INMATEH - Agricultural Engineering

11-21

Authors: Fanxia KONG, Haozheng SUN, Jiankun LI, Baixu LIU, Lili YI, Yubin LAN, Xin HAN, Duanyang GENG, Qiang GAO

Precision soil fertilization is an important aspect of smart precision agriculture development, and the fertilization prescription map is a prerequisite for precision fertilization. Taking grapevine soil information as an example, this study explores the impact of different sampling densities on the accuracy of soil nutrient distribution. Experimental trials were conducted using sampling densities of 1m x 1m, 3m x 3m, 6m x 6m, 9m x 9m, and 12m x 12m, with the optimal sampling density determined to be 6m x 6m. Nutrient distribution maps were created using Bigemap and ArcGIS software, and based on nutrient balance calculations using ArcGIS software, fertilization prescription maps were developed. Furthermore, precise fertilization schemes for nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium fertilizers were formulated based on the prescription maps. This study provides methodological and data support for research on precision soil fertilization.

33-44

Authors: Hesham A. FARAG, Mohamed M. EL-KHOLY, Mahmoud OKASHA, Ahmed E. AZAB, Ahmed E. KHATER, Reham M. KAMEL

This study aims to develop and evaluate a locally manufactured carbonization unit with a screw conveyor. Various carbonization temperatures (350, 400, and 450°C) and feeding rates (50, 75, and 100 kg/h) were examined to determine optimal conditions for producing biochar from rice husk (RH). The results revealed that increasing the pyrolysis temperature from 350 to 450°C decreased RH biochar yield, while increasing the feeding rate from 50 to 100 kg/h increased it. Ash content was 22.4% at 350°C for 100 kg/h, and the maximum value was 31.4% at 450°C and 50 kg/h. The BET surface area of the biochar increased from 105.71 to 312.32 m2/g at 450°C, with slight non-significant changes at a 100 kg/h feed rate. RH biochar showed decreasing H and O values with higher temperatures and lower feed rates. RH biochar at 450°C and 50 kg/h showed increased macro porosity and surface area, rendering it suitable for agricultural application as a soil amendment.

57-66

Authors: Rosalinda L. ABAD, Frank Michael L. JACLA, Hipolito C. BUCCAT, Paul James C. GAÑOLA, Alliver P. SAPITULA

Manual peanut digging in the Philippines is still a practice due to the unavailability of low-cost mechanical diggers adaptable to local field conditions. Hence, the peanut digger design and evaluation were developed. The design involves benchmarking local field practices, ANSYS analysis of the digger blade, and CAD drawing. It is designed to dig, lift, convey, and drop the peanut stalk in a windrow. Its main parts are the main frame, digger blade, belt stalk conveyor, power transmission system, and hitching system. The draft and power requirement for a hand tractor to propel the digger is 1,387.48N and 2.0 hp, respectively. The treatments are the belt stalk conveyor speed levels at 205 rpm, 410 rpm, and 615 rpm, replicated three (3) times with three (3) plots per replication. It revealed an Actual Field Capacity, digging efficiency, and mechanical physical damage of 0.025 ha/h, 95.31%, and 0.56%, respectively. Investing in the machine is economically viable with a BCR of 2.09, a break-even point of 5.33 ha/yr, and a payback period of 1.60 years. This implies digging above the BEP accumulates profit for farmers.

77-86

Authors: Huhu YANG, Junlin HE, Jiaxuan LU, Tao WANG, Yuehua WANG, Yanxi GUO

This paper addresses the problem of the lack of intrinsic and contact parameters when applying the discrete element method to simulate and analyze the key aspects of white kidney bean seed sowing, harvesting and clearing. The experiment took white kidney bean seeds as the research object, measured the intrinsic parameters of white kidney bean seeds by using the universal testing machine, and measured the collision recovery coefficient of 0.445, static friction coefficient of 0.452 and rolling friction coefficient of 0.091 between white kidney bean seeds and Q235 steel plate by physical test and EDEM discrete element simulation parameter calibration. The stacking experiment was carried out by the cylinder lifting method, numerical processing was performed with MATLAB, and the actual stacking angle of white kidney bean seeds was 31.28°. The steepest climbing test was designed with the interspecific contact parameters as factors and the relative error between the actual and simulated stacking angles as indicators. The optimal combination of the interspecific contact parameters of white kidney bean was determined by response surface optimization analysis, and the interspecific collision recovery coefficient of white kidney bean was obtained as 0.39, static friction coefficient was 0.53, rolling friction coefficient was 0.092. Using the optimal parameters for the simulation test, the relative error between the actual stacking angle of white kidney bean seeds and the simulated stacking angle was 1.63%, indicating that the calibrated simulated contact parameters were reliable and could provide reference for the discrete element simulation of white kidney bean seeds.

96-105

Authors: Jinglong REN, Huili ZHANG, Guangyuan WANG, Chenlong DAI, Fei TENG, Moxian LI

This research is dedicated to enhancing the accuracy and processing speed of grape disease recognition. As a result, a real-time grape disease detection model named MSCI-YOLOv8s, based on an improved YOLOv8s framework is proposed. The primary innovation of this model lies in replacing the backbone network of the original YOLOv8s with the more efficient MobileNetV3. This alteration not only strengthens the ability of the model to capture features of various disease manifestations in grape leaf images but also improves its generalization capabilities and stability. Additionally, the model incorporates the SPPFCSPC pyramid pooling structure, which maintains the stability of the receptive field while significantly enhancing processing speed. The integration of the CBAM attention mechanism further accentuates the ability of the model to identify key features, substantially increasing the accuracy of disease detection. Moreover, the model employs Inner-SIoU as the loss function, optimizing the precision of bounding box regression and accelerating model convergence, thereby further enhancing detection efficiency. Rigorous testing has shown that the MSCI-YOLOv8s model achieves an impressive average precision (mAP) of 97.7%, with an inference time of just 37.2 milliseconds and a memory footprint of 39.3 MB. These advancements render the MSCI-YOLOv8s not only highly efficient but also extremely practical for real-time grape disease detection, meeting the actual demands of grape orchard disease identification and demonstrating significant potential for application.

117-128

Authors: Moxian LI, Xueliang CHANG, Xiaoning HE, Ning ZHANG, Wei LIU, Zhixin LIU, Tongtong DONG, Shuqi SHANG, Dongwei WANG, Maomao ZOU, Yunkang LI, Zhenjia MA

Aiming at the traditional peanut planter seed and fertilizer sowing depth inconsistency caused by seed burning and injury, fertilizer waste and low seed emergence rate, the design of a peanut planter with high-speed operation and controllable seed and fertilizer sowing depth was performed. The laser sensor is added to detect the height of the ridge and the furrow opener position feedback, and the speed sensor detects the operating speed of the peanut planter. The mechanical analysis of the four-link rod clarifies the control principle, improves the PID algorithm of the integral term, designs the control strategy based on the operating speed of the planter, controls the electro-hydraulic system, and realizes the sowing and fertilizing depth adjustment of the furrow opener. Through the design of three-factor three-level orthogonal simulation test, it is concluded that the vehicle speed and height deviation value are significant factors affecting the sowing and application depth, and under the verification of the field test, it is obtained that when the sowing depth is 50 mm under the speed of 3 km/h, the dynamic sowing depth qualification rate is 96.26%, and the maximum coefficient of variation of the sowing depth is 2.58%, which improves the effect of the existing control of the sowing depth of the peanut by 6.05%, and reduces the variation of the sowing depth by 2.85%. The research has demonstrated superior performance compared to traditional mechanical adjustment in regulating the planting depth of peanuts, thereby achieving the intended design objective.

138-147

Authors: Zhixin LIU, Shuqi SHANG, Shikuan MA, Yaxiu HOU, Tongtong DONG, Xiaoning HE

Aiming at the potato soil separation device of potato harvester, which generally has the problem of potato high damage in potato-soil separation, a three-stage potato soil low-loss separation device was developed, and orthogonal experiments were designed with the help of RecurDyn-EDEM coupled simulation method. A field bench was built for verification tests. The test proved that: when the lift transport chain speed was 1.40 m/s, travel speed was 0.60 m/s, amplitude was 32.0 mm, the impurity rate was 1.49% and the average force on potato was 1.801 N. The potato damage rate was 2.7%, indicating that the design of the three-stage potato soil low-loss separator device worked well.

162-172

Authors: Fengli LI, Jianghui CHEN, Keyi LIU, Jia ZHANG, Yaou ZHANG, Junchi YIN, Fei LIU, Manquan ZHAO

In order to solve the problems of easy seed shedding and poor seed population mobility during sowing, a precision seed metering tray for edible sunflowers with seed guide strips was designed in this paper. This article aims to adjust the adsorption posture of sunflower seeds by designing three types of structures: triangular seed guide strip, rectangular seed guide strip, and diamond seed guide strip. Seed population motion simulation and seeding performance experiments were conducted on the seeder. The experimental results show that adding a triangular seed guide strip to the seeding tray has the best disturbance effect on the seed population, with the highest proportion of seeds in the first adsorption stance seed (the seed centroid was adsorbed) and the highest qualification index. The working parameters for the best seed metering performance were obtained: the rotating speed of the seed metering disc was 8.41 r/min, and the vacuum degree was 3.5 kPa.

183-192

Authors: Yongpeng CHEN, Yi NIU, Weidong CHENG, Laining ZHENG, Dongchao SUN

To improve the accuracy of apple fruit recognition, enhance the efficiency of automatic picking robots in orchards, and provide effective visual guidance for the picking robot, a target recognition network model based on improved YOLOv5 is proposed. Firstly, the original apple images collected and the data images obtained by different data enhancement methods are used to establish a dataset of 1,879 images, and the dataset is divided into the training set and the test set under 8:2; then for the problem of low detection accuracy of apple fruits in the natural environment due to the mutual obstruction of apple fruits, this paper modifies the backbone network of YOLOv5 by adding the attention mechanism of the Transformer module, the Neck structure is changed from the original PAFPN to BiFPN that can perform two-way weighted fusion, and the Head structure adds the P2 module for shallow down sampling; finally, the recognition test is performed on the dataset, and a comparative analysis is performed according to different evaluation indexes to verify the superiority of the proposed model. The experimental results show that: compared with other existing models and the single-structure improved YOLOv5 model, the comprehensive improved model proposed in this paper has higher detection accuracy, resulting in an increase of 3.7% in accuracy.

203-213

Authors: Yupeng JIANG, Aiping SHI, Feng LIANG, Jun YANG

With the rapid urbanization in China, there has been a gradual increase in the production of kitchen waste, which poses significant environmental challenges. High-temperature aerobic fermentation is an effective method for recycling kitchen waste. This study focuses on utilizing kitchen waste, wood chips, and compound microbial agents as the main raw materials for fermentation. Various parameters such as temperature, moisture content, and amount of compound microbial agent were selected to conduct experiments on the high-temperature stage of the aerobic fermentation process for kitchen waste. Through response surface optimization experiments, it was determined that the optimal conditions for achieving fast high-temperature fermentation of kitchen waste are as follows: temperature at 60℃, moisture content at 60%, and amount of compound microbial agent at 10%. The order of influence on the reduction rate of kitchen waste is found to be temperature followed by the amount of compound microbial agent and moisture content. These findings provide valuable insights into resource utilization strategies for managing kitchen waste.

224-234

Authors: Hexia CHU, Hongxing LIU

Both cruising ability and safety should be considered in the 3D inspection path planning of agricultural unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Specific to a complex working environment, the 3D inspection environment of agricultural UAVs was simulated through terrain modeling and threat modeling. First, the dynamic constraints of flight approaching rate and response time were added to the threat cost, and the 3D mission space model and flight path cost function were constructed considering the influence of UAVs’ turning performance. Second, the offset estimation strategy, variable spiral search strategy, quasi-reverse learning strategy and dimension-by-dimension mutation strategy were introduced into the dung beetle optimizer (DBO) algorithm to improve the global optimization ability and convergence rate of the algorithm. By establishing a three-dimensional trajectory planning model for unmanned aerial vehicles, the trajectory planning is transformed into a multi-objective function optimization problem, and an improved algorithm is used to solve the three-dimensional trajectory planning of unmanned aerial vehicles. The fitness is evaluated by considering the objective function of trajectory cost, terrain cost, and danger level, and the trajectory planning is iteratively optimized. The results indicate that the proposed improved dung beetle algorithm for trajectory planning has lower overall cost and stability in adapting to different complex terrain environments.

245-254

Authors: Ioan Aurel CHERECHES, Ferenc GASPAR, Ioan Alin DANCI

Soil moisture monitoring and control are essential aspects for precision agriculture. The paper presents the designing and calibration of a low-cost soil moisture monitoring system. The system includes 28 capacitive sensors, connected to an Arduino based data acquisition system, allowing simultaneous multi-point measurements. The calibration process was conducted on six reference points within the moisture content range of 0–25%. The calibration results indicate a non-linear variation and reveal a significant deviation between the sensors leading to the determination of individual variation curves for each sensor.

265-279

Authors: Nadiia SHMYGOL, Władysława ŁUCZKA, Nataliia GAVKALOVA, Zhanna HARBAR, Viktor KOVAL, Lucian-Ionel CIOCA

The study analyses trends in domestic markets and international trade in organic products in some Eastern European countries based on a multifactorial comparative analysis in the regional context and estimates of yield losses about traditional agricultural land processing technologies. Prospects for the development of organic farming by region and in general are determined based on unused reserves of agricultural land suitable for this. The study assessed the organic production development in different regions of Poland and Ukraine: the annual growth rate of transitional and organic lands should be at least +13.3% to meet the strategic goal of reaching 3% of the total agricultural land by 2030.

291-298

Authors: Bin WANG, Lili LI

Soluble solid content (SSC) is one of the important evaluation indexes of the internal quality and taste of fresh jujube. In order to realize the online nondestructive detection of SSC of fresh jujube, this paper took Huping jujube as the research object, adopted self-constructed nondestructive online testing system to collect the spectral information of jujubes (350~2500 nm), and studied the influence of the rotational speed of 4 r/min on the online prediction model of SSC of jujube. Kennard-Stone (KS) algorithm was used to divide the sample into correction set and prediction set. Six commonly used preprocessing methods such as SG smoothing (S-G), multiplicative scatter correction (MSC), standard normal variate (SNV), orthogonal signal correction (OSC), first derivative (FD), and second derivative (SD) were applied to the spectral data, and the regression coefficient (RC) algorithm and the successive projections algorithm (SPA) were utilized to select informative wavelengths, and a quantitative prediction model for the SSC of Huping jujube was established using partial least squares regression (PLSR). The results indicate that the PLSR prediction model established by preprocessing the original spectrum with OSC and combining it with RC algorithm to select characteristic wavelengths was optimal. Therefore, when predicting the SSC of Huping jujube, the optimal model was OSC-RC-PLSR, and the correlation coefficients of the correction set and prediction set were 0.846 and 0.782, respectively, and the corrected root mean square error (RMSEC) and predicted root mean square error (RMSEP) were 1.962 and 2.247, respectively. The results show that non-destructive detection of soluble solid content of jujube can be achieved by combining visible-near-infrared spectroscopy and appropriate regression model, which provides an innovative way for online sorting and identifying fresh jujube.

313-323

Authors: Wenqi GUO, Wenyi ZHANG, Yunxia WANG, Youqiang DING, Bin QI

In order to study the effect of population disturbance on the filling performance of the seed metering device, this paper uses the pneumatic precision seed metering device as the model, and uses EDEM software to simulate the population movement of three different seed metering devices. The bench test was carried out at different pressures at 12 km/h and at different speeds at 3.5 kPa. The results show that the designed seed disk with grooves has the most intense disturbance and the highest qualified rate. In order to verify the performance of the disk, full factor tests are carried out on the air pressure and speed, The test results show that when the operating speed is 10~12 km/h and the positive pressure is 3~3.5 kPa, the leakage rate is no higher than 5.42%, the replay rate is no higher than 0.42%, and the qualified rate is no lower than 94.58%. When the operating speed is 14 ~ 16 km/h and the positive pressure is 3.5~4 kPa, the leakage rate is not higher than 6.7%, the replay rate is not higher than 1.04%, and the pass rate is not lower than 93.12%. All the indicators are better than the national standard.

339-351

Authors: Yong DING, Jian ZHANG, Zhiguo PAN, Weijing WANG, LIU Qi, Shuai WANG, Zhenjia MA, Xiaokang WANG

The analysis of the clearing process of the cutting deck of a small plot wheat combine harvester requires the use of discrete element simulation methods. However, the current simulation test lacks the contact parameters such as wheat stalk and stalk-seed. In this paper, the wheat stalks and seeds at harvest time were taken as the research objects, and the calibration study of the discrete element simulation model parameters of stalks and stalk-seeds was carried out by means of mechanical test determination and EDEM software simulation. The stiffness coefficients of wheat stalks were determined by mechanical tests; the average values of wheat stalk stacking angle of 39.22° and wheat stalk-seed stacking angle of 44.41° were obtained by stacking angle tests. By the steepest climb test and binary regression test, the stalk normal stiffness coefficient was determined to be 5e+08N/m2 and tangential stiffness was determined to be 6.35e+08N/m2; the stalk-stalk collision recovery coefficient was obtained to be 0.551, static friction coefficient was obtained to be 0.797, and rolling friction coefficient was obtained to be 0.079 by the two-level analytical factorization test, the steepest climb test, and the three-factor response surface test. Based on this, the average value of wheat stalk-seed stacking angle was obtained to be 39.22° and the average value of wheat stalk-seed stacking angle was obtained to be 44.41° by the stacking angle test. On this basis, the coefficient of recovery of stalk-stalk collision was 0.434, the coefficient of static friction was 0.884, and the coefficient of rolling friction was 0.339 obtained by the three-factor response surface test. Three validation experiments were carried out by substituting the obtained parameters into the simulation test, and the error values were close to the error value %0.255 in the model, which proved that the experimental data were reliable.

363-374

Authors: Fan JIN, Dejiang LIU, Chengyi ZHONG, Keheng YAO, Jian TONG, Zhibing JIANG

In view of the lack of accurate contact parameters and the difficulty of measuring contact parameters in the discrete element simulation of mechanized harvesting of highland barley, this study took the wax-ripening highland barley as the object, carried out the discrete element simulation of highland barley stem based on EDEM, and calibrated the discrete element simulation parameters of highland barley stem by response surface optimization. In this paper, Plackett-Burman test was used to screen 8 initial parameters. It was found that the static friction coefficient between highland barley stems, the rolling friction coefficient between highland barley stems, and the rolling friction coefficient between highland barley stems and steel plates have significant effects on the particle angle of repose. Based on the optimal value range of significant factors determined by the steepest ascent test, a second-order regression model of the angle of repose and significant parameters was established and optimized based on the results of Box-Behnken test. The optimal parameter combination of significant parameters was obtained as follows: static friction coefficient between highland barley stems is 0.27, rolling friction coefficient between highland barley stems is 0.07, and rolling friction coefficient between highland barley stems and steel is 0.26. Finally, the simulation results under the optimal parameter combination are compared with the actual test angle of repose. The relative error is 0.52 %. That indicates that the parameters of the simulation calibration are credible, which can provide a reference for the future research on the cleaning device in the mechanized harvesting of highland barley.

391-401

Authors: Bo ZHAO, Suchun LIU, Xiufeng ZHAO, Licheng ZHU, Tianfu ZHANG, Zhenhao HAN, Weipeng ZHANG

In agricultural operation scenarios, the diversity of farmland terrain, crops and other forms, as well as uncertain factors such as weather changes and crop growth during agricultural operation, can have an impact on the construction of high-precision maps. In order to address these challenges and analyze operational scenarios based on the characteristics of agricultural scenarios, this paper proposes a point cloud map construction algorithm for plant point removal and locatability esti-mation. Based on the existing SLAM framework, plant point removal and locatability estimation are improved. Firstly, RGB images and NIR images are fused to identify and remove plant point clouds, preserving effective inter frame matching information, reducing the impact of dynamic points on inter frame matching, and achieving high front-end motion estimation accuracy. Then, the locali-zation estimation method based on learning is used to determine the motion estimation status and determine whether to execute the backend optimization algorithm. Finally, the back end optimi-zation algorithm based on Factor graph is designed, and the Factor graph, constraint relationship and optimization function are constructed to optimize the pose of all frames. The optimized map construction algorithm reduces the re projection errors between field roads, paths, and crop rows by 10.27%, 20.76%, and 14.36% compared to before optimization. To verify the actual operational effectiveness of the point cloud map construction algorithm, the hardware part of the multi-sensor information collection system was designed, and sensor internal and external parameter calibration were also carried out. A map information collection vehicle was built and field experiments were conducted. The results showed that the positioning error of the point cloud map construction method proposed in this paper is less than 0.5 °, and the cumulative error of 30m translation is less than 12cm, which meets the actual operational requirements.

414-428

Authors: Kuan QIN, Yun ZHAO, Rui YANG

In this study, a double-shaft type sweet potato rice-planting and rice-returning machine was designed. The structure of the whole machine as well as the key components were analyzed, and the influence of each factor on the operation quality was studied. The results of the study showed that the order of the influence of each factor on the length of broken stems and leaves and the rate of checking was as follows: roller speed > toggle clearance > toggle spacing; the order of the influence on the stubble height was as follows: toggle clearance > roller speed > toggle spacing; and the order of the influence on the rate of injury to potatoes was as follows: roller speed = toggle clearance = toggle spacing. The optimal combination of working parameters in the field test was 1944 r/min for roll speed, 132 mm for toggle spacing, and 20 mm for toggle clearance, at which the qualification rate of stem and leaf breaking length was 94.32%, stubble height was 33.61 mm, and potato injury rate was 0.26%. The relative error with the theoretical optimization value is between 0.13% and 7.14%, which meets the operational requirements of sweet potato rice transplanter.

444-453

Authors: Hongwei DIAO, Wenlong YE, Zhicheng ZHANG, Xin LIU, Fandi ZENG, Xuying LI, Ji CUI, Zhihuan ZHAO

This study measured the intrinsic and contact parameters through physical experiments to improve the accuracy of discrete element simulation analysis of peanut seeds. Discrete element models for five different peanut seed filling ball numbers were established. The simulation parameters were calibrated through a combination of physical and simulation experiments. Firstly, the Plackett-Burman test was used to screen the significance of simulation parameters. Then, the steepest climbing test was conducted to determine the optimal range of significance parameters using the relative error be-tween the simulated and the physical experimental as the evaluation index. Finally, a response surface experiment with three factors and three levels was conducted using the repose angle as the response value. The static and rolling friction coefficients among peanut seeds were set as 0.43 and 0.50 separately, and the rolling coefficient between peanut seeds and steel plate was set as 0.12. During verification experiments, the simulated repose angle was 25.18°, with a relative error of 2.42% compared to the physical repose angle, further verifying the reliability of the simulation model. The re-search group used different numbers of filling balls with optimal parameters in the repose angle experiment. Then they evaluate the simulation time and the error value of repose angle between the simulated and physical experiment. The optimal number of filled balls is the Sphere 1178. The research results indicate that discrete element model of peanut seeds and calibration parameters are reliable. Based on the results of this research, an intelligent peanut precision sowing machine can be developed.

466-479

Authors: Jingqiong WU, Xuke WU, Jiabo HUANG

As a bridge connecting agricultural production and consumption, the circulation of agricultural products has the function of connecting supply and demand, guiding production and promoting consumption. However, the development of rural logistics in China is slow, and most logistics centers still rely on experience to plan the pick-up vehicle routings, resulting in long transport time and high cost. In order to improve the efficiency of pick-up and reduce transportation costs, a joint optimization model of cold-chain pick-up vehicle routing and cargo allocation for fresh agricultural products was proposed in this study. Soft time window constraint and three-dimensional loading constraints were considered, and the lowest pick-up cost was used as optimization goals in this model. In addition, adaptive large neighborhood search algorithm (ALNS) and heuristic depth-first search algorithm (HDFS) were combined to solve the model. A case study of Kunming International Flower Auction Center was conducted to compare the schemes of pick-up vehicle routing before and after optimization. Results demonstrate that the pick-up cost after optimization decreases by 9.6 %, the number of vehicles decreases by one, the total volume utilization rate of vehicles increases by 23 %, and the total load utilization rate of vehicles increases by 15 %. This study provides a model reference and solution method for enterprise operators to formulate schemes of pick-up vehicle routing quickly and reasonably.

492-500

Authors: Yang LI, Yanmin TAO, Yulong CHEN, Yiteng LEI

The mechanical properties of lavender are the basis for design and study of mechanized equipment for planting and harvesting of lavender. This paper determines and studies the natural width and height of plant and spike length of three kinds of lavender widely planted in the Yili region and obtains the distribution rules of parameters of the basic physical properties of lavender. Meanwhile, the test of the mechanical properties of lavender was done at the moisture content in the harvest period and different moisture contents. The results indicated that the maximum separation force of the flower of three kinds of lavender (111.3N) was much smaller than the minimum breaking force of the stem (201.5N); and the moisture content significantly affected the mechanical properties of lavender, which could provide corresponding design parameters and important theoretical basis for the design of a new lavender harvester based on separation technology.

514-524

Authors: Jiahao LAN, Yunjie MA

To solve the problem that the moving trajectory and operating trajectory are relatively independent and time-consuming when robots transfer agricultural products from harvesting fields to warehouses or transport vehicles, a type of agricultural materials handling robot was designed, the optimal trajectory planning method for the collaborative operating time of agricultural materials handling robots was proposed, and the time optimal trajectory under the collaborative operation of robot operating system and traveling system was acquired. Specifically, the kinematic model and dynamic model for the collaborative operation of robots were established to perform time optimal trajectory planning for materials handling robots, the Beta distribution was then applied to the Whale Optimization Algorithm (WOA) for population initialization, and a nonlinear convergence factor was introduced to prevent local optimum in the later stage of iterations. Finally, WOA was improved combining the variable neighborhood algorithm to enhance the diversity of the neighborhood structure, and this improved algorithm was applied to model solving. The results reveal that the proposed trajectory planning method can facilitate robots to obtain a smooth and time optical moving trajectory in collaborative operations of materials grabbing and discharging and obstacle avoidance. The displacement, speed, acceleration, and force/torque curves of each joint of the robots change gently, and the double-crawler traction can meet the requirements of the robots and rapidly stabilize and track the time optical trajectory.

535-546

Authors: Dangqin XUE, Zhouming GAO, Jiaxi ZHANG

In this paper, a new horizontal-shaft roller-type cotton stalk puller was designed to address the problems of weak research on cotton stalk pulling and harvesting machines, poor agronomic adaptability, and insufficient research. First, the physical and mechanical properties of cotton stalk were experimentally studied, and the cotton stalk pulling force test was conducted. and it was positively correlated with the cotton stalk diameter. Then, the moisture content and the bending characteristics of cotton stalk were evaluated. The test results showed the bending characteristics were positively correlated with the moisture content but were not evidently influenced by the diameter. Second, with the missed pulling rate and pull-off rate as the evaluation indexes and three independent variables, namely, forward speed, linear speed of stalk pulling rod, and rotation speed of stalk pulling roller, as the influencing factors, a 3D response surface model was established. On this basis, the lack-of-fit term P (p = 0.3650) > 0.05 of the evaluation index—missed pulling rate P1—was acquired, and the P value of pull-off rate P2 was always smaller than 0.0001. Finally, the results demonstrated that the influence of various factors on the missed pulling rate of cotton stalk is significant and followed the order forward speed > linear speed of stalk pulling rod > rotation speed of stalk pulling roller; the significance level regarding the influence on the pull-off rate followed the order rotation speed of stalk pulling roller > linear speed of stalk pulling rod > forward speed. Through the parameter optimization analysis, the optimal parameter combination was obtained which coincide with the model optimization and prediction result. The proposed method provides a basis and experimental reference for studying cotton stalk harvesting machineries.

557-568

Authors: Junming HOU, Yachen YU, Ziyuan TANG, Liang ZHANG, Jiuyu JIN, Wei WANG

The mechanized harvesting of mulberry is important for its production. In the process of harvesting, it is considered not only the mechanical damage of mulberry fruit but also its harvesting efficiency. It is very important to improve the vibration harvesting efficiency of mulberry. In this study, modal analysis of mulberry trees and harmonic response analysis of branches were carried out to determine the harvesting frequency of the branch's vibration and other parameters. The effects of excitation frequency and vibration position on the triaxial acceleration of the mulberry branch at different positions were analyzed by vibration test. Then the triaxial acceleration of branches at different positions was analyzed. The conditions of the mulberry fruit shedding were obtained through theoretical analysis. Through the 20-order modal analysis of mulberry, it is concluded that a better vibration effect can be achieved when the vibration frequency is controlled at 4-16 Hz. According to the harmonic response analysis, the best excitation frequencies are 5-6 Hz, 10-13 Hz, and 14-16 Hz. The harmonic response analysis of fruit branches was carried out, and the stress of fruit stalks at 5 Hz, 10 Hz, and 15 Hz were analyzed. The result shows that the maximum stress is 2.9252×107 Pa, the excitation position is the first-order branch, and the excitation frequency is 15 Hz. The frequencies obtained from modal analysis and harmonious response analysis were used to conduct experiments. When the excitation frequency was 15 Hz, the triaxial accelerations aX, aY, and aZ were 2.12 g, 4.16 g, and 3.99 g, respectively, which were more conducive to the shedding of mulberry fruits.

579-588

Authors: Andrii DIACHUN, Ivan GEVKO, Oleg LYASHUK, Andrii STANKO, Andrii PIK, Yuri OMELYANSKYI

A new design of an elastic brush-like screw for grain material transportation and mixing by screw conveyors with a lower degree of damage to some particles of the material has been presented in the paper under discussion. The theoretical calculation of the fiber displacement value of an elastic brush-like screw has been carried out on the basis of the deformation analysis of an idealized system with elastic elements. A differential equation of the mean line of deformation of several fibers of an elastic brush-like screw located in the same plane perpendicular to the distributed loading during grain material transportation has been derived. The solution of the differential equation was obtained by the numeric method and on its basis the curves of the middle line of deformed fibers of an elastic brush-like screw for different values of its structural parameters. The results of the experimental study of the maximum deformation value of the elastic fibers of a brush-like screw have been presented.

601-610

Authors: Zhifang BI, Yanwen LI, Jiaxiong GUAN, Xiaoying ZHANG

Real-time detection has become an essential component in intelligent agriculture and industry. In this paper, a real-time wheat spike detection method based on the lightweight deep learning network RepYOLO is proposed. Addressing the small and densely packed phenotype characteristics of wheat spikes, the channel attention mechanism module CBAM from the traditional YOLOv4 algorithm is introduced and multiple convolutional kernels are merged using a structural reparameterization method. Additionally, the ATSS algorithm is incorporated to enhance the accuracy of object detection. These approaches significantly reduce the model size, improve the inference speed, and lower the memory access cost. To validate the effectiveness of the model, it is trained and tested on a large dataset of diverse wheat spike images representing various phenotypes. The experimental results demonstrate that the RepYOLO algorithm achieves an average accuracy of 98.42% with a detection speed of 8.2 FPS. On the Jetson Nano platform, the inference speed reaches 34.20 ms. Consequently, the proposed model effectively reduces the memory access cost of deep learning networks without compromising accuracy and successfully improves the utilization of CPU/MCU limited performance.

621-630

Authors: Tibor RITTNER, Alexandru Bogdan GHEȚE, Ovidiu MARIAN, Ovidiu RANTA, Valentin CRIȘAN, Cătălin BOGDAN, Adrian MOLNAR

In vine cultivation, pests are obstacles to obtaining crops that correspond both qualitatively and quantitatively. In this work, main working qualitative indices were determined. These working qualitative indices were determined under real field conditions using 2 types of nozzles, an air injection nozzle and a standard nozzle. The working qualitative indices determined were DV1, DV5, DV9, coverage degree, number of drops and the amount of solution deposited on target surface. For both speeds of 5 and 7 km/h, DV5 values classified the spray extra and ultra coarse spectrum. The coverage rate was between 55% and 99% regardless of travel speed.

644-652

Authors: Mario CRISTEA, Nicolae-Valentin VLĂDUȚ, Georgiana MOICEANU

Considering that every day the sun generates more energy than the planet needs for daily consumption, harnessing solar energy represents one of the future solutions for clean, sustainable energy, obviously with the technological limitations related to the ability to transform this energy into electricity. The paper presents a functional model of equipment that allows the capture of solar energy using special panels, which can rotate both horizontally and vertically according to the sun, so that the incidence of rays with the radiating surface of the panels is maximum and the yields obtained at different angles of inclination in the vertical plane at 60, respectively in the horizontal plane at 0 grade

663-678

Authors: Dan CUJBESCU, Dragoș DUMITRU, Iulian VOICEA, Cătălin PERSU, Iuliana GĂGEANU, Alexandru IONESCU, Ana Maria TĂBĂRAȘU, Dragoș ANGHELACHE

Aquaculture, as a dynamic field, undergoes continuous evolution requiring continuous improvements in efficiency and new research efforts. Estimating fish biomass is an essential practice in the field of precision aquaculture, obtaining periodic information on fish biomass has been identified as an urgent need, considering the objective of optimizing daily feeding, controlling fish density and finally determining the optimal timing of harvesting. Conventional weighing methods, which often rely on manual procedures, have inherent challenges. Manual weighing processes are labor-intensive, requiring substantial time and human resources. Furthermore, manual handling of fish during weighing procedures induces considerable stress on aquatic organisms, potentially compromising their health and welfare. Consequently, there is a pressing need in the aquaculture industry to explore alternative weighing techniques that alleviate stress levels while increasing operational efficiency. In response to these challenges, contemporary research efforts have increasingly focused on the development of noninvasive and automated weighing methodologies. These innovations aim to simplify the weighing process, minimize human intervention and reduce the level of stress experienced by the fish population. However, estimating fish biomass without human intervention presents significant challenges because fish are sensitive and move freely in an environment where visibility, lighting, and stability are difficult to control. The paper analyzes technological solutions for biomass estimation according to the concept of Aquaculture 4.0.

689-698

Authors: Jinlong WU, Ronghui MIAO

Aiming at the problems of less research on cherry segmentation and identification, and slow recognition speed and low classification accuracy with agricultural products, a method based on DeepLabV3 was proposed to realize the rapid segmentation and identification of cherry in complex orchard environment. Complex environment mainly includes frontlighting, backlighting, cloudy and rainy days, single fruit, multi fruit, fruit overlap, and branch and leaf occlusion. This model proposed the atrous spatial pyramid pooling (ASPP) module to effectively extract multi-scale contextual information, and solved the problem of target segmentation at multiple scales. The obtained data was divided into training, validation and testing sets in a 7:1:2 ratios, and the ResNet50 was selected as backbone of the network. Experimental results show that the algorithm in this paper can segment cherry quickly and accurately, the mean intersection over union (MIoU) was 91.06%, the mean pixel accuracy (MPA) was 93.05%, and the kappa coefficient was 0.89, which was better than fully convolutional networks (FCN), SegNet, DeepLabV1 and DeepLabV2. It is demonstrated that this study can provide technical support for intelligent segmentation of agricultural products.

710-719

Authors: Min FU, Jianan CAI, Shike GUO, Lei CHEN,, Chengmeng WANG, Gangqiang YANG, Xiaoman CUI

Kiwifruit picking robots can replace manual labor for mechanized kiwifruit harvesting. However, existing picking robots encounter issues such as low separation efficiency of fruit stalks, poor stability of fruit gripping, and inaccurate identification when picking kiwifruit clusters. In response, a multi-fruit picking end-effector was designed to pick clusters of kiwifruit efficiently based on their distribution characteristics. The gripping range of the gripping device was determined based on the parameters of the spatial distribution of the fruit clusters. A multi-fruit gripping mechanics model was constructed, and the gripping force was analyzed to ensure efficient and stable fruit picking. Critical parameters of the fruit stalk separation device were determined through kinematic trajectory analysis to improve the separation efficiency of fruit stalks. Additionally, a dual-sensor fusion recognition method was proposed to identify fruit cluster locations accurately. The results of the picking experiment demonstrate that the end-effector can pick fruits in an average time of 8.28 s per cluster, with a net fruit-picking rate of 87.5% and a fruit damage rate of 7.5%. The end-effector shows a positive picking effect on kiwifruit fruits distributed in clusters. This study can serve as a reference for the development of kiwifruit-picking robots.

731-740

Authors: Xin DU, Qianhao YU, Shufa CHEN, Qixin SUN, Han ZHANG, Changqing LIU

In order to improve the uniformity and stability of seed delivery and meet the requirements of precision sowing operation, a kind of seed push wheel designed to mesh with the seed discharging disk was developed. The wheel underwent theoretical analysis and experimental optimization regarding parameters such as tooth profile, tooth count, and tooth height. Using a pneumatically inflated maize precision seed-metering device as the seeding carrier, a full-factorial experiment was conducted with operational speed and tooth height as the experimental variables, and qualification rate, reseeding rate, and leakage rate as the performance indicators. A multivariate quadratic regression model was established to assess the relationships between the factors and indicators. The results indicated that optimal seed guiding performance was achieved when the seed push wheel had 9 teeth, a tooth height of 5.2–6.2 mm, and an operational speed of 9.0–12.6 km/h. This study provides a theoretical foundation and data support for the development of precision seeding technology and corresponding seed guiding devices.

750-764

Authors: Vasu KEERATIVUTISEST, Wornchanok CHAIYASOONTHORN, Bilal KHALID, Beata ŚLUSARCZYK, Singha CHAVEESUK

This research investigated the factors determining the adoption of AI-based applications in Thailand and Poland's agricultural sectors. The study explored the sector's adoption of AI technology and its contributions to driving the market and business performance. Despite the potential of AI in the agricultural sector, its adoption rate still needs to be clarified, and its potential needs to be better understood, hence the need for the study. The research applied primary data collected from respondents working in the agricultural sector in Thailand and Poland using a structured questionnaire. A sample of 356 and 377 Why respondents were representative samples in Thailand and Poland, respectively. The research was driven by the hypotheses evaluated using the Structural Equation Model (SEM). The findings indicated that organizational size was the most influential determinant of AI-based applications in both countries. Another significant determinant was technological competence in both countries. Additionally, social influence was a significant determinant in Thailand, while facilitating conditions and effort expectancy were significant determinants in Poland. The multi-group analysis revealed that the two countries were not invariant; hence, the effect of independent variables on behavioral intention to adopt AI between the two countries was different. The research recommended that each country's policymakers consider its contexts differently in AI-based application adoption policies. However, improving the organizational size and technological competence would enhance the adoption of AI-based applications across the board.

775-787

Authors: Huyang TANG, Gang WANG, Bo ZHOU, Yu WAN, Fuming KUANG, Wei XIONG, Dequan ZHU, Shun ZHANG

The core equipment of rice dry direct-seeding with film mulching devices shows poor adaptability to rice varieties, struggling to accommodate diverse seeding quantity for both hybrid and conventional rice varieties. A seed-filling component with unilateral and bilateral seed-filling function was designed to solve this challenge. Through theoretical analysis the key structural parameters of the seed-filling component were determined. Then Discrete Element Method (DEM) simulations were conducted to analyze the seeding performance, leading to the identification of optimal parameters for orifice width and orifice deflection angle of the seed-filling component, which are 7.7 to 8.5 mm and 1.71 to 2.41 degrees, respectively. Bench experiments using the central composite design indicates that the optimal parameters for the seed-filling component's orifice width and orifice deflection angle are 8.1 mm and 1.99 degrees, respectively. In the optimal combination of orifice parameters, for unilateral seed-filling in hybrid rice, the miss-seeding rate is 4%, the qualified rate is 84.8%, and the reseeding rate is 11.2%. For bilateral seed-filling in conventional rice, the miss-seeding rate is 4.2%, the qualified rate is 85.2%, and the reseeding rate is 10.6%. The result of field hole-seeding with film mulching is consistent with the result of indoor bench experiments, demonstrating that the seed-filling component of the hole seeder can meet the seeding requirements for rice precision direct-seeding with film mulching. This paper provides theoretical reference for the design and optimization of the seed-filling component for rice hole-seeding equipment.

798-808

Authors: Zixuan ZHANG, Honglei JIANG, Xiaoning HE, Fangyan ZHANG, Jiasheng WANG, Dongwei WANG

In response to the challenges of difficult separation and incomplete cleaning during the mechanized harvesting of Cyperus esculentus L., a combined threshing and cleaning device consisting of a fruit-picking roller, a cleaning belt, and an air-screening system was designed. The structure and working principle of this device were explained, and the main components and operating parameters were determined through theoretical analysis. Using fruit-picking roller speed, cleaning belt angle, and fan speed as evaluation indicators, a three-factor three-level field experiment was conducted based on the Box-Behnken central composite design principle. Regression models between loss rate, impurity rate, and significant factors were established, and the optimal working parameters were determined using regression equations. The results showed that when the fruit-picking roller speed was 543.7 r/min, the cleaning belt angle was 50.3°, and the fan speed was 532.4 r/min, the loss rate of sesame seed harvesting was 2.67%, and the impurity rate was 2.49%. The results of field validation experiments indicated that the average loss rate of the combined threshing and cleaning device under the optimal parameter combination was 2.88%, and the average impurity rate was 2.41%, which were consistent with the optimization results of the regression model and fully met the requirements of mechanized sesame seed harvesting production.

820-829

Authors: Zhibo LI, Tong YE, Meiling NIE, Haitao LAN, Xin ZHANG, Wei ZHAO

Aiming at the problem of high cob loss in non-opposed row harvesting of 4YZ-6 fresh corn harvester, a front-end part adapted to the grain splitter of this model was designed. The structure of the front-end part was elaborated, the sliding conditions of the stalks under the action of the grain splitter were studied, the forces between the stalks and the front-end part were theoretically analyzed, and the operating effect of the front-end part was verified through field tests. The tests show that the expected operating effect is optimal when the inclination of the grain separator is 27.7°, the clamping angle of the grain splitter is 31°, the stubble height is 270 mm, and the front-end guards half width is 3.8 mm. The verification test for this parameter combination yielded a breakage rate of 8.71% and a loss rate of 9.47%, which were basically consistent with the expected values. The design of this front-end component of the grain splitter provides an effective means to reduce the loss of ears in the harvesting process of fresh corn.

848-860

Authors: Dragoș DUMITRU, Carmen BĂLȚATU, Eugen MARIN, Gabriel-Valentin GHEORGHE, Dragoș MANEA, Marinela MATEESCU, Melania-Elena CISMARU

The management of inter-row space of vineyards and fruit trees has emerged as an essential approach in sustainable agriculture, optimizing resource use and improving ecosystem services. This paper reviews a range of innovative technologies and solutions aimed at revolutionizing line management practices. Modern sensing and monitoring systems provide real-time data on soil moisture, nutrient levels, and plant health, facilitating precision row-to-row management. Furthermore, techniques for grassing the space between rows of vines and fruit trees are important for space management, ensuring good air circulation and facilitating agricultural activities such as maintenance and harvesting. In addition, the advent of inter-row seeding machines simplified the implementation of cover crops. These machines use advanced seed delivery mechanisms, precisely distributing the cover seed into the spaces between the rows. This not only encourages soil health and erosion prevention but also mitigates weed competition, increasing the overall resilience of the agroecosystem. The purpose of this review is to discuss the combination of state-of-the-art technologies such as 3D LIDAR technology, intelligent systems used for inter-row management of vines and fruit trees, and inter-row solar panel systems, all these examples have revolutionized inter-row management in vineyards and orchards. This holistic approach optimizes resource allocation, improves soil health, and encourages sustainable agricultural practices, paving the way for greener and more resilient inter-row spaces in modern agroecosystems.