Introduction

Farmers and/or manual labourers are one of the outdoor workers who are greatly expose
to airborne dust particles that may result to severe health problems. Farmers’ direct exposure to
the different particulates matter like palay grain dusts, have consistently been associated with
difficult respiratory health effects which manifest as chronic cough, chronic problem, reduced
lung function, shortness of breath, and wheezing. Aside from this, they also experienced too
much exposure under the sun’s ultraviolet rays that may cause to the occurrence of non-
melanoma skin cancer. Another setback that they may encounter in post-farming activities is the
costly payment in drying their harvested crops.
Bautista (2003) stated that postharvest farming practices are still human labor dependence with
just few operations using the available agricultural machineries. Mechanization in drying method
of agricultural crops such as rice and corn is at low level. With this, implementation of digital
farming with the advent of technology is expected in order to produce more yields with higher
quality and more efficient that is less dependent on the human labor force. One of the examples
is the study entitled intelligent robot for tedding unhusked rice that was developed by the
Chinese researchers. The objectives of the said project were to solve the harvest rice and it can
immediately dry in the warehouse. The developed device is made up of different kinds of sensors
such as smart vision sensor and intelligent sensor. This device includes computer processing
system, wireless connections, and servo motors in order to work. Hence, it only proves that the
advancement of technology in agriculture as well as its efficiency are very evident. Schmitz and
Moss reported that United States of America and Canada are some of the industrialized countries
that promote agricultural mechanization through the development of different machineries that
can substitute labor workers in performing agricultural activities. However, development of post-
harvest farming machineries in the developing countries must be the main objective in order to
minimize the rice losses.
Thus, the goals of this project are: first, to provide farmers and/or manual laborers an alternative
agricultural machinery in mixing and piling palay grains. Second, to prevent farmers and/or
manual laborers from too much exposure under the sun’s ultraviolet rays and occurrence of the
chronic and respiratory diseases. Third, to support the goal of the government through Republic
Act. No. 10601 or Agricultural and Fisheries Mechanization Law and Republic Act No. 8435 or
the Agriculture Fisheries Modernization Act of 1997 in the development and adoption of modern,
technology-based, cost-efficient, and environmentally safe agricultural machinery to increase
farm mechanization level in postharvest practices. Fourth, lastly, to contribute to the
development of new invented agricultural equipment as one of the most priority projects
stipulated on Harmonized Research Development from 2017 to 2022 of the Department of
Science and Technology.
In line with this, the unique and novel Solar Powered Palay Mixer and Piler Bot in this project
was developed to assist farmers and/or manual laborers in doing post-harvest practices such as
mixing and piling palay grains in drying pavements. Also, with the advent of robotics and
technologies, occurrence of chronic and respiratory diseases will be prevented and direct
exposure from sun’s ultraviolet rays will be minimized.
Materials and Methods

Research Method
An experimental research was conducted to determine the efficiency of Solar-Powered Palay Mixer
and Piler Bot in terms of the average time of mixing and piling using different kilograms of palay
such as 1,250, 2,500, 3,750 in a given constant area of 20-meter by 15-meter solar drying facility. To
test its efficiency, three set-ups with three replications were used.
Levels of acceptance from the community in terms of mixing and piling methods were also
determined through a survey form done by the select skilled farmers and/or manual laborers in the
locality. Also, interview was conducted to validate the performance and acceptance of the Solar-
Powered Palay Mixer and Piler Bot.

Locale of the Study

Municipality of Sablayan, Province of Occidental Mindoro is a top-rice producing town in
MIMAROPA, and this is where Solar-Powered Palay Mixer and Piler Bot was tested.

Collection and Preparation of Materials

To achieve the engineering goals of the developed device in this project, the following materials
were used: 2 pieces of DC motors with complete set of worm gear, 12-volts series battery, 1 piece of
Arduino Uno, Bluetooth shield, Pulse-Width Modulation, and exhaust fan, 100 watts solar panel,
connecting wires, switches, 4 pieces of electromechanical relay modules, relay modules, and
resistors, 2 pieces of circuit breakers, bicycle tires, and chains 24 and 16 teeth of bicycle sprockets,
angle bars, and PVC. Assembling devices such as metal cutter, hammer, saw drill, and welding
machine were also used.
Components and Functions of the Device Solar-Powered Palay Mixer and Piler bot has three major
components first the circuit board that consists of Arduino Uno, Bluetooth shield, relay module,
electromechanical relay, circuit breaker, and pulse width modulation, this serves as the brain of the
device. Second, the DC Motors; the device has two 24 volts DC Motor that serves as the movement
maker of the device. Third, the device has two attachments, first is for mixing palay grains and the
second one is for piling palay grains. The device was programmed by an Arduino Uno and controlled
by a mobile phone via Bluetooth connection.

Making of the Device

To complete the development of Solar-Powered Palay Mixer and Piler Bot, the following procedures
below were done.
[1] Assembly of the Base. This process is done using flat bar is cut together with the angle bar was
constructed. [2] Installation of Covers. Aluminum sheet is used as cover to secure the electronic parts
of the robot. [3] Mounting of DC Motors . This is connected to the gears that serves as movement
maker of the device. Installation of Solar Panel.[4] The solar panel is installed to charge the battery.
[5] Harnessing of Wirings. This is done to connect all the used electronic parts of the device. [6]
Mounting of Mixer and Piler Attachments. These are connected at the front part of the device as one
of the special features of the robot to mix and pile palay grains.