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Title : DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF AUTOMATIC SEEDING VEHICLE IN AGRICULTURAL FIELD (ASVS)
Author : Santhosh Marsanalli University: Shri Guru Gobind Singhji Institute of Engineering and Technology, Nanded
ISSN :
Volume: 01 Issue: 01
Publication Year: June 2026
ABSTRACT
An Automated Seeding vehicle system (ASVS) is a system that uses independently operated, self-propelled vehicles guided along defined pathways. The vehicles are powered by on-board batteries that allow many hours of operation between recharging. Line follower is a machine that can follow a path. The path can be visible like a black line on a white surface (or vice-versa) or it can be invisible like a magnetic field. Sensing a line and maneuvering the line follower to stay on course, while constantly correcting wrong moves using feedback mechanism forms a simple yet effective closed loop system. The sensors used for the line follower are Reflective Object Sensors. In the present paper the design and development of Line Follower for automatic seeding using atmel micro controller has been taken up. The line follower has sensors installed underneath the front part of the body, and two motors drive wheels moving forward. A circuit inside takes input signal from sensors and controls the speed of wheels’ rotation. This line follower robot use what is called the “differential drive” steering method, which use two independent motor mounted in fixed positions on the left and right side of robot’s chassis. Features like Obstacle avoidance and Loading and unloading mechanism are incorporated to the line follower.
A Line Follower ASV is appropriate where different seeds have to seed with uniform distance and with definite depth there will be also dig maker which make the dig on predefined depth by the user depends on the seed.
Keywords: Line follower, ASV, Sensors, Microcontroller
INTRODUCTION
In the modern agricultural field we need a automatic machine which can seed the seed at uniform predefined distance and predefined depth. Conventionally, people will be seeding the seed in corp field in which distance between the seeds may not be usinform and also they cant sure that they are placing the seeds in desired depth , because different crops need to place at different distance between them and also at different depth under earth for maximum yield.. To eliminate this non uniform seeding we use ASVs. An Automated Seeding vehicle system (ASVS) is a system that uses independently operated, self-propelled vehicles guided along defined pathways. The vehicles are powered by on-board batteries that allow many hours of operation between recharging.
Line follower is a machine that can follow a path. The path can be visible like a black line on a white surface (or vice-versa) or it can be invisible like a magnetic field. Sensing a line and maneuvering the robot to stay on course, while constantly correcting wrong moves using feedback mechanism forms a simple yet effective closed loop system.
Common features required for line followers:
• Follow a black line
• Stop if the line disappears
• Stop if an obstacle is present
• Do not fall off the edge of the table
• If an obstacle is present, use brute force!
All of these features for a line following robot are easy to accomplish with BEAM robots. Obviously the line following robot will need to see the line, therefore we require a light detector of some sort. We also would like it if the line following robot could do this regardless of the ambient conditions (is the room dark or light? is it lit by sunlight or artificial light?). So the robot will also need its own illumination source. The weapon of choice here will be Infra Red (IR) light. To make this easy for ourselves the light only needs to be constant, if a white line is present then it will reflect a lot of IR from our source. If the line is black then we see the opposite effect.
The sensors used for the project are Reflective Object Sensors. The single sensor consists of an infrared emitting diode and a NPN Darlington phototransistor. When a light emitted from the diode is reflected off an object and back into the phototransistor, output current is produced, depending on the amount of infrared light, which triggers the base current of the phototransistor. In many case, the amount of light reflected off a black line is much less than that of a white background, so it can detect the black line somehow by measuring the current.
The robot has sensors installed underneath the front part of the body, and two motors drive wheels moving forward. A circuit inside takes input signal from sensors and controls the speed of wheels’ rotation. The control is done in such a way that when a sensor senses a white background, the motor slows down or even stops. Then the difference of rotation speed makes it possible to make turns.
Main components used in line follower:
• Sensor circuit
• AVR microcontroller (ATmega8)
• H-Bridge Motor controller
• DC motors
The line following robot, operates as the name specifies. It is programmed to follow a dark line on a white background and detect turns or deviations and modify the motors appropriately. The sensor is an array of 3 IR LED-Photodiodes pairs arranged in the form of an inverted V. The output of each sensor is fed into an analog comparator with the threshold voltage (used to calibrate the intensity level difference of the line with respect to the surface). These 3 signals (from each photo-reflective sensor) is given to a priority encoder, the output of which to the microcontroller.
The core of the robot is the atmel microcontroller .The speed control of the motors is achieved by the two PWM modules in the μC. The direction control is provided by 2 I/O pins. The H-Bridge motor driving/control chip takes these signals and translates it into current direction entering the motor armature. The motors require separate supply for operation. The differential steering system is used to turn the robot. In this system, each front wheel has a dedicated motor while the back wheel is free to rotate. To move in a straight line, both the motors are given the same voltage (same polarity). To manage a turn of different sharpness, the motor on the side of the turn required is given lesser voltage. To take a sharp turn, its polarity is reversed. The actual action is caused by controlling the direction/speed of the two motors (the two back wheels), thus causing a turn.
Objective
• When two side-central lateral sensors (L and R) are out of pathway line and central sensor is on pathway line, the decision is the prototype is following a straight line drawing, and then the 2 motors have to be activated instantly.
• If prototype is following a line and the front sensor is not ON, there is no curve line and two motors must be still ON.
• If a curve line has not been detected but the right sensor (R) is within the line, the microcontroller activates the left motor to turn left until the signal sensor indicates is already out of the line, then the two motors are activated again at the same time to go forward.
• If a curve line has not been detected but the left sensor (L) is within the line, the microcontroller activates the right motor to turn right until the signal sensor indicates is already out of the line, then the two motors are activated again at the same time to go forward.
• When a curve line is detected (front sensor signal is activated), the operation process jumps to the algorithm for curve lines reaction.
• The additional feature added to line follower is obstacle avoidance; this is attained by using 2 IR sensors in front of the line follower. The design of line follower is such that if any obstacle present in the path, then the sensors detect them and make the line follower to stop moving forward.
• Another feature added to line follower is loading and unloading seeds. This is achieved by having a separate loading mechanism and an unloading mechanism which is explained later.
• The robo will calculate the distance between the seed by using timer in the built in the microcontroller
Scope of the present work
The line follower can be further enhanced to let the user decide whether it is a dark line on a white background or a white line on a dark background. The robot can also be programmed to decide what kind of line it is, instead of a user interface. The motor control could be modified to steer a convectional vehicle, and not require a differential steering system. The robot could be modified to be a four wheel drive. Extra sensors could be attached to allow the robot to detect obstacles, and if possible bypass it and get back to the line. In other words, it must be capable predicting the line beyond the obstacle. Speed control could also be incorporated. Position and distance sensing devices could also be built in which can transmit information to a mother station, which would be useful in tracking a lost carrier. Future extensions, which will allow implementation and testing of more sophisticated algorithms, could be addition of range finder modules (ultrasonic or infrared), wireless communication modules (radio frequency or infrared), and placing a pick and place robot on top of line follower to carry seed. Such modules will allow variety of different and more complex algorithms to be implemented on the robot. For example, adding range finder capability will allow implementation of autonomous navigation algorithms, following walls, etc. Adding communications capability will allow remote tele-operation through a host computer. Moreover, implementation of cooperation and coordination between several robots (such a formation control, cooperative search, capturing/enclosing targets) will become possible. Furthermore, adding a gripper will allow implementing of algorithms for carrying seed (cooperatively by multiple robots if desired), soccer playing etc.
METHODOLOGY
The main features incorporated into the hardware are given below:
• The atmel microcontroller
• The voltage regulator and supporting components.
• The H-bridge motor control IC (L293D)
• Motors, with coupled reduction gears.
• 12V, 1.2AH Lead-Acid battery
• IR sensors and Photo Diodes
• The LM324 comparator IC
• A POT to calibrate the reference voltage.
• Connectors to join the different boards to form one functional device.
• A seeding mechanism consisting of microcontroller and a solenoid to place the seed.
• A digging mechanism using a motor
The first step before beginning to build the vehicle is to check and understand the operation of each of the components to be used. This may seem to be time consuming at the beginning; however, it turns out that it saves much time as the project progresses. This is because, once the operation of the components is well understood, combining/connecting them in the final product is very easy. On the other hand, it may turn out to be a real headache finishing the product if the operations of its components are not well understood. In order to understand the operation of the microcontroller and to learn its programming basics one may construct a simple circuit with inputs coming from logic switches (providing 0V or 5V) and outputs connected to LED’s. Then, the microcontroller could be programmed to light the LED’s based on the values of the inputs.
This helps in understanding the operation of the microcontroller, getting used to its programming, and the hardware issues for its operation. Once this is done connecting the inputs from the sensors and the outputs to the motor driver becomes very easy. The motor driver can first be considered independently from the AVR. The motors can be connected to its outputs and its inputs can be connected to logic switches, while its enables are connected to a square wave output of a signal generator. By changing the logical values of the inputs and varying the duty cycle of the square wave its operation principle can be verified. Once this is done it can be connected to the PIC and these repeated by providing its inputs from the microcontroller by an appropriate software code. Similarly, to understand or see the operation of the sensors one can first set up its circuit separately and measure its output before and after placing an object (or just using a finger to block the light) in front of it. This also helps understand how close to the ground the sensor should be in order to best sense the curve to follow. After that the sensors can be connected to the inputs of the atmel and its program modified to control the motors based on the sensor input values. In the line follower robot project we have used 3 pairs of IR (infra-red) emitter/sensor. The sensor on getting blocked or unblocked sends combination of high/low signals to atmel microcontroller which are processed and appropriate signals are sent to L293D (motor driver chip) which switches on/off the motors so as to keep the robot moving in one direction. Another two pair of IR (infra-red) emitter/sensor are used for obstacle avoidance. Another two sets of IR (infra-red) emitter/sensor are used in loading and unloading mechanism. Where one set of sensor is placed on loading mechanism which sends signal to the loading mechanism microcontroller that the line follower as aligned for loading the object and another set is placed in unloading mechanism which sends signal to the line follower microcontroller that the object is been loaded and to rotate left 360 degree.
It is constructed after the operation of each of the components/modules has been tested and understood independently. It is good idea to check and verify the operation of the complete circuit before proceeding with the building of the prototype. Therefore, the individual software programs used for each of the modules are also combined in a single code. Once the operation of the circuitry is verified one can proceed to the final stage of the design: building the prototype. The robot can be built on a PVC material. As known, if the length of the robot increases, it becomes difficult to make immediate turns, as is the case with trucks compared to cars. In order to limit the length of the robot, one can use a layered structure. The mechanical structure of a robot must be controlled to perform tasks. The control of a robot involves three distinct phases - perception, processing and action (robotic paradigms). Sensors give information about the environment or the robot itself. Using strategies from the field of control theory, this information is processed to calculate the appropriate signals to the actuators (motors) which move the mechanical structure. The control of a robot involves path planning, pattern recognition, obstacle avoidance, etc. More complex and adaptable control strategies can be referred to as artificial intelligence. In this line follower first layer is for main board circuit and second for unloading mechanism. Microcontroller controls the two geared dc motors for moving the line follower robot and one geared dc motor in the unloading mechanism, where the motor lifts the tray at about 60 degree angle, so that the object present in the tray falls to the ground.
Basic line follower follows a path or black line using the IR sensors present in the front. In this line follower robot two more additional features have been added to it, they are:
• Obstacle avoidance
• Seeding and digging mechanism
CONCLUSION
The Line following robot prototype was finally completed. For a test, I held my robot in the air and I approached a black paper to sensors. Then, both wheels rotated as expected and they slowed down when either the paper moved away or sensors passed across a white line. A lot of effort was put into the design, implementation and days of toil in front of the computer, writing and debugging the code. The robot was finally running with a few glitches here and there which were sorted in the later revisions of the firmware. The line following robot still has a few shortcomings but achieves most of the objectives. The additional feature like obstacle avoidance and loading and unloading mechanism also works properly. I also realized that there were many things to consider practically such as installation of motors, building up a circuit by soldering and putting all parts together. This experience hopefully would be helpful in the future work.
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