INMATEH - Agricultural Engineering

21-31

Authors: JunLin MU, JinXing WANG, ShuangXi LIU, Zhen WANG, Hao JIANG, Bo MA, ZhengHui ZHANG, XianLiang HU

The core of intelligent and accurate plant protection of pests is the accurate identification of pest monitoring and early warning model, and the quality of pest sample image is crucial to the model identification accuracy. To solve the problem of complicated background and low contrast colour image samples, in this paper it is proposed a pest accurate segmentation method based on critical point nonlinear enhancement. The segmented image is used as the sample image of the Faster R-CNN model, which can improve the accuracy of the recognition model. Firstly, the original image is segmented by a strong classifier and the image of pest cells with calibrated grids is obtained. Secondly, the Spline adjustment curve is fitted according to the core gray scale range and critical point, and the contrast between pest and mesh in pest monomer image is enhanced based on the Spline adjustment curve. Finally, there are some operations for the enhanced image such as threshold segmentation, contour extraction, morphological transformation and others to obtain the pest image without background interference, and some segmentation experiments are performed to the pest image based on different segmentation methods. The experimental results show that the proposed method can accurately segment the pests in complex background, and the comprehensive evaluation indexes such as recall ratio and precision rate are greater than or equal to 91.5%, which is better than the traditional segmentation method.

41-50

Authors: Yao YUE, Haiqing TIAN, Fei LIU, Tao ZHANG, Dapeng LI, Di WANG

Aiming at the problems of large vibrations and noise of a working stalk rubbing machine, this paper took the 9R-60 rubbing machine as the research object and used the B&K modal test system and the vibration test system to analyse the modal and no-load conditions of the whole machine. Through analysing modal test data, it was concluded that the first five natural frequencies of the machine were 95.262 Hz, 144.386 Hz, 288.198 Hz, 313.719 Hz and 326.140 Hz. The results showed that spindle rotation had a more significant effect on the vibration than the feed chain rotation; the maximum vibration acceleration occurred at the small motor frame at a spindle speed of 1700 r·min-1 and a feed chain speed of 0.65 m·s-1, which was 135.539 m·s-2. The distribution of the amplitude statistical characteristics of the vibration signals follows the normal distribution and belongs to the stationary random process. The vibration was a self-excited vibration of the rotating machinery caused by the rotation of the main shaft and a forced vibration excited by the rotation of the same shaft. The research provides a direction for further research on the vibration characteristics of the rubbing machine under load conditions, and provides a theoretical basis for the subsequent vibration reduction design.

60-70

Authors: Lin WAN, Hongchao WANG, Gang CHE, Wensheng SUN, Zhengfa CHEN

In order to improve air pressure utilization and working performance, the direct seed-metering device for rice was designed with spoiler blades embedded in the air cavity. The study was carried out using theoretical analysis and hydrodynamic methods to obtain the optimum structure of the spoiler blades. Taking the rotating speed of the air cavity, the negative pressure of the air cavity, and the filling height as the test factors, the multiple regression analysis and the response surface analysis were carried out to obtain the best working parameters of the seed-metering device with spoiler blades. The results showed that when the rotating speed of the air cavity was 23.56 r/min, the negative pressure of the air cavity was 4.97 kPa and the filling height was 12.82 cm, the qualified index was 95.21%, the missing index was 3.28% and the multiple index was 1.51%, which was the best seeding performance. Comparing the test with the seed-metering device without spoiler blades, the results showed that the installation of spoiler blades can improve the performance of the seed-metering device under the best working parameters. This study provide a reference for the design of direct seed-metering device for rice.

81-90

Authors: Xinyu ZHANG, Dandan CAO, Minghui WANG, Gongpei CUI, Yinggang SHI, Yongjie CUI

The phenotypic information of lettuce leaves can well reflect its health. In order to diagnose the nutrient deficiency types of hydroponic lettuce accurately, non-destructively and quickly in the mid-growth stage, a method for diagnosis of whole lettuce based on random forest algorithm (RF) was proposed. The images of lettuce under four different conditions, K-deficiency, Ca-deficiency, N-deficiency and Normal, were collected and segmented by Extra-green algorithm. Then, features of color, texture and shape were extracted. A RF classification model for the hydroponic lettuce nutrient deficiency diagnosis was constructed and compared with support vector machine (SVM) and back propagation neural network (BP). RF had the best classification effect among the three methods. The overall classification accuracy was 86.32%, Kappa coefficient was 0.82, and it can provide a basis for the prevention and remedies of lettuce deficiency and the scientific management of nutrient solutions.

99-109

Authors: Liang ZHANG, Ming LI, Limin YAO, Jingxin XIE, Xu XIAO, Jingjing HUANG, Jinqi HUANG, Xumeng LI, Kui FANG

Farmland area data is one of the important agricultural basic data, which provides parameter basis for the precise operation of agricultural equipment. In order to meet the technical needs of farmers and agricultural machinery operation service billing for acquiring basic information of farmland, this study proposes a farmland area measuring instrument based on the Beidou Navigation Satellite System. Firstly, the overall design scheme of the measuring instrument, the hardware circuit design scheme and the algorithm design scheme are introduced, and the triangulation area measurement algorithm is emphatically analyzed. Finally, the design of this research is applied. The farmland area measuring instrument measures the area of different shapes of farmland and verifies the measurement accuracy. The results show that the average relative error of the measuring instrument for measuring the area of irregularly shaped farmland is 0.7%, which realizes the rapid and high-precision measurement of the area of arbitrarily shaped farmland. It is hoped that this study can provide some reference for the research on the area measurement of farmland in my country.

119-126

Authors: Weiwei CHENG, Zhonghua LIU

A sunken solar greenhouse has a good heat preservation environment. The influence of the general indoor temperature on the temperature of the roots was evaluated. A wireless sensor and U disk recorder were used to determine the indoor temperatures of a single section and multiple sections in a sunken solar greenhouse. Results showed that the rate of temperature change from in the vertical, horizontal and longitudinal sections in descending order at the opening moment and at the strong light moment. The temperatures in the single cross-section and multiple cross-sections were approximately equal during winter from 00:00 to 8:00 in the morning. These values can be used for calculating theoretically the heat loss in a greenhouse.

138-146

Authors: Bingchuan BIAN, Tao SONG

According to the flow calculation, the basic structure of the sprinkler pipe of the integrated suction and drainage fertilizer truck was designed. Based on the 3D CAD / CAE Software SolidWorks / flow simulation platform, the structural models of three kinds of sprinkler pipes with different layout forms of outlet pipes were established, and the fluid analysis was carried out. According to the distribution of pressure, velocity and flow trace number in the tube, the optimal structure was obtained.

156-166

Authors: Chao HUANG, Shu CHEN, Qing JIANG, Liang-yuan XU

To enable the accurate detection of grain moisture content and improve the efficiency of the drying process, a parallel-plate moisture content detection device (PPMCDD) was developed in this study. Firstly, the detection principle and influencing factors of this device are analyzed. Then the effects of three key factors as distance, thickness, relative area on the accuracy of the device were determined through simulation, and the optimal combination of parameters was obtained through analysis of variance of a regression model and response surface methodology. Finally, a simple test bench is built to verify the effectiveness of PPMCDD by comparative experiment. Through simulation and response surface analysis, the optimal combination parameters are as follows: thickness =1 mm, pacing =19.54 mm, relative area =4023.17 mm2, corresponding to the measured capacitance value of 37.676 pF. By comparative experimental analysis, it is found that the maximal relative error of the moisture content detection device evaluated in this study was 1.58%. The detection error is small, and the device exhibits high accuracy and stability and meets the design requirement.

177-190

Authors: Zhongyi YU, Wei XIONG, Dequan ZHU, Kang XUE, Shun ZHANG, Fuming KUANG, Jinnan QUE, Xiaoshuang ZHANG, Ben HENG

In order to obtain the discrete element contact parameters of wet and viscous paddy field mud particles, an accurate numerical simulation model was constructed. Firstly,, the paddy field mud with an average particle size of 0.2 mm was taken as the research object, and the basic physical parameters and rheological behavior laws were obtained through physical measurements and rotational rheological tests. Based on the slump test, combined with the particle scaling theory and Johnson-Kendall-Roberts (JKR) model, and the slump and slump-flow values were taken as response values, the Plackett-Burman test, the steepest climb test and the Box-Behnken test were designed by Design-Expert software to complete the simulation parameters calibration. The optimal significance parameters are as follows: 0.096 J/m2 for the JKR surface energy of mud, 0.13 for the mud-mud restitution coefficient and 0.6 for the mud-steel static friction coefficient. Finally, the mud slump and fluidity verification tests showed that the relative errors between the simulation values and the physical values of slump and slump-flow are 1.73% and 0.42%, and the average error of torque is 2.47%, and the parameters are accurate and reliable. The calibration method can accurately construct the discrete element model of wet-viscous particles, which provides basic data and technical guidance for the coupling mechanism of paddy machinery-mud.

201-210

Authors: Dandy Z. SJECHLAD, S.A. WIDYANTO, B. PURWANGGONO, M. MUNADI

Uneven drying is a prominent problem in the performance of Flatbed type grain dryer. An effort to move around the materials during the drying process is needed in order to get a uniformed drying rate. This paper investigates the conditions of an evenly distributed reduction of materials' water content during drying, using a flatbed dryer and a stirring mechanization system. It is found that ≥ 4rpm stirring rotation produces a relatively even drying result after 1 hour, and that there exists a second airflow that leaked due to the stirring process moving around with the motion of the stirrer.

221-229

Authors: Zuoli FU, Zhiqi ZHENG, Guichuan LI, Yuxiang HUANG, Ruixiang ZHU, Jinpu HE

The pneumatic conveying metering technology is used to enhance the filling and clearing capacity of the seed metering device by forming a rotary air flow field inside the airflow distribution. The simulation test results show that the increase of the number of fan blades, the velocity of flow field at different outlets of the seed cleaning area decreases linearly, but the average velocity basically remains unchanged. The flow field velocity in the seed filling area decreased significantly with the increase of fan angle, and the difference between seed filling area and clearing area remains unchanged. When the blade angles in the filling area are the same, the fan blades size has no effect in flow field velocity.

243-254

Authors: Junming HOU, Enchao YAO, Hongjie ZHU, Weixue HU, Zhaotan REN

To study the types of mechanical damage for castor seeds and their effects on germination, the image processing method was applied to detect the damage affecting germination. Two typical varieties of castor were selected for test. The type of mechanical damage of castor seeds was taken as the factor, the germination rate and germination vigor index were selected as indicators for one-way analysis of variance. The effects of mechanical damage on the germination of castor seeds were analyzed. Different algorithms were applied to extract the features of cracks and seed shell missing, and the corresponding defect parameters were calculated. The results showed that the effects of mechanical damage on the germination rate, germination potential, germination index, and vigor index of castor seeds were significant. The endosperm damage seriously affected the activity of castor seeds and seriously hindered seed germination. According to the analysis of the shell, some castor seeds cracked or there was incomplete shell damage at the same time, the internal endosperm being also damaged. The actual crack length was compared with the length measured by the ultra-depth of field microscope, which found that the margin of error was about 25% and the better error was 10%. Through the morphological processing, it could completely extract the characteristics of castor seed image without seed shells. The error between the extracted feature area and the measured object area function of the super depth of field microscope is about 10%.

265-274

Authors: Zhiwei TIAN, Xinyu XUE, Famin DUAN, Sen YAO, Wei MA

When UAVs apply a pesticide at different speeds, droplet deposition area and canopy vortex area are not at the same location, which prevents droplets from depositing on the backside of leaves and lower part of plants in canopy vortex, and affects spray quality and pests and diseases control effect. To shorten the distance between the two areas and improve droplet penetration, a method for adjusting nozzle inclination angle based on droplet force analysis and tests was proposed in this paper. According to the obtained model, an automatic nozzle angle adjustment system was developed from hardware and software. The experimental results showed that the number of droplets deposited on the entire leaf increased by 21.58% when UAV spraying with the system mounted. The average number of droplets on the front side of the leaf increased by 14.44% while 66.05% was on the backside of the leaf with the system mounted. This indicates that the method and system proposed have a significant impact on improving the UAV spray penetration.

285-294

Authors: Jingyu LI, Sihao ZHANG, Pengfei ZHANG, Wenjun WANG

In order to solve the problems of crop residue clogging, poor soil crushing and low operation efficiency under the stalks mulching condition, the traction combined machine for subsoiling and land preparation was designed. The optimization test was carried out to optimize the stalk cutting device and the soil crushing device under stalk mulching condition. The optimization test used a randomized complete block design, consisting of 10 treatments, in a 5 × 2 factorial arrangement. Each treatment included the combination of coulter types (8W, 13W, 18W, 25W and NW) and soil crushing roller types (with blade angle and without blade angle). The results showed that the combination of the fluted coulters with 8 waves and the soil crushing roller with blade angle was optimal. Finally, the verification test of the whole machine was carried out to evaluate the performance, and the results showed that the average value of subsoiling depth was 35.8 cm, the stability coefficient of subsoiling depth was 93.9% and the soil crushing rate was 53.7%. This research provides an important reference for the structure design of the large multi-functional combined machine for conservation tillage.

305-314

Authors: Xin DU, Cailing LIU, Meng JIANG, Hao YUAN, Lei DAI, Fanglin LI, Zhanpeng GAO

A layered fertilizer shovel is designed to achieve double layer fertilization in response to the current problem of large fertilizer efficiency loss in one-time banding application. The key structural parameters of the layered shovel were designed and the working speed V, the distance L1 between the banding fertilizer discharging pipe and the point-applied fertilizer discharging device and the distance L2 between the fertilizer distribution plate and the point-applied fertilizer discharging device were determined as the main factors affecting the layered distance h. A quadratic regression model between factors and indicators was established by single-factor test and response surface analysis. With the layered distance h=10 cm as the optimization target, the predicted value of layered distance h is 10 cm when V, L1 and L2 are 2.7 km/h, 15.3 cm and 18.2 cm, respectively, and the simulation test is conducted to verify the combination of the parameters obtained from the optimization solution, and the simulated value of layered distance h is 9.9 cm, which is a small error compared with the predicted value. The field test was conducted under the optimal combination of parameters, and the results showed that the layered distance h was 9.1 cm at the working speed V of 2.7 km/h, and the relative error was 8.1% compared with the simulation value, which can be considered as a high reliability of the simulation test, and the simulation test can accurately simulate the distribution of fertilizer particles in the real environment in the field. When the working speed V is 1.8-5.4 km/h, the distribution range of layered distance h is 8.0-9.5 cm, which can meet the agronomic requirements of fertilizer layered application.

324-332

Authors: Hongguang YANG, Bing WANG, Fengwei GU, Feng WU, Yanhua ZHANG, Zhichao HU

Lack of sufficient knowledge about the physical and mechanical properties of onion can result in higher waste during harvesting and post-harvesting. The objective of this work was to determine some physical and mechanical properties of onion cultivated in China. These properties include linear dimensions, mass, shape index, pull-out force, compression and shear forces. The mean longitudinal diameter of bulb (BLD), transverse diameter of bulb (BTD), bulb weight (BW), pull-out force of bulb (BPF), depth of the bulb buried in the soil (BSD), bulb shape index (BSI), diameter of cauloid (CD), circumferential distribution of root systems (RCD), longitudinal length of root systems (RLL) and weight of root systems (RW) were 78.1±9.6 mm, 89.6±10.1 mm, 333.0±101.7 g, 43.9±21.6 N, 35.7±8.7 mm, 1.2±0.1, 15.3±3.7 mm, 89.2±19.7 mm, 42.9±10.0 mm and 0.8±0.4 g. In the study of mechanical properties of onions, the maximum compression force (MCF) required for compression deformation 10mm of bulb was 462.2N, and the maximum shear failure force (MSF) required for shearing of cauloid was 113.8 N. The results of the research will be very useful in the design and optimization of harvest and postharvest machines with reduced waste and damage.

341-349

Authors: Fulong XU, Junlin HE, Yuehua WANG, Jiaojiao LI

In view of the problem of plant entanglement threshing roller in the process of mechanized flax harvesting, a comb-brush air-suction composite flax capsule harvesting test stand was designed based on the harvesting method of harvesting capsules independently and then breaking the capsules to thresh them. The following four parameters were selected as experimental factors: the shape of comb tooth cross-section, the rotational speed of comb roller, the relative speed of machine travel and the air volume of centrifugal fan. The following four indicators were chosen as the experimental indicators: capsule removal rate, capsule breakage rate, capsule collection rate and plant winding rate. A four-factor and three-level orthogonal test was conducted. The results showed that the optimal combination of test factors was as follows: the shape of comb tooth cross-section was rectangular, the rotational speed of the brush roller was 90 rad/min, the speed of machine travel relative to the plant was 80 mm/s and the air volume of centrifugal fan was 6000 m3/h. Under the condition of better experiment parameters combination, the capsule removal rate was 96.45%, capsule shell breaking rate was 98.79%, capsule collection rate was 95.65% and flax plants winding rate was 2.52%. The comb-brush air-suction composite flax capsule harvesting test bench provided the feasibility scheme for the problem of plant winding thresher roller and capsule collection.

367-372

Authors: Dejiang LIU, Yan GONG, Yingchun ZHU, Kehen YAO, Xiao CHEN, Guo WANG, Xiao ZHANG

Aiming at the trouble of low survival rate of cantaloupe seedling in hyperthermia, drought and dry land in Turpan region of China, the existing transplanting machine is the key to mechanized and non-destructive transportation and planting of large plants of young tender melon seedlings, root water injection, and precise soil piling in planting holes，and other technical difficulties. The design of mulch film planting cantaloupe transplanter for laying pipes belts and membranes, watering and transplanting, which can complete rotary tillage, spreading drip irrigation belts, laying mulch and covering the soil around the membrane, transplanting pot seedlings on the membrane, and water injection at the bottom. This machine puts the water injection pipeline under the inner side of the transplanter, and through the multi-point linkage electric control, the seedling preservation water is injected into the bottom of the seedlings pot while the seedlings are transferred, which not only ensures the survival rate of the melon seedlings, but also an accurate piling of the planting hole is realized. The technology of transplanting with water and piled soil for planting holes effectively solved the technical problems of mechanized transplanting of cantaloupe under high temperature and arid climate conditions in Turpan. After the cantaloupe seedlings were transplanted in dry land, the probability of survival was more than 96.9% after seven point five hours of drip irrigation. Operating efficiency can reach 0.067 hectares per hour, eight times as much as manual transplanting. The speed of transplanting machine is about 1.1 m/s, the quality of transplanting rate was 93.26 percent. The operating standards of these transplanters meet the agronomic requirements for transplanting cantaloupe.

383-394

Authors: Baiqiang ZUO, Shuqi SHANG, Xiaoning HE, Zenghui GAO, Wei LIU, Chunxiao ZHANG, Zhenjia MA, Dongwei WANG

For the peanut combine harvester excavation process resistance, poor soil crushing effect and poor reliability of the problem, the excavation shovel optimization needs improvement. Firstly, a mechanical model of the resistance of the excavation shovel was established to investigate the key factors affecting the degree of resistance of the excavation shovel. Next, the design of the main parameters of the excavation shovel was done to determine the range of values of the main factors affecting the peanut excavation shovel. EDEM software was used to simulate and analyse the excavation process and to explore the influence law of excavation shovel parameters on the resistance. Improvements were made to the excavation shovel, discrete element simulation tests were used to demonstrate that the optimized excavation device had better resistance reduction and soil crushing than the original device. By designing a three-factor, three-level orthogonal simulation test, the best parameters for the excavation shovel were obtained: the shovel surface inclination is 20°, the excavation depth is 131mm, and the shovel surface width is 277mm. Field trials were conducted under the optimal combination of parameters to test the reliability of the improved digging shovel. Compared with the operating effectiveness of the original machine, the result was improved to some extent. It proves that the optimized design of excavating shovel is reasonable and can improve the operation effect of peanut harvester.

406-414

Authors: Qiankun FU, Jun FU, Zhi CHEN, Luquan REN

In the harvest of lodged corn in hilly areas, the low position of corn ears and the large slope of the land caused severe losses. The comprehensive performance of loss reduction and terrain adaptability was studied on three small corn harvesters. The tested harvesters were 4-row 4YZP-4Y wheeled harvester, 2-row 4YZLP-2C crawler harvester and 2-row 4YZLP-2C-AF crawler harvester equipped with spiral lifers. The results showed that the all-speed corn ear loss and grain loss of the 4YZP-4Y harvester were 55.6% and 57.6% lower than those of the 4YZLP-2C harvester, while those of the 4YZLP-2C-AF harvester was 23.2% and 17.3%, lower than in the case of the 4YZLP-2C harvester. The all-height corn ear loss and grain loss of the 4YZP-4Y harvester were 35.2% and 56.6% lower than those of the 4YZLP-2C harvester, those of the 4YZLP-2C-AF harvester were 19.9% and 24.9% lower than in the case of the 4YZLP-2C harvester. The smaller header width and larger roller compacted area of the 4YZLP-2C harvester were the main factors that caused harvest loss. Wider harvester header, auxiliary feeding devices and smaller roller compacted area were key methods to reduce the harvest loss of lodged corn in hilly areas. This study provides technical scheme and design references for harvesters on lodged corn in hilly areas.

424-434

Authors: Yize SHI, Jiajia YU, Muhua LIU, Gaoliang ZHANG, Fan LU, Zhangxing QIN, Peng FANG, Xiongfei CHEN

Aiming at the poor performance and low efficiency of moist fertilizers, a cam-linkage self-cleaning fertilizer apparatus is designed. The cam-linkage mechanism matched with the self-cleaning device is applied to scrape off the residuals, and the structural parameters of flute cam in the wheel are obtained by using the polar equations. The physical characteristics of Stanley compound fertilizer, Kingenta compound fertilizer and Kingenta dual-effect nitro-fertilizer are analyzed to build the discharging model and obtain the key parameters, such as the wheel diameter, the groove number. The trajectory of fertilizer is introduced for the scraper plate. To evaluate the performance, a full factorial experiment including fertilizer types, moisture content and rotating speed is conducted, taking the discharging and coefficient of variation as the evaluation indicators. The results show that in the rotation of 10-50 r/min, the cam-linkage self-cleaning fertilizer apparatus could discharge compound fertilizers with a moisture content less than 8%, and the coefficient of variation is 0.12% -8.21%. In addition, the relationship between the rotating speed and the discharging has the linear relationship, and the determination coefficient R² are more than 0.974. This study helps promoting the deep fertilization technology and equipment in southern rice region.

448-456

Authors: Iulian ILIE

Equipment and methods for microfabrication and micromeasurements are under constant development. There are a multitude of possibilities to connect and control equipment for control and measurements adapted with the development of Industry 4.0. Using the terms Internet of Things, 3D printing, virtual reality, augmented reality, collaborative robots, microfabrication, etc. and related applications are common in daily research and innovation activity. This paper presents the construction of a mechatronic system and the measurement procedures used in the working mode. Experimental results and their interpretation as well as the final conclusions of this paper are presented. The mecatronic system is intended for use in the main fields such as automotive, aeronautics, robotics, agriculture and others.

471-480

Authors: Mihai Gabriel MATACHE, Florin Bogdan MARIN, Carmela GURAU, Gheorghe GURAU, Mihaela MARIN, Iuliana GĂGEANU, Alexandru IONESCU

For negative effects minimization generated by agriculture on the environment, there were established a series of measures regarding the reduction of the amount of fertilizers and phytosanitary substances used. Thus, one of the innovative technologies appeared on the market is represented by the usage of some automated equipment for selective spraying of targeted plants, this way significantly reducing the amount of active substances used. The paper presents the usage of a technique specific to artificial intelligence for identification of target crops and their proper treatment. Thus, was developed a convolutional neural network formed of six neuron layers, which was used for analysis of crop field images recorded with a LOGITECH HD Pro C92.0 video camera. The network was developed in C++ programming language, using function libraries from OpenCV, and has run on a Dell laptop, with Intel i8 processor. Following images analysis and targeted plants identification, from laptop there are sent ON/OFF commands through an Arduino microcontroller toward the electrical microvalves mounted on the nozzles of a self-propelled electric spraying machine having a working width of 8 m, with the purpose of spot-spraying the crop plants and reducing the amount of used substances. In this paper are presented the experiments done for testing the neural network efficiency.

491-498

Authors: Tao ZHANG, Fei HAO, Yuge BI, Jianmin DU, Weiqiang PI, Yanbin ZHANG, Xiangbing ZHU, Xinchao GAO, Eerdumutu JIN

Accurate spatial distribution of grassland degradation indicator species is of great significance for grassland degradation monitoring. In order to realize the intelligent remote sensing grassland degradation monitoring task, this paper collects remote sensing data of three degradation indicator species of desert grassland, namely, constructive species, dominant species, and companion species, through the UAV hyperspectral remote sensing platform, and proposes a multi-feature fusion (MFF) classification model. In addition, vertical convolution, horizontal convolution, and group convolution mechanisms are introduced to further reduce the number of model parameters and effectively improve the computational efficiency of the model. The results show that the overall accuracy and kappa coefficient of the model can reach 91.81% and 0.8473, respectively, and it also has better classification performance and computational efficiency compared to different deep learning classification models. This study provides a new method for high-precision and efficient fine classification study of degradation indicator species in grasslands.

511-520

Authors: Zenghui GAO, Shuqi SHANG, Nan XU, Dansong YUE, Jinming ZHENG, Dongwei WANG

In order to improve the efficiency of peanut harvesting in China, realize the deep integration of agricultural machinery and agronomy in peanut production and promote the development of peanut industry. According to the research on peanut planting agronomy and plant biological characteristics, this paper focuses on the analysis of the clamping and collecting scheme of the three-ridge six-row peanut combine harvester, and designs the structure of the clamping and collecting device to solve the situation that the peanut clamping and collecting process is prone to congestion under large feeding volume. By analysing the forces on the peanut plant, the structure of the core fruit picking device has been designed, and the factors and parameters affecting the effectiveness of the peanut picking operation have been optimised through experimental research using the peanut leakage and crushing rates as indicators. The whole machine structure of the three-ridge six-row peanut combine harvester was designed to ensure that the peanut combine harvester can complete the processes of harvesting, digging, clamping and conveying, soil removal, collecting, fruit picking, cleaning and fruit collection at one time. Finally, through field tests on the three-ridge six-row peanut combine harvester, it was verified that the peanut leakage rate was 1.92% and the crushing rate was 0.84% at different forward speeds, and all of them were congested, which met the national peanut harvesting standards.

533-542

Authors: Volodymyr BULGAKOV, Roman ANTOSHCHENKOV, Valerii ADAMCHUK, Ivan HALYCH, Yevhen IHNATIEV, Ivan BELOEV, Semjons IVANOVS

When designing and determining the potential technical capabilities and characteristics of the tractor, the so-called traction calculation is carried out. The aim of the work is to study regularities of changes in the traction and coupling characteristics of a tractor with an articulated frame depending on the size of the ballast, the presence of dual wheels and other parameters, using the KhTZ-242K tractor as an example. The numerical solution of the deduced mathematical model made it possible to obtain graphical dependences of the change in the main traction and coupling characteristics of the tractor KhTZ-242K depending on the mass of the tractor, which varied from 8600 kg to 10100 kg by changing the ballast mass. The maximum tractive power of the tractor on single wheels without a ballast is 121 kW, which is achieved at a speed of 12 km∙h–1, and on single wheels with a ballast 122 kW, at a speed of 15 km∙h–1. This, in its turn, greatly affects the productivity and fuel efficiency of the aggregate.

549-558

Authors: Jin LI, Xiaolin FAN, Xianmin WANG, Risheng CHEN, Gangshun RAO, Tingting DUAN

The cultivation of salt-tolerant rice (sea rice) along beaches has become an effective measure for the restoration and utilization of saline-sodic land, so this paper studies the effects of irrigation and nitrogen fertilization on soil Na+ in root zone and sea rice yield, and provides a scientific basis for planting sea rice. A pot experiment (two-factor split plot) of sea rice with salt stress (10 g NaCl/kg soil) was carried out. The main plot consists of three types of irrigation methods: flooding irrigation (F), intermittent irrigation (I), and controlled irrigation (C). The subplots are three types of nitrogen fertilizers: urea (U), controlled-release urea (R), and mixed fertilizer (M) with U and R. The results showed: (1) The soil water-soluble Na+ of MI was significantly smaller than that of other treatments with NaCl, but the Ca2+/Na+ and Mg2+/Na+ were opposite. (2) The nitrogen uptake and dry weight of rice of MI were significantly larger than those of other treatments with NaCl, and were respectively 23% and 32% higher than UI, 49% and 16% higher than MF, 56% and 38% higher than UF, 75% and 61% higher than RI, 76% and 50% higher than RF. (3) The sea rice yield of MI was increased by 105%, 154%, 262%, 338%, and 428% compared with MF, RF, UF, RI, and UI, respectively. Therefore, the MI can effectively reduce the Na+ and increase the Ca2+/Na+ and Mg2+/Na+ in root layer soil, and promote the nitrogen absorption and production of sea rice. So the article recommends that M and I methods should be adapted to plant sea rice on coastal saline-sodic soil.

569-578

Authors: Mingjian RUAN, Hanlu JIANG, Haili ZHOU, Jun YE, Jinpeng HU

Aiming at the problems of poor applicability of traditional header height detection mechanism, poor stability and large lag of automatic control system of combine harvesters, an automatic control system of header height of combine harvester was designed, which mainly included the profiling mechanism, controller, proportional valve, manual operation handle and display module. The profiling detection mechanism was composed of angle sensor, profiling plate, torsion spring and other structures. The key structural parameters of the profiling mechanism were determined by using the Adams simulation software and its working performance was verified. The gray prediction PID algorithm of header height was used to reduce the lag of the control model. The control system detected the height of the header from the ground through the profiling mechanism. After being processed by the controller, the height of the header was changed by adjusting the expansion of the header oil cylinder. The field test results showed that the working performance of the header automatic control system was stable. Under the working conditions of preset header height of 100mm and 200mm, the average deviation of the control system was within 21 mm, which met the real-time control demand of header height during normal operation of combine harvester. This research could provide intelligent design methods of combine harvesters.

589-598

Authors: Shengqiao XIE, Yang BAI, Qilin AN, Jian SONG, Xiuying TANG, Fuxiang XIE

Crop diseases have an important impact on the safe production of food. Therefore, the automated identification of pre-crop diseases is very important for farmers to increase production and income. In this paper, a tomato leaf disease identification method based on the optimized MobileNetV2 model is proposed. A dataset of 20,400 tomato disease images was created based on tomato disease images taken from the greenhouse and obtained from the PlantVillage database. The optimized MobileNetV2 model was trained with the dataset to obtain a classification model for tomato leaf diseases. The average recognition accuracy of the model is 98.3% and the recall rate is 94.9%, which is 1.2% and 3.9% higher than the original model, respectively, after experimental validation. The average prediction speed of the model for a single image is about 76 ms, which is 2.94% better than the original model. To verify the performance of the optimized MobileNetV2 model, it was compared with the Xception, Inception, and VGG16 feature extraction network models using migration learning, respectively. The experimental results show that the average recognition accuracy of the model is 0.4 to 2.4 percentage points higher than that of the Xception, Inception, and VGG16 models. It can provide technical support for the identification of tomato diseases, and is also important for plant growth monitoring under precision agriculture.

607-616

Authors: Dezhi REN, Luji ZHANG, Wanyuan HUANG, Huiting CHENG, Tian'yi HE, Jun MENG

To realize the integrated technology of biochar return to the soil, the key components of the biochar discharge system applicable to the biochar return machine were designed, and the force analysis of the return shovel was carried out to obtain the main working parameters affecting the effect of biochar return. Single factor and multi factor simulation tests were conducted with the coefficient of variation of biochar content uniformity as evaluation indexes, and outlet distance, conduit diameter, baffle angle as influencing factors. The data were processed and parameters were optimized using Design-Expert, and the results were optimized and experimentally verified. The results from the experimental the coefficient of variation of biochar content uniformity and simulation data from the model showed good agreement. Therefore, the procedures of this study can be used for the integrated technology of biochar return.

629-640

Authors: Fandi ZENG, Xuying LI, Hongbin BAI, Ji CUI, Xuening LIU, Yongzhi ZHANG

The movement of plug seedlings and the pots damage mechanism are deeply studied during the planting process, and the planting components are optimized. The Tekscan pressure distribution measurement system was used to measure the mechanical characteristics of the drop impact between the whole plug seedlings and the pots. The relative error between the collision impact force of the plug seedlings and the collision impact force of the pot is less than 20%. Therefore, a drop impact test using the pot allows the whole plug seedling to be characterized. The Hertz-Mindlin with bonding model was used to build a simulation model of the pot based on essential physical parameters. The Plackett-Burman test and the steepest climbing test determined the significant parameters and optimal intervals affecting the collision impact force: the rolling friction coefficient between the pot and pot was 0.35~0.38, the bond stiffness was 0.2~0.6 MN·m-3, and the bond radius was 1.56~1.98 mm. Finally, the Box-Behnken test was performed and the quadratic regression model of the collision impact force was developed. Taking the collision impact force with a drop height of 350 mm as the target, the optimal solution is obtained: the rolling friction coefficient between the pot and pot was 0.35, the bond stiffness was 0.53 MN·m-3, and bond radius 1.97 mm. The average value was used for other insignificant influence parameters. The simulation results are compared with the physical test, and the relative error is 3.65%. Therefore, the pot model established by this simulation parameter can represent the actual drop impact of the pots.

649-658

Authors: Baiqiang ZUO, Shuqi SHANG, Xiaoning HE, Zelong ZHAO, Dongjie LI, Wei LIU, Xu LI, Dongwei WANG

In order to reduce the high resistance problem during peanut digging shovel operation and improve the soil loosening effect, a bionic peanut digging shovel was designed according to the streamlined profile of the head of the golden cicada, and the range of values of the digging operation parameters was analyzed. A discrete element model was developed to verify that the operational resistance of the bionic excavation shovel is lower than that of the flat shovel. The reliability of the simulation test was confirmed by conducting a resistance test on the excavation shovel through a soil trench test. A three-factor, three-water orthogonal combination test was designed to determine the optimal operating parameters of the excavation shovel: the bevel angle of the shovel blade was 55°, the digging depth was 130 mm, and the width of the shovel face was 309 mm. The paper can provide a reference for designing and optimizing peanut-digging shovels.

669-680

Authors: Solaf ABD EL-REHEEM, Mahmoud AWAD, Fatma ABD EL GAWAD, Mokhtar COTTB, Mahmoud OKASHA

The current study aimed to test and evaluate sheets’ different perforation shapes, brake angles, and milling durations to improve the quality of long-grain white rice from an abrasive milling machine. The investigated parameters of head rice yield, broken rice percentage, whitening degree, and rice bulk temperature were influenced by five sheets with five perforated shapes (horizontal, vertical, inclined, 1 mm round holes, and 1.5 mm round holes), three brake angles (0, 45, and 90º), and four milling durations (60, 70, 80, and 90 s). The results showed that the horizontal rectangular perforated sheet resulted in the highest value of head rice yield and the lowest value of broken rice. On the other hand, the vertical rectangular perforated sheet resulted in the highest whitening degree, followed by the inclined rectangular perforated sheet. The round holes (1.0 mm and 1.5 mm diameter) are not recommended for the long-grain whitening process because of the resulting high values of broken kernels, rice bulk temperature after the whitening process, and lower values of whitening degree. The brake angle of 90º resulted in the highest value of broken rice for all studied perforated sheets used in this study. This study recommended that the optimum operating conditions were using the horizontal rectangular perforated sheet, zero degree brake angle and milling duration of 80 s.

693-701

Authors: Wenlong LI, Jiahao YANG, Wenting JIN, Liuxuan MA, Yiyuan GE, Jinbo ZHANG, Yuqi ZHUANSUN

In order to explore the best parameters for the decomposition of corn straw for return to the field under extremely cold temperature conditions in northeast China, an orthogonal test was used to test the decomposition of corn straw and to analyse the effects of factors such as straw return depth, straw return amount, straw stalk part and decomposer concentration on the decomposition efficiency of corn straw. The results showed that the most significant effect on the decomposition efficiency of cold land corn straw was the amount of straw returned to the field, followed by the concentration of decomposer and the depth of straw returned to the field, and the least effect was the straw part. Among them, the amount of straw returned to the field showed a negative correlation on the decomposition efficiency of cold land corn straw; the concentration of decomposer, the depth of straw returned to the field and the straw part showed a positive correlation on the decomposition efficiency of cold land corn straw.

711-721

Authors: Zhu ZHAO, Zhongnan WANG, Bintong ZHAO, Yuqiu SONG, Mingjin XIN

The ant (Pheidole megacephala, Fabricius) has a unique and hard mandibular structure to cut branches and crush hard food. Inspired by this special geometric structure of the mandibular teeth, a stereoscopic microscope was used to view the image of the mandible of the ant. The Origin and AutoCAD software were used to obtain the outer profile of the mandibular teeth of the ant. The outer profile of the ant's mandibular teeth was fitted and expressed by five-order polynomial function. According to the analysis of the profile curve of the maxillary teeth, the fourth tooth is the most convex and the sharpest. The fourth tooth of the ant plays a key role in its feeding process, therefore, the structural parameters of the fourth maxillary tooth were selected as bionic elements for bionic blade design. To compare the cutting performance of the bionic and ordinary flat blades, the performance of bionic blade and the ordinary blade were conducted by using ANSYS software, the cutting force-deformation characteristics were tested using the Rapid TA practical texture analyser. The results of the element simulation showed that the mechanical properties of bionic blade were better than those of the ordinary blade. The results of the cutting experiments indicated that under the loading speed of 5 mm/s, the maximum cutting force of the bionic blade was 137.51 N, which is 12.17 % lower than that of the ordinary flat blade. The average cutting force of the bionic blade was 96.56 N, which is 11.58 % lower than that of the ordinary flat blade. The cutting energy consumption of the bionic blade was 9.68 J, which is 11.92 % lower than that of the ordinary flat blade. Under the loading speed of 10 mm/s, the maximum cutting force of the bionic blade was 143.88 N, which is 10.37 % lower than that of the ordinary flat blade. The average cutting force of the bionic blade was 101.03 N, which is 9.77 % lower than that of the ordinary flat blade. The cutting energy consumption of the bionic blade was 10.14 J, which is 9.95 % lower than that of the ordinary flat blade. The experimental results suggested that the bionic blade can effectively reduce the cutting force and energy consumption; thus, the bionic blade is more suitable for cutting stalks. These results will be helpful in the development of cutting elements for cutting and chopping of corn stover and other processing machinery.

729-734

Authors: Mustaqimah MUSTAQIMAH, Muhammad ANAS MUFTI, Ramayanty BULAN, Oscar HARIS

This study aims to determine the performance of a plastic mulch hole making machine and its electrical power requirements. The study begins by providing speed variations on the engine sprocket, calculating the working capacity of the machine, and analysing the power requirements of the electric motor. The results showed that the engine sprocket could perform an optimal rotation speed for punching holes in plastic mulch. Most holes were created in the treatment with a rotational speed of 70 rpm, 16 holes per 5 m of plastic mulch. Overall, the performance of the plastic mulch punching machine has been able to provide fixes in making holes in mulch plastic. Of the three treatments, the speed variations of the plastic mulch punching machine provided perforations with the criteria of perfect and partial perforation. The highest percentage of ideal perforation was found in the treatment with a rotational speed of 29 rpm, 86%, and the lowest was found in the treatment with a rotational speed of 25 rpm, 9.3%. The coefficient of determination between the rotational speed of the machine and the performance of the machine to punch holes in the plastic mulch can be modelled by a polynomial equation.

747-756

Authors: S.Şt. BIRIȘ, A-M. CONSTANTIN, D. ANGHELACHE, I. GĂGEANU, D. CUJBESCU, F. NENCIU, I. VOICEA, Gh. MATEI, L. D. POPA, M. F. DUȚU, N. UNGUREANU, T. ŻELAZIŃSKI, L. PERIŞOARĂ, G. FODOREAN

Vibrations are dynamic phenomena occurring in elastic or quasi-elastic media after a local excitation and becoming manifested by propagating the excitation within the medium in the form of some elastic oscillations. Thus, depending on the phenomenon dynamics, there can be met vibrations with low variation frequencies, characteristic to the mechanical structures, structures in constructions and earthquake waves, as well as vibrations with high variation frequencies. The vibration measuring is performed on a straw cereal harvesting machine with an axial threshing apparatus ("CASE IH") in two conditions: in a stationary position and during work, by using transducers for each of the main working parts of the harvester: thresher, header (stripper), chassis and operator's chair. On the basis of the values of longitudinal, cross and vertical accelerations, measured at various frequencies in the two operating conditions of the harvester (at stationary and during work), the effect of the vibrations is established on each of these parts and, finally, cumulated, the vibrations sent to the operator's chair, the nomograms following to be traced and to be established the range with the limits up to which these are not dangerous for the operator's health.

767-780

Authors: Muddassar SARFRAZ, Nicolae-Valentin VLĂDUŢ, Lucian-Ionel CIOCA, Larisa IVASCU

Recognizing the factors stimulating the student's academic performance requires investigating different learning strategies influencing teachers' self-efficacy. With the growing diversity of teaching methods, motivational and instructional strategies have gained significant attention, potentially leading educationists to use them as the critical benchmark of superior student performance. This study’s primary objective is to analyze the impact of teaching strategies on student academic performance while considering the mediating role of teachers' self-efficacy. The data was collected from 260 students from different universities and colleges by using the convenience sampling method. The study results reveal that motivational and instructional strategies significantly affect teacher self-efficacy and student academic performance. Teacher self-efficacy mediates the relationship between instructional strategies, motivational strategies, and student academic performance.

789-797

Authors: Kaixing ZHANG, Guoliang MA, Jingfeng LI,, Xiuyan ZHAO

In order to solve the problems of poor universality and complex structure of the current air-suction precision seed metering device for small vegetable seeds, an air-suction precision seed metering device based on the physical characteristics of small vegetable seeds was developed. The physical characteristics of several typical small vegetable seeds were measured to provide a theoretical basis for the design of air-suction precision seed metering device. Analyzed the force on the seed during seed metering, and used discrete element method to analyze the overall state of the seed at different times in combination with the basic structure. The experiment was designed with the pass rate, replay rate and miss rate as experimental indicators. The regression model was established to obtain the reasonable range of each parameter. The experimental results showed that when the rotary table speed was 28.65 r/min and the working negative pressure was 4.40 kPa, the seeding pass rate of the seed meter was 91.07%, the replay rate was 4.70%, and the missed rate was 4.23%.

809-816

Authors: Lili NIE, Fan JIAO, Tingting YANG, Zhenyu LIU

To investigate the mechanism of the movement law of sheep and theoretically support the study on the herd effect, a herd effect model based on the agent and cellular automata technology is built. The law of the herd effect is defined with the use of PyCharm for simulation, based on the characteristics of the flock tending to the top sheep. The flock activity area falls into several two-dimensional cell space structures, and the grid with the cell state of "sheep" in the cell space structure is considered a type of agent. The model assumed that there are five behaviors, including standing, walking slowly, looking for the leader, random and avoiding collisions in four scenarios. A herd effect model is built, the herd behavior is simulated, and the simulation results are compared with the actual herd behavior trajectory. The mean square error between the calculation model and the reality is 1.025. As revealed by the results, the model exhibits effective applicability, so it can better describe the trajectory of real herd behavior and provide theoretical guidance for the study on the herd effect.

827-834

Authors: Zhao FAN, Zhang JIAWEI, Zhi JIHAO

As a famous Chinese traditional medicine, the Astragalus polysaccharide (APS) market is continually expanding, while the quality of APS cannot be guaranteed. Near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy has been widely used in the detection of Chinese herbal medicines and traditional Chinese medicine. In this study, NIR spectroscopy was used to identify the adulterants of APS. Prepare adulterated mixtures of APS with 75%, and 50% content, respectively. PLS-DA and SIMCA models were developed for 2-classification of APS, APS mixture (75%+50%), and 3-classification of APS, 75% APS mixture and 50% APS mixture, respectively. In the 2-classification, the correct classification rate of both the calibration set and the test set of the PLS-DA and SIMCA models is 100%. In the 3-classification, the correct classification rates of calibration set and test set for PLS-DA were 97.5% and 96.67%, respectively; the correct classification rates of calibration set and test for SIMCA were 98.33% and 100%, respectively. The study showed that it is feasible to identify adulterated Astragalus polysaccharides using near-infrared spectroscopy.

844-852

Authors: Rong FAN, Wei LI, Zhiming WU, Bin BU

In order to reduce the drift loss of small droplets sprayed at low altitudes and low volume, a two-channel two-phase electric centrifugal nozzle was designed. The three-dimensional full-size numerical simulation of the flow field in the nozzle was carried out using Fluent software, and the radial distribution characteristics and axial variation of the flow field were studied. The relationships between the motor voltage and the atomizing disc's speed, between the nozzle's inlet pressure and its flow rate were determined. The variations of the droplet size and the droplet spectrum width with the atomizing disc and flow rate were revealed. The results showed that the rotation speed and flow rate were the important factors affecting the droplet's middle diameter and spectrum width. When the rotation speed of atomizing disc was 4000 r/min, the droplet spectrum width exhibited the narrowest, and the middle diameter of the droplet volume was 231.9 μm. The droplet coverage density was higher, meeting the requirements of low-volume aviation spraying control. This study provides a theoretical basis for optimizing nozzle configuration and developing variable spray devices.

861-872

Authors: Ying WANG, Xiao Jun QIAO, ZhiBin WANG

Ozone is a strong oxidant and strong disinfectant that has a strong anti-pathogenic effect on bacteria, fungi, parasites, and viruses. Because of its high reactivity, strong permeability, low residue, and other advantages, the application of ozone is gaining more and more attention, and ozone has been widely used in water treatment, equipment disinfection, public scene disinfection, and other fields. The purpose of this review is to discuss the use of ozone technology for animal and plant protection that can be applied to agriculture, and to emphasize the need for further studies to determine the optimal concentration and application of ozone for different crops so that, in the future, ozone technology can be applied in agriculture to gain a significant competitive advantage and improve product safety.

885-895

Authors: Yongfei SUN, Lei SHI, Fanting KONG, Qing XIE, Teng WU, Changlin CHEN

The working quality of a cotton stripper harvester is limited by the efficiency of onboard seed cotton cleaners. As a basis for research in the design of a cotton stripper harvester prototype, the bench cleaning tests were designed to study the effect of structural and technological parameters on the loss rate and impurities rate of the cleaner. According to the features of different test factors, a combined orthogonal test was applied to determine the best combination of the sawtooth distance, saw cylinder diameter, and cleaning distance. With these parameters fixed, the optimal parameters for the cleaning distance, saw cylinder rotating speed, and brush thickness were obtained using a quadratic-regression rotatable orthogonal test. The best parameter configuration to ensure the cleaning quality of the onboard seed cotton pre-cleaner included the following structural parameters: sawtooth distance of 38 mm and saw cylinder diameter of 340 mm, and technological parameters: rotating speed of 282–288 rpm, clearance of 12.55–14.84 mm, and brush thickness of 8.37–9.69 mm, which decreased the loss rate to less than 10% and the impurities rate to less than 6%. The reliability of the theoretical analysis results was verified by a comparison with experimental results. The experimental results provide a theoretical basis and technical reference for the research and the structural design of seed cotton pre-cleaners.

906-917

Authors: Xiangqian DONG, Huina ZHENG, Chen SU, Yonglei LI, Jiannong SONG, Jicheng WANG

In this paper, the vibration characteristics of the 1ST-460 vibration subsoiler was analyzed. In order to solve the problem of vibration imbalance caused by the vibration component under the action of multiple groups of vibration shovels, the optimal combination mode of the vibration component under the interaction of multiple groups of shovels was obtained. Piezoelectric accelerometers are fixed symmetrically on the frame of the subsoiler to measure the vibration at different positions. TST5910 dynamic signal test and analysis system is used to collect and process the acceleration data. Non-load tests were carried out with different initial eccentric phase angle combination. Results showed that the combination of [0°, 180°, 180°, 0°] (symmetrically up and down staggered vibration) for the eccentric vibration component of four shovels is the optimal initial phase combination, which can lead to the minimum adverse vibration on the frame. Further tests were conducted under different vibrating frequency and amplitude/eccentric with optimal phase combination. The results showed that, when amplitude/eccentricity ratio was 2.0 and 2.5, frequency of vibration was 6.7 and 8.3 Hz, the required traction force of the subsoiler was stable and significantly reduced, which can improve the soil loosening performance and reduce the harmful vibration on the tractor.