Development of Automated Solar Food Drying Machine

Abstract

Automated solar food drying is a small scale machine for drying different types of food items. Food items can be dried and preserved for a longer period. Drying of food items for preserving them is a technique used from very early period. Nowadays infrared radiations can be used for drying purpose. This process is more efficient and unique compared to natural drying systems. Cost, more area and infrastructural drawbacks of the conventional methods can be overcome by this method by providing the modern, automatic and low cost food drying unit. The food items to be dried are captured by the camera. Then it detects food in the web whose data is already stored in the web. The time and temperature is automatically set. Relay is used to control on and off process. Microcontroller is used for controlling the heating and maintaining time constant throughout the chamber.