• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.35 no.6
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• pp.367-372
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• 2010

Consumption of pepper, a major spice vegetable used for seasoning Kimchi, continues to increase, but cultivation is in decline due to shortage of rural labor in Korea. The 39.2% of total labor requirement for conventional pepper cultivation was available for harvesting work. Therefore conventional manual harvesting should be turned to mechanical harvesting for labor-saving, cost-reducing and easy work. Surveys on conventional pepper cultivation patterns, labor requirements for various pepper cultivation works, and farmers' opinions on the mechanization of pepper harvesting were conducted to obtain basic informations. The labor requirement for pepper harvesting was 954 h/ha out of a total labor requirement of 2,436 h/ha for pepper cultivation. Harvesting was the hardest work, and hiring workmen for harvesting was also difficult. Farmers preferred to develop a small-scale pepper harvester using agricultural tractor or cultivar. Most farmer agreed to change cultivation pattern for mechanization of pepper harvesting, but hesitated to adopt new one-time-harvesting pepper varieties.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.22-35
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• 1995

Pepper is the most important horticultural plant in Korean farm. Pepper harvesting has been known to be the most difficult process in pepper cultivation so that demand for mechanization is strong. In a research to develop a pepper harvesting machine performance and capacity of the harvester should be determined based on both economical feasibility and machine design concept. In order to accomplish an economical analysis of the pepper harvester, a mathematical model for comparing manual harvesting cost to machine harvest cost was developed. Validity of the model depends on the data used in the model. Economical information for the model variables was acquired from the result of farm survey on pepper cultivation technique and economics of pepper farmer. Technical information on pepper harvester were also collected through literature review and analyzed. Based on the economical analysis and synthesis of the technical information on pepper harvesters, its performance and capacity were determined. The operating performances of the harvester such as cutting, conveying, flipping, pepper removing and post-processing (sorting) were determined. Daisy capacity of the machine was determined to be 0.41 ha. A pepper harvester with the suggested capacity was economically feasible if the price of pepper harvester, pepper recovery ratio and service life of harvester were about 6 million won, 80%, and 4 years, respectively.

• Journal of Information Processing Systems
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.629-638
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• 2020

In this paper, an unmanned automation system for harvesting chili peppers through image recognition in the color space is proposed. We developed a cutting-edge technology in terms of convergence between information and communication technology (ICT) and agriculture. Agriculture requires a lot of manpower and entails hard work by the laborers. In this study, we developed an autonomous application that can obtain the head coordinates of a chili pepper using image recognition based on the OpenCV library. As an alternative solution to labor shortages in rural areas, a robot-based chili pepper harvester is proposed as a convergence technology between ICT and agriculture requiring hard labor. Although agriculture is currently a very important industry for human workers, in the future, we expect robots to have the capability of harvesting chili peppers autonomously.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.177-188
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• 1997

A pepper harvester using a pair of counter rotating helically wound cylinders as a pepper removal mechanism has been developed. Pepper harvesting by machines under the customary cultivation practice was expected to lower land productivity, that most farmers were concerned about. As one way to compensate for loss in land productivity by machine harvest, experts on pepper cultivation suggested change of both varieties and plant density per area. From the view of machine design, their suggestion implied that distance between rows should be narrower and height of the pepper removal mechanism could be shorter. Experiments to improve perfect pepper recovery ratio and to reduce size of the pepper removal mechanism was accomplished. In order to be a economically feasible harvester, minimum pepper recovery ratio was required to be greater or equal to 80%. The research goal was achieved by both reducing the diameter of the wire-helices from 30 cm to 18 cm and increasing rotational speed of the wire-helices up to 425 rpm. The best perfect pepper recovery ratio was 82.3%. Validity of experiment design and interpretation on statistical analysis were discussed. To understand the pepper removal mechanism properly, a pepper removal theory based physics was judged to be necessary.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.921-931
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• 2020

This study was carried out to determine the factor of a separating system according to the pepper varieties and the absence of a card cleaner system. The pepper varieties of Jeokyoung and AR-Legend were transplanted on November 20, 2019 and tested on March 18, 2020 with a harvesting speed of 0.2 m·s-1 for 10 pepper plants. The performance evaluation was determined by analyzing the separation efficiency of the peppers and the foreign matter mixing rate. The pepper harvester with a card cleaner showed a higher separation efficiency of the peppers compared to the pepper harvester without a card cleaner. The average separation efficiency of peppers on the pepper harvester with a card cleaner was higher at 13.5% for Jeokyoung and 1.9% for AR-Legend than that without a card cleaner. The mixing ratio of foreign materials on the pepper harvester with a card cleaner was lower at 8.7% and 2.5% for Jeokyoung and AR-Legend than that without a card cleaner, respectively. For the two-way ANOVA results according to the variety and the card cleaner, there was no effect on the separation efficiency of the peppers, but there was an effect on the foreign matter mixing rate.

• Journal of the Korea Society for Simulation
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.19-25
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• 2020

The field farming machine is difficult to develop due to its heavy slopes, tough roads and unformatted cultivation by growing crops. In particular, harvesting is a major problem in rural areas in Republic of Korea where aging is accelerated with work requiring a lot of time and manpower. This study seeks to analyze the dynamic characteristics of hot pepper harvester developed to replace manpower, reduce working hours and mechanize harvesting operations. To analyze the dynamic characteristics of a hot pepper harvester, the dynamic program Recurdyn was used and all analysis were performed as case of an empty vehicle. Based on the results, this study can suggest dynamic safety range of multi-purpose driving platform with hot pepper harvester.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.575-580
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• 2011

The cultivation of once-over harvest pepper cultivars might be very valuable to Korean farmers who still depend on traditional hand-harvesting method. Thus, we conducted this experiment to obtain important information for enhancing the productivity of once-over harvest red pepper fruits by supplying several nutrient-controlling and growth-regulating chemicals, such as $KH_2PO_4$, $SiO_2$ and 2-chloroethylphosphonic acid (ethephon). Adequate fertilization was provided in each treatment plots. In this study, two once-over harvest pepper cultivars, Saengryeg No. 211 and 213 (SR 211 and SR 213), and one regular piecemeal harvest pepper cultivar, Kangryegdaetong (KRDT), were cultivated to evaluate the productivity of pepper fruit as affected by above chemicals. The distribution of macro- and micro-nutrients in pepper fruits among the cultivars were different in term of N, B, Cu, and Fe concentrations. In particular, the concentration of B in SR 213 was about 2 times higher than that in SR 211 and KRDT. However, overall red pepper productivity of SR 211 was markedly higher ($2.91{\sim}3.38Mg\;ha^{-1}$) than that ($1.68{\sim}2.37Mg\;ha^{-1}$) of SR 213. Also, the productivity of matured red pepper was significantly influenced by the treatments of $KH_{2}PO_{4}$, $SiO_2$ and ethephon. The yield indices for matured red pepper fruits were the highest with the treatment of $KH_2PO_4$ or $SiO_2$ with ethephon, which were 113~116% for SR 211 and 147~150% for SR 213. Thus, the applications of $KH_2PO_4$ or $SiO_2$ with ethephon would be suggested to enhance the productivity of matured red pepper fruit.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.30 no.12
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• pp.1085-1091
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• 2020

The purpose of this study was to investigate the value of residue discarded after harvesting a species of pepper (Capsicum annuum L.). This study analyzed the physiological activity and cytotoxicity of a fermented extract and a hot water extract gathered from the residues of the Cheongyang pepper and the Nokkwang pepper. The total nitrogen, phosphoric acid, potassium, calcium, and magnesium contents of the fermented extract of the Nokkwang pepper were approximately twice as high as those of the Cheongyang pepper, while the hot water extracts had similar levels of these components across both peppers. Among the microelements, only boric acid, iron, and silicon components were detected, whereas zinc, manganese, molybdenum, and copper components were not detected in either extract. The total polyphenol and flavonoid contents of the fermented extracts were more than two times higher than those of the hot water extracts for both peppers. The DPPH radical scavenging ability (indicating antioxidant activity) of the fermented extract was higher than that of the hot water extract, while the ABTS radical scavenging ability (indicating antioxidant activity) of the hot water extract was higher than that of the fermented extract. A cytotoxicity test was conducted on the extracts using an MTT assay. Both extracts exhibited weak cytotoxicity at all concentrations for both peppers. These results suggest that the extract of residue discarded after harvesting these peppers could be suitable for functional feed or agricultural materials.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Plant Pathology Conference
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.149.2-150
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• 2003

Occurrences of virus diseases on paprika ( Capsicum annuum var. grossum) were surveyed in Joennam province from 1999 to 2003 and the collected samples showing virus-like symptoms were tested using ELISA. Virus diseases appeared 4.5％, 17.5％, and 4.9％ in 2000, 2002, and 2003, respectively. As the results of investigation of the seasonal incidence with the growing stages of plant, virus was not occurred at seedling stage and was slightly from the planting time to the first harvesting time, but was dramatically increased at the second harvesting time. Virus diseases were more severe on the vinyl house than on the green house. Pepper mild mottle virus (PMMoV) was severely occurred in 2000 but not after that year. Comparing the virus species, Pepper mottle virus (PepMoV) was 35.9％, Broad bean wilt virus (BBWV) was 14.1％, and Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) was 10.9％ in 2002, and 76.0％, 11.1％, and 2.4％ in 2003, respectively.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.62 no.6
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• pp.111-118
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• 2020

This study developed a rainwater harvesting system for the irrigation of upland on sloping area. The assessment of water supply capacity was evaluated in farm field experience. This system consists of a water catchment device and a collapsible storage tank. The water catchment device was designed to collect runoff water in natural channel of 500 mm width into a pipe of 50 mm inner diameter. The device has funnel-shaped plan and cross-section of square. The storage capacity of the collapsible water tank was caculated to meet the water demand for irrigation in 30 a cultivated land for 10-year frequancy drought. The tank has a cuboid shape with a capacity of 30 ㎥, 5 m in width and length, 1.2 m in height. This system can supply 92% of the water required for drop irrigation of red pepper and 88% of the water required for drop irrigation of onions in 30 a cultivation land during the month of May and June. In the case of 16-dry days of 10-years frequency, this system is capable to irrigate 100% of required water for red pepper and onion, 76.7% of required water for Omija (Schisandra chinensis), and 51.5% of required water for autumn kimchi cabbage.