Mobile robot for grass watering

Project Title

Mobile robot for grass watering

Project Area of Specialization RoboticsProject Summary

We are making an automated grass watering robot that is just use for grass watering. The purpose for making this robot is to save water which is being used in grass. As we have seen a person take the pipe in garden and do not care which portion of grass is need water or which portion is not. Like if a ground is in up and down condition. So the lower portion is filled of water it does not need that much water but due to careless of gardener it filled and the upar side will remain dry. As a result in whole garden we saw some area is green and some area is soil. The soil portion is burn due to not watered. means we are solving ineffective way of human for grass maintenance. And we are saving the time. Like a person take one hour for grass watering so our robot will do itself and save this hour. It means we are reducing the human efforts for grass watering. and also save the water. Because a man can never know how much water it needs. so the sensor we are using with 0.3% accuracy it will detect the moisture level and decide how much water it needs. when a person try to water the grass but he or she do not know how much water it required. In this case thousands of liter of water is waste in just Quetta city.The ground water level in Quetta city it was 300 feet but in 2018 it became 1000 feet. And according to 2021 research it reached at 1200 feet. And we can not imaging how much water is wasting in whole over the world.

The working of our robot is when it start from a position by a switch it will move 3 feet and then stop. Then our servo motor will move in 90 degree we have attached our moisture sensor probes on servo motor. The sensor probes will dip in soil/ grass it will detect the moisture level in the grass and decide how much water it needs. We have set a threshold value which is 30%. On 30% it will turn on the solenoid valve for watering up to 1 minute on 1x1 meter of area. if the it 50-70% it will turn on solenoid valve for 30 seconds in given area. if its 71-90% it will turn on solenoid valve for 20 second. And if moisture level is 95 - 100% solenoid valve will remain closed and the robot will move forward up to 1 meter. Then again this process is started.

Project Objectives

We are achieving three objectives in project.

1. Mobile robot with a pipe line attached or water tank on robot.

Our robot is dual mode mean we are attaching a pipe line with robot and we can connect a water tank to it. For a large area of garden we are using a pipe line which is attached to solenoid valve of robot. When the moisture sensor sense the moisture level of grass and then decides for how long the valve should be open or close.And we can also use a water tank on robot like if we are using our robot for small lawn. Lawn should be 4X4 meter and water tank should carry 20-30 liters. (our robot can carry 60 to 70KG on hard ground).

2. Moisture level sensing system.

In this objective we are getting data through a moisture level sensor with 0.3% accuracy. We have attached our soil moisture sensor's probes to a servo motor when robot stop then servo motor will rotate in 90 degree and then our sensor's probe will dip in grass and detect the moisture level. Here we have set a threshold value for moisture level which is 30%. if moisture level is less then 30% and up to 50% then it will open solenoid valve for one minute. If its 51-70% valve will be open for 30 seconds and if moisture level is 71-90% then it will open for 20 seconds and if its 95-100% then solenoid valve remain close.

3. Designing a setup with sprinkler.

The whole watering process is dependent of sprinklers we are using some sprinklers with our robot. The purpose of sprinkler is to spread water. In given area(1X1 meter). sprinklers are attached with solenoid valve. When moisture level is detected the solenoid valve will be open and it will pass the water then sprinkler will spread it in given area.

Project Implementation Method

First of all we made the basic structure of our robot which is made up of steels by welding and its size is 3X3 feet. We have used four tires in this structure and and connect two wiper motor on robot. The purpose of wiper motor is we needed maximum torque and low speed. The motors are connected with tires by a chain. We have set a gair ratio our motor rotates 3 time then or tires complete one round. This process increases the torque and minimize the speed. the motors are controlled by a microcontroller (Arduino). We use a SPST switch for starting our robot. We have used a soil moisture sensor for detecting the moisture level in soil/grass. Its connected to the Arduino it send data to Arduino when it detect moisture. And we have used a water pump which is connect with water tank for watering. and also we have used a solenoid valve connected to the water pipe line. water pump and solenoid valve both are controlled by Arduino both are dependent on moisture level. Like when moisture level is 0- 30 it will be open and if its 95- 100% it will remain close. 

Benefits of the Project

We are focusing on three major problems to minimize which would benefit our society nationally and internationally as well. First benefit of our project is reducing water consumption by watering the grass ineffectively by humans and secondly the maintenance of grass precisely ,in a broad sentence the robot would maintain the grass across the whole lawn equally (greenish without color difference).And third benefit is reducing the human efforts and time a person can take 1 hour for grass watering so this work can be done by the robot. This project is not just limited for home it can be used in sports grounds for the maintenance of grass of ground because cricket and football grounds consumes a large amount of water and a man power and time as well. this idea can be further used for farming ( implanting ,cutting ) with a little modification. it is the first step we are using it for grass watering but next step can be for seeding as well as watering.

Technical Details of Final Deliverable

To achieve this goal we made a simple structure of 3x3 that is made up of solid material (steel) depending on our desire in terms of weight with four wheels and two powerful wiper motors connected with the back pair of wheel to move the robot ahead and it can carry the water tank and the rest of the circuitry. The motor is interfaced with the microcontroller which allow or restrict the motors to move depending on our application. Secondly we make a moisture level sensing system that can accuratly measure the level of moisture in grass soil .Third step of the project is to make manipulator type leaver connected with servo motor that can be helping us to dip out moisture sensor’s probes in the soil. And lastly we interface a solenoid valve and water pump and connected with the microcontroller. When the moisture sensor analyzing the data the controller would allow or instruct the solenoid valve and water pump to open for the water flow through the pipes or through water tank toward sprinklers for the watering of grass.

Our finalized or complete project would be a prototype of the idea we have provided above which would be working and useful for small scale or area for watering the lawn more efficiently then human with very less consumption of water. By increasing the durability, working time and increasing water limit in it we can also commercialize this project for the larger scale (cricket ground, football ground, Public parks ) which would be an easy selection for the owners in terms of economical advantage because, this project would replace the servant for the grass maintenance permanently and due to the efficient use of water with the better maintenance

Final Deliverable of the Project Hardware SystemCore Industry AgricultureOther Industries Agriculture Core Technology RoboticsOther Technologies OthersSustainable Development Goals Decent Work and Economic GrowthRequired Resources

Item Name	Type	No. of Units	Per Unit Cost (in Rs)	Total (in Rs)
			Total in (Rs)	45340
Steel pipe	Miscellaneous	2	1500	3000
Tires	Equipment	4	900	3600
Motor	Equipment	2	1800	3600
Ardiuno uno	Equipment	1	1450	1450
Relay module ( 1 channel)	Equipment	3	120	360
Botton	Equipment	1	20	20
Encoder	Equipment	4	340	1360
Motor drivers	Equipment	2	500	1000
Solenoid valve	Equipment	1	2000	2000
Water pump	Equipment	2	1200	2400
Chain	Equipment	2	200	400
Buck convertor	Equipment	3	120	360
Labour cost (2 times)	Miscellaneous	2	2000	4000
Furniture board	Miscellaneous	1	400	400
Soil Moisture sensor	Equipment	3	230	690
Servo motor (35kg cm torque)	Equipment	1	4600	4600
Steel channels(16 feet)	Miscellaneous	1	500	500
Wiper motor (low torque)	Equipment	2	1500	3000
Battery	Equipment	1	3500	3500
Solar panel	Equipment	1	2100	2100
Printed circuit board	Equipment	2	100	200
Eching powders	Miscellaneous	1	100	100
Soldering iron	Equipment	1	550	550
Jumper wires(male to mail and male to female)	Equipment	2	500	1000
Gairs with motors	Equipment	2	500	1000
Gairs with tires	Equipment	2	1000	2000
Protection cover for components	Miscellaneous	1	1000	1000
Soldering paist and soldering wire	Equipment	1	500	500
Water tank	Miscellaneous	1	650	650