am a newbie...nid help on this one....

i've proposed to build an autonomous rice seedling sower....and i got no idea(specific ones) where to start....specifically, on what are the controllers that i should use...and all the other components...HELP!!!!!

well i think you need to worry about mechanism first. all you need to do is spread seed over the field am i right?

not spread actually...it's more of the traditional hand-to-soil planting but with automated robots...

Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't the seedlings submerged in water prior to planting? Will the robot need to retrieve these seedlings from a reservoir of seedlings / water, then submerge them into the rice field, which is also about 6 inches under water?

-Dave

yup..the seedlings are submerged in water...yup, there is a need for a reservoir that would hold the seedlings to be planted....also the robot must be able to float or at lest slide on mud and water.....:-s

sorry if i sound funny but a motor with reservoir mounted on top with few holes can solve?

Seriously daemotheo
I think you need a new project.

I'm sure I heard that rice is planted by hand because it so hard to
mechanise the process.
I believe the seedlings are quite delicate.

This project is much more about mechanics that about electronics.

A few weeks ago i saw a show on Discovery Channel called "Project Earth" And they were busy developing a way to do forrest replantation from the air.
They were using cannisters with seedlings inside them to be dropped from the air by pain or helicopter.

Idea

as EUK said, rice plantation is typical process. and whole process is done in two parts. and picking those baby plants.. is careful hand done process. a machine cant do this. if u have seen a manned vehicle doing?

I suppose you could design the process from start to finish, including growing the seedlings hydroponically in some sort of multi-seedling cartridge, say 4 x 64 or something. When the seedlings are ready for planting, they are carried to the fields (roots submerged), and transferred to some mechanized conveyor system along the edge of the rice field. This could be the loading and un-loading point for a mechanized planter that traverses the field with a fresh cartridge of seedlings, planting as it goes up and back - The plant would be too fragile to grip by a robotic handler, so you would have to use the cartridge - maybe some sort of water soluable container that could be gripped and inserted into the field, and the jacketing would eventually disolve.

It's always fun to think up imaginary things, but my guess is if you're really serious, you should narrow down the scope of this to something like an automated way of counting rice seedlings, or something like that...