DETERMINING MACHINE EFFICIENCY PARAMETERS FOR A CITRUS CANOPY SHAKER USING YIELD MONITOR DATA

作者：Shamshiri R; Ehsani R^*; Maja J M; Roka F M

来源：Applied Engineering in Agriculture, 2013, 29(1): 33-41.

• Citrus mechanical harvesting
• Field machine index
• Field efficiency
• Yield data
• GPS data
• Operational analysis

A yield monitoring system was used to collect yield data from a commercial citrus canopy shaker during the 2008 harvesting season. A computer algorithm was developed to preprocess the yield data before estimating field efficiency (E-f) and field machine index (FMI) measures of the mechanical harvesting equipment. Total time of the harvesting operation was calculated and divided into primary and support functions, which corresponded to the effective harvesting time and machine time losses, respectively. Time losses related to row-end turning were determined using an algorithm based on linear regression and geometrical methods. Each component of the harvesting operation was then expressed as a percentage of total field time. It was observed that FMI varied from 80% to 98% with 4% standard deviation. Turning time varied from 3% to 8% of the total operational time. Further data analysis showed an exponential relationship between FMI and row-end turning time with R-2=0.97. It was also observed that the actual travel distance and the effective time of operation have linear relationships with the theoretical distance of operation with R-2=0.96 and 0.93, respectively.

• 出版日期2013-1