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Design of automatic seed sowing Machine for agriculture sector

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DOI: 10.1016/j.matpr.2022.03.188

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Design of automatic seed sowing Machine for agriculture sector

Ratnesh Kumar a, Aadhar Govil b, Parth Daga b, Shubh Goel b, Saurabh Dewangan c,⇑
a
Mechanical Engineering Department, Marathwada Mitra Mandal’s College of Engineering, Pune-411052, Maharashtara, India
b
Mechanical Engineering Department, Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, Ranchi-835215, Jharkhand, India
c
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Manipal University Jaipur, Jaipur-303007, Rajasthan, India

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Earth’s population is projected to cross 10 billion by 2050, and the amount of food required to feed that
Available online xxxx population double of what we produce today. There is an immediate need to increase the efficiency of our
agricultural practices. This is ever more relevant in India, where an estimated 70% of population is finds
Keywords: employment in the agricultural sector, compared to 2% in a developed country like the United States of
Seed Sowing Machine America. During this study, analysis of seed sowing practices adopted by low-income farmers in the
Agriculture country has done. This paper utilizes the concepts of mechatronics and allied fields to develop a low-
Automation
cost machine that can automate the process to some extent. This machine will enable the farmers to
Mechatronics
Design
engage in alternative activities that generate income. By this paper farmers will have an option that with-
out their direct involvement, their land is being ploughed and seeds being sown. This automatic seed
sowing machine will traverse the entire area of the field in parallel rows. During the traverse process this
machine will dig up the earth and plant the seeds at the same time. Therefore, it will greatly reduce the
time spent in planting. The machine will carry seeds on board and can be used to plant a variety of seeds.
The spacing requirements of different flora is taken into consideration, and the machine will provide con-
trols for adjusting the spacing between consecutive seeds being sown. It will be run on wheels, which are
driven using a DC motor drawing energy from a battery. This machine aims to automate a highly labour-
intensive task for farmers lacking the financing resources to afford traditional farm machinery.
Copyright Ó 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 4th International Con-
ference on Advances in Mechanical Engineering and Nanotechnology.

1. Introduction perform farm activities by hand or by employing cattle, using hand

With rising population and increasing food consumption per
capita, the demand for food is expected to overtake our capacity
to produce it soon. Combating this issue is not as simple as allocat-
ing additional land for agricultural use, but to maximize the crop
yield from the existing agricultural land. India’s progress in this
field over the past four decades has been impressive, with the con-
tribution of increased agricultural use land to increase in produc-
tion falling. This has enabled the agricultural sector to increase
production with growing food demand. But a considerable fraction
of Indian farmers employs outdated and in- effective agricultural
practices to this date. Most of these are low-income farmers own-
ing plots of land less than 1-hectare area. They have been left out of
the loop of the advances in agricultural practices and techniques by
the high cost of modern farm machinery. These farmers to this day
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: saurabh22490@gmail.com (S. Dewangan).
or cattle driven ploughs, tilling the land, and sowing the seeds. All
these activities are highly labor intensive and time consuming,
with entire families working to cultivate the small piece of land,
it being their sole source of employment and income. This is a
far cry from farming in developed countries, where a single farmer,
using advanced machinery, can perform all these agricultural
activities over hundreds of acres of land. The major deterrent for
Indian farmers here is the high cost of tractors and other farm
equipment.
This work aims to study the requirements of low-income Indian
farmers, the ways in which agricultural activities, specifically
ploughing and seed sowing, can be optimized, and developing a
machine to automate the same. The main criteria here is to develop
the machine at a low cost, so that small farmers would be able to
afford it. This machine is not intended to perform the function or
duplicate the versatility of tractors, but to provide an alternative
piece of farm equipment to the farmers that cannot afford tractors
and utilize cattle to cultivate their land. The automation of these

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2022.03.188
2214-7853/Copyright Ó 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 4th International Conference on Advances in Mechanical Engineering and Nanotechnology.

Please cite this article as: R. Kumar, A. Govil, P. Daga et al., Design of automatic seed sowing Machine for agriculture sector, Materials Today: Proceedings,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2022.03.188
R. Kumar, A. Govil, P. Daga et al.
tasks will allow farmers to pursue secondary sources of income, all
without disturbing cultivation of their fields.
2. Literature review
Bamgboye et al. developed a manually operated okra planter.
The field efficiency and field capacity of this planter was 71.75%
and 0.36 ha/hr respectively. The seed rate was reported as
0.36 kg/hr with a seed damage of 3.51% [1]. A paddy seeder was
designed and fabricated by Gupta et al. with a field capacity of
about 0.5 ha/hr at a forward speed of 0.81mls. No damage was
caused by the metering mechanism for soaked seeds, but a 3%
damage was recorded for pre- germinated seeds [2]. Ladeinde
et al. compared the performance of several Jab planter types to
the traditional technique of seed planting. In terms of manpower
requirements and field capacity, the conventional technique of
planting and the Jab planters differed slightly. The University of
Southern Mindanao Agricultural Research Centre developed single
and double row planters that can plant a hectare in 6–8 h for
single-row and 3–4 h for double-row. A disc-type maize seeder
has been created that is simple to use and comfortable to operate
[3]. Ramesh et al. has discussed about different types of innova-
tions available in seed sowing process. The sowing operation
involves putting the seed in the soil up to a desired depth then
applying soil and covering the seeds with a slight compaction. An
optimum yield depends upon various factors like row to row spac-
ing, seed to seed spacing, seed rate and depth of seed sowing varies
for different crops and agro-climatic conditions. In addition, sow-
ing machines play an important role in the agriculture field [4].
Atul et al. observed that pneumatic equipment can be effectively
used for narrower spaces and they are easy to handle. The produc-
tivity has also increased by using this equipment [5]. B. Mursec
et al. have compared two sowing machines, i.e., pneumatic vacuum
sowing machine and pneumatic pressure sowing machine. The
performance of both the machines have been found similar in nat-
ure as far as seed sowing capacity is concerned [6]. Ramdas et al.
has used sensors in the field to monitor the moisture and phospho-
rous content in soil. In case of requirement, these things can be
provided automatically. This process ensures the proper availabil-
ity of water and fertilizers so that productivity can be increased [7].
Navindgi et al. have discussed about robot assisted sowing tech-
nique. The robot has AT89S52 Micro-controller unit [8]. A temper-
ature sensor is also connected, which detects abnormal
temperatures and sounds an alarm. A moisture sensor is attached
to determine the soil condition so that water may be sprayed
appropriately. Khan et al. tested the performance of a manually
operated multi crop planter in the lab and in the field. In the labo-
ratory, the factors studied were calibration, seed germination, seed
damage, and intra-row seed spacing uniformity, whereas in the
field, the characteristics studied were field efficiency, field capac-
ity, draught, hills populations, missing hills, and average seed spac-
ing inside the row [9,10,11]. During calibration, the average
quantity of seed in fifty revolutions of the driving wheel was
14.70 g. During operation, the planter dispersed one seed per dis-
charge at an average planting depth of 3 cm with a minimal seed
damage of 2%. It has an average planting depth and spacing of
3 cm and 18.76 cm, respectively, and has a field efficiency of
89.83 percent and a field capacity of 0.11 ha/hr [12,13,14].
Traditional methods of planting involve the preparing of the
field with a plough to form a series of linear cuts, which are called
furrows. Seeds are then dispersed over the field. This method has
severe disadvantages such as seeds not being buried at the right
depth or with proper spacing between them. The fraction of seeds
that lands in the furrows are protected from the weather, and rak-
ing the field or naturally occurring soil erosion ends up covering
2
Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx
them [15,16,17]. But a sizeable amount of these seeds go uncov-
ered. This results in fields having a large number of seeds planted
outside the furrows.
This method of plantation has several disadvantages, the most
apparent being that the seeds that don’t end up in the furrows have
a substantially smaller chance of germination. Many of these seeds
stay on the surface of the soil, where they can be eroded by wind or
eaten by animals. They either don’t germinate or germinate prema-
turely, or don’t survive the weather. Another disadvantage of this
method is the considerable wastage of seeds as the furrows form
only a part of the field.
Additional shortcomings of this method include the effect of
over-seeding. Crops require certain crop densities to prosper,
depending on the weather and soil quality. Planting seeds over this
density leads to a fall in crop yield. This is caused by increased
competition among the plants for the available resources like
water, sunlight and minerals. The mineral content of the soil also
depletes faster when more plants grow in the same area, adversely
affecting the health of plants [18,19,20].
Advances in technology led to the invention of the seed drill.
The seed drill used a series of runners spaced equally apart as
the furrows. These drills were able to excavate the furrows to uni-
form depths prior to planting the seeds. This improved the rate of
germination considerably. The drills had presses behind them that
cut down the walls of the trenches wherein the seeds had been
planted, covering them with soil [21].
The use of seed drills enabled farmers to control the depth at
which the seeds were sown, leading to fewer seeds germinating
early or late. This resulted in more effective utilization of seed
and time, leading to larger yields than what was obtained under
older methods.
This work details the design, construction, and evaluation of an
automatic seed sowing machine. The authors have studied prior
work done on this subject by fellow researchers and aim to build
on the same to design and fabricate a machine that finds real-
world application, something that previous works have only been
able to accomplish in a severely limited capacity.
3. Methodology
This paper begins with the study of existing methods of plough-
ing and seed sowing employed in farms today and setting the
objectives the authors aim to accomplish over the course of this
project. This study includes a detailed overview of the current farm
equipment used, both automatic and manual, and considering
their advantages and limitations as well as applicability in the sce-
nario of low-income Indian farmers. The study then proceeds to
offer a solution in the form of an automatic seed sowing machine
and defines the specific requirements it needs to fulfil. This leads
way to the formulation of an initial design proposal for the pro-
posed seed sowing method. After the finalization of the design,
the manufacturing phase begins which will yield a working proto-
type of the machine. This paper will culminate with the testing of
the prototype in real-world situations and appropriate modifica-
tions to the design and troubleshooting will follow.
The beginning of the paper was with extensive study of agricul-
tural processes, farming equipment and previous work done in this
field. It involved study of seed planting process and recent develop-
ments in automation. Also, part of the study was methods in which
automation can be achieved in the seed planting process.
Mechanical components that are required for the design of pro-
posed machine is seed distributor, frame, or chassis, hooper, DC
motor, mud wheel, plough, slider weeder and battery. Seed distrib-
utor is a device which will uniformly distribute the seeds in the
soil. In this design seed distributor’s is such that it contains slots
R. Kumar, A. Govil, P. Daga et al. Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx

Table 1 may be made of iron, steel or wood with an attached blade which
Radius of Shaft for Different Speeds of Motor. is used to cut and loosen the soil. Ploughing breaks up the rocky
RPM(n) Radius of Shaft(mm) structure of the soil which helps is root growth and drainage. Once
1 HP Motor 2 HP Motor the field is ploughed, the upper layer of soil is quite loose. There are
chances that strong winds or other harsh atmospheric conditions
60 23.75 47.50
80 17.81 35.61
will waste away the topsoil. The soil is therefore levelled again to
100 14.25 28.53 ensure is strong foundation. This levelling of soil is done with the
120 11.88 24.01 help of slider or leveller, which is heavy iron plate. Levelling of soil
helps in uniform distribution of water during the process of irriga-
tion. Levelling of soil provides appropriate temperature for germi-
nation of seed and prevents the seed from being picked up by birds.
Table 2 Used for removing seeds in vegetable gardens, a weeder is also
Speed and Time Required to Plough 1 acre of land.
used for breaking the soil crust and creation of soil mulch. Weeds
RPM(n) Velocity(km/hr) Area Covered(m̂2/hr) Time for Ploughing are harmful in many ways and a weeder serves the important func-
60 2.24 1792 2 hrs 15 mins tion of removing the weeds from the soil before planting.
80 3.04 2400 1 hr 40 mins Assuming the force required for ploughing of the field is around
100 3.74 2992 1 hr 21 mins 500 N and for motor with 1 hp and 2 hp, radius of shaft of the
120 4.52 3600 1 hr 7 mins motor is determined. Table 1 gives the radius of shaft of motor
for different speed of motor.
From Table 1 it is observed that with increase in rpm and capac-
on the outside (circumferential surface) of the disc. The slots are of ity of motor radius of shaft decreases. At different rpm time
equal dimensions that helps in uniform distribution of seeds. A required to plough the area is calculated and it is given in Table 2..
chassis is defined as the load bearing frame which supports the After the designing of individual components of the automatic
objects in its function as well as construction. The design of our seed sowing ma- chine, the various parts were assembled to form
chassis is cuboidal (more specifically trapezoidal) in shape. Hopper the CAD Assembly. Fig. 1 show the isometric view of CAD model
or storage tank is used to store seeds. The design of our hopper is assembly [25].
such that it contains a partition in between to collect two different
types of seeds. An Electric motor is a device that converts electrical
energy into mechanical energy [23,24]. Most of the electric motors 4. Results and discussion
operates through the interaction between electric current in a wire
winding and motor’s magnetic field to generate a force that rotates The plough and the slider of the automatic seed sowing
the shaft. Usually, off-road tires contain deep treads that provide machine are the most critical mechanical components of the
more traction on unpaved surfaces like mud, loose dirt, sand or machine as they will be subjected to the highest magnitudes of
gravel. The design of our wheels is such that the spokes extrude stress during operation. Thus, to determine if the plough and slider
from the outer surface of rim to give more traction on the unpaved design and material selection meets operational requirements, an
surfaces. A Plough is a tool or farm equipment that is used for turn- analysis of the stress and deformation of the two was performed.
ing the upper layer of the soil, thus bringing fresh nutrients to the This was necessary to ensure that they do not suffer considerable
upper surface. A plough is used for initial cultivator to loosen or deformation, or suffer failure, during their operation. Based on
turn the upper layer of soil for sowing seed or planting. A plough the results of this analysis, required modifications were made to
the design of the plough or the slider.

Fig 1. Isometric view of CAD model assembly.

3
R. Kumar, A. Govil, P. Daga et al. Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx

Fig 2. Stress analysis of plough.

Fig 3. Deformation analysis of plough.

4
R. Kumar, A. Govil, P. Daga et al.
Fig 4. Stress analysis of slider.
Fig 5. Deformation analysis of slider.
Static analysis was done on plough to find the maximum stress
and maximum deformation observed during the process. Fig. 2
shows the stress analysis and Fig. 3 shows the deformation analy-
sis of plough [22].
From Fig. 2 it is concluded that maximum stress developed in
the ploughing process is 312.11 MPa. Maximum deformation
observed during process from Fig. 3 is 0.883 mm.
Static stress analysis and static deformation analysis was done
on slider to find out the stress and deformation on the slider during
ploughing process. Figs. 3 and 4 shows the stress and deformation
analysis of slider respectively.
From Fig. 4 it can be observed that maximum stress observed in
the slider is 181.9 MPa and from Fig. 5 it can be concluded that
maximum deformation observed in the slider is 0.297 mm during
the process. All the stress and deformation were observed at the
critical cross section and are found within permissible limits.
5. Conclusion
This paper presents a comprehensive analysis for the automatic
seed sowing machine for agriculture field. In this paper limitations
of traditional seed sowing machine were discussed. Under this
paper designing of innovative automatic seed sowing machine
has done. Following conclusions can be made from this study:-
5
Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx
i. This machine is capable of sowing of seeds in automatic way.
ii. It is a low-cost design of seed sowing machine which will be
helpful to reducing the cost of agriculture.
iii. Through this machine variety of seeds can be sown and
wastage of seeds can also be reduced.
iv. The stress and deformation analysis were done at the critical
cross-section under ploughing condition, and they were
found in permissible limits.
v. In this paper time required for ploughing one acre of land
from manual and using automatic machine was compared.
From this analysis it was found that theoretical time
required to plough one acre of land is significantly less com-
pared to manual ploughing.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Ratnesh Kumar: Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing –
original draft, Supervision. Aadhar Govil: Writing – original draft,
Software, Data curation, Validation. Parth Daga: Writing – original
draft, Software, Data curation, Validation. Shubh Goel: Writing –
original draft, Software, Data curation, Validation. Saurabh
Dewangan: Writing – review & editing, Visualization,
Investigation.
R. Kumar, A. Govil, P. Daga et al.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing finan-
cial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared
to influence the work reported in this paper.
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