The precision seed drills significantly improve the competitiveness of farms, in terms of sowing quality and yield. This paper refers to the field performance of the tractor-seed drill system and the seed spacing uniformity with reference to three precision drills with 4, 6 and 8 sowing units, respectively. The tests have been conducted using graded maize and sugar beet seeds, according to ISO 7256-1:1984 standard, under three speed conditions (5.0, 6.5 and 8.0 km h-1 ). The seed drills showed high values of the quality of feed index (>90%) even at the higher speed. The multiples index and the miss index were very low

In order to better use the discrete element method (DEM) to study the cutting and throwing process of King grass (KG) stalk in mechanical harvesting, the DEM model and contact parameters of KG stalk were studied in this paper. By using the Multi-sphere method, the DEM model of KG stalk was established in EDEM software; Through the impact bounce test and slope sliding test, the stalk-steel coefficient of static friction, stalk-steel coefficient of restitution and stalk-stalk coefficient of restitution were calibrated as 0.372, 0.656 and 0.523, respectively; Based on the stacking test, using the response surface methodology, the optimal values of stalk-stalk coefficient of static friction, stalk-stalk coefficient of rolling friction, stalk-steel coefficient of rolling friction were calibrated as 0.393, 0.072 and 0.144, respectively. The throwing test bench of stalk was designed, and the actual and simulation throwing test were carried out. The relative error of throwing distance in bench test and simulation test under four throwing speeds was 1.15%, 7.76%, 8.88% and 10.46%, respectively. The throwing trajectory curve of the simulation test is consistent with that of the actual test, which verifies the accuracy of the DEM model and contact parameters of KG stalk.

In order to quickly and accurately identify the corn ears lost during the corn harvesting process, a corn ear loss detection method based on the improved Mask-RCNN model was proposed. The lost corn ears in the field were taken as research objects, the images of the lost corn ears were collected and the fallen ears data set was established. The size ratio of the Anchor Box of the area recommendation network was changed by changing the K-means algorithm to reduce the influence of artificial setting intervention. The group convolution was introduced into the residual unit and the channel dimension was divided into 3 equal parts to reduce the model parameters in the basic feature extraction network ResNet. A Convolutional Block Attention Module (CBAM) was introduced to improve the accuracy of the model in the last layer of the ResNet network. Results showed that the average target recognition accuracy of the method on the test set in this study was 94.3%, which was better than that of the previous model, and the average time to recognize a single image was 0.320 s. The proposed method could detect the lost corn ears during the harvesting process under the complicated background, and provide a reference for the corn ear loss detection of the corn harvester.

Studies and research carried out on seed meters of precision planters whose operating principle is based on the depression / suction of the air created during the work by the exhauster (vacuum generator) in the vacuum chamber have the role of helping to improve their performance. With the advancement of sowing technology, the emphasis on the ability of seed meters to accurately and consistently distribute seeds in the soil increases. The singularization of the seeds by means of the seed meters and their distance along the channels opened by the coulter is essential to ensure the achievement of the maximum yield of the crop sown on a certain area of land. The paper presents the numerical simulation of the working process for a pneumatic seed meter by means of a mathematical model, analysing the movement of the seeds according to the angle of detachment, the height of detachment of the seed, as well as the speed of the seed in its trajectory towards the channel opened by the coulter.

Strip-tillage is an effective option for proper seedbed preparation because it ensures the suitable conditions for seed germination and has been widely implemented. This study developed a strip-tillage of corn planter row cleaner using bionic vertical rotary blades to remove seedbed straw and ideal soil for no tillage sowing can be created. Through the qualitative analysis of the serrated arrangement contour of the praying mantis foreleg tip, the characteristic curve of the praying mantis foreleg tip was extracted and fitted, and the bionic geometric structure surface of the vertical rotary blade was constructed. The model and interaction system were established in EDEM 2.6 simulation environment, and their physical properties were calibrated with the real properties of lime concretion black soil and wheat straw. According to theoretical design to set simulation parameters, the radius of the cutter head was set to 120 mm, the driving speed of the cutter shaft was set to 500 r/min, and the depth of the cutting edge was set to 10 mm, the operating velocity of the active anti-blocking device was set to 5 km/h. The experiment results show that when the moving speed ratio is increased from 2.8 to 4.5, compared with the traditional vertical rotary blades, the straw removal rate and soil uniformity of seed bed are increased by 6.4% and 9.3%, and the average torque of the rotary tiller has been reduced by 12.3% respectively, the process effect and sowing quality being effectively improved. The study can provide theoretical reference for realization of no-tillage sowing vertical rotary tillage blade to reduce resistance and consumption and improve the quality

The calibration of the powder simulation parameters could improve the accuracy of the pelletizing and coating simulation process. In this paper, we take coated powder (after this referred to as powder) as the research object, based on particle amplification theory, combined with physical tests to calibrate the contact parameters of powder and seeds (after this referred to as seeds), conduct the angle of repose simulation tests of powder, carry out Plackett-Burman test, steepest climb test, and Box-Behnken test in turn, and establish quadratic regression equation to obtain the best combination of powder simulation parameters. The difference between the contact parameter combinations obtained from the simulation tests and the physical test results is less than 1%, providing some reference for calibrating similar powder material parameters.

The calibration of the powder simulation parameters could improve the accuracy of the pelletizing and coating simulation process. In this paper, we take coated powder (after this referred to as powder) as the research object, based on particle amplification theory, combined with physical tests to calibrate the contact parameters of powder and seeds (after this referred to as seeds), conduct the angle of repose simulation tests of powder, carry out Plackett-Burman test, steepest climb test, and Box-Behnken test in turn, and establish quadratic regression equation to obtain the best combination of powder simulation parameters. The difference between the contact parameter combinations obtained from the simulation tests and the physical test results is less than 1%, providing some reference for calibrating similar powder material parameters.

The acquisition of traditional wheat ear phenotypic parameters is labour intensive and subjective, and some trait parameters are difficult to measure, which greatly limits the progress of wheat ear research. To obtain the phenotypic parameters of wheat ears in batches at a low cost, this paper proposed a convenient and accurate method for extracting phenotypic parameters of wheat ears. First, three improvement directions were proposed based on the Mask-RCNN model. 1) To extract the multiscale features of wheat ears, a hierarchical residual link was constructed in a single residual block of the backbone network ResNet101 to obtain information on different sizes of receptive fields. 2) The FPN was improved to increase the recognition accuracy of wheat ear edges through multiple two-way information flow sampling. 3) The mask evaluation mechanism was improved, specific network blocks were used to learn and predict the quality of the mask, and the detection of wheat ears and grains was performed by precise segmentation; an automatic extraction algorithm was designed for wheat ear phenotypic parameters based on the segmentation results to extract 22 phenotypic parameters. The experiments showed that the improved Mask-RCNN was superior to the existing model in the segmentation accuracy of wheat ears and grains; the parameters of wheat ear length, width, and number of grains extracted by the automatic extraction algorithm were close to the manual measurement values. This research meets the demand for automatic extraction of wheat ear phenotype data for large-scale quality testing and commercial breeding and has strong practicability.

The vibration of the hanging cup transplanter affected the hole size and tray seedling quality. This paper takes the 2ZP-2 hanging cup transplanter as the research object, studies the vibration characteristics of the transplanter when it works, deduces the mathematical model of the transplanter-soil vibration characteristics, and solves the steady-state vibration response. The Danish B&K vibration test system carried out the vibration test. Studies have shown that the vertical vibration of the transplanter is greater than that of the lateral vibration and the forward vibration. The main factors affecting the vertical vibration of the transplanter are the forward speed of the transplanter, the soil compaction, and the planting depth. When the forward momentum of the transplanter is in the range of 0.8~2.4 km/h, the vertical vibration acceleration increases with increasing forward speed of the transplanter. According to the power, spectral density curve, and spectral curve, the spectrum range of the vertical vibration energy peak is 0~10 Hz, the vibration frequency is between 4.5~5.5 Hz, and the corresponding vibration acceleration amplitude is 0.03~0.33 m/s2. The research results can provide a reference for improving the operating speed, comfort, and structural optimization.

A 5tg-85 buckwheat thresher was designed to solve the problems of low mechanical harvesting level of buckwheat in hilly and mountainous areas, high work intensity of threshing and grain cleaning, and few available machines and tools. The machine adopts rasp bar-nail tooth combined threshing device and air screen cleaning device, which can complete threshing and grain cleaning at one time. In the paper, the structure, transmission system and key components of the thresher were designed, the parameters were calculated, and the threshing performance test was carried out. The results show that when the moisture content of buckwheat stem is 75%, the moisture content of grain is 17%, and the grass grain ratio is 4.4, when the rotating speed of the threshing drum of the thresher is 500r/min, the threshing gap is 10mm, the feeding amount is 0.8kg/s, the air speed of suction mouth is 8m/s, and the vibration frequency of vibrating screen is 25.12 rad·s-1. The crushing rate Zp is 1.13%, the impurity content Zz is 2.73%, the unthreshed loss rate Sw is 0.07%, the entrainment loss rate Sj is 1.77%, the cleaning loss rate Sq is 1.96%, the spatter loss rate Sf is 0.62% and the total loss rate S is 4.42%. The threshing effect is good, which meets the requirements of buckwheat threshing. The development of this machine will reduce the manual cost of buckwheat threshing, improve the work efficiency, improve the mechanized harvest level of buckwheat, and promote the development of buckwheat industry.

While studying the coating theory, due to the lack of the support of the rapid identification and detection device for coated red clover seeds, for a long time, we have mainly relied on manual visual inspection to sort qualified coated seeds, only relying on human eyes to identify the cause of low efficiency, high wrong classification rate and high labor intensity. In order to identify the coated red clover seeds quickly and efficiently, a set of intelligent identification and detection system for coated red clover seeds was designed. First of all, by building a machine vision shooting platform to ensure that the light source and other shooting conditions are consistent, the images are transmitted to Vision Assistant 2018 for image processing. Secondly, two image processing algorithms are designed to process qualified coated seeds and damaged coated seeds respectively. Finally, an identification and detection algorithm is proposed, which uses LabVIEW2018 as the host computer to identify the qualified number and the damaged number. Taking red clover seeds as the test object, the test results show that the entire system takes about 1 second to collect and process a single image; the recognition accuracy of qualified coated seeds and damaged coated seeds is above 96% and 85%. The identification and detection system realizes the nondestructive detection of coated seeds, and provides theoretical basis and technical support for the later research on the optimal seed coating process, deepening the theoretical research of the coating machine and improving the degree of automation.

The farmland in Xinjiang of China is mainly sandy loam soil, on which the crops are subject to flat planting with mulched film. Before planting, the soil should go through deep ploughing in a short operation period, thus there is high demand on the high-speed plow and it is necessary to optimize the plow based on tillage resistivity to improve its working performance. In view of optimal design of the surface of high-speed reversible plow, simulation test was adopted to optimize the resistivity model, then finite element method was used to test the force condition of the plow. At last, the tillage resistivity of the plow after optimization was tested by soil bin test. Test results showed that, at tilling depth of 300 mm, tilling speed of 12 km/hm, and when the plow height was 250 mm with cutting angle of 37° and dozer angle of 84°, the plow achieved the optimal tillage resistivity and the optimal combination was 2.85 N/cm2; at tilling depth of 300 mm, soil moisture content of 17%, and soil compactness of 220 N/cm2, the maximum tensile stress on the surface of the plow was 115.61 MPa and total deformation was 2.869 mm; the maximum flexible strain of the plow was 9.38e-4. Soil bin test showed that, at tilling depth of 300 mm, dozer angle of 84°, the optimized high-speed reversible plow reduced the tillage resistance by 17.9% compared with common high-speed reversible plow made in China, and can provide reference to the design of high-horsepower tractors.

In order to improve the automation level of the leveling system of crawler tractor, the adaptive leveling control system is designed and studied for the developed leveling device. The overall scheme of the leveling control system is determined. The system hardware is designed and selected, and the control algorithm of the leveling control system is designed by using the proportional algorithm. The designed leveling control system is composed of real-time detection part, control part, driving part and display part. The system can detect and control the tractor inclination angle in real time, and monitor inclination angle and leveling time in real time. The results of the leveling control system performance test are shown: the leveling accuracy and time of lateral slope and longitudinal slope increase with the increase of tractor body inclination angle; The leveling accuracy and stability of longitudinal slope are better than that of lateral slope leveling, and the leveling speed is higher than that of lateral slope leveling; The coordination leveling accuracy is higher than the independent leveling accuracy of lateral slope and longitudinal slope, and the collaborative leveling accuracy of longitudinal slope is obviously better than its independent leveling accuracy; The leveling control system can independently complete the leveling work according to the actual working conditions of the crawler tractor, and the leveling accuracy can reach within 1°, the leveling time is within 0-6s; The leveling accuracy and time can meet the design requirements.

Cucurbitaceae is widely planted and its fruits have great economic value. Object detection is one of the key aspects of cucurbit harvesting. In this paper, four models, YOLOv3, YOLOv4, YOLOv5s and improved Resnet_YOLO, were used to detect mixed bitter melon, cucumber, white melon, and "Boyang 9" melon fruits. Fruit images of bitter melon, cucumber, white melon and "Boyang 9" melon were collected under different natural conditions for model training. The results showed that "Boyang 9" melon had the best overall detection results among the four cucurbit species, with the highest AP and F1, 0.99 and 0.94 respectively. The YOLOv5s model performed best among the four models: the best weights size was the smallest at 14MB; the better mAP value of 0.971 for all classes of cucurbits; and the fastest detection speed with fps of 90.9 . This paper shows that four types of cucurbit fruit images, bitter melon, cucumber, white melon, and "Boyang 9" melon, can be detected based on deep learning methods for hybrid detection.

This study focusses on the development of a low-cost Internet of Things (IoT) system for semispherical solar dryers to dry arabica coffee beans. The temperatures and relative humidity (Rh) of a solar dryer room are measured using a DHT22 sensor module. The moisture content of hard arabica coffee beans is calculated by measuring the mass of the dried product using the load cell sensor module. All detected data are then sent using wireless networks and saved on a database cloud server. Tests are conducted to evaluate the uniformity of the DHT22 sensor module in a semispherical solar dryer, measure the temperature and Rh and reduce the mass of the dried coffee beans. The performance of the DHT22 sensor module at the uniformity testing stage shows promising results in terms of temperature and Rh, with standard deviations of 0.46 and 3.55, respectively. In addition, the performance of the semispherical solar dryer in relation to the drying kinetics of arabica coffee beans is evaluated. Arabica coffee beans are dried from 49.59% (w.b.) to 10% (w.b.) moisture content within 69 h. In addition, the drying kinetics of coffee arabica beans are investigated. Three models are compared with experimental data on arabica coffee beans dried in a semispherical solar dryer. The Page model is selected to represent the thin layer drying behaviour of arabica coffee beans.

In order to realize the mechanical direct seeding of precision rows and hills in rice field, a rotary precision hill direct seed-metering device for rice was designed. Through designing the key components of seed-metering device and analyzing its working principle, the main factors and critical conditions affecting the seed-metering performance were obtained. Using the secondary rotation combination test, taking the rotation speed of seed-metering disc and seed capacity height as the test factors, and the re-broadcasting rate, seed-metering qualified rate and miss-seeding rate as the indexes, the seed-metering performance was experimentally studied by using the JPS-12 seed-metering device tested. Design-Expert 6 0.10 software was used to analyze the test data to obtain the mathematical model between factors and indexes. The test results show that when the speed of the seed-metering plate was 24.60r/min and the seed capacity height was the radius of the seed-metering disc, the qualified rate of seed-metering was 94.83%, the re-broadcasting rate was 3.43%, and the miss-seeding rate was 1.74%. The seeding performance meets the agronomic requirements of rice seeding, and provides a reference for the design of the whole machine.

Precision fertilization is one of the important links in the precision agricultural operation system. In recent years, the demand for precision fertilization in facility greenhouse has become more and more urgent. As such, this paper designs an accurate and practical fertilization on-line monitoring system. The system adopts capacitance conversion chip PCAP01 and SCM STM32F103C8T6 to build a capacitance detection circuit. The effective acquisition of differential capacitance sensor microcapacitor signal output under this system is realized. The response relationship between the mass flow and the sensor capacitance output was studied, and a linear fitting model of fertilization was established. According to the prediction, the model determination coefficient was 0.9997. The experiment shows that the system has good adaptability to ambient temperature. The average measurement error is 1.13%, which meets the technical requirements of flow measurement. The capacitive fertilization online measurement system provides an effective way for the on-line acquisition of fertilization flow. It is of great significance for the implementation of high-precision variable fertilization.

The final composition of volatile components in the process of oxidative pyrolysis depends on the temperature level of the process. The gas output increases with the growth of hydrogen, methane and heavy hydrocarbons concentration in the process of pyrolysis in the range of 200-500°C. In this case, there is a noticeable decrease in undesirable impurities in the output of carbon dioxide and nitrogen in the fuel gas. The obtained data on the dynamics of thermal decomposition of biomass under heating conditions reflect the complex dependence of the yield of total gas individual components both on time and on the temperature of the process. The more volatiles contained in the source fuel, (the other things being equal) the faster the gas mixture ignites, and the more intensely it burns out. The composition and temperature of the gas mixture affects the pressure drop and auto-ignition temperature in the pyrolysis chamber. It was found that the lowest self-ignition temperature of a gas mixture is 490°C. A series of experiments to determine the critical condition for self-ignition at a constant temperature of 490°C and various initial pressures of the mixture (100-300 kPa) was carried out. It was found that the transition from a smooth increase in pressure of 90 kPa to an explosive one (up to 300-400 kPa) depends on the composition and temperature of the gas mixture. Therefore, the composition of the gas and its ignition temperature can be controlled by adjusting the mode of pressure increase in the reactor.

For rice ratooning, the lateral bud germination of the rice stubble after the first harvesting can be used to continue the next growing season, but the first harvesting machinery will crush and damage the rice stubble, resulting in the reduction of yield in the ratooning season. Righting the rolled stubble can reduce this loss, and thus a double-chain finger grain lifter was designed in this study. Then, a kinematic model and motion trajectory curve of the grain lifter was established. The influence law of the chain speed, chain spacing and the number of fingers of the rear righting chain was determined. Furthermore, taking into account the success rate and the rate of secondary damage of the righting, a full-factor bench test was performed. The best operating characteristics of the grain lifter are: chain speed of 345 r/min, adjacent chain spacing of 300 mm, and the number of gears and fingers on the rear righting chain of 3. The success rate and the secondary damage rate of the righting is 90.05% and 1.72%, respectively. A field verification test was conducted, with an average success rate of 55%. The results of this study can provide valuable reference for the righting technology of rolled rice stubble and promote the whole mechanized production of ratoon rice.

Fluid seeding is a new technology for drought resistance, water saving and yield increase in modern agriculture. To improve the uniformity of fluid seed metering of millet, the mechanical stirring device was added to the metering device, and the single-factor tests were carried out on the size parameters of the pump tube, the installation position and the parameters of mechanical stirring. The stirring speed, the ratio between the length of stirring paddle and the diameter of seed box and distance between the pump tube and the stirring paddle were selected as independent variables, and the right rate of hill distance, right rate of seeds per hill and rate of no seed hill were selected as response values. According to the test design principle of Central Composite Design, a response surface analysis method was used to establish mathematical models between each experimental factor and performance index, and the influencing factors of fluid seed metering were analyzed. The single-factor test results showed that when the pump tube was installed on the side of the seed box, and its inner diameter and wall thickness were 4.8 mm and 1.6 mm, respectively, the seeding performance was better. The response surface test results showed that the selected factors all have an influence on the performance of millet fluid seed metering, and the optimal stirring parameters were the stirring speed of 30 r/s, the ratio between the length of stirring paddle and the diameter of seed box of 0.69, and distance between the pump tube and the stirring paddle of 0.11 cm. The verification test was conducted under these parameters, and the right rate of hill distance, right rate of seeds per hill and rate of no seed hill were 94.14%, 84.24%, and 2.21%, respectively, and the error from the predicted values was less than 4%. The performance indexes of fluid seed metering were improved compared with the fluid seed metering device without stirring device, indicating that the optimized stirring parameters can improve the performance indexes of millet fluid seed metering. This study can provide a reference for the research and development of key technologies and equipment for precision fluid seed metering of millet.

To solve the problems such as low film recovery rate and high soil content of the recovered film of the surface residual film recycling machine, the parameters of the vegetable surface residue recycling machine were optimized. After modeling and theoretical analysis of the loosening shovel and film sweeping device, the key structural parameters of the machine were determined. The Box-Benhnken Design analysis test results in Design-Expert were used to establish the comprehensive effects of speed, rotational speed, and angle of membrane picking device on the recovery and soil content. Then Matlab was adopted to analyze the law of the comprehensive influence of three factors on two responses. The most significant factor affecting pickup net rate J was rotational speed Y2, and the most significant factor affecting soil percentage was the angle Y3 of the film picking device. By optimizing the experimental results by Design-Expert, the optimum operating parameters of the machine were obtained as follows: the forward speed of the machine was 3.2km/h, the revolving speed was 631.95r/min, the angle of the film picking device was 65.4°, the scavenging rate J and soil rate H of the residual film recycling machine were 87.084% and 10.382%, respectively.

The peculiarities of microbial plant protection products from pests and diseases allow the use of thin-walled fermenters in their production, in which there is no sterilisation under high pressure. The article is devoted to the development of the cleaning in place system for such fermenters. Experimental studies have been carried out to ensure a pasteurising effect when treating the fermenter with heated sterile water and a nutrient medium concentrate obtained from the sterilizer. Its parameters: its volume, temperature, the time delay have been determined. There is proposed a hardware diagram of the fermentation plant, consisting of an industrial steriliser and a thin-walled fermenter. The cleaning procedure is combined with the main technological process and does not require additional equipment. The production tests have confirmed the cleaning efficiency.

To simulate the interactions between the coated fertilizer particles and the fertilizer discharging components accurately, the coated fertilizer contact parameters were calibrated using the discrete element method (DEM). Based on the angle of repose test, single-factor simulations were performed on the coefficient of restitution (COR), coefficient of static friction (COSF) and coefficient of rolling friction (CORF) between particles, and the internal relationship between the level change of each factor and the static angle of repose (SAOR) was determined. The CCD test was used to calibrate the contact parameters between particles. When the COR, COSF and CORF between particles are 0.625, 0.175, and 0.037, respectively, the simulation value of SAOR is 24.173°, and the relative error from the real value is 1.230%, which indicates that the calibrated fertilizer particle contact parameters are accurate and reliable.

Aiming at the problems of large loss rate and high damage rate during buckwheat threshing, an inner and outer roller buckwheat thresher was designed. The device is mainly composed of an inner roller and an outer roller, the inner roller is a rod-tooth combination roller, and the outer roller is a grid roller, the inner and outer rollers can be rotated independently. The outer roller is supported on the friction wheels and the supporting wheels, and driven to rotate by the friction wheel transmission system. The compression device is installed at the top to prevent the outer roller from slipping during the rotation. During working, the materials enter between the inner and outer rollers and the separation of grains and stems under the brushing and kneading action of the inner and outer rollers takes place. In order to push the materials between the inner and outer rollers smoothly, a double spiral blade type screw feeding device was designed. By establishing a mathematical model of material pushing, the screw feeding device has a material conveying speed of 1.87 m/s and a conveying capacity of 4.29 kg/s. In order to study the threshing performance, the threshing device was installed on the basis of the Kubota 688 tracked type combine to complete a prototype of a tracked buckwheat combination harvester. Field tests show that the grain impurity rate is 6.50%, the grain damage rate is 1.42%, the threshing loss rate is 0.25%, the cleaning loss rate is 1.01%, the direct loss rate of the header is 2.43%, and the total machine harvest loss rate is 3.69% at the working speed of 0.53 m/s and the feeding rate of 0.41 kg/s. The test results provide a basis for the improvement of buckwheat mechanized harvesting machinery.

To study the interaction between the tractor and the field terrain on which the tractor operates, the characteristics of tractor vibrations excited by the measured profiles were analyzed by simulations and experiments. The results show that the theoretically calculated values of the tractor vibrations excited by the field road profiles, including the natural frequencies of the tractor’s center of gravity, acceleration RMS values of the tractor axles, and the wheel dynamic loads, were close to the measured values, with an error range of 3.5% to 10.9%. Considering the filtering effect of large tractor tires on the measured road profiles, these errors are within an acceptable range. The results confirm the validity of the methodology presented in this paper for investigating the tractor vibrations caused by measured profiles as excitations.

To solve the problem of mechanized weeding in trunk type pear orchard, combined with the technology of stubble elimination and hydraulic obstacle avoidance, the authors designed an obstacle avoidance compound mower. This paper carried out a field performance evaluation test to verify its usefulness. Six indexes were tested to evaluate its working performance. The results were: inter-row crushing rate of 89.99%, intra-row miss cutting rate of 2.42%, stubble stability coefficient variation of 4.25%, working efficiency of 0.32 hm²/h, fuel consumption of 16.25 L/hm², profitable area of 0.75 hm². The study could provide a reference for orchard mechanized weeding.

Reducing potato tuber injury rate is responsible for optimal design of potato harvester , one of the most important goals.To assess the influence of various factors on potato tubers impact damage,the physical model of potato tuber collision was constructed in terms of the deformation and deformation energy analysis during the collision. Secondly, the orthogonal trial was conducted.the impact material, potato varieties,potential energy,impact angle were selected as factors,meanwhile,the comprehensive damage index(DI) was taken as the evaluation index.The results showed that the damage degree of potato tuber decreases with the reduction of impact material hardness, potential energy, and collision angle.When the impact material is a plank, the potential energy is 1.2j, the type of potato is Lishu 6, and the collision angle is 0 °,the comprehensive damage index is the lowest, 0.0055.According to the result of orthogonal test, the regression mathematical model was obtained.At the same time,verification tests were performed.The results of verification tests showed that the average error between the predicted data of the comprehensive damage index that was calculated by the regression mathematical model and the experimental data was 5.22%.

The Internet of Things (IoT) based system was assembled to monitor the moisture of soils for both indoor and outdoor uses. The SKU:SEN0193 capacitive soil moisture sensor exhibited a linear response to a variation in water volume added to the soil. Microcontroller Arduino NodeMCU was used with ESP8266 Wi-Fi module to transfer the sensing data in real-time and the soil moisture data was displayed by the Blynk application on a smartphone. When the moisture dropped under the pre-defined threshold, the user was informed via the Line application and able to remotely trigger the irrigation pump.

Organic fertilizer applicator currently has poor versatility toward different properties. A solid-liquid mixed fertilizer device is designed based on the numerical simulation method of solid-liquid two-phase flow. Based on the parameters analysis and viscosity measurement of different organic fertilizer particles, the ribbon-screw type agitator was selected as the basic structure. Using Box-Behnken, three test factors including agitator speed, the mixture ratio of fertilizer and water, agitator height were determined, the agitator was optimized with the test evaluation indexes, the density variation coefficient, and agitator shaft power on 10 mixing planes in the agitator. The result showed that the rotating speed was 80 r/min, the mixing ratio of fertilizer and water was 1.2, and the agitator height was 700 mm, the working parameter combination is optimal. A coarse particle solid-liquid two-phase flow model of the fertilizer discharge pump was established, to obtain the external characteristic curve of the fertilizer pump and analyse the influence of different mixing ratios of fertilizer and rotation speed on the fertilizer pump. In order to prevent the separation of fertilizer and water and achieve better effect, 1140 r/min was comprehensively determined as the working speed of the fertilizer pump. The strength of the agitator meets the working requirements. The solid-liquid deep fertilizer device text bench for organic fertilizer was set up under the optimal working parameters, the result shows that the research results can provide a reference for the design of organic fertilizer solid-liquid mixing fertilizer applicator.

In order to find out the influence rule of threshing system parameters on threshing effect and the optimal parameter combination, the cylinder-concave clearance adjustment device is realized by "Front and back two hydraulic cylinders + Slide rail", the deflector angle adjustment device is realized by "Hydraulic cylinder driving hinge rotation" and the threshing separation device inclination angle adjustment device is realized by "Front adjustable double head pull rod". Multi-objective optimization test was carried out. The experimental results showed that the significant order of the influence of various factors on the grain breakage rate was rotational speed of roller, threshing separation device inclination angle, feeding rate, deflector angle and cylinder-concave clearance. The order of significance of the influence on uncleaned material rate was rotational speed of roller, cylinder-concave clearance, deflector angle, threshing device angle and feeding rate. According to the multi-objective parameter optimization analysis, the optimal operation parameter combination of corn threshing was determined. Under this parameter combination condition, model verification test and field optimization test were carried out. Compared with the field test value after parameter optimization, the grain breakage rate decreased from 4.018% to 3.462%, and the uncleaned material rate decreased from 0.292% to 0.218%.

Anti-blocking and seedbed cleaning are one of the key process in no/minimum till seeding in the Northwest arid area in China. Soil tillage performance and straw cutting performance such as tillage depth stability, straw cutting ratio, torque requirement are important indexes that influence anti-blocking and seedbed cleaning performance. In order to investigate the performance of rotation type anti-blocking device of no/minimum till seeder under different operation parameters, this paper designed a rotation type anti-blocking device test bench. It mainly comprises frame, torque sensor, speed sensor, speed-adjustable motor, straw fixture, rotation blades and land wheel, its working width was 1100 mm. The torque requirement could be determined with torque sensor and rotation speed could be determined with proximity speed sensor. The test bench could hitch with test vehicle of soil bin to conduct experiment. With the test vehicle, travel speed could be adjusted; with the speed adjustable motor, rotation speed (0-300 r/min) could be adjusted; besides, operation performance of different rotation type device can be determined by changing the device. Soil bin experiment of idling test, tillage test and straw cutting performance test was conducted taking rotation speed as testing factors and torque and straw cutting performance as response indicators. Results showed that tillage depth stability of the test bench was 87.2%, and it could satisfy the test requirement and operation steadily. Results of the tillage experiment showed that torque requirement of tillage and idling test both increased with the increase rotation speed significantly; results of the straw cutting test preliminarily found that the critical cutting speed under supported cutting was between 100-200 r/min under the given condition. This study could provide reference for the performance research for anti-blocking device of no/minimum till seeder.

At present, there is a lack of accurate discrete element simulation model and parameters in the optimization research and development of key components such as soil contact of seedbed preparation equipment in Huang Huai Hai double cropping production area, which hinders the optimization and improvement of equipment operation effect. In this paper, the discrete element method is used to study the interaction between soil-touching components and wheat straw-soil mixture to improve the performance of equipment. Firstly, the Hertz-Mindlin with JKR Cohesion contact model is selected for the wheat straw-soil mixture to calibrate the parameters. Then, the method of combining physical test and simulation test is used to calibrate the parameters, the cylinder lifting method is used to determine the buildup angle of wheat straw soil mixture, and the Plackett-Burman screening method and the steepest climbing test are used to determine the optimal combination range of soil-straw static friction coefficient, soil-straw dynamic friction coefficient and soil-soil dynamic friction coefficient contact model parameters. Using Box-Behnken test, the regression equation of the stacking angle of wheat straw soil mixture was obtained, and the variance and interaction effect of the regression model were analysed. The regression model was used to find the optimal solution in Design-Expert software with an angle of repose of 41.23°, which yielded a soil-straw static friction factor of 0.072, a soil-straw dynamic friction factor of 0.78, and a soil-soil dynamic friction factor of 0.068, with an angle of repose error of 1.43%, indicating that the contact model parameters are reliable, and the parameters can provide a reference and theoretical basis for the study of the key components of the seedbed preparation equipment such as touching soil in the Yellow and Huaihai Sea two-maturity zone.

The paper presents the experimental validation of two mathematical models describing biomass powders compaction (a model that expresses the final density of pellets as determined by the final pressure applied during the process, the initial material moisture and the initial density of the material, but also a mathematical model obtained through dimensional analysis, using ? theorem, which expresses the density of pellets as determined by pressure, heat, the initial density of the material, the pelleting speed of and the initial volume of the material), through experimental researches using a ring die pelleting equipment. The results showed a strong correlation between the data estimated theoretically and the experimental data, but also a strong influence of biomass material initial moisture on the density of the pellets obtained.

In this paper, the vertical disk mechanical seed-metering device is taken as the object to optimize the design of seed holding ring. The laboratory test is carried out with seed-metering test bench and high-speed camera system; and the influence law of starting and ending angle, front inclination angle and flexible buffer of seed holding ring on the seed filling performance is studied. The ending angle of seed holding ring shall be consistent with seed throwing angle of seed-metering device, and the starting angle of seed holding ring has a significant effect on seed filling performance. The quality of fill index will first increase and then decrease, reaching the maximum at 35.7°; while miss fill index will first decrease and then increase, and the multiple fill index will be 0% when the starting angle is greater than 50°; and seed damage index will first decrease and then increase. In order to improve seed filling performance, the front end of seed holding ring is treated with inner chamfering. The larger the angle is, the lower the quality of fill index, the higher the multiple fill index and the lower the miss fill index, but the seed damage index will also increase. By setting a flexible buffer in the front end of seed holding ring, the seed damage index can be effectively reduced. When the buffer is 60mm, the seed can be cleaned smoothingly, and the seed damage index will be 0%.

In order to address the problems of low efficiency and low degree of mechanization of artificial soil clearing of the grapevines in spring in Xinjiang grape growing regions, a grapevine cold-proof soil clearing machine was designed. The machine is mainly composed of a frame, gearbox, suspension device, soil clearing parts, hydraulic system and mechanical transmission system, etc. The motion track of the soil clearing parts was analyzed to obtain the key factors affecting the performance of the grapevine cold-proof soil clearing machine that were determined. The three-factor, three-level quadratic regression orthogonal experiment was carried out with the forward speed, soil clearing parts’ diameter and rotation rate of soil clearing parts as factors and the soil clearing distance was used as evaluation index. The results showed that the order of influence on the soil clearing distance was rotation rate of soil clearing parts > forward speed> soil clearing parts diameter. The parameters were optimized based on response surface method with the following results: the rotation rate of soil clearing parts speed was 277.7 r/min, the forward speed was 3.5 km/h, and the soil clearing parts diameter was 681.7 mm. The validation experiment was carried out with the optimal parameters’ combination. The soil clearing distance was 85.44 cm, which was consistent with the predicted results of the model. This research results can provide reference for the development of other types of grapevine soil clearing machine.

An experimental study of the wind flow concentrator of a new design using the wind tunnel of subsonic speeds was carried out. Experimental studies in the wind tunnel were performed at an air flow velocity of 1 m/s. The fields of velocity and pressure distribution in the areas in front of the wind flow concentrator and in its central part are obtained. Based on the obtained data in the Mathcad, contour graphs are constructed, which show the distribution of wind flow velocities and pressures in the investigated part of the wind flow concentrator. As a result, it was obtained that in the area of the wind turbine blades there is an increase in the velocity of air masses by 4 times compared to the air velocity at the entrance to the wind flow concentrator. The proposed design of the wind flow concentrator makes it possible to increase the efficiency of the wind turbine and receive electric energy at low wind speeds, when the bladed wind turbines do not generate electricity. Verification of experimental data with data of numerical modeling of hydrodynamics in the wind flow concentrator is carried out. The evaluation of the use of wind flow concentrator to increase the efficiency of wind turbines with a vertical axis of rotation is carried out.

In order to address the problems of low efficiency and low degree of mechanization of artificial soil clearing of the grapevines in spring in Xinjiang grape growing regions, a grapevine cold-proof soil clearing machine was designed. The machine is mainly composed of a frame, gearbox, suspension device, soil clearing parts, hydraulic system and mechanical transmission system, etc. The motion track of the soil clearing parts was analyzed to obtain the key factors affecting the performance of the grapevine cold-proof soil clearing machine that were determined. The three-factor, three-level quadratic regression orthogonal experiment was carried out with the forward speed, soil clearing parts’ diameter and rotation rate of soil clearing parts as factors and the soil clearing distance was used as evaluation index. The results showed that the order of influence on the soil clearing distance was rotation rate of soil clearing parts > forward speed> soil clearing parts diameter. The parameters were optimized based on response surface method with the following results: the rotation rate of soil clearing parts speed was 277.7 r/min, the forward speed was 3.5 km/h, and the soil clearing parts diameter was 681.7 mm. The validation experiment was carried out with the optimal parameters’ combination. The soil clearing distance was 85.44 cm, which was consistent with the predicted results of the model. This research results can provide reference for the development of other types of grapevine soil clearing machine.

Structural and motion parameters of screen surface have an important impact on the screening quality. In order to reduce the loss rate and impurity rate of buckwheat threshing material in the screening process and improve the screening performance of the vibrating screen, the planar square hole sieve, round hole sieve, non-planar convex-column sieve, pit sieve, and wave sieve were designed. Screening test was conducted on buckwheat threshing material under different screen structure based on the discrete element method (DEM). The results showed that the screening effect of convex-column sieve was the best, followed by pit sieve, and they were better than the traditional planar sieve. In single factor screening test of convex-column sieve, the ratio and height of convex column have significant influence on screening performance. Convex column rate, convex column height in a certain range were advantageous for screening. The results can lay a foundation for the determination of optimal parameter of screen structure and motion, and also provide a theoretical basis for the design of screening and cleaning equipment for buckwheat.

In the paper we presented a comparative analysis of the effect of the refrigerant used on the operation and performance of a heat pump with water-water and heat regeneration. Various sensitivity studies are presented comparatively for some eco-friendly refrigerants (R290, R600a, R454C, R152a) and R407C. Based on the exergetic analysis, the exergy destruction and loss were estimated for each device, depending on the destination and the operating regime. Graphic and numerical results are presented. In conclusion, a comparative analysis of the defined performance coefficient based on energy and exergetic efficiency is presented. The interest of the study is important due to the applicability of geothermal heat pumps in the field of air conditioning of residential and industrial buildings but also in agriculture for animal farms, for drying some agricultural products in a climate with controlled temperature and relative humidity, in addition the water can be used in summer for irrigation.

To improve the ditching performance of high-firmness grassland, a bionic root cutter based on the contour curve model of Prosopocoilus astacoides jaw was designed, as well as a grassland root-cutting and ditching device combining the bionic root cutter with the core-share opener. The grassland ditching experiment investigated the horizontal working resistance, ditching stability, and soil disturbance of the three ditching parts. According to the trial results, when the core-share opener was used for ditching in high-firmness grassland, the ditching stability was poor, the working resistance was high, and the grassland was severely damaged. Compared with the independent configuration of the core-share opener, the ditching performance can be significantly improved by installing a root cutter in front of the core-share opener, and the effect of installing the bionic root cutter was better than that of an ordinary triangular root cutter. When the ditching depth was 5cm, 10cm, and 15cm, the ditching stability coefficient of the root-cutting and ditching device increased by 16.67%, 9.54%, and 6.18%, respectively, the horizontal working resistance reduced by 58.73%, 28.15%, and 19.84%, respectively, and the soil disturbance area reduced by 30.58%, 23.73%, and 20.21%, respectively.

Because of the low impurity removal rate and high damage rate of the potato combine harvester during the working process, a new type of impurity removal device for the potato combine harvester was designed. The device was mainly composed of retaining plates, impurity removal rollers, smooth rollers, and a control system. To determine the best working parameters of the device, the rotational speed of the rollers, the distance between two rollers, and the inclination angle of the device were used as the test factors. The impurity removal rate and damage rate were employed as the evaluation indexes. Then, the single factor test and the second rotation orthogonal regression test were performed. The optimum combination after parameter optimization was determined to be as follows: rotational speed of the rollers was 113.4 r/min, the distance between the two rollers was 97.5 mm and the inclination angle of the device was 10.4°. The corresponding impurity removal rate was 95.12%, and the damage rate was 0.54%. The device can better meet the requirements of impurity removal operations.

Buckwheat huller is the key equipment of the buckwheat rice processing and its performance is directly related to the quality and yield of buckwheat rice. The key working parts of the sand disc sheller are a pair of parallel sand discs. The structure and the working parameters of the sand discs are the key factors affecting the shelling performance. In this paper, the effect of rotating speed of sand disc, shelling clearance, grain size of sand disc and width of the working face on the shelling performance are experimentally investigated. The results show that the rice yield and relative broken rice rate increase with the increase of the rotating speed of the lower sand disc, and the relative broken rice rate increases sharply when the speed reaches a certain value. With the linear increase of the shelling clearance, the rice yield and the relative broken rice rate are first decreased rapidly, and then decrease slowly. The smaller the particle size of the sand disc is, the higher the rice yield and the relative broken rice rate are, and the influence of the lower sand disc is obviously greater than that of the upper one. Properly widening the width of working face will increase the rice yield but the width tends to have little influence on the rice yield when it increases to a certain extent, and its change has a small impact on the relative broken rice rate. According to the results of single factor test and orthogonal test, the sheller can achieve a better shelling performance and work efficiency when the grain size of the upper sand disc is F24, the grain size of the lower sand disc is F36, the shelling clearance is 5 mm, the rotating speed of the sand disc is 950 r/min, and the width of the working face is 2 cm