Sistema de monitoramento óptico da distribuição de sementes em semeadoras agrícolas

Abstract

Precision Agriculture (PA) aimed at managing agricultural production taking into account the spatial variability of crop for economic and environmental return, involving processes inherent in agricultural production. One of the activities in the production process is the seed counts. Determining the number of seeds being deposited on the ground by the seeder is relevant to predict the population of plants in the planting region. In southwest Paraná small farmers perform manually seed count in small regions planting to estimate the distribution of seeds. The development of tools to perform this activity is to avoid hard manual labor and provide a support mechanism for agricultural management. This paper presents the construction of a prototype to monitor the distribution of seeds, which can be implanted in the seeding distribution pipe. The prototype uses optical sensors, radio module, GPS and microcontrollers. The prototype presented good performance when tested under laboratory conditions for bean seeds, corn and soybeans.