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The Graduate Review

Abstract

The desertification issue in the Cape Verde Islands over the past decades has proven to be a very serious problem which concerns the entire archipelago. Erosion, inaccessible land and the lack of field workers is making agricultural production increasingly inefficient. This project seeks to construct a viable and efficient solution to improve the agricultural system and soil erosion issues in the Cape Verde islands. To accomplish this goal, we will build an autonomous flying quadcopter that will mechanically dispense seeds to restore the arid and infertile regions for agriculture.

This project has three deliverables. The first is a custom-built quadcopter that will include an Autopilot board for control, a GPS for navigation, a radio controller to provide failsafe, and autonomous takeoff and landing. The second is control software that will communicate with a ground station and plot out waypoints, altitudes, and seed dispersal. The third is a robotic seed dispenser controlled by the Arduino.

Note on the Author

Erico Pinheiro Fortes was born in the city of Porto Novo, Santo Antao Island, Cape Verde. Erico completed his high school degree in the technical school of Joao Varela in electricity and electronics in July 2007. He moved to Sao Vicente Island in 2008 to pursuit his higher education in engineering, informatics, and computers at the University of Cape Verde (UNICV). In 2012, he worked at the IT Support/ Help Desk as a trainee both in UNICV Educational Department of Engineering and Marine Sciences and the Department of Social and Human Sciences. In addition to this training, he worked as a computer technician at the Medical Clinic Cirumed from April 2013 through February 2014. In 2013, Erico graduate from UNICV with an undergraduate degree in engineering, informatics, and com­puters. In 2014, he participated and was selected to receive the national scholarship/partnership between UNICV and Bridgewater State University (BSU), with the opportunity to complete a Master’s Degree in Computer Science. He graduated from Bridgewater State University in May 2016 with a Master’s Degree in Computer Science. Erico worked from March 2015 through August 2016 at Pedro Pires Institute for Cape Verdean Studies as a research assistant.

Rights Statement

Articles published in The Graduate Review are the property of the individual contributors and may not be reprinted, reformatted, repurposed or duplicated, without the contributor’s consent.

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