• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2009

In order to evaluate environmental comfort of tractor cabs, temperature, relative humidity and noise within the cab were taken from 31 tractors during plowing and rotovating operations. The temperature and humidity were evaluated with regard to the comfort zone of KS B ISO 14269-2 and PMV of ISO 7730. The noise was evaluated with regard to the permissible sound level of OSHA for daily exposure of 8 hours. The collected data indicated that thermal environment of the cabs was out of the comfort zone, which meant tractor operators worked under uncomfortable thermal conditions. Difference in the thermal comfort by tractor power and maker, and type of works was not found. However, 25% of the studied tractors showed PMV in a range of -0.5 to +0.5, which indicated their operators worked under the comfort criteria. PMV was improved when the cab was air-conditioned. Levels of measured cab noise were lower than the permissible criteria, and 76.7% of the studied tractors had cab noise ranged from 75 to 85 dBA. There was a tendency that high powered tractors, rotovating operations and locally-made tractors had greater cab noise levels. However, their differences were insignificant.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Agricultural Machinery Conference
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• 1996.06c
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• pp.142-159
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• 1996

Engineering of automated tools for the agro-food industries and the rural world activities have to pick up two challenges : to answer the immediate important problems related to the situation of these industries, and to imaging the tools that their professional will need next century. Creating or modifying automated tools in the next few will be made taking into account parameters either technical (environmental protection, health and safety), or social and economical (investment , employment). There will be a strong interaction with disciplines like ecology, medicine, ergonomy, psycho-sociology , etc. , The partners for such a research, tools manufactures and users, should have an early involvement in its content, in order to find rapidly the solution to the drastic problems they are meeting. On a longer term , during the next 20 years , there will be an important evolution of the rural space management and of the food processes. This will imply the emergence of new types of activities and know-how's , with lines of automated tools to be invented and developed , like : micro-system for organic localized tasks -mobile and adaptive equipments highly autonomous for natural space actions - device for perception , decision and control reproducing automatically the expert behaviors of human operators. Design of such automated tools need to overcome technological difficulties like the automation of the expert-decision process, or the management of complex design.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.151-156
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• 2008

This study was conducted to evaluate ride vibrations experienced by tractor operators during plowing, rotovating, and transporting operations in Korea. Field data of ride vibrations were taken at the operator-seat interface from 49 tractors and analyzed on the basis of ISO 2631-1 and EU Directive 2002/44. Of the measured ride vibrations 15.4% in the plowing and 12.5% in farm road transport exceeded the 8-hour fatigue decreased proficiency boundary in the fore and aft directions at frequencies from 1 to 5 Hz. 93.9% exceeded the 8-hour potential health risk of ISO 2631-1. The ride vibrations exceeding the 8-hour exposure limit were 38.5% in plowing, 31.6% in rotovating, 100% in farm road transport and 88.9% in concrete road transport. Although most tractor operators were not exposed to ride vibrations greater than the 8-hour exposure limit value (ELV) of EU Directive 2002/44, 7.7% of the operators in the plowing experienced greater vibrations than the ELV in the fore-aft direction. Farm road transport produced greater vibrations than any other operations. Concrete road transport, plowing and rotovating operations followed next. Limit criteria for ride vibration exposure differ depending upon the guidelines. Exposure limit of the health guidance caution zone of ISO 2631-1 is lowest among its kinds.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.284-288
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• 2015

Training power tiller operators in safe farming is necessary to avoid farming accidents. With the continuing progress in computational technology, driving simulators have become increasingly popular for conducting such training. Purpose: The objective of this study is to develop mock control devices and data acquisition apparatus for a tiller simulator. Methods: Except for the stand and tail wheel adjusting levers, the mock control devices were developed using a tiller handle assay. The data acquisition apparatus was realized using an embedded data-logging device and LabVIEW, the system design software. Results: The control devices of a real handle assay were successfully mimicked by the mock operator control devices, which used sensors for the relevant measurements. The data from the mock devices were acquired and transmitted to the main computer at intervals of 10 ms via Wi-Fi. Conclusions: The developed mock control devices operate similar to real power tillers and can be utilized in power tiller training simulators.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Agricultural Machinery Conference
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• 1993.10a
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• pp.1254-1263
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• 1993

Representing knowledge uncertainty , aggregating evidence confidences , and propagation uncertainties are three key elements that effect the ability of a rule-based expert system to represent domains with uncertainty . Fuzzy set theory provide a good mathematical tool for representing the vagueness associated with a variable when , as the condition of a rule , it only partially corresponds to the input data. However, the aggregation of ANDed and Ored confidences is not as simple as the intersection and union operators defined for fuzzy set membership. There is, in fact, a certain degree of compensation that occurs when an expert aggregates confidences associated with compound evidence . Further, expert often consider individual evidences to be varying importance , or weight , in their support for a conclusion. This paper presents a flexible approach for evaluating evidence and conclusion confidences. Evidences may be represented as fuzzy or nonfuzzy variables with as associat d degree of certainty . different weight can also be associated degree of certainty. Different weights can also be assigned to the individual condition in determining the confidence of compound evidence . Conclusion confidence is calculated using a modified approach combining the evidence confidence and a rule strength. The techniques developed offer a flexible framework for representing knowledge and propagating uncertainties. This framework has the potention to reflect human aggregation of uncertain information more accurately than simple minimum and maximum operator do.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.286-294
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• 2009

A high prevalence of protected horticulture farmer's work-related musculo-skeletal disorders (MSDs) have been reported in precedent studies. One of the tasks required ergonomic intervention to reduce the musculo-skeletal risks is the task of product transporting. The purpose of this study is to evaluate quantitatively the spinal load of operator using manual vehicles to predict and prevent musculo-skeletal risks. Spinal load in operators using 4 kinds of manual vehicle were analyzed. Before evaluating spinal load on operator using the manual vehicles by bio-mechanical approach, it is needed to validate human model. In this study, ADAMS LifeMOD human model shows satisfactory results, comparing with already validated model's results or measured results. While Operators pushed the manual vehicles(wheelbarrow, Trolley, 2 wheel cart, and 4 wheel cart) contained loads that were 0 N and 800 N, their spinal loads(compression force, shear force) were evaluated. The compression force demonstrated under the NIOSH action limits - 3410N - for all 4 manual vehicle's operators(McGill 1997; Marras 2000). However, the lateral shear force demonstrated over the University of Waterloo - 500N - for all 3 manual vehicle's operators except 4Wheel cart (Yingline and McGill, 1999). Therefore, operators have risks in prevalence of the musculo-skeletal disorders due to shear force. The findings of this study suggest that it need to be determine the spinal load, especially lateral shear force in designing the manual vehicles in the future.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.36 no.6
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• pp.407-415
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• 2011

Damage to agricultural production caused by insects and diseases affects farming yields. The orchard sprayer is mainly used in the country to protect the fruit in a large area, with less effort and at minimum cost. The excellent performance of the air blast spray increases the fruit protection. Chemical application in orchards has been accomplished by the orchard sprayers with air assist nozzles and a axial fan in Korea. However, the orchard sprayers without ROPS resulted in severe injury or death when operators drive the sprayers improperly on hilly orchard or farming road. This study was to develop a ROPS for the orchard sprayers improving farmer's safety. In this study, the accident case was used in analysing the design and building TOP structure of the orchard sprayer. The maximum impact, body torsion frame structures including the driver's protection are also analysed for adherence to safety regulations. The ROPS safety regulations according to the strength test results were established.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.315-324
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• 2009

Various types of vibration are transmitted to operators of agricultural tractors while working in the field. Most harmful vibration to human body is ride vibrations with low frequency ranging from 1 to 10 Hz, caused by rough terrain. These ride vibration has vertical and rotational components. This study was conducted to develop an active seat suspension system with two degrees of freedoms, enabling effectively reduce vibrations in vertical and pitch motions. Therefore, a mechanism for the active seat suspension was developed, and an electro-hydraulic servo system and a controller to drive the active seat suspension system were also developed in this study. A simulation model was developed to evaluate how the active seat suspension system effectively reduce the vibrations transmitted to the base of seat. Active seat suspension was optimized to enhance the performance using the developed simulation model. The performance of the seat suspension system was evaluated according to the test codes described in EEC78/764 in order to investigate the feasibility of application to agricultural tractors. The result showed that the developed active seat suspension system could reduce the magnitude of vertical vibration up to 80% for the input vibrations according to the test codes described in EEC78/764. The system could reduce the rotational displacement of ${\pm}\;2.5$ degrees up to 50% for the pitch vibration on the average in the frequency range of 1 to 2 Hz.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.31 no.1 s.114
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• pp.1-8
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• 2006

This study was conducted to identify the characteristics of PTO rattle noise of a direct engine-PTO driveline for agricultural tractors. In order to reduce production costs of agricultural tractors, a direct engine-PTO driveline was recently introduced to the tractors produced in Korea. This simplified drive line reduced a number of gears and counter shafts in previous one. However, it caused a severe rattle noise under an idle condition, which was perceived as intolerable by many tractor operators. PTO rattle noise was measured at two locations: one 3 em apart radially from the centerline of the PTO shaft and another 100 em apart backward from the PTO end and 160 em high from the ground. Characteristics of the rattle was analyzed using the data measured near the PTO shaft. It was found that the period of rattle noise was same as the explosion stroke of engine and its peak level was about 123 dB (A) with PTO engaged at an idle engine speed of 880 rpm. As the engine speed increased, the rattle noise decreased. The frequency band of the rattle was 0.5-2.0 kHz and the frequency of peak sound pressure was 1.4 kHz. When compared the rattle noise between the locally produced and imported tractors of the same type of PTO driveline, the former generated louder rattle noise than the imported one by 7 dB (A). It was suggested that the rattle noise of local tractors must be reduced at least by 7 dB (A) to meet the international level.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.1-10
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• 1983

The resulting characteristics of vibrations show different patterns for the various oscillating mechanisms. These vibrations causes troublesome operation problems for the operators and sometimes for the machines. Furthermore, in some cases the practical usage of this oscillating mechanism is constrained by its mechanical conditions. In this study, a balanced oscillating tillage tool with triple blades having different acting area was designed. The horizontal and vertical oscillating accelerations and draft power requirement due to the various travel speeds, lift angles, amplitudes and oscillating frequencies were investigated in a laboratory soil bin with a soil having invariable properties. The results obtained are summarized as follows: 1. Overall, the horizontal acceleration decreased as the oscillating frequency and amplitude decreased. But the increase in travel speed caused the decrease horizontal acceleration. The blade with the lift angle of $30^{\circ}$ exhibited the lowest value of horizontal acceleration among the blades tested. 2. For the vertical acceleration, the fluctuating trend of oscillating acceleration was similar to the trend of the horizontal acceleration. 3. The draft power requirement decreased as the amplitude and oscillating frequency increased. But the increase in travel speed caused the increase in draft power requirement. The blade with the lift angle of $10^{\circ}$ showed the lowest value of draft power requirement among the blades tested.