INMATEH - Agricultural Engineering

19-28

Authors: Weigang Deng, Chenglong Liu, Peng Li, Yanlong Wang, Shengshi Xie, Chunguang Wang

To analyze the maximum acceleration (amax) of a potato colliding with different objects, both experimental test and finite element analysis (FEA) methods were used. Results showed that when potatoes were collided with the single rod, the steel plate and the double rods, the average discrepancies of FEA and experimental test values were 5.3%, 3.95% and 5.04%. The amax increased with the increase of potato drop height, and decreased with the increase of potato mass. Under the same conditions, the amax decreased in turn when the potatoes were collided with the steel plate, the single rod and the double rods. The FEA results showed that the amax in collision with the steel plate was 60.78% to 96.29% higher than that with the double rods. The amax in collision with the steel plate was 53.89% to 83.27% higher than that with the double rods. The amax in collision with the single rod covered with soil was 37.65% and 31.54% lower than that without soil from different drop height or with different potato mass. The research methods and conclusions of this article provided a basis for the analysis of impact mechanics and damage mechanism of potatoes, and contributed to further researches related to solid-like agricultural and food products.

39-46

Authors: Aleksey Kupreenko, Yury Kuznetsov, Тatiana Bychkova, Igor Kravchenko, Nikolay Aldoshin, Larisa Kalashnikova

The construction of a solar dryer-grain storage facility is described in this paper. The design of a grain auger conveyor-distributor for its loading is made. The dependence of the width of the discharge opening in the casing of the auger conveyor-distributor on its length is obtained. The results of laboratory tests of the grain auger conveyor-distributor are presented. It is established that the minimum initial width of the drain opening for wheat grain should be not less than 9 mm. The conditions of grain uniform distribution grain by the auger conveyor-distributor are justified: the filling factor of the auger inter-turn space in its loading zone – 0.35; the length of the discharge opening of the charging hopper should be equal to the doubled value of the auger pitch size. In this case, the uneven distribution of grain along the discharge opening will be no more than 5%.

57-66

Authors: Meng Zhang, Zeqi Liu, Yajun Zhuang, Jie Han, Xiang Yin, Yulong Chen

The vacuum seed metering device absorbs seeds by using the negative pressure generated by vacuum air flow. Therefore, it is of great significance to study the variation law of pyrolysis gas flow field to improve its seed metering performance. In this paper, the common disc and composite disc were selected as the research objects and tested on the indoor test-bed. The negative pressure was measured by U-type barometer, and the effects of fan speed, suction hole size, seed hole structure and air chamber thickness on the air flow field were studied. Firstly, the influence of fan rotation frequency on vacuum chamber negative pressure is studied, and the variation law of negative pressure in vacuum chamber and fan port of common disc and composite disc under the same frequency is compared. Secondly, the suction holes in the vacuum chamber were numbered, the negative pressure distribution of the suction holes was measured, and the influence of the number and diameter of the suction holes on the negative pressure of the vacuum chamber was studied. Finally, the negative pressure was measured at the distance of 0 to 10 mm from the suction hole to study the effect of seed hole structure on the air flow field. Moreover, increase the additional thickness of the vacuum chamber from 0 to 40 mm to study the influence of the chamber thickness on the distribution of the gas flow field. This paper makes a comprehensive experimental analysis on the influencing factors of air flow field of air suction seed metering device, necessary for future design of air suction seed metering device.

73-81

Authors: Bing Xu, Decong Zheng, Jiaxin Wang, Youzhi Yang

A flame intra-row weeding robot, based on the Delta mechanism, was designed to solve the problems of high labor intensity, low efficiency, easy-to-harm seedling and others. Simultaneously, the applicable robot kinematics model was established. Moreover, the method of exhaustion enabled us to obtain the full-scale robot workspace and analyze its smart workspace. When the nozzle diameter took different values, the numerical simulation on the propane combustion process in the burner was performed by the Fluent component transport model, analyzing the temperature distribution inside and out of the burner. The experimental results showed that the flame intra-row weeding robot was required to work on the condition that the radius of smart cylindrical space is Φ400 mm×359.8 mm — when the length of the driving arm is 300 mm, the length of the driven arm is 800 mm, the radius of the static platform is 150 mm and the radius of the movable platform is 50 mm — the maximum temperature of propane flame reaches 1,830 K and the width of the high temperature zone reaches 27 mm — when the nozzle diameter is 1.6 mm.

91-100

Authors: Xiwen Zhang, Zhanfeng Hou, Nianzu Dai

In view of the problems of long coating time, complicated manual operation, high multi-seed rate of coated seeds, low qualified rate, and low degree of automation of control equipment in traditional rotary coating machine, a new type of rotary coating machine was designed while using LabVIEW with a complete electric control system, which can effectively improve the speed and quality of coating. The system uses single-chip microcomputer as the lower computer, LabVIEW as the upper computer, and uses programming electronic control technology to set seed coating parameters in advance, precisely control each part and achieve precise supply. Batch supply of powder and liquid greatly improves the automation and intelligence of the operating system, improves the coating efficiency, reduces the multi-seed rate and the seedless rate, and increases the coating pass rate. In order to improve the coating quality and the supply accuracy of the coating machine, the error analysis and calibration test of the seed supply system, powder supply system and liquid supply system were carried out. After the test verification, the supply error was controlled within 2% to meet the demand for precise supply. The test results show that the pass rate of the seeds coated by the new rotary coating machine is increased by 15% to 20% compared with the seeds coated by the traditional manual coating

111-118

Authors: XiaoDan Ren, Haichao Wang, Xin Shi

Aiming at the field management of plum grove in Inner Mongolia of China, taking the dense planting plum groves in Bikeqi town of Hohhot City as the research object, this paper proposed a visual navigation path detection algorithm for plum grove. By processing the video image information of plum grove, comparing RGB and HSV color space model, HSV color model was selected to separate the plant and background in V channel. Homomorphic filtering was used to highlight the region of interest in the image, Otsu was selected to segment the image, the intersection of plum trunk and ground was extracted as feature points, and the least square method was used to fit the navigation path. Through the comparative analysis of detection rate under different detection conditions in one day, the verification test of route accuracy was carried out. The experimental results show that: for dense planting plum grove, the average path detection accuracy of the algorithm is 70% and 73.3% under the condition of front light and weak light, respectively. The detection accuracy and real-time meet the requirements of plum grove field management, and the navigation baseline can be generated more accurately, which provides a preliminary basis for the realization of mechanical vision navigation in plum grove field management.

129-138

Authors: Cristian Nutescu, Iuliana Gageanu, Dan Cujbescu

The paper presents theoretical research conducted for the optimization of the working process of variable width ploughs. Thus, were determined multivariable regression functions for the traction force of the plough with variable working function of the control parameters: working depth, working width and working speed. The use of these theoretical considerations of the optimal points sought lead to the opportunity of making assessments on the possibilities to conduct their experimental validation. Conditions for an experimental plan were formulated to highlight such optimal points and the theoretical results were validated through experiments.

153-162

Authors: Zeqi Liu, Meng Zhang, Jie Han, Yajun Zhuang, Yubin Lan, Yulong Chen

In this paper, taking compound air-suction seed metering device as the subject, the effect rule of seed filling angle and seed releasing angle on the performance of seed filling and seed metering is studied. An indoor test was conducted with a JPS-12 metering test bench and a high-speed camera system. The starting and ending angles of the air chamber were changed by adjusting the regulating plate, that is, the angles of seed filling and seed releasing, and the filling and seed metering performance was taken as evaluation indexes. The test results show that: the seed filling angle has significant effect on the seed filling effect, and the miss fill index decreases with the increase of the quality of fill index. When the seed filling angle exceeds 50°, they will stabilize gradually ending at the multiple fill index of 0%. The negative pressure and operating speed are interactive and have a significant effect on filling performance. The seed releasing angle has significant effect on the metering performance. With the increase of the angle, the quality of feed index increases firstly and then decreases. The multiple index and miss index are opposite to the quality of feed index which is the max at the seed releasing angle of 39.5°. The negative pressure and forward speed are interactive and have a significant effect on metering performance. The quality of feed index under the same condition is lower than that of fill index.

173-182

Authors: Bin Li, Mingjun Ma, Chaoju Yang

In order to improve the quality of modern dairy industry, it is an inevitable trend to implement intensive control feeding of dairy cows, which is also the development direction in the future. Different feeding methods have different important effects on the health of dairy cows. For example, calves grow and develop rapidly during lactation, change their physiological structure quickly, have strong plasticity, poor inversion and imperfect digestive function. In the production of dairy farms, the scientific feeding mode of calves indirectly affects the overall benefits of dairy farms. Therefore, aiming at the above problems, this paper studies how to accurately control the quality of dairy cows. A cow precise feeding control system based on wireless communication technology and cow information management technology is studied, which solves the problems of wireless information transmission, automatic and accurate cow identification and dual-mode operation of feeder, and ensures the accurate supply of cow concentrate.

193-202

Authors: Jingxin Sun, Liqin Yang, Baohui Xu, Yuming Guo, Qingliang Cui, Yanqing Zhang

This critical collision damage force of millet and sweet buckwheat grain and the shelling force of shelled granular materials are important basic data for research of threshing and shelling technology and equipment. In order to master the linear velocity and collision force of grain with different moisture content when collision damage occurs, a centrifugal collision test device is designed. Based on the dynamic and kinematic analysis of grain in the centrifugal rotary table, the collision force between grain and steel plate was measured by PVDF piezoelectric pressure sensor and data acquisition system. The results showed that: under the same moisture content, the higher the rotational speed, the higher the grain crushing rate; at the same rotational speed, with the increase of moisture content, the crushing rate first decreased and then increased. When the moisture content of Jingu-21 and Yuqiao-4 is 19.7% and 17.8%, respectively, the grain crushing rate was the lowest. In terms of the anti-collision ability of grain, the optimum moisture content of threshing is between 19.7% and 21% for millet. For sweet buckwheat, the optimum moisture content of threshing is 17.8% ~19%, while the optimum moisture content of shelling by centrifugal sheller is about 11%. The faster the rotational speed of centrifugal rotary table is, the greater the linear speed of grain is, and the greater the collision force is. When the linear velocity of grain was 8.32 m/s and 11.30 m/s respectively, the millet grain moisture content was 11.1% and 20.9% respectively, damage began to appear, and the corresponding collision force was about 5.51 N and 10.6 N, respectively. When the linear velocity of grain was 8.32 m/s and 11.30 m/s respectively, and the moisture content was 11.1% and 22.8% of the sweet buckwheat grain respectively, damage began to appear, the corresponding collision force was about 8.92 N and 12.79 N, respectively. When the rotating speed of rotary table was 910 r/min, the linear speed of grain was 27.05 m/s, the crushing rate of millet and sweet buckwheat grain in harvest period were 56.30% and 63.76%, respectively, and the crushing rate of millet and buckwheat grain with 11.1% moisture content were 86.27% and 89.4%, respectively. The research results can provide theoretical basis for design and optimization of millet and sweet buckwheat combine harvester, threshing device and shelling device.

213-224

Authors: Zhilong Zhang, Jinlong Zheng, Aijun Geng, Ji Zhang, Abdalla N. O. Kheiry, Ang Gao

Applying different types of fertilizers to different depths of soil according to demand is advantageous in that it can optimize the distribution of nutrients in arable soil, adjust the nutrient supply of each growth stage of wheat, and increase grain yield. In the study, a layered fertilization opener that could realize the layered fertilization was developed. The interaction model between the opener, fertilizer and soil was established using EDEM simulation software. A response surface analysis was used to determine the optimal parameters of the opener. Specifically, the horizontal distance between the fertilizer drop openings was 140 mm, the machine speed was 1.05 m/s, and the angle of the opener was 37°. Furthermore, field experiments demonstrated that the average depth of upper layer was 8.39 cm, the average depth of middle layer was 16.465 cm, the average depth of lower layer was 24.025 cm, the average spacing of upper layer was 8.075 cm, and the average spacing of lower layer was 7.6 cm. The corresponding findings demonstrated that the layering effect of the opener met the requirements of the fertilization standard.

233-240

Authors: Vasyl Dmytriv, Ihor Dmytriv, Іvan Horodetskyy, Roman Horodniak, Taras Dmytriv

The method and parameters of experimental modelling of systems and processes in mechanical engineering are substantiated. The theory of similarity and dimensionality is used as an intermediate link between theory and experiment. The dimension of the factor space depends on the number of factors. The set of factors is grouped into dimensionless similarity criteria. The selected criteria are in certain dependence, such as the Galileo test, Euler and Reynolds numbers. Examples of application in experimental studies are given. The use of dimension theory in a factor-planned experiment allows reducing the number of factors, simplifies the mathematical interpretation of the response criterion and provides a graphical representation in the form of 3-D model.

248-254

Authors: Petru Cardei, Cristian Nuţescu, Mihai Matache, Oana Cristea

In this paper, a few assessments of the optimal parametric combinations in the operating regime of agricultural aggregates with ploughs of variable width are made. The starting point was from a classic expression of the tillage draft force required for traction. In order to find optimal points, some problems of constrained extreme have been formulated. Extremes provided by the optimal working width and speed have been found. Such optimal points have existed in the literature, for about half a century. Using these theoretical estimates of the optimal points sought, assessments of the possibilities for their experimental validation were made. Basic conditions for an experimental plan are formulated to highlight such optimal points.

265-274

Authors: Zhenguo Zhang, Jin He, Hongwen Li, Qingjie Wang, Wenchao Yang, Quanyu Wang

Automatic navigation system for agricultural vehicles have become a widely used technology in precision agriculture over the last few decades. More and more sophisticated tractor control systems, however, revealed that exact positioning of the actual implement is equally or even more important. Based on literature sources and patent databases, the aim of this review is to introduce implement guidance systems and describe its current application in agricultural implement. Agricultural implement guidance is an essential technology for autonomous vehicle operations. In addition, applications and new technologies associated with navigation sensors on passive and active implement guidance are analyzed. Finally, challenges and future perspectives of agricultural implement systems are summarized and forecasted. This study can enrich the application of automatic navigation sensors on agricultural implements and provide a reference for the application of automatic navigation on more field operations.

283-292

Authors: Ying Li, Zhuohuai Guan, Yisong Chen

Aiming at the problems that the cutter frequency of combine harvester is difficult to be adjusted adaptively with the forward speed, and that the missed cut or repeated cut may cause the harvesting loss to increase and the operation effect to fluctuate greatly, the system is designed to regulate the cutter frequency of combine harvester by sections. By constructing the cutter trajectory equation, the influence of the relationship between the forward speed of the harvester and the cutting frequency on the cutting area is analysed, and the optimum cutting frequency range at different operating speeds is determined. The results show that the error between the actual cutting frequency and the desired frequency of the cutter is less than 0.8Hz, and the maximum relative error is less than 8.6%; the average steady-state adjustment time of the system is 1.3s when the input cutting frequency of the device changes abruptly. The research class provides technical support for the improvement of the combine harvester handling system and the increase of the machine automation level.

303-311

Authors: Viktor Trokhaniak, Nadiia Spodyniuk, Ievgen Antypov, Olena Shelimanova, Svitlana Tarasenko, Anatoliy Mishchenko

For high-quality and simultaneous breeding of different ages of poultry a modular keeping is proposed. The heating system of the module is a panel infrared heater. It is intended for local heating of technological area. Design dimensions of the module were determined for reasons of qualitative course of technological process, namely the stocking density of poultry. Experimental studies of the temperature regime of poultry breeding area were carried out. Body temperature of the poultry was within acceptable limits, up to 41.5ºC. In addition, the surface temperature of the feathers did not exceed 29.1ºC, which fully complies with sanitary and hygienic standards. For a better representation of temperature regime in the module, CFD modeling was performed. Fields of velocities, pressures and temperatures were obtained. The air temperature near poultry in the module reached 18.6ºC, and the average velocity did not exceed 0.75m/s.

321-332

Authors: Jinlong Feng, Shujuan Yi, Qichao Li

Deep-fertilization mechanism is a key part of deep-fertilization liquid fertilizer applicator. To obtain a good-performance deep-fertilization mechanism, this study developed a deep-fertilization mechanism with deformed gears and designed a deformed gear fertilization test bench. Single-factor and central composite design tests were performed with the planet carrier, spray hole size and pump pressure as the test factors, and the fertilizer amount as the test index. The results of the single-factor test showed a linear functional relationship between fertilizer amount and pump pressure, an exponential functional relationship between planet carrier velocity and fertilizer amount, and an exponential relationship between spray hole size and fertilizer amount. The rotating and perpendicular test data were analyzed and optimized using Design-Expert 8.0.5 software. The result of the optimization is: 10.5 ml of fertilizer amount with pump pressure 0.36 MPa, planet carrier velocity 82 r/min, and spray hole size 2 mm. The test result can meet the agronomic requirements.

345-354

Authors: ZeNing Gao, QingYu Chen, GuangRui Hu, Chao Chen, ChuanLin Li, Jun Chen

According to the planting agronomy of Lycium barbarum L. in Ningxia, a self-propelled straddle-type sprayer was designed. The aim was to reduce the labor requirements, improve the spraying effect to the middle and lower parts of the canopy, reduce the influence of natural wind on droplet drift, and recycle excess liquid medicine to reduce environmental pollution. Tests showed that the coverage rate of liquid medicine on the leaf surface and back of the leaf peaked at 84.2% and 48.3%, respectively, when spraying pressure was high. Under different spraying distances, the coverage rate of liquid medicine on leaf surface and back of leaf reached 73.3% and 38.3% at the shortest distance. The uniformity of the spray droplet distribution was good, the use error was less than 10%, and the excess liquid was effectively recovered.

362-372

Authors: Sreya John, Arul Leena Rose

As we belong to a developing country, the agricultural importance is a known criterion. Majority of the Indians depend on agriculture for their basic living. It also serves as the backbone of the Indian economy. Therefore this sector should be considered important and taken care of. Diseases affecting the plants and pest are the two major threats of agriculture production. Naked eye observation followed by the addition of chemical fertilizers is the traditional method adopted by most of the farmers to avoid plant diseases. But the main limitation to this method is that it works only in the case of small scale farming. In order to tackle this issue many automatic plant disease detection systems have been developed from the early 70s. This paper is intended to survey some of the existing works in plant disease recognition that include various procedures, materials and approaches. They use different machine learning algorithms, image processing techniques and deep learning methods for disease detection. This paper also compares and suggests novel methods to recognize and classify the various kinds of infections affecting agricultural plants.

381-390

Authors: Valerian Cerempei, Iurii Molotcov, Lucretia Popa

The results of the bibliographic and theoretical studies on methods of dosing liquid substances using hydropneumatic systems are presented in this article. Based on these studies, the multicomponent continuous dosing method and installation were developed in order to obtain high quality liquid mixtures (including biofuels) at minimal cost. In the proposed installation "Biomixt-Pres" the flow of liquid components is ensured by overpressure in the dispenser tank. Theoretical analysis and experimental research of this installation allowed to argue the values of constructive and hydrodynamic parameters (overpressure in the working tank Δp = 0.2- 0.5 MPa; diameter of the working tank D=aprox.0.625 H (H is the height of the tank), liquid level and the installation height of the maximum, minimum liquid level transducers in the working tank), which ensures the required ratio of components with the error δ<0.2%.

399-409

Authors: Ihor Dmytriv

The concept of functional controllability of the milk ejection is considered, which makes it possible to predict the intensity of milk ejection in the online mode of the milking machine. The architecture of the functional controllability by intensity of milk ejection is developed. Input and output parameters of the structural-functional scheme of adaptive control of milk ejection intensity are described. An analytical model of milk ejection intensity based on Pearson's distribution is developed. The milk ejection intensity for different productivity and duration of cows milking is modelled. The microprocessor unit is designed using a single-chip microcontroller. It ensures the algorithm set by the central computer and implements a step of changing the pulsation frequency of 0.1 Hz, the ratio between the cycles of 0.25%, the phase shift step of 0.1 s.

421-429

Authors: A.S. Dorokhov, M.G. Zagoruiko, A.M. Maradudin, I.A. Bashmakov

In present-day economic conditions, extrusion is one of the advanced feedstuffs and food production processes involving intensive manifold heat and force action. During extrusion, the main function is performed by a compression mechanism which includes a forcing screw unit built into the cylinder (cowling). The forcing mechanism performs the task of transferring material while concurrently compressing it up to a required pressure and increasing the material’s temperature due to compression and friction against the cowling's sides. The temperature affects the quality of the resulting product. Thus, the research aims at obtaining a heat balance equation to optimize the extrusion process and the operating parameters of the extruder itself.

441-451

Authors: Guoyang Liu, Junfang Xia, Kan Zheng, Jian Cheng, Liu Jiang, Liwei Guo

In order to study the compressive creep properties and laws of paddy soil, multi-stress creep experiments of paddy soil with different moisture content were carried out. The results show that the creep deformation of paddy soil, subjected to compressive loads effect, develops stably and the paddy soil is not destructed under the yield strength when the stress is low. When the stress level is higher than the yield strength, the internal damage of paddy soil would be caused at the moment of loading. With the extension of creep time, the cracks would gradually expand, resulting in the soil to yield, break and disintegrate. According to the analysis of the deformation properties of paddy soil under compression and the change trend of creep curve, the nonlinear viscoelastic-plastic model was composed of the nonlinear viscoplastic model and Burgers model in series. The creep test curve was introduced into the model for fitting, and the coefficient of determination reached more than 0.96. Based on the model, the strain composition, strain proportion, and strain rate of paddy soil were studied. Finally, the nonlinear model was compared with Burgers model by verification test. The fitting accuracy of the nonlinear model was better than Burgers model, and the coefficient of determination and relative error were 0.997 and 0.437%, respectively, which proved the rationality and correctness of the nonlinear viscoelastic-plastic model. This study can provide a theoretical basis for the optimization of tillage machinery structure and the simulation analysis of soil tillage and compaction.

465-475

Authors: Fang Liang, Yubing Wang, Weihong Deng, Shaoning Yuan, Zirui Wang

As the application of agricultural mechanized production technology becomes more and more extensive, the application of mechanized straw returning technology has become more and more valuable. The mechanized return of straw to the field is a time-saving and labor-saving technology. It is an effective way to achieve sustainable agricultural development and is of great significance to the development and progress of modern agriculture. This article analyzes the current research status of mechanized straw returning to the field, discusses the process structure and characteristics of different mechanized straw returning methods, and focuses on the analysis of the composite technology of straw returning to the field. At the same time, the key problems of straw returning to the field, such as the length of straw not meeting the standard, the shallow depth of straw returning to the field, and the uneven distribution of straw, are put forward and analyzed. By taking the coverage rate and burial rate of the surface straw and the uniformity of the spatial distribution of the straw in the soil as the performance evaluation index of the mechanized return of straw to the field, and expounding its various indicators. Finally, two major development trends are proposed: the development of mechanized straw returning to the field from a single process to a composite process, and the effect of straw returning to the field towards uniform mixed burying and precise control.

485-494

Authors: Hongguang Yang, Huanxiong Xie, Hai Wei, Jianchun Yan, Huichang Wu, Longlong Ji, Xiaowei Xu

Aiming at the problem that contain more soil impurities of potato post-harvest, which affects subsequent deep processing, an apparatus for removing soil impurities from potato was developed. The whole structure is mainly composed of frame, feeding port, flexible rubber finger conveying mechanism, slender filament rotary brushing mechanism, discharging port and the like. The research and analysis determined that the main parameters influencing the soil impurities removal performance are the movement speed of conveying mechanism, the movement speed of brushing mechanism and the clearance between conveying mechanism and brushing mechanism (hereinafter referred to as the mechanism clearance). Taking the main influencing parameters as test factors, and the soil impurities removal rate and potato damage rate as indexes, the orthogonal test with three factors and three levels was carried out. The optimal parameter combination was obtained as follows: the movement speed of conveying mechanism is 0.35m/s, the movement speed of brushing mechanism is 0.40m/s, and the mechanism clearance is 55mm. At this time, the average soil impurities removal rate is 87.18%, and the potato average damage rate is 1.95%, which meet the requirements of potato cleaning operation.

505-515

Authors: Yibo Li, Shipeng Zhu

When forklifts are used to move stored crops in a storage environment, the positioning system is severely affected by the presence of multiple stored crops and shelves and other complex factors in the environment. Aiming at the problems of low positioning and navigation accuracy and large accumulated error of forklift system, a Lidar/IMU integrated navigation and positioning method is proposed in this paper, which can improve the positioning accuracy of forklift truck in storage environment. Meanwhile, the improved EKF filtering algorithm is proposed in this paper which can optimize the navigation and positioning system. This method first extracts the environmental information obtained from Lidar scan measurements and the attitude information collected by the IMU. Then the output data from the two sensors are processed with the improved EKF filtering algorithm, which can improve the navigation and positioning accuracy when the forklift is working. The Lidar/IMU integrated navigation and positioning method proposed in this paper is validated by experiments simulating forklifts working in a warehouse environment in the laboratory. Through simulation experiments, it is verified that the improved EKF filtering algorithm in this paper can improve the positioning accuracy of forklift truck, accuracy of forklift movement trajectory, closer to the expected trajectory

23-32

Authors: He, Changbin; You, Yong; Wu, Hongjian; Ye, Bingnan; Wang, Decheng

Novel tillage tools with high working performance are desired in improving degraded natural grassland tillage system. This paper aimed to find the influence of various geometry structures of very narrow tines on related soil disturbance characteristics and tillage resistances. Four shank-type tillage tines with different cutting head shapes, and the test bench were designed and manufactured. Field experiments under different working depths were conducted. The working depth uniformity, soil over-turning rate, cross-section area of disturbed soil layer, and related forces were obtained, analysed, and compared. Results showed that, the working depth uniformities were above 70%, and soil overturning rates did not exceed 5%. Furrows with V-shaped cross-section were formed. The tine with an arc-shaped cutting edge (AT) obtained a lower draft force value, and the tine with chamfer structure (TTD) presented big differences on the draft force and soil disturbance compared to the tine with blunt cutting edge (TT). Both the draft force and the area of disturbed soil cross section had a good linear relationship with the working depth, and the specific draft force increased with the working depth increasing. Using a very narrow tine with chamfers to split and break the soil layer on the natural grassland without pulling or dragging the roots could be an appropriate tillage method applied for improving degraded natural grassland, but still need further surveys.

43-53

Authors: Hidayat, Dadang Dayat; Sagita, Diang; Darmajana, Doddy Andy; Indriati, Ashri; Rahayuningtyas, Ari; Sudaryanto, Arie; Kurniawav, Yose Rizal; Nugroho, Pramono

The study aimed to develop a small-scale drum dryer to meet the small enterprises' demand in the context to produce ready-to-eat food products to support stunting prevention. The design, manufacture, and thermal evaluation of a double drum dryer had been carried out. The development stage consisted of sizing the main components, creating technical drawings, determining component materials, manufacturing, and performance tests. The dryer drum dimension was 500 mm in diameter and 400 mm in length and 20 mm in thickness. The capacity of the double drum dryer was 10 kg/batch. The double drum dryer was powered by a 3-phase electromotor 2.24 kW. There are three transmission systems applied, i.e. gearbox, chain-sprocket and belt-pulley. The feeding system applied was nip feeding. The heat source originated from the steamer using an electric heater. Results of the test showed that the double drum drying machine had worked well as expected. The temperature distribution of both drums was fairly uniform, and the temperature uniformity in the drum surface showed good uniformity (minimum gradient temperature). The double drum dryer was able to produce good characteristics of products in the form of ready-to-eat products made from several ingredients (i.e. millets and red bean) which contain high macro and micronutrient.

385-392

Authors: Paula Tudor, Gheorghe Voicu, Gabriel-Alexandru Constantin, Elena-Madalina Stefan, Mariana-Gabriela Munteanu, Vasilica Stefan

The Brabender farinograph is a device with which important indications for baking are obtained, namely: dough development time (DDT), water absorption (WA), dough stability time (DST), softening degree (SD), Farinograph Quality Number (FQN), important parameters for determining flour mixtures. These parameters are represented on the farinographic curve drawn during the farinograph test. Dough development or formation (formation of gluten) is represented by the ascending branch of the farinographic curve, which has a steep ascending slope, because time (expressed in minutes), fixed on the abscissa of the diagram, has relatively low values (about 1.2–3 min for regular flours), while consistency, fixed on the ordinate of the diagram, reaches the maximum value (peak time) of the dough. In comparison, the descending branch of the farinogram, which starts from the maximum value of the dough consistency (peak time), has a slow descending slope, because the kneading time is extended up to 20 minutes, and the consistency decreases relatively little. The paper presents the appreciation of this branch of the farinogram by mathematical equations for several types of doughs from wheat flour mixed with different percentages of salt.

19-28

Authors: Vezirov, Ch. Z.; Atanasov, At. Z.; Vlăduț, V. N.

A method and procedure for automatic calculation of field capacity and fuel consumption of mobile machinery with tanks, hoppers and bunkers is suggested. They are based on a combination of two well-founded approaches: East-European and North-American. To increase its calculation area some applications for machines with containers as grain, fertilizer, solution, etc. are added. An example of five linked field operations, namely potato transportation, fertilization, spraying, planting and harvesting is presented. A list of needed information with relations between them and main indices of agricultural aggregates is prepared. For convenience and objectivity calculations are automated with spreadsheets.

41-50

Authors: Xie, Q.J.; Liu, F.Y.; Yang, M..J.; Liu, J.; Yang, S.H.; Xie, S.Y.

Well cellar seedling transplanting can effectively avoid series of problems such as long recovery time and poor uniformity of seedlings caused by the server climate conditions outside. Well cellar making is quite difficult in the upland with low moisture content. An opener with large socket was newly designed for the well cellar making. The well cellar making process was simulated by means of discrete element method (DEM), and its verification was qualified by soil bin test, with a relative error 7.46%. Taking arc radius of the opener socket, rotation speed and penetration speed as control factors, and collapse rate of the cellar hole as evaluation index, the influence of control factors on the collapse rate and their significance were obtained by Box-Behnken Design (BBD) test and analysis of variance (ANOVA). A quadratic regression equation of collapse rate with control factors was established, and the optimal parameters of the control factors were obtained as arc radius 128 mm, rotation speed 380 r/min and penetration speed 0.15 m/s, with the minimum collapse rate 22.70%. The collapse rate of the newly designed well cellar opener decreased much compared to the traditional one.

61-72

Authors: Yingmin, Chen; Haiyan, Song; Rui, Zhao; Qin, Su

To ensure optimum peach quality during precooling, air supply temperature within the precooled facility should be precisely controlled. Three-dimensional unsteady computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model was established in this research, taking air supply temperature as an influencing factor, a dynamic simulation of this model was performed based on Fluent, and its reliability was verified through experiments. Simulation results showed that the decrease of air supply temperature did not affect the 7/8ths cooling time (SECT) significantly, but shortened the cooling time of the fruit which was cooled from the initial temperature to a fixed temperature, especially when air supply temperature dropped below 4oC, its corresponding cooling time showed a trend of steady variation. Meanwhile, respiration rate of 6-8 oC was about twice as high as that of 2-4 oC, its corresponding moisture loss was also increased by 34.71-39.74%. Thus, the range of 2-4 oC was more suitable for quick precooling peaches after harvest. Experiments showed that the root mean square error (RMSE) of 0.7 and 2.7 m·s-1 were 0.747 and 0.836 oC, respectively. It could be seen that simulation results were in good agreement with experimental results, which fully verified the feasibility and high accuracy of this new modeling method. Finally, this study can provide a reliable reference for establishing an accurate precooling numerical model, and rationally optimizing air supply temperature range of fruits precooling experiment to maintain its high quality.

81-90

Authors: Dorokhov, Alexey Semenovich; Ponomarev, Andrey Grigoryevich; Zernov, Vitaly Nikolaevich; Petukhov, Sergey Nikolaevich; Aksenov, Alexander Gennadievich; Sibirev, Aleksey Viktorovich

Structural layouts of coulters and their groups in potato planters are justified in the article based on the morphological features of the potato plant, its requirements for growing conditions and ensuring the quality of the planting process. The purpose of coulter groups is to form a bed for placing tubers with a loose layer of soil in 5-8 cm and sealing them with loosened soil to a certain depth. To substantiate the type of potato planter coulters that meet the requirements for potato growing conditions to the maximum extent possible, optimize the parameters of coulter groups that automatically ensure the stability of the coulter travel depth when imitating irregularities of the field microrelief. A comparative analysis of the impact on the soil of the most common anchor coulters with a blunt angle of soil entry and a sharp angle with an individual floating suspension is given, and indicators of the quality of their operation are described. It was found that coulters with an individual floating suspension and an acute angle of soil entry meet the requirements for potato growing conditions to the maximum extent possible. In order to ensure travel stabilization of such a coulter at a given depth when imitating field irregularities, a version of the coulter group has been developed that provides automatic correction of the coulter's angle of attack when changing its travel depth. Experimental studies have optimized the parameters of the coulter suspension that ensure automatic imitation of field microrelief irregularities up to 20 cm deep within the initial requirements for potato planting machines. Coulters with an individual floating suspension and a sharp angle of soil entry most fully meet the requirements for potato growing conditions to the maximum extent possible. A coulter group with a suspension aspect ratio of 150:200:400:400 cm and an acute angle of coulter entry into the soil provides automatic maintenance of the set coulter travel depth within the initial requirements (±2 cm) for irregularities in the field microrelief of up to 200 mm. In this case, the bottom and walls of the furrow are not compacted.

99-108

Authors: Wang, Tiejun; Wang, Tieliang; Wang, Ruili; Liu, Kai; Gong, Yuanjuan

In this study, a segmented type mixer with double spiral ribbon was designed to destroy choking and accumulation of agricultural waste in the mixing process, by improving the mixing uniformity and reducing the residual amount of maize straw and cow dung. To determine the optimal working parameters of the mixer, the ternary quadratic regression orthogonal rotation combined experiment was carried out by using the mixing uniformity and residual rate of material as the evaluation indexes and the spindle speed, full coefficient and mixing time as the influencing factors. The results showed that the order of the influences on the mixing uniformity was spindle speed>mixing time>fullness coefficient, and the order of the influences on the residual rate of material was fullness factor>spindle speed>mixing time. The study established a regression model of influencing factors and evaluation indexes, and analysed the influence of significant factors and their interaction on evaluation indexes. The optimum combination after parameter optimization based on response surface method was determined to be as follows: spindle speed of 38.00rad/min, full coefficient of 55.00%, mixing time of 9.33min. While the mixing uniformity and residual rate of material corresponding to the verification test were 91.25% and 95.19%, respectively, the relative error of the predicted result was less than 0.5%. The study meets the requirements of mixing agricultural waste materials to make fertilizers, and provides technical solutions for improving the localized resource utilization of agricultural waste.

131-136

Authors: Ito, Ryoei; Kajisa, Takamitsu

This study proposes a measurement system that comprises an e-Tape water level sensor, Arduino and XBee. The system was considered a success because of the linear relation between measured voltage signals and water depths obtained by it. This linearity was essential because Arduino does not have non-linear calculation ability. As a result, the numerical order of RMSE in measuring water depth using this system was obtained as 3.52 mm. For measuring water consumption for 1 day at the standard scale of paddy fields in Japan, water consumption can be estimated using the system below non-flowing water surfaces. However, when there is water flow, it will be difficult to estimate water consumption because discharge errors may be cumulative.

145-154

Authors: Su, Hongjie; Cui, Hongmei; Li, Feiyu; Fan, Teng

Through the mechanical analysis of air-pressure subsoiler, it is found that the main factors affecting its tractive resistance are the air pressure injected into the soil, the soil cohesion, the length and width of the shovel surface, the soil disturbance coefficient, and moving speed of the subsoiler. The traditional air-pressure subsoiler was redesigned to solve the problem of large tractive resistance. In the soil trench experiment, the subsoiling shovel’s shape, the air pressure, and the position of air hole were used as test factors, and the ratio of the traction resistance of the shovel to the soil disturbance, namely SDF (Specific Draft Force), was used as the evaluation index. By the response surface test method and analysing the soil disturbance and the tractive resistance, it is determined that rectangular subsoiling shovel with the air hole in the upper part of the shovel is the optimal under the pressure of 1.2 MPa.

169-178

Authors: Mosalanejad, Hossein; Minaei, Saeid; Borghei, Alimohammad; Farzaneh, Behfar

This study investigates the potential of using a sprayer robot for the greenhouse with bell-pepper plants and compares its performance with the backpack sprayer. The infrared sensors were used to navigate the robot and the ultrasonic sensors were used to distinguish the beginning of each row for automatic spraying. Results showed that the robot's guidance was done well by the infrared sensor. It was capable for spraying plants on both sides of the greenhouse simultaneously with ultrasonic sensor. The sprayer robot had better spray quality and lower solution consumption and spraying time and spray loss than the backpack sprayer.

189-198

Authors: Tan, Kun; Sun, Sanmin; Du, Liangzong; Zhou, Shaoliang

This research aimed to develop an information acquisition and intelligent irrigation decision system based on the agricultural Internet of Things (IoT). The system consists of a field control terminal and a remote client, realizing control, real-time display, alarm, and other functions. The user may apply the upper and lower limit of soil relative water content as the irrigation decision threshold. The system automatically controls irrigation according to the threshold. In the calculation and analysis part of the system, the programming software Keil 5 was used for data collection and monitoring, database comparison, calculation and analysis, irrigation decision, and other functions.

221-230

Authors: Wang Long; Hu, Can; He, Xiaowei; Guo, Wensong; Wang, Xufeng; Hou, Shulin

In the current paper, a coated cotton-seed discrete element model was established. Furthermore, we designed a device for the simultaneous determination of the repose and accumulation angles, and Plackett–Burman and central composite design (CCD) tests were performed with the repose and accumulation angles as the test indexes. The static friction coefficient between seeds (SFCC) and the dynamic friction coefficient between seeds (DFCC) were observed to have a significant influence on the indexes and were thus selected for the subsequent analysis (P < 0.05). Analysis of variance revealed the terms of these two parameters to have a significant effect on the relative error of the repose angle (RERA) and the relative error of accumulation angles (REAA) (P < 0.05). A solution to the proposed mathematical model was determined via the NSGA-Ⅱ genetic algorithm and the Pareto optimal solution set was obtained. Based on multi-objective optimization, the SFCC and DFCC were determined as 0.174 and 0.068, for RERA and REAA values of 1.715% and 1.712%, respectively. Simulations were then performed using the optimal parameters. Results of the T-test demonstrated that there were no significant differences between the simulated and physical test results.

241-248

Authors: Yi, Qiu; Xiaofeng, Dai; Zhi, Chen; Nianzu, Dai; Longkai, Mi

In order to explore the temporal and spatial distribution and motion state of the grains of wheatgrass (Agropyron) seeds and powder in pelleting process, and to find the optimal inlet air speed of pelleting premixer, the pelleting forming mechanism was revealed. Based on Herz-Mindlin contact theory, the contact mechanics model of seed and powder was established. Besides, CPFD software was used to model and simulate the pelleting premixer, and the contact, collision and friction rules among particles were analysed. The simulation and experimental results show that with the increase of inlet wind speed, the bed expansion increases and the unit volume particle concentration decreases, while the air pressure difference only slightly increases. When the inlet wind speed is set at 3.5 m/s, the atomizing nozzle velocity is set at 4.1 m/s, and the seed coating agent flow rate is 0.36 L/min, the particles are suspended due to air isolation, forming a spouted fluidized bed. It is good for seed and powder contact and rapid prototyping. In this time, the pelleting qualified rate was 95.8%. The results provide theoretical basis and technical support for the research of small irregular seeds pelletizing technology.

261-270

Authors: Liu, Shaohua; He, Junlin; Wu, Nan

A comb-type harvesting test bench was designed to address low fruit collection rate and theoretical analysis and simulation analysis of the harvesting process were carried out in this work. Single factor simulation experiment and bench experiment were carried out, and fruit collection rate was used as the evaluation index. The motor speed, bending angle of comb teeth and radial diameter of comb teeth arrangement were selected as the experimental factors. Results showed that the collection rate decreased with the increase of motor speed; and increased with the increase of the bending angle of comb teeth or the radial diameter of comb teeth arrangement. The orthogonal experiment of three-factor and three-level quadratic rotation centre combination was performed. The results showed that motor speed had the largest effect on collection rate, followed by radial diameter of comb teeth arrangement and bending angle of comb teeth. The optimal parameter combination was predicted by the response surface model as follows: motor speed of 25 r/min, bending angle of comb teeth of 120°, radial diameter of comb teeth arrangement of 868.45 mm and correspondingly the collection rate reached 91.51%. Based on actual harvesting efficiency and the machining problems of the test bench, the bench experiment was performed with the motor speed of 25 r/min, the bending angle of comb teeth of 120°, the radial diameter of comb teeth arrangement of 900 mm, and the collection rate was 93.82%. The relative error with the predicted optimal result was 2.48%, achieving the purpose of improving the collection rate.

281-290

Authors: Qing, Yiren; Li, Yaoming; Xu, Lizhang; Ma, Zheng

During the mechanical harvesting of rapeseed, the impact of the rotating reel tine on rape can easily cause the pods to burst and seeds drop. However, the specific size of the pod shatter resistance suitable for mechanical harvesting is unsure. In this paper the impact force on the rape was analysed through the measurement and wireless transmission of stress change of the tine. A two-degree-of-freedom (2-DOF) collision tester of pod resistance for field testing was used. The results of the shatter resistance index (SRI) under 2-DOF method and the cracking force under ripping method were compared. According to the results of SRI, cracking force and tine impact force, the expected field SRI was determined. The results show that the tine impact forces at the low reel speed of 18 revs min-1 was 1.76 N. The 2-DOF method results are reliable and the SRI is significantly correlated with the cracking force. The SRI should be over 0.576 to be greater than the impact force under the low reel speed, however, only 14.8% of the tested varieties could satisfy. It indicates the resistance of the commercial varieties is generally poor and need to strengthen.

301-308

Authors: González-Cueto, O.; Castillo-Rodríguez, J.A.; Ávalos-Clavelo, J.L.; López-Bravo E.; Herrera-Suárez, M.; Salcerio Salaberry, R.A.

Field efficiency is a main factor for obtaining high productivity of agricultural machinery. The aim of this paper was to determine the field efficiency of KTP 2M and CASE IH 8000 sugarcane harvester machines, working with different lengths of cutting fronts. The research was carried out in the Panchito Gómez Toro area of production, belonging to Sugar Enterprise, Villa Clara, during February and March 2020. The main movement times of the harvester inside the field was obtained by stop watch, as well as the fuel consumption during the works. The influence of the length of the cutting fronts on the turning time, time for completing the task and field efficiency were determined according to the sugarcane yield. The results show that lengths of cutting front less than 300 m, represent greater losses in time and higher rate of fuel consumption.Lengths of cutting fronts greater than 500 m, do not represent an increase in field efficiency.

317-325

Authors: Konstantinov, Yu.V.; Akimov, A.P. ; Medvedev, V.I.; Terentyev, A.G

Flat circular discs in powered operation mode create driving forces. These forces enable to decrease the wheel slippage of the energy saturated tractor of tillage unit and to reduce the specific energy consumption. The objective of this study was to develop a technique that enables to determine the driving disc optimal parameters for maximum efficiency criterion. The earlier developed mathematical model of soil-disc interaction was used for this purpose. Soil properties in the model are characterized by means of two empirical constants. The relative depth and the kinematic parameter determine the disc operation mode. It was shown that the driving disc can operate with high efficiency, if the disc operates at the optimal values of the parameters. The driving disc efficiency can achieve the value about fifty percent. The experimental results confirmed the adequacy of the technique. The discrepancy between the predicted and field experimental values of driving forces and applied moments was about 25%. The proposed technique can be modified to optimize the parameters of other powered rotary tools of tillage machines and units.

335-344

Authors: Wang, Li; Li, Shuo; Lv, Dianji; Ekhlo, Ghay

In recent years, combine harvesters are increasingly developing in the direction of large-scale, technology, automation and intelligence, and more and more electrical equipment is installed on combine harvesters. The electrical system of combine harvester is prone to failure when it works in high temperature, high humidity, dusty and strong vibration environment. Parameters to be adjusted in the header system of combine harvester include header height, drum height, drum front and back position, cutting frequency and drum speed. Aiming at the inconvenience of debugging and testing the measurement and control system of combine harvester in the field operation environment, an intelligent control test bed of combine harvester was designed. The test bed can simulate various intelligent control algorithms of combine harvester in laboratory environment, control the forward speed of combine harvester according to data processing results, classify faults, and send and print stored data through serial communication. Experiments show that the system works stably and reliably, and can realize the integration of the monitoring system of combine harvester operation process. It can save costs and improve efficiency in the application of the monitoring system of combine harvester.

355-364

Authors: Paun, A.; Stroescu, Gh.; Zaica, Al.; Ştefan, V.; Olan, M.; Yasbeck Khozamy, S.

The production and quality of any agricultural crop is determined both by the factors acting from the moment of sowing until harvesting, as well as by those that directly influence the seeds before sowing. In the organic cultivation of cereals, industrial plants, vegetables, medicinal plants, the seeds must be clean without any impurities because the maintenance of these crops does not allow using chemicals. There is a number of technologies and pieces of equipment for separating impurities. In case of separating impurities from the mass of small seeds, especially vegetable and flower seeds, the use of separation on sieves is very expensive because compared to other crops, vegetable seeds are produced in small quantities (except for beans, peas, lentils, etc.) and have a wide variety of characteristics. Vegetables belong to a large number of plant families. This is why their seeds have a very different structure, shape, size and chemical composition. To overcome these challenges, the experimental model Seed conditioning module for vegetable species – MCSL, which separates impurities by using the aerodynamic properties of the seeds was developed. Seed conditioning module for vegetable species is designed to improve the technologies of organic seed production for vegetable seeds, flowers, industrial plants, cereals and to solve practical problems regarding seed production in the case of vegetable crops. Starting from these considerations, the paper will present theoretical and experimental information on the influence of some factors on the aerodynamic properties of cereal seeds, vegetables and industrial plants. The quality of seed separation in this module depends on the degree of uniformity of the air velocity field in the working area, on the stability of this field and on its extent.

375-384

Authors: Ran, Xu; Mathkour, Chandra

With the development of engine supercharging technology and the application of in-cylinder direct injection technology, engines with high power and torque have become a trend. Crankshaft, as one of the most important and expensive parts in tractor engine, plays the role of transforming linear motion into circular rotation. The damage and destruction of crankshaft will lead to the damage of other parts of the engine, which makes the engine unable to work normally, and its stability affects the reliability of the whole engine to a great extent. The main failure form of tractor engine crankshaft is bending fatigue failure, so alternating bending stress occurs in crankshaft, which may cause fatigue failure of crankshaft. Crankshaft is one of the important components of tractor engine, and its stress is complex, which is the key and difficult point of engine design. In this paper, the crankshaft of tractor engine is analysed and studied based on compound supercharging technology, so that the dynamic characteristics of the engine are deeply understood, the action law of dynamic working load is mastered, the response analysis and evaluation of the system are carried out, and the optimization method of crankshaft mechanism of agricultural tractor engine is found out.

397-404

Authors: Ardiansah, Irfan; Bafdal, Nurpilihan; Bono, Awang; Suryadi, Edy; Husnuzhan, Ramadhoni

The greenhouse which is a building used to manipulate the micro-climate is an essential building for plant growth. Greenhouses have one or more devices that are used to monitor their internal environments against changes in micro-climate. The problem is that some devices are metal-based devices and plastics that can be deformed, such as electronic devices, one of which is a micro-climate monitoring device, so a shield that can protect the device but does not interfere with the sensor readings is needed. The purpose of this study was to make and test a plastic-based container called Duradus Junction Box, which has six removable ventilation openings to measure the micro-climate data. This study uses five Duradus Junction Boxes with different numbers of ventilation openings, a micro-controller connected to the air temperature and relative humidity sensor, and a MicroSD module to record all micro-climate data, all devices being then tested simultaneously for 30 days. Statistically, after using One Way ANOVA, this study found that micro-climate measurements result for actual devices data can be considered similar because the P-value for temperature (0.886) and relative humidity (0.917) is greater than alpha level of 0.05. However, when reading the recorded data for both parameters, it can be seen that micro-climate data inside all shields are slightly higher than actual microclimate data ranging from 1 to 2oC for air temperature and 1 to 3% for air relative humidity.

413-424

Authors: Zeng, Fandi; Li, Xuying; Zhang, Yongzhi; Zhao, Zhiwei; Cheng, Cheng

Dynamic soil behaviour at the contact interface during transplanting makes it difficult to ensure transplanting quality. To solve this problem, the Hertz-Mindlin with bonding contact model was used to calibrate the parameters of soils in Inner Mongolia. Based on the response surface design principle, four-factor and three-level tests were performed using the repose angle as an evaluation index, and the following influence factors were considered: the soil-soil restoration coefficient, the soil-steel restoration coeficient, the soil-steel static friction coefficient and the soil-steel static friction coefficient. A regression model was analysed, and an optimization procedure yielded the following optimum combination of parameters: a soil-soil restoration coefficient of 0.45, a soil-steel restoration coefficient of 0.35, a soil-steel static friction coefficient of 0.85 and a soil-steel rolling friction coefficient of 0.13. This optimal combination was used to simulate the soil at the contact interface. The particle dynamic behaviour and soil particle mass flow were used to analyse the soil dynamic behaviour, showing that the average mass flow during the gradual opening of the duckbilled planter tends to increase over time; when the duckbilled planter gradually leaves soil, the contact interface of soil particles in the corner of the duckbilled planter unit causes a reduction in the fluctuation range of the soil mass flow, which exhibits a wave-like change. After the duckbilled planter has left soil, the contact interface of the soil changes tends to stabilize. The duckbilled planter-soil discrete element simulation model was verified. The results of this study provide a reference for the optimal design of a duckbilled planter structure.

434-442

Authors: Zhang, Shuo; Chen, Qingyu; Liu, Jinyi; Chen, Yu; Chen, Jun; Jin, Hongling; Luo, Tongyun

Vegetable industry occupies a significant position in the world agricultural production, China has been the largest vegetable producing country in the world. However, the mechanization of vegetable production is still in the initial stage. There are many problems such as complex environment, non-uniform agronomy, various kinds of agricultural machinery etc. In order to meet the varied requirements of vegetable field work, in this paper, a new type of high-efficiency vegetable field operation power equipment was developed by adopting the idea of "frame-type", and the key components are developed. They include ground gap adjusting mechanism, wheel spacing adjusting mechanism, inter-axle hitch mechanism, the rear hitch mechanism and frame. The vibration modal analysis and stiffness analysis of the frame are carried out by ANSYS, which proves that the frame design is reasonable and meets the use requirements. Finally, a prototype was made and field experiments were carried out. The results showed that the maximum running speed of the multifunctional vegetable field machine was 16 km/h, the maximum operating speed was 8 km/h, the maximum gradient was 20, and the adjustable range of ground clearance was 400~800 mm. The adjustable range of wheel spacing was 1600-2000 mm.

453-460

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

Individual pig recognition is an essential step for accurate breeding and intelligent management of pigs. To realize individual pig identification, applicable dataset of pigs needs to be built. For pigs’ behaviour is difficult to control, the data acquisition is of great difficulty and low efficiency. In addition, few reports on pig face detection are there at home and abroad, thus, face data acquisition faces more difficulty. In this study, double open mv3 digital cameras were adopted, and the approach of starting the pig face acquisition program by acquiring pig figure with a vertical camera to calculate the slope of their back before sending a signal to the horizontal camera was adopted. The image brightness was calculated based on RGB function: when the value was less than 90, the supplementary light system would be started by L298 module, and when the value was more than 120, the acquisition system would be restarted. This study provides a reference for solving the key problem of automatic acquisition of pig face data for pig face detection.

469-478

Authors: Dai, Nianzu; Hou, Zhanfeng; Qiu, Yi ; Zhang, Xiwen

In order to quantitatively describe the influence between the mixing process and the pelleting quality of the vibration pelletizer, this paper uses EDEM to conduct a numerical simulation study on the uniformity of the seeds and powder mixing of the pelleting machine under vibration force field. Meanwhile, a single factor test was established to verify the feasibility of numerical simulation. The results show that the coefficient of variation CV is the smallest and the mixing uniformity between the seeds and powder is the highest when the vibration frequency is 20Hz, the rotation speed is 45r/min, the tilt angle is 40° during numerical simulation. The pelleting qualified rate J and single seed rate P as the test index of the mixing uniformity of seed pelleting shows the optimum value in the single factor test, EDEM can be used to analyse the mixing uniformity and pelleting quality in pelletizer. The results of orthogonal experiment indicated that the best combination of parameters was obtained as follows: vibration frequency of 20Hz, rotation speed of 45r/min and tilt angle of 40°, the mixing uniformity of seeds and powder and the pelleting quality of Agropyron seeds are the highest. This study can effectively provide reference for design of pelleting machine of small seeds under vibration force field.

488-497

Authors: Cardei, P.; Muraru, V.; Muraru, S.; Sfaru, R.; Muraru-Ionel, C.

The article presents results of some test sketches - validation and ordering - of the mathematical models proposed for the physical law rank on soil tillage draft force. The results constitute the continuation and partial completion of a method of testing - validation and ordering - the models proposed and published by researchers in the specialized literature of the last seventy years. The material defines and completes the method (initially only a validation method), up to a method of ordering the models according to their accuracy in relation to the experimental results. The proposed tests are intended to increase the coherence of research in the field of searching for a physical law of soil tillage draft force, assuming that it exists. The method can also be applied in case of other physical laws in research, construction or improvement stage.