Analog/digital input for motors.

Greetings everyone.
I'm working on making an automatic seed sowing machine.
For that i would like to introduce a system in which the farmer would have to input their field size and then the machine automatically starts to cover the whole field.

For example if i input 100 (rows) x40 (colums) as my field size then the machine should go 100 units in the forward direction then take a u-turn and come back 100 units and continues to do that untill it finishes all the 40 colums.

For this i was wondering, what type of device should be used so that the farmer can input the field size into it and it could forward that value to arduino which would in turn guide the motors to move for that specific distance.

I'm a bit confused myself so i couldn't explain it better then this, please ask question if you don't understand what I'm trying to say.

Ps. I would be needing help with the coding as well.
Thanks

Most modern farmers carry smart phones, so I guess you should start there.

Paul

A LCD display and a 4x4 keypad is another way.

Spend some more time working on the farm. Planting seeds is a 3-dimentional operation. The depth of planting depends on the type of plant. Corn needs to be a couple of inches deep, but carrots need to be 1/8 inch. Also the earth needs to be compacted around the seed, ie. corn, but carrots need very loose soil.

Paul

Paul_KD7HB:
Most modern farmers carry smart phones, so I guess you should start there.

Paul

Thats a pretty nice suggestion but it can get pretty complicated, coding and application wise. P. S from where I'm from, our farmers are not smart enough to use a smart phone and would rather opt for something more simple.

Paul_KD7HB:
Spend some more time working on the farm. Planting seeds is a 3-dimentional operation. The depth of planting depends on the type of plant. Corn needs to be a couple of inches deep, but carrots need to be 1/8 inch. Also the earth needs to be compacted around the seed, ie. corn, but carrots need very loose soil.

Paul

Exactly! In my first prototype I'm only using arduino to control the mobile robot that would be roaming off in the field, although in the 2nd prototype I'd be using it to properly control the sowing mechanism as well, so any suggestions related to it our more then welcome. The seed that I'm going to plant is sorghum.

groundFungus:
A LCD display and a 4x4 keypad is another way.

This would be much better, I'll try the coding bymeslf atfirst, if i get stuck anywhere I'll update my comment.
Thanks alot for the reply

Start with building a robot that can travel in a straight line on a level floor by itself. That alone is hard enough.

Then the U-turn.

Next do the same on an irregular surface, such as a plowed farm field.

Just enter the distance and rows in your code. Accurately doing 40 rows of 100 units on irregular terrain (I do assume you're looking for deviations of less than a few cm over the complete row, as seeds are typically planted some 5-20 cm apart) will prove a huge challenge. Even if you build a fixed guidance system for the robot to follow into the same field.

If you've succeeded in this, the rest will follow fairly easily. Add the sowing mechanism, the keypad for input, whatever you think it needs. But don't bother wasting your time on that before you get the robot to actually travel a field by itself.