Design and fabrication of automatic seed sowing and soil moisture

control machine

Project supervisor: Project Team:

Engr. Kaleem-Ullah Hassan Arif
Lecturer Mohammad Ameer Hamza
Department of Mechanical engineering M. Shahzaib Ismail
Ghayoor Ahmad

University Of Engineering & Technology, Peshawar

Department Of Mechanical Engineering

Session: 2015-2019
Introduction

• Cropping is important and tedious activity for any farmer.

• For large scale this activity is lengthy and it needs more workers.
• In manual method of seed planting, we get results such as;
1. low seed placement,
2. less spacing,
3. less efficiency and
4. serious back ache for the farmer.
• This also limits the size of field that can be planted.
• Hence for achieving best performance from a seed planter, the above limits should be optimized.
Aims and objectives:
• Better cultivation in the form of proper utilization of seeds with minimum labor work.
• The qualitative approach is to develop a system which minimizes the work of farmer and also
reduces the time for seed sowing operation.
• Precise depth and distance between adjacent seeds to improve crop quality.
• Precise timing of watering the fields, using soil moisture sensor, to avoid overflooding of the field
and to further improve the crop quality.
• To avoid the wastage of water.
• A fully automatic system to increase the smartness of the work.
• To make use of renewable energy, using solar panels, in order to make it more efficient and
environment friendly.
Methodology:

Design of this machine is divided into six parts:

1. Design and fabrication of mobile robot,

2. Design and fabrication of automatic seed sowing machine,
3. Design of the soil moisture sensor system,
4. Assembling the above three systems to make the final robotic machine,
5. Testing the machine,
6. Making the necessary modification and improvements.
 Start

Design and fabrication of mobile robot

Design and fabrication of automatic Design of the soil moisture

Seed sowing machine sensor system

Testing of robot Assembling of the Robot

No Modification or Yes
End improvement
required?
Pro-E drawing of Mobile robot:
 Mobile Robot
Top View Front View

Back View Side View

Seed sowing Mechanism
Pro-E drawing of Disk
 Power Requirement
F = Force required by motors
W= Weight of the Mobile Robot
f = Frictional force
N = Normal Reaction
V
W

Mobile Robot
f

N
Block Diagram of Mobile robot
Assumptions:
Total weight = 60kg
Acceleration rate = 1 m/s2
Speed = 0.66m/s

Data:
Wheel radius (Front) = 0.127m
Wheel radius (Rear) = 0.15m
Material of wheel = Polyurethane
For polyurethane:
Static coefficient of friction = µs = 0.2
Rolling coefficient of friction = µk =0.035
Power requirement just at the beginning (Using static coefficient of friction)
W=mg
= 60 x 9.81 = 588.6N
∑Fy= 0
W = N = 588.6 N
F= µsN = 0.2 x 588.6 = 117.72
∑Fx = max
F-f = max
F = (60 x 1) + 117.72
= 177.72 N
Torque = T = F * r
= 177.72 x 0.15 = 26.658 N.m
Power = P = F.v
P = 177.72 x 0.66
=118.47 W
Power required during motion (Using rolling coefficient of friction)

F= µkN = 0.035 x 588.6 = 20.601N

∑Fx = max
F-f = max
F = (60 x 1) + 20.601
= 80.601N
P= F * V
= 80.601 x 0.66
= 53.72W
Specification of DC motors
Power Output = 250 W
Maximum current = 10.5 A
Voltage = 24 volts
Maximum RPM = 130 rpm
Selection of battery
Current required by two motors
= P/V
= 161.2/24 = 6.72 A
So two lead acid batteries each of 12v and 30AH will be selected to
Power the DC motor and will be connected in series to get 24 V.
The reason for choosing lead acid batteries is that they are relatively cheaper, easily available, and
they require very less maintenance.
Discharging time:
=30A/6.72A = 4.46 Hr
Including 30% losses in batteries:
Actual Discharging time = 3 Hr