• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Agricultural Machinery Conference
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• 1996.06c
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• pp.448-457
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• 1996

Chemical application is one of the most important field operation in rice production . Rolling of a boom due to local unevenness and softness in fields causes a local under/over-application of spray. This study was conducted to develop a control system for balancing a boom. A boom mounting mechanism was modfied and a control algorithm was developed in the study. The results for testing the performance of the control system showed that the system could balance the boom in flat and inclined fields. This research can contribute to improve spraying uniformity in applying agricultural chemicals with a boom sprayers.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.287-295
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• 2012

Purpose: Some of the most representative approaches are to apply next generation technologies to save energy consumption, fully automated control system to appropriately maintain environmental conditions, and autonomous assistance system to reduce labor load and ensure operator's safety. Nevertheless, improvement of upcoming method for soil cultured greenhouse has not been sufficiently achieved. Geometrical complexity of ground in protected crop cultivation might be one of the most dominant factors in design of autonomous vehicle. While there is a practical solution fairly enough to promise an accurate travelling, such as autonomous sprayer guided by rail or induction coil, for various reasons including the limitation of producer's budget, the previously developed sprayer has not been widely distributed to market. Methods: In this study, we developed an autonomous sprayer considering travelling performance on geometrical complexity of ground in soil cultured greenhouse. To maintain a stable travelling and to acquire a real time feedback, common wire with 80 mm thick and body frame and sprayer boom. To evaluate performance of the prototype, tracking performance, climbing performance and spraying boom's uniform leveling performance were individually evaluated by corresponding experimental tests. Results: The autonomous guidance system was proved to be sufficiently suitable for accurate linear traveling with RMS as lower than approximately 10 cm from designated path. Also the prototype could climb $10^{\circ}$ of ground's slope angle with 40 kg of water weight. Uniform leveling of spraying boom was successfully performed within $0.5^{\circ}$ of sprayer boom's slope. Conclusions: Considering more complex pathways and coarse ground conditions, evaluations and improvements of the prototype should be performed for promising reliability to commercialization.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Agricultural Machinery Conference
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• 2000.02a
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• pp.95-100
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• 2000

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Agricultural Machinery Conference
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• 2000.11c
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• pp.749-756
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• 2000

Chemical application, one of the most important crop management processes happened to cause spray drift, that would threaten farmers in field as well as dwellers in rural region. Spray drift was affected by micro-meteorological parameters. In Korea, a boom sprayer was introduced but good effects of a boom sprayer was not evaluated. A study to evaluate short distance drift characteristics of a boom sprayer in paddy fields has been undergoing and determining wind characteristics in paddy field was the main purpose of this paper. Micro-meteorological information has been pre-requisite information for evaluating drift in both long and short distances or in both theoretical and experimental ways. Wind velocity, Reynolds stresses, turbulence intensity, skewness, kurtosis etc. were evaluated with height from the ground using a 2-dimensional probe and a hot wire anemometer system.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.457-462
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• 2000

Boom sprayers have been known by their excellency in field efficiency worker’s safety and pest control efficacy. The boom sprayer in Korea that was developed for paddy field is not suitable for upland field of which shape is irregular and inclination is steep, due to heavy chemical tank long boom width and manual on-off control of spraying. The goal of the study was to develope a boom control system that could control boom angles of left and right boom automatically and independently corresponding to local field slope. The prime mover was selected as a cultivating tractor. Main results of this study were as follows. 1. Ultrasonic sensor whose response time was 0.1s and response angle was within $\pm$20$^{\circ}$was selected to measure distance. Voltage output of the sensor(X, Volt) had a highly significant linear relationship with the vertical distance between the sensor and ground surface(Y, mm) as follows; Y=0.0036X-0.437 2. Left and right section of the boom could be folded up by a position control device(on-off control) which could control the left and right boom independently corresponding to local slope by equalizing distances between the sensor and boom at the center and left/right boom. Most reliable DB(dead band) was experimentally selected to be 75$\Omega$(6cm). 3. At traveling velocity of 0.3~0.5m/s RMS of error between desired and achieved height was less than 4.5cm The developed boom angle controller and boom linkage system were evaluated to be successful in achieving the height control accuracy target of $\pm$10cm.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.145-152
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• 2007

Uniformity of spray deposit is one of the important factors in spray performance affecting efficacy of pest management. Distributions of spray deposit on artificial targets were measured and analyzed to enhance the efficiency of spray application. The research was studied to understand the deposition characteristics of spray droplets and to determine the optimum conditions of chemical application. The deposit and its pattern by the lower fan speed was more uniform and higher than that by the higher fan speed. The upward blasting distance was limited within 3 m, but the limit to the ground level was expanded the distance more than 3.5 m because of the accumulated droplets. When the fan speed was higher at the distance of 2.5 m, deposit reached to maximum. When the distance increased, deposit was getting lower. At the both fan speeds, the deposit was concentrated below $30^{\circ}$ because of the gravitation and the resistance of wind. This research can be useful in designing an orchard sprayer and its operation for various tree canopies. To achieve a uniform distribution of deposit using the air-blast type orchard sprayer, the application rate from the middle boom should be increased as the air velocity to the upward increased. The spray rate to the side boom should be limited in a minimal level.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.155-166
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• 1996

A direct injection sprayer was designed using the concepts of injection mixing and total flow control, flowrate-based system compensating for the variation of forwarding speed. A metered rate, proportionally to the actual diluent flow rate, of a tracer chemical was injected directly into the diluent stream. The injection of chemical may improve the precision and safety of chemical application process. The control system was evaluated for the variables of the control interval, tolerances and sensitivities of flow regulation valve and injection pump. Performance of the system was assessed as that the response time of flow rate, response time of injection rate, absolute steady state error, and the coefficient of variance(C.V.) of concentration were 8.5 and -0.53 seconds, 0.067 lpm(0.8%) and 3.15%, respectively, at optimal parameters of control interval of 1.0 sec, fast sensitivity of flow regulation valve, medium sensitivity of injection pump and medium tolerance of flow rate. Performance of the system can be improved by increasing the sensitivity of flow regulating valve and employing a high resolution velocimeter, such as Doppler radar.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Agricultural Machinery Conference
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• 1997.12a
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• pp.26-32
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• 1997

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Agricultural Machinery Conference
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• 1996.06a
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• pp.12-16
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• 1996

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.217-225
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• 1995

This study was conducted to find design factors of spraying device of the boom sprayer for low volume application. Four types of nozzles(standard flat nozzle, drift guard nozzle, even flat nozzle, and hollow cone nozzle) were used for the spray characteristic experiment. Spray patterns of the nozzles were distinguished by the nozzle type, spray distance, and spray direction. The flow rate was proportional to the square root of spray pressure in all nozzles. Increased nozzle height improved spray distribution at reduced pressures and/or increased spacing. Distribution tended to improve as pressure increased within the range of pressures used for fan nozzles.