ARECANUT CUTTER

Since, ancient time agriculture completely depended on human resource. But now-a-days astechnology is growing farmer is opening himself to the modern technologies. From Tractorsto Sprinklers, machines are entering agriculture farm. Now it is becoming a shared effortbetween human and machine. It made work easier and faster, involving less human effort.Rural areas which are the actual agricultural areas, now-a-days facing a serious problem,which is the heart of agriculture that is labour problem. This is making farmers to over-depend on machines. We have seen several machines in the field which requires onlyhuman monitoring.

One of the major commercial crops of Karnataka is Arecanut. Here it is cultivated asGarden crop. There are two varieties of Arecanut: White Supari and Red Supari. Whitevariety supari is prepared by harvesting fully ripe Arecanut and by Sun drying for 40 to 50days. After drying the nut, the shell of the nut has to be removed by hand/machine. The nutderived from this dried fruit is called Arecanut/Supari/Betelnut. Red variety Supari isprepared by harvesting the tender (green) Arecanut and peeling the husk/dehusking. Thenut derived by peeling the tender nut are processed as per the variety required (i.e.,wholenut (idi/unde), two pieces (hasa/hasi/bette/chali, etc.,), 8pieces, etc) boiled incoloured water (Chogaru) and then Sun dried. The white variety i.e., Chali is mainly grown inSouth Canara, North Canara of Karnataka State. The red variety of Arecanut is mainlyproduced in Shimoga, Chikkamagalur, North Canara, Chitradurga and Tumkur Districts ofKarnataka.

Red variety Arecanuts are classified according to Areca ripening (growth). Tender arecais called Hasa/Hasi. Followed by Bette, Unde & Gotu, which is the fully ripened (grown)stage of Areca. Processing of Red variety Supari involves many stages. One important stageis dehusking. Since, it involves lot of labour work, farmers are facing problem in this mainstage itself. To overcome this problem dehusking machines are introduced. Many dehuskingmachines are available in markets which are intended to help farmers in a way. But thesemachines only give wholenut (idi/unde) without cutting. In market there is a demand for cutnuts like Hasa, Bette, etc., for cutting Arecanut, it again requires labour. So, there is a needfor Arecanut cutting machine.

This (My) proposed system is intend to cut Arecanut into 2 pieces. There are someproperties of Areca which we can utilize while designing, which includes:

Moisture Content of Arecanut Arecas can be classified on the basis of moisturecontent in it. Tender Areca (Hasa) possesses more moisture content followed byBette, Unde & Gotu stages, which posses less moisture content.

Softness & Hardness of Arecanut Tender (Hasa) is softer/smoother followed byBette, Unde & Gotu stage, which is hard. This is dependent on moisture content.More is the moisture content in Arecanut, softer it is.

So, by detecting moisture content/Hardness of Arecanut we can classify them & cut as ourrequirements. For example, if we want Bette, we need to cut Arecanut which possessesmoderate moisture, into 2 pieces.

Block Diagram:

Measurement of moisture content can be done in one of the following way: Using Humidity sensors Using Stress & Strain measuring sensors Using Image Processing Technique

Lot of Humidity sensors are available. We need to check the suitable sensor for our system.Some of them are: capacitive humidity sensors (HCH-1000 Series), low voltage humiditysensors (HIH 5030/5031), etc., for example: Wood moisture measurement sensors can beused.

Strain gauge sensors are available in many types including pressure sensors, loadcells, torque sensors, position sensors, etc.

Image Processing is a field where we can find better and faster result. Measuringmoisture content of fruits and woods are available, using CT scan and some othertechnique. We can incorporate it for Arecanut moisture measurement.

ExistingDehuskingMachine

Moisture contentmeasurement of Arecanut& Segregation

DehuskedArecas /Arecanut

Arecanut cutting machineHasa/ Hasi

Wholenut(Unde)

Bette

Wholenut is segregated from any of the above mentioned process. Arecanut cutting needsmechanical means. Arecanut cutter can be driven by driver circuit, which accepts commandfrom segregation unit to cut smoother arecanut. Output expected is Arecanut cut into 2pieces, either Hasa or Bette.

References:[1] www.campco.org

[2] www.sensorland.com