Design And Environmental Behaviour Modeling of A Bluetooth Controlled Planter Robot.
ABSTRACT
This research is aimed at the and implementation of a Bluetooth-controlled planter robot. It involved a mechanical design, a Bluetooth control design, implementation of the prototype, and environmental behavior modeling as well as validation of the robot’s model.
The design was optimized for as a case study in Zaria. In the mechanical design section, several aspects, starting from the selection of dimensions, materials to the production of complete engineering drawings were presented and the Plantbot was constructed using the engineering drawings of the robot.
In the design of the , the detailed procedures from a selection of Bluetooth modules to the design of microcontroller relay drivers were presented.
The designed Bluetooth control system was then interfaced with the mechanical part and the Plantbot was tested. The average speed of the Plantbot obtained from the experiments was 30.70cm/s which is 85.26% of the designed value (36cm/s).
The depth of was 3cm which agreed with the recommended 2– 3cm by the Institute of Agricultural Research of Ahmadu Bello University-Zaria (2012).
The percentage of successful planting was 89.8% and the percentage of successful planting of two seeds per hole was 86.6%. The effective range of the Bluetooth control was 57.61m(189.013 feet) i.e. 94% of the design range.
The MATLAB was used as a system identification toolbox to develop the environmental behavior model of the Plantbot.
The linear model of the (i.e. arx411) obtained showed the best fit of 83.47%. A transfer function relating the speed of the Plantbot with the soil moisture content was then developed.
INTRODUCTION
BACKGROUND
The agricultural industry is behind other complementary industries in using automated systems because the type of jobs involved in agriculture is not straightforward, and many repetitive tasks are not exactly the same every time.
This work is, therefore, aimed at developing a Bluetooth-controlled planter robot, henceforth called Plantbot which is expected to ease the planting process and increases the efficiency of the farmers.
This Bluetooth-controlled agricultural machinery also takes into consideration the environmental conditions of the case study location “Zaria” in order to develop a model representing its behavior with respect to the changes in environmental conditions.
This is expected to improve the process of future designs for the same or similar environment. The Plantbot is also optimized for planting maize, which is the predominant crop in Zaria and virtually most of northern Nigeria.
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