Architectural design and performance evaluation of a ZigBee technology based adaptive sprinkler irrigation robot

•Robotics: The Study employed robotic skills to solve irrigation problem.•Zigbee Technology: Zigbee module communications were used for the effectiveness of the irrigation robot.•Design and Modeling: Engineering toolboxes were used to design and model the robot.•Sprinkler Irrigation: The whole idea is to solve problem of sprinkler irrigation in agriculture.•Evaluation: Water carrying capacity of the robot were studied. Irrigation is an assistive measure to salvage the problem of inadequate water for plantation and vegetation in dry places and during dry seasons. In this paper, the architectural design and performance evaluation of an adaptive sprinkler irrigation robot are presented. Two assemblies (transmitter’s and receiver’s modules) to be interfaced via a ZigBee communication were designed to enhance prototyping efficiency. The mechanical structure of the robot chassis was designed using SolidWorks and the assemblies with Arduino Uno microcontroller and ZigBee XBee module. Dynamic stress tests and fatigue analysis simulations were carried out on the designed chassis framework under varying loading conditions ranging for minimum to 50 N. The test results are consistent with the designed water carrying capacity of 5 L and can be deduced based on flow rate of the pump, that the water would be exhausted above 100 s. So a complete sprinkling cycle would last for about two minutes and thirty seconds. It was noticed that soil moisture content during day is lower than after irrigation has been carried out. The efficiency of the irrigation robot was also examined by the relationship between volume of water carried and the speed of the sprinkler robot. The presentation concludes with the system performance including the analysis of the water carrying capacity, distance of watering per cycle, and time requirements to water a given area of farmland.