International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET)
e-ISSN: 2395-0056
Volume: 04 Issue: 07 | July -2017
p-ISSN: 2395-0072
www.irjet.net
“Design and Fabrication of Solar Powered Semi Automatic Pesticide Sprayer” Binod Poudel#1, Ritesh Sapkota#2, Ravi Bikram Shah#3, Navaraj Subedi#4, Anantha Krishna G.L*5 #BE
[Mechanical engineering], BMS Institute of Technology & Management, VTU, Bangalore, Karnataka, India, *Assistant professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, BMSIT&M, India ---------------------------------------------------------------------***---------------------------------------------------------------------
Abstract - Agriculture has a predominant role in our day to day life. Spraying of pesticides is an important task in agriculture for protecting the crops from pests. The conventional methods were person carrying a sprayer and manually actuating a lever to generate and pump the pesticide through a tube or a mobile vehicle carrying an inbuilt compressor and sprayer unit. Another major drawback in human operated systems is that the operator is exposed to the harmful chemicals while spraying which is extremely detrimental to operator’s health.
A solar powered semi automatic pesticide sprayer model consists of a solar panel, a battery, two DC motors, pump, container, microcontroller and zigbee device which is operated by a wireless remote( range of 30 to 50meters) which runs on power source as a DC battery(12V, 9.5Ah). The capacity of the container in the sprayer was designed with 4 liters capacity for an uninterrupted operation of 10 minutes with the discharge rate of 0.556 lpm. Analysis of solar radiation data from Bangalore showed that the sprayer can be best operated during 9 AM to 5 PM. The vehicle is powered using an onboard solar powered battery which runs down the running cost. Besides reducing the cost of spraying, there is a saving on fuel as well. The farmers can do the spraying operation without human interference thus protecting them from noxious chemicals. KEYWORDS: solar power, semiautomatic, solar energy, pesticide sprayer, zigbee
1. INTRODUCTION Agriculture has been the back bone of Indian and Nepalese economy and culture and it will be continued to remain as such for a long time in future. Spraying of pesticides is an important task in agriculture for protecting the crops from pests. In Nepal and India, near 70% peoples are dependent upon agriculture. Agriculture is a profession of many tedious processes and practices, one of which is spraying of pesticides in the crops. Solar pesticide sprayer is a useful machine which is ergonomics, motion stable which is more efficient to workers, and the energy source used in non conventional. Hence it poses a great scope in future. Present scenario in agricultural field in Nepal and India related to sprayer is that farmers are using hand operated sprayer or motorized sprayer. Fuel operated spray pump exhaust carbon dioxide as pollutant which has a detrimental © 2017, IRJET
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Impact Factor value: 5.181
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effect on our environment and human health. Hence, these conventional sprayers are not very efficient. This motivated us to design and fabricate a model that utilizes solar energy for spraying pesticides. Semi automatic solar pesticide sprayer which consists of solar panel, a battery, motor, pump, container and microcontroller is a 3 wheeled vehicle which is operated by a wireless remote which runs on power source as a DC battery. So with this background, design and construction of solar powered sprayer system was made. The control of the vehicle is achieved using an inbuilt microcontroller unit which is programmed to respond to the zigbee wireless device.
Literature review
F.Pezzi,V.Rondelli [1] The performance of a sprayer fitted with two vertical adjustable air outlets has been studied in vineyards investigating the effects of changing speeds(1400 ,2000&2500 rpm) and the direction of the air- jet (90 &120 backward angle of the outlet side deflectors in relation to the treated row). Isabelle Baldi, Pierre Lebailly [2]: Isabelle Baldi and Pierre Lebailly an epidemiologist, demonstrated in a study published in 2001 that exposure to a number of pesticides used on grapevines brought about a reduction in cognitive function (selective attention, memory, speech, ability to process abstract information) in winemakers in the Bardelais region. Burrell J, Brooke T and Beckwith.R [3]: Using ethnographic research methods, the authors studied the structure of the needs and priorities of people working in a vineyard to gain a better understanding of the potential for sensor networks in agriculture. The study’s larger purpose is to find new directions and new topics that pervasive computing and sensor networks might address in designing technologies to support a broader range of users and activities. A. Ruckelshausen and E. Wunder [4]: The scientists are working in the fields of unmanned or remote controlled autonomous field robots, navigation, image-based sensors fusion as well as agricultural ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal
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