• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.31 no.3 s.116
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• pp.203-208
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• 2006

This study was conducted to improve the control performance of a current variable-rate controller for granular fertilizers. Simulation model was developed. Optimized proportional, integral and derivative gains were determined by simulation model using 2nd order PID gain learning algorithm, and these control gains were evaluated through the field tests. Important results of this study are as follows; 1. Principles of pre-existing variable-rate application of granular fertilizers were investigated. 2. Simulation model of a PID controller that could simulate the control system was developed by using Matlab/Simulink program. The program was to determine PID control coefficients through the simulation model and 2nd order PID gain learning algorithm. 3. PID control coefficients obtained from the simulation were applied to the developed model. When the step input was given, Maximum overshoot were 1.96%, rise time were 0.05 sec, settling time were 0.06 sec and steady state error were 0.21 % respectively. 4. The simulation model was verified through field tests. The errors of maximum overshoot were 10%, rise time were 0.11 sec, settling time were 0.40 sec and steady state error were 8% because of loads and noises. Rise time was decreased to one third of that of the pre-existing system. 5. If the speed of a fertilizing machine is $0.3{\sim}0.6\;m/s$ and the maximum rotation speed of a discharging roller is 64 rpm, rise time would be 0.26 sec and fertilizing machine would cover the distance of $0.07{\sim}0.15\;m$ with settling time of 0.4 sec, fertilizing machine would cover the distance of $0.12{\sim}0.24\;m$.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.63-70
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• 2000

In Korea, researches for year-round leaf vegetables production system are in progress and the most of them are focused on environment control. Automation technologies for harvesting , transporting and grading need to be developed. This study was conducted to develop harvesting process automation system profitable to a competitive price. 1. Manipulator and end-effector are to be designed and fabricated , and fuzzy logic controller for controlling these are to be composed. 2. The entire system constructed is to be evaluated through a performance test. A robot system for harvesting a lettuce was developed. It was composed of a manipulator with 20DOF (degrees of freedom) an end-effector, a lettuce feeding conveyor , an air blower , a machine vision device, 6 photoelectric sensors and a fuzzy logic controller. A fuzzy logic control was applied to determined appropriate grip force on lettuce. Leaf area index and height index were used as input parameters, and voltage was used as output parameter for the fuzzy logic controller . Success rate of the lettuce harvesting system was 93.06% , and average harvesting time was about 5 seconds per lettuce.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.21-28
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• 2004

Spraying is one of the most efficient methods for pesticide and insecticide control. Generally, orchard sprayers(aircarrier sprayer) are used for such applications. However, when an orchard sprayer is used, only 20% of total amount of spray deposits on the target. The rest of spray are not only wasted but are also potential sources of environmental pollution. The research far the development of electrostatic spraying system for orchard sprayer was conducted to develop the new pesticide application technology for the reduction of environmental pollution and f3r the production of safe agricultural products. The spray characteristics for nozzles with the different charging methods were tested and the effect of electrostatic charge was analyzed, in the laboratory experiments. The results of this study indicate that the capacitive type of electrostatic spraying nozzle exhibits a large current deposition of water sprays on the sample target. The covering area ratio by conventional spraying system was 10.2%, while that of electrostatic sprays with pulse induction charging method gave the increased covering area ratio by 4.3 times.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Agricultural Machinery Conference
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• 2000.11a
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• pp.31-75
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• 2000

The tractor is the most important machine for farming keeping probably this position also for feeding the future fast growing world population. Band width of power and functions continues to increase worldwide, examples are given. Regarding the high developed countries, general farming demands as well as precision farming issues require closed loop control principles for the system "driver-tractor-implement". Progress in information technologies supports this trend, but comprehensive component and system developments are necessary to make the tractor ready for automatic or semi-automatic controls. The following technical highlights are, for example, discussed for Europe: hydropneumatic front axle suspensions, 50 km/h top speed, front brakes, electronically controlled multivalve diesel engines, automatic hydrostatic power split CVTs, load sensing hydraulics with proportional valves, improved cab and working places with "operations by wire" and more electronics on board than ever before.

• Journal of Drive and Control
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.107-114
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• 2023

Garlic is one of the major seasoned vegetables in Korea along with peppers and onions. Although it is a major cash crop, the aging population of farmers and rising labor and production costs are cited as the reasons for the decreasing production. Accordingly, it is necessary to introduce and spread garlic cultivation mechanization technology to reduce the input labor demand. In this study, conducted a field demonstration in Jeollanam-do using garlic harvesting machinery. In addition, it was intended to improve the mechanization rate of garlic harvesting by deriving factors that can apply to garlic harvesting machines in Jeollanam-do and investigating regional adaptability. As a result of the analysis, it was found that the harvesting performance of the garlic harvester and garlic collector in Jeollanam-do met the agricultural machine test standards. In addition, as a result of calculating the input effect of the mechanized work system compared to the conventional garlic harvesting work system, it was found that there was a labor-saving effect of 96.02%.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.7-16
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• 1987

This study was carried out to develop a microcomputer-based data acquisition and control system which was able to collect the data of engine performance test automatically and control the speed and load of the engine. The results of the study are summarized as follows: 1. The signal processing devices, which were able to measure cylinder pressure, coolant temperature, compositions of exhaust gas, fuel consumption, engine rpm and torque etc., were developed. The results of calibration showed that all of devices had high accuracy ranging from 0.3% to 0.69% respectively. 2. The PIA (peripheral interface adapter) for interfacing digital signal and PTM (programmable timer module) for displaying real time every 0.0408 sec were designed and developed. 3. An engine-speed control system using a stepping motor and driver was developed. The control system had the stability, and faster settling time than the manual control system. 4. The automatic control system of electrical dynamometer, which was able to control the speed and load of dynamometer, was developed with a SSD (shackleton system driver) and D/A converter. 5. The computer programs, which were able to collect and process the data of engine tests, were developed using both the machine language and BASIC.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.1-10
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• 2014

Purpose: This research was conducted to evaluate feasibility of a crank-type walking cultivators for weeding in furrowed upland. Methods: A walking cultivator developed by RDA was selected and evaluated with its working speed (S), cultivation depth (CD) and weeding performance (WP). The evaluation was performed in upland field on July and August, 2012. Also kinematic analysis of the machine was performed to draw out design improvements. Results: S in flat, uphill and downhill were about 0.11 m $s^{-1}$, 0.11 m $s^{-1}$, and 0.13 m $s^{-1}$ respectively. It was found that S had a low relevance with user conditions. The CD was 35 ~ 40 mm which was satisfied with the RDA guide for weeding machine. A wide variation was observed in values of WP depending on the growth stages of weeds and field conditions. The cultivator showed low performance in eliminating the well-grown weeds. Kinematic simulation revealed that high forward speed caused a high ratio of un-weeded area. Conclusions: The weeding performance of the cultivator was satisfactory for weeds in early growth stage but it showed difficulties in handling on up-slope and in entering up-land. Specifically, the weight of the cultivator was judged as overweight for female workers. The crank-hoe type cultivator was judged as unsuitable for small walking type machine due to weight of the four-bar linkage system. Kinematic analysis revealed that the ratio of crank speed to the ground speed must be 850 rpm s $m^{-1}$ (255 rpm based on 0.3 m $s^{-1}$) or greater to avoid uncultivated area. Selection of forward speed is a decisive factor in designing the weeding cultivator.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.487-496
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• 1997

A fuzzy logic controller(FLC) was developed for the autonomous travel of speedsprayer in an orchard. The autonomous travel with the FLC was graphically simulated under the conditions of an ordinary standard orchard. Differential global positioning system(DGPS) was used to find the direction of running and four ultrasonic sensors were used to detect obstacles during the running. The simulation results showed that the speedsprayer, by the FLC combined with DGPS and the ultrasonic sensors. could overcome the turning problem at comers which could not be solved with such a system as machine vision and might be operated autonomously.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.251-259
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• 2018

BACKGROUND: Various culture media have been used for hydroponic cultures of horticultural plants under the smart greenhouses with natural and artificial light types. Management of the culture medium for the control of medium amounts and/or necessary components absorbed by plants during the cultivation period is performed with ICT (Information and Communication Technology) and/or IoT (Internet of Things) in a smart farm system. This study was conducted to develop the cloud-based data analysis system for effective management of culture medium applying to hydroponic culture and plant growth in smart greenhouses. METHODS AND RESULTS: Conventional inorganic Yamazaki and organic media derived from agricultural byproducts such as a immature fruit, leaf, or stem were used for hydroponic culture media. Component changes of the solutions according to the growth stage were monitored and plant growth was observed. Red and green lettuce seedlings (Lactuca sativa L.) which developed 2~3 true leaves were considered as plant materials. The seedlings were hydroponically grown in the smart greenhouse with fluorescent and light-emitting diodes (LEDs) lights of $150{\mu}mol/m^2/s$ light intensity for 35 days. Growth data of the seedlings were classified and stored to develop the relational database in the virtual machine which was generated from an open stack cloud system on the base of growth parameter. Relation of the plant growth and nutrient absorption pattern of 9 inorganic components inside the media during the cultivation period was investigated. The stored data associated with component changes and growth parameters were visualized on the web through the web framework and Node JS. CONCLUSION: Time-series changes of inorganic components in the culture media were observed. The increases of the unfolded leaves or fresh weight of the seedlings were mainly dependent on the macroelements such as a $NO_3-N$, and affected by the different inorganic and organic media. Though the data analysis system was developed, actual measurement data were offered by using the user smart device, and analysis and comparison of the data were visualized graphically in time series based on the cloud database. Agricultural management in data visualization and/or plant growth can be implemented by the data analysis system under whole agricultural sites regardless of various culture environmental changes.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.31 no.5 s.118
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• pp.436-442
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• 2006

This research was conducted to design and develop a wired monitoring system for judging if sick or dead layers (SDL) exist in multi-tier layers battery (MLB) by machine vision, and to analyze its performance. In this study, 20 Brown Leghorn (Hi-Brown) layers aged 37 weeks old, were used as the experimental animals. The intensity of concern paid by layers on feed was over 90% during 5 minutes and 30 seconds after providing feed, and normal layers (NL) had been standing to take feed for that period. Therefore, in this study, the optimal judging time was set by this test result. The wired monitoring system developed was consisted of a driving device for carrying machine vision systems, a control program, a RS232 to RS485 convertor, an automatic positioning system, and an image capture system. An image processing algorithm was developed to find SDL in MLB by the processes of binary processing, erosion, expansion, labeling, and reckoning central coordinate of the captured images. The optimal velocity for driving unit was set up as 0.13 m/s by the test results for wired monitoring system, and the proximity switch was controlled not to be operated for 1.0 second after first image captured. The wired monitoring system developed was tested to evaluate the remote monitoring performance at lab-scale laying hen house. Results showed that its judgement success.ate on normal cage (without SDL) was 87% and that on abnormal cage (with SDL) was 90%, respectively. Therefore, it would be concluded that the wired monitoring system developed in this study was well suited to the purpose of this study.