Flexible architecture to automate farm machinery operation: Preliminary results

A versatile framework for automation of sophisticated farm machinery has been proposed in this paper. The paper details the functional design and development of the hardware and software architecture of the framework for electronic monitoring and control of a complex system. The framework aims to provide a user friendly bridge between the digital world and the physical world and covers the core software functionalities for monitoring and control. The user interface is hosted on a local web server running off a single board computer. This interface is accessed by a web browser on a mobile device (such as a smart phone or a tablet) through a Wi-Fi connection. The computer monitors and controls the mounted sensors and actuators through an I/O extension cape. It stores all monitored data and control updates in a database. The user interface is updated regularly to ensure that what the operator sees is the latest information. The paper summarizes the outcome of implementing the framework using a few sensors and actuators in a lab environment.