Autonomous Agricultural Field Robot

Weeds are tenacious and remarkable problem in agricultural field all across Pakistan . Weeds fight with crops for basic resources like water ,light and nutrients which badly reduces the crop yield. Also  the agricultural production is badly affected due to the rapid increase in population which

Project Title

Autonomous Agricultural Field Robot

Project Area of Specialization

Mechatronics Engineering

Project Summary

Weeds are tenacious and remarkable problem in agricultural field all across Pakistan . Weeds fight with crops for basic resources like water ,light and nutrients which badly reduces the crop yield. Also  the agricultural production is badly affected due to the rapid increase in population which will become over 380 millions by 2050. This huge increase in population of Pakistan requires drastic measures and precision agricultural practices to meet the population's food needs .The farmers are facing problems  like environmental effect, labor shortage, infertility, and soil erosion. Traditional agricultural practices used for weed control including chemical treatment and manual weeding are costly, time consuming, inefficient and unfriendly for the environment. 
Nowadays, there is trend of using more advance and technological methods for solving agriculture related problems. Agricultural field robot is recognized to be one of the technologies that could play a vital role in accomplishing long-lasting agricultural production while reducing impact on the environment. 
The latest technology in the form of robot operating system (ROS) along with different computer vision algorithms will be used for controlling, simulations and real time visualization  of the robot.

Project Objectives

The objectives of this project is to present the solution over the traditional way of treating agricultural weeds by the  implementation of Agricultural and autonomous systems and outline the potential for future applications. Different applications of autonomous vehicles in agriculture have been examined and compared with conventional systems, where three main groups of field operations have been identified to be the first potential practical applications: crop establishment, plant care and selective harvesting.

Our aim is to fabricate a Prototype Multi-Purpose Agricultural Robot which can perform the following functions:

• The main motive for transforming the conventional way of treating weeds to agricultural automation technology is decreasing labor force, a common fact in the modern world.
• Precision agricultural processes related to seeding, weed control, harvesting, grove supervision and chemical treatment etc. needs permanent and effective solution in order to improve  productivity and efficiency. Robotics and artificial intelligence procurement present this solution very well and efficiently.
• To reduce human effort in the agricultural field with the use of small robot.
• To perform all 4 operations at single time, hence increases production and saves time.
• To complete large amount of work in less time.
• present the opportunity of replacing human operators which provides effective solution with return on investment .
• The usage of solar can be utilized for Battery charging. As the Robot works in the field, the rays of the sun can be used for solar power generation.
• To increase the efficiency, the solar power is used and the Power output can be increased. 

Moreover we will give examples of the economic potential of applying autonomous robotic vehicles compared to conventional systems. Focus will be put on potential labor cost savings, farm structure implications and sizes for operation, daily working hours, potential environmental impact, energy costs and safety issues.

Project Implementation Method

Solid works model

The 1st step is to design the model in solid works.The CAD model will be imported into ROS's Gazebo simulator to develop and test the developed control software on it.

Physical Prototype

 After designing and testing the CAD model, we will physically develop a physical prototype in the Department's workshop.

Wheel selection

The friction has great impact on the performance of robot therefore the wheels selection will be such that to minimize the friction between tires and field.

The wheels having larger width and irregular dimensions may damage the crops therefore the wheels selection will be such lessen that effect.

The tires having tubes are susceptible to puncturing if the field contain needles etc therefore to avoid such incident we will favor tubeless tires for our robot.

Motor Selection

The motor will create problems if it is not properly align with or mounted on the mechanical design therefore to avoid such problems we will select the suitable sized motors that will properly fit in the design.

The torque produces by the motors dependent upon the weight of the design therefore we will select motors that will generate sufficient amount of torque for the desired weight.

Cameras / Sensors

We will be using cameras and sensors of different specifications for the purpose to detect weeds and rows in the field and  measuring the pressure of fluid  respectively.

Robot Operating System(ROS)

• The development of a robot with a computer brain needs a bundle of software tools on the computer side like software drivers , third party tools for computer vision , simulation tools and more.

• ROS framework get together all these tools and manages how you develop code for your robot.
• ROS gathers all the communication tools rather than a parallel communication that is sometimes very interrupting.
• We will import the solid works model of the project in the gazebo simulator for simulations.

Once we simulate the model in gazebo simulator then we can apply it on the robot practically.

Computer vision algorithms

• Our robot follows rows operation.
• The cameras will detect the rows and weeds and capture raw image of rows and weeds.
• These raw images will be passes for further processing and segmentation
• After successful image processing and segmentation the images passes to the controller.
• Also the pressure and flow sensors senses the values and passing it to the controller.
• The controller then passes commands to the motors and chemical treatment arrangement to perform the desired actions.

Benefits of the Project

• Agricultural field robot is recognized to be one of the technologies that could play a vital role in accomplishing long-lasting agricultural production while reducing impact on the environment.
• Autonomous Agricultural Field Robot is capable for carrying out routine agricultural tasks such as weed detection and control, plant phenotyping, Weed Mapping, and crop health monitoring.
• Nowadays all across Pakistan and particularly in kpk parthenium weed has been devastating crops production. The traditional ways of weeding has not been so efficient to remove these lethal weeds. Our robot is very efficient to eradicate these weeds and make crops free from parthenium.
• Another benefit of our robot is that it is self-powered and needs no external power like fuel and other spark ignition which has been considering as an environmental hazard as well as very expensive. Instead it uses solar energy as a source of power in the form of solar panel and batteries which are very friendly to the environment .
• The latest technology in the form of robot operating system (ROS) along with different computer vision algorithms will be used for controlling, simulations and real time visualization  of the robot.
• The product will be tested in real-time in an agricultural field to validate performance of our proposed system.

Technical Details of Final Deliverable

(1) a mobile robot with adequate payload and processing capability for agricultural scouting and monitoring.

(2) A vision system to enable the robot to detect crops and weeds.

(3) A navigation system that allows the robot to navigate in the field in one of the three modes: (i) tele-operated, (ii) semi-autonomous, (iii) autonomous.

Final Deliverable of the Project

HW/SW integrated system

Core Industry

Agriculture

Other Industries

Core Technology

Robotics

Other Technologies

Artificial Intelligence(AI)

Sustainable Development Goals

Zero Hunger, Good Health and Well-Being for People, Decent Work and Economic Growth

Required Resources

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