Semi-autonomous agricultural crop sprayer for medium-scale farms in Ghana

Group Capstone Project submitted to the Department of Engineering, Ashesi University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering, May 2022Most small-scale farmers in Ghana that have transitioned into medium-scale farming are currently using lever-operated Knapsacks for fertilizer/pesticide application. For farm sizes above five hectares, it becomes inefficient and labour intensive, resulting in health issues. Efficient methods like drones and tractors are expensive. Hence, the need to design and fabricate a cost-effective, semi-autonomous sprayer with low labour intensity. This project designs and fabricates a mechanical system equipped with a nozzle and navigation control system. The nozzle system turns the nozzles on and off and directs the crop sprayer via Bluetooth. The nozzle control system also has flow sensors that measure the flow rate from each nozzle. Results obtained from testing the system show that the on and off control of one nozzle increases the flow rate in the other nozzle, which can be attributed to an increase in pressure. Also, the cost of automating the system is cost-effective for medium-scale farmers. The system was able to control the nozzles for potential savings for farmers while reducing manual labour.Ashesi Universit