• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.202-210
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• 2018

Purpose: Due to the growing demand for vegetables all year round, the use of vegetable transplanters has become widespread in agricultural production. However, the type of planting device used for the transplanter affects its overall efficiency. Problems such as inaccurate planting angles and inefficiently wide transplanting hole diameters of the planting device has limited the efficient use of some vegetable transplanters. Our goal in this study was to improve the efficiency of the transplanter by analyzing and modifying the linkages of the planting device of a vegetable transplanter. Methods: Because of its widespread usage in Korea, a linkage-type planting device was used for the experiment, which was divided into three parts. In the first part, the physical trajectory of the tranplanter was extracted using a CCD (charge-coupled device) camera and analyzed. In the second part, a simulated trajectory was developed using Recurdyn 3D software. The simulated and actual trajectories were then compared and analyzed. In the third part, based on the results of the comparison, improvements were made on the linkages of the transplanter and a demonstrative exercise was conducted. Finally, in experiment B, the performance was evaluated through an exercise using both the existing and improved planting devices. Results: The results demonstrated that the average planting angle was improved by 4.96 mm, the soil intrusion diameter was improved by 11.30 mm, and the planting depth was improved by 0.68 mm. Conclusion: It was concluded that the efficiency of a vegetable transplanter can be improved by modifying the linkages through simulations and field demonstrations.

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

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.104-111
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• 2017

Purpose: We have studied the necessary qualities of seedlings of some leafy vegetables for a riding-type two-row automatic transplanter. When seedlings are planted using a transplanter, long roots may be rounded in the bottom of the tray, and this can interfere with the separation of the seedlings. Uprightness related to leaf spread angle is an important quality for seedlings in mechanical planting. Methods: To select cultivars suitable for the transplanter, we compared varieties of Kimchi cabbage (Chukwang, Daetong, Whipalam and Namdo), head lettuce (Abi and Sensation), cabbage (YR Onnuri, YR Hogel, Harutama, and Ogane), and broccoli (Nicegreen and Earlyyou). To compare the effect of bed soil on root formation and growth, we used five types of soil: Chologi, Burger, Wonjomix, Bio, and Baroker with 2.6-3 L per tray. Growth increment and the degree of root formation were measured according to the RDA guidelines 25 days after sowing for Kimchi cabbage and head lettuce and 44 days after sowing for cabbage and broccoli. Conclusions: According to the plug tray, the optimum seedling age in both 128- and 200-hole trays was 28 days for Kimchi cabbage and 44 days for cabbage and broccoli. Head lettuce took 35 days in 128-hole trays and 31 days in 200-hole trays. Burger soil was most effective for root formation and growth of the four kinds of leafy vegetables; it appeared that smaller soil volume led to faster root formation.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.30 no.3 s.110
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• pp.135-140
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• 2005

Vegetable transplanting operation has been wholly depended on human labor that needs 18.4 hrs per 10 acres in Korea. Since periods of vegetable transplanting operations are limited, their mechanization has been strongly demanded. This study was conducted to develop a transplanting device that was the core technology for vegetable transplanter. In order to find out transplanting track and velocity of transplanting device, a kinematic analysis software was employed. Evaluation of prototype was carried out in the circular soil bin with high speed camera. Rotary type transplanting device produced an elliptic loci when two links of different lengths were moving to the opposite direction. The length of two links was 75mm and 44mm, respectively. Maximum displacement of rotary type transplanting device was 238mm. It seemed that the transplanting elliptic loci of transplanting device were identical between the simulation output generated by kinematic analysis software and the circular soil bin test result with a high speed camera. The rotary type transplanting device can be suitable fur transplanting short height vegetable, less than 20 cm length vegetables such as Chinese cabbage and cabbage, etc.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Agricultural Machinery Conference
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• 2001.07a
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• pp.33-38
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• 2001

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Agricultural Machinery Conference
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• 2001.07a
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• pp.27-32
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• 2001

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Agricultural Machinery Conference
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• 2001.07a
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• pp.21-26
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• 2001

• Journal of agriculture & life science
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• v.52 no.6
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• pp.127-138
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• 2018

In this study, the operational characteristics of a domestic vegetable transplanter were investigated. The main functional components and power path of the tranplanter were analyzed. The link structure of transplanting device waskinematically analyzed, and 3D modeling and dynamic simulation were performed. Based on this analysis, the trajectory of the bottom end of the transplanting hopper was analyzed. Also, the plant spacing according to the engine speed and the shifting stage of transplanting transmission was analyzed and verified by field test. As main results of this study, the transplanting device is one degree of freedom(DOF) 4-bar link type mechanism which comprises 10 links and 13 rotating joints. The transplanting hopper plants seedlings in a vertical direction while maintaining a constant posture by the links of transplanting device. The power is transmitted to both the driving part and transplanting part from the engine, and the maximum and minimum plant spacing of the transplanting device were 428.97 mm and 261.20 mm.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.30 no.2 s.109
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• pp.81-88
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• 2005

Manual transplanting Chinese cabbage needs 184 hours per ha in Korea. Mechanization of Chinese cabbage transplanting operation has been highly required because it needs highly intensive labor during peak season. This study was conducted to developed walking-type Chinese cabbage transplanter. In order to find out design factor of the transplanter, a kinematic analysis software, RecurDyn, was used. The prototype was tested in the circular soil bin and its operating motion was captured and analyzed using high speed camera system. Prototype was one row type which utilized original parts of engine, transmission and etc. from walking-type rice transplanter in order to save the manufacturing cost. Success ratio of pick-up device of hole-pin type and latch type were $96.0\%$ and $99.2\%$, respectively. which was highly affected by feeding accuracy of feeding device of seedling. Transplanting device of the prototype produced a elliptic loci which were coincident with those produced by the computer simulation. Prototype proved good performance in transplanting with mulching and without mulching operation, either. Working performance of prototype was 22 hours per ha and operation cost of the prototype was 961,757 won per ha. So, it would reduce $88\%$ of the labor and $29\%$ of operation cost.

• Journal of agriculture & life science
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• v.53 no.4
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• pp.113-124
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• 2019

In this study, the operational characteristics of a cam-type vegetable transplanter which usually used in domestic was analyzed and operating mechanism of a transplanting device was analyzed. The main components and power path of the transplanter were analyzed. The maximum and minimum control cycles according to the moving speed and the plant spacing were analyzed. 3D modeling and simulation were performed to derive the trajectory of the bottom end of the transplanting hopper and the plant spacing at the each operating condition. The simulation results were verified by the field tests. As main findings of this study, the transplanting device has one degree of freedom (DOF) which consist of 13 links, 17 rotating joints and 1 half joint, and each part has composite structure with cam and links. By continuous and repetitive motion of the structures of transplanting device, the transplanting hopper plants the seedling in the ground with a vertical direction, and the seedling was planted stably. The power is transmitted to the driving part and transplanting device from the engine, and the maximum and minimum plant spacing of the transplanting device were about 900 mm and 350 mm, respectively.