Agricultural Field Operations Research Articles

The Design and Development of Delta Arm for Multi-Purpose Agribots

Many challenges and obstacles prevail in the agricultural fields, such as weed removal, horticulture, and spraying herbicides and fertilizers. Individual robots for all these tasks cost a lot, which ordinary farmers cannot afford. The delta arm has to perform versatile functions like spraying and weed removal with great accuracy and reduced environmental impact. The primary objective of this research is to design a delta arm that can move in all directions efficiently. The driving and driven arm in the delta arm design should be correlated, which helps with the proper positioning of the end effector carrier. Similarly, the moving platform and the fixed platform are designed in a circular form. These measurements give a proper design and make the robotic arm work properly as it can move in all three degrees of freedom in XYZ directions. The NVIDIA jetson orin nano operates as the controlling unit of the delta arm. The study proved that the delta arm had achieved an accuracy rate of 98% at a speed of 107.5 mm/s, making it well-suited for agricultural field operations. In addition, the delta arm exhibits the capability to handle an end effector weighing up to 300 g. Therefore, introducing the delta arm agribot in the row-based agricultural field can make a revolution in the upcoming years as it can perform versatile tasks at a high speed.

Heuristic cooperative coverage path planning for multiple autonomous agricultural field machines performing sequentially dependent tasks of different working widths and turn characteristics

Coverage path planning is a central task in agricultural field operations such as tillage, planting, cultivation, and harvesting. In future visions, manual operation will be replaced by fleets of autonomous agricultural vehicles that perform the tasks autonomously. A step towards this transition is to enable simultaneous and safe cooperation of autonomous vehicles on the field. In this article a novel approach is presented for coverage path planning (CPP) for two autonomous tractors that perform sequentially dependent tasks simultaneously on the same area. The approach is based on the idea of computing the coverage solutions for each task by dividing them into short paths that consist of a swath and a turn. The approach ensures collision avoidance by examining that the simultaneous short paths, operated by different tractors, do not collide geometrically, and then schedules them to be operated simultaneously in real-time. The approach was demonstrated successfully in a real-world test environment with two autonomous tractors. The tractor that performed the first task was equipped with a disc cultivator and the second tractor was equipped with a seed drill. A test area of 0.8 ha was used for the demonstration drive, during which the tractors drove 22 swaths simultaneously. Both tractors completed their respective tasks.

Power Consumption Analysis of a Prototype Lightweight Autonomous Electric Cargo Robot in Agricultural Field Operation Scenarios

The continuous growth of the urban electric vehicles market and the rapid progress of the electronics industry create positive prospects towards fostering the development of autonomous robotic solutions for covering critical production sectors. Agriculture can be seen as such, as its digital transformation is a promising necessity for protecting the environment, and for tackling the degradation of natural resources and increasing nutritional needs of the population on Earth. Many studies focus on the potential of agricultural robotic vehicles to perform operations of increased intelligence. In parallel, the study of the activity footprint of these vehicles can be the basis for supervising, detecting the malfunctions, scaling up, modeling, or optimizing the related operations. In this regard, this work, employing a prototype lightweight autonomous electric cargo vehicle, outlines a simple and cost-effective mechanism for a detailed robot’s power consumption logging. This process is conducted at a fine time granularity, allowing for detailed tracking. The study also discusses the robot’s energy performance across various typical agricultural field operation scenarios. In addition, a comparative analysis has been conducted to evaluate the performance of two different types of batteries for powering the robot for all the operation scenarios. Even non-expert users can conduct the field operation experiments, while directions are provided for the potential use of the data being collected. Given the linear relationship between the size and the consumption of electric robotic vehicles, the energy performance of the prototype agricultural cargo robot can serve as a basis for various studies in the area.

Reducing Soil Adhesion to Metal Plates Using Ultrasonic Waves

ABSTRACT One of the most important factors involved with soil-engaging agricultural field operations is soil adhesion. Reducing soil adhesion has significant effects on the operation and energy consumption of agricultural machines. In this study, a laboratory method has been carried out to study the effects of ultrasonic waves on soil adhesion. Normal adhesion tests were performed on two types of soil using three plates with different contact areas. The plates consisted of an iron ring as the main body covered by a stainless steel sheet on the top and an aluminum sheet at the bottom. The internal space of the plates was filled with a fluid that was capable of transmitting the waves produced by piezoelectric crystals attached under the top sheet. When ultrasonic waves reached the metal surface which was in contact with the soil, soil adhesion force was measured while the plate was separating from the soil. Experimental results revealed that ultrasonic waves have a significant effect on soil adhesion in different moisture contents. The results of the analysis of variance (ANOVA) indicated that all the test parameters had significant effects on reducing the soil adhesion to the metal plates. However, multiple effects of frequency and other parameters on the soil adhesion were not significant. An increase in ultrasonic frequency from 0 to 1800 kHz had a significant effect on soil adhesion to metal plates at a 5% level. Results showed that the most effective application time that causes more reduction in soil adhesion is 60 s.

Constraints Experienced by the Paddy Farmers in Three Agroclimatic Zones of Telangana State, India

The present investigation was conducted during 2021-22 to assess the constraints experienced by the paddy farmers in three agroclimatic zones of farming sustainability in Telangana state. Findings revealed that, constraints such as high cost of seed varieties (I), lack of knowledge and skill for determining economic threshold level of pests and diseases (II), labour scarcity due to Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (I), labour scarcity during peak operations (II), insufficient finance with farmers (I), high rental charges for farm machinery (II), lack of new technologies and uneconomically viable solutions for residue management (I), lack of knowledge about input management (II), lack of information about government schemes (I), lack of information about recent pest-management strategies (II) were the first and second priority constraints under ecological, social, economical, technical and institutional dimensions respectively. Accordingly, Government organisations, NGO’s, ATMA, KVK’s, DAATC’s, SAU’s should look after certain issues such as providing seeds at affordable cost , Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme must give prioritize to agricultural field operations along with other activities, crop loan must be sanctioned to every farmer by considering crop yield assurance and bring out new technologies like happy seeder to remove residues but also allows the farmer to seed the new crop without involving manual labour, which saves time and money for the farmers. Extension education functionaries and line departments experts must use the Situation Based Extension with Participatory Approach (SBEA) in order to effectively overcome constraints and get feedback, which act as source for ATMA action plans to implement at grass root level.

Application of multi-criteria in the selection of running systems for regional use of tractors in agriculture

The basis of the modern machine and tractor fleet of industrial and agricultural tractors are power vehicles with tracked and wheeled operating systems of various design designs. Both of these and other energy products have both their advantages and quite significant disadvantages. The article discusses the summary parametric and factorial characteristics of wheeled and tracked power vehicles used in field and transport work in the Amur region. The criteria for the formation of their traction properties, ways to reduce slipping, reduce the load of the machine-tractor unit on the soil, and the use of agricultural machinery during waterlogging are analysed. The results of a study on the use of mobile energy means in waterlogged conditions during the cultivation of agricultural crops, where their main advantages and disadvantages are reflected, the directions of choosing an energy means for use in agricultural production technologies are substantiated. It has been established that the use of tracked power vehicles with high traction properties, when aggregated with wide-reach machines in the fields of the region, will be more effective during periods of work when there is a large precipitation. At the same time, wheel energy means will also be in demand in the natural and climatic conditions of the Amur region as the most versatile structurally suitable means for performing most agricultural field operations as part of a tractor-transport unit. In this connection, the expediency of equipping the production and industrial complex and means of mechanisation of farms and agricultural enterprises of the region with energy means with various running systems in accordance with the used and scientifically based regional system of machines and technologies is justified.

Consumo de combustível por máquinas agrícolas: uma revisão das tecnologias de controle de emissão de poluentes

ABSTRACT: Most energy used to operate agricultural machines in the field is generated from fossil fuel combustion. The combustion process emits atmospheric pollutants, increasing the emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs). In this context, this review is to discuss technologies for mitigating diesel engine GHG emissions to advance sustainable development in the agricultural machinery sector. This paper presents strategies and technologies widely adopted by agricultural machinery manufacturers in controlling pollutant emissions during fuel combustion. The findings of this study encompass sustainable alternative technologies, such as selective catalytic reduction, exhaust gas recirculation, diesel particulate filter, and fuels. This study helps reveal the environmental impact of agricultural field operations that generate GHG emissions.

Highly Accurate Obstacle Localization using Fused Inertial, RTK-GNSS, and Lidar Positioning for Agricultural Field Operations

Autonomous vehicles need to recognize and localize obstacles in their environment in order to avoid collisions. This paper presents a novel method for estimating the misalignment between a simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) map and and an Earth-fixed coordinate systems in order to allow highly accurate global localization of obstacles in the environment. The sensors used for this method are an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU), satellite-based positioning (GNSS/GPS) and both 2D and 3D lidar sensors. Experimental validation on a tractor shows that the typical global localization accuracy is in the range of 100 mm…150 mm.

Comparative characteristics of undercarriage systems as criteria for selecting a power tool for risky farming zones

The basis of modern machine and tractor fleet of industrial and agricultural tractors are power vehicles with caterpillar and wheeled undercarriage systems of various design. The article considers the summary parametric and factorial characteristics of wheeled and tracked power vehicles used in field and transport works under the conditions of the Amur region. The criteria of formation of their traction and traction properties are analysed, the ways of slipping reduction, reduction of vertical load of machine-tractor unit on the soil and application of agricultural machinery in the period of overwatering are given. The results of research on the application of mobile energy means in conditions of overwatering in the cultivation of agricultural crops, where their main advantages and disadvantages are reflected, the directions of choice of energy means for application in agricultural production technologies in conditions of weak bearing capacity of soils are substantiated. It is established that the use of tracked energy means having high traction and traction properties, when they are aggregated with wide-catch machines in the fields of the region, will be more effective in the periods of work, when there is a significant precipitation. At the same time, wheeled energy means will also be in demand in the natural-climatic conditions of the Amur region as the most universal means, structurally suitable for performing the majority of agricultural field operations as a part of tractor-transport aggregate. In this regard, the expediency of equipping the production-industrial complex and means of mechanisation of farms and agricultural enterprises of the region with power vehicles with different undercarriage systems in accordance with the used and scientifically substantiated regional system of machines and technologies is substantiated.

Estimating Battery Size Requirements for Tractor Electrification of Row-Crop Planting Operations

Highlights Calculate and compare engine power needed for row-crop planting from ASAE standards and reported CAN data. Estimate energy requirements and the equivalent electric battery’s volume and mass for row-crop tractor. Discuss the feasibility for electrification of a fully electric row-crop tractor. Abstract. Power sources such as batteries, used for both on-road and off-road vehicles, are advancing at a rapid pace. Electric batteries are becoming more power dense, thus allowing them to be used as a power source to replace previous diesel or gasoline-powered systems. Efforts are underway to transition off-road agricultural vehicles from Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) vehicles to electric vehicles (EVs); however, the energy requirements of typical agricultural field operations need to be fully understood before such a transition can occur. Theoretical prediction equations available in the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) standards or the use of engine load data from a tractor’s Controller Area Network (CAN) bus are two methods for determining the energy demands of implements on tractors. In this study, tractor CAN bus data was collected from multiple no-till corn planting operations to estimate the energy requirements of the planting operation in kWh. The estimated energy requirement was used to determine the equivalent physical mass and volume of a lithium-ion battery needed to power a hypothetical fully electric tractor for comparable planting operations. The estimated battery capacities using the worst-case field-use scenario in this study were 1117 kWh for operating a 16-row planter to plant 68 ha (168 acre) in a day at an average ground speed of 8.6 km h-1 (5.4 mph) for 14 hours, and 2658 kWh for operating a 48-row planter to plant 158 ha (391 acre) in a day at an average ground speed of 8.9 km h-1 (5.6 mph) for 15 hours. Given the current battery energy density requirements, the equivalent battery masses and volumes were found to be 5,319 kg and 3.33 m3, 12,657 kg and 7.93 m3, for 16-row planter and 48-row planter, respectively. These high kWh estimates needed to power future fully-electric tractor power units are based on worst-case scenarios that could be encountered in real field operations that use wide planters over long operating hours. Keywords: Battery, Controller Area Network, Electric Vehicles, Electrification, No-till, Planting, Row-crop, Tractor.

Development of the Reliability Assessment Process of the Hydraulic Pump for a 78 kW Tractor during Major Agricultural Operations

This study focuses on the development of the reliability test method for the hydraulic pump of a tractor during major agricultural operations (plow, rotary, baler, and wrapping) at various driving and PTO (power take-off) gear stages. The hydraulic-pressure-measurement system was installed on the tractor. The measured hydraulic pressure and engine rotational speed were converted to the equivalent pressure and engine speed for each agricultural operation using a mathematical formula. Additionally, the overall equivalent pressure and overall engine speed were calculated to determine the acceleration lifetime. The average equivalent pressure and engine speed for plow tillage were calculated at around 5.44 MPa and 1548.37 rpm, respectively, whereas the average equivalent pressure and engine speed for rotary tillage were almost 5.70 MPa and 2074.73 rpm, accordingly. In the case of baler and wrapping operations, the average equivalent pressure and engine speed were approximately 11.22 MPa and 2203.01 rpm, and 11.86 MPa and 913.76 rpm, respectively. The overall hydraulic pressure of the pump and the engine rotational speed were found to be around 10.07 MPa and 1512.93 rpm, respectively. The acceleration factor was calculated using the overall pressure and engine speed accounting for 336. In summary, the developed reliability test method was evaluated by RS-B-0063, which is the existing reliability evaluation standard for agricultural hydraulic gear pumps. The evaluation results proved that the developed reliability test method for the hydraulic pump of a tractor satisfied the standard criteria. Therefore, it could be said that the developed reliability test method could be applicable to the hydraulic pump of the tractor during agricultural field operations.

Dynamic Task Allocation Method for Heterogenous Multiagent System in Uncertain Scenarios of Agricultural Field Operation

This study focuses on the problem of dynamic task allocation for a heterogeneous multiagent system (MAS) in uncertain scenarios and its application in agricultural field operation. Previous studies lacked robustness or efficiency for uncertain environments especially in agricultural field, such as agent removal, agent inclusion, changes of agent capabilities, and task changes. We present herein a novel concept of the potential field of capability influence (PFCI), and based on which, we can estimate potential overloaded tasks. This provides an opportunity to improve the allocation of the remaining tasks. Then, we propose a heuristic-based clustering auction (HBCA) method by introducing PFCI into the auction mechanism to achieve an effective and efficient task allocation. The whole method consists of the three following phases based on the auction mechanism: 1) auctioneer preprocessing phase that adopts a capability priority strategy to select the preferable agent; 2) bidder preprocessing phase that introduces the PFCI to obtain a list of clustered tasks heuristically; and 3) adaptive auction phase that applies the auction mechanism to achieve an appropriate match between agents and tasks. Numerical simulations with different uncertain field operation scenarios validate the effectiveness of the proposed method. The results show that the proposed HBCA can dramatically reduce the total assignment cost and outperform state-of-the-art methods, especially in the case of obvious variances in agent capabilities.

Simulation-Aided Development of a CNN-Based Vision Module for Plant Detection: Effect of Travel Velocity, Inferencing Speed, and Camera Configurations

In recent years, Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) has become an attractive method to recognize and localize plant species in unstructured agricultural environments. However, developed systems suffer from unoptimized combinations of the CNN model, computer hardware, camera configuration, and travel velocity to prevent missed detections. Missed detection occurs if the camera does not capture a plant due to slow inferencing speed or fast travel velocity. Furthermore, modularity was less focused on Machine Vision System (MVS) development. However, having a modular MVS can reduce the effort in development as it will allow scalability and reusability. This study proposes the derived parameter, called overlapping rate (ro), or the ratio of the camera field of view (S) and inferencing speed (fps) to the travel velocity (v⇀) to theoretically predict the plant detection rate (rd) of an MVS and aid in developing a CNN-based vision module. Using performance from existing MVS, the values of ro at different combinations of inferencing speeds (2.4 to 22 fps) and travel velocity (0.1 to 2.5 m/s) at 0.5 m field of view were calculated. The results showed that missed detections occurred when ro was less than 1. Comparing the theoretical detection rate (rd,th) to the simulated detection rate (rd,sim) showed that rd,th had a 20% margin of error in predicting plant detection rate at very low travel distances (<1 m), but there was no margin of error when travel distance was sufficient to complete a detection pattern cycle (≥10 m). The simulation results also showed that increasing S or having multiple vision modules reduced missed detection by increasing the allowable v⇀max. This number of needed vision modules was equal to rounding up the inverse of ro. Finally, a vision module that utilized SSD MobileNetV1 with an average effective inferencing speed of 16 fps was simulated, developed, and tested. Results showed that the rd,th and rd,sim had no margin of error in predicting ractual of the vision module at the tested travel velocities (0.1 to 0.3 m/s). Thus, the results of this study showed that ro can be used to predict rd and optimize the design of a CNN-based vision-equipped robot for plant detections in agricultural field operations with no margin of error at sufficient travel distance.

Connected and autonomous electric and fuel-cell powered agricultural power units: A feasibility study.

Agricultural labour shortages coupled with a required increase in global food production and increasingly stringent sustainable farming legislation are creating a ‘perfect storm’ opportunity for a much greater reliance on electric and autonomous technologies in agriculture. Fuel cell (FC), electric vehicle (EV), and connected and autonomous vehicle (CAV) technologies are being successfully adapted to meet the needs of several on-road and off-road vehicular applications. In this article, we focus on the feasibility of integrating FC, EV, and CAV technologies to power units adapted to the autonomous completion of agricultural field operations. Such small-scale autonomous agricultural power units (AAPU) would be intended for cluster/fleet operations and feature communication capabilities facilitated through a next-generation network infrastructure. These AAPUs would be compatible with a variety of agricultural implements to provide operational versatility and value to a wide range of farming operations. Such FC & EV powered AAPUs could reduce lifecycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from agricultural operations by an average of 70% relative to emissions from diesel power units. This article further demonstrates that these autonomous technologies could be leveraged at a cost comparable to current diesel operations in agriculture.

Drones in Insect Pest Management

One of the major components in precision agriculture is crop health monitoring, which includes irrigation, fertilization, pesticide sprays, and timely harvest of the crop. Further, the progressive change in growth and development is critical in crop monitoring and taking suitable decisions to maintain health status. In order to accomplish the task, drones are highly useful for on site detection of problems so as to undertake corrective measures instantly. Although it is expensive to build algorithms and establish relationships between ground truth and spectral signatures, it is a user-friendly technique once the basics studies are done. As labor availability and technical manpower are extremely limited, particularly in India, drones are gaining popularity in the context of smart farming. Insect pests are known to cause catastrophe and drastic reduction in food grain production across the globe. The losses that have been predicted by FAO is over 37% due to pests and diseases. Recently, crops cultivated in India have been threatened by invasive pests like fall army worm (Spodoptera frugiperda) in corn and Rugose spiraling whitefly in coconut (Aleurodicus rugiperculatous Martin); these pests caused extensive damage during the years 2018 and 2019. The plant protection measures are to be taken on a community basis so as to ensure effective management of pests. In India, more than 80% of farmlands are in the category of small and marginal (<1 ha), so it is very difficult to manage the invasive pests. If one field is sprayed, the pests simply shift their feeding to the neighboring fields. To address this, drones become essential. Drones are unmanned aerial vehicles exploited in a wide array of disciplines such as defense, monitoring systems, and disaster management but are only beginning to be utilized in agricultural sciences. There are three major types of drones, namely fixed wing, multi-rotor, and hybrid type, and the usage depends on specific applications. The other types depend on degree of automation, size, weight, and power source. The set operational parameters such as flight speed, height, and endurance need to be optimized to use drones appropriately in agriculture and allied sectors. In addition, parameters related to drone-based spraying such as droplet size, spread, density, uniformity, deposition, and penetrability should also be factored in when implementing drone-based mitigation strategies. Despite the fact that drone technology is highly relevant and appropriate for pest management, the adoption of the technology is restricted. Regulatory guidelines have been set across the globe to perform site-specific farm management with higher precision at a very high resolution. Overall, drones can be employed in almost all agricultural field operations and are considered excellent tools for rapid, reliable, and non-destructive detection of field problems. This review provides panoramic views of drone technology and its application in the management of pests in a digital agriculture era.

Design and field testing of a polygonal paddy infield path planner for unmanned tillage operations

Path commands, obtained through a traveling route strategy for auto-steering control in a test field, are essential for the operation of an autonomous tractor from a given starting point to an end destination. Planning an agricultural field operation can increase the work rate and quality of field tilling, particularly in complex fields, minimizing the time loss and non-working traveling costs. With the diversification of farming products and environments, it is critical to seek feasible paths that have a good balance between time efficiency and path length, with the consideration for irregularities of field boundaries. However, the existing field path planning algorithms do not guarantee global optimality because traditional planners generate paths in rectangular fields and not in all the possible geometrical route generation for infield and headland turning found in polygonal fields. To overcome this drawback, this paper presents a novel and practical infield path planner that can generate infield coverage routes and headland turnings for polygonal paddy fields. An infield route-planning program was developed to automatically generate an X-type turning, pattern-based coverage path map that provides guidance lines for autonomous tillage tractors executing efficient operations in polygonal fields. The planning parameters related to the equipment characteristics of the tractor and implement variables, waypoint-setting variables, and field boundaries entered into the developed infield route-planning program can provide useful information to users in terms of selecting the most appropriate solution based on all related field operational capacities such as field traveled distance, field time, and field efficiency. A small-scale prototype of an autonomous tillage tractor equipped with the proposed infield path planner and a slip estimation-based path-tracking algorithm was built and tested in Korean paddy fields with two different shapes of farm-field boundaries. The field tests performed using the autonomous tractor in a trapezoidal field and an L-shaped field showed tracking errors of 14.9 and 21.8 cm, respectively; field efficiencies of 62.1–70.6%; and ratios of effective operation areas of 91.4–92.7%. These measurement data were similar to those obtained from a human-operated tillage method, implying that the infield path planner developed here and the slip estimation-based path-tracking controller can lead a tractor with acceptable accuracy and performance.

Analysis of power requirement of a small-sized tracked-tractor during agricultural field operations

A low-powered and high-efficiency electric tracked-tractor would be a suitable option for aged and female farmers to accomplish agricultural field operations such as grass mowing, land leveling, and chemical spraying. The purpose of the study was to analyze the power requirement of a small-sized tracked-tractor during agricultural field operations. A lawnmower and a rear sprayer-trailer were attached to the tractor base, and the average power requirement was measured. The forward speed was considered during the field experiment up to 6 km/h for four different operating stages. The torque data were obtained for unloaded and loaded conditions through a wireless data logger, and a GPS receiver was used to measure the working speed of the tractor. A data acquisition module was used to acquire the sensor signals. The average power requirements for the empty platform with the driver, a lawnmower, a sprayer-trailer (150-L payload), and a lawnmower and 150-L payload trailer were 0.93, 1.27, 1.45, and 1.70 kW, respectively. The result showed the lowest power was required for operating only the tractor, and it was about 51.15% of the motor rated power, where the maximum power consumed approximately 85% of the total rated power to operate both of the lawnmower and sprayer-trailer. The average power requirements of the tracked tractor varied due to the different payloads and operating stages. The experimental results presented in this study would provide guidelines to improve and commercialize the prototype of the small-scaled tracked-tractor for practical use on the agricultural fields.

MODELING AND ANALYSIS OF AN AGRICULTURAL VEHICLE CROSS-BOUNDARY WARNING SYSTEM

In order to improve the safety of agricultural vehicle in the field, we established a vehicle kinematics model for hanging agricultural tools, and comprehensively considered driving speed, the agricultural tool rotation radius, and vehicle movement trend to propose an agricultural vehicle field operation cross- boundary warning method based on a Robot Operating System (ROS). Furthermore, we designed a set of agricultural vehicle safety warning systems and employed Qt Creator to develop the agricultural vehicle warning system operation interface. Following this, a test platform was built based on the Oubao 4040 tractor and unilateral cross-boundary warning tests were conducted. Test results demonstrate the ability of the proposed cross-boundary warning system to: i) correctly determine the warning area at different speeds (low (3.6km/h±0.5km/h), medium (10.8km/h±1.0km/h) and high (18.0km/h±1.5km/h)) and driving paths ("V" and "U"-shaped routes); ii) and to prompt the operator in a timely manner. The proposed framework exhibits strong applicability and improves the safety of agricultural vehicle hanging agricultural tools

An optimized bionic electro-osmotic soil-engaging implement for soil adhesion reduction

Today, the development of high-efficiency tillage implements which can meet the requirements of modern agriculture in energy consumption is a matter of great importance. Therefore, using bionic electro-osmosis technology inspired from the body surface of soil burrowing animals in design and construction of soil-engaging tillage implements for soil adhesion reduction has gathered the attention of researchers in the last two decades. In this study, a soil-engaging plate with optimized operational parameters is introduced. Experimental results showed that reduction of soil adhesion was the most for the plate with 1/4 positive/negative electrode area ratio, and applying 24 V for 30 s to the electrodes. Results also revealed that by using bionic electro-osmosis technology, plates’ soil adhesion reduced by 29.8% to 90% compared with conventional plates. Results of this study can be used for the design and development of high-efficiency soil-engaging implements for power-consuming agricultural field operations.

Testing of Agriculture Hand Tool Design Using Ergonomics Principles

In India, women play an important role in agricultural field operations. Women are found to involved labour intensive activity on field, but still no specific tools and technologies are developed and tested on women to reduce their drudgery experiences in crop production activities. By keeping all these point, the present study was conducted to evaluate the carrot production system by improving some tools for work. The study was conducted on 30 farmers (43.3% male and 56.7% female) of Behbalpur village of Hisar district, who were found to be engaged in carrot production system. Majority of the respondents (60.0%) were belonged to the age group of 32-42 years, and one third of the respondents (33.3%) were having education up to high school. Maximum respondents (93.3 per cent) were having farming as main occupation and majority of them (86.7 per cent) were having land between 2.5-10.0 acres. Out of 14 carrot production these activities; harvesting was found to be most time taking activity with time involvement of 3602.6 ± 52.8 minutes, followed by separating green from carrot (3043.7 ± 45.1), irrigation (2672.4 ± 21.5 minutes) and weeding (2411.3 ± 23.1 minutes). Rating of perceived exertion score was also found too high in harvesting (x=4.7) packing/loading (x=4.2) and weeding (x=4.1). Results unveiled that most of drudgery prone activities were performed by female like; weeding (DI-83.67), separating green (DI-70.67), harvesting, (DI-69.33) packing and loading (DI-56.33), and collecting carrot (DI-55.67) with their drudgery rank of I, II, V, VI, respectively. So tools used in carrots production (especially weeding, collecting carrot, and separating green, packing/loading) were modified and their performance and acceptance level were tested on the bases of scales. As per result on effect of improved tools, heart rate and blood pressure (systolic-122.9 ± 8.4 to 128.4 bp/min and diastolic-79.3 ± 8.3 to 85.7 ± 8.3 bp/min) of workers in weeding activity was found significantly higher (t value 3.07, 3.7 and 3.84) in tradition method but in improved tool the heart rate and blood pressure were near to normal value, which reflect that improved tool (hand wheel hoe) was easy to use and not affected the heart rate of workers. Grip strength of workers was found to be decreased (30.9 ± 3.5 to 24.1 ± 2.8) in tradition method but had not significantly affect (30.9 ± 3.5 to 28.1 ± 3.1) the workers grip strength by using hand wheel hoe.