Development and Field Test of an Autonomous Strawberry Plug Seeding Transplanter for Use in Elevated Cultivation
| Autor: | Shengyi Zhao, Jizhan Liu, Xiaoyong Zhu, Mizhen Zhao, Li Nan, Li Pingping, Muhammad Faheem, Zhou Tong, Cai Weijian |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2019 |
| Předmět: |
General Engineering
04 agricultural and veterinary sciences Agricultural engineering Field (computer science) law.invention Transplantation law Control system 040103 agronomy & agriculture 0401 agriculture forestry and fisheries Transplanting Seeding Control logic Spark plug Working environment Mathematics |
| Zdroj: | Applied Engineering in Agriculture. 35:1067-1078 |
| ISSN: | 1943-7838 |
| Popis: | Transplanting seedlings is one of the most important but labor-intensive operations in strawberry cultivation. However, oversized strawberry seedlings, the planting environment of elevated cultivation facilities and the requirement of positioning the arched back outward are unique challenges compared with current transplanters for other plants. First, we investigated the working environment and goal of the transplanter. In this research, a new system was proposed that is completely different from existing transplanters. The main components, including the autonomous vehicle navigated with an arc array of photoelectric switches, the pneumatic rotary dual-gripper unit, the dual-hole punching unit, the grip-punch coupled transportation unit, and the easy plug-feeding unit, were developed. Then, the structure and basic control logic of the control system was introduced, and an autonomous control mode with minimal manual intervention was described. In field tests, it was found that the prototype achieved the autonomous transplantation of oversized strawberry seedlings into elevated facilities, ensuring the proper orientation of the arched back. The overall success rate and speed reached 95.3% and 1047.8 plants/h, respectively, and the coefficients of variation of plant distance, row spacing, and row straightness were 4.67%, 6.55% and 5.77%, respectively. The transplanter developed here has good application prospects to replace manual operation. Keywords: Autonomous, Elevated cultivation, Strawberry, Seedling, Transplanter. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
| Externí odkaz: |
|