Cotton harvesting is one of the most important economic crop in India. India is second largest country for cotton production and heavy intensity of labors is being used for cotton plucking. A portable device has designed and developed using vacuum source, solenoid electric valve, microcontroller and reservoir for cotton balls. Fig. 1 shows a conceptual model of portable cotton ball plucking device in which vacuum is passed from vacuum pump with the help of two way electric solenoid valves to pick up cotton balls. Vacuum chamber was sealed to make leak proof and remain uniform in the channel for easily suck up. A functional block diagram of the system is shown in Fig. 2. An ac power supply (220 V AC) available in India is used to operate the vacuum source the vacuum is passed through the two way solenoid electric valve which is control by micro controller. Basically, two solenoid valves are connected to each other in parallel. If one valve is open and other closed, then the two ports are connected to pass vacuum can easily passed switching the system ON. If the valve is closed, then ports are isolated and system becomes OFF releasing the air by other valve. In reality, one out of two solenoid electric valves is used to save motor from heat generation. A switch used as ON or OFF provides 5 volts signal to input port of the microcontroller (Intel 8051). An output signal of suitable amplitude is generated on one pin of output port enabling Relay ON condition. Relay being integrated part of solenoid valve is used for controlling the valves. The two valves are connected in series as one for effective vacuum generation in ON condition and other for releasing air during OFF condition of the system. The cotton container is used for collection of the balls made by cotton. A photograph of a portable system is shown in Fig. 3. A movie clips of said portable system has been made during demonstration. Key word: cotton harvesting, microcontroller, solenoid electric valve, vacuum s
