A microcontroller-based plant-watering and pesticide-spraying automated outdoor garden mobile robot using neural networks

• Main Authors: Adriano, Mary Louise S., Alonzo, Raymond Immanuel B., Avendano, Kevin Rhay B., Hung, Mark Lester D., Valerio, Arielle Erika R.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2014
• Subjects: Spraying equipment > Calibration; Mobile robots; Pesticides > Application; Gardening > Equipment and supplies; Electrical and Electronics; Engineering
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_bachelors/11330
• Institution: De La Salle University

Robots have been significantly used in todays world to perform labor tasks for human beings ever since technology has advance throughout the years. The field of robotics has served as solutions for many different sectors of issues in our world, particularly in medicinal, environmental, military, and many more. Presently, we are faced with serious problems concerning our environment such as climate change, ecological imbalance, and pollution. As a result, gardening has become more of a necessity rather than a hobby. This study aims to develop an automated mobile robot that will navigate outdoor gardens in a controlled environment and predetermined path to be able to water and spray pesticide on plants when necessary using a microcontroller. The automated garden mobile robot will also be able to detect plants and its types through a vision system using an IP-based high resolution camera that is to be mounted on the robot itself. For the robot to undergo image processing and detect a plant and its type, the system will be using neural networks for its intelligence. A desktop PC will be used to interpret and process data sent by the robot through the use of a wireless communication module, and transmit another set of data back to the robot for the specific task to be performed. A proximity sensor and a line sensor assume the role of the predetermined path.