• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.634-644
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• 2001

The test facility of a 1/60-scale model for train-tunnel systems has been recently developed to investigate the effects of tunnel portal shapes, hood shapes and air-shafts for reducing the micro-pressure waves radiating towards the surroundings from the tunnel exit. The present test rig has been advanced from a 1/70-scale facility at NLR in Netherlands. The NLR test rig has the two-wise guidance system that needs two ears attached on the external surface of a model train nose. Therefore, their train models have irregular nose shapes. The main characteristics of the present facility are that the train model is guided by only one wire from the compressed air launcher to the absorber parts of test facility and the wire guidance hole is located at the axial center of a train model. In the present test rig, after a train model is launched, the air jet from the launcher does not enter the tunnel model. Experimental results were compared with numerical predictions to prove the performance of the test facility.

• 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.