Usage of the DFRobot RB-DFR-49 Infrared Sensor to detect maize seed passage on a conveyor belt

• Plantability test effects on the rates of agricultural production.
• We present the RB-DFR-49 Infrared Sensor for plantability tests purposes.
• Arduino UNO and RB-DFR-49 Sensor were used to obtain distances between seeds.
• Three different tests were developed to evaluate the system with RB-DFR-49 Sensor.
• Obtained statistical data prove that the sensor is a viable for plantability tests.

The seed detection process in laboratory tests, either during the seed fall or when the seed is already placed on a belt, is one of the biggest challenges on systems that aim to automate the plantability tests. This works presents the use of the Infrared Sensor DFRobot RB-DFR-49 for this task and, by using a microcontroller, to determine the distance between seeds. The results obtained with corn seeds show that the electronic system with the sensor, connected to the microcontroller, has enough precision to be used in plantability tests. A correlation coefficient of 0.9998 and slope of 1.03 were obtained, when the linear adjust was fitted with the distances measured between seeds by the proposed system and manually. Furthermore, we obtained an average standard deviation of 1.9 mm on distance readings, on a test performed with 45 seeds arranged along the belt, repeated 22 times, and on measurements with 1000 maize seeds, the sensor was able to detect more than 96.5% of the seeds. Thus, the DFRobot RB-DFR-49 Sensor can be used in systems that require seed detection, being precise enough for such tasks.