Dynamic performance of a no-till seeding assembly

doi:10.1016/j.biosystemseng.2017.03.016

Biosystems Engineering

Volume 158, June 2017, Pages 64-75

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biosystemseng.2017.03.016 Get rights and content

Highlights

•
A sensor-frame was developed to acquire geo-referenced field surface profile.
•
Seeder dynamics were captured during seeding operation.
•
A new methodology for measuring geo-referenced seeding depth was proposed.
•
The frequencies of the forces, where seeding depth variation occurs, were defined.

Precise seeding depth plays an important role in achieving reliable germination rate and even plant emergence. In no-till seeding, this aim is more challenging due to the inappropriate response of the machine dynamics to harsh soil conditions, such as compacted soil undulations and stubble. In this paper, a sensor-frame was mounted on a no-till seeder, to measure the field surface profiles during seeding operation. Its accuracy was validated by acquiring the profile of trapezoidal bumps with known dimensions resulting in a root mean squared (RMS) error of 7.3 and 8.7 mm for travelling speed of 2 km h⁻¹ and 10 km h⁻¹, respectively. Strain gauges were used to measure the soil reaction forces, on one of the seeding assemblies during seeding operation at travelling speed of 10 km h⁻¹. After seeding wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), the geo-referenced position of each single seed was measured using a total station, to calculate the seeding depth. The correlation between the seeding depth variation and the developed forces showed that the frequencies of 11.8 Hz and 17.8 Hz of the vertical forces, which corresponded to a wavelength of 0.21 m and 0.14 m, respectively, were responsible for the high variation in seeding depth. For the profile impact forces, these values were equal to 10.7 Hz and 20.6 Hz. The corresponding wavelengths were equal to 0.23 m and 0.12 m. The peak value of seeding depth was detected at a frequency of 8.3 Hz with 0.3 m wavelength for both vertical and impact profile forces.

Introduction

No-till seeding demands a machine that interacts appropriately with harsh soil conditions like compacted soil and plant residues, with the purpose of placing seeds at the optimum depth, which will result in reliable seed germination and even plant emergence (Collins & Fowler, 1996). The seeds should not be too close to the soil surface, in order to avoid seed drying, but also not too deep because then the stored seed nutrients would be inadequate for germination (Özmerzi, Karayel, & Topakci, 2002). Since the seeding depth variation is considerably affected by the machine dynamic response to soil surface undulations, a significant improvement in direct seeding could be achieved by controlling seeding mechanism, regulating the impact of the compacted surface undulations, and optimising the machine dynamics.

The seeding depth does not only depend on the coulter model (Suomi & Oksanen, 2015), but also on the soil type, soil conditions, etc. Therefore, understanding the nature of the soil-machine interaction, in terms of machine dynamic response to soil conditions, is crucial to define the reasons of extreme seeding depth variation (Liu, Chen, & Kushwaha, 2010). This interaction can be characterised by the resulting forces from the soil-tool interface (Chen, Munkholm, & Nyord, 2013). In addition, soil profile undulations and soil resistance, affected by soil physical properties, can be described by the soil reaction forces on the furrow opener, which in turn, influence the mean seeding depth across the seeder width (Fountas et al., 2013). The reaction forces on a furrow opener (e.g. a chisel coulter) can be expressed with its horizontal and vertical components (Abo Al-Kheer et al., 2011) and the responses of profile undulations to machine dynamics could be introduced by the developed forces (Loghin, Ene, Mocanu, & Cäpätinä, 2012). In this study, the total forces acting on the seeding assembly were determined by the vertical, horizontal, and profile impact forces, since the assembly contains an additional packer wheel for adjusting the seeding depth and for compacting the soil.

The furrow opener depth, which also specifies the seeding depth, is not constant even under laboratory conditions (Karayel & Özmerzi, 2008). Even when the seeding depth is manually adjusted by the operator, it is difficult for the machine to keep a precise depth during field operation, as the demand for operational efficiency is maximised with higher driving speeds. The recommended driving speed for seeding machines from many manufacturers is 8–10 km h⁻¹. Nevertheless, the relatively higher travelling speed shows that the mechanical system, in terms of coulter assembly, is not able to behave as proposed and to follow the fine contour of the field. As a result, the seeding depth varies along the driving line (Suomi & Oksanen, 2015).

Many researches were conducted over the last decades with the aim to reduce the variation of the vertical seed distribution, considering the vertical response of the machine due to soil conditions. An early research by Lawrance (1969) showed that the excessive vertical oscillations of the furrow opening component, which described the motion behaviour of the seed depositing apparatus, were due to the dynamic response of the machine to soil undulations. An assessment regarding the influence of soil surface irregularities on the performance of no-till seeding machines was introduced by Morrison and Gerik (1985). For seed depth characterisation on a standard soil seedbed with well-defined characteristics, like composition and moisture content, a standardised procedure by ISO standard 7256-1 exists (ISO, 1984a). The performance of seeding machines, taking into account the effect of seed type, the slope of the ground, the soil surface condition, and the forward speed, is standardised by ISO standard 7256-2 (ISO, 1984b). However, the conditions that are mentioned in ISO 7256-1 and 7256-2 are not achievable under all field tests. In addition, these standards do not state any ranges regarding the acceptable seeding depth variation (Garrido, Kimberly, Deepa, & Board, 2011). Derpsch et al. (2014) stated that the seed placement, soil conditions, the configuration of the seeder and operation speed, are the important questions of today's research in no-tillage cultivation.

Several studies focused on the experimental comparison of different no-till seeders performance under laboratory conditions (Chaudhuri, 2001) and in-field conditions (Allen, 1988, Doan et al., 2005). However, limited studies have been carried out on assessing only an individual seeding assembly of no-till seeders, under in-field condition. Most of these studies have been conducted using a very common technique for measuring ground truth seeding depth, i.e. measuring the distance of each seed to the soil surface some weeks after seeding from the emerged seedlings. Modern sensors with a high accuracy, such as robotic total stations, whose accuracy has been tested under in-field conditions (Garrido et al., 2015, Paraforos et al., 2015), could provide the actual soil profile that is followed by the packer wheel in real time. This has the advantage that synchronised measurements related to the developed forces on the machine could be analysed to reveal the reason for seeding depth variation.

Recent field experiment performed by Sharipov, Paraforos, and Griepentrog (2016) showed that undulations of the soil surface highly affect machine's performance. In addition, the dynamic behaviour of the seeder that is described by forces, accelerations and tilting, affects the seeding depth, since the dynamic response of the machine is highly influenced by the draught and vertical forces, and the operation speed. Therefore, there is the necessity to accurately measure the seeding depth along with the corresponding forces. A project was set up to optimise a no-till seeder, in terms of vertical motion stability, for reducing the variation of seeding depth under realistic high-capacity performance. With the aim to assess the working quality of the machine, this paper focuses on defining the critical frequencies of the vertical and profile forces that cause seeding depth variation, by correlating the forces with the corresponding surface profile and the geo-referenced seed positions. A sensor-frame for measuring soil surface profiles in absolute geo-referenced coordinates and a new methodology for measuring seeding depth by geo-referencing every seed position should be developed. This should be considered as the first step towards the performance optimisation of a no-till seeder.

Section snippets

Instrumentation and data acquisition

A 12-row no-till seeder with 25 cm inter-row distance (AMAZONEN-Werke H. Dreyer GmbH & Co. KG, Hasbergen, Germany) and a 6210R 156.6 kW tractor (John Deere, Moline, Illinois, USA) were employed, to perform the field experiments. A metal sensor-frame that carried all the necessary sensors was mounted on the main frame of the seeder (Fig. 1), to measure the field surface profiles and the machine dynamics parameters, i.e. accelerations, displacements, and tilting information. Multiple sensors were

Strain to force

A combination of strains $(ε_{1}, ε_{2}, ε_{3})$ was recorded at the three corresponding points of the seeding assembly (Fig. 6) and was used to calculate the vertical forces $(F_{v})$ , draught forces $(F_{d})$ and the profile impact forces $(F_{s p})$ .

Summation moments of the forces at point 1 $(M_{1})$ , point 2 $(M_{2})$ and point 3 $(M_{3})$ (Vable, 2012) were derived to calculate the relationship between strains and forces as follows: $[\begin{matrix} M_{1} \\ M_{2} \\ M_{3} \end{matrix}] = [\begin{matrix} k & m & c \\ d & n & g \\ e & - b & a \end{matrix}] \cdot [\begin{matrix} F_{d} \\ F_{v} \\ F_{s p} \end{matrix}]$ where $a, b, c, d, e, g, k, m, n$ are the measured dimensions of the moments

Validation of the profile sensing system

With the aim to evaluate the influence of the travelling speed on the error resulting from measuring the surface profiles, the elevation profile measurements on the trapezoidal bumps were performed with two different speeds: a slower travelling speed of 2 km h⁻¹ and the travelling speed of 10 km h⁻¹ with which the field experiments were also performed. The elevation profiles from traversing the trapezoidal bumps were obtained by applying Eqs. (5), (7). In Fig. 7, the profile of the trapezoidal

Conclusions

The developed sensor-frame allowed to obtain field surface profiles during seeding operation in absolute geo-referenced coordinates with sufficient accuracy. A new methodology for measuring seed positions in absolute geo-referenced coordinates was proposed to assess the seeding depth variation. The comparison analysis of verifying the correctness of the methodology indicates that the introduced methodology adequately results in measuring the seeding depth. In comparison with the latter, the

Acknowledgement

The financial support of GA nr 213-2723/001–001–EM Action2 TIMUR (Training of Individuals through Mobility to EU from the Uzbek Republic) project is gratefully acknowledged. The authors would like to thank C. Schwarze and G. Bersi for their technical assistance in setting up the sensor system and performing the experiments. We are also immensely grateful to Ch. Gall from AMAZONEN-WERKE H.Dreyer GmbH & Co.KG for providing the machine and assisting during the field experiments.

The project is

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It has been more than 20 years that the ISO 11783 (commonly designated as ISOBUS) was formed and now it is the widely used standard in agricultural machinery communication. As over the last years the industry is actively promoting ISOBUS, a number of sensor and control system appeared that are ISOBUS-compatible. These systems are focused on two main areas: (i) decision-making, where the sensors are usually mounted on the tractor and aim at varying the applied dose rates (seeds, fertilizer, etc.), and (ii) process monitoring, where they are mounted on the implement and monitor (and in some cases control) the proper application of the recommended dose rates. The aim of this review was to investigate the offered sensor and control systems and categorize them based on the performed application in order to better contextualize their importance. The relevant benefits by using them, but also the potential technical constraints based on their measuring elements were identified. The academic advances could not be missing from this review as all these years many researchers conducted ISOBUS-related research. The related publications were initially identified and later categorized from an operation-based perspective into three main research areas: (a) guidance and control, (b) data acquisition and transfer, and (c) data management and analytics. The scientific advances that are described give an insight into what should be expected in the following years in terms of commercially available solutions. Identified gaps and future challenges related to ISOBUS conclude this review providing, thus, expected future technical innovations but also potential research directions.
Implementation of a magnetorheological damper on a no-till seeding assembly for optimising seeding depth
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Despite their aforementioned advantages, there has been no application of an MR damper in no-till seeders aiming to optimise the dynamic responses of the seeder, in terms of a better performance in seed placement. A previous work by Sharipov et al. (2017b) resulted in a correlation value of 0.6 between the seeder performance, in terms of seeding depth variation, and the dynamic response of the seeder to harsh soil conditions. This value can be regarded as sufficient for this type of complex systems with high in-field dynamics.
No-till seeding requires a seeder that can effectively cope with the untilled soil and place the seeds at an optimum depth in order to achieve a reliable germination and rapid plant emergence. This aim is more challenging due to the inappropriate response of the machine dynamics to harsh soil conditions, such as the compacted soil undulations and the presence of the stubble. In this paper, a seeder main frame carrying a seed dose mechanism and two no-till seeding assemblies was developed and designed with multiple sensors, to capture the dynamics of the assemblies together with the corresponding surface profile. A magnetorheological (MR) damper was implemented into one of the seeding assemblies to optimise its dynamics for better seed placement. A number of strain gauges were used to measure the dynamics of the seeding assemblies, like vertical and impact forces during seeding operation at a travelling speed of 10 km h⁻¹. The accuracy of the surface profile sensing system was validated by obtaining the profile of trapezoidal bumps with georeferenced dimensions resulting in a root mean squared error of 9.6 mm and 9.9 mm for the damped and undamped seeding assembly, respectively.
Experiments were performed seeding wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) operation with a target depth of 40 mm with different damping parameters set on the MR damper by feeding its coil with different current values. The position of each single seed within nine 2 m sections was georeferenced using a total station, to calculate the seeding depth for both seeding assemblies. The seeding assembly with the MR damper, excited with 0.5 A, resulted in a better seeding depth variation with a mean value of 39.8 mm, standard deviation of 5.8 mm and 95th percentile of 49.8 mm over that of other current values applied on the MR damped and the original seeding assembly. The dynamics were improved with a reduction of 21.34% and 67.69% in the amplitude of the vertical and impact forces, respectively. The seeding depth error compared to the target depth for the damped seeding assembly (at 0.5 A) was less than 11.9 mm for 95% of the samples, while this figure was equal to 21.3 mm for the undamped seeding assembly.
Modelling and simulation of the dynamic performance of a no-till seeding assembly with a semi-active damper
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Nonetheless, none of the semi-active MR dampers applications can be found in no-till seeder that aim to cope with the response of seeder dynamics to harsh soil conditions. Sharipov et al. (2017b) demonstrated that the seeder’s performance is highly affected by the dynamic response of the seeder to harsh soil conditions. Up-to-date sensors like robotic total stations, inertial measurement units, and laser pointers, whose accuracy has been thoroughly assessed using an industrial robotic arm (Paraforos et al., 2017), made it possible to correctly assess the performance of the seeder in terms of georeferenced seeding depth with the corresponding seeder dynamics.
In no-till seeding, one of the biggest challenges to achieve a reliable seed germination and an even plant field emergence is an extreme variation in the desired seeding depth. This is caused by the inadequate response of the seeder motion dynamics to harsh soil conditions and to high operating speeds. In order to assess and optimise the dynamic response of a no-till seeder, mathematical models were developed for simulating the vertical motion of a coulter assembly. The models included the dynamics of the coulter assembly, with the packer wheel as a passive system, and a semi-active MR (magnetorheological) damper system, which was considered to be located in-between the coulter and the packer wheel. The developed model of the coulter assembly dynamics was validated based on a correlation between the simulated and the measured impact forces and pitch angles. A root-mean-squared (RMS) error resulted from the correlation have increased from 6.84% at the lower speed of 10 km h⁻¹ to 14.5% at the higher speed of 15 km h⁻¹ for the impact forces, from 8.1% at the lower speed of 10 km h⁻¹ to 13.1% at the higher speed of 15 km h⁻¹ for the pitch angle. Conversely, there was a fall in the correlation coefficient from 0.699 to 0.681 for the impact forces and from 0.942 to 0.684 for the pitch angle between the lower speed of 10 km h⁻¹ and the higher speed of 15 km h⁻¹, respectively. Furthermore, all three applied hysteresis models, such as Bingham, Dahl and Bounc-Wen model, for the semi-active MR damper system behaviour demonstrated significant improvements over the passive system model. Among the models, the Bouc-Wen model produced more adequacy of the MR damper behaviour with the highest reduction of 54.1%, 63.3% and 41.2% in the amplitude of the impact forces and 52.3%, 58.2% and 38.1% in the amplitude of the pitch angles at the speeds of 10 km h⁻¹, 12 km h⁻¹ and 15 km h⁻¹, respectively.
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Research PaperDynamic performance of a no-till seeding assembly

Highlights

Introduction

Section snippets

Instrumentation and data acquisition

Strain to force

Validation of the profile sensing system

Conclusions

Acknowledgement

Journal of Terramechanics

Journal of Agricultural Engineering Research

Soil and Tillage Research

Soil and Tillage Research

Soil and Tillage Research

Computers and Electronics in Agriculture

Food Chemistry

Soil and Tillage Research

Journal of Terramechanics

Biosystems Engineering

Journal of Terramechanics

Computers and Electronics in Agriculture

Performance of three wheat seeders in conservation tillage residue

Applied Engineering in Agriculture

Precise seed placement control system for various terrain surfaces

ASABE

Research Paper
Dynamic performance of a no-till seeding assembly