its operation but this project aims to cover multiple seed traits. These parameters include variable seed spacing, variable row spacing and variable seed depth enabling it to be used for a wide variety of seeds. The seeds are to be stored in a tank from where they are to be transferred to seed units. A seed unit is a gear-like device that isolates each individual seed for sowing by keeping it in its teeth. The gear in the seed unit rotates at a certain rate so that every seed is dropped into a pipe after a specified distance is covered by the ATV. The rotation speed of the seed unit, which allows for variable seed spacing, can be changed by utilizing a chain drive attached to the seeding mechanism. The input of the chain drive is to be mechanically linked with the ATV engine output. The pipe through which the seeds pass will lead to a structure called a tyne. Tynes are to be located at the lower section of the seeding mechanism and buried into the ground during the seeding process. As the ATV moves, the tynes would create a set of lines in the soil adding seeds at intervals. The seed depth can be changed by altering the height of the tynes and the row spacing can be changed by sliding them to the required distances. This would complete the manual mode of operation.

For the electronics part, buck boost converters were designed for required voltage input and power boards were designed for sensor operation. For the application of RC mode, ATV circuitry is integrated with the remote controller. Sensors such as sonar, GPS, compass and IMU modules were placed on the required positions for extracting data from the environment. These sensors were integrated with the microcontroller used. The data extracted was filtered. This data aided in autonomous mode for path planning and obstacle avoidance to accomplish the objective of seeding.

Benefits of the Project

The customized All-Terrain Mounted Seeding Mechanism is efficient, less error prone, saves time, is user friendly and automated. The All-terrain vehicle enables seed sowing at a much faster rate than manual labor thereby reducing time and effort. The All-terrain vehicle weighs less than the tractors used to exert the force on the seeding mechanism.The row spacing, seed spacing and seed depth variables can be adjusted for various types of seeds. The uniformity of these variables yields higher germination. Aside from a seed tank, an additional tank stores fertilizer pellets to be sowed simultaneously with the seeds. The second mode of operation allows the user to control it without contact via a remote. The third mode of operation involves use of GPS and sensors etc along with algorithms for obstacle avoidance and path planning to achieve autonomous functions via an android application.

Technical Details of Final Deliverable

The mechanical portion of the project consists of a seeding mechanism which is to be attached to the ATV. The design of the seeder accounts for diversity in various aspects of the seeding process such as sowing depth, distance between individual sowing and the spacing between the seeding rows.

The structure of the mechanism includes a tank at its upper section which is where the seeds and fertilizer pellets are to be stored. The fertilizer pellets will be sowed simultaneously with the seeds to boost germination. Beneath the tank are located gear-like units, referred to as isolation units. These units serve the purpose of isolating each seed in their teeth. Additionally, the seed units are connected to a shaft which is driven in tandem to the ATV motion. By using a gear system, the shaft displacement relative to the ATV displacement is varied and because of this, the seed spacing is varied. This enables usage to a wide variety of seeds. Situated beneath the tank is the support frame which is from where the seeder is to be mounted on the vehicle. The frame also holds several furrow openers which are the units that burrow into the ground to sow the seeds. The furrow openers depth as well as the spacing between them is also variable.

For steering control, we used viper 12V DC motor. We designed the motor driver circuit using H-bridge BJT model. Another essential component of our electronics system is the power board. The power board is the hub of electrical distribution. This board manages the power distribution to all the electrical and electromechanical devices which includes Arduino, motor driver circuit, brake control servo motor, acceleration control servo motor and providing power to the sensor board. Every part of the electronics system has its specific power requirement. To provide adequate regulated voltage in a safe manner to all parts of the system we employ the power board. It regulates voltage supply to protect the circuits from damage.

Brake control circuit is used to control the brake of the ATV. It is a 4 Channel 5V Relay Module which is compatible with all the Arduino. For the brake control we use two relays as we have to rotate the motor in clockwise and anticlockwise direction. All the relays only have common VCC and GROUND other than that they are independent so that we have to give 5V to both the relays and a common ground.

We have one sensor network involved. The sensor systems include sonar sensors. The signals from the sensors are amplified and filtered from all the noises using this board. These signals are then further more transferred to the NodeMcu which serially communicate them to the Arduino which is acting as the master controller.

Final Deliverable of the Project HW/SW integrated systemType of Industry Agriculture , Food Technologies RoboticsSustainable Development Goals Zero Hunger, Life on LandRequired Resources

Item Name	Type	No. of Units	Per Unit Cost (in Rs)	Total (in Rs)
			Total in (Rs)	79950
Seeding Mechanism	Equipment	1	50000	50000
Remote Control	Equipment	1	1500	1500
Arduino and accessories	Equipment	1	3500	3500
Battery	Equipment	1	4700	4700
Sonar	Equipment	1	1450	1450
Ethernet shield	Equipment	1	1000	1000
Router	Equipment	1	2000	2000
Electronic components	Equipment	1	3000	3000
Fabricaton of circuit boards	Equipment	1	1200	1200
Servo motors	Equipment	2	800	1600
Fuel	Miscellaneous	1	700	700
Tyres	Miscellaneous	2	1930	3860
Mechanism transport from faisalabad	Miscellaneous	1	2900	2900
Printing	Miscellaneous	1	2420	2420
Petrol pipe	Miscellaneous	1	120	120