DEVELOPMENT AND EVALUATION OF ELECTRONIC SENSORS BASED INSTRUMENTATION SYSTEM FOR SEED PLANTERS

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2012-07-10
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An electronic sensor based instrumentation system was developed to match the tractor drawn seed planters to improve the seed metering plate accuracy and performance. The present study proposes to develop and evaluate the electronic sensor based instrumentation system to suite to planting machines which will helps in logging and collecting the data without any manual interference while in operation. The data thus collected will indicate the defects in critical components, so that such machine components could be redesigned to improve precision application of seeds. An electronic sensors based instrumentation system for seed counter for maize and castor crops was developed and evaluated both in laboratory and field conditions. The horizontal and inclined plate planter metering mechanisms were developed for testing the test crops by suitably designing seed rotor using experimental test rig in laboratory conditions. The seed rotors were designed and fabricated for maize and castor seeds based on physical dimensions of seeds for horizontal and inclined plate metering mechanism. The developed electronic instrument to count seeds dropped from seed metering mechanisms, counted between 96.88 to 99.55 per cent of the actual (hand counted) seeds dropped. The consistent seeding rate was observed for maize and castor seeds at forward speed of 3.5 km h-1. Seeding rate for horizontal and inclined plate metering mechanisms at the forward speed of 3.5 km h-1 was observed to be 11.13 and 11.18 seeds m-2 respectively for maize while for castor it was 5.58 and 5.63 seeds m-2 respectively in the laboratory condition. Seed spacing interval observed for horizontal plate metering mechanism at the forward speed of 3.5 km h-1 was 201.33 mm for maize and 201 mm for castor while it was 207.01 mm for maize and 207.66 mm for castor in case of inclined plate metering mechanism. Horizontal metering plate recorded more consistent seed to seed spacing interval when compared with the inclined plate metering mechanism in laboratory and field conditions. The seed spacing observed under field conditions in case of horizontal plate mechanism with an average of 202.33 mm and 202.66 mm for maize and castor respectively, where as in case of inclined plate mechanism, an average of 207.66 mm and 207.33 mm against the planter set spacing of 200 mm and 200 mm for maize and castor respectively.
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DEVELOPMENT AND EVALUATION OF ELECTRONIC SENSORS BASED INSTRUMENTATION SYSTEM FOR SEED PLANTERS
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