Description: Field of Invention
The present invention relates to assessing soil properties, crop health monitoring and remove unwanted weeds in the agricultural farm.
Background of the Invention
Agriculture is an ancient occupation and the very basis of human existence. It is just not only growing the required food but also a livelihood business for the farmers. Keeping the crop healthy right from sowing the seed to obtaining the yield is very challenging. Many aspects like soil moisture, temperature, humidity, type of crop and its life cycle must be taken into consideration while planning to farm in a particular season. Analyzing the demography of soil for obtaining statistical data related to the presence of microbes, organic matter oxygen and carbon dioxide concentration, soil PH, soil depth, porosity etc., is very important in farming.
While automation has revolutionized various industrial sectors, automation in agricultural sector is very limited. For instance US20170032258A1 discloses a procedure to collect images and stored human assessment of the state of each plant. It also talks about models to be developed to predict the future health of the plants in a crop. Automation can be incorporated in this area to obtain maximum production with little usage of chemical fertilizers effecting nature. Autonomous rover can be used for enhancing irrigation, protecting farm lands and health monitoring. The agricultural rover fitted with a camera moves around the field to collect data related to soil demography. These images can be processed using algorithms and the data obtained can be used to factors like nutrition quotient and predict the diseases which would affect the crop or the types of crops that can be grown in a particular region basing on the soil moisture content and porosity. These identifications can be shared with the farmer helping him in better productivity.
Owing to the environmental pollution in the current age, detecting the heavy metal, carbon and plastic and other chemical deposits in the soil is very important. The data retrieved from processing the images can also be used to check for the presence of lethal metals in the soil. With the existing technology we are able to collect soil demography with respect to organic matter but detecting heavy metal deposits in soil at microscopic level needs high resolution camera and better mobility.

Summary of the Invention
Focusing on the urgency for detecting the micro deposits of lethal elements in soil, this automated rover would contain a high resolution camera and comes with 3600 mobility of the arm.
The rover would also contain a weed remover which instantly plucks the weeds after detecting them through inbuilt image processing.
The specific objective of the invention is to design a rover which is able to procure soil demography, monitor crop health and also remove weeds instantly.
A further specific objective is to identify metal deposits in the soil and estimate the soil capacity of yielding.
Brief Description of Drawings
The invention will be described in detail with reference to the exemplary embodiments shown in the figure wherein:
Figure 1 Pictorial representation of rover for crop health monitoring
Detailed Description of the Invention
The embodiments of the present disclosure provide rover for crop health monitoring which moves around the field and captures images of soil and the plants. The rover was designed based on the following criteria i) The demography of the soil must be studied to know the nutrients present in the soil for better yield. Ii) The rover should be able to instantly pluck the weeds in the crop to avoid damage to the crop.
With reference to the figure 1 the “Rover for crop health monitoring” is provided in accordance with the embodiment of the present disclosure. A robotic manipulator (1) is attached to the a base mount (4) which is capable of rotation in 3 degrees of freedom. A camera (2) is attached at the end of the arm which is used for capturing images. A plucker (3) is attached below the camera for removing weeds at the end of the robotic arm. This setup is mounted on a drive platform (5) which enables free movement of the rover in the field.
In accordance with the embodiment of the disclosure, the rover comprises of LiDAR unit and a depth camera which can estimate the demography of the soil. The digital camera feeds the live stream of the image/video stream of the crop and captured to the PC. This can be viewed and also sent on different systems through Web. The robotic manipulator and the weed plucker has 3 degrees of freedom mounted on a drive platform with dynamic servos that can perform soil analysis and sampling using the image processing. The vision based monitoring can be achieved by using the camera. The soil moisture sensor consisting of 2 probes that measure the volumetric content of water under the soil. A soil wetness detector measures the moisture content in the soil. The soil moisture content , LiDAR sensor values are sent to the IoT Cloud and these values can be analyzed using the sensor plots. The LiDAR sensors would be able to identify the wanted and unwanted plants. The manipulator can also be used to perform nutrient test and identify metal deposits in the soil that makes it useful for choosing the type of crop to be sown in the field. The movement of the rover will be controlled by control unit (5) interfaced with a computer.
The crop monitoring and assessment system comprises a firsthand database that receives and stores expert analysis of the state of each plant. A trained data-set is generated using the data processing unit over a period of time which is coupled with the firsthand database system. Further, the human analysis and the data-set are amalgamated to a expert data file. A mobile sensory platform (5) comprising sensors is used to capture crop assessment sensor data for each plant. The data processing unit classifies the sensor data from each plant based on the coupled data derived from the firsthand data-set and the expert analysis. Once an unwanted plant is observed or labeled as weed, the weed plucker immediately plucks the same to avoid unhealthy crop. Different types of sensors available are physiological sensors, surface analysis sensors(like soil moisture detector) and chemical sensors(for detecting minerals) for example.
The mobile sensory platform is a ground-based wheeled vehicle. (5). The initial screening of the plant data/soil data is done by the mobile sensory platform. These are then transmitted to the data processing unit. This is analyzed using cloud based algorithms for assessing the crop and soil. A predictive model can be developed using the sensor data captured at regular time intervals which would be advantageous for the farmers. This information can be used for various purposes for example, type of crops to be sown, removing the weeds, infection in the crop etc.,
5 Claims & 1 Figure , Claims: The scope of the invention is defined by the following claims:

Claim:
1. A Rover for Crop Health Monitoring comprising:
a) A robotic manipulator (1) attached to the a base mount (4) which is capable of rotation in 3 degrees of freedom.
b) A camera (2) attached at the end of the arm which is used for capturing images and a plucker (3) is attached below the camera for removing weeds at the end of the robotic arm.
c) The setup is mounted on a drive platform (5) which enables free movement of the rover in the field.
2. As mentioned in claim 1, the mounting assembly is used to fix the robotic manipulator for enabling the camera to capture images of the filed.
3. According to claim 1, the plucker attached to the robotic arm is used to weed off the crop and maintain crop health.
4. As per claim 1, the guidance system i.e., camera is used to monitor the whole operation which is operated by the control unit interfaced with the computer.
5. As per claim 1, the combined usage of camera along with weed plucker enables the ease of estimating soil performance and choose the crops wisely.