Seed Plant Drone for Reforestation

Abstract

The desertification issue in the Cape Verde Islands over the past decades has proven to be a very serious problem which concerns the entire archipelago. Erosion, inaccessible land and the lack of field workers is making agricultural production increasingly inefficient. This project seeks to construct a viable and efficient solution to improve the agricultural system and soil erosion issues in the Cape Verde islands. To accomplish this goal, we will build an autonomous flying quadcopter that will mechanically dispense seeds to restore the arid and infertile regions for agriculture. This project has three deliverables. The first is a custom-built quadcopter that will include an Autopilot board for control, a GPS for navigation, a radio controller to provide failsafe, and autonomous takeoff and landing. The second is control software that will communicate with a ground station and plot out waypoints, altitudes, and seed dispersal. The third is a robotic seed dispenser controlled by the Arduino.