Inspired by the ‘Seed Planting Drone’ concept from Emily Jackson at St. James C E Primary Academy, the ‘Automated Seed Planting System’ is a prototype designed by six students from University of Southampton. The aim is to plant a range of seeds to enhance soils and increase biodiversity in areas of land where labour & budgets are limited.

What has happened since the last update?

The Automated seed-planting system eco-design: ‘GERMINATOR’

• Enhances soil quality by sensing soil nutrient levels (Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium) to select seeds for soil-enhancing plants, and,
• Enhances biodiversity by planting a specific mix of seeds simultaneously, to avoid monoculture.

The seed metering system design was assembled and tested.

The Powertrain was designed, to be able to handle a 10% incline and maintain stability on uneven terrain, as well as travel over small ground obstacles (e.g. stones).

Issues in testing the Powertrain:

• The drive belt would become loose and would no longer provide traction.
• Bolts within the wheel assembly would tighten up.

Modification: An additional belt positioning part was added which increases the contact between the motor pulley and the belt.

Test Performance

• Slower than the maximum intended speed (~5 km/h)
• Can travel up an incline of 9.5º
• Able to overcome obstacles of 5 cm

Testing was undertaken with

1. Different soil/terrain types
2. Different seed sizes

Results showed

• Smaller seeds were more consistently dispensed
• Typically, seeds were dispensed on 86% system actuations
• Fairly consistent planting depths
• Typical sowing depth error: 0.67 mm

Prototype features:

• Safety: Emergency stop button
• Terrain adaptability: Can traverse uneven terrain, and up to 16.7% inclination
• Autonomous operation: Partially Automated
• Low end-of-life impact: Recyclable and reusable materials
• Portable size and weight: Compact for transportation and storage
• Power Consumption: Average of 145.89 W
• As queried in the Q&A at St. James C E Primary Academy, a removable, weatherproof top section is now part of the design.
• Soil sensing is in place to measure soil quality.

Prototype Unveiling!

The finished prototype was officially unveiled on 13th June 2024 at University of Southampton for our South England Award Ceremony and Public Exhibition. Pupil designer, Emily, loved seeing her idea brought to life in what was a fantastic unveiling!

The post University of Southampton’s ‘Seed Planting Drone’ prototype unveiled first appeared on Primary Engineer.

Inspired by the ‘Seed Planting Drone’ concept from Emily Jackson at St. James C E Primary Academy, the ‘Automated Seed Planting System’ is a prototype designed by six students from University of Southampton. The aim is to plant a range of seeds to enhance soils and increase biodiversity in areas of land where labour & budgets are limited.

The soil conditions are sensed by the robot. Users also make some choices and the best seeds are chosen with some help from software. Referring to a database, the robot knows how deep to plant each type of seed and adjusts its mechanism.

The robot will need to be programmed to plant seeds in a pattern to suit the shape of the land area and the spacing needed for each type of seed. The robot can plant any mix of 4 types of seeds to the correct depth and spacing.

The student group visited Emily Jackson’s class at St. James C E Primary Academy to show their design and parts of their prototype build. They were asked a number of interesting questions, including, ‘what happens when it rains?’ They are now designing a body for the robot.

The student group hosted a University of Southampton Science and Engineering Day activity ‘Humans Vs Robots: Time to Plant Seeds’ on 16 March. Visitors, including Emily Jackson, were challenged to see how many seeds they could plant in a regular pattern in 30 seconds.

Problems/obstacles faced/overcome/anticipated

Some seeds are irregular shapes. The seeding dispenser needs some more powerful motors to ensure it does not get stuck.

Permission is needed to test the robot by planting seeds on ground near the workshop in the School of Engineering.

Next steps – planning

As the robot system parts are fully assembled together, we shall soon see how many seeds the robot will plant in a given time – whether it is faster than humans, or more accurate, or both.

Feedback can also be sought from a local City Farm. They can offer their expert opinion on how good the robot needs to be at planting different seeds, to ensure everyone would think it is a good design.

The finished prototype will be officially unveiled on 13th June 2024 at University of Southampton for our South England Award Ceremony and Public Exhibition.

The post University of Southampton mid-way prototype update first appeared on Primary Engineer.

University of Southampton are a University Prototyping Partner for South England as part of our annual engineering competition which asks pupils aged 3-19 ‘If you were an engineer what would you do?’ and encourages pupils come up with creative solutions to real-world problems.

University of Southampton have selected his design to turn into a prototype over the 2023/2024 academic year which will be unveiled at the next South England Awards Ceremony and Public Exhibition during the Summer term.

They chose this design because it addressing biodiversity and soil condition through suitable planting is difficult in some places, until planting can improve soil condition and (re-)introduce native plants, encouraging further insects and animals.

Travelling over land is also difficult and so proposing a drone which dispenses seeds in a controlled way (one by one as Emily says) from the air, could be more efficient than manual planting and cover land which is difficult to access.

Considering not having to refill the seeds for one day is also an important suggestion, so there is less need to stop planting and take time to refill.

There are worthwhile engineering challenges in understanding the situations where seed planting is needed – not likely to be planted by other methods – and to design a suitable device to efficiently automate the planting

Beginning the prototype

The University of Southampton School of Engineering offers challenging Group Design Projects to final year undergraduate students.

Six students decided to pursue the design of an automated seed planting robot, inspired by the ‘Seed Planting Drone’ concept: J Kee Kok (Mechanical Engineering), Kang Jie Lee (Mechanical Engineering), Jan Patel (Civil Engineering), Josh Pinker (Mechanical Engineering), Josh Shearing (Mechanical Engineering), Ser Lin Ung (Mechanical Engineering).

Lee had relevant experience working with Aldermoor Community Farm in designing a rainwater harvesting system, and he also had an interest in make a robot suitable to enhance the environment.

The GDP team’s initial approach was to understand the benefits of planting to enhance soil condition and biodiversity through researching existing technology and interviewing academics, local councillors (picture with Councillor Steve Leggett) and those working on two local community farms.

They began also with sketching design ideas for holding and planting seeds, realising that different seeds are more likely to grow if the seeds are sown at different depths. Although in a few areas in the world, seeds can be scattered from the air (as Emily imagined), many seeds would need to be inserted into a hole or furrow in the soil using a ground-based vehicle.

The initial concepts compare different systems for counting out a range of seeds to plant them in a spacing apart that suits their growth and leaving soil covering them at a suitable depth.

The team plans to test some of the options using Discrete Element Modelling, Finite Element Analysis (stress analysis), and Solidworks (CAD) motion studies. In addition, there will be some Fused Deposition Modelling prototypes manufactured to see which designs work best. Once all these steps are complete the full seed-dispensing / planting system will be manufactured.

The team hope to visit Emily and her class at James C E Primary Academy to discuss their ideas and how they are addressing the challenges of the project, as part of their learning towards becoming a professional engineer.

We can’t wait for the next update on this prototype.

The post University of Southampton creating the Seed Planting Drone first appeared on Primary Engineer.