AN INTELLIGENT ROBOTIC SOLUTION IS PROPOSED FOR A GREENHOUSE WITH
FOLLOWING FUNCTIONS.
1. Plant seeds or young plants at precise locations within the greenhouse.
2. Provide controlled and automated watering based on soil moisture levels or predetermined
schedules.
3. Dispense fertilizers or nutrients to the soil to support plant growth.
4. Continuously monitor temperature, humidity, light levels, and other environmental parameters.
5. Inspect plants for signs of diseases, nutrient deficiencies, or other issues.
6. Navigate within the greenhouse autonomously, avoiding obstacles and optimizing routes.
7. Collect data on plant growth, environmental conditions, and other relevant factors.
8. Enable remote monitoring and control, allowing farmers to manage greenhouse tasks from a
distance.
1. Evaluate the overall problem domain and list the key aspects of the problem.
• Evaluation of Problem Domain: The problem involves designing an intelligent robotic solution
to automate tasks in a greenhouse to improve efficiency, optimize resource usage, and enhance
plant health monitoring. The problem spans various disciplines, including robotics, embedded
systems, IoT, and agriculture.
• Key Aspects of the Problem:
1. Precision Planting: Accurately planting seeds or young plants in predetermined locations.
2. Automated Watering: Adjusting water supply based on soil moisture and schedules.
3. Nutrient Dispensing: Delivering the right amount of fertilizer to support growth.
4. Environmental Monitoring: Continuous observation of critical parameters like temperature,
humidity, and light.
5. Plant Health Inspection: Detecting diseases and deficiencies in plants.
6. Autonomous Navigation: Enabling the robot to navigate, avoid obstacles, and optimize
routes.
7. Data Collection: Recording plant growth and environmental data for analysis.
8. Remote Monitoring: Allowing farmers to control and manage the greenhouse remotely.
9. System Integration: Combining all functionalities into a cohesive system.
10. Scalability: Adapting the solution to greenhouses of different sizes and types.
2. Illustrate the proposed embedded system and label the main components.
• The proposed embedded system includes
the following main components:
1. Microcontroller: System controller
for coordinating tasks/ sensors/
actuators and environmental controls
2. Sensors: Soil moisture, temperature,
humidity, light, and vision for disease
inspection.
3. Actuators: Seed dispenser, water
pump, fertilizer dispenser, robotic
arms for planting/ pruning/
harvesting.
4. Communication Module: Wi-
Fi/Bluetooth for remote monitoring
and control.
5. Power Supply: Battery or power grid
integration.
6. User Interface: Mobile or web application.
7. Data Storage: Local memory or cloud integration for data logging.
3. State the requirement list for the proposed system.
1. Precise positioning system for planting seeds or young plants.
2. Sensors for soil moisture, temperature, humidity, and light.
3. Actuators for planting, watering, and fertilizing.
4. Camera and vision processing for plant inspection.
5. Autonomous navigation system with obstacle avoidance.
6. Data storage for environmental and plant data.
7. Remote communication module for monitoring and control.
8. User-friendly interface for managing tasks.
9. Power supply capable of supporting autonomous operation.
10. Durable and weather-resistant hardware for the greenhouse environment.
4. Identify the proposed robotic solution's inputs and outputs and draw the overall system
block diagram.
• Inputs:
1. Soil moisture sensor readings.
2. Environmental parameters (temperature, humidity, light).
3. Camera data for plant inspection.
4. User commands via remote interface.
• Outputs:
1. Actuation of planting/ harvesting mechanism.
2. Activation of water pumps and nutrient dispensers.
3. Navigation signals for motors.
4. Alerts/notifications for detected issues.
5. Indicate the physical locations of the relevant sensors and
actuators.
• Soil moisture sensors: Inserted into the soil near planting
areas.
• Environmental sensors (temp, humidity, light, CO2):
Distributed evenly throughout the greenhouse.
• Camera: Mounted on the robot for plant inspection.
• Actuators: Attached to the robotic arm for planting, water
nozzles for watering, and fertilizer dispensers. Also,
irrigation, ventilation, heating/ cooling and lighting system
actuators are used.
• Navigation system (e.g., LIDAR): Mounted on the robot's
top for pathfinding and obstacle detection.
6. Pre-design stage and selection of the microcontroller.
• Pre-design Stage:
1. Analyze functional and non-functional requirements (e.g., sensor inputs, actuator outputs,
communication protocols).
2. Study greenhouse conditions (e.g., power availability, temperature).
3. Evaluate constraints like budget, size, and processing speed.
• Microcontroller Features to Consider:
1. I/O Ports: Sufficient GPIO pins for sensors and actuators.
2. ADC/DAC: To process analog sensor signals (10-bit or 12-bit).
3. PWM Outputs: For motor control.
4. Communication Interfaces: Support for I2C, SPI, UART, and Wi-Fi/Bluetooth.
5. Memory: Adequate RAM and storage for data processing and logging.
6. Power Efficiency: Low-power operation for extended use.
7. Processing Power: Capability to handle real-time tasks and image processing.
7. Design stage and diagrams.
• Design Stage:
1. System partitioning to define
subsystems.
2. Define task priorities (e.g., real-time
watering vs. data logging).
3. Design algorithms for autonomous
navigation and inspection.
4. Develop software modules for
sensing, actuation, and
communication.
• Structure Chart:
1. Root Node: Greenhouse Robot
a. Sensing Subsystem
b. Control Subsystem
c. Actuation Subsystem
d. Communication Subsystem
• Activity Diagram for One Session:
1. Initialize sensors and actuators.
2. Check soil moisture; water if needed.
3. Inspect plants; alert for issues.
4. Navigate to the next position.
5. Log data and send updates.
8. Utilizing facilities, functions, and libraries in
program development.
1. Sensor Libraries: Use standard libraries (e.g., DHT for temperature/humidity) for interfacing.
2. Motor Control: Leverage PWM and motor driver libraries for navigation.
3. Image Processing: Utilize OpenCV or machine vision libraries for plant health analysis.
4. Communication: Integrate MQTT or HTTP libraries for remote control.
5. Data Management: Use JSON/XML for data storage and transmission.
6. RTOS (if applicable): Implement real-time scheduling for multitasking.
7. Error Handling: Incorporate libraries for debugging and fail-safe mechanisms.
8. Peripheral libraries: (e.g., STM32 HAL for STM32 microcontrollers) simplify the
initialization process.
9. ADC libraries: For reading analog sensor values.
