• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
• /
• v.30 no.5 s.112
• /
• pp.261-267
• /
• 2005

In order to save labor and cost, direct seeding has been considered as an important alternative to the machine transplanting in rice cultivation. As current seeders for direct seeding of rice seeds drill irregular amount of seeds under various operating conditions, conventional drilling should be turned to precision planting which enables accurate placement of proper amount of rice seeds at equal intervals within rows. In this study, design, construction and performance evaluation of a precision seed metering device for planting of rice seeds were carried out. As prototype, the conventional roller type seed metering device was modified for planting: increasing diameter of metering roller, setting 2 or 4 seed cells on metering roller, adding seed discharging lid and its driving cam mechanism. Through performance tests for prototype and the current seed metering device, number of seeds in a hill, planting space and its error ratio, coefficient of variation of planting space (planting accuracy), and seeding length of $90\%$ of seeds in a hill divided by planting space (planting precision) at setting planting spaces of 15, and 20cm, seeding heights of 10, and 20cm, and seeding speeds of 0.1, 0.2, and 0.5m/s were investigated. Prototype showed better seed planting performance than the current seed metering devices. When setting planting space of 15 cm and seeding height of 10cm, prototype with 2 seed cells showed that variations of planting space and seeding lengths of $90\%$ of seeds in a hill at up to seeding speed of 0.5m/s were within 0.9cm, and 3.6cm, respectively.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
• /
• v.23 no.4
• /
• pp.365-372
• /
• 1998

This study was carried out to develop a nutrient-solution mixing-and-supplying system, which used a low-cost metering device instead of expensive metering pumps and a fuzzy logic controller. A low cost and precise overflow-type metering device was developed and evaluated by testing the flow discharge for the automatic nutrient-solution mixing-and-supplying system for snail-scale hydroponic sewers. The fuzzy logic controllers, which could predict and meet the desired values of EC and supply rate of nutrient solution were developed and verified by simulation and experiment. this fuzzy logic controller, whose algorithm consists of four crisp inputs, two crisp outputs and nine rules, was developed to predict the desired value of EC and supply rate of nutrient solution and two crisp inputs, one crisp output and nine rules used to control EC to the desired values. The nutrient-solution mixing-and-supplying system showed satisfactory EC control performance with the maximum overshooting of 0.035 mS/cm and the maximum settling time of 15 minutes in case of increasing 0.7 mS/cm. also, the accuracy of the overflow-type metering device in terms of the full-scale error was 2.29% when using solenoid valve only and 0.2% when using solenoid valve and flow control valve together.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
• /
• v.34 no.3
• /
• pp.140-146
• /
• 2009

The garlic, along with the red pepper, is one of the major seasoning vegetables in Korea. Garlic clove planting is one of the most laborious operations. Labor cost is the main source of high production cost of the garlic. Because of the geometrical uniqueness and irregularity of garlic cloves, mechanization of garlic clove planting is very difficult. To overcome price competition against the imported garlic, however, there has been a need of development of a clove metering device and a planting device for the garlic clove planter. Computer simulation, laboratory tests and field tests were conducted to develop a garlic clove planter. This research was conducted to drop garlic cloves into a soil holes through a drum bucket metering system and a rotary type planting system. Followings are the major achievements from this study. 1. The metering device consisted of a drum, a guide, a bucket and a bucket cover. Opening positions of the metering hopper were evaluated at different positions and trajectories of planting hoppers. The simulation showed that the optimum positions of hopper was -15${\sim}$0 mm in the x direction. 2. When the planter was tested under different soil textures and water contents, the best performances were obtained in a upland field with 29.1% water content and a paddy field with 18.3% water content where single clove metering and missing rate were 88.4% and 1.3%, and 90.7% and 2.0%, respectively.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
• /
• v.43 no.4
• /
• pp.303-310
• /
• 2018

Purpose: This research was conducted to determine the design factors of a seed-metering device for the development of a seeder. The device allows the seeder to sow precisely one to three seeds of foxtail millet and sorghum. To obtain fundamental information regarding the design of the seed-metering device, examination of the physical properties of foxtail millet and sorghum was conducted. Methods: Based on the results of an adaptability test using an existing seeder with foxtail millet and sorghum, an experimental roller-type seed-metering device was made. The seeding factors considered during the experiment were the width, length, and depth, as well as the shape of the groove in the seed-metering roller. By adapting an analysis of variance, the experimental results of the seeding factors were analyzed. Results: The measured results of the respective lengths and widths of the seeds were 2.11 and 1.64 mm for foxtail millet, and 3.68 and 3.32 mm for sorghum, respectively. The weight of 1,000 seeds was 2.43 g for foxtail millet and 17.5 g for sorghum. The seeds were of an elliptical shape, considering the length and width. A sieve analysis showed that the size distribution of foxtail millet was quite regular whereas that of sorghum was irregular. Conclusions: The seeding results showed that the rates of incorrect planting were low when the groove of the roller-type metering device is an elliptical type. To sow one to three seeds, the groove of roller-type metering devices $2.0mm{\times}4.0mm{\times}1.5mm$ ($width{\times}length{\times}depth$) for foxtail millet, and $4.0mm{\times}8.0mm{\times}3.0mm$ and $4.5mm{\times}8.0mm{\times}3.0mm$ ($width{\times}length{\times}depth$) for Sorghum.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
• /
• v.21 no.1
• /
• pp.3-9
• /
• 1996

Sowing with an automatic seed metering device is increasing in popularity. Since 100% planting is not likely, a major problem is to find any place which contains no seeds between row spacings in the agricultural field. Automatic sowing technology, including the implementation of a microcomputer, appears to be an attractive alternative to the use of manual labor for accomplishing this task. Thus, the multi-purpose seeder attached to a cultivator was designed and constructed with an automatic seed metering device. This seeder proved to be a reliable system for sowing seeds in the agricultural field. Multi-purpose seeder for cultivator consists of an automatic seed metering device, a trench device, a covering device, and a press wheel

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
• /
• v.22 no.4
• /
• pp.469-478
• /
• 1997

This study was conducted to develop an automatic nutrient-solution mixing system for small-scale sewers. The nutrient-solution mixing system consisted of a low-cost and precise metering device and data acquisition ＆ control system with a personal computer. and, the metering device was composed of three parts those were supply pumps, metering cylinders and venturi tube. The system controlled electric conductivity(EC) and pH of nutrient-solution based on the time-based feedback control method with the information about temperature, EC, and pH of the nutrient-solution. The performance of the nutrient-solution mixing system was evaluated through the control of EC and pH while compared with those of commercial system. Also an experimental cultivation of tomato was conducted to verify and to improve the developed system. Results of this study were as follows. 1. The correlation coefficient of meteing device between the flow rate and operating time was 0.9999, and the linear reuession equation computed was y=21.759x, where y is the discharge($g$) and x is the operating time(s). 2. Calculated errors for the developed metering device and two commercial pump were $\pm$0.3% $\pm$2.45% and $\pm$1.38 % FS error respectively. 3. An automatic nutrient-solution mixing system based on a low-cost and precise metering device was developed. 4. The full scale errors of the developed system in controlling EC and pH at 23$\pm$1$^{\circ}C$ were $\pm$0.05mS/cm and $\pm$0.2, respectively 5. When using the commercial system, the controlled values of EC and pH of the 500 $\ell$ of water were 1.29 mS/cm and 6.1 pH for the setting points of 1.4 mS/cm and 6.0 pH respectively at 23$pm1^{\circ}C$. 6. The developed nutrient-solution control system showed $\pm$0.05 ms/cm of deviation from the setting EC value over the experimental cultivation period. 7. The deviation from the average values of Ca and Mg mass content in the several nutrient-solution were 0.5% and 1.8% respectively.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
• /
• v.41 no.4
• /
• pp.259-264
• /
• 2014

This research was conducted to find design factors of seed metering device for developing seeder. It can be sowed precisely 1~3 seeds of Foxtail millet & Sorghum. To obtain fundamental information for designing seed metering device, we conducted adaptability test of the existing seeder in Foxtail millet & Sorghum. Major findings were as followings. Except of Model-A which was adapted sorghum(by seeding metering cup of width 3.9mm and length 4.5mm), seeders which were used in experiment showed that high value of miss-planted rates and more than four-planted rates. So to enhance precision of seeding in Foxtail millet & Sorghum, existing seeders were considered necessary by some supplementation.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
• /
• 2007.10c
• /
• pp.172-174
• /
• 2007

An electronic watt-hour meter with high-precision measurement technology can provide many valuable metering data of a real-time system measurements, such as per-phase voltage, ampere, active power, reactive power, apparent power, power factor, and system frequency. Also many of accumulated metering data such as active energy, reactive energy, apparent energy, and load profile can be gettable from an electronic watt-hour meter[1]. This paper presents an approach of the small-sized AMR (Automatic Meter Reading) that provides customers with a very valuable electrical service. This AMR service transmits lots of a valuable metering data by using ZigBee communication module, so that users resided in their premises can use the information to audit a power quality and improve their electrical conditions by using the PQ monitoring device equipped with ZigBee receiver. This PQ monitoring device shows metering data on LCD and transmits to the PC through an internal network. Also, the device can keep the valuable meter data into a built-in non-volatile memory. The final goal of this paper is to better understand the power quality of electrical systems and offer the power qualify information for the convenience of all power consumers.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Agricultural Machinery Conference
• /
• 2000.11b
• /
• pp.438-445
• /
• 2000

Positioning garlic cloves in upright standing in garlic field has been regarded as a very important job because it affects clove rooting, growing and, eventually, quality and yield in garlic production, Because of the geometrical uniqueness and irregularity of garlic cloves in shape, the planting operation has been conducted by manual work that needs a tremendous human labors and increases garlic production cost. The overall objective of this research was to develop garlic planting machine through investigating physical properties of garlic and designing clove upright positioning device after figuring out the factors affecting metering device and upright clove positioning mechanism. With the outcomes of the metering and posture positioning experiment, a garlic clove planter having twelve planting rows was developed for 37kW type tractor and feasibility test was carried out in the field. And, According to the performance test and cost analysis, the planter could accomplish planting operation of one hectare plot in 6.3 hours giving 48 times better efficiency, 6.3hrs/ha, and 74.2% of production cost reduction effect, 1,092,546won/ha, than the manual works of 299hrs/ha and 282,258won/ha. And, break-even point ofthe planter was calculated as of 2.71 hectares.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
• /
• v.41 no.1
• /
• pp.21-33
• /
• 2016

Purpose: In order to ensure that vegetable seedlings (with a soil block around their roots) are planted in an upright orientation after metering in a vegetable transplanter, they need to be dropped freely from a certain height. The walk-behind hand-tractor-powered machines do not have sufficient space to drop the seedlings from that height. In the present work, a hopper-type planting device was developed for the walk-behind hand-tractor-powered vegetable transplanter to ensure that the soil block seedlings are planted in an upright orientation. Methods: Various dimensionless terms were developed based on the dimensional analysis approach, and their effect on the planting of soil block seedlings in an upright orientation (planting efficiency) was studied. The optimum design dimensions of the hopper-type planting device were identified by the Taguchi method of optimization. Results: The ratio of the height of free fall to the sliding distance of the seedling on the surface of the hopper had the highest influence on planting efficiency. The planting efficiency was highest for plants with a height $15{\pm}2cm$. The plant handling Froude number, in interaction with the design of the hopper-type planting device, also significantly affected the planting efficiency. Of the hopper design factors, the length of the slide of the seedlings on the surface of the hopper was most important, and induced sufficient velocity and rotation to cause the seedling to fall in an upright orientation. An evaluation of the performance of the planting device under actual field conditions revealed that the planting efficiency of the developed planting device was more than 97.5%. Conclusions: As the seedlings were fed to the metering device manually, an increase in planting rate increased missed plantings. The planting device can be adopted for any vegetable transplanter in which the seedlings are allowed to drop freely from the metering device.