• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Agricultural Machinery Conference
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• 1999.06a
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• pp.53-80
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• 1999

Productivity and environmental conservation in nowadays trade-off and serious problem in agriculture. Precision farming is developing for solving the trade-off problem using systems approach and variable management. The systems approach is attributed to aiming at information-oriented agriculture, environmental-friendly sustainable agriculture, and complex system optimization . The variable management is composed of describing variability , variable-rate technology and decision support system. Three levels of technology development and three farming strategies are introduced for having a prospect. Describing the variability is the first step to promote it. Precision farming could be available for small scale farming as well as big scale farming. Paddy field precision farming will undergo in its distinctive way.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.161-172
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• 2002

Database as a supporting system for decision-making is one of essential parts for realizing precision farming. Application models on constructing a database for precision farming, including collection of spatial and attribute data, were suggested using a GPS, DXF files, AutoCAD, a Java application program and PostgreSQL DBMS in this study. The constructed spatial database based on the schema design of spatial and attribute data table was evaluated as a supporting system for decision-making by a simulation of a virtual variable-rate chemical applicator. The applicator could extract the values of soil property at its consecutive location in the tested field in communication with the constructed database, and prescribe the corresponding variable-rate of chemicals. The results of the study suggested the possibility that the constructed database can function a supporting system for decision-making for precision farming.

• Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.1-4
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• 2004

Community-based precision farming is a new concept of agricultural systems, which leads to organize groups of wise farmers and technology platforms in Japan. The wisdom farmers create a rational farming system to manage hierarchical variability: variability in farmers' community as well as variability of within-field and between-field. The technology platform develops and provides three key-technologies: mapping technology, variable-rate technology, and decision support systems available for rural constraints. Advancement of bio-production robots leads precision farming to the next level, where two technological innovations: how to produce and manage information-oriented fields and information-added products, can be attained.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.305-314
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• 1998

최근 들어 농업생산기술 분야에서는 정밀농업이라는 용어 가 자주 등장하고 있으며 내용의 다양성에 기인하여 정밀농업(precision farming, precision agriculture), 처방농업(prescription farming), 국지 적 농업(site-specific filming, farming-by-the-fpot), 변량형 농업(variable rate agriculture)등의 여러 가지 명칭으로 불리고 있다. 현재 서구에서 새로운 농업의 표준이 되어 가고 있는 정밀농업의 근 특징은 기존 농업이 거시적, 통계적 접근방법임에 비교하여 미시적, 변량적 접근방법에 기초한다는 것이다.(중략)

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Agricultural Machinery Conference
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• 1999.06a
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• pp.137-159
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• 1999

Over the last three decades, Korean farming system has been directed to maximum agricultural production and to increase farmer's income through adoption of high-yielding crop varieties and high input of agrochemicals . These farming practices have resulted in problems of water-quality deterioration, soil degradation , and food safety. At present, over 40 million tones of animal waste are bing produced annually, which amounts to disposing the waste at the annual rate of 20 tones per ha in the total area of farming land in Korea. Nearly a half of total available water resources is used as irrigation water predominantly for rice paddy field. Thus, non-point source contamination of the water resources has been linked to agriculture across the nation. However, the extent to which agriculture contributes to the water quality is not fully known. Recently, Korean government provided various institutional measures to reduce the negative impacts of agricultural practices on the environ ental quality, and the Agricultural Environment Act was also passed by the legislature in 1998 and became effective January 1999. This Act does not cover the broad spectrum of the sustainable agriculture ; thus, the limited incentives within this Act are arguably ineffective to control the non-point source pollution. Recently new bulk blending of fertilizers(BB fertilizer) are bing produced (100, 000 tones in 1998) with Government subsidies. The BB fertilizers are to balance N-P-K ratio in the soils . Although the use of the BB fertilizers are encouraged with Government subsidies, non-point source pollution is still serious and will become worse. Precision farming is regarded as a new means for sustainable agriculture. It is a new technology that modifies the existing techniques and incorporates new one such as GIS, GPS , differential applicator to produce a new set of tools for the farmer to use. Precision farming, however, has constraints for individual farming practices. For exam le , farm size or parcel unit of each farmer is too small to adopt the precision agriculture on farmhouse-hold bases and farmer's ability to adopt the new technology is limited. However, it would be appropriate to establish local or regional cooperatives to operate such a precision farming system. It is recommended that Government provide sufficient incentives to help establish local and/or regional cooperatives.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.301-308
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• 1999

Path planning for field operation of agricultural machinery is an indispensible part for precision farming or autonomous field operation. In this study, two algorithms (I, II) of generating a time-based shortest operation path were suggested to plan an optimal operation of an agricultural tractor-implement in a rectangular shaped field. The algorithms were based on modification of a minimum spanning tree algorithm, and applied for tractor-implement operations. the generated path was consisted of round operation and returning operation sections. The number of round operation was determined from the condition that a tractor can turn smoothly at headlands. The performance of the algorithms was evaluated by the calculation number for path generation and the total path length generated. Their stability was affected by the number of returning operation, but the algorithm II was considered to be more stable. In addition, the performances of the developed algorithms were compared with those of the conventional field operations at selected field sizes and shapes. The results showed that the algorithms could reduce field operation time greatly. For a 100m$\times$40m field, the reduced path length was 78m. The study also included an user interface program for implementing the algorithms and generating GPS coordinates that could be used in GIS softwares for precision farming.

• 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 Biosystems Engineering
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• v.31 no.4 s.117
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• pp.305-314
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• 2006

Precision farming has been known as an environment friendly farming technology. This study was conducted to develop a variable-rate granule fertilizer applicator as an attempt for introducing the precision farming technologies to rice cultivation in Korea. In this paper, concept design process and manufacturing of prototype variable rate granule applicator was reported. For concept design, some design guide lines were selected. Based on the design guide line and some engineering knowledge, concept design was conducted. The designed prototype granule applicator was mounted at the rear of riding type cultivator for paddy field and had a 10m wide boom structure with pneumatic conveying and application system as well as 1GPS receiver, 1 granule hopper, 12 blow heads, 2 metering devices and 1 controller. The fertilizer applicator had 942 ka of weight, 740m of ground clearance and 1,117mm of center of gravity from the ground. The applicator was designed to be able to $34{\sim}428kg/ha$ of granule at $0.2{\sim}0.8m/s$ of fertilizer working speed.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Bio-Environment Control Conference
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• 1999.11a
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• pp.75-78
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• 1999

근래 들어 농업생산기술분야에서 변량적 포장 작물관리를 의미하는 정밀농업이라는 단어가 자주 등장한다. 정밀농업은 80년대 초반 미국에서 시작된 농법으로 정밀농업(precision farming or precision agriculture), 처방농업(prescription farming), 국부 특성에 맞는 작물관리(site-specific farming/management), 변량형 농업(variable rate agriculture) 등의 다양한 명칭으로 불리운다. 정밀농업의 중심과제는 포장내의 변이(variation), 즉, 토양의 이ㆍ화학 특성과 작물의 생육ㆍ수량에 나타나는 포장내의 불균형을 어떻게 평가하고 이를 기준으로 하여 어떻게 포장ㆍ작물관리를 수행하는가 하는 점이다. (중략)

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.27 no.9
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• pp.34-42
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• 2010

Agricultural automation has become more and more important by environmental change. The automation demands the highest technology due to the ever changing various conditions in agriculture system. In the paper, semi-autonomous pesticide spray robot system has been developed for rose farming in the glass house. The robot is in autonomous mode during pesticide spraying process driven on pipe rail. The robot is manually driven while moving from a rail to the next rail. The drive platform and autonomous operation control system are developed based on IT fusion technology. The pesticide spray system is also developed with nozzles and booms for precision mist spray system. Experimental data of nozzle test is also included.