• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.47 no.6
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• pp.425-431
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• 2014

Most fields in highland areas are covered with rye or hairy vetch for conservation during a fallow. However, using cover crops needs an effort to sow, and this makes top soil more vulnerable to loss due to surface disturbances. The aims of this study were to develop an automatic seeding-regulator device using a low-price, extensive-use GPS sensors and a DC motors and to evaluate a working efficiency of it after adaptation to partial tillage machine for reducing seeding effort. The amount of runoff water and soil loss was evaluated with partial tillage and simultaneous-seeding after harvesting soybean, in 17% slope lysimeters. In results, the seeding amount with the machine speed was stable between $0.5{\sim}0.8m\;s^{-1}$ of working sections. The automatic control device of seeding-rate could be enough to solve the slip problems of power selecting supply system or five four-wheel drive device. In partial tillage and simultaneous seeding, runoff water was 11.6% ($1.8m^3ha^{-1}$) of the scatter-seeding control ($15.5m^3ha^{-1}$) and soil loss was 13.2% ($7kg\;ha^{-1}$) of the scatter-seeding control ($53kg\;ha^{-1}$). These results suggest that partial tillage and simultaneous-seeding methods are very effective in decreasing work effort and soil loss of sloped land.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.30 no.5 s.112
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• pp.261-267
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• 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
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.115-122
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• 2001

An impact-type seed-metering device was developed for the planting of rice-pellets. In this study, new design of pellet-metering device focused on simplicity and precision seeding for the planting of rice-seed pellets. In addition of seed-metering device, several devices were also developed such as seed-guiding device, seed-supplying tube and furrow opener for precision pellet planting. Field test was conducted to estimate the planting performance of the developed metering device. As a cam rotates, the impact bar of the metering device pushes a rice-seed pellet so that the seed can be discharged from the seed-supplying tube in the impact-type seed-metering device. Results of the tests showed that mean seeding spacing was 12cm at the traveling speed of 1.0m/s, corresponding to a target spacing for planting of rice-seed pellets. Also, both miss-seeded rate and damaged-seed rate were less than 2.0%, indicating acceptable levels for the precision planting. The developed mechanism of the impact-type metering device can be directly applied to the design of metering devices for the precision pellet planting of other crops.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.179-189
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• 2007

Most of the seeds of cucurbitaceous rootstock species used for grafting were mainly sown by hand. This study was carried out to develop an on-line discriminating algorithm of seed direction using machine vision and an automatic seeding system. The seeding system was composed of a supplying device, feeding device, machine vision system, reversing device, seeding device and system control section. Machine vision was composed of a color CCD camera, frame grabber, image inspection chamber, lighting and personal computer. The seed image was segmented into a region of seed part and background part using thresholding technique in which H value of HSI color coordinate system. A seed direction was discriminated by comparing position between the center of circumscribed rectangle to a seed and the center of seed image. It took about 49ms to identify and redirect seed. Line-up status of seed was good the more than 95% of a sowed seed. Seeding capacity of this system was shown to be 10,140 grains per hour, which is three times faster than that of a typical worker.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.83-93
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• 2008

In order to save labor and cost, direct seeding has been considered as an important alternative to the machine transplanting in rice cultivation. Current direct seeding machines for rice in Korea drill irregularly under various operating conditions. This study was conducted to develope a precision seeder which enables the accurate, even-spaced in row placement of rice seeds at uniform depths of 3-4 cm on dry paddy. Design, construction and performance evaluation of the precision seeder were carried out. The tractor rear-mounted type 8-rows precision seeder which performs seeding in addition to fertilizing, ditching, and rotary tilling works on dry paddy was developed. Main components of the seeder were ditcher and leveller, rotary tiller, powered roller type furrow opener, seeding device, powered roller type furrow covering and firming device, hydraulic unit, seeding speed control system, power transmission system, hitch and frame. Ditching, furrow opening, and seed covering and firming performances were good and seeding depths of 2-4 cm could be maintained. Planting accuracies and planting precisions were within 13.6%, and 31.2%, respectively, for planting space of 15 cm, and seeding velocity of 0.5 m/s. These mean variations of average planting space were within 2.1 cm, and 90% of seeds in a hill were seeded within 4.7 cm of hill length, respectively. Error ratios between setting planting space and measured average planting space were shown within 6.7%. Therefore the seeder showed good planting performance up to seeding velocity of 0.5 m/s in field tests. And field capacity of the seeder was about 0.28 ha/hour.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.123-133
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• 1996

An automatic drum seeder was developed to improve the seeding operation. It consisted of a conveyor to transfer seedling trays, a seed-hopper to supply seeds, a drum to drop seeds on the tray, and an air blower to remove extra seeds. A photo sensor was used to detect the transfer of seedling trays, and its signal was fed into microcomputer which operated a stepping motor driving the drum. The seeds were adhered to the surface of drum by vacuum pressure, and were dropped into tray cells by compressed air. An air connection unit was devised to alternate between vacuum pressure and compressed air. A control program for the system, written in C language, could operate the drum at the given number of revolutions and revolutions per minute. The results showed that the air connection unit could operate well and the seeds were dropped satisfactorily into tray cells. In case of cabbage and perilla seeds, which are regular and spherical shape, the missing rate was low and the single seeding rate was more than 97%. Low missing rate and high multiple seeding rate were observed in lettuce seeds which have narrow ends with tight weight. The missing rate of pepper seed was very high because of heavy weight and irregular shape. To improve the performance of the seeder, adjustment of vacuum pressure based upon shape and weight of the seeds, careful selection of the material of drum, maintenance of consistent air blower pressure, and replacement of stepping motor to DC motor are recommended.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.36 no.6
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• pp.434-443
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• 2011

A large scale seeding system was stable in terms of techniques but a convenient seeding system of small size was unsettled. This study was performed to develop a semi-automatic seeder for small and medium sized scale farm. To investigate optimum needle diameter and vacuum pressure was used vacuum suction needle seeder. Although the needle diameter according to the kinds of seed was different, the needle diameter for salvia and lettuce seed was suitable for 0.34 mm needle nozzle and 0.4 mm taper nozzle. The prototype consisted a seeding frame attached with needle nozzle, seed hopper, vibrating device, seeding part, vacuum ejector, seed tube etc.. As the result with the experiments, the seeding rate of the seeder was 92% and more at 0.34 mm diameter needle nozzle and 0.4 mm taper nozzle. Eccentric weight for seed hopper vibration was suitable that weight is 11 g and eccentric distance is 0.5 mm. Vibration acceleration of upward direction was 0.363 m/$s^2$. Working capacity of the seeder was possible 160 trays per hour. It was possible for sowing small seeds but it was required to make compact and simple model.

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

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.303-310
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• 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
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.401-410
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• 1997

Scattering of seeds is one of the problems in the hill- dropping planters with a roller-type metering device. For crops like rice, corns and beans, the hill-dropping is own better for a high yield than the drill planting. The roller type metering device has been used for the drill planters and has many advantages. However, it has a problem of scattering of seeds when they are placed on rows. In this study a method was developed to design the roller type metering device fir the precision hill-droppings. Design parameters were derived to configure completely the geometries of the roller and brush. The method was applied to the design of the metering device of the rice seeding machines. The field test showed that the metering device designed by the method made a better performance of seed placement than that made by the precvious one. The method also can be applied to the design of metering devices for the precise hill-droppings of other crops.