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Mechanization of agriculture plays an important role for improved crop productivity. In harvesting, machines reaper is used to harvest wheat crops. In the existing machines, there is a need to improve the crop conveying mechanism which can also uplift the slant crops occurred due to wind and nature occurring problems. Thus, in this paper, an improved mechanism is proposed which can contribute to increase the efficiency of the machine. Kinematic analysis is also performed to validate and compare the experimental to design data. Torque required to run the crank is also identified in this work through dynamic analysis. Finally, a prototype was developed through 3D printing.

In last few decades, fast steering mirrors (FSMs) are predominantly used in steering and control of line of sight (LOS) in many applications which includes surveillance, tracking, pointing, photography, ground, space communication, and astronomy research. This chapter presents the dynamic modeling and control configuration design of FSM in azimuth direction. The ultimate objective of control configuration design is to obtain the faster input command response and isolate the line of sight movement from any kind of internal or external disturbances. Initially, a simplified model of FSM with suitable parametric values and adjustable gains is designed and that establishes the relationship between angular moment of LOS and applied torque. Then, a pre-existing proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller configuration is developed, whose gains are further optimized using genetic algorithm (GA) and particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm. Integral time absolute error is considered as an objective function for both the algorithm. However, both GA and PSO tuned PID controller improves the performance of FSM system. But PSO tuned configuration certainly outperforms the existing controller in terms of desired characteristics.

This paper reviews the various methods developed for balancing of the planar mechanisms and synthesizing the link shapes. The methods discussed in this paper are used for complete force balance, complete force and moment balance, partial force and moment balance as well as for the link shape synthesis of different planar mechanisms. The concepts, applications, and limitations of various methods are discussed and reviewed from the available literature in the area of mechanism balancing. The better understanding of available methods will definitely help the researchers working in this area in analyzing the current practices and in developing the new methods.

This paper presents the shape optimization of the flywheel using the uniform cubic B-spline curve. The performance of the flywheel can be evaluated by its energy storing capacity defined as kinetic energy per unit mass. The kinetic energy per unit mass depends on the geometry of flywheel. Therefore, a profile of flywheel is modeled using a uniform cubic B-spline parametric modeling method. Then shape optimization model is formulated with the objective of maximizing the kinetic energy per unit mass of the flywheel under the design constraints of the mass of the flywheel and the maximum value of total stress. The y coordinates of control points are taken as design variables which distribute along the radial direction. Then the formulated problem is solved by using Jaya algorithm. The proposed approach is applied to the flywheel of the agricultural thresher machine. It is found that the optimized shape of flywheel stores the more energy to the existing shape of the flywheel of the thresher machine.

The paper presents the kinematic analysis of bionic vibratory subsoiler used for agricultural tillage operation. Bionics is the study of the mechanical systems that function like living organisms or parts of the living organisms. Studies have reported that application of bionics in design procedure improves the working system efficiency. A crank-rocker mechanism is selected from the available literature for vibratory tillage operation in banana cultivation. The required trajectory of the crank-rocker mechanism for bionic vibratory subsoiler is examined through kinematic analysis. Velocity and acceleration required for the tillage tool operation are identified through kinematic analysis.

This study describes the discrete optimization algorithm based on Jaya algorithm. Originally, the Jaya algorithm is developed for continuous optimization problems. In the proposed algorithm, continuous domain of variables is converted into discrete domain applying bound constraint of middle point of corresponding two consecutive discrete values. The effectiveness of proposed algorithm is demonstrated through standard truss examples taken from the literature and optimum values are compared with discrete optimization algorithms. The proposed algorithm is computationally more efficient for the discrete optimization problems as tested by numerical example.

This paper presents a defect-free analytical synthesis of four-bar linkage for four precision positions using the proposed algorithm. The proposed algorithm poses several constraints such as extremity of transmission angle, Grashof conditions, and the minimum perimeter condition, to obtain a defect-free and compact four-bar linkage. Besides these constraints, one more constraint is applied which keeps the moving pivot of driving link outside the wedge-shaped region, which is consistent with the Filemon’s construction. This constraint ensures that mechanism has no circuit defect. In this work, motion generator mechanism is synthesized by considering four precision positions. This work proposes an algorithm named as perimeter algorithm, and a realistic example is considered to demonstrate the effectiveness of the algorithm.

This paper suggests a modified thresher machine design for minimizing the problem of choking in the concave. As surveyed in the district of Dantaramgarh, Rajasthan, the major hitch faced by the farmers in employing multi-crop thresher machine is the choking of straw and chaff in concave clearance as the speed of feed is increased. As the feed is increased, the chaff aggregate increases considerably and is forced down the clearance and chokes it subsequently. To resolve the issue, a design was suggested that entailed a concave frame to hold the concave instead of being an integral part of mainframe of machine. The mechanism introduced to move the concave frame was termed as anti-choking mechanism.