Current Issue : April - June Volume : 2013 Issue Number : 2 Articles : 7 Articles
In order to improve robotic harvesting and reduce production cost, a harvesting robot system for strawberry on the\r\nelevated-trough culture was designed. It was supposed to serve for sightseeing agriculture and technological education. Based\r\non the sonar-camera sensor, an autonomous navigation system of the harvesting robot was built to move along the trough lines\r\nindependently. The mature fruits were recognized according to the H (Hue) and S (Saturation) color feature and the picking-point\r\nwere located by the binocular-vision unit. A nondestructive end-effector, used to suck the fruit, hold and cut the fruit-stem, was\r\ndesigned to prevent pericarp damage and disease infection. A joint-type industrial manipulator with six degrees-of-freedom (DOF)\r\nwas utilized to carry the end-effector. The key points and time steps for the collision-free and rapid motion of manipulator\r\nwere planned. Experimental results showed that all the 100 mature strawberry targets were recognized automatically in the\r\nharvesting test. The success harvesting rate was 86%, and the success harvesting operation cost 31.3 seconds on average,\r\nincluding a single harvest operation of 10 seconds. The average error for fruit location was less than 4.6 mm....
A smart sprayer comprises a detection system and a chemical spraying system. In this study, the development\r\nstatus and challenges of the detection systems of smart sprayers are discussed along with perspectives on these technologies.\r\nThe detection system of a smart sprayer is used to collect information on target areas and make spraying decisions. The\r\nspraying system controls sprayer operation. Various sensing technologies, such as machine vision, spectral analysis, and\r\nremote sensing, are used in target detection. In image processing, morphological features are employed to segment\r\ncharacteristics such as shape, structure, color, and pattern. In spectral analysis, the characteristics of reflectance and\r\nmultispectral images are applied in crop detection. For the remote sensing application, vegetation indices and hyperspectral\r\nimages are used to provide information on crop management. Other sensors, such as thermography, ultrasonic, laser, and\r\nX-ray sensors, are also used in the detection system and mentioned in the review. On the basis of this review, challenges and\r\nperspectives are suggested. The findings of this study may aid the understanding of smart sprayer systems and provide\r\nfeasible methods for improving efficiency in chemical applications....
To improve the quality and efficiency of sea cucumber drying, an orthogonal experiment of freeze and microwave\r\nvacuum combination drying technique was carried out. Factors and levels were FD time of conversion point (8 h, 16 h and\r\n24 h), initial microwave power density (1.7 W/g, 2.0 W/g and 2.3 W/g) and microwave intermittent ratio (12s-on/18s-off,\r\n14s-on/16s-off and 20s-on/10s-off). Results showed that the optimal parameters of FD-MVD were 8 h FD conversion point,\r\n1.7 W/g initial microwave power density, 12 s-on/18 s-off microwave intermittent ratio, and the maximum rehydration rate of\r\n280.71%, the lowest shrinkage rate of 14.48%, the least drying time of 9.25 h and energy consumption of 77 316 kJ could be\r\nobtained....
This study aimed to determine the influence of biodynamic microbial consortium (Jeevamrutha) on stability and maturity of vermicompost produced from papermill and sugar factory sludge. Different treatments were prepared by inoculation of different microbial cultures. During the process of vermicompost, samples were collected in 7 days intervals. Phytotoxicity bioassay tests and pH and C:N ratio were conducted to know the maturity and stability of vermicompost respectively. This study results reviled that inoculation of cow dung yields increased maturity and stability of vermicompost than compared to inoculation of Jeevamrutha, without inoculation of microbial culture and controlled treatment (Biocompost).Inoculation of cow dung and Jeevamrutha enhances maturity and stability of vermicompost. Formers and vermicomposting industries can replace the cow dung with Jeevamrutha where lack of sufficient quantity of cow dung....
Automated harvesting of oil palm trees requires research and development efforts in several robotics areas, including\r\nmanipulator control. The objective of this paper was to apply nonlinear Lyapunov based control method for joint angles\r\ntracking of a two-link oil palm harvesting robot manipulator with uncertain system parameters. Four different controllers,\r\nincluding exact model knowledge, adaptive, sliding mode control and high gain feedback control were proposed and simulated.\r\nStability analyses were performed for each case in the absence and presence of bounded disturbance. The controllers were\r\nthen compared against each other based on their performances and control efforts....
Precision Livestock Farming (PLF) is potentially one of the most powerful developments amongst a number of\r\ninteresting new and upcoming technologies that have the potential to revolutionise the livestock farming industries. If\r\nproperly implemented, PLF or Smart Farming could (1) improve or at least objectively document animal welfare on farms;\r\n(2) reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emission and improve environmental performance of farms; (3) facilitate product\r\nsegmentation and better marketing of livestock products; (4) reduce illegal trading of livestock products; and (5) improve the\r\neconomic stability of rural areas. However, there are only a few examples of successful commercialisation of PLF\r\ntechnologies introduced by a small number of commercial companies which are actively involved in the PLF commercialisation\r\nprocess. To ensure that the potential of PLF is taken to the industry, it is recommended to: (1) establish a new service industry;\r\n(2) verify, demonstrate and publicise the benefits of PLF; (3) better coordinate the efforts of different industry and academic\r\norganisations interested in the development and implementation of PLF technologies on farms; and (4) encourage the\r\ncommercial sectors to assist with professionally managed product development....
An intelligent walnut recognition system combining acoustic emissions analysis, decision tree and fuzzy inference\r\nsystem (FIS) was developed and tested. In data acquisition part, Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) of impact signals was\r\nmeasured. Feature was extracted in two ways: using time domain and FFT of impact signal. The 66% of samples were used\r\nfor training and the remains were used for testing. In selection feature part, the most important feature selected was: average\r\nand the second frequency amplitude of FFT. The method is based on the feature generation by FFT and time domain, produce\r\ndecision tree with J48 algorithm and classification by fuzzy rules. The output of J48 algorithm was employed to produce the\r\ncrisp if-then rule and membership function (MF) sets. The structure of FIS classifier was then defined based on the crisp sets.\r\nThe results showed that the total classification accuracy was 94.7%, and the proposed FFT-J48-FIS model can be used in\r\nseparation of filled walnuts from empty walnuts....
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