Line laser based sensor for real-time seed counting and seed miss detection for precision planter

Modern agriculture is heavily reliant on precision agriculture. To ensure the uniformity of seeding, inexpensive, and easy-to-use seed counting sensors are required. The information from those sensors must be easily available, transferable, and interpretable while the sensor should be simple, robust, and cheap. This paper described the development and testing of a new line laser based seed counting sensor for use with seed metering devices. The proposed sensor could scan the area (instead of a line) at the release point of the seed metering device. It formed a scanning area using a line laser and 7 phototransistors. The sensor had a HIGH voltage signal level raising time of about 500 ns and did not require additional signal or image processing software. The signal from the phototransistor was combined through the NAND gate and transferred to an Android device. All components used in the sensor were cheap and reliable. The sensor can be used in precision seeders for reliable real-time seed monitoring and fault detection.