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This paper introduces the issue of reliability simulation studies of wind farm equipment in the process of an operation. By the improvement, retrofitting and insertion of new (optimal) solutions to change the quality and terms of the use of wind farm equipment, an evaluation of their impact on reliability under real conditions can be carried out over a long period of time. Over a brief period, testing the reliability of a technical facility is only possible in a simulation. The aspect of evaluating the reliability of wind farm equipment after the application of intelligent systems, including the Wind Power Plant Expert System (WPPES), can be tested in the manner of a simulation. It was accepted in this article that the operation of the wind farm equipment is detailed based on Markov processes. The results of such research activities are the development of reliable and appropriate strategies and an exploitation policy of PE facilities. The above-mentioned issues in such a comprehensive approach have not been fully presented in the literature. The process of exploitation of complex technical objects such as PE devices is a complex random technical and technological process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, water resources scarcity has become a severe issue that interferes with economic, social, and ecological development. As the most significant use of water resources in agriculture, irrigation plays a crucial role in ensuring agricultural production when rainfall is insufficient to maintain the growth of crops. In this paper, estimation of water resources in irrigation practices was carried out in Baoding since the area suffers from water scarcity, and the situation there is worsening, especially after the founding of Xiongan New District. This study aimed to evaluate the supply and demand balance of irrigation at the municipal and county levels through the climate information and crop pattern summarization in Baoding. Data provided by Agricultural Machinery Bureau was integrated with CLIMWAT 2.0 to compute crop water requirements, irrigation requirements, and irrigation schemes in CROPWAT 8.0. Results show that an estimated sum of 1881.3 mm annual crop water requirements comprising the vast majority of crops in agricultural production led to 1493.5 million m3 irrigation requirements, creating an irrigation deficit of 119.2 million m3. The greater cutdown on annual water supply compared to the irrigation requirements led to a consecutive exacerbation of annual irrigation deficits. Suggestions, including physical and political measures, were provided to improve the current situation in Baoding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examined crop machinery investment and cost benchmarks for a sample of Kansas farms. Crop machinery benchmarks varied widely among the farms. On average, crop machinery investment and cost were $227 and $82, respectively. Crop machinery investment and cost were significantly correlated with the interest and depreciation expense ratios, the asset turnover ratio, percent acres owned, and net machinery purchases. Crop machinery cost was also significantly correlated with crop intensity (harvested acres/crop acres). As with most machinery issues, a balance between controlling crop machinery investment and cost, and timeliness needs to be reached. This paper points out the importance of controlling investment and cost rather than investment and the cost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper is concerned with quality assessment of bullet-resistant glass in relation to ambient temperatures. The measurement results provided below may be drawn on in the field of logistics when transport, special as well as special agricultural machinery are operated at fluctuating temperatures. In the paper, data from shooting tests, monitoring the projectile velocity, penetration through the glass and projectile fragmentation at various ambient temperatures, is presented. For perfect protection of agricultural machine operators not only the bullet-resistance of glass panels, but also their further use in work is of great importance. Hence, emphasis is put on active safety of these machinery, where a perfect transparency of the bullet-resistant panels is one of crucial factor. In the paper, the extent of damaged areas is compared; these are divided into three zones according to significantly differing temperatures. The paper results may have influence on agricultural machinery in thermally extreme areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of autonomous farming concerns automatic agricultural machines operating safely and efficiently without human intervention. In order to ensure safe autonomous operation, real-time risk detection and avoidance must be undertaken. This paper presents a flexible vehicle-mounted sensor system for recording positional and imaging data with a total of six sensors, and a full procedure for calibrating and registering all sensors. Authentic data were recorded for a case study on grass-harvesting and human safety. The paper incorporates parts of ISO 18497 (an emerging standard for safety of highly automated machinery in agriculture) related to human detection and safety. The case study investigates four different sensing technologies and is intended as a dataset to validate human safety or a human detection system in grass-harvesting. The study presents common algorithms that are able to detect humans, but struggle to handle lying or occluded humans in high grass. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper goal was to analyze the technical endowment in terms of machinery in Romania's agriculture in the period 2007-2015 and to identify the main trends and problems which affect performance and competitiveness. In the analyzed period, the park of tractors and machinery increased as follows: tractors by 14.5%, ploughs by 13.9%, cultivators by 11.3%, seeders by 14.6%, combines for cereals by 11.4 and for fodder by 17%, machines for potatoes harvesting by 43.5%, presses for hay and straw by 121.7%, only windrowers and sprayers and dusters declined by 1.2%, respectively, by 2.6%. Despite this slight increase, the structure of agricultural machinery is still an uncorresponding one for keeping pace with new technologies. The utilized agricultural area (UAA) increased and as a result the UAA per tractor declined from 44.5 ha to 41.3, which is also a good aspect. Despite that agricultural production increase, its performance is not supported by mechanization mainly in the small sized holdings. The replacement of the existing old machinery with a high usage degree, whose repairs are costing, is obviously needed and requires substantial financial resources. the continuous growth of farm inputs price and the low price at farm gate for agricultural products do not assure farmers enough income to modernize mechanization. The Romanian Government should allocate a higher percentage from budget to agriculture for improving the park of tractors and agricultural machinery. Also, the financial aid per ha coming from the EU should be equitably divided among member states. Farmers need a better endowment in their farms to apply modern technologies and increase production, quality of agricultural products, economic efficiency and competitiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rating and determination of factors of importance affecting the pressing process of clutch plates is, in most organizations, an individual and subjective decision of individual employees. The paper describes the process of relevant material selection for the organization. This process is designed with the aim to use the exact methods in order to replace subjective material selection by objective process. The most appropriate method appears the multi-criteria statistical analysis TOPSIS. TOPSIS method has been widely applied in many areas with good results as the choice of marketing strategy, optimization of mechatronic systems, safety management, business competitions, management of crisis situations, assessment of trends, planning and many others. This is the first time when TOPSIS method was used in the selection of the most important causes affecting the pressing process of clutch plates. The aim of this paper is to carry out the multi-criteria statistical analysis TOPSIS which evaluates and determines the order of importance of various factors affecting the pressing process of clutch plate which is a component part of agricultural machinery. On the basis of performed method we can prevent from subjective evaluation and make rational decisions based on the statistical analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A wet clutch is the key component to realize power uninterrupted in agricultural machinery operation. To reduce impact of the system and improve engagement quality, this paper studies and establishes the dynamic load characteristics model of a wet clutch and analyzes three kinds of tractor working conditions. This paper proposes and adopts the method of combining 'PLS analysis-Improved SA—Comparison of various models-Actual test data'. The results show that with the limit of 100 Nm, the relationship between dynamic load characteristics and oil pressure is opposite. Load is highly inversely correlated with dynamic load, and it has enough precision to build a power curve model only by load (MAPE is 4.5929%). Take a certain type of tractor for example, oil pressure should be maintained at a low level, plowing resistance should be greater than 1600 N and the mass of transportation should avoid 600~1800 kg. This study provides a direct basis for the control, design and performance improvement of agricultural machinery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the current draft of the European Regulation on the sustainable use of plant protection products (COM 2022 305), it is established that all the member states have to set up an electronic register of application equipment in professional use. It will set out notification requirements for transfer of ownership and withdrawal of or return to use, and it will also record the inspection certificates. In this way, it will be possible to know the total number of application equipment units that have to be inspected. At the same time, the regulatory bodies will have information on the development of the inspection programme, because it will be possible to know how many units have already passed the inspection and when it has to be renewed. It is also important to know which are the units that have never been inspected and, therefore, they cannot be used for professional use. In Spain the registration of agricultural machines has been in place for more than 60 years. At the beginning, only the machines that have to drive on the roads, had to be in this official list, before they got the licence plate by the traffic authorities. That means all tractors, combines and other selfpropelled and towed agricultural machines (tillage equipment, seeders, mowers, balers, etc.). When the inspection of application equipment in use became mandatory, according to the Directive for the sustainable use of pesticides (2009/128/CE), the registration of all kind of application equipment, both new and in use was also compulsory. For the machines already in use, a special procedure was established to make their registration straightforward. At present, information on the current situation of the inspection programme is available on a digital database. Although there are some constraints, like some old, not used machines which have not been withdrawn, a great deal of useful, detailed information can be obtained from this database. Based on this, the inspection programme can be fine-tuned, in order to get all the sprayers inspected, which is the main objective of the current European Directive. In this paper, the set-up and present situation of the Spanish official registration of application equipment will be presented, because hopefully it can be useful for the establishment of similar tools in other member states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid development of information technology, industry and service industries have achieved rapid development in recent years. Then, looking at the development of agriculture, the popularity of informatization lags far behind industry and service industries, directly hindering the digital development of agriculture. Starting from the current agricultural machinery driving operation scene, this paper carried out a simplified research on the traditional agricultural machinery driving operation method through the agricultural machinery kinematics model, and based on the related theory of deep reinforcement learning to study the agricultural machinery path tracking in the agricultural operation scene, it carried out the controller design, built the agricultural machinery autonomous path tracking framework operating mechanism under deep reinforcement learning, and further researched through experimental design and found that the agricultural machinery autonomous path tracking control can achieve better automatic control after empirical learning. I-DQN algorithm enables agricultural robots to adapt to the environment faster when performing path tracking, which improves the performance of path tracking. It has important guiding significance for further promoting the automatic navigation and control of agricultural machinery to realize the efficient operation of agricultural mechanization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the insurance for agricultural machinery features the attributes of quasi-public goods, its participants not only include farmers and insurance companies but also the government. The role played by the government will impose a direct impact on the development of the insurance for agricultural machinery. This paper sheds light on the behavior of the participants in agricultural machinery insurance from the aspects of economics and management. The game analysis is carried out on the participants to elaborate on the collaborative conditions for the long-term and stable development of agricultural machinery insurance. On this basis, the study provides policy recommendations on the role to be played by the government in agricultural machinery insurance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agricultural equipment companies intend to understand agriculture producers' buying behavior by answering questions such as how loyal producers are to brands and dealers, which have an important impact on their profitability. This paper addresses the problem of how loyal agricultural producers are to equipment brands and dealers. Using a combination of cluster analysis and probit models, we identified producers' behavioral and attitudinal loyalty to brands and dealers and analyzed the factors that explain such loyalty. We also found a strong interdependence between brand and dealer loyalty and the significant value that dealer loyalty adds to the brands. Additionally, we present some management implications of developing brand recognition, understanding producers purchasing behavior, and segmenting producers. This paper's contributions are the establishment and measurement of an 'empirical' definition of brand and dealer loyalty, the identification and quantification of the impact of the explanatory factors of brand and dealer loyalty, and the determination of a dual loyalty relationship between brand and dealer loyalty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The need for high-quality communications networks is urgent in data-based farming. A particular challenge is how to achieve reliable, cost-efficient, secure, and broadband last-mile data transfer to enable agricultural machine control. The trialed ad hoc private communications networks built and interconnected with different alternative wireless technologies, including 4G, 5G, satellite and tactical networks, provide interesting practical solutions for connectivity. A remotely controlled tractor is exemplified as a use case of machine control in the demonstrated private communication network. This paper describes the results of a comparative technology analysis and a field trial in a realistic environment. The study includes the practical implementation of video monitoring and the optimization of the control channel for remote-controlled unmanned agricultural tractors. The findings from this study verify and consolidate the requirements for network technologies and for cybersecurity enablers. They highlight insights into the suitability of different wireless technologies for smart farming and tractor scenarios and identify potential paths for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presented examines the dynamics of wear of restored parts using different materials for the friction pair. The pair of crankshaft and sliding bearing largely determines the machine service life – although their overall wear index is less than 1%, it can still lead to a large number of failures and malfunctions. Vibrating arc overlaying in a shield of gas mixture of 60% argon and 40% carbon dioxide was used for restoring the surface of rollers. Subsequently, these were treated by heating with high-frequency current (HFC) and lowered to a hardness of 55±2 HRC and ground to the final size. It was found that the antifriction coating of plain bearings with electrochemical lead alloy ЕО92 showed excellent performance and insignificant wear in combination with reference material St45 and welded coating DUR500. In combination with electrochemical lead alloy ЕО92, the welded coating DUR500 showed a significantly higher wear on actuation compared to the reference material St45 at sliding friction. The relative wear resistance enhancement of crankshafts and bearings by restorative coatings represents an essential measure, as their service life can be prolonged by 20–50% in contrast to the new parts without restorative coatings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Irrigation & Drainage is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The paper presents a device with chisel-type working parts for measuring the tensile strength independently on each working parts or on various groups of working parts, equipped with devices designed for separate measurement, intended for complex research of agricultural machinery in interaction with the soil. The proposed solution is new and is based on flexibility and allows the mounting of various working parts in various positions. The functional model developed with elements of novelty and innovation led to the elaboration of a patent application, which refers to a loadbearing structure modulated with multiple applications for tillage machines, on which active parts are mounted in different working variants, in order to extension of the period of use, depending on the size of the agricultural exploitations and the power of the tractor. The modular design of the device will allow the development of a range of flexible cultivators that can be configured to in order to use power sources (tractors) from 30 hp to 90 hp, allowing the manufacturer to expand its market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of INMATEH - Agricultural Engineering is the property of INMATEH - Agricultural Engineering and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Background: The constitutive aim of this paper is to explore the barriers to effective implementation of the principles of lean management among manufacturers of parts, subassemblies and ready-made agricultural machinery. The realization of the formulated goal requires -first of all - an attempt to create a catalogue of determinants implying the leanness of a manufacturing unit. Consequently, the conceptual study of the method will be preceded by extensive analysis and systematization of the current achievements, including: on the theoretical level, the analysis of the literature being in direct relation to the subject of research; it will find its expression in the set of barriers determined in source literature on the subject that compresses the leanness of the generation unit and - on the design level - their catalogue based on the point of view of experts invited to this research. On the empirical level, it is assumed that the hierarchy of importance will be recognized for each of the determinants listed in the catalogue, and it will be determined which one constitutes the largest barrier from the point of view of enterprises invited to research (self-assessment). Methods: The interdisciplinary nature of management sciences creates problems in the selection of research methods with which one intends to describe a given problem. In empirical research, methods and research tools verified in other research are often used (directly or with some modifications). The authors of this paper also use verified methods and tools; however, the method and tools used by them will be selected in accordance with the adopted methodological concept. On the theoretical level - using the method of reconstruction and interpretation of the source literature - the authors, referring to the key principles of lean management, have selected key barriers to their effective implementation. Reconstruction and interpretation of the source literature was supported by practical experience of the authors, participant observation and creative discussion with deliberately chosen experts. The preparatory study conditioned the conduct of the proper research; the intention of the authors was to develop a form - a catalogue of barriers implying lean production, which is a tool enabling reconnaissance in the surveyed enterprises. The research will be both diagnostic and verifying in nature. It will relate to relationships between variables describing the barriers to effective implementation of lean management principles, and requirements implying leanness, identifying the reality under investigation. Results: As a result of the research, it was found that the factors that significantly determine the effective implementation of lean management principles are possession of a permanent and competent managerial and executive staff. The entrepreneurs subjected to the research indicate the absence of permanent, qualified employees who are replaced by "random" employees, which does not serve continuous improvement (gap - 1.01). In view of the foregoing, they do identify lean management with reduction in the level employment in the company. Conclusion: This publication was created as a result of reflection, research and authors' practical experience in managing the enterprises operating in the sector of agricultural machinery. It is an ambitious attempt to depict knowledge on implementation of the principles of lean management in a manufacturing company. Thanks to this, it can play the role of a scientific aid, and at the same time be a source of knowledge necessary in managerial activity. The authors hope that the presented publication will provide a new knowledge, the consideration of which may form the basis of for actions that will need to be addressed in the near future and can begin a discussion on the necessity of overcoming the limits regarding the implementation of lean management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to realize and improve the constant speed control performance of tractors with HST (Hydrostatic Transmission) variable speed units. To achieve this, based on the HST test bench of the tractor, we perform a verification test of the adjustable speed characteristics, a denoising filter test of the response signal, a test on the influence of the load disturbance on the adjustable speed characteristics and a PID-based constant speed performance detection test. The results of the verification test of the adjustable speed characteristics show that the theoretical value and actual value of the adjustable speed transmission characteristics of the HST used are essentially consistent with each other. The results of the test of the load disturbance's influence on the adjustable speed characteristics show that the increase in load torque inhibits the HST output response. Therefore, the paper proposes and designs a PID-based closed-loop constant speed control system. The paper uses a step response test and a load disturbance test to research the control result of the constant speed system. Collecting and analyzing all test results, we find that the constant speed control based on PID has a very good result. The average error between the average HST output speed and the target speed set was 0.37%, and the average standard deviation of output speed was 1.18 rpm. In addition, the paper proposes a denoising method combing the empirical mode decomposition method and the Gaussian distribution determination. The method shows that the first two orders of the components of the HST response signal should be removed as noise. The paper uses the denoised signal and the partial least squares method to analyze the influencing factors of the constant speed control result. The analysis results show that the rate of change of load torque has the biggest influence on the stability of HST output speed, followed by the target value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Goal, Scope and Background. A methodological approach for rep- resenting agricultural products in terms of life cycle inventory is suggested in this paper. This approach was developed during the conduction of an LCA study for two perennial crops of important Brazilian exportation products: green coffee and orange juice, which included tillage cultivation by commercial farms, harvest, as well as product processing when pertinent. The published papers on agricultural products LCA usually discuss the final results in terms of LCIA, being not very clear what methodology or principles were applied on the LCI phase. The aim of this paper is to present a simple methodology that would be employed by different stakeholders as farmers, environment managers and decision makers for evaluating the environmental performance of their products. In recent years, many researchers have tried to make a worldwide effort in order to reach comparable results of LCA studies developed in different countries. So, the proposed methodology has also the aim of isolating the site-dependency of the results that are not strictly related to the agricultural production. The time coverage suggested is the period can be considered as an average for the specific tillage under evaluation, usually two crops, since there is a large variation on the inputs in every other crop, including the higher and subsequent lower productive periods. Method. The functional unit recommended is 1,000 kg of the specific product, being recommended to distinguish the energy used for the cultivation from that used by the processing stage. There are several specific considerations to transform the data collected through the questionnaires in an inventory data set of fertilizers (macro and micro nutrients), correctives, fillers and pesticides further detailed. Water used forchemicals preparation, in the cleaning and processing stages of the harvested crop is also considered. Land use refers to the area used land for Cultivation divided by the medium life period of the tillage. The stoichiometric balance is performed based on the elementary composition of the products. An average carbohydrate formula is established for the products considering the relationship among the carbon, hydrogen and oxygen contents of them. The carbohydrate formula (output) is balanced with carbon dioxide and water (inputs) according to the basic principles of the photosynthesis reaction. The differences among the mineral composition of the products and the total content of these elements (N, P, K, Ca, Mg and micronutrients elements) for all the crop inputs (fertilizers, pesticides, correctives) are allocated as outputs of the system. The pesticides is counted in two forms: grouped in classes (herbicide, fungicide, acaricide, bactericide and inseticide) and specified by the chemical name of the active ingredient. Results and Discussion. A simplified inventory useful for different purposes is generated with the principles described in this paper. The exact fate of each pesticide, fertilizer or corrective or assumptions can be further associated to impact categories as nutriphication, human health, natural resources depletion, ecological toxicity, etc. In this approach the mass balance was focused in the grain or fruit growth and not in the plant or tree as a whole, considering basically the elementary composition of the product and the photosynthesis principle. Despite agricultural LCAs performed in different countries have been published, neither of them considers the carbon capture by the agricultural products during their growth.… [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The organic integration of food security and agricultural mechanization has become a challenge to realize a low-carbon economy, which helps promote carbon peaking and carbon neutralization. In this work, a simultaneous equation model has developed to analyze the relationship between food security, agricultural automation, and agricultural carbon emissions in China. The ordinary least square method was used to verify the method. The logarithmic mean Divisia index decomposition was used to decompose further the influencing factors of agricultural carbon emissions. Results show that the organic coupling of a low-carbon economy, food security, and agricultural mechanization positively affects environmental protection. In which, unit fertilizer usage and crop sown area have the greatest impact on carbon emission intensity, followed by agricultural diesel fuel and agricultural plastic film. It is worth noting that the bottom line of the grain sown area cannot be touched. It is a prerequisite for ensuring grain production. Finally, this paper presents suggestions based on China's achievements, where the top-level design is crucial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The agricultural machinery experiment is restricted by the crop production season. Missing the crop growth cycle will extend the machine development period. The use of virtual reality technology to complete preassembly and preliminary experiments can reduce the loss caused by this problem. To improve the intelligence and stability of virtual assembly, this paper proposed a more stable dynamic gesture cognition framework: the TCP/IP protocol constituted the network communication terminal, the leap motion-based vision system constituted the gesture data collection terminal, and the CNN-LSTM network constituted the dynamic gesture recognition classification terminal. The dynamic gesture recognition framework and the harvester virtual assembly platform formed a virtual assembly system to achieve gesture interaction. Through experimental analysis, the improved CNN-LSTM network had a small volume and could quickly establish a stable and accurate gesture recognition model with an average accuracy of 98.0% (±0.894). The assembly efficiency of the virtual assembly system with the framework was improved by approximately 15%. The results showed that the accuracy and stability of this model met the requirements, the corresponding assembly parts were robust in the virtual simulation environment of the whole machine, and the harvesting behaviour in the virtual reality scene was close to the real scene. The virtual assembly system under this framework provided technical support for unmanned farms and virtual experiments on agricultural machinery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intelligent farming machines are becoming a new trend in modern agriculture. The intelligence and automation allow planting to become data-driven, leading to more timely and cost-effective production and management of farms and improving the quality and output of farm products. This paper presents a proposal for developing a type of intelligent tea picking machine based on active computer vision and Internet of Things (IoT) techniques. The intelligent tea picking machine possesses an active vision system for new tip positioning and can automatically implement tea picking operation in the natural environment. The active vision system provided with a cross-light path of projection and camera is designed according to the actual characteristics of picking surface, where new tips can be recognized by referring to the color factor and their height information is easily acquired by fringe projection profilometry. Furthermore, the machine attaches wireless communication equipment to transmit the real-time status of the tea picking process to an intermediary platform and eventually to the Internet for extensive data analysis. The data such as color factor and quantity of new tips collected through IoT can be used for different quality and production evaluations. The focus of this paper can promote the automation and intelligence of tea pickers and agricultural machinery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agricultural machines (AMs) refer to equipment usually used in agriculture such as tractors, hand tools, and power tools. It reduces the labor work, increases farms produce, enhances goods quality, and reduces farming time and cost-saving. However, the faults in the fuel system, blades, engine of the AM will often result in degraded vehicle performance, compromising the vehicle's efficiency and strength. To overcome these problems, fault detection algorithms are developed to identify the faults even before they occur with high classification accuracy. The deep convolutional neural network (DCNN) is a popular deep learning model that offers a high classification recognition rate, and it is widely adopted in similar fields for monitoring the health status of machines. Very few state-of-the-art works are available to identify the health state of agricultural machines using deep learning techniques and extracting the acoustic features from an audio recording. The acoustic signal-based agricultural machine health monitoring and fault prediction model using smartphones is a cost-effective option that is deployed in this proposed work. To optimize the network structure of the DCNN, this paper proposes a Levy flight optimization algorithm (LFOA). The DCNN-LFOA model is implemented on the smartphone's on-board device (OBD) along with the health monitoring application. The LFOA algorithm minimizes the number of neurons in the DCNN hidden layer and the number of input features from the audio recordings and enhances the classification accuracy. The LFOA algorithm provides the optimal solution which is essential in developing a lightweight DCNN model to implement in the edge processor (smartphone). The experimental results prove that the proposed model gives improved accuracy for the six faults to be classified and serves as a new research model to identify the health condition of the vehicles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents the proposed proprietary M exhaust emission indicator, which is based on the assumption that CO2 emissions are a measure of the correctness of the combustion process. The measurements were performed using a farm tractor meeting the Tier 3 emission norm, operated in real conditions during plowing work. The tests were carried out for a given land section at three speeds In the analysis of test results, the net engine work was used, as it is carried out in the type approval procedures. When measuring in real operating conditions, the torque read from the OBD system is overstated because it takes into account the engine’s internal resistance. In the analysis of test results, the fuel consumption, emission indicators of gaseous compounds and particulates were determined, and the best conditions for conducting agricultural works were indicated in terms of their impact on the natural environment. The aim of the work is to verify the possibility of determining the emission index for an off-road vehicle and a comparative analysis of its values for various operating parameters of a farm tractor. On this basis, it was found that the lowest values of the M identity were recorded for the test characterized by a vehicle speed of 15 km/h. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This series of papers are devoted to the development of process approaches for producing complex composite inoculants to manufacture agricultural machines from spheroidal graphite cast iron. Complex composite inoculants as strips and their fragments can be produced by rolling of powder mixtures. The first paper justifies the choice of inoculants and characterizes the starting powders they consist of. Weight and volume correlations between the brittle and ductile components for different compositions of inoculants are calculated. It is established that all powder compositions belong to critical systems that have approximately 50 vol.% of both brittle and ductile components. Such systems require special process approaches to make high-quality products. Process characteristics of the powders that influence the quality of the rolling strips are determined. These are apparent density of the starting powders and their mixtures, friction index (Hausner ratio), and shear angle and its tangent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to promote the setting up of farms whose size allow the practice of a viable, sustainable agriculture, capable to apply the newest technologies and lead to profit and efficiency, to the economical and organizational consolidation. The risk is a very important variable in the simulation behaviour farms. this paper aims to build programming models to simulate the behaviour of agricultural farms, that must be calibrate by the culture plan of the year basis or as the average over several years by the agricultural holding. economic rationale behind this requirement is that in this way the model adequately represents the environment in which the decision maker agricultural structure shall base its decision. The paper aims at providing answers to questions such as: ➢ Which is the percentage covered by agriculture in Romania's gross domestic product? ➢ Which are the main development criteria in private agricultural exploitations in the NE part of Romania> ➢ Which is the competitiveness of agricultural exploitations, based on size groups? ➢ Which is the structure of agricultural exploitations and which are the deviations from the planned level or other norms of reference? ➢ Which is the degree of specialization of agriculture in the NE part of Romania? ➢ How can political measures lead to the development of individual agricultural exploitations? ➢ The paper represents a source of information for the specialists in the field, as well as for the individual agricultural produces who wish to modernize their structure and approach agriculture commercially, with the purpose of an increased economic efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional tractors can only achieve steering through mechanical structures such as steering knuckles and steering trapezoids. Among them, the mechanical structure is more complex, and various parts are easily damaged, making the tractor malfunction. The four-wheel independent drive differential steering mode differs from the traditional Ackermann steering mode, which realizes steering by controlling the inner and outer wheel torque, which can accurately steer the working state of high-end agricultural machinery equipment and improve the operating efficiency of agricultural machinery equipment. Aiming at the dynamic control problem in the steering of electric tractor four-wheel independent drive, a layered control strategy based on the sliding mode control of yaw torque at the upper level and the optimal torque distribution level based on the mean load rate of vehicle tires at the lower was proposed. By analyzing the differential steering mechanism of a four-wheel independent drive, a dynamic model of differential steering of the electric tractor is established, and a dynamic controller of a four-wheel independent drive is designed according to the layered control strategy. The upper controller tracks and controls the expected yaw speed on the basis of the sliding mode control to track the driver's intention, and the lower controller realizes the optimal torque distribution based on the principle of the optimal average load rate of the vehicle tire to ensure the steering stability of the electric tractor. The effect of the controller was simulated and analyzed under typical conditions of double line shift, serpentine, and step. The results showed that the sliding mode controller is better than the PID controller in driver intention tracking. Compared with the average allocation strategy, the average maximum load rate of the vehicle tire under the three working conditions is reduced by 16.9%, 13.8%, and 17.3%, respectively, which proves the effectiveness of the layered control strategy. In the real car test, the sliding mode controller is better than the PID controller in the driver intention tracking. This study has important guiding significance for improving the maneuverability and stability of electric tractors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to establish a smart farm, many kinds of equipment are built and operated inside and outside of a pig house. Thus, the environment for livestock (limited to pigs in this paper) in the barn is properly maintained for its growth conditions. However, due to poor environments such as closed pig houses, lack of stable power supply, inexperienced livestock management, and power outages, the failure of these environment equipment is high. Thus, there are difficulties in detecting its malfunctions during equipment operation. In this paper, based on deep learning, we provide a mechanism to quickly detect anomalies of multiple equipment (environmental sensors and controllers, etc.) in each pig house at the same time. In particular, environmental factors (temperature, humidity, CO2, ventilation, radiator temperature, external temperature, etc.) to be used for learning were extracted through the analysis of data accumulated for the generation of predictive models of each equipment. In addition, the optimal recurrent neural network (RNN) environment was derived by analyzing the characteristics of the learning RNN. In this way, the accuracy of the prediction model can be improved. In this paper, the real-time input data (only in the case of temperature) was intentionally induced above the threshold, and 93% of the abnormalities were detected to determine whether the equipment was abnormal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Minimal tillage methods mainly include subsoiling technology and topsoil tillage technology. Based on the analysis of domestic technical modes and application status of minimal tillage, this paper reviewed the working principle, technical characteristics and research status of subsoiling and topsoil tillage in two key parts. Current technical difficulties were analyzed and generalized, combined with the research progress and application requirements of minimal tillage in China, and future research emphasis and development direction were provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A field area coverage-planning algorithm has been developed for the optimization and simulation of capacitated field operations such as the organic fertilizer application process. The proposed model provides an optimal coverage plan, which includes the optimal sequence of the visited tracks with a designated application rate. The objective of this paper is to present a novel approach for route planning involving two simultaneous optimization criteria, non-working distance minimization and the optimization of application rates, for the capacitated field operations such as organic fertilizer application to improve the overall operational efficiency. The study and the developed algorithm have shown that it is possible to generate the optimized coverage plan based on the required defined capacity of the distributer. In this case, the capacity of the distributer is not considered a limiting factor for the farmers. To validate this new method, a shallow injection application process was considered, and the results of applying the optimization algorithm were compared with the conventional methods. The results show that the proposed method increase operational efficiency by 19.7%. Furthermore, the applicability of the proposed model in robotic application were demonstrated by way of two defined scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When the outbreak of COVID-19 began, people could not go out. It was not allowed to provide agricultural machinery services in different places across regions to reduce the flow and gathering of people. Improvement of utilization efficiency of agricultural machinery resources is required through scientific scheduling of agricultural machinery. With seizing the farming season and stabilizing production as the goal, this paper studied the scientific scheduling of tractors within the scope of town and established agricultural machinery operation scheduling model with the minimization of total scheduling cost as the optimization objective. Factors such as farmland area, agricultural machinery, and farmland location information and operating time window are considered in this model to improve the accuracy of the agricultural machinery operation scheduling model. The characteristics of multiple scheduling algorithms are analyzed comprehensively. The scheduling requirements of agricultural machinery operation to ensure spring ploughing are combined to design the agricultural machinery scheduling algorithm based on the SA algorithm. With Hushu Street, Jiangning District, Nanjing City, as an example, a comparative experiment is conducted on the simulated annealing algorithm (SA) designed in this paper and the empirical algorithm and genetic algorithm (GA). The results suggest that the total cost of the scheduling scheme generated by the SA algorithm is 19,042.07 yuan lower than that by the empirical scheduling algorithm and 779.19 yuan lower than that by the genetic algorithm on average. Compared with the GA algorithm, the transfer distance, waiting cost, and delay cost of the SA algorithm are reduced by 11.6%, 100%, and 98.1% on average, indicating that the transfer distance of agricultural machinery in the scheduling scheme generated by the SA algorithm is shorter, so is the waiting and delay time. Meanwhile, it can effectively obtain the near-optimal solution that meets the time window constraint, with good convergence, stability, and adaptability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A particularly important role in the activity of farms is represented by the agricultural machinery and equipment used in production. In addition to a thorough selection and procurement process in accordance with existing needs, there is also a need for efficient management of maintenance and repair activities correlated with the technological specifications and the required work schedule. Although, on the whole, little attention is paid to this sector of the general business, possible malfunctions may lead to the impossibility of carrying out certain technological works and, consequently, to the deregulation of production plans and, subsequently, a possible negative impact on economic results. Management can be a decisive factor of production, in addition to the other factors that are given a higher importance, this field requiring more attention in terms of training the managers and implementing the principles of this science. The paper aims to highlight the importance and impact of efficient management of maintenance and repair of machinery on the economic results of agricultural farms starting from a general analysis and continuing with an analysis at the farm level, making a correlation between these activities and the economic results recorded. Maintenance and repairs within a company can be carried out, depending on the strategy approached, both by the farm employees, by an authorized service in partnership with the farm or can be carried out in a combined system. The effectiveness of the technological system is determined by the way of adapting to the characteristics of each farm. If the maintenance of agricultural equipment used in the production process is not carried out in time, regardless of the field, the activity cannot be realised in optimal conditions or there may be delays in accomplishing the task which may influence the process of organizing and coordinating activities and therefore optimal operation process is affected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the exposures to vibrations transmitted to the whole body and to the noises of tractors were studied. The determinations took place in the largest agricultural region of Romania, in Bărăgan, namely, in the Brăila Plain. Two types of tractors were analyzed: one from 1993 and one from 2013, with 5500h of operation. Accelerations transmitted to humans with MAESTRO 01dB and noise were measured with the Blue Solo sound level meter (01 dB-Metravib). Comfort Note have been calculated. For the 1993 tractor, the total acceleration r.m.s. has values between [4.366÷6.389]m/s², exceeding 3.216ï,5.556 times the daily exposure limit value, and from the Comfort Note, it is found that the situation is extremely uncomfortable. Extremely uncomfortable; the average sound level is 95.5 dB(A), exceeding exposure limit values. For the 2013 tractor, the total acceleration r.m.s. has values between [0.6696÷1.6525]m/s², slightly exceeding the daily exposure limit value, and from the Comfort Note, it is found that the situation is between slightly uncomfortable and uncomfortable; the average sound level is 65.9 dB(A), lower than the lower exposure action values. For this reason, the stock of agricultural equipment needs to be renewed, but this is particularly difficult, given that their prices range from several tens of thousands of euros to hundreds of thousands of euros. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soil compaction is one of the most important factors of anthropogenic influence on soil physical properties with immediate effect over the farms management and environment. The paper presents the results of experimental research carried out with a mobile stand designed and built for testing several types of tyres used on agricultural machinery in order to determine their influence on soil and energy parameters. Parameters measured, footprint, penetration resistance, tensile strength and tyres rational and efficient utilization contribute to reduce soil compaction and settlement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I look at a farm that diversified its business and within this process bought a secondhand sausage vacuum filler. I do this in order to question how this machine came to be understood and valued by the farmers who bought it. The themes discussed include the role of the machine in changing the working practices of the farm, as well as factors unknown when buying secondhand--purchasers can only ever truly know the reliability and levels of performance of the machine retrospectively. While much work has considered the secondhand cultures of goods such as clothes, brick-a-brac, or cars, the departure I make here is to consider goods bought and used in commercial contexts. I consider the calculations made when a secondhand commodity is invested with the risks and tensions of expanding a business. There are critical and additional pressures resting on the machine: for example, if the machine fails to work, it may be detrimental to the business. The paper focuses on the appreciations of two farmers and how the machine they bought was used and appreciated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A previous paper presented some preliminary researches regarding the use of a variable frequency driver (VFD) in order to maintain a constant vacuum in a milking system, by adjusting the speed of the vacuum pump; the PID controller used by the vacuum regulating system was tuned by the method of trial and error, rather than as a result of a theoretical study. In order to proceed to a more systematic approach to this solution for vacuum regulation a mathematical model of the vacuum system should be developed. In the present paper a mathematical model is presented; the model is used to study the dynamic behavior of the milking system and it assumes that the system consists of a single air tank, provided with a vacuum pump port and an air-using port. In order to validate the model and study the system's response to vacuum variation due to a pulse air leak the detachment (fall-off) of one teatcup was simulated; the teatcup was detached for 10, 20 and 30 seconds respectively. During the fall-off tests the rate of air flow into the system was measured by the means of a rotameter and the vacuum level was recorded. The experimental results were compared with the ones predicted by the model and it was concluded that the model accurately describes the response of the system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of INMATEH - Agricultural Engineering is the property of INMATEH - Agricultural Engineering and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Transactions of the Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering is the property of Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper examined labor efficiency and productivity benchmarks for a sample of non-irrigated crop farms. Labor benchmarks varied widely among the farms. On average, labor efficiency (labor cost divided by value of farm production) and labor productivity (value of farm production per worker) averaged 17.5 percent and $398,461, respectively. Labor efficiency and productivity were significantly correlated with farm size, profitability, financial efficiency, and crop machinery investment. Farms with below average labor efficiency and above average labor productivity had an average labor efficiency of 9.1 percent and an average labor productivity of $650,116 per worker. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents new developments of the method and the design of an operating element of a conveyor of a root crop harvester, which is highly functional, since except for transportation, it provides careful cleaning of root crops from soil impurities and crop residues. The results of theoretical calculations aimed at the determination of effective design parameters and power characteristics of such an operating element are covered. The pattern of root crop motion along the technological channel of a conveyor-cleaner has been defined and the amount of root crop damage when contacting bars on the conveyor belt has been determined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The vibrations produced by an agricultural machine are transmitted to the seat of the tractor operator and must comply with the limitations imposed by international and national regulations. An agricultural machine is generally composed of a tractor that can be linked to different machines required to perform a large number of agricultural tasks. In this paper, substructuring techniques are proposed to investigate the dynamics of the agricultural machine and to evaluate the resulting vibration exposure to the tractor driver in different configurations of the machine. These techniques allow one to couple reduced-order models or experimental models of the component subsystems to obtain the response of the whole system. In the results, the vibration exposure of the tractor operator is evaluated for different configurations of the agricultural machine, by observing the frequency response function (inertance and transmissibility) and the transient response to a given excitation. In conclusion, these techniques allow one to investigate a large number of different configurations and a wide range of operating conditions with a light computational burden and without asking the manufacturers to share sensitive design details. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To develop refined agriculture and improve Agricultural productivity, a new monitoring system has been proposed in this paper. Based on the actual situation of early agriculture and the actual national conditions of China, Geographic Information System (GIS) technology and Global Positioning System (GPS) technology have been combined. Based on the combination of GIS technology and GPS technology, the results show that the position of field vehicles can be displayed in the electronic MAP in real time within 5% error. On this basis, Agricultural production and cultivation can be realized, and the monitoring system can realize the real-time display of vehicle location in the field on electronic MAP to guide production and cultivation. The static test shows that the positioning accuracy of the four GPS receivers is the worst, and the positioning accuracy of MAP330 receiver and GPS25 receiver is better. However, the positioning accuracy of AGl32 receiver is the highest with the 0.37m error when compared with the error of 1.2m of other machines. Using GPS to measure the area, the error of farmland area and farmland side length is less than 5%, and the precision AGl32 receiver for precision Agricultural measurement is also improved with the proposed model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]