Automatic onion plant, powered by solar energy

The machine will take care of the entire process of growing onion from soil tillage, seeding, soil filling with a capacity of 1 hour / 1.5ha, 4 times more than manual making.

The solar-powered purple onion plant is the research result of the student group including: Phan Thanh Hung, Nguyen Tam, Nguyen Quoc Tien, and a student of the Faculty of Science and Applications, Pham Van Dong University (Quang Ngai).

Three students of Pham Van Dong University, author of purple onion plant.(Photo: NVCC).

Nguyen Tam, a member of the group, was born and raised on the land of Binh Chau commune, Binh Son district (Quang Ngai). This locality is considered the 'capital' of purple onion. From a young age, Tam saw that people had to spend a lot of effort in cultivating purple onions because they had to mobilize many people.

When studying at Pham Van Dong University, Tam shared the idea and with his friends Phan Thanh Hung and Nguyen Quoc Tien to create an automatic onion plant to help their hometown farmers.

After more than 3 months of research, the group has produced a solar onion plant using solar energy.

Phan Thanh Hung, Team Leader, said that this machine uses a soil-digging mechanism with a head shape as an isosceles triangle attached to it as a translator to move up and down to suit the terrain. This adjustment is completely manual so users can easily manipulate and repair when having problems.

The seed picker is treated with a chain drive. On the transmitter with integrated spoons on the task of putting the seed into a funnel and from the previously hoisted hopper.

The movement of the machine and the actuator actuated according to it is a busy load and the solar load used for longer operation. After completing these steps, the machine will automatically fill the land again.

On each set, use a built-in sensor to change the speed to match the terrain. Finally, the car navigation controller is designed with the same structure as the car steering wheel.

'The group conducted a trial on a red onion plantation and the efficiency was four times higher than the productivity of a farmer. Within 1 hour, the machine can be grown on a land area of ​​1.5 ha with a distance of 12cm between the lines and beds' - Hung said proudly.

The group also calculated the cost of this machine to be about VND 6 million, which is perfectly suited to the economic capacity of the majority of local farmers.

Nguyen Quoc Tien, a member of the group, shared that the process of making the group met many difficulties such as the cost of making mistakes many times, materials that were scarce to be placed on the network. Once the group ran the test, the burnt sensor relay was the only way to bring the device back and continue to find the relay instead.

The group's automatic purple onion plant.(Photo: NVCC).

Associate Prof. Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Lam, Nguyen Phan, director of the Institute of Mechanics and Automation, evaluated the onion plant of the group of quite strange and interesting structures but needed more upgrading to be more effective.

'The drawback of the product is that the planting speed is now fast, but it is still not up to the technical factors compared to the manual onion. Therefore, it is necessary to upgrade more to complete the entire implementation process to meet the set requirements' - Associate Prof. Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Lam said.

The group members said that in the coming time, the production will be conducted to serve farmers and learn more to upgrade so that the products become superior.

The group's automatic purple onion planting machine has won the Encouragement Award and the Euréka Scientific Research Student Award organized by Ho Chi Minh City Youth Union in late 2018.