Development and Experiment of an Innovative Row-Controlled Device for Residual Film Collector to Drive Autonomously along the Ridge.

The field harvesting process of harvesting machinery is often affected by high workload and environmental factors that can impede/delay manual rowing, thereby leading to lower efficiency and quality in the residual film collector. To address this challenge, an automatic rowing control system using the 4mz-220d self-propelled residual film collector as the experimental carrier was proposed in this study. Cotton stalks in the ridges were chosen as the research object, and a comprehensive application of key technologies, machinery, and electronic control was used, thereby incorporating a pure tracking model as the path-tracking control method. To achieve the automatic rowing function during the field traveling process, the fuzzy control principle was implemented to adjust the forward distance within the pure tracking model dynamically, and the expected steering angle of the steering wheel was determined based on the kinematic model of the recovery machine. The MATLAB/Simulink software was utilized to simulate and analyze the proposed model, thus achieving significant improvements in the automation level of the residual film collector. The field harvesting tests showed that the average deviation of the manual rowing was 0.144 m, while the average deviation of the automatic rowing was 0.066 m. Moreover, the average lateral deviation of the automatic rowing was reduced by 0.078 m with a probability of deviation within 0.1 m of 95.71%. The research study demonstrated that the designed automatic rowing system exhibited high stability and robustness, thereby meeting the requirements of the autonomous rowing operations of residual film collectors. The results of this study can serve as a reference for future research on autonomous navigation technology in agriculture.

Design and Experiments of a Real-Time Bale Density Monitoring System Based on Dynamic Weighing.

Bale density is one of the main performance indicators to measure the quality of baler operation. In this study, a real-time baler bale density monitoring system was designed for the problem of difficult real-time measurement of bale density on round balers. Firstly, a weighing calculation model for the rolling and sliding stage of the bale was established, and the dynamic characteristics during the contact between the bale and the inclined surface were analyzed based on ADAMS dynamics simulation. Then, a real-time monitoring system for the bale density based on the contact pressure of the inclined surface, attitude angle measurement and hydraulic monitoring of the cylinder was constructed, and the accuracy of the weighing model was confirmed. The system was used to observe and analyze the changes in the pitch angle of the carrier table and the oil pressure in the rod chamber of the backpack cylinder during the operation of the round baler. Finally, the monitoring system was calibrated and the dynamic calibration equations were obtained. The results show that the maximum error between the calculated value of the original weighing model and the actual weight was 3.63%, the maximum error of the calculated value of the weighing model corrected by the calibration equations was 3.40% and the measurement accuracy could be satisfied. The results show that the system was highly accurate and met the practical needs of bale weighing in the field.