IJSRD - International Journal for Scientific Research & Development| Vol.

4, Issue 11, 2017 | ISSN (online): 2321-0613

Solar Operated Automatic Seed Sowing Machine

John Chembukkavu1 Aslam Basheer2 Basil N Basheer3 Sivasekhar BR4
1
Assistant Professor 2,3,4B. Tech. Student
1,2,3,4
Department of Electrical & Electronics Engineering
1,2,3,4
IESCE Chittilappilly PO Thrissur Kerala, India
Abstract— the real power required for machine equipment various decisions the team made throughout the des process
depends on the resistance to the movement of it. Even now, Lastly, it discusses future design work the team would like
in our country 98% of the contemporary machines use the to do in the next prototype stage.
power by burning of fossil fuels to run IC engines or external
combustion engines. This evident has led to widespread air, II. LITERATURE SURVEY
water and noise pollution and most importantly has led to a In recent years, there has been an acute shortage of
realistic energy crisis in the near future. Now the approach of agricultural labourers during sowing season due to increased
this project is to develop the machine to minimize the employment opportunities in urban areas for rural youth.
working cost and also to reduce the time for digging and seed Due to non availability of labour and work animals during
sowing operation by utilizing solar energy to run the robotic sowing seasons, in many places the seed is sown even when
machine. In this machine solar panel is used to capture solar the soil is at a low moisture content which affects the
energy and then it is converted into electrical energy which germination, plan I. Stand and yield. Therefore in order to
in turn is used to charge 12V battery, which then gives the mechanize crop sowing operation under rain fed conditions,
necessary power to a shunt wound DC motor. This power is a suitable seed drill is vital as it places the seed in the zone
then transmitted to the DC motor to drive the wheels. And to of adequate moisture and at desired depth. The bullock
further reduction of labor dependency, IR sensors are used to drawn seed drill gives proper seed rate, uniform distribution
maneuver robot in the field. Here 4 post sensors are used to and correct placement of seed resulting in higher yield and
define the territory and robot senses the track length and reduces human physical strain.
pitch for movement from line to line. Seed sowing and
digging robot will move on different ground contours and
III. BLOCK DIAGRAM
performs digging, sow the seed and water the ground after
closing. The block diagram gives a brief idea about various
Key words: Seed Sowing Machine, Solar Operated important parts of the solar operated automatic seed sowing
Automatic Seed Sowing Machine machine. Here the important parts are solar panel ,battery,
microcontroller, DC motor. Microcontroller is brain of the
I. INTRODUCTION system which will control the entire system in response to
the instructions. Here solar panel is using for charging the
Today the environmental impact of agricultural production battery. Battery is the power supply for the system. Four
is very much in focus and the demands to the industry is motors are used for digging and sowing mechanism and
increasing. In the present scenario most of the countries do movement of the machine.
not have sufficient skilled man power in agricultural sector
and that affects the growth of developing countries.
Therefore farmers have to use upgraded technology for
cultivation activity (digging, seed sowing, fertilizing,
spraying etc.). So it’s a time to automate the sector to
overcome this problem. In India there are 70% people
dependent on agriculture. So we need to study on improving
agricultural equipment. Innovative idea of our project is to
automate the process of digging and seed sowing crops such
as sunflower, baby corn, groundnut and vegetables like
beans, lady’s finger, pumpkin and pulses like black gram,
green gram etc. and to reduce the human effort. Since we
have lack of man power in our country, it is very difficult to
do digging and sowing operation on time, Automation saves
a lot of manual work and speed up the cultivation activity.
The energy required for this robotic machine is less as
compared with other machines like tractors or any
agriculture instrument, also this energy is generated from the Fig. 1: Block diagram
solar energy which is found abundantly in nature. Pollution
is also a big problem which is eliminated by using solar
plate. The Project Proposal and Feasibility Study explored
the feasibility of our chosen project, provided a structured
plan for the design, and was a milestone for the project at
the end of seventh semester. This Final Design Report
discusses the design details of the project by displaying

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 Solar Operated Automatic Seed Sowing Machine
(IJSRD/Vol. 4/Issue 11/2017/170)

IV. MICRO CONTROLLER: ATMEGA 328 transmission is more strong and reliable than IR
transmission. RF communication uses a specific frequency
unlike IR signals which are affected by other IR emitting
sources.
This RF module comprises of an RF Transmitter
and an RF Receiver. The transmitter/receiver (Tx/Rx) pair
operates at a frequency of 434 MHz. An RF transmitter
receives serial data and transmits it wirelessly through RF
through its antenna connected at pin4. The transmission
occurs at the rate of 1Kbps - 10Kbps.The transmitted data is
received by an RF receiver operating at the same frequency
as that of the transmitter. The RF module is often used along
with a pair of encoder/decoder. The encoder is used for
encoding parallel data for transmission feed while reception
Fig. 2: ATmega IC is decoded by a decoder. HT12E-HT12D, HT640-HT648,
The high-performance Atmel 8-bit AVR RISC-based etc. are some commonly used encoder/decoder pair IC.
microcontroller combines 32 KB ISP flash memory with
read-while-write capabilities, 1 KB EEPROM, 2 KB VI. MOTOR DRIVER
SRAM, 23 general purpose I/O lines, 32 general purpose L293D is a dual H-bridge motor driver integrated circuit
working registers, three flexible timer/counters with (IC). Motor drivers act as current amplifiers since they take
compare modes, internal and external interrupts, serial a low-current control signal and provide a higher-current
programmable USART, a byte-oriented 2-wire serial signal. This higher current signal is used to drive the motors.
interface, SPI serial port, 6-channel 10-bit A/D converter (8- L293D contains two inbuilt H-bridge driver circuits. In its
channels in TQFP and QFN/MLF packages), programmable common mode of operation, two DC motors can be driven
watchdog timer with internal oscillator, and five software simultaneously, both in forward and reverse direction. The
selectable power saving modes. The device operates motor operations of two motors can be controlled by input
between 1.8-5.5 volts. By executing powerful instructions in logic at pins 2 & 7 and 10 & 15. Input logic 00 or 11 will
a single clock cycle, the device achieves throughputs stop the corresponding motor. Logic 01 and 10 will rotate it
approaching 1 MIPS per MHz, balancing power in clockwise and anticlockwise directions, respectively.
consumption and processing speed. Enable pins 1 and 9 (corresponding to the two motors) must
Today the ATmega328 is commonly used in many be high for motors to start operating. When an enable input
projects and autonomous systems where a simple, low- is high, the associated driver gets enabled. As a result, the
powered, low-cost micro-controller is needed. Perhaps the outputs become active and work in phase with their inputs.
most common implementation of this chip is on the ever Similarly, when the enable input is low, that driver is
popular Arduino development platform, namely the Arduino disabled, and their outputs are off and in the high-impedance
Uno and Arduino Nano models. state.
A. Servo Motors
Servo motors have been around for a long time and are
utilized in many applications. They are small in size but
pack a big punch and are very energy-efficient. These
features allow them to be used to operate remote-controlled
or radio-controlled toy cars, robots and airplanes. Servo
motors are also used in industrial applications, robotics, in-
line manufacturing, pharmaceutics and food services. The
servo circuitry is built right inside the motor unit and has a
positionable shaft, which usually is fitted with a gear (as
shown below).
Fig. 3: Pin Diagram of ATmega 328

V. RF BIT TRANSMITTER RECEIVER

The RF module, as the name suggests, operates at Radio
Frequency. The corresponding frequency range varies
between 30 kHz & 300 GHz. In this RF system, the digital
data is represented as variations in the amplitude of carrier
wave. This kind of modulation is known as Amplitude Shift
Fig. 4: Hitec HS-322HD Standard Heavy Duty Servo
Keying (ASK). Transmission through RF is better than IR
To fully understand how the servo works, you need
(infrared) because of many reasons. Firstly, signals through
to take a look under the hood. Inside there is a pretty simple
RF can travel through larger distances making it suitable for
set-up: a small motor, potentiometer, and a control circuit.
long range applications. Also, while IR mostly operates in
The motor is attached by gears to the control wheel. As the
line-of-sight mode, RF signals can travel even when there is
motor rotates, the potentiometer's resistance changes, so the
an obstruction between transmitter & receiver. Next, RF

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 Solar Operated Automatic Seed Sowing Machine
(IJSRD/Vol. 4/Issue 11/2017/170)

control circuit can precisely regulate how much movement B. Servo Motor Applications
there is and in which direction. When the shaft of the motor Servos are used in radio-controlled airplanes to position
is at the desired position, power supplied to the motor is control surfaces like elevators, rudders, walking a robot, or
stopped. If not, the motor is turned in the appropriate operating grippers. Servo motors are small, have built-in
direction. The desired position is sent via electrical pulses control circuitry and have good power for their size. In
through the signal wire. The motor's speed is proportional to food services and pharmaceuticals, the tools are designed to
the difference between its actual position and desired be used in harsher environments, where the potential for
position. So if the motor is near the desired position, it will corrosion is high due to being washed at high pressures and
turn slowly, otherwise it will turn fast. This is temperatures repeatedly to maintain strict hygiene standards.
called proportional control. This means the motor will only
run as hard as necessary to accomplish the task at hand. VII. SOLAR PANEL

Fig. 7: Solar panel

A 15 W heavy duty aluminum framed solar panel is using
Fig. 5: The guts of a servo motor (L) and an assembled for charging the 12 V battery. Solar panel is of size of 12
servo (R) inch x 18 inch. Guarantee of power of solar panel is 90%
Servos are controlled by sending an electrical pulse within 10 years 80 within 25 years
of variable width, or pulse width modulation (PWM),
through the control wire. There is a minimum pulse, a VIII. WORKING F MACHINE
maximum pulse, and a repetition rate. A servo motor cans
usually only turn 90 degrees in either direction for a total of
180 degree movement. The motor's neutral position is
defined as the position where the servo has the same amount
of potential rotation in the both the clockwise or counter-
clockwise direction. The PWM sent to the motor determines
position of the shaft, and based on the duration of the pulse
sent via the control wire; the rotor will turn to the desired
position. The servo motor expects to see a pulse every 20
milliseconds (ms) and the length of the pulse will determine
how far the motor turns. For example, a 1.5ms pulse will
make the motor turn to the 90-degree position. Shorter than
Fig. 8: Structure of Machine
1.5ms moves it to 0 degrees, and any longer than 1.5ms will
turn the servo to 180 degrees. A. Specification of seed drills
Sowing can be divided into two main phases. The uniform
feed of seeds from the grain hopper to openers and the
preparation of furrows, the placement, of seeds in them and
covering of the furrows with soil to the same depth.
Distribution of seeds on the area sown must be uniform. The
metering mechanisms of die seed drills must drop the seeds
uniformly. 'The average non-uniformity between separate
mechanisms must not exceed 3 per cent for cereals and 4 per
cent for leguminous crops. The amount of seeds in each row
must be the same and must correspond to the adopted seed
Fig. 6: Variable Pulse width control servo position rate. During sowing, seeds must not be damaged in the
When these servos are commanded to move, they metering mechanisms, openers and other parts of the seed
will move to the position and hold that position. If an drill. Furrow openers must create a slightly compressed
external force pushes against the servo while the servo is furrow bottom and the furrow depth must be constant. Seeds
holding a position, the servo will resist from moving out of are laid on the compressed bottom and covered with wet
that position. The maximum amount of force the servo can soil.
exert is called the torque rating of the servo. Servos will not B. Factors which influence the improvement of seed drill
hold their position forever though; the position pulse must design
be repeated to instruct the servo to stay in position. The design of agricultural mat bines involves the
understanding of the variable field conditions and other

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 Solar Operated Automatic Seed Sowing Machine
(IJSRD/Vol. 4/Issue 11/2017/170)

factors which influence machinery performance, including

environmental and human related factors. Machines should
be operationally reliable and economically acceptable to the
farmer. In the case of agricultural machinery design, the
relevant scientific principles concerning soils, plants and
plant, parts and other biological materials are also
considered. Designers of farm machines must integrate
analytical design and results of experimental investigations
which are simple to fabricate, affordable, light in weight,
easy to maintain, and require readily available and low-cost
materials.

IX. CONCLUSION
We have studied well about the project work of solar
operated automatic seed sowing machine. We wish to
complete this project in section wise. As the first step by
taking some approximate measures we designed a machine
structure and components to be used and their ratings. After
that for choosing the main component dc motor is depended
up on the net weight of the system. By taking approximate
weights we choose the motor rating. to initiate this project's
hardware in the seventh semester ,we fabricated the frame
for the machine. We choose aluminum as the material
because it cheaper, stronger and reliable comparing with
carbon fiber. The remaining works of the project will be
done in the eighth semester. It includes the purchasing of the
components, its testing, make practice for seed sowing.

REFERENCES
[1] SAHAY (1990), Principals of Agricultural Engineering
(2005), Volume 1, Text book published by Jain
brothers, New Delhi, India.
[2] International Journal of Emerging Technology &
Research Volume 1, Issue 3, Mar-Apr, 2014
(www.ijetr.org) ISSN (E): 2347-5900 ISSN(P): 2347-
6079“Automatic Seed Planter Punching Type”
[3] Dr. HAJILAL M.S Department of Farm Power
Machinery and Energy (FPME) Kelappaji college
of Agricultural Engineering & Technology, Thavannur.
[4] Dr. JAYAN P.R, Associate Professor. Kelappaji college
of Agricultural Engineering & Technology, Thavannur.
[5] Dr. SASIKALA D, Associate Professor Head of the
Department of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering
(IDE). Kelappaji college of Agricultural Engineering &
Technology, Thavannur.
[6] Dr. P K SURESHKUMAR Associate Professor Dept.
of Ag.Engg College of Horticulture, KAU Vellanikkara,
Thrissur.

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