INMATEH - Agricultural Engineering

11-22

Authors: JinMing LI, Peng ZHANG, YiChao WANG, JiaXi ZHANG

Aiming at the problems of low efficiency, and low degree of mechanization of artificial soil clearing and considering that grapevines are easy to be damaged in northern China, a brush roll grapevine cold-proof soil clearing device suitable for removing soil in northern grape planting areas is studied and designed. The machine is mainly composed of a suspension device, soil removing device, hydraulic control system, telescopic device, etc. In this paper, a brush roll grapevine cold-proof soil clearing device was fabricated to investigate critical parameters such as rotation rate of soil removing device, brush spacing, and brush wire length on the machine performance. The three-factor and three-level quadratic regression orthogonal tests were carried out with the rotation rate of soil removing device, brush spacing, and brush wire length were taken as experimental factors and the soil removal rate and soil clearing distance were used as the evaluation indexes of soil clearing effect. The results show that the influence order of three factors on the soil removal rate was: rotation rate of soil removing device > brush spacing > brush wire length. The order of influence on the soil clearing distance was: rotation rate of soil removing device > brush wire length > brush spacing. The results show that when the rotation rate of the soil removing device was 248.71 r/min, brush spacing was 18.84 mm and brush wire length was 329.3 mm, the soil removal rate was 91.62% and the soil clearing distance was 11.63 cm. The relative error between the experimental verification value and the theoretical optimization value is less than 4%. This study provides the theoretical basis for the development of other types of grapevine cold-proof soil clearing devices.

33-40

Authors: Wei CHEN, Yan DING, Norbu TASHI, Jiping ZHU, Dong YUAN, Keheng YAO, Min XIA, Lijuan SUN

In this paper, a vertical rotary tillage with fixed-layer fertilizer performance was designed, the design process was introduced. And the fertilization performance was verified by Edem software simulation. The final field test shown that the average tillage depth could reach 26.8cm; the fertilizer layer was concentrated under the soil surface 45-48mm; the width of the fertilizer layer was 238-240mm; the thickness of the fertilizer layer was 223-226mm, which satisfied the design requirements.

53-66

Authors: Chenxi HE, Xiunan JIN, Liquan LU, Mengliang MA, Xinxin WANG, Junchang ZHANG

The disorder flow of seeds caused by the collision in the seed-guiding tube is one of the important reasons for the reduction of seeding uniformity. For this problem, a seed-guiding tube with brachistochrone considering the influence of friction was presented in this paper. By analyzing kinetics and rotating the equation coordinate system, brachistochrone under the condition of friction was obtained and applied to the design of the structural parameters of the grain conductor of T-groove furrowing device, and a discrete element model of the grain conductor and wheat was established, thus single-factor simulation analysis and quadratic regression orthogonal rotation combination simulation tests were conducted to explore the optimal combination of parameters. The test results showed that the seed-guiding tube had a brachistochrone radius of 14.708 mm, a linear length of 500 mm and a working speed of 4 km/h, and the seed spacing offset dispersion degree and the seed lateral offset dispersion degree were 12.26 and 8.53 respectively, which had a high seeding uniformity. The results of the bench validation test showed that the coefficients of variation of the two test evaluation indexes between the bench test results and the virtual simulation results were 10.20% and 8.62% respectively, therefore the simulation results could be used for the optimization of the seed guide tube.

77-84

Authors: Dony PERDANA, Satworo ADIWIDODO, Subagyo SUBAGYO, Wigu Ardi WINARKO

The research was conducted experimentally to know the role of perforated plates variations and the directions of the magnetic fields on flame characteristics of coconut oil in premix combustion. The results that the variation of the perforated greatly affects flame stability and temperature. Perforated plate 11 produces a more stable flame at higher reactant speeds. The attractive magnetic field plays a role in increasing the laminar combustion speed perforated 7 with a temperature is 659 °C because the spin electrons accelerated the breaking of the O2 carbon chain bonds in fuel.

95-105

Authors: Kaixing ZHANG, He CHEN, Wenzhong WANG, Xiuyan ZHAO, Honghao LIU

A drum-type hot air tea roasting machine was designed to improve the quality of the roasted tea. The basic structure and working principle of the machine were studied theoretically and experimentally. The CFD-DEM coupled method and the Box-Behnken experimental design method were introduced to analyse the influence of the shape of the anti-skid bars and working rotating speed on the tea-roasting quality. The optimum combination of the working parameters with the height of the anti-skid bar is 30 cm, the figure of the anti-skid bar is 6, the rotating speed of the roller is 15 r/min, the broken-tea ratio is 2.15%, and the tea’s sensory appraisal index is 89.32. The comprehensive performance index was better.

117-127

Authors: Binxing XU, Mingjiang CHEN, Biao MA, Weisong ZHAO, Jingjing FU, Qimin GAO, Aibin WU

To solve the problems of high error on both sides and high coefficient of variation during liquid manure distribution, this work designed a distribution mechanism integrating conveying, stirring and distribution functions, combined with the physical properties of selected liquid manure. Taking rotor speed, inlet flow and moving cutter structure as test factors, the Design-Expert 8.0.6 software was used to design "three-factor three-level quadratic regression" orthogonal test and establish response surface regression model. Through observing relative error and coefficient of variation, uniform distribution characteristics test and parameter optimization of liquid manure were performed. The results showed that the primary and secondary order of influencing factors on the relative error is rotor speed> inlet flow > moving cutter structure; the primary and secondary order of influencing factors on the coefficient of variation is inlet flow > moving cutter structure> rotor speed. Further, the optimization test indicated that 170 r/min rotor speed, 80 m3/h inlet flow, combined with arc-shaped moving cutter structure could output 10.50% relative error and 9.30% variation rate, which was less than 5% relative to the model predicted value.

137-146

Authors: Yan LI, Liming XIAO, Weiq LI, Hao LI, Jie LIU

For accurate recognition of orange fruit targets, a detection algorithm based on YOLOv4 was applied in this research. The results showed that AP (average precision) of YOLOv4 had reached 98.17%, 2.14% and 2.67% respectively higher than SSD and Faster RCNN while recognition rate of traditional image processing algorithms was merely 54.94%. Additionally, the extent of occlusion was proved to have obvious influences on the accuracy of orange detection. The accuracy on slight occlusion conditions appeared to be higher than that on serious occlusion conditions. Generally, YOLOv4 detection algorithm showed its feasibility and superiority on fruit detection in the complex natural environment.

155-165

Authors: Zhicai SONG, Peisong DIAO, Peide CUI, Maojian WEI, Hequan MIAO, Wenyan YAO

In order to reduce the problems of high grain breakage rate and uncleaned material rate in the threshing and separating device of longitudinal axial flow corn, a threshing device of "front flexible nail tooth + rear pressure spring elastic short grain rod" was designed and the threshing elements were arranged spirally on the conical threshing drum. Discrete element method and field test were used to verify the feasibility of threshing drum design, and EDEM simulation software was used to obtain the appropriate guide plate Angle parameter range. Single factor test was carried out on each experimental factor under high and low water content conditions, and four factors suitable working range was obtained.On this basis, four factors and three levels orthogonal test were carried out on grain breakage rate and undepurated rate, rotational speed of roller, feeding rate, cylinder-concave clearance and deflector angle as experimental factors. Range and variance analysis were used to analyze the rotational speed of roller, feeding rate, cylinder-concave clearance and deflector angle. The results showed that:Under the conditions of low water content, the threshing effect is the best under the conditions of feeding rate of 8kg/s,rotational speed of roller of 450 r/min, cylinder-concave clearance of 45 mm, and deflector angle of 70°.Under the conditions of high water content,the best threshing effect was achieved under the conditions of feeding rate of 7kg/s, rotational speed of roller of 450 r/min, cylinder-concave clearance of 40 mm and deflector angle of 75°. Compared with the conventional threshing separation device, the grain breakage rate of low moisture content decreased by 39.4% and the uncleaned material rate decreased by 63.9%.The grain breakage rate of high moisture content was reduced by 45.5%, and the uncleaned material rate was reduced by 66.7%, which was better than the conventional longitudinal axial flow threshing separation device. The research results can provide reference for the design and optimization of longitudinal axial flow corn harvester.

176-181

Authors: Tsetsenbat SOLONGO, Bartseren NYAMGEREL, Dorjsuren BAATARKHUU

New intensive cattle farm is being built with government support in order to meet the self-sufficiency of milk and meat products for Mongolian residents, keep stability, and reduce the seasonal dependence for food supply. It is urgent for us now to produce the mixed feed that is suitable for livestock type and age in the intensive farming. The feeding scientific approach should be specially paid attention to when using the multifunctional Total Mixed Ration (TMR) machine and effectively applying the TMR technology. When using the feed mixer TMR machine, it is necessary to optimize the main parameters of the machine operation and determine the mode parameters according to the characteristics of the grass, the amount of roughage, concentrated feed, additive and ingredients used in the preparation of mixed fodder. This paper made an experiment in Total Mixed Ration (TMR) machine and provided research results combined the parameters of feed mixing uniformity, palate ratio, subdivision rate, rotor speed, mixing times and feed moisture.

191-200

Authors: Svitlana MYKOLENKO, Dmytro TYMCHAK, Yuriy TCHOURSINOV, Mykola KHARYTONOV

The chemical composition, physical properties (moisture, crude protein, crude fiber, ash content, thousand grain weight, bulk density) and grain microstructure were evaluated for different varieties of sorghum grain cultivated in Ukraine. Sorghum varieties (Dniprovsky, Kafrske, and Fulgus) were subjected to different preconditioning and process parameters of microwave heating to determine the popping characteristics of the grain. Each of the three sorghum varieties was pretreated by moisture conditioning up to 13, 15, and 17%, and popped in a microwave oven set at 450, 600 and 700 W for 150 s. Popping yield was insufficient for all sorghum varieties at microwave power 450 W and grain moisture content of 13 and 17%. Popping characteristics (popping yield, popping start, specific weight of popped grain and volume expansion ratio) and organoleptic properties were measured. Thousand grain weight, bulk density, protein, ash, crude fiber content, pericarp, aleurone, and translucent endosperm thickness were found to be significantly different among the three sorghum varieties. Varietal characteristics of sorghum grain had a strong impact on volume expansion ratio, which was negatively correlated with the size of the grain. The Fulgus grain variety showing the highest popping characteristics was found to have higher thousand grain yield (31.9 g), higher bulk density (869.8 g/dm3), lower protein (8.03%), ash (1.35%) and crude fiber (2.01%) content, thinner but well-packed pericarp (31 µm), thinner aleurone (9 µm) and thicker translucent endosperm (1.1 mm) than other varieties.

211-220

Authors: Xiaohui YANG, Guohai ZHANG, Jia YAO, Jitan LIAN, Xin WANG, Danyang LV, Yujie DENG, Aoqi ZHANG

With the rapid development of agricultural modernization, the reliability of agricultural machinery had become the key to improving the development level of agricultural machinery and equipment in China. Aiming at the problems of subjectivity, fuzziness, high test cost and difficult data acquisition in the Failure Mode, Effects and Criticality Analysis of grain harvester, an FMECA analysis method based on Data Mining Technology was proposed in this paper. In this study, Python 3.7.8 is used to collect and process the fault data of the header of the grain harvester. According to the data analysis, it is concluded that the fault rate of the cutter component is the highest in the whole system. Then the agreed hierarchy of header was analyzed by Analytic Hierarchy Process, and it was concluded that the blade part failure mode was the most hazardous. The results show that the grain harvester should strengthen the inspection and maintenance of the blade of the cutter in the working process. The research results showed the feasibility of the FMECA method based on Data Mining Technology in agricultural machinery reliability analysis, which opens up a new idea of grain combine harvesters’ reliability analysis and provides the possibility to obtain the reliability level of harvesters with low input.

233-242

Authors: Xuejie MA,, Zhanfeng HOU, Min LIU

Calibrating the contact parameters when carrying out the seed pelletizing coating test could improve the simulation tests' accuracy. In this paper, alfalfa seeds and coated powders (hereafter referred to as seeds and powders) are used as the main object of study to calibrate their contact parameters, using the Hertz-Mindlin no-slip model and the JKR model to calibrate the contact parameters between seeds, between seed and steel plates (coating pot materials), between powder materials, between powder and steel plates, based on EDEM using the angle of repose as the response value to perform the Plackett-Burman test, the steepest ascent experiment, and the Box-Behnken test in turn to obtain the best combination of particle contact parameters, finally conducting physical angle of repose tests for comparison; when calibrating the contact parameters of seed and powder, the physical examinations and the simulation tests are combined to obtain the contact parameters through quadratic regression fitting equations. The difference between the contact parameter combinations obtained from the simulation tests and the physical test results is less than 1%, which provides some reference for calibrating similar fine seeds and powder parameters.

251-258

Authors: Jie HAN, Yajun ZHUANG, Meng ZHANG, Zeqi LIU, Yachen JIN, Yulong CHEN

The paper, combined with structural characteristics of mechanical seed metering devices and air-suction seed metering devices, designs a multi-mode seed metering device. According to installation of seed holding rings and application of negative pressure, three modes (mechanical mode, air-suction mode and combination of air-suction mode and mechanical mode) can be realized. JPS-12 seed metering performance test benches and high-speed camera are used for indoor tests. According to results, under the mechanical mode, advancing speed has a significant effect on seed metering performance. At a low speed, the qualification rate is maintained at about 96%; with advancing speed increased, the qualification rate decreases significantly. Seed spacing variation coefficient gradually increases with speed increased and stabilizes at about 30%. Under the air suction mode, negative pressure and advancing speed have a significant effect on qualification rate and miss seeding rate. With negative pressure increased, qualification rate increases while miss seeding rate decreases. Negative pressure has no significant effect on seed spacing variation coefficient, but advancing speed has a significant effect on seed spacing variation coefficient. With speed increased, seed spacing variation coefficient increases significantly. Under the multi-mode, advancing speed and negative pressure have a significant effect on qualification rate and miss seeding rate. Negative pressure has no significant effect on seed spacing variation coefficient, but advancing speed has a significant effect on seed spacing variation coefficient. Upon comparison of three modes, when speed is 6 km/h, qualification rate of air suction mode is close to multi-mode, which is significantly higher than that of mechanical mode. When speed is 8-12 km/h, qualification rate of multi-mode is significantly higher than that of air suction work. With negative pressure increased, gap between them gradually decreases.

269-277

Authors: Raden Ismu TRIBOWO, Nurhaidar RAHMAN, Seri INTAN KUALA

The nutrient solution circulation system is an important aspect to succeed in hydroponic cultivation. The surface height of the nutrient solution difference in the gravity system is part of the nutrient solution circulation system that uses electronic controls. It consists of a nutrient solution tub with a barrier separating the nutrient solution surface height. The nutrient solution tub is connected via a pipe to a drum containing a nutrient solution where its EC and pH are automatically controlled. The flow of the nutrient solution through the partition is necessary so that there is no shortage of nutrient solution in the tub containing a submersible pump due to pumping.

285-292

Authors: Volodymyr DIDUKH, Svitlana YAHELIUK, Тetyana ARTYUKH, Dmitro ALBOTA, Olexandr HOLIY

Harvesting of oleaginous flax seeds creates a biomass of stem residues that needs to be processed or utilized. Many methods of processing this biomass into various products (fiber, fuel, composites, etc.) have been offered. The first step in processing oleaginous flax residue is spinning it into rolls. However, oleaginous flax stems have highly elasticity properties and quick recovering abilities which make residue processing difficult. This paper suggests methods of decreasing the elasticity properties of oleaginous flax residue by destroying the higher layer of stem – decortication. Elasticity properties are influenced by layer thickness, humidity, and the amount of flax breakage as it passes through the roller pairs of a roller machine (decorticator). An increase in humidity and in the number of passes through the decorticator makes elasticity properties decrease. It allows making rolls that will keep their shape for a long period without any additional influences. In the future, these rolls can be used as a fuel or for a longer processing. The research results show a correlation with the rational number of machine roller pairs which can be used to develop new engineering designs for oleaginous flax harvesting.

306-313

Authors: Vasyl DMYTRIV, Ihor DMYTRIV, HORODNIAK Roman, Ivan HORODETSKYY

Mathematical model for designing the surface geometry of the Roots pump rotor based on the Cassini oval principle was derived. The polar coordinate system was used, and the radius vector, the direction of which was set by the φ angle, characterizes the location of the point on the surface of the rotor. The distance of this point from the axis of rotor rotation was set by the calculated value of the ρ_R polar radius vector. The γ angle of rotors rotation characterizes their mutual orientation in the plane of rotation. Peculiarities of the choice of the a and b parameters that satisfy the shape of the rotor surface geometry are considered. An example of rotor geometry is given for rotor radius R = 50 mm, rotor rounding radius r = 20 mm, parameters a = 33.166 and b = 28. Rotor geometry depends on normalized parameters of a and b, which are constant for a given shape of the surface and constructive dimensions. A mathematical model of the usable cross-sectional area of the pump has been developed. The usable cross-sectional area of the pump was simulated by the geometry of the rotors. The area of the rotor was determined by the geometry of the surface, which was described by an elliptic integral of the 2nd kind. The usable cross-sectional area for the given parameters is modelled. The results of simulation in the form of graphical dependences are given. Parameters a and b must meet the condition of √2⁄2

323-330

Authors: Volodymyr BULGAKOV, Oleksandra TROKHANIAK, Mykola KLENDII, Semjons IVANOVS, Ilmars DUKULIS

Slaked lime finds wide application in agriculture. For convenient use lime is often packed in plastic bags. The common equipment for these purposes has a number of disadvantages. The article presents the design of an experimental machine for packing slaked lime in polyethylene containers, which ensures high efficiency and has a wide range and accuracy of packing by weight. As a result of experiments, regression dependence was obtained and an assessment was made of the rotational frequency impact of the machine working body, depending on the design parameters of the mechanism. It has been established that the dominant factor affecting the efficiency value is the rotation frequency of the working body n and the lowest factor of impact is the machine outlet pipe diameter.

341-352

Authors: Yifei LI, Wenqi ZHOU, Zhijiang SUN, Tao CHEN, Shengxue ZHAO

Aiming at the problems of the existing potato cultivator in cultivation, such as poor effect and easy damage to seedlings, the composition structure and tillage principle of the cultivator is analyzed. Furthermore, in order to determine the volume of soil thrown by the soil-cultivating disc, that is, the main tilling indexes of JB/T7864-1999"Test methods of cultivator-fertilizer", this study makes a theoretical analysis on the dynamics of tilling device and the kinematics of tilling operation, to obtain the structural and motion parameters affecting soil cultivation. The discrete element simulation software is used for single-factor simulation analysis, to obtain the linear relationship between each factor and soil cultivation. Taking the tillage depth, cultivator forward speed and disc diameter as the factors, and the soil cultivating height as the test index, a field three-factor and three-level orthogonal test was carried out, and the optimal parameter combination was selected. The results showed that with the increase of the disc diameter and tillage depth, the cultivating height increased, and with the increase of the cultivator forward speed, the cultivating height increased first and then decreased. Through the orthogonal test of factors and the analysis of range and variance, it is determined that when the tillage depth is 105 mm, the operating speed is 5.5 km/h and the disc diameter is 475 mm, the effect of soil-cultivating disc is optimal. The results are also verified by the field test, and it can lay a foundation for the optimal design of potato cultivator.

364-373

Authors: Wanzhi ZHANG, Yuelin HAN, Chen HUANG, Zhiwei CHEN

This paper proposed a method of seed potato buds recognition based on improved YOLOv3-tiny. K-means clustering based on IoU is used to obtain the anchor box that meets the size of buds. Mosaic online data enhancement is used to increase image diversity and model generalization ability. The CIoU bounding box regression loss function is introduced to improve the regression effect of buds recognition. The results show that the precision (P), the recall (R), the average precision (AP), and the F1 score of the model for seed potato buds recognition are 88.33%, 85.97%, 91.18% and 87.13% respectively. The real-time recognition speed of seed potato buds on the embedded platform NVIDIA Jetson Nano can reach 40FPS. The method proposed in this paper can meet the needs of real-time recognition of seed potato buds on the embedded platform.

384-393

Authors: Xiongfei CHEN, Haiyang XIA, Jun’an LIU, Tuanpeng TU, Zeyu SUN, Jiajia YU, Muhua LIU

The performance of hole-type metering device influenced the adaption of different rice varieties in the mechanical direct hill-drop seeding technology, and the stepless adjustable sowing amount hole-type metering wheel was designed to solve this problem. The mechanical characteristics of different seeds were analyzed to acquire the parameters including hole diameter, depth, number, diameter of metering wheel and jogger slider mechanism, and the performance of metering wheel was tested on JPS-12 experimental bench by using Yongyou 12, Huanghuazhan and Wanxiang youhuazhan varieties. The hole depth and rotating speeds of metering wheel were the independence variance, the average seed numbers per hole, the coefficient of variance and the cavity rate were taken as the evaluation indexes. The results showed that the metering wheel could sow 3.58~7.82 seeds per hole with less than 40% of the coefficient of variance in average seeds number per hole and less than 5% of the cavity rate, and the regression model of average seed numbers per hole was built by employing the length of seeds, the rotating speed of metering wheel and the hole depth. The correlation coefficient was 0.952, the prediction error of regression mode was 0.32~11.35% by the field experiment. This study could be used for designing the hole-type metering device for rice.

406-411

Authors: Volodymyr BULGAKOV, Oleksandra TROKHANIAK, Ivan HOLOVACH, Valerii ADAMCHUK, Mykola KLENDII, Semjons IVANOVS

The article presents a study of the design of the working body of a screw conveyor, made in the form of a shaft with inclined flat blades. The productivity of the conveyor with a working body, made in the form of a shaft with inclined flat blades, increases proportionally with an increase in the speed of rotation of the working bodies, and decreases with an increase in the angle of inclination of the fixed body to the horizon. The productivity of the screw conveyor with a working body, made in the form of a shaft with inclined flat blades, increases proportionally with an increase in the speed of rotation of the working bodies, and decreases with an increase in the angle of inclination of the fixed body to the horizon. Within the range of rotational speed from 100 rpm to 600 rpm, productivity increases by 2.0 – 2.4 times, and, when angle of inclination of the fixed body to the horizon changes from 0º to 30º, it decreases by 45 – 55%. It has been established that the productivity of such a conveyor is 1.03 ... 1.05 times greater than the productivity of a conveyor with a screw working body.

425-432

Authors: V.I. Trokhaniak, N.A. Spodyniuk, O.M. Trokhaniak, O.V. Shelimanova, P.H. Luzan, O.R. Luzan

The aerodynamic air ducts in the poultry house significantly affect the poultry keeping and ensure air quality. Stagnant zones ultimately worsen the quality of output and many other factors that contribute to this. To improve the aerodynamics in the poultry house, authors proposed to install exhaust ventilation equipment on the upper line – 2.18 m above floor level. New scientific and practical results of CFD modeling show improved aerodynamic characteristics near exhaust fans. On the plane of the room at a height of 0.7 m from the floor level, the average air velocity is 0.696 m/s. In certain areas the air velocity is kept at 1.5 m/s. When the exhaust fans are located on the upper line, the so-called "tunnel effect" is created, which allows, in the warm period of the year, not to use additional equipment of the microclimate system to create a tunnel ventilation system.

445-455

Authors: Zhaoshuai ZHU, Jie LI, Wulan MAO, Liling YANG, Kuanbo CUI, Zhanjiang ZHU

Low productivity and high price are considered problems of the apricot kernel breaking machine, which is widely used in current apricot production. In this paper developed an apricot kernel breaking machine was designed and the mechanical properties of apricot kernel by a shell breaking machine were analysed, and the key working parts of the shell breaking machine was designed. The structure and the working parameters of the shell breaking machine are the key factors affecting the shell breaking performance determined. In this paper, the effect of shell breaking was investigated by using shell breaking clearance, feeding speed and differential speed ratio of rollers as test factors and shell breaking rate and almond damage rate as evaluation indicators, the results of the test showed that the effects of all factors on the shell breaking rate and almond damage rate were: shell breaking clearance > feeding speed > differential speed ratio; according to the results of single factor test and orthogonal test, the machine can achieve a better shell breaking performance and work efficiency when the shell breaking clearance was 8.5 mm, the feeding speed was 350 kg/h and the differential speed ratio was 1.75. The validation experiment was carried out with the optimal parameters’ combination. The shell breaking rate and almond damage rate were 99.04 % and 2.28 %, respectively, which provided a theoretical basis for the design and optimization of the apricot kernel breaking machine.

465-486

Authors: Agustami SITORUS, Ravipat LAPCHAROENSUK

In the past decade, fast and non-destructive methods based on spectroscopy technology have been studied to detect and discriminate against food adulteration and agro-products. Numerous linear and nonlinear chemometric approaches have been developed for spectroscopy analysis. Recently, various approaches have been developed for spectroscopic calibration modeling to detect and discriminate adulteration food and agro-products. This article discusses the application of spectroscopy technology, including near infrared and infrared, in detecting and discriminating the adulteration of food and agro-products based on recent research and delivered a critical assessment on this topic to serve as lessons from current studies and future outlooks. The current state-of-the-art techniques, including detection and classification of various adulteration in food and agro-products, have been addressed in this paper. Key findings from this study, near infrared and infrared spectroscopy is a non-destructive, rapid, simple-preparation, analytical rapidity, and straightforward method for classification and determination of adulteration in the food and agro-products so it is suitable for large-scale screening and on-site detection. Although there are still some unsatisfactory research results, especially in detecting tiny adductors, these technologies can potentially detect any adulteration in the various food and agro-products at an economically viable level, at least for the initial screening process. In that respect, near infrared and infrared spectroscopy should be expanded to cover all food and agro-products sold in the market. Only then will there be an acceptable deterrent in place to stop adulteration activity in widely consumed food and agro-products ingredients.

497-508

Authors: Xuan ZHOU, Zhiming WANG, Liquan TIAN, Zhan SU, Zhao DING

Aiming at the problems of high grain entrainment loss rate and impurity rate of traditional horizontal axial-flow combine harvesters, a horizontal axial-flow threshing-separating device with coaxial differential threshing drum, conical cleaning fan, double-layer vibrating screen and spiral plate-tooth re-thresher is designed. Meanwhile, a test-bed with a feeding rate of 2 kg/s is designed to improve the device performance. The test through quadratic orthogonal rotation combination design method is used to inspect the effects of the differential drumspeed combination, conical fan blade taper, and length ratio of the high and low speed sections of the differential drum on the loss rate, crushing rate , impurity rate and threshing power consumption. The regression mathematical models of the loss rate, crushing rate, impurity content and threshing power consumption are established, and the multi-objective optimization calculation of the regression mathematical model is carried out by using MATLAB optimization toolbox. The results show that the order of the three factors affecting the loss rate and impurity content of the horizontal axial-flow threshing-separating device is the differential drumspeed combination, the conical fan bladetaper, and the length ratio of high and low speed sections of the differential drum. The field test results show that the performance index of the horizontal axial-flow separation device is better than the requirements of the national standard.

525-532

Authors: Borui SUN, Sanmin SUN, Wenhao DOU, Dan MU, Min JIANG

To realize the real-time remote monitoring of the jujube orchard environment and the prediction of irrigation amount, an intelligent irrigation system was designed in this study by using sensors, Internet of Things (IoT), and backpropagation (BP) neural network. In this system, the jujube tree is taken as the test object, the meteorological data are used as the model feature input vector, the BP neural network prediction model is used to predict the water demand of the crop, and data visualization monitoring and remote control of the irrigation switch are realized using the IoT platform and mobile terminal platform.

553-561

Authors: Lili LI, Bin WANG, Zhiwei HU

In view of the obvious differences in the manifestations of the same diseases in apples at different stages of the disease, different diseases show certain similarities, and the early symptoms of the disease are not obvious. For these problems, a new model attention residual network (ARNet) was introduced based on the combination of attention and residual thought. The model introduces the multi-layer attention modules to solve the problems of early disease location dispersion and features that are difficult to extract. In order to avoid network degradation, a residual module was constructed to effectively integrate high and low-level features, and data augment technology was introduced to prevent the model from over-fitting. The proposed model (ARNet) achieved an average accuracy of 99.49% on the test set of 4 kinds of apple leaf diseases with real complex backgrounds. Compared with the models ResNet50 (99.19%) and MobileNetV2 (98.17%), it had better classification performance. The model proposed in this paper had strong robustness and high stability and can provide a reference for the intelligent diagnosis of apple leaf diseases in practical applications.