Seed Planter

This seed planter was build to dispense seeds at a constant rate. This project could be used on small farms, gardens, or any type of landscaping. This project is made with an Arduino Uno kit and other household items.

Materials from Arduino

1. 1 breadboard
2. 1 Arduino Uno
3. 4 gear motors
4. 1 ultrasonic motion sensor
5. 1 motor driver
6. 1 switch
7. 4 wheels
8. 31 wires

Outside Materials/Building Materials

1. 1 cardboard box
2. 1 piece of velcro
3. 1 roll of tape
4. 1 plastic water bottle
5. 1 pair of scissors
6. 1 package of sunflower seeds
7. 2 straws
8. 1 stapler

When creating the Arduino board in TinkerCad, reference the picture, flowchart, and code file. The code has detailed comments explaining what it does.

Now it's time to wire everything on a physical board. Reference the TinkerCad picture when creating the board. Make sure to add 2 gear motors, 1 servo motor, a switch, and a digital sensor!

Cut out a 10 in x 5in piece of cardboard from your box. This will be the base of the robot. It also will be used to hold the Arduino board and the wheels. It also will hold the water bottle that is dispensing the sunflower seeds.

Take the two gear motors and attach them to the bottom of the board. You can use tape, but we ended up using velcro to keep the motors more stable.

Next, we will create the wheel axels with straws. You can tape the straws to the wheel or cut down the straws so they fit. Then, the straws will connect to the gear motors as seen in the picture.

Cut out a 14 in x 8 in piece of cardboard. Fold the edges of the piece by 2 inches on each side.

Then, create a 10 in x 2 in piece of cardboard. You can cut a square out to make a tab for the water bottle as shown above. This piece will hang above the tray and can be stapled with small cardboard strips as seen above.

After running the car for the first time, we realized we needed some stability. Create a 4 6 in x 8 in piece of cardboard and cut 2 holes in each of them for the straws. Then, tape them to the sides of the board so that the bottom of the cardboard piece rests on the ground. This will allow the robot to have more stability as it plants seeds.

Here are the cardboard pieces that you need to cut out:

1. (1) 8 in x 5 in piece (for top of robot)
2. (1) 10 in x 6 in (for back of robot)
3. (1) 3 in x 1 in strip (to connect top and back)
4. (2) side pieces (shown in picture above)
5. (1) 2 in x 2 in piece (for over ultrasonic sensor)
6. (1) 5 in x 2 in piece (for left of sensor)

First, attach the sides to the robot with tape. You can add the 2 in x 2 in piece and 5 in x 2 in pieces to above and to the sides of the ultrasonic sensor. We initially left a space so that we could adjust wires or switch if needed as seen in picture 1.

Then, tape the top of the robot. You can staple the 3 in x 1 in strip with the 10 in x 6 in piece to create a flap as seen in picture 2. This way, the switch in the robot can be turned on and off by simply lifting the flap. Now, use tape to cover any extra area to cover all wires.

First, cut out a small piece of cardboard that will cover the water bottle. Tape this onto the servo motor like seen above. This piece will keep the seeds from falling out constantly. Then, attach the servo to the bottom of the board with velcro. Last, use tape to attach the water bottom to the board. You can cut the water bottle so that seeds can be put into it.

Congrats! You have now created a seed planting robot.