INMATEH - Agricultural Engineering

9-16

Authors: Ivanovs, S.; Bulgakov, V.; Nadykto, V.; Ihnatiev, Ye.; Smolinskyi, S.; Kiernicki, Z.

The paper presents an analysis of the basic principles of formation, the properties and characteristics of a new modular energy tool, consisting of the energy and the technology modules. The purpose of this study is to assess the degree of impact of the throttle in the hydraulic line, connecting the cavity of the hydraulic cylinder, upon the controllability of the modular power tool with a mounted plough during the movement of the ploughing aggregate on the headland. As a result of the conducted tests, it was proved that increasing the controllability of the movement of the aggregate on the basis of a mobile power tool is possible by throttling one of the hydraulic cylinders that limit the mutual reciprocal rotation of the modules in a horizontal plane. Installation of the throttle modular power tool on the limiting hydraulic cylinder with a drag coefficient 1.03×106∙N∙m∙s∙rad–1 allows one to reduce two times the delay in the reaction of the relative bearing of the energy module to a change in the angle of rotation of its driven wheels.

25-34

Authors: Li, Yibo; Li, Hang; Guo, Xiaonan

In order to improve the accuracy of rice transplanter model parameters, an online parameter identification algorithm for the rice transplanter model based on improved particle swarm optimization (IPSO) algorithm and extended Kalman filter (EKF) algorithm was proposed. The dynamic model of the rice transplanter was established to determine the model parameters of the rice transplanter. Aiming at the problem that the noise matrices in EKF algorithm were difficult to select and affected the best filtering effect, the proposed algorithm used the IPSO algorithm to optimize the noise matrices of the EKF algorithm in offline state. According to the actual vehicle tests, the IPSO-EKF was used to identify the cornering stiffness of the front and rear tires online, and the identified cornering stiffness value was substituted into the model to calculate the output data and was compared with the measured data. The simulation results showed that the accuracy of parameter identification for the rice transplanter model based on the IPSO-EKF algorithm was improved, and established an accurate rice transplanter model.

41-48

Authors: Alexey Semyonovich; Sibirev, Aleksey Viktorovich; Aksenov, Alexander Gennadievich; Mosyakov, Maxim Alexandrovich

In the machine technology for cultivation and harvesting of root crops and onions, one of the most important quality indicators determining the duration of root crops storage is the presence of soil and plant impurities in the heap to be stored. The impossibility to separate soil lumps from the heap of root crops and onions is due to the fact that the majority of harvesters use slotted separating executive devices, while the inter-rod distance of the separating conveyor, in order to eliminate the loss of root crops, is made smaller than the minimum size of the separated root crop, which leads to the impossibility of their cleaning on the separating executive devices of harvesters, and, consequently, to the damage of a significant part of commercial products and loss of a significant part of the crop grown during storage. The modern technologies and technical means for harvesting root crops and onions are not capable of providing high-quality commercial products with minimal labour, due to falling behind or a lack of development of technological foundations, technologies and executive devices for harvesting root crops and onions, capable of reducing or excluding the content of soil lumps in commercial products under various soil and climatic conditions. Therefore, development of mechanization tools for harvesting root crops and onions, which would allow reducing or eliminating the content of mechanical impurities in commercial products under various soil and climatic conditions, is a scientific problem, the solution of which will contribute to the innovative development of the domestic agricultural market, Russia's stable position on the foreign market.

59-70

Authors: Xu, Zeying; Zou, Xiuguo; Yin, Zhengling; Zhang, Shikai; Song, Yuanyuan; Zhang, Jie; Lu, Jingxia

In winter, the poor ventilation conditions in broiler houses may lead to high ammonia concentration, which affects the health of yellow-feather broilers or even causes the death of many broilers. This research used a machine learning model to predict the ammonia concentration in a broiler house during winter. After analysis, it was found that the ammonia generation in the broiler house was a gradual accumulation featured by non-linear data. After the broilers entered the broiler house for several days, and the ammonia concentration reached a certain value, a ventilation system was used for regulating the concentration. Firstly, the back-propagation (BP) neural network model and gated recurrent unit (GRU) model were used for predicting the ammonia concentration, respectively. Then, ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EEMD) was performed on the time series data of ammonia concentration in the broiler house. After that, the EEMD-GRU prediction model has been established for the intrinsic mode function (IMF) components and the temperature and humidity data in the broiler house. Finally, all component results were summarized to obtain the final prediction result. A comparison was conducted among the prediction results obtained by the above three models. The results show that the root mean square errors of the above three models are 6.2 ppm, 4.4 ppm, and 2.4 ppm, respectively, and the average absolute errors were 4.9 ppm, 2.8 ppm, and 1.6 ppm, respectively. It could be seen that the EEMD-GRU model had higher accuracy in predicting the ammonia concentration in the broiler house. The EEMD-GRU model can effectively predict the ammonia concentration in broiler houses, facilitating the feedback to the central system for timely adjustment.

77-86

Authors: Liu, Fei; Li, Dapeng; Zhang, Tao; Lin, Zhen

An optimization method based on a regression model was established by combining physical experiments, and an extended distinct element method (EDEM) simulation was proposed to address the difficult problem of obtaining the contact characteristic parameters used in the discrete element method (DEM) model of quinoa grains and for calibrating the parameters of the quinoa DEM model. The Plackett-Burman test was designed using Design-Expert software to screen the parameters of the quinoa DEM model, and the quinoa-quinoa static friction coefficient, quinoa-polylactic acid (PLA) static friction coefficient and quinoa-quinoa rolling friction coefficient were found to have significant effects on the repose angle. The optimal value intervals of the parameters with a significant impact on the repose angle were determined using the steepest ascent test. A regression model of the repose angle and the parameters with a significant impact on the repose angle was then established with the Box-Behnken design and further optimized, and the combination of optimal parameters was as follows: 0.26 for the quinoa-quinoa static friction coefficient (E), 0.38 for the quinoa-PLA static friction coefficient (F), and 0.08 for the quinoa-quinoa rolling friction coefficient (G). Lastly, the optimal combination was used in the verification performed by the DEM simulation, and the error between the simulated repose angle and the target repose angle was 0.86%. These findings indicated that it was feasible to use the response surface optimization to calibrate the parameters required for quinoa DEM simulation and that the combination of optimal parameters can provide a reference for selecting the characteristic contact parameters used in quinoa DEM simulation.

97-104

Authors: Yan, Hongwen; Cui, Qingliang; Liu, Zhenyu

Individual pig identification technology is the precondition of precise breeding. Taking pig face as the study point, this article puts forward a pig face identification method based on improved AlexNet model and explores the influence of training batch size on the performance of the model. Spatial attention module (SAM) is introduced in AlexNet model to compare the performance of the AlexNet model and the improved model on the training set and the validation set. The study shows that the improved AlexNet model can achieve higher precision rate under different training batch sizes and has higher convergence rate and robustness, with an identification precision rate reaching 98.11%, and a recall rate and f1 value reaching 98.03% and 98.05%. When the training batch sizes are 16, 32, and 64 respectively, the test time of the model, which represents its operating efficiency, improves by 1.99%, 2.36% and 10.31%, respectively, showing better performance in pig face identification. The test results show that different batch sizes have a certain influence on the prediction results of the model, while no fixed relationship.

115-126

Authors: Chen, Yu; Chen, Jun; Li, Wei; Zhang, Shuo; Xia, Hui; Zhu, Yahui; Wang, Jiajun

According to the operation characteristics of high clearance self-propelled sprayer, an independent vertical shaft air suspension system with auxiliary chamber was designed. On the basis of the damping characteristic analysis and experiment of the air suspension with auxiliary chamber, the sprayer suspension control strategy was developed. Aiming at strong non-linearity and hysteresis for air suspension with auxiliary chamber, and when the sprayer performed road transportation and spraying operation, there was a contradiction between ride comfort and road friendliness, a hybrid sliding mode control method for sprayer chassis suspension based on skyhook reference sliding mode and ground-hook reference sliding mode was proposed. Finally, Matlab/Simulink was used to analyse the effect of the control method in different mixing coefficients. The simulation results showed that according to the requirements of different working conditions of the sprayer, by properly selecting the mixing coefficient γ value, the hybrid sliding mode control could simultaneously take into account the sprayer ride comfort and road friendliness, which was important to improve the sprayer overall performance and operating efficiency.

135-142

Authors: Qiu, Yi; Chen, Zhi; Hou, Zhanfeng; Liu, Haiyang; Guo, Fang; Dai, Nianzu

It is of great significance to acquire the soil surface roughness accurately for the study of the interaction between tractors and soil. Based on the laser sensor, this paper proposed the non-contact measuring instrument of the soil surface roughness with the data acquiring system by using Lab-View software. By using W-M theory, three commonly used fractal dimension calculation methods are compared and analyzed.. The result showed that the Root-mean-square method has the highest accuracy and clear physical meaning, which is ideal method to calculate the soil surface roughness characteristics. When the fractal dimension is between 1.4 and 1.6, the acquired data is analysed by the Root-mean-square method to obtain the fractal features of the soil surface roughness. The experiment results indicated that the fractal dimension of the ploughed surface is 1.39, that of disc harrow surface is 1.550, and that of rolled surface is 1.46-1.54. Obviously, the fractal dimension can accurately distinguish the soil surface roughness with the different treatments. However, the fractal dimension selected from different scales showed an obvious instability during calculations. The surface roughness index combined with the two parameters can effectively represent the soil surface roughness, and the larger the surface roughness index is, the greater the surface roughness is.

151-164

Authors: Bu, Ling Xin; Chen, Cheng Kun; Hu, Guang Rui; Sugirbay, Adilet; Chen, Jun

Apple harvesting in orchards is a challenging task due to its dependence on manual labour. In addition, the reduction in skilled farmers and increasing employee costs have popularized mechanical harvesting. As a highly optimal apple picking method, apple harvesting robots integrate machine vision, image processing, robot kinematics, and multi-sensor fusion. This article reviews the vision system and mechanical structure of apple harvesters and evaluates the performance of robotic apple harvester prototypes from 2010 to 2018. Moreover, horticultural adaptability is also discussed in order to facilitate the expansion of orchard structures suitable for mechanized operations. We find that to solve the difficulties faced by apple harvesters, the development of mechanized apple harvesting and modern orchard structure applications must be accelerated. Furthermore, research into anthropomorphic control strategies has the potential to optimize picking patterns, while improvements in environment reconstruction and semantic segmentation can improve harvesting efficiency. Finally, the challenges and strategies based on the development status of robotic apple harvester are also analysed. The review is intended to assist researchers in structure design, sensor choice and adaptability improvement of agricultural machinery and horticulture, and to influence the direction of the development of robotic apple harvester.

175-182

Authors: Hevko, R.B.; Tkachenko, I.G.; Khomyk, N.I.; Gumeniuk, Y.P.; Flonts, I.V.; Gumeniuk, O.О.;

The results of theoretical and experimental study of the process of root crops carrying by a conveyer-separator of a three-row trailed root crop harvester whose rubber belt with rods is equipped with scrapers and has a sign-variable direction of transportation to minimize the machine length have been described in the article. Some analytical dependencies describing the impact of design and kinematic parameters of the conveyer-separator on the root crops motion pattern have been given and analysed. The results of the research including the key factors identification affecting the process of root crops transportation on the curvilinear path between the conveyer-separator members are presented in the experimental part. The theoretical and experimental studies have been compared and the boundaries of the most efficient design and kinematic parameters choice of the conveyer-separator under discussion have been suggested.

193-198

Authors: Kupreenko, A.I.; Isaev, Kh.М.; Kuznetsov, Yu.A.; Mikhailichenko, S.М.; Kravchenko, I.N.; Kalashnikova, L.V.

A method for determining the duration of the process of preparation and distribution of feed mixtures by a mobile mixer on cattle farms, based on graph theory, is proposed. A generalized state graph of the mobile mixer is presented and its description is given. The final formula for calculating the probability of the mobile mixer being in the state of distribution of a feed mixture consisting of a different number of components is given. To check the method adequacy, time-lapse measurements were performed in production conditions. The projected durability of the mobile mixer was 92.3% (0.36 h) of the actual recorded time of 0.39 h.

209-216

Authors: Cujbescu, D.; Biriș, S.Șt.; Voicu, Gh.; Matache, M.; Paraschiv, G.; Vlăduţ, V.; Bularda, M.; Ungureanu, N.;

In order to obtain a correct and always reproducible image of the performances achieved by a planter (or any agricultural machine), laboratory tests are required, under specified conditions, well controlled, to determine the precision of sowing outside the optimal agricultural periods. The paper presents a theoretical model for estimating sowing precision (feed quality index) as a polynomial function of the second degree, dependent on seed norm per hectare, working speed, depression value, mass of 1000 seeds, as well as combinations thereof.

225-232

Authors: Wei, Wang; Gong, Yuan Juan

Biomass particle is one of the most important solid briquette fuels for agricultural and forestry biomass energy. Temperature, pressure, moisture and discharge holes are important factors to control biomass particle forming. The inappropriate setting of the parameters or blocking of the discharge hole will lead to the defects of the biomass particles, such as too short or poor roundness or pits or cracks. In order to detect these defects automatically, this paper proposes a method based on K-Means with prior knowledge. Firstly, the inner boundary tracking region detection algorithm and filling algorithm are combined to extract the regions in the backlight image. The regions are divided into debris, independent biomass particle regions and adhesive biomass particle regions. Secondly, K-Means with prior knowledge is used to segment the adhesive regions to get the independent biomass particle regions. Finally, the features of the biomass particles are extracted to judge the type of defects. The proposed method has been tested on images acquired from the vision system of the ring roller pellet mill. Experimental results show the efficiency of the proposed method in high detection accuracy and short detection time.

241-250

Authors: Jin, Min; Wang, Chunguang; Wang, Pengpeng

Grid independence verification was implemented to improve the reliability of CFD numerical simulation in pigsty. The effects of four different grid numbers on airflow and temperature simulation of 0.4m, 1.0m and 1.6m heights were compared. The results showed that the third method of mesh generation and the grid numbers about 2.09 million were more suitable for this pigsty model. The average relative error of airflow velocity and temperature between the simulated and the measured alues were 7.1% and 3.8% respectively, the average NMSE were 0.0012 and 0.0066 respectively. Therefore, grid independence verification is of great significance for CFD numerical simulation.

263-272

Authors: Jianjian, Tai; Haitao, Li; Yuefeng, Du; Enrong, Mao; Junnan, Zhang; Xinjiani, Long

In the design process of maize combine harvester in China, there are characteristics of customization and high demand for diversification. Aiming at the problems of long design and development cycle, the structural design method of maize combine harvester header based on knowledge engineering is put forward, and the header of maize combine harvester is designed rapidly. Firstly, based on the design standards and specifications of agricultural machinery, the general design process of maize ear harvester header is determined. Secondly, according to the design knowledge and experience, the design method of the core parts of the header is determined, and an example model is established. Finally, based on the platform of MFC and Creo, integrating the design knowledge base, inference engine and parametric model, a rapid design system of maize ear harvester header is constructed. The rapid design of maize ear harvester header is realized, and the design and development efficiency of maize ear harvester header is improved so as to provide technical reference and support for improving the intelligent level of typical complex agricultural machinery equipment in China.

281-292

Authors: Yu, Na; Wang, Qing; Cao, Shichao

In order to recognize the road effectively, agricultural robots mainly rely on the tracking and detection data of road obstacles. Traditional obstacle detection mainly studies how to use multiple fusion methods such as vision and laser to analyse structured and simplified indoor scenes. The working environment of agricultural robots is a typical unstructured outdoor environment. Therefore, based on the environmental characteristics of agricultural robot navigation, the mean displacement algorithm is introduced to detect and study the obstacles aiming at the road edge. After explaining the advantages and principle flow of the mean displacement algorithm to effectively realize motion capture, the feasibility of target location and tracking research is discussed. After that, the bottom data acquisition and analysis model is constructed based on the road navigation data of agricultural robots. To capture the movement obstacles of road edge and build the foundation of road recognition technology. In order to improve the effectiveness of motion obstacle capture and detection, a moving target detection algorithm is proposed to optimize and update the mean displacement algorithm, and constructs a feature-oriented hybrid algorithm motion capture model. The simulation results indicate that the proposed optimization model can effectively improve the tracking efficiency of non-rigid targets in outdoor environment, and the number of evaluation iterations can reach 3.5621 times per frame, which shows that the research has good theoretical and practical value.

305-314

Authors: Guan, Zhuohuai; Zhang, Zhou; Jiang, Tao; Li, Ying; Wu, Chongyou; Mu, Senlin

Aiming at real time rotation speed control of threshing drum and cleaning fan for combine harvester, a stepless speed regulation mechanism was developed. Test show that the adjustable range of fan was 600～1150 r/min, average adjustment speed was 9.2 r/s, the absolute error of stable speed was less than 0.72 r/min. The average speed response time was 1.33s, the overshoot was less than 8 r/s. The adjustable range of the drum was 700～1100 r/min and the average adjustment speed was 2.1 r/s. The absolute error of stable speed did not exceed 0.62 r/min, and the maximum relative deviation was 0.38%

323-338

Authors: Bularda, M.; Vişinescu, I.; Ghiorghe, A.; Vlăduţ, V.; Cujbescu, D.;

In this paper was performed a thorough analysis of the effects of the conservative system of mechanized works, minimum-till (hard disc and scarifier) and no till (direct sowing), compared to the classic system (ploughing), highlighting the influences on soil and plants, the ways to reduce the technological costs, the improvement of soil quality indices, by accumulating organic matter and increasing humus supply, the need to reduce the traffic of mechanical equipment and opportunities to reduce fuel consumption, the improvement of conditions for retaining and capitalizing water reserves in the soil, the reduction of working hours and labour requirements.