Browsing by Author "Kumari, K.W.S.N."

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    Design and Development of Automated Sprayer for Greenhouses
    (Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka, 2020) Piyarathne, P.A.D.R.; Kumari, K.W.S.N.; Amarasinge, A.R.P.C.C.J.
    The chemical uses of nutrients and pesticides are one of the most important agricultural processes and one of the most dangerous agricultural operations in the world. Automated sprayers are being developed for the use of greenhouses to improve the safety and effectiveness of the chemical application process, which results in reducing: chemicals, labor costs, occupational hazards, and harmful environmental damages. Most frequently, sprayers have been controlled by Programmable Logic Controls, Robot Q, Raspberry Pi, and Arduino platforms. This study was intended to develop an affordable Autonomous sprayer equipped with existing technology and adding values in rich path following, multi spraying, best target controlling, and crop identification ability in Sri Lankan Greenhouses content. A four-wheeler differential steering base robot was designed and built to act as a greenhouse sprayer. The overall robot is run by using a drive unit that consists of two brushless direct current motors. The Proportional-Integral-Derivative controller was developed to follow the paths of lines which are located on the floor correctly. Moreover, the crops were identified using image processing. The spraying system also inbuilt to the robot, i.e., pump, reservoir, nozzle, etc. The fully completed autonomous robot was tested on rough terrains and it can be able to navigate on predefined paths in greenhouses very high accuracy. Future developments will be focus to add high processing power for digital image processing and artificial intelligence. Keywords: Programmable logic controls, Brushless direct current motors, ProportionalIntegral-Derivative, Artificial intelligence
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    Designing a Fully Automated Pot for Gardeners and a Survey on the Use of the Features to the Consumers
    (Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka, 2019) Jayawardhana, H.P.N.; Liyanapathirana, B.C.; Anuradha, U.A.D.N.; Kumari, K.W.S.N.
    This research introduces a new design for an automatic plant caring system which can be used for planting herbs, vegetables or ornamental plants as per consumers’ choice. At present, people are accustomed to purchasing vegetables and fruits from the market, and it seems that only a few people supply their food from their own garden. Many researches have been carried out parallel to this subject on separate features such as automatic watering, automatic fertilizing, and pest and weed controlling and automatic lighting system. A survey on the difficulties faced by horticulturists and the importance of automatic plant caring systems was done by selecting people chosen at random. The age of the selected group ranged between 10-80 years. Result of the survey was analyzed. Moreover the features included in this design and the priority given by the gardener for the highest price that wishes to purchase such items was evaluated in the survey. Majority of the people have requested the item for a price less than 1000 rupees. By evaluating the survey, most of them concluded that there was no time for gardening to be a major problem. Problems other than that were pests, weeds and climate issues. Most people request automatic water supply, pest and weed control and automatic fertilizer as the features included in the automatic plant caring system. In this research, appropriate design of automatic plant care system was also introduced using software. This system is designed to use drip hydroponic technique where fertilizer is supplied via water by dripping plant roots into a tank. When there is no sunlight, light is automatically supplied using the LED panel. The purpose of this work is to show how someone can easily engage in gardening and use this device to supply fresh vegetables and fruits. Similarly, this pot can also be used as a decorative item by planting ornamental plants.
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    Determination of Influential Factors to Predict Household Income and Feasible Loan Amount in Badulla District, Sri Lanka
    (Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka, 2019) Jayarathna, H.L.D.K.; Kumari, K.W.S.N.
    As a result of economic decline and expectation of high standard living conditions, majority of Sri Lankans are struggling to fulfil costs of their basic needs. Stability of income and expenditure can be recognized as a good solution for this problem. The study attempts to investigate determinants which are influencing to income and financial assistantship (loan). At the first stage of the study, impact of costs for basic needs is investigated. The analysis required multi-cultural respondents for a successful survey study. Badulla was perfect with given pre requirement since it covers variety of living conditions in a limited extent. A multi-stage random sampling technique was used to select 500 household heads from six divisional secretariats. The selected divisional secretariats are Badulla, Passara, Uva-Paranagama, Haldummulla, Soranathota and Meegahakivula. Primary data was collected through interview with the use of semi structured questionnaire. Data analysis was accomplished using descriptive statistics, confidence interval, one-way ANOVA and multiple regressions. Results of one-way ANOVA imply that living area can effect on costs for basic needs. Multiple regression analysis showed that total income can be predicted by cost for foods, transport and clothing (p-value<0.05) with 70.9% model accuracy. Moreover, feasible loan amount can be predicted using cost for electricity, water, education, health and social activities (pvalue<0.05) with 87.0% accuracy. These five significant factors can be recognized as major reasons to expect a financial assistantship. Result implies that no existing common determinant which explains both income and loan amount. The government administrative and financial sector can get the benefit of this study.
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    Development of Wearable Haptic Device Using Soft Materials to Deliver Kinesthetic Feedback in Virtual Environments
    (Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka, 2020) Kumara, I.D.D.; Premarathne, A.K.C.P.; Kumari, K.W.S.N.
    Fluidic actuation has been using in soft robotics to make grippers and actuators. Only a few of the studies have used fluidic actuation to produce kinesthetic feedback in virtual environments. A haptic device was designed to be used in the field of virtual reality to render kinesthetic sensations such as grip force, weight, and impact forces to the user. It was fabricated using silicone rubber (Ecoflex 00-30) and consists of several soft actuators. All actuators are capable of delivering forces to render the aforementioned kinesthetic sensations through pressurized air. Soft actuators were fabricated using a 3D printed mold which was made by acrylonitrile butadiene styrene. Each actuator can be actuated separately and simultaneously using a compressed air supply to achieve a complete device actuation. Atmel328 microcontroller was used to control the soft actuators with solenoid valves. Miniaturized DC air pump (12 V /-90×103 N m-2 pressure) was used to supply the compressed air. The overall actuation of the device can be controlled by the microcontroller based on the virtual environment feedbacks. The result showed that the haptic device is capable of delivering forces by changing the shapes of soft silicone structures according to applied pressure. The relationship between the delivered force and the applied pressure was linear (r= 0.9975, p-value= 0.4233 and R2= 0.9951). In addition to that proposed haptic device has higher degrees of freedom and low weight compared to heavy mechanical developments. Therefore, soft materialbased developments are effective to deliver kinesthetic feedback in virtual environments as per the findings of the study. Furthermore, higher user compatibility and wearability are additional advantages of the device. Keywords: Haptics, Soft Robotics, Pneumatic
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    GSM, GPS and Facial Recognition Based Vehicle Security System
    (Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka, 2018) Udara, G.G.S.; Liyanapathirana, B.C.; Kumari, K.W.S.N.
    This study is focused on developing an improved version of vehicle security system for a bearable price. In this study GSM, GPS, facial detection and recognition technologies are used to overcome liabilities in the existing vehicle security systems. In the proposed system, the real time image processing user authentication is done by comparing a freshly taken photo of the driver with an existing database. Whenever the driver sits on the seat a hidden camera established inside the vehicle turns on and captures a photo of the driver. Cascade Object Detector and Fisher vector features of MATLAB software is being used for facial detection and recognition. Captured image of the driver is compared with the images in the database of authenticated drivers using the above mentioned features and verify the authentication. The GSM technology build up the communication between the vehicle and the owner and it provides the control of the vehicle to the owner's mobile phone. The GPS technology provides the access to gain the co-ordinates of real time precise location of the vehicle. The system consists of a vehicle lock down system that provides owner the facility to lock down the vehicle using a simple text message. Whenever the owner received the security alert he can reply with the predefined text message to activate the lock down system. The lock down system consists of a relay switch system and a fuel supply control valve. When the lock down system initiate it breaks the fuel supply and electric supply to the vehicle. A microprocessor based control system processes the functions of this security system. This well improved vehicle security system provides efficient security for the vehicle. Keywords: GPS Technology, MATLAB, Facial detection, Detector, GSM Technology
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    Identification of Factors that Affect the Grade of the Mathematics Subject at Ordinary Level Examination with Reference to Uva Province
    (Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka, 2016) Jayawardana, J.M.D.R.; Mayadunne, M.M.C.M.; Kumari, K.W.S.N.
    In Sri Lanka, education has to play a key role in social and economic sectors. The Ministry of Education in collaboration with the other relevant ministries is working relentlessly to achieve the development of the education sector. Mathematics is one of the main subjects in the education section in Sri Lanka which is used to select students for their higher education. According to a previous research, it was found that the average pass rate at the ordinary level examination is 37% in our country, and it is around 31-32 in the less developed provinces such as North-Eastern, North-central, Uva and Central. To attempt the decisions in education sector in Uva province in future, it is really important to identify the significant factors that affect the ordinary level Mathematics subject. The main objective of this study is based on identifying the main factors which can affect the results of Mathematics subject. In this study, data were acquired by using multistage systematic sampling method.Generalized Linear Model (GLM) was fitted to final marks of the grade eleven students to identify the main factors that affect the final grade. It was noted that students' attendance to school, performing mathematics exercises, getting help from their parents, grade five scholarship and time spend for the mathematics subject at home were significantly affecting the students' results of the ordinary level Mathematics subject. According to the factor analysis results, it was found that the factors of the fitted model significantly affect the students' marks in Mathematics subject. Keywords: Mathematics, Education, Ordinary level, Generalized linear model
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    Market orientation of firms in food processing industry: Effect of outside-in capabilities
    (Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka, 2015) Kalupahana, K.N.; Kumari, K.W.S.N.; Weerakoon, W.M.P.G.C.
    Market Orientation is a business culture committed to the continuous creation of superior value for the customers and can be defined as the organization wide generation of market intelligence pertaining to current and future customer needs, dissemination of the intelligence across departments, and organization- wide responsiveness to it (Narver and Slater et al., 1990; Jaworski and Kohli, et al., 1990). For that successfully market-driven organizations should have a strong relationship between market orientation and marketing capabilities. It was suggested that when successfully implementing a market orientation development of, “superior market-sensing; customer-linking; channel-bonding and technology-monitoring capabilities (Day et al., 1994) is required. Therefore, this study aims to identify the relationship between outside-in capabilities and market orientation in food processing industry in Sri Lanka. Methodology Data was collected by using a structured questionnaire and in the absence of a sampling frame, a random sample of 44 companies were selected as the population with use of Stock Exchange and other resources. All these 44 companies were taken as the sample because of the less number of companies in the population and only 31 companies had responded. The reliability of the questionnaire was assessed by using Cronbach’s Alpha. Descriptive statistics were used to identify the level of market orientation in food processing firms in Sri Lanka. Correlation analysis and multiple linear regression analysis were applied to identify the relationship between outside-in capabilities and market orientation in the food processing firms in Sri Lanka.
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    Statistical Analysis of Determinants of Black Tea Quality
    (Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka, 2018) Tharaga, S.; Kumari, K.W.S.N.; Wanniarachchi, D.D.C.
    Tea is the world most popular beverage. It has very good market both locally and internationally.Sri Lankan tea is world renowned for high quality and taste. However, in the recent past, Sri Lanka has lost the top ranking and now in rank third in the world market. Therefore, ensuring the export of quality tea is essential for the regaining the top ranking.In this study, a literature survey was conducted to identify the factors affecting the quality of black tea.Some identified factors are fermentation time, temperature, moisture and humidity content of leaves. These will impact quality parameters such as Theaflavine, Thearubigin, Tea liquor color and brightness.In this paper, a statistical analysis was conducted to identify the extent to which fermentation time and temperature will impact with Theaflavin, Thearubigin, and total color of the tea infusion by using correlation and regression (simple and multiple). An analysis was conducted using 17 reported data where each data point is the average of a triplicate. According to correlation analysis, relationships are available among time, temperature and Theaflavin. When the fermentation time increases, Theaflavin content decreases. When the temperature decreases, Theaflavin content increases.However,the impact of temperature on Theaflavin is not significant as in the observed analysis (P = 0.966).A similar study was carried out to find relationship between Thearubigin versus temperature and fermentation time. The results reveal that the thearubigin is not significantly related with temperature (P = 0.189) and fermentation time (P = 0.844).Tea infusion color is highly related to the time than temperature (P = 0.098),It can be concluded that the Theaflavin and tea liquor color is significantly depending on fermentation time, where thearubigin is depending on temperature.
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    A Survey On Factors Influencing the Cow Milk Production in Badulla District
    (Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka, 2019) Ranathunga, R.A.P.; Kumari, K.W.S.N.; Jayasinghe, J.M.P.; Jayawardana, J.M.D.R.
    In Sri Lanka, dairy cattle farming is well known as a key subsector of livestock which plays a significant role in rural livelihood in both economic and nutrition. This study aimed to investigate the current status, constraints and factors affecting on dairy cattle milk production in Badulla district. 382 dairy farmers in 15 veterinary regions were selected by Multi-stage Stratified and Simple Random Sampling. Socio-economic, production and management practices data were collected using pre-tested structured questionnaire. Socioeconomic, production data were subjected to descriptive analysis and Regression analysis was performed to determine the factors affecting milk production. Results showed that 47.5% of farmers operate dairy farming as major income source and majority practiced semi-intensive system (93.97%). Male farmers dominate in dairy farming (57.7%) and an average age of the farmers and experience in cattle farming were recorded as 50 and 20 years respectively. Calves were weaned at age of 6 months and Jersey crossbreed was dominant (86.4%) breed. The highest (9.705±8.28 L/cow/day) and lowest (3.29 L/cow/day) milk productions were reported in Haputhale and Mahiyangana respectively. Best fitted Multiple Linear Regression (R2=59.63%) predicted, cows in heard, breeds, forage type, feeding method and amount of night feeding, mineral supplement, concentrate feeding and type of concentrate, availability of housing facilities significantly affected on the average daily milk production (p<0.05). Low quality forages and seasonality, less success in Artificial Insemination, lack of high yielding animals, high prices of concentrates, less availability of supplements and poor housing condition were frequently reported as major constraints for dairy cattle milk production in Badulla. Proper address to the constrains is a key to improve the status and livelihood of the dairy cattle farmers.
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    The Trend and Behaviour of Unemployment Rate in Uva Province during Last Decade
    (Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka, 2016) Ramwickrama, P.; Kumari, K.W.S.N.
    Sri Lanka was subjected to lot of economic and political changes in the latter part of the war and in the post war period including the changes in the labour force structure, and therefore, the behavior of unemployment rate. Therefore, this study attempts to evaluate the trend and behavior of unemployment rate in the Uva Province and their socio—economic consequences since its least income and lower literacy status compared to national figures. To see if this status of the province is a result of unemployment of the residents in the province, the study was done in two phases where firstly, provincial and national unemployment rates for ten years were compared using time series analysis. Second, a survey with the questionnaire filled by respondents' method for a sample of 150 was carried out. The analysis revealed there is no difference of unemployment rate in Uva Province and Sri Lanka. But, they showed totally different trends. For Sri Lanka, the estimated trend equation is Y, = 9.33+0.595t-0.0842t2 and for Uva Province, it is 111 = 18.25-2.694t + 0.1584t2. The survey resulted most of the sample has the attitude that improving educational qualifications will help them to be employed. 39.33% of the sample passed GCE AIL examination. 44% of the people under study expected government employments. There was no difference between each economic region (i.e. Urban, Rural and Estate) and the availability of employments. According to the survey, 46.67% of the sample, stated the family background is the most influencing reason for them to be unemployed. However, in general the attitude change ofthe younger generation has caused the increase of unemployment since 1999. Basically the highest contribution to the national GDP from Uva Province is by Agriculture, which is quite different from other regions. With industrialization, the younger generation has directed more towards industrialized employments instead of Agriculture related employments. According to national statistics, since 1999 population in "Looking for a job" category for the Uva Province has increased. Also, the survey results shows most of the younger people in the sample are willing to migrate from the province for more industrialized jobs. Therefore, this study suggests increasing the employment opportunities within the province including Agriculture sector. Keywords: Unemployment rate, Time series analysis, Socio—economic consequences, Industrialization