Design and Implementation of an Autonomous Plantation Layout Follower Fertilizer Bot for Advanced Farming

Abstract

More than 40% of the world’s population relies heavily on agriculture for their livelihood. In recent years, there has been an increased interest in the development of autonomous vehicles, specifically farming robots, to improve agricultural processes and yield. Traditional farming methods, such as the manual spreading of fertiliser and carrying heavy pesticide cans, can be labour-intensive and time-consuming for farmers. To address these challenges, we present a self-contained, intelligent farming robot that can handle these tasks quickly and precisely to help with these problems. Without the need for human assistance, this robot can navigate rocky agricultural terrain, ensuring that crops are properly fertilised and cared for. The proposed robot has six wheels and a rocker-bogie design, and it is run by a Raspberry Pi microcontroller. The bot’s main purpose is to move autonomously within a farm in a structured manner, such as a straight row, and to fertilise and apply pesticides to plants as needed. The bot also utilises computer vision technology to perform these tasks effectively. Farmers can increase their operational efficiency and save time and resources by implementing the suggested bot. Since there is no longer a need for manual labour, farmers are less physically taxed, and their farms are more profitable overall. The design and implementation of this autonomous plantation layout and fertiliser bot offer a promising solution to advance the agriculture industry.