Concept of Automated Agriculture - Auto Techno Farming
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IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering
PAPER • OPEN ACCESS
Concept of Automated Agriculture - Auto Techno Farming
To cite this article: R. Sharath Prasanna et al 2021 IOP Conf. Ser.: Mater. Sci. Eng. 1055 012048
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IVC RAISE 2020 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 1055 (2021) 012048 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/1055/1/012048
Concept of Automated Agriculture - Auto Techno Farming
R. Sharath Prasanna1*, V. Karthikeyan2 , M. Mohamed Armoon Shaliq3,
ARP. Sarath4
1,4
Anna University, B.E. Mechanical, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Rajalakshmi
Engineering College, Rajalakshmi Nagar, Thandalam, Chennai, Postal code-602 105, India.
2
Anna University, B.E. Electronics and communication engineering, Department of
Electronics and communication engineering, Rajalakshmi Engineering College,
Rajalakshmi Nagar, Thandalam, Chennai, Postal code-602 105, India.
3
Sathyabama University, B.Sc. Physics, Department of Physics, Sathyabama Institute Of
Science and Technology, Jeppiaar Nagar, SH 49A, Chennai, Postal Code-600119, India.
*Email: sharathprasanna.r.2018.mech@rajalakshmi.edu.in
Abstract: Agriculture cushions men and helps humans to lead a comfortable and
convenient life. The main objective of this project is to enhance farm productivity in large
scale farming and urban areas, it tends to solve the uncertain issues that are developing in
urban agriculture by implementing human free automated agriculture. With the espousal of
Artificial Intelligence in Auto Techno Farming (ATF) can lead to the development of
advanced agricultural farming methods. We are presenting the concept of automated
agriculture that is a track based farming technique for large area farming. Machine design
is carried out in such a way that it receives a single command from the user, after which it
assesses and analyses geographical conditions and begins to send the analysed data to the
user. ATF is fully automated, which will assist to select the seeds by itself and sow the seed
according to the optimal weather conditions in appropriate time. The challenging issue
probably solved by ATF is, it sprays pesticide only to the required areas. In addition this
provides multitudinous advantages such as, full automation, uses AI, weeding, harvesting
and other farming techniques are done predominantly by itself. The project proposed above
can be tested on agricultural fields with high precision. It makes a pristine beauty of
agriculture and makes the survival of the man significant by ATFs. ATF serves as a
milestone in the field of agriculture under emerging Environmental Engineering
Technologies. The concept of Auto Techno farming is described with the design,
simulation and circuits out of CATIA V5, Creo, MATLAB, Proteus 8.9 and Blender.
Key Words: Automated Agriculture, Track Based Agriculture, ATF-machines, Auto
Techno farming, Pre-programmed Agriculture.
1. Introduction
Agriculture is one of traditional and healthy occupations in which many people passionately sacrifice their
life to do farming in various agricultural fields. Farmers do face many problems in their day-to-day stay in
the farming ground but as they realize the reality that without agriculture there is no life, they work hard to
obtain success.[1-8] Many engineering techniques have been implemented in the field of agriculture but all
Content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 licence. Any further distribution
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IVC RAISE 2020 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 1055 (2021) 012048 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/1055/1/012048
of them have to be manually operated. People are willing to do agriculture in their cities but they are
unsure of the methodology to harvest a successful crop. Sufficient time is not available for them to
concentrate on agriculture and they also don’t have the knowledge and working energy to do farming. Even
in rural areas, farmers face many problems in their agricultural field which at times results in migration
which is the saddest part in our country. Coming to the view of large scale agriculture, the final product out
of farming rules the world market are several sectors. Large scale farming companies ensure to produce the
best out of the available source.[12-17] Agricultural Engineering sectors hopefully brought out several
milestones of technologies, those serving to be the best support till date. Artificial Intelligence in
agriculture is the immense support for the development of the Agricultural machineries.[17-19].The
available source of products and farming methods has its own cons such as irregular water and medicine
supply, Improper seeding, lack of labor and lack of energy and insufficient crop production. As a result to
overcome all the present technical and economical crisis, we have proposed completely automated
agriculture in the name of Auto Techo Farming (ATF).
2. Concept of Auto Techno Farming
Auto Techno Farming is the futuristic agricultural technique in which ATF-Running tracks are built in the
agricultural field and the farming practice is completely computerised and various machines for various
agricultural works right from ploughing, seeding till the end of harvesting is designed , in such a way that it
does its work by its own without manually driving. Farmers must have the knowledge of soil fertility in
order to make excellent crops but those knowledge of prediction is sometime going in vain because of the
present polluting environment and now it is completely necessary to maintain the crops according to the
present environmental surroundings .So we have to monitor the crops and the soil health regularly in order
to know the type of remedy that is to be taken in order to harvest the healthy crop. Usage of pesticides in
the whole farming field is being practiced in manual agriculture but the ATF concept is featured with
pesticide spraying to the particular area that is under danger. The ratio of water, fertilizer, manure and
pesticides for different crops can be pre-programmed in ATF and that can be successfully practiced in the
fields in order to get the best quality of organic crops. Irrigation system significantly changes for different
crops, ATF tracks have an inbuilt irrigation system in which water can be supplied in all the forms which is
suitable for different kinds of crops that includes sprinkler, drip and surface irrigation too. ATF serves as
the Artificial Intelligence mechanism which is fully programmed agriculture. By equipping ATF on
farming land, people need to only physically shift our ATF-Machines from one division to another.
3. Constructions and specifically Designed Machines/tools:
Ɣ ATF-Tracks
Ɣ ATF-Ploughing Machine
Ɣ ATF-Seeding Machine
Ɣ ATF Medicine sprinkler
Ɣ ATF-Weed Removal
Ɣ ATF-Harvesting Machine
Ɣ A Central Control Unit (CCU).
Ɣ ECU (Electronic Control Unit)- It is a communication device that is fixed in all the machines and
tends to share the instructions and information.
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IVC RAISE 2020 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 1055 (2021) 012048 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/1055/1/012048
3.1. ATF-Tracks and locomotive method:
Auto Techno Farming is a concept in which a regular farming land is constructed with durable and efficient
suitable tracks on which the ATF-Machines can move. ATF-Machines are the specifically designed
machines that are made to run in order to accomplish various tasks in agriculture. ATF-tracks can be
constructed according to the shape and size of the available farming land with the material that can
withstand all the weather conditions. ATF tracks are permanently fixed to different lands. ATF- Tracks
have a fixed land dividing ratio and the number of divisions can be increased or decreased according to the
size of the farming land. Different crops need different types of seeding and irrigation systems which are
also kept in concern and it is satisfied by pre-programming the type of crop that is to be grown in that
particular field in that particular period of time. All the activity that is done with the crops is monitored
periodically and special care is given to each piece of land. A computerised data is collected about all the
crops that are grown and helps to supply the required agricultural materials.
Figure 1. Conventional Agricultural Land. Figure 2. ATF tracks Constructed Agricultural
land.
ATF tracks are fully equipped with sensors to detect all kinds of defects that arise and send the signal to the
server maintenance room that is available to control many fields. Tracks are featured with inbuilt water
supplying sprinklers, pesticides supplying sprinklers and sensors. Each unit of ATF-Tracks has its own
Unique ID which has to be mentioned in the CCU’s instructions in case of large-scale farming. The
material selection of tracks is based on the chemical properties that withstand all weather conditions
without losing its base properties.
3
IVC RAISE 2020 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 1055 (2021) 012048 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/1055/1/012048
Figure 3. Cross section of tracks along with rack assembly to support the movement of machines
3.2. Locomotive method:
The track is designed to support the tractive movement of machines in such a way that those are
constructed along a rack above the tracks. Figure 3 depicts the cross section of the tracks. Figure 4 depicts
the locomotive mechanism of machineries. Legs of machineries are equipped with such mechanism and the
source of drive is the Electric motor that rotates the shaft of the legs to bring out to and fro movements as
per instructions received.
Figure 4. Base locomotive mechanism of the machines. This type mechanism is constructed over both
sides of the machines.
3.3. ATF-Ploughing Machine tool:
ATF-Ploughing machine is the specially designed detachable machine with an ECU which gets
instructions from CCU. It ploughs the land with respect to the type of crop that is to be grown as it runs
along the track. This machine is heavily designed in order to plough wet and dry land in any
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IVC RAISE 2020 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 1055 (2021) 012048 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/1055/1/012048
circumstances. ATF-ploughing machines are placed in the first division to plough that particular area in
that division. Once the first division is ploughed, it can be detached and placed in the next division to
accomplish the ploughing task. It can also do the task of mixing the lower and upper layer sand at the
desired time.
(a) (b)
Figure 5. Ploughing tool that is to be engaged to the locomotive machine
3.4. ATF-Seeding Machine tool:
Seeding machine runs along the ploughed area in order to place the various types of seeds for different
types of crops. It is facilitated to give enough spacing between the seeds. It also has the capacity to plant
the grass. Methods of surface seeding and deep land level seeding can be achieved by this seeding unit.
ATF-Seeding Machine also has the feature of adding the fertilizer to the specific spot of land. The inbuild
seeding machine ECU gets the instructions from the Central Control Unit.
(a) (b)
Figure 6. Seeding tool that is to be equipped with locomotive
3.5. ATF-Medicine Sprinkling:
A small removable robotic sprinkler which is loaded with pesticides is made to run all around the tracks
to spray them only at the spot of infection and not in a random way. It sprays the pesticide to the grown
crop and at times to the specific land. The defective area is detected with the ATF tracks sensors and the
information is passed to the central control unit and CCU instructs the sprinkler with the defective
location. Different diseases are monitored and specific pesticides are sprinkled at the exact place by
moving ATF-Sprinkler.
3.6. ATF-Weed Removal:
Weed taking machine has the facility to identify the weeds and the sucking arm removes the weeds and
throws them out without disturbing the precious crops. It is also used as a grass plucking machine at times
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IVC RAISE 2020 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 1055 (2021) 012048 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/1055/1/012048
and those grass can be used to further the farming process, if needed. The advanced weed removal
mechanism of Laser Weed Removal method is also incorporated in the weed removal tool.
Figure 7.Weed taking machine (Animated Figure 8. Irrigation methodology (Animated
imaginary view) imaginary view)
3.7. ATF-Harvesting Machine:
Different crops need different types of harvesting methodology. ATF-Harvesting Machine facilitates the
replacement of the harvester panel. Different sets of blades are used to harvest different types of crops
which can be fixed in it. ATF-Harvesting Machine harvests the crops and arranges them in discrete units.
Figure 9. ATF-Harvester harvesting (Animated imaginary view)
3.8. A Central Control Unit (CCU):
The Central Control Unit is the main system that controls all the activities in the ATF. It receives various
data from all components’ ECUs. Data processing takes place here. Activities of ATF can be manually
controlled only in CCU. CCU acts as the user interface with the ATF. Users can give information
regarding the type of crops that are to be grown and CCU gets all the required data from ATF-sensors in
the farming land and displays the quantity and types of seed, fertilizer and pesticides etc. to be feeded in
machines. It also stores information of one field or various fields which can be analysed or interrupted in
the farming process. CCU’s can be of any form ie: A Small handy device for a single field monitoring, To
control more than two farming lands a controlling room can be designed or a central device can also be
designed. It also has the facility to control many agricultural farms at a time. All the instructions to all the
ATF-Machines ECUs are given for the machines to work on different crop farming periods. CCU is the
unit which instructs and receives the periodic information about crop health; defective areas etc. users can
also alter the works in this CCU. CCU is the brain of ATF. CCU rooms can be constructed to control
several farming units.
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IVC RAISE 2020 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 1055 (2021) 012048 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/1055/1/012048
Figure 10. Data flow of ATF system-Block Diagram
3.9. Communication Protocol:
Range of communication between the ECU and CCU can be performed using the specific industrial
microcontrollers and the main server. Data and information can be sent from ECU to CCU or vice versa
by the transmitter and receiver signals. The periodical monitoring is done by the sensors placed between
tracks and within the ECU machine, which detects the soil moisture, humidity, temperature, crop health.
This information is transmitted and received by the CCU (main server unit) and stores the periodically
maintained data in the storage unit. Figure11. Indicates range of communication within the ATF
automated farming. The Electronic Control Unit (ECU) is fixed in all the machines to transmit the data
fetched during the agricultural process. The construction of ECU is made of an industrial microcontroller
to command, power source to supply power , driver to do the specific mechanical work , the transmitter
and receiver modules to get and send the signals to carry out the assigned work. Figure12 represents the
circuit diagram of ECU in ATF.
Figure 11. Range of Communication between ECU,CCU,WIFI SERVER
and DATA STORAGE UNIT.
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IVC RAISE 2020 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 1055 (2021) 012048 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/1055/1/012048
Figure 12. Circuit diagram represents the working of Electronic Control Unit (ECU) in ATF.
3.10. Image Processing Weed Detection:
Weeds control is the important problem in agriculture, In ATF image processing plays a major role in
removing the weeds by identifying the colour, threshold value and capturing the image with the perfect
edge detection. Edge detection is an image processing technique in order to detect the boundaries of the
image. It works by detecting the image by segmenting into parts and finally into a complete image. Image
threshold is also included in the image processing technique where the objects just convert the greyscale
or the captured image into binary images. Finally quantization eliminates the noise in the image and the
full image is captured in this process. Image Processing technique in detection of weed is simulated using
MATLAB, a scientific programming language and provides immense support using mathematical
formulas. Figure 13 indicates Detection of Weeds in agricultural land simulated using MATLAB. The
Computer Vision and Image processing toolbox in MATLAB determines the detection of the image. This
process can be done basically using a PI cam to locate the weed in the agri field and data can be
transmitted from the ECU to CCU (main server) and the output to remove the weed is given by CCU.
Figure 13. Detection of Weeds
in agricultural land using Image Processing Technique simulated using MATLAB
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IVC RAISE 2020 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 1055 (2021) 012048 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/1055/1/012048
Figure 14. Complete Flow of Image Processing technique in
ATFǯ
4. Ease of Use:
4.1. Pre-programmed labour free agriculture:
All the steps to overcome a successful harvesting in agriculture are pre-programmed. Different methods
for different crops all also pre-programmed from which the user only has to select the desired crop. Only
during the shifting of ATF machines at the time of alert, Man power is utilized in which at least one or
two workers is enough.
4.2. Sensing of farming land:
Many types of sensors are integrated in tracks and at all the ATF machines which gives the data about the
land, crops, moisture, temperature, health and defects of the agricultural land. Soil quality is monitored
and the type of crop, pesticides and fertilizers that have to be used is prescribed to the user.
4.3. Controlled Irrigation:
As we use sensored irrigation technique to the crop, only the required amount of water is utilized and it
results in water conservation. During the time of rain the irrigation system senses the water content in the
soil and water is supplied only at the time of need.
4.4. Periodic Health monitoring:
Health of the crops is sensed periodically and the accurate medicine is sprinkled only at the spot of defect
and not to the whole field which results in harvesting an organic healthy crop.
4.5. Portability and stability:
The tracks and machines are designed in such a way that they withstand all climatic conditions in a rust
free manner. ATF machines are portably designed for its shifting.
4.6. Easily Upgradable:
For different crops harvesting, different harvester blades can be interchanged. The machines that are
designed can also be integrated into a single machine and tracks can also be upgraded to removable
tracks.
9IVC RAISE 2020 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 1055 (2021) 012048 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/1055/1/012048
5. Significance:
Auto Techno Farming technique implemented on agricultural land increases the urban agriculture
production. Large scale agriculture can be easily maintained in both rural and urban areas. ATF
implementation increases the productivity of crops as well as it reduces the crop wastage. 70 percent of its
rural households still depend primarily on agriculture for their livelihood, with 82 percent of farmers
being small and marginal. By applying ATF techniques all around, we can assure the increment in
agriculture production percentage all over the world. Fully Automated Agriculture is the main objective
of the ATF concept in which even the uneducated of agriculture can also help in increasing the
productivity. Safe and Sustainable agriculture is attained with ATF.
5.1. Advantages:
ATF encourages the production in urban and rural agriculture percentages resulting in increased amount
of crop productivity. It is a fully automated farming that does not seek many labours. Organic crop
production can be increased (via sprinkling pesticides only at the spotted areas). Consumption of water is
in optimum quantity which results in water conservation. All the people interested in farming can initiate
and successfully harvest desired crops with ATF. Large scale farming can be centrally controlled. ATF-
Machines can be commonly used for several farming lands with fixed ATF-Tracks in each of the land and
the periodic growth of various crops is assured. Lack of rainfall or overestimated rainfall does not affect
the growth of crops. ATF is user friendly for both illiterate and literate personalities.
5.2. Applications:
ATF is best suited for Urban and large scale rural farming areas. Agriculture mistakes can be avoided in
the farming land. ATF can be implemented in areas where there exist lack of labours, knowledge and
presence of large and small farming areas. Agriculture can be established in metropolitan areas. Business
people can turn over large profits in the field of agriculture with the implementation of ATF at the
farming land.
6. Conclusion
The diminution of agriculture can be resolved by ATF machines with better quality. This could prove to
the world by increasing the production. The real benefit is it provides significant changes in farm
productivity. The appropriate machines are entrenched in order to develop urban agriculture. The
suggestion of preferred features are put forth which can improve the efficiency and can be brought into
reality. This Research article concludes the process of completely automated agriculture in large farming
lands thereby reducing the errors and with minimal energy consumption. This proposal, Concept of
automated agriculture is supposed to be an unique way of track based farming technique. This article also
described the method of approach towards the real time implementation of automated agriculture.
Wherein the establishment of new markets and industries possible once ATF is working with its full
phase on reality.
Acknowledgement
This research concept was encouraged and monitored by Dr. R. Shanthi, Professor, Department of
Mechanical Engineering, Rajalakshmi Engineering College.
10IVC RAISE 2020 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 1055 (2021) 012048 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/1055/1/012048
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