Proceedings of the European Conference on Agricultural Engineering AgEng2021

This proceedings book results from the AgEng2021 Agricultural Engineering Conference under auspices of the European Society of Agricultural Engineers, held in an online format based on the University of Évora, Portugal, from 4 to 8 July 2021. This book contains the full papers of a selection of abstracts that were the base for the oral presentations and posters presented at the conference. Presentations were distributed in eleven thematic areas: Artificial Intelligence, data processing and management; Automation, robotics and sensor technology; Circular Economy; Education and Rural development; Energy and bioenergy; Integrated and sustainable Farming systems; New application technologies and mechanisation; Post-harvest technologies; Smart farming / Precision agriculture; Soil, land and water engineering; Sustainable production in Farm buildings

A Preliminary Study of Seeding Absence Detection Method for Drills on the Soil Surface of Cropland Based on Ultrasonic Wave without Soil Disturbance

Seeding absence detection is essential during seeding operation, since it affects the subsequent crop performance. Existing methods cannot detect the seeding absence position immediately after planting without soil disturbance. In this paper, a nondestructive detection method for finding out the seeding absence position of drills is put forward. It focuses on the echo energy reflected by the circle energy inside the tilled cropland soil, to which the sensor is attached directly on the soil surface, not on ultrasonic waves that penetrate the soil-seed medium below tilled soil. Firstly, the energy circle is used to analyze the sound field distribution characteristics of the sensor in cropland soil. According to the size difference of the seeding absence length value and energy circle diameter, the total energy for three different cases with eight steps for each case is discussed in detail, and in order to find the left and right boundary lines and the length value of seeding absence, a program is designed to help with calculating four base positions automatically. At last, the nondestructive detection method is evaluated by the experiments, and the results demonstrate that the proposed method is accurate, efficient, and convenient in finding the seeding absence position of drilling seeds on the soil surface without soil disturbance