Rover for evaluate phytosanitary conditions in crops

The project is the design of a rover that measures the phytosanitary conditions of crops in large areas that are irregular in the Colombian countryside. 

For a good agricultural activity, it is necessary to observe the state of the crops to ensure a good execution of the activity, however the problem arises that not all arable land are flat and always present imperfections when making the treatment to the land to cultivate, where the best land to cultivate are in mountainous areas such as Quindío, Risaralda, Tolima and Neiva to give traditional crops such as corn, rice, potato and coffee that are the crops that cover around 50% of the cultivable areas in Colombia, where by the characteristics of these crops it is necessary to raise in areas greater than 20m^2 that are irregular, complicating the work of the Colombian farmer to be able to plant, rice, potato and coffee, where due to the characteristics of these crops it is necessary to plant in areas larger than 20m^2 that are irregular, complicating the work of the Colombian farmer to plant and to know the status of their crop for a successful sale in the market.

Colombia map on arable land. Source: Caracol Radio, Thus was the delimitation of the agricultural border in Colombia, [Online], obtained from: https://caracol.com.co/radio/2...

In addition, to covering large areas where traditional measurement systems fall short in line of sight and the measurement action is short on the ground, Moreover, the adaptation of electronic measurement systems for the phytosanitary status that want to cover these areas need a long network of wiring where you can lose real information of the crop and can be prone to wear by cultivation activities such as irrigation of plants, fertilizers and so on, for this reason the technologies are born both aerial and drones that become complicated to handle if you do not have certification or permits to fly over the airspace to monitor the state of the crop, as well as having landing zones that are not easy to adapt, for this reason it is considered that for irregular terrain of large areas and using the concept of the Rocker Bogie mechanism of the Rover for space exploration is proposed to solve this problem by covering the following problem question: 
How the adaptation of a space exploration rover can facilitate the action of phytosanitary monitoring in crops in irregular areas of large areas?. In this way, it is sought that the problem posed and the development of the solution may have these three main groups as the focus of the research:

• Including technologies in the Colombian countryside
• Economic growth
• Learning the use of new technologies

The robot works with predefined trajectories depending on the crop to be measured on the ground to check the phytosanitary conditions of soil moisture level, ambient temperature and humidity, PH level and luminance for the stem, where the farmer, not having great knowledge about the handling of the technology, can activate it through a voice command given by a wireless communications link to send trajectories and data collection in a mobile application, where the mechanism of Rocker Bogie, along with a PID control makes the trajectory more effective and can thus take data in real time. 

The robot uses a system that anyone can use such as an Arduino Nano, phytosensors (Temperature DTH11, Photoresistor, pH meter), gyroscope and bluetooth module for prototyping to demonstrate that the robot responds well to the communication link and enhances the control action so that it can evaluate the conditions of the crop, on the other hand the power supply of the robot uses a 12V Lithium battery rechargeable with a solar power source to power the robot, the Rover can be seen in the following image:

Prototype of Rover for the crops in different places to test it.

Similarly, the Android application is presented to control the robot by voice command using the Bluetooth communications link and the reading of the sensors to provide information on the status of the crops, its interface is as follows: 

Application interface, The application is open and can be found in the play Store for Android as ARDUINO BLUETOOTH CONTROLLER by broxcode. 

In this way a Colombian farmer can operate the Rover by voice command and enter the metric interface to have real information about the state of the crop on the sensors mentioned above, showing a real solution in prototyping phase to be a future product.

The Rover Explora serves Colombian farmers who plant their crops on irregular surfaces to support their daily livelihoods, as well as to provide the staple foods found in the current markets of Colombia's large cities. The farmer uses the Rover to explore the conditions of his crop in all phytosanitary issues, The solution will influence the implementation of new technologies related to pressure and conservation agriculture so that the crops of large hectares can grow in good conditions and preventive actions are taken based on the data sent by the Rover to the farmer, in the same way it facilitates the implementation to be easy to use technology with personalization system by voice command.  As a list of ways that the solution impact their lives it is consider:

• Crop Health Care: Crop care improves by 70% for harvesting and helps the health of potential consumers.
• Crop Expansion: Farmers using the Rover can expand the area of their crops because the rover can travel long distances and thus can have a benefit in the production for those people who are considered small farmers and can be competitive in the current Colombian market. 
• Inclusion of new technologies to the Colombian Countryside: 50% of the Colombian countryside does not have technologies to have good quality crops, so the Rover generates the inclusion of this system so that a farmer can manage it and see that their work can be optimized and can have greater benefits, also included as part of the digitization of the farming community in Colombia. 
• Combat the digital illiteracy: Approximately 65% of Colombian farmers do not have much contact with technology in various aspects of their lives, with this solution it is guaranteed that a farmer will learn to use a robot that has the purpose of knowing the phytosanitary status of the crops that he is planting on his farm and can take advantage of the data that serves him to have crops in good condition and can sell them to generate profits, in this way the Rover with its voice command helps the farmer to have an approach to technology and learn how to use a robot to do a task, showing that the solution is not only for the state of the crops, but also for learning and digitization of the Colombian farming community. 

The following diagram shows how the four impacts are related to the Colombian agricultural society: 

Ways of impact of the solution.

Victor Manuel is a person who is very interested in the welfare of people, so he likes to investigate current problems such as the problem of the crop because he has experecnia a year of research in the phytosanitary conditions of crops and also in the application of the Rover to do exploration tasks where he saw that you can apply this knowledge as a factor of innovation and creativity that has Victor, likewise Victor is a person who likes to help the community apart from the fact of identifying problems, Victor is a person who likes to help the community apart from identifying the problems, raise solutions and give answers that demand the application of his knowledge, as experience has some crops near Bogota where he looked at the behavior of the same and raised the solution, thus Victor guaranteed that understands and analyzes the problem, with his knowledge makes a possible solution to evaluate and offer when ready, in this way the critical process of any research that has the purpose of helping the farming community of Colombia from a small study to a larger study to solve the problem consistently in appropriate times is fulfilled.

The first step is to understand the needs of the population was to look for a problem that is currently present that could be seen in the news, in this way the problem was the state of the crops by the effects of climate change, that it is a real need and it is necessary to do a background search to see what solutions have been given to this problem in Colombia and in other parts of the world.

As a second step, it was observed that the solutions were identified in using drones or long wiring systems in crops, but the sustainability and cost factor was considered to make an accessible solution for Colombian farmers, within that the idea of making a Rover robot was contemplated because these robots are used for the exploration of environmental conditions in an irregular surface like Mars, in this way it was thought to create a Rover to do the same action but in the crop.

As third was defined that the population had to know how to use a robot of these in a very simple way, so looked for a group of people who do not know about electronics and explained to them the operation of the robot in a simple way, to be able to apply it to the potential user who is the farmer.

Within the group of the population to which the robot is explained the study of the target market is made by means of a survey to see if they like this project to give satisfaction on the problem, in case of being satisfactory the population shows that the project meets the expectations and in this way the involvement of the population that understands that the project is in prototype phase to later become a final product that tends to massification to respond to the problem encountered. 

With these steps a methodological map is developed which can be seen below:

Methodological map.

In this way it is understood that the process makes the project understand the need of the population in the search for information, the survey was made and validate the idea to continue with the other steps of elaboration presented to give a solution and give the guarantee of having a product that is functional and responds well to the needs expressed by the farmers in Colombia.

The solution becomes innovative in the market because it is the application and implementation of a robot that is normally used for space exploration that focuses on the phytosanitary care of large crops of irregular areas that are planted on the ground, where the user has the customization of the voice command to manage the robot in a simpler way where it asks for the action to be carried out for cultivation and its scope responds to the areas where it is cultivated to make a complete mapping of it, in this way it is seen that the project It is user friendly where it is easy to learn to use it and see that it is functional.

Another differentiating factor is the power source that can be recharged with a solar panel and makes this project sustainable by having a good battery life to have a functional system that adequately responds to the programmed functions.

For the mechanics of the robot, materials are sought that last when carrying out the action of monitoring the crop, with this it becomes a sustainable project that makes people want to acquire it because they know that the robot will not need constant repairs and will be profitable when looking at the state of the crops.

With this, the project has the factors of sustainability, sustainability and use of friendly technology to make it an innovative project in the market.

• Implement a long-distance communication system for large-area crops: A long distance communication system allows the rover to move through larger crops and that the information from the sensors is not lost along the way, also ensures that the farmer can expand his crop and that the rover will always be constantly updated with new changes that bring the farmer's crop and not need to buy another rover or a drone to cover those areas, so the rover is a solution that can change certain criteria to accommodate the reality of the farmer. To achieve this objective, a query must be made about the communications links that exist in the market, program the communications link with the guarantee of personalization of the voice command and put it to the test to validate its functionality at different distances.

• Create a database to store the data from the phytosanitary sensors: The data cannot be static because they lose their veracity to make decisions with what happens in the crop, for this reason this information must be stored in an easily accessible database so that the farmer can know the phytosanitary conditions in which it is each crop that is being harvested in real time with constant updates once a measurement has elapsed, in this way the farmer learns to use information systems as an impact on his working life and sees that the Rover provides him with information that will be useful for him He made decisions about his cultivation as an economic impact that will be of great interest to his personal life. To achieve this objective, a simple SQL database must be created so that the farmer has a good tool and the information from the sensors can be exported from variables that store this information in vectors from the microcontroller in their programming language and thus upload said data. in SQL with the date and time of the measurement carried out for any crop that the farmer has on his farm.

• Analyze sensor data to make decisions regarding crop status: The data from the database are a support for the farmer to have real and updated information about the crop, for this reason the analysis of the data is crucial to make economic decisions regarding the yield of crop production, decisions health from projections so that the peasant learns to take better care of his crops and is better prepared for any situation that may affect his crop, in this way the peasant will have the ability to carry out a better analysis of the real situation and thus have better crops from the data obtained. To achieve this objective from the same SQL database already created, it allows information analysis and the farmer learns to use this tool to have all the analysis methods required in decision making, from behavior graphs, data linearization and others that guarantee the real state of the crop.

In the same way, the Rover aims to change its physical structure to make it more resistant and have better technology to help the farmers, in this way the evolution that it has had throughout its development can be seen as follows:

Development of the robot throughout the project.

Where the last image of the sequence is the new Rover to be developed for this year and to validate its operation as a product that the farmers will use, the Rover started out as MDF but is in its second stage of prototyping but It is seen that the camera must be implemented for better recognition of the terrain and take better data to save in the database and have the solar charger implemented in its structure for the Lipo battery, in this way it is seen that the solution has a trajectory in research and always shows progress to solve the problem of farmers in Colombia.

The main technology of the Rover is comprised from components of mobile robotics in a suitable mechanism for uneven terrain as is the Rocker Bogie used by the Rovers that are on Mars, in this way the solution has the application of a mechanism for a robot to move properly in irregular surfaces where crops are grown and also to monitor the phytosanitary status of crops through sensors that send information to a Bluetooth application as a link of prototyping the robot to understand how to send the information in real time.

Similarly, the control action of the robot is done through predefined trajectories in the programming that correspond to the area of the crop that are sent by voice command offered by the application, thus showing the use of existing technology to provide an innovative and customized solution for farmers, for the trajectories a PID control is used with voice command that is represented with this block diagram:

Block Diagram of operation of the Rover for trajectories

As such, the entire Rover system is comprised of the following technologies: 

• Sensors for crops care: DHT11, Photoresistor, pH meter.
• Sensor for Rover operation: MPU6050
• Communication system: Bluetooth
• Hardware to use the Rover: Android phone with headphones
• Microcontroller: Arduino Nano
• Power: Initialing Switch to turn on the Rover, LIPO battery of 12V, solar panel charger 
• DC motors with low current consume
• Rocker Bogie mechanism

The solution is currently of no use to anyone because the Rover prototype is in the testing phase to improve the product in the future with respect to the opinions of the rural community in general, which was asked if they would see the use of this technology viable for their fields and if they would be willing to have this robot to monitor the crop, from this statement comes the study that must be done to know the number of farmers to whom the application of the robot will be significant.

In this way, the research data is obtained from a Colombian government source such as DANE in the part of the demographic census on the population, which can be accessed at the following link:https://www.dane.gov.co/files/...

But it can be seen that it is information that is out of date but it is used to make projections of the expected population so that the solution can serve them, in this way you can look at the graph on the Statista website (Link: https://es-statista-com.ezproxyberklee.flo.org/estadi...) and it can be seen that for the year In August 2022, there were 3.14 million workers in the food production sector, but this data is filtered to only farmers because in the study there are fishermen and ranchers, so the population remains approximately 725,000 farmers who are in Colombia, where the majority of the group have primary school education, where 75% of these farmers do not have machinery (graph 14 DANE link projected to 2023) to do their work, showing a group of 543,750 farmers who do not have access to new technologies In the same way, rice producers are discarded from this population because the Rover is a solution that has not been tested in this type of crops, which remains an estimated group. 13,773 rice producers estimated with DANE data, leaving 529,977 producers of other crops. But since there is too much population that is covered, we look at the application in the department of Cundinamarca, which is where I live, and we obtain the groups of peasants and the total to be served with the solution that can be seen in the following graph:

Study of the peasant population in Colombia and the population to be served

This population of 10,000 peasants is projected for 4 years in accordance with the legal policies of the Colombian government to execute a project, but it is true that it is a real population that adequately responds to the study and to the expected period of time for continue advancing in other points of the pyramid and take the solution from departmental terms to be at a national level.

• Market barrier: The Rover is a new product that does not have much recognition in the market for the technologies used for crops, in this way it is solved with marketing and advertising strategies.
• Financial barrier: The materials of both mechanical parts and electronic components can be costs in their acquisition for the production of a Rover.
• Cultural barrier: Many Colombian peasants are not used to the use of new technologies in their fields due to Colombian cultural issues such as getting used to the rainy seasons, but this Rover offers the opportunity to have a good crop and that a peasant can learn to use the aerospace technology in an activity of vital importance for the human being such as harvesting.

The team does not have any collaborator because it is a new project that has been developed for a year in its prototyping stage, but I have consulted interested people from the Catholic University of Colombia and other institutions to represent significantly this project, so the guarantee of having a collaborator is when the project has a product to give to the farmers.

For the business plan you can consult the following link: https://www.canva.com/design/D...

Where the description of the business and its key characteristics are mentioned in detail from the points of:

• Product
• Market Analysis
• Marketing Plan
• Financial Plan

In this way, the business plan document reflects the understanding of the solution with the peasants in order to solve the problem.

In the financial chapter of the business plan it is explained with figures of capital requirements, information for investors and future development that is desired with the project, with these data it can be seen that the project manages visible accounting information so that anyone can have Taking this figure into account and seeing that financial stability and sustainability is effectively met, the link to the business plan is: https://www.canva.com/design/D...