Rice Combine Harvester Research Articles

Performance Evaluation of Yield Monitoring System for Rice Combine Harvester in Selangor, Malaysia

Yield monitoring system constructed for combine harvester was able to monitor and store required, measured attributes during field tests. A rugged, wireless crop yield monitoring instrumentation system was employed on a rice combine harvester to measure instantaneous rice yield in this study. A mild steel chute mounted with SWR SolidFlow microwave type flow sensor and SWR M-Sens 2 microwave type moisture sensor were located at the end top of the clean grain auger of the combine harvester to the flow rate of the dropped grain into the grain storage tank and measure the moisture content of the grain transferred by the auger. The objective of conducted performance test was to check both the operational and robustness of the instrumentation system under the actual harvesting operation with the combine in the paddy field. During harvesting, the embedded system, DGPS, router and all sensors within the instrumentation system functioned reliable. Instrumentation system records combined multiple data by following moisture content (%), cutting width (mm), elevator rotation speed (RPM) and combine speed (km/hr). Through yield monitoring and yield mapping, the rice farmers could correct soil nutrient defiencies as indicated by the yield variabilities within the plot for the next cropping season

COMBINE HARVESTER INSTRUMENTATION SYSTEM FOR USE IN PRECISION AGRICULTURE

A crop yield and field performance mapping system for New Holland TC-56 rice combine harvester (RCH) for precision agriculture applications has been developed using LabVIEW. A Dewe-2010 PC data acquisition system has been used as a core unit to collect and store the real time field data from different sensors and a differential global positioning system to determine the exact latitude, longitude, and altitude of RCH. Modular software allows programming flexibility in developed hardware. The spatial information has been measured and recorded in real time field testing. Sensors have been calibrated in a laboratory under specific conditions, and excellent measurement linearity has been obtained for most of parameters. The crop and yield performance maps have been obtained in real time from the field tests conducted in Malaysia. These maps will be used in precision agriculture to improve areas of low yield and to improve productivity of rice.

PM—Power and Machinery: Adoption of a Stripper Header for a Thai-made Rice Combine Harvester

A Thai-made 108 kW rice combine harvester was modified by replacing the cutter bar system with a stripper header. The power requirement of the modified machine was measured at no load and during field operation. The stripper header system consisted of a 3 m wide stripping rotor, a metal hood and an adjustable nose. The outer diameter of the stripping rotor was 450 mm. The stripping rotor consisted of eight rubber blades fixed on an octagonal drum with each blade having 71 teeth. The work rate and harvesting losses were measured to examine the field performance of the modified machine.Results obtained from the test showed that the power requirement for the whole machine during field operation at 1600 min−1was 58 kW. The threshing, traction and stripper header units consumed 11·4, 22·8 and 16·9 kW, respectively and the power transmission loss was 6·9 kW. For standing crop, the average field capacity of the machine was 0·66 ha h−1with a corresponding field efficiency of 74%. In a lodged crop condition, the average field capacity was found to be 0·3 ha h−1with a corresponding field efficiency of 72%. The total grain loss of the machine was 4% of grain yield in the standing crop condition and 5·6% in the lodged crop condition. No major mechanical or operational problems were observed during field operations.