Arduino based Automation of Agriculture A Step towards Modernization of Agriculture

Agriculture in the modern age is changing rapidly. The increasing global population and shifting trade policies affect the pricing, supply chain, and delivery of food products. Meanwhile, consumer preferences, especially in western countries are shifting toward organic food and sustainably-produced vegetables and fruits that require more labour. There are about 53% population of India is engaged in agricultural activities. The growing and changing demands that need to be met by an agriculture industry are now facing labour shortages and rising costs for farm work. The abovementioned problems can be solved by bringing automation in agriculture and thus modernization of agriculture came into the picture. In this work, the most primal goal of reducing the required man labour is achieved by bringing automation in various phases involved in the cultivation of crops. To achieve actions like ploughing, planting, and cutting, an automated vehicle is designed and controlled. Smart sensors and advanced communication technologies are used to achieve remote control of the vehicle. To reduce the amount of water wasted, an irrigation system is designed which waters the field based on the weather forecast and moisture in the soil. To achieve this, a mechanism is designed which predicts the weather and selects the crop for the particular season. A prototype is developed in this paper for ploughing. The vehicle is steered in all the possible direction using H-bridge driven DC motor. The motor is controlled using a mobile app and Blue-tooth communication between the farmer and the vehicle which will be in the field and thus achieving remote control. In this paper automation of vehicle for ploughing and planting is presented.