Low-cost wheel driven crop sprayer
Date
2022-05
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Abstract
Agriculture in Africa is an essential economic activity, employing about two-thirds of the
continent's working population. Much of the agricultural activities are confined to
subsistence farming; however, the machinery available to the majority of these subsistence
farmers requires significant manual labour, causing farmers to accumulate health problems
and experience low production capacity. Subsistence farmers engaged in crop spraying rely
on knapsack sprayers, which leads to many of them citing back problems. High costs of
alternatives, such as drone sprayers, prohibit their adoption. This study presents the design,
fabrication, and testing of a low-cost crop spraying device. The device reduces the load carrying effort required.
The user manually pushes a single-wheel frame carrying a tank and
allows a gear-chain system to operate the pump's lever automatically. The performance of
the prototype was characterized through experimental testing, revealing that the device can
carry a 50-litre larger tank while requiring a manual equivalent to 32% of the load under
firm mud conditions and staying below the 50% load limit for loose sand. Appropriate gear
sizing was confirmed to enable the desired flow rate of 1.2 L/min while the user walks with
a regular gait, e.g., an operational speed of 1.45 m/s.
Description
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 2022
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Capstone Project
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Keywords
agricultural technology