The development of a robotic arm & carrier learning kit for farming

Thailand 4.0 aims to enhance productivity and boost economic growth. One of the challenges of this policy is to promote and strengthen industrial agriculture. Smart agriculture that incorporates The Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial intelligence (AI) technologies is gaining a lot of attention. The utilization of IoT and AI is not only essential and beneficial in the industry but also in academics. Learning content also needs to adapt and match society's needs. The study has been inspired by the aging society of agriculture currently facing in Thailand. The pilot development of an agricultural learning kit using IoT, which is learned and tested by students, is the challenge to represent a feasibility study before an actual project of smart agricultural equipment implementation. The development of learning material is characterized by low cost, high quality, and easy portability. The robot cars with line tracking ability using Arduino ESP32, serve as the learning material in which motors and sensors were attached to the left and right of the cars. Learners have chances to learn a program on how to control cars. They can freely operate the cars through computer programming and gain an understanding of learning principles. The researchers have prepared two robot cars. The first robot can move back and forth and is equipped with a robot arm that operates by a controller.  The second car also has a movement function and is fully loaded with vegetable seeds stored in small containers. The first robot picks vegetable seeds from the second robot, lifts them, moves into the farm field, and selects the appropriate location for planting. A field for planting where the robot can run is prototyped with the vinyl sheet with line tracking. The power supply uses dry batteries. Students can have the opportunity to learn programming, operate the robots, and engage in the design and development of the entire project. The error rate of the performance testing is less than 1% under the conditions of 50% or less motor speed and 200 grams or more loading weight.