Abstract: Cotton, as a strategic crop, plays an important role in providing human food and clothing need, because of its oil, protein, and fiber. Iran has been one of the largest cotton producers in the world in the past, but unfortunately, for economic reasons, its production is reduced now. One of the ways to reduce the cost of cotton production is to expand the mechanization of cotton harvesting. Iranian farmers do not accept the function of cotton harvesters. One reason for this lack of acceptance of cotton harvesting machines is the number of field losses on these machines. So, the majority of cotton fields are harvested by hand. Although the correct setting of the harvesting machine is very important in the cotton losses, the morphological properties of the cotton plant also affect the performance of cotton harvesters. In this study, the effect of some cotton morphological properties such as the height of the cotton plant, number, and length of sympodial and monopodial branches, boll dimensions, boll weight, number of carpels and bracts angle were evaluated on the performance of cotton picker. In this research, the efficiency of John Deere 9920 spindle Cotton picker is investigated on five different Iranian cotton cultivars. The results indicate that there was a significant difference between the five cultivars in terms of machine harvest efficiency. Golestan cultivar showed the best cotton harvester performance with an average of 87.6% of total harvestable seed cotton and Khorshid cultivar had the least cotton harvester performance. The principal component analysis showed that, at 50.76% probability, the cotton picker efficiency is affected by the bracts angle positively and by boll dimensions, the number of carpels and the height of cotton plants negatively. The seed cotton remains (in the plant and on the ground) after harvester in PCA scatter plot were in the same zone with boll dimensions and several carpels.
Abstract: In developing countries, such as Lebanon, the demographic data are hardly available due to the absence of the mechanization of population system. The aim of this study is to evaluate, using only remote sensing data, the correlations between the number of population and the characteristics of roads network (length of primary roads, length of secondary roads, total length of roads, density and percentage of roads and the number of intersections). In order to find the influence of the different factors on the demographic data, we studied the degree of correlation between each factor and the number of population. The results of this study have shown a strong correlation between the number of population and the density of roads and the number of intersections.
Abstract: This paper reviews the different concepts that have been investigated concerning the mechanization of fruit thinning as well as multiple working principles and solutions that have been developed for feature extraction of horticultural products, both in the field and industrial environments. The research should be committed towards selective methods, which inevitably need to incorporate some kinds of sensor technology. Computer vision often comes out as an obvious solution for unstructured detection problems, although leaves despite the chosen point of view frequently occlude fruits. Further research on non-traditional sensors that are capable of object differentiation is needed. Ultrasonic and Near Infrared (NIR) technologies have been investigated for applications related to horticultural produce and show a potential to satisfy this need while simultaneously providing spatial information as time of flight sensors. Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) technology also shows a huge potential but it implies much greater costs and the related equipment is usually much larger, making it less suitable for portable devices, which may serve a purpose on smaller unstructured orchards. Portable devices may serve a purpose on these types of orchards. In what concerns sensor methods, on-tree fruit detection, major challenge is to overcome the problem of fruits’ occlusion by leaves and branches. Hence, nontraditional sensors capable of providing some type of differentiation should be investigated.
Abstract: As a pretreatment process of ballast water treatment, the performance of high gradient magnetic separation (HGMS) technology for the removal of particulates and microorganisms was studied. The results showed that HGMS process could effectively remove suspended particles larger than 5 µm and had ability to resist impact load. Microorganism could also be effectively removed by HGMS process, and the removal effect increased with increasing magnetic field strength. The maximum removal rates for Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) were 4016.1% and 9675.3% higher, respectively, than without the magnetic field. In addition, the superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity of the microbes decreased by 32.2% when the magnetic field strength was 15.4 mT for 72 min. The microstructure of the stainless steel wool was investigated, and the results showed that particle removal by HGMS has common function by the magnetic force of the high-strength, high-gradient magnetic field on weakly magnetic particles in the water, and on the stainless steel wool.
Abstract: The pepper has quite a rich variety. The development of a single harvesting machine for all kinds of peppers is a difficult research topic. By development of harvesting mechanisms, we could be able to facilitate the pepper harvesting problems. In this study, an experimental harvesting machine was designed for chili pepper. Four-bar mechanism was used for the design of the prototype harvesting machine. At the result of harvest trials, 80% of peppers were harvested and 8% foreign materials were collected. These results have provided some tips on how to apply to large-scale pepper Four-bar mechanism of the harvest machine.
Abstract: Metal-net rubber is a new dry friction damping material, compared with the traditional metal rubber, which has high mechanization degree, and the mechanical performance of metal-net rubber is more stable. Through the sine sweep experiment and random vibration experiment of metal-net rubber vibration isolator, the influence of several important factors such as the lines slope, relative density and wire diameter on the transfer rate, natural frequency and root-mean-square response acceleration of metal-net rubber vibration isolation system, were studied through the method of control variables. Also, several relevant change curves under different vibration levels were derived, and the effects of vibration level on the natural frequency and root-mean-square response acceleration were analyzed through the curves.
Abstract: Gladiolus is an important cash crop and is grown
mainly for its elegant spikes. Traditionally the gladiolus corms are
planted manually which is very tedious, time consuming and labor
intensive operation. So far, there is no planter available for planting
of gladiolus corms. With a view to mechanize the planting operation
of this horticultural crop, a prototype of 4-row gladiolus planter was
developed and its performance was evaluated in-situ condition. Cupchain
type metering device was used to place each single gladiolus
corm in furrow at required spacing while planting. Three levels of
corm spacing viz 15, 20 and 25 cm and four levels of forward speed
viz 1.0, 1.5, 2.0 and 2.5 km/h was taken as evaluation parameter for
the planter. The performance indicators namely corm spacing in each
row, coefficient of uniformity, missing index, multiple index, quality
of feed index, number of corms per meter length, mechanical damage
to the corms etc. were determined during the field test. The data was
statistically analyzed using Completely Randomized Design (CRD)
for testing the significance of the parameters. The result indicated
that planter was able to drop the corms at required nominal spacing
with minor variations. The highest deviation from the mean corm
spacing was observed as 3.53 cm with maximum coefficient of
variation as 13.88%. The highest missing and quality of feed indexes
were observed as 6.33% and 97.45% respectively with no multiples.
The performance of the planter was observed better at lower forward
speed and wider corm spacing. The field capacity of the planter was
found as 0.103 ha/h with an observed field efficiency of 76.57%.
Abstract: In this study which has been conducted in Akçasu
Forest Range District of Devrek Forest Directorate; 3 methods (weed
control with labourer power, cover removal with Hitachi F20
Excavator, and weed control with agricultural equipment mounted on
a Ferguson 240S agriculture tractor) were utilized in weed control
efforts in regeneration of degraded oriental beech forests have been
compared. In this respect, 3 methods have been compared by
determining certain work hours and standard durations of unit areas
(1 hectare). For this purpose, evaluating the tasks made with human
and machine force from the aspects of duration, productivity and
costs, it has been aimed to determine the most productive method in
accordance with the actual ecological conditions of research field.
Within the scope of the study, the time studies have been conducted
for 3 methods used in weed control efforts. While carrying out those
studies, the performed implementations have been evaluated by
dividing them into business stages. Also, the actual data have been
used while calculating the cost accounts. In those calculations, the
latest formulas and equations which are also used in developed
countries have been utilized. The variance of analysis (ANOVA) was
used in order to determine whether there is any statistically
significant difference among obtained results, and the Duncan test
was used for grouping if there is significant difference. According to
the measurements and findings carried out within the scope of this
study, it has been found during living cover removal efforts in
regeneration efforts in demolished oriental beech forests that the
removal of weed layer in 1 hectare of field has taken 920 hours with
labourer force, 15.1 hours with excavator and 60 hours with an
equipment mounted on a tractor. On the other hand, it has been
determined that the cost of removal of living cover in unit area (1
hectare) was 3220.00 TL for labourer power, 1250 TL for excavator
and 1825 TL for equipment mounted on a tractor.
According to the obtained results, it has been found that the
utilization of excavator in weed control effort in regeneration of
degraded oriental beech regions under actual ecological conditions of
research field has been found to be more productive from both of
aspects of duration and costs. These determinations carried out
should be repeated in weed control efforts in degraded forest fields
with different ecological conditions, it is compulsory for finding the
most efficient weed control method. These findings will light the way
of technical staff of forestry directorate in determination of the most
effective and economic weed control method. Thus, the more actual
data will be used while preparing the weed control budgets, and there
will be significant contributions to national economy. Also the results of this and similar studies are very important for developing the policies for our forestry in short and long term.
Abstract: Cities expansion, urban travels increase, the
technology development, the automobile price cheapen, and the
families' income ascending cause the considerable increase in
automobile numbers of the city. This fact has led to the traffic
creation and the automobile parking site shortage in the city. Also in
Esfahan metropolis, the parking lots shortage has been the great
problem of this town; in addition, in designing and constructing of
the parking sites the traditional methods are utilized which do not
have a reasonable and optimized usage of the valuable urban lands. In
this article, by introducing the prefabricate mechanized parking
system which is inexpensive, simple and quick, and occupies very
small space, therefore provides the high content of parking site for
the cities, we can eliminate the parking space shortage difficulty of
the cities. The achieved results of this research represent that an
optimized utilization of the existent urban spaces for parking site
construction has not been accomplished. By employing the new
parking site technologies such as mechanization categorized parking
sites and the capacity prefabricate mechanized of each parking space
have become 8 multiples; in this case, the valuable urban lands can
be used in an optimized way.