Agricultural Drone

Project Title

Agricultural Drone

Project Area of Specialization Internet of ThingsProject Summary

Pakistan is an agriculture country. The modern farming business is at a fork in the road, with global supply at an all-time high and commodity prices at an all-time low as a result of rising food production and consumption demands. As customers become increasingly interested in the origin of the items they purchase and how they were grown, there is a greater need than ever for farmers and agronomists around the world to enhance resource management in response to shrinking budgets.

Exposure to chemical pesticides while spraying in the field has also become a major health problem for farmers. However, majority of farmers suffer from various ailments due to spraying of pesticides such as nausea, skin disorders and digestive problems and other. Majority of farmers spray chemicals without taking basic safety precautions such as wearing mask and gloves. Many a time they inhale the pesticide while spraying it against the wind direction.

Organic farming needs a high amount of interaction between a farmer and his/her crops or livestock. Whether it is ensuring the crops are disease free or the use of natural methods to control weeds in an organic way, the process is highly time consuming. On the other hand, the use of trucks generates an accessibility problem and occupied more space. Man-made solutions work very slow and cannot carry large volumes of fluid. Due to their nature, they also do not guarantee that the work is performed as a systematic procedure. To avoid these issues and solve the said problems, this project is going to provide an “Agricultural Drone” that is affordable, manageable and user-friendly for farmers. It is easy to use from cellular devices and farmers also don’t face any health problem. The peoject is being designed and developed specifically for the agriculture sector. Further, it can be utilized in the disastar management. It can also be used to help optimize different agriculture tasks specially for spraying the fields. The main objective of this project is to enhance farming.

This Project presents as “Agricultural Drone”. We divided our project into 2 main modules: Quod-copter drone that also hold spray system and Application that are used as a transmitter.

Project Objectives

The main objective of this project is to

• · Design a cost effective drone for agriculture.
• · Provide a safe mechanism to spray in the crops.
• · Facilitate farmers with easy spray in field and avoid the health issues.
• · Open new research paradigm for the researcher.

Project Implementation Method

We divided our project into 2 parts:

• Hardware Design
• Software Design

Hardware design

Components

Here is the list of items that are used to designing the Agri Drone.

Item	Value
Battery	LIPO Battery 5200MAH
Drone Controller	Flight Controller KK2.1.5
Speed Controller	ESC 30A
Propeller	Propellers 1045
Structure	Quadcopter Frame F450
Motors	BLDC 1000KV A2212
Tank	Plastic Bottle
Spray Gun	Water Pump
Receiver	IA6B Receiver FLYSKY
Water System Controller	ESP32

Physical Implementation

First of all, take a quadcopter frame; tie the frame arms in X shape with the core plate through screws. Then, mount the Motors on the tips of every arm and tight the screws of motors with screw driver in the screw holes. After mounting the motors, the next step is to mount ESC’s. it connects on the bottom side of the frame arms due to some reasons that are involve in functionality of the drone. It will upload the upper side of the drone where items mounted. It’s a good approach to mount the ESC through zip ties. If may anyone will not able to work properly then we can easily fix it.

Every drone needs a controller to work properly. Flight controller is installed the core of the drone to give an availability for every arms motors and ESC. It is better to put a piece of sponge under the flight controller board to absorb the vibration of the drone. Furthermore, install the receiver to receive instruction from user. Also mounted a battery that is connected with the flight controller to supply power to motors through ESC. Mount the tank and spray gun to pour the pesticides in fields.

Electrical Implementation

Software Module

Speed

This module is used to increase and decrease the speed of motors according to the instructions through flight controller. When we increase the speed of motors then the drone is able to fly. Contrary, when the drone is in air and we need to land it then decrease the speed slowly, it will come on ground. 

Direction

This module is used to change the direction of drone in left, right, up, down. When user pass the instruction move to left from application (Transmitter). This instruction goes to receiver then they move to flight controller then give it to ESC then left and right side motors gradually decrease and the drone change the direction

Connect

This module connect the application(transmitter) with drone through Wi-Fi/Bluetooth.

Disconnect

This module disconnect the application (transmitter) with drone through Wi-Fi/Bluetooth.

Spray

This module is used to pour pesticides in fields though spray gun.

Item

Battery

Drone Controller

Speed Controller

Propeller

Structure

Motors

Tank

Spray Gun

Receiver

Water System Controller

Benefits of the Project

Drones have revolutionized agriculture by offering farmers major cost savings, enhanced efficiency, and more profitability. We proposed system that would beneficial for farmers health. It can  improve spraying accuracy and lessen time consumption. The experiments show how the use of drones appears as reliable and efficient. They provide an accurate spraying that could be parameterized and cost evaluated.

There are many drones are available in the market but these all are  very expensive and our country farmers cannot buy this. This project is also important in this respect that proposed solution of Agriculture Drone is cost effective which will be affordable by the lower and middl level farmers. 

It is ensuring the crops are disease free or the use of natural methods to control weeds in an organic way, the process is highly time consuming. On the other hand, the use of trucks generates an accessibility problem and occupied more space. Man-made works are slow. In this condition,Agriculture drone is also a better option . Finally, provided solution will be affordable, manageable and user-friendly for farmers.

These drones can be used to spray fertilizers or pesticides uniformly across the field. The super-low operating cost , low maintenance and affordable entry price  makes spraying drones one of the fastest growing sectors for the drone industry.

Technical Details of Final Deliverable

Expected Deliverable/Outcome:

• A product "Agriculture Drone"
• An android app for the operating the spray mechanis. 

At the end, we deliver a drone that pour pesticides/fertilizers in fields and operate through transmitter(Application). Moreover, When a user pass a command through application or touch any icon on Mobile screen through application it will goes to receiver. Receiver catch these signals and pass to controller than things are performed according to instructions. For instance, if user click on upward icon, this instruction send to receiver then receiver send this instruction to kk 2.1.5 flight controller then flight controller pass instruction to electric speed controller, electric speed controller send instruction to motors and they all were started and moves propellers and drone will be in air. Similarly, if user click on spray icon, this instruction send to receiver then receiver send this instruction to ESP32 controller then ESP32 controller pass instruction to pump through relay and the pesticides/fertilizers will be sprayed.

We deliver our project in 5 phases

• In 1st phase, we deliver the structure of drone in which we assemble all the items and build the structure of drone.
• In 2nd phase, we deliver the drone that can fly, we will do electronic configuration of the drone and make them to fly.
• In 3rd phase, we deliver the water system that can spray pesticides/fertilizers in fields through drone that are flying.
• In 4th phase, we deliver the application that purpose is to operate the drone and water system.
• In 5th phase, we will perform testing and maintenance of the project and deliver the whole project.

Final Deliverable of the Project HW/SW integrated systemCore Industry ITOther Industries Agriculture , Health Core Technology Internet of Things (IoT)Other TechnologiesSustainable Development Goals Good Health and Well-Being for People, Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure, Life on LandRequired Resources

Elapsed time in (days or weeks or month or quarter) since start of the project	Milestone	Deliverable
Month 1	Mechanical Implementation	Structure of drone
Month 2	Electric Implementation	Flying drone
Month 3	Mechanical Implementation	Water System
Month 4	Software Implementation	Agri Application
Month 5	Maintenance & Testing Phase	Whole Project