Research Advances in Mechanization of Pesticide Spraying Technology for Facility Agriculture

Firstly,this paper introduced the special requirements of pesticide application technical equipment for the facility agriculture. Secondly,it analyzed domestic situation of pesticide application technical equipment for the facility agriculture. Then,it discussed existing controlled droplet pesticide sprayer from operating principle,structural characteristics,and innovation points,and pointed out existing research findings and future research modules of the controlled droplet pesticide sprayer. Finally,in line with main research points and development direction of controlled droplet pesticide sprayer for the facility agriculture,it came up with pertinent recommendations and measures. It is intended to provide references for the application and development of pesticide application technical equipment for the facility agriculture in China.

Advances in Utilization of Agricultural Waste Based on Production of Edible Fungi

Along with the rapid development of edible fungus industry in China,the traditional mode of production giving priority to wood chips will be severely limited,and using agricultural waste distributed widely,having large yield,and containing high content of organic matter to produce edible fungi has good economic and ecological benefit. In this paper,based on the analysis of characteristics of agricultural waste in China,the present situation of application of agricultural waste in the production of edible fungi at home and abroad was introduced,and the main problems existing in production of edible fungi by using agricultural waste in China at the present stage were pointed out. Finally,the development direction of using agricultural waste to cultivate edible fungi was discussed,and some suggestions were put forward,such as improving the theoretical system for using agricultural waste to produce edible fungi,and establishing the standardized technical system for using agricultural waste to produce edible fungi.

Method for Fault Feature Selection for a Baler Gearbox Based on an Improved Adaptive Genetic Algorithm

The performance and efficiency of a baler deteriorate as a result of gearbox failure.One way to overcome this challenge is to select appropriate fault feature parameters for fault diagnosis and monitoring gearboxes.This paper proposes a fault feature selection method using an improved adaptive genetic algorithm for a baler gearbox.This method directly obtains the minimum fault feature parameter set that is most sensitive to fault features through attribute reduction.The main benefit of the improved adaptive genetic algorithm is its excellent performance in terms of the efficiency of attribute reduction without requiring prior information.Therefore,this method should be capable of timely diagnosis and monitoring.Experimental validation was performed and promising findings highlighting the relationship between diagnosis results and faults were obtained.The results indicate that when using the improved genetic algorithm to reduce 12 fault characteristic parameters to three without a priori information,100%fault diagnosis accuracy can be achieved based on these fault characteristics and the time required for fault feature parameter selection using the improved genetic algorithm is reduced by half compared to traditional methods.The proposed method provides important insights into the instant fault diagnosis and fault monitoring of mechanical devices.

Development of the electric automatic steering system for agricultural vehicles

Automatic guidance of agricultural vehicles requires automatic execution of operation commands received from the navigation controller by using electronically controlled mechanisms for wheel steering,speed changing and work implementing.Automatic steering contributes as a prerequisite technique in automatic and semi-automatic agricultural navigation.This research aimed to develop an electric automatic steering system that was compact in its structure and integrated into original steering mechanism in a simply and convenient way for aftermarket modification.A brushless motor and reducer assembly was utilized to provide an adequate steering torque instead of manual maneuver.A rapid assembling approach was proposed by passing the steering shaft through the hollow output shaft.A digital proportional-integral-differential(PID)algorithm was implemented to calculate the rotation speeds and directions by comparing the desired angle and the actual angle,which was implemented in a printed circuit board with a microcontroller unit(MCU)and interface chips.An unmanned wheeled tractor was applied as test platform to integrate the newly developed electric automatic steering system.Tests were conducted to evaluate its performance in terms of stability and responsiveness.An autonomous navigation system guided the tractor along target paths in the field by sending steering commands to the electric automatic steering system.The results show that the steering angle error was less than 0.81°when desired steering angle was less than 10°.The lateral error difference was no more than 4.76 cm when repeating following the same target path,which indicated that the electric automatic steering system responded accurately and robustly to steering commands.

Development of autonomous navigation controller for agricultural vehicles

Agricultural vehicles are adopted to undertake farming tasks by traversing along crop rows in the field.Working quality depends significantly on the driving skills of the operator.Automatic guidance has been introduced into agriculture to achieve high-accuracy path tracking during the last decades,which contributes considerably to straight-line navigation.The objective of this research was to develop an autonomous navigation controller that allowed movement autonomy for various agricultural vehicles.Three wheel-type vehicles were used as the test platform featuring automatic steering,hydrostatic transmission and speed control,which included a rice transplanter,a high-clearance sprayer and a tractor.A dual-antenna RTK-GNSS receiver was attached to the vehicles to provide spatial information on both positioning and heading by using the RTX service from Trimble.A path planning method was proposed to create a straight-line reference path by giving two points,and the target path was determined according to the vehicle initial status and working assignment.Headland turning was comprehensively taken into account by listing different turn patterns in order to realize autonomous navigation at the headland.The navigation controller hardware was fabricated for program execution,data processing and information communication with peripherals.A human-machine interface was designed for the operator to complete basic setting,path planning and navigation control by providing controls.Field experiments were conducted to evaluate the performance and versatility of the newly developed autonomous navigation controller in guiding agricultural vehicles to follow straight paths and turn at the headland.Results showed that an appropriate turn pattern was automatically executed when finishing straight-line navigation.The lateral error in straight-line tracking was no more than 6 cm,6 cm and 5 cm for the rice transplanter,the high-clearance sprayer and the tractor,respectively.And the maximum lateral RMS error was 3.10 cm,4.75 cm,2.21 cm in terms of straight-line tracking,which indicated that the newly developed autonomous navigation controller was versatile and of high robustness in guiding various agricultural vehicles.

Development of a low-cost quadrotor UAV based on ADRC for agricultural remote sensing

Unmanned aerial vehicle(UAV)has the advantages of good repeatability and high remote sensing(RS)information acquisition efficiency,as an important supplement bridging the gap of high-altitude and ground RS platforms.A quadrotor UAV was developed for the agricultural RS application in this study.The control system consists of a main processor and a coprocessor,integrating a three-axis gyroscope,a three-axis accelerometer,an air pressure sensor and a global positioning system(GPS)module.Engineering trial method(ETM)was used to tune the parameters based on the active disturbance rejection control(ADRC)method.Also a ground control station(GCS)adapted to the quadrotor was developed realizing autonomously take-off and landing,flight route planning,data recording.To investigate the performances of the UAV,several flight tests were carried out.The test results showed that the pitch angle control accuracy error was less than 4°,the flight height control accuracy error was less than 0.86 m,the flight path control accuracy error was less than 1.5 m overall.Aerial multispectral images were acquired and processed.The reflected digital number(DN)values obtained from a height of 10-100 m with 10 m interval could be referenced to classify objects.The normalized-difference-vegetation index(NDVI)values obtained from the aerial multispectral images acquired at 15 m were compared with those obtained by the GreenSeeker(GS)and PSR-1100F.The maximum error was 20.37%while the minimum error was 1.99%,which demonstrated the developed quadrotor UAV’s satisfactions for low altitude remote sensing practice.This study provided a low-cost platform for agricultural remote sensing.

Developing Situations of Tea Plucking Machine

To acquire the developing trend and ways of mechanization of tea plucking, with analyzing the developing backgrounds and situations of tea plucking machine both at home and abroad, this paper obtains the conclusion that there are several countries that have conducted a lot of studies on tea plucking machine, such as Japan, England, France, India, Australia and Argentina. Among others, Japan goes ahead, where lots of researches have been conducted in the highest developing level. The article also analyses the reason why China has a poor mechanization of tea plucking and points out existing problems. Finally, some advices and measures for developing Chinese domestic mechanization of tea plucking are given.

加热结合水杨酸处理对减轻桃果实冷藏过程中内部褐变的协同效应

研究了热处理（在空气中，38℃，12h）和水杨酸处理（SA，1mM）单独使用以及协同使用时对桃果实冷藏过程中内部褐变（IB）的影响。结果表明，热处理结合水杨酸处理对减轻桃果实0℃贮藏条件下的内部褐变效果最好。经热处理结合水杨酸处理，

Present Situation of the Anti-Fatigue Processing of High-Strength Steel Internal Thread Based on Cold Extrusion Technology:A Review

The adoption of cold-extrusion forming for internal thread net forming becomes an important component of anti-fatigue processing with the development of internal thread processing towards high performance, low cost and low energy consumption. It has vast application foreground in the field of aviation, spaceflight, high speed train and etc. The internal thread processing and anti-fatigue manufacture technology are summarized. In terms of the perspective of processing quality and fatigue serving life, the advantages and disadvantages of the processing methods from are compared. The internal thread cold-extrusion processing technology is investigated for the purpose of improving the anti-fatigue serving life of internal thread. The superiorities of the plastic deformation law and surface integrity of the metal layer in the course of cold extrusion for improving its stability and economy are summed up. The proposed research forecasts the develop- ment tendency of the internal thread anti-fatigue manufacturing technology.

Effects of harvesting method and date on yield loss and seed quality of rapeseed

China is one of the major rapeseed production countries in the world,but harvesting mechanization was still backward,and high harvest loss was a key inhibiting factor for rapeseed production.To obtain optimum harvesting date for winter rape in the Yangtze River Valley of China,artificial simulated combine harvesting and artificial two-stage harvesting were adopted to find correlations between harvesting date,rape variety,seed oil content,protein content,grain moisture rate,rapeseed straw moisture content,rapeseed unthreshing rate,grain drop loss rate,thousand seeds weight(TSW),and harvesting economic coefficient(HEC).Analysis of variance showed that rapeseed oil content,protein content and TSW were correlated with rape variety;HEC was correlated with harvesting method and rape variety.Rape variety was the dominant factor of rapeseed oil content,protein content,TSW and HEC.Grain moisture rate,un-threshing rate,grain drop loss rate and straw moisture content were correlated with harvesting method and date.Harvesting date was the dominant factor of rapeseed moisture rate,un-threshing rate,grain drop loss rate and straw moisture rate.Single factor tests further proved that harvesting date had less impact on rapeseed oil content,protein content,TSW and HEC.It showed little correlation with rapeseed quality except grain moisture rate.The optimum harvesting date could be known by change in straw moisture content.The combined harvesting should be carried out during the grain moisture content of 15%-20%with TSW stabilized in the highest level.The twostage harvesting cutting should be carried out at the grain moisture content of 35%-40%.This research offered a reference to harvesting method and date for rape cultivated in the Yangtze River Valley.

Numerical simulation and experimental verification on downwash air flow of six-rotor agricultural unmanned aerial vehicle in hover

Recently,multi-rotor unmanned aerial vehicle(UAV)becomes more and more significantly irreplaceable in the field of plant protection against diseases,pests and weeds of crops.The easy takeoff and landing performance,hover function and high spraying efficiency of UAV are urgently required to spray pesticide for crop timely and effectively,especially in dispersed plots and hilly mountains.In such situations,the current researches about UAV spray application mainly focus on studying the influence of the UAV spraying parameters on the droplet deposition,such as operation height,operation velocity and wind velocity.The deposition and distribution of pesticide droplets on crops which depends on installation position of nozzle and airflow distribution characteristics of UAV are directly related to the control effect of pesticide and crop growth in different growth periods.As a preliminary step,this study focuses on the dynamic development law and distribution characteristics of the downwash air flow for the SLK-5 six-rotor agricultural UAV.Based on compressible Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes(RANS)equations with an RNG k-εturbulence model and dynamic mesh technology,the efficient three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics(CFD)method was established to analyze the flow field distribution characteristics of UAV in hover.Then the unsteady interaction flow field of the wing was investigated in detail.The downwash wind speed of the marked points for the SLK-5 UAV in hover was also tested by weather tracker.It was found that the maximum velocity value of the downwash flow was close to 10 m/s;the z-direction velocity was the main body of the wind velocity in the downwash airflow,and the comparison of the wind velocity experiment test and simulation showed that the relative error was less than 12%between the experimental and simulated values of the z-direction velocity at the marked points.Then the flow characteristics of the longitudinal and cross section were analyzed in detail,the results obtained can be used as a reference for drift and sedimentation studies for multi-rotor unmanned aerial vehicle.

Downwash distribution of single-rotor unmanned agricultural helicopter on hovering state

The effective coverage and velocity of downwash are directly related to the assemblage of spraying system and spraying effect.The downwash of the unmanned agricultural helicopter(UAH)N-3 was discussed in the paper.The computational fluid dynamics(CFD)methods were used to simulate and analyze the distribution of the downwash,and a wind field measurement device had been designed to test the downwash of UAH N-3.In the tests,the UAH N-3 was raised up to 5.0 m,6.0 m and 7.0 m from the ground,“annular-radial-distribution-point”method was introduced,8 directions separated by an angle of 45°(the radial direction)with the intersection point of the main rotor shaft and the ground plane as the center,0.5 m as the step length for the longitudinal(to 2.5 m)and radial(to 4.0 m)direction to set the sample points,considering the range of the rotor rotating circular area mainly.The 5 m height results of N-3 were fully discussed to describe the downwash distribution with the longitudinal altitude increased and the radial distance increased.The standard deviations of five test altitudes for eight directions were comparatively analyzed,the results showed that the total standard deviation was not greater than 0.6 m/s.The overall relative maximum margin of error calculated from the simulation and measurement data was between 0.6 and 0.7,which verified the credibility of the simulation data.High-order polynomials were used to fitting the simulation and measurement data,the fitting results showed that the polynomial coefficient of determination R^(2) met or exceeded 0.75 when the altitudes were more than 1 m,indicating the fit equation having the reference values.When the altitudes equal or less than 0.5 m,the polynomial coefficient of determination R^(2) was smaller,ranging during 0.3 to 0.7.The study would provide some foundations for the optimization of the assemblage of spraying system on the single-rotor UAH,which would promote China aviation plant protection.

Optimized design and test for a pendulum suspension of the crop spray boom in dynamic conditions based on a six DOF motion simulator

Spray deposit distribution from a field sprayer is mainly affected by the boom movements when the tractor is driven over a rough soil surface,the pendulum suspension that used to reduce and control the movement of spray boom by isolating the boom from vibrations of the tractor will directly enhance uniform deposition of chemicals.However,how to match the parameters of the suspension with the properties of the boom is the key problem.The dynamic rigid-flexible coupling model of the virtual prototype of the spray boom suspension system was established by using ADAMS and ABAQUS software.An optimization of the suspension parameters for a large spay boom was carried out based on the optimal Latin hypercube design,radial basis function neural network,and multi-objective genetic algorithm NSGA-II.After modified parameters of the suspension,the travel of the sprayer on a typical field motion track was simulated based on a six DOF motion simulator,and the dynamic behavior of the boom suspension was measured.The results show that RMS of the measured boom roll angle and the boom center displacement for optimized solution were reduced by 14.76%and 12.43%compared with the original suspension.Finally,the inertial measurement unit(IMU)was used to measure the movements of the sprayer vehicle during the pesticide application on the Hongze Lake Farm,the experiment of field condition reproduced by using the six DOF motion simulator,the standard deviation of the roll angle and vibration displacement for the optimized sprayer boom are only 0.6382°and 62.279 mm respectively.The research provides theoretical basis and experimental method for parameter optimization of large scale boom suspension.

Optimization and test for spraying parameters of cotton defoliant sprayer

Boom sprayer is widely used in large farm crops because of its high working efficiency and favorable spraying effect.But there are still some problems in cotton defoliant spraying in Xinjiang,China.Cotton is planted in a high density in Xinjiang,the row space is(10+66)cm,leaves in two adjacent rows are seriously overlapped,the lower leavers are poorly sprayed,so the defoliation effect is poor,and the cotton quality is degraded.To solve this problem and improve the defoliant droplets coverage on the cotton canopy,the original boom spraying was modified,and the spraying pardameters was optimized by the central combination test and design concept of Box-Behnken based on a single-factor test.A quadratic polynomial model of droplets coverage was created by using working parameters including horizontal spraying boom height,hang boom height and nozzles angle as the influential factors and the mean droplets coverage on cotton canopy as the target function,and the effectiveness of mode and interaction of factors were analyzed.The model was optimized and analyzed using the regression analysis method and response surface analysis method of software Design-Expert 7.0.0,and the optimal combination of spraying parameters was obtained.The results showed that the droplets coverage on cotton canopy were influenced by boom height,sprayer height and angled nozzles sequentially from large to small,and the optimal combination of spraying parameters was under horizontal spraying boom height of 134 cm,hang spraying boom height of 27.5 cm and nozzles angle of 21°.The mean droplets coverage of experimental value and predicted value on cotton canopy were 19.6%and 20.43%respectively in such conditions,and the relative error to the estimated value on the model was–4.25%.The research result can provide a reference for further optimizing the spraying parameters of cotton defoliant sprayer.

Development of autonomous navigation system for rice transplanter

Rice transplanting requires the operator to manipulate the rice transplanter in straight trajectories.Various markers are proposed to help experienced drivers in keeping straightforward and parallel to the previous path,which are extremely boring in terms of large-scale fields.The objective of this research was to develop an autonomous navigation system that automatically guided a rice transplanter working along predetermined paths in the field.The rice transplanter used in this research was commercially available and originally manually-operated.An automatic manipulating system was developed instead of manual functions including steering,stop,going forward and reverse.A sensor fusion algorithm was adopted to integrate measurements of the Real-Time Kinematic Global Navigation Satellite System(RTK-GNSS)and Inertial Measurement Unit(IMU),and calculate the absolute moving direction under the UTM coordinate system.A headland turning control method was proposed to ensure a robust turning process considering that the rice transplanter featured a small turning radius and a relatively large slip rate at extreme steering angles.Experiments were designed and conducted to verify the performance of the newly developed autonomous navigation system.Results showed that both lateral and heading errors were less than 8 cm and 3 degrees,respectively,in terms of following straight paths.And headland turns were robustly executed according to the required pattern.

Bench cutting tests and analysis for harvesting hemp stalk

As a study basis in the field of design and research of harvester prototype,bench cutting test is to provide best parameters for the cutter design.In order to obtain the optimal parameters of cutter of the hemp harvester,cutting tests on hemp stalk were conducted to examine the influences of different geometrical parameters(length and edge type)of blade,different cutting speeds and stalk feeding speeds of reciprocating single movable blade and reciprocating double movable blades on the cutting performances(cutting power,cutting quality and synthesis score)by using self-designed test bench.According to features of different test factors,multi-factors orthogonal test was applied to determine the best combination of blade length,blade edge type and number of movable blade.Then with these parameters fixed,the optimal parameters for the factors of cutting speed and stalk feeding speed were obtained by quadratic-regression rotatable orthogonal test.According to the test results,the best combination of hemp stalk cutting was that using cutter with reciprocating double movable blades of long(120 mm)and serrated-edge at cutting speed of 1.1704 m/s and stalk feeding speed of 0.7079 m/s.The tests and analysis results can be applied into subsequent related researches on hemp harvesters.

Improving uniform scattering device for straw-smashing,back-throwing,no-tillage planter under complete straw mulching condition

With the objective of obtaining a completely straw-mulched field,when no-tillage mechanical sowing is implemented with straw smashing,delivering,and back-throwing approaches,it may be difficult to scatter the smashed straw uniformly during a succeeding wheat sowing step.This is because the previous rice straw is substantial in quantity and has a high humidity and toughness,which may easily result in non-uniform straw mulching and thus sparse and weak seedlings of wheat.Therefore a force-dispersing and uniform-scattering device was designed.With the number of scattering impellers,impeller angle,and impeller rotation speed as the main factors and the percentage of pass for the scattering width and non-uniformity of the straw mulching as the assessment indices,single-factor experiments and orthogonal regressive tests were performed,and a dual-index(percentage of pass for the scattering width and non-uniformity of the straw mulching)fitted regression equation was established.The test results suggested that the main factors(from primary to secondary)that influence the indices were the impeller rotation speed,number of scattering impellers,and impeller angle.The optimal parameter combination for the uniform scattering device was four rows of impellers with an angle of 15°,rotation speed of 1015 r/min,percentage of pass of 72.65%for the scattering width,and a non-uniformity of 13.8%in the straw mulching.This combination can be used to realize a uniform scattering of the smashed straw along the seedling rows on the after-sowing ground.According to the field investigation of the wheat growth,the wheat emergence rate was 90.7%.The research results can provide a reference for improving the uniform scattering device for a straw-smashing,back-throwing,no-tillage planter for obtaining a completely straw-mulched field,enhancing the quality of the machinery operation,and ensuring good and strong seedlings after sowing.

Design and experiment of electro hydraulic active suspension for controlling the rolling motion of spray boom

Boom sprayer is one of the most commonly used plant protection machinery for spraying pesticide.Studies have shown that the efficiency of chemicals is highly correlated with the uniformity of spray distribution patterns.As the boom is a large and flexible structure,boom rolling leads to overlapping and leakage of the pesticides.In order to improve spray uniformity,the boom attitude should be kept parallel to the ground slope or to the crop canopy beneath the boom.Passive suspension can attenuate frequencies above its resonance frequency,but nothing can be done to align the boom to the sloping ground.Therefore,an active suspension system is designed,which includes DSP-based controller,a servo valve,a hydraulic cylinder,two ultrasonic sensors,one inertial attitude sensor,and the developed control procedures.In order to prevent the wrong response of the control system caused by the high frequency component due to uneven crop canopy or rough ground.A special signal processing algorithm was proposed,including the limiting filter,smoothing algorithm and data fusion algorithm based on optimal weight.The transient and steady-state performances of the boom control system using velocity feedforward PID algorithm were tested on a six DOF motion simulator.It can be seen that the low-frequency tracking performance of the boom was greatly improved after the electro-hydraulic active suspension was added.At the resonance frequency,the peak angle of active suspension and passive suspensions are 0.72°and 1.29°respectively,and the resonance peak is greatly reduced.The controller was implemented on a self-propelled boom sprayer and validated under field conditions,the standard deviation of the roll angle of the boom with active suspension is 0.40°,compared with 1.04°of the sprayer chassis.Experimental results show that the active suspension control system can effectively reduce the effect of ground excitation disturbance on the application process,and has good tracking performance for low frequency terrain change.

Development and evaluation of a low-cost precision seeding control system for a corn drill

Precision seeding requires that the corn drill drop seeds into the soil by a specific in-row spacing while its travelling speed fluctuates due to unevenness of the field ground.This paper presents a low-cost precision seeding control system for a conventional corn drill with mechanical metering devices of finger-pickup type.A median filtering method was implemented in the control system to process measurements from a rotary encoder in order to acquire stable values of the corn drill travelling speed.The metering unit was driven by an electric motor controlled by the metering ECU according to the actual travelling speed and the desired in-row spacing in real-time.A user interface was programmed to communicate with ECUs for configuring parameters and displaying operating information during working.The newly-developed precision seeding control system was first calibrated in terms of speed measurement and control for two ECUs.Experiments were conducted on a seeding test platform in the laboratory for evaluating its accuracy in dropping seeds by giving different in-row spacing under different travelling speeds of the conveyor sticky belt.Results showed that the average spacing error was less than 2 cm and the maximum RMS error was 0.78 cm for all spacing values including 25 cm,30 cm and 35 cm under the travelling speed of 1.0-8.0 km/h.These indicated that the low-cost precision seeding control system worked in a both accurate and stable way.

Design and implementation of a nonlinear robust controller based on the disturbance observer for the active spray boom suspension

Spray boom vibrations are one of the main causes of the uneven distribution of agrochemicals.Using active suspension to maintain the correct height of nozzles is critical for obtaining a uniform spray pattern and minimizing the possibility of spray drift.However,the electro-hydraulic active pendulum boom suspension has nonlinear uncertain factors such as parameter uncertainties,external disturbances,model error,etc.,which complicate the design of the controller.Therefore,this paper proposes a nonlinear robust feedback control method with disturbances compensation,which integrates a robust controller and disturbance observers through the backstepping method.Initially,to verify the performance of the controller,the Lyapunov stability theory is used to prove that the proposed controller can guarantee the given transient performance and the final tracking accuracy.Furthermore,taking the active suspension of a 28 m wide boom driven by a single-rod hydraulic actuator as an implementation case,the proposed NRCDC controller was compared with a variety of control schemes through a rapid control prototype of a pendulum active suspension.Finally,the proposed control scheme is implemented on a self-propelled sprayer with a boom of 12 m in length.The field test results show that all the performance indicators of the NRCDC controller are better than the other three conventional controllers.Both laboratory and field tests have verified the effectiveness and high performance of the proposed controller.