Abstract
Large high-speed corn precision planters can significantly improve seeding efficiency, but at present, there is no mature control technology in China. This study proposed a novel low-cost control system for large high-speed corn precision planters based on multiple technologies such as embedded systems, controller area network (CAN), global positioning system (GPS), and Android development technology. The developed control system provided excellent expansion capabilities of more than 40 planter rows. Functions such as monitoring the planter status, adjusting seed density, calculating planting-area were realized. Field experiments were performed under different GPS frequencies (fGPS), travel speeds, and seed spacings. Results showed that the working area relative error index (REI) and fGPS were negatively correlated, and the planter can achieve 0.84% error under the fGPS of 10 Hz. When the travel speed was 10 km/h or 12 km/h, the average quality index (QI), miss index (MI), and precision index (PI) were superior to 92.84%, 5.80%, and 18.57% under each seed spacing, respectively, QI and MI had no significant difference under each seed spacing (p<0.05). For a travel speed of 14 km/h, indexes values reached the worst level at seed spacing of 20 cm, but still met the requirements of Chinese national standards. The total cost of the control system for a 12-row corn precision planter is only 17.07% of similar products from abroad. In summary, the developed control system can achieve preferable performance and costs much less than similar products obtained from abroad, which is suitable for promotion in China or other developing countries. Keywords: corn precision planter, control system, Android, CAN bus, GPS DOI: 10.25165/j.ijabe.20211402.6053 Citation: Ding Y Q, Yang L, Zhang D X, Cui T, Li Y H, Zhong X J, et al. Novel low-cost control system for large high-speed corn precision planters. Int J Agric & Biol Eng, 2021; 14(2): 151–158.
Highlights
According to statistical data from 2017, the current number of people who primarily engage in agricultural production or operation in China is 314.22 million
The primary purpose of this study was to solve the problem of the high cost of imported planter products and domestic situation of lacking control systems for large high-speed corn precision planters by (1) proposing a low-cost control system for a large high-speed corn precision planter based on multiple intersectional technologies, such as CANopen master-slave control net, global positioning system (GPS), embedded technology, and Android development technology; (2) designing a hardware circuit of the central controller, which is kernel parts of the whole control system; (3) developing embedded software and an Android seeding application; (4) conducting field experiments to verify the performance of the proposed control system
A novel low-cost control system applied to large high-speed corn precision planters was developed, and field experiments were conducted by Lovol Arbos 2BTQF12A 12-row corn no-till precision planter
Summary
According to statistical data from 2017, the current number of people who primarily engage in agricultural production or operation in China is 314.22 million. Large agricultural machinery plays an important role in scale land management; for example, in the seeding stage of corn production, the use of large high-speed corn precision planters has the following advantages: saving labors, reducing the number of machine passes, easing soil compaction, and improving operating efficiency. Despite these advantages, the width of domestic precision planters employed in current corn production is mostly within 1200-3600 mm and the planters are driven by the ground wheel and gearbox, and slippage between the wheel and ground typically results in poor seeding quality especially under high travel speed[3,4]. Solving the two problems mentioned above is the key to realize the high-efficiency potential of large high-speed corn precision planters
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