Drone and Robot Technology in Agriculture

This course will enable students know control, tools, programming languages, sensors and actuators involved in automation; design and use of robots and drones in agriculture. Students are expected to be able to: 1. Identify and explain the forms of automation and its control systems, automation tools and various computer programming languages; 2. Explain the types and application of sensors; 3. Design and select sensors and actuators; 4. Describe and explain the types, classification and architecture of drones; 5. Explain the types, characteristics and advantages of agricultural robots; 6. Apply drones and robots in agriculture; and 7. Evaluate the performance, accuracy and repeatability of robots.

Automation: Introduction to automation. Control systems: open-loop and closed-loop, feedback control, logic control, on-off control and linear control systems. Control actions: discrete control (on/off); PID controller; sequential control and logical sequence or system state control; computer control. Automation tools: artificial neural network (ANN); distributed control system (DCS); human machine interface (HMI); robotic process automation (RPA); supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA); programmable logic controller (PLC); instrumentation; motion control; robotics. Programming languages: introduction to programming language; Matlab programming, R programming, C, C# and C++ programming, Java and Java Script programming and Python programming. Sensors and actuators: introduction to sensors, types and applications. Design and selection of sensors. Introduction to actuators, types and applications. Design and selection of actuators. Drones or Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs): Introduction, types and classification of drones. Architecture (components) of a drone: flight controller; electronic speed controller (ESC); battery; radio transmitter/receiver; antenna; propellers; electric motor; camera and its accessories.; ground station; intelligent sensors; intelligent battery; GNSS and RTK module. Advantages and disadvantages of drones. Design and selection of drones. Working principles of a drone. Performance considerations criteria of a drone. Application of drones in agriculture. Robots: Introduction, types and characteristics of agricultural robots (Agribot). Primary areas of robotics: operator interface; mobility or locomotion; manipulators and effectors; programming; sensing and perception. Advantages and disadvantages of robots. Robot design process. Design of components of agricultural robots: end effectors; grippers; manipulators. Operating principles of an agricultural robot. Performance evaluation of robots: productive time, overhead time and working efficiency index. Accuracy and repeatability of a robot. Application of robot to agriculture.