TAMARIND SEED PROCESSING AND BY-PRODUCTS

Tamarind (Tamarindus indica) is found in many countries of Asia, Africa and South America. Tamarind can tolerate 5-6 months of drought conditions; hence tamarind crop can grow in any type of climate. Tamarind pod contains 30% pulp, 40% seed and 30% shell by weight. Conventionally tamarind pulp being used for preparing different food products and medicated products. Tamarind seed and shell occupies 70% of the pod weight. Tamarind pod shell can be used as fuel, absorbent for the removal of methylene blue and amaranth dyes from aqueous solutions. Tamarind seed can be used after processing i.e after removing outer layer of the seed in food industries, textile industries, craft industries, furniture industries. Some of the uses of tamarind by-products are discussed in this paper

Physiological evaluation of manual operated weeders and sprayers on farm use

Ergonomics is the scientific study of relationship between man and his working environment, which includes ambient conditions, tools and materials, methods of work and organization of work. Two sprayers and weeders namely, knapsack sprayer, foot operated sprayer, wheel hoe and power weeder were evaluated with respect to overall tiredness and body part discomfort experience by the subjects while spraying and weeding in field.Nine agricultural workers who were free from cardiac and other ailments were selected for operating weeders and sprayers. A polar heart rate monitor was used to measure physiological response of the operators during field operation. During the experiments, the external parameters of ambient temperature and relative humidity and light intensity of the atmosphere were measured with Thermal hygrometer. Each subject was asked to operate the weeders and sprayers in the experimental field for 30 min and heart rate and energy expenditure rate were recorded for every 1 min interval. The oxygen consumption rate was computed by using recorded H.R values. The same procedure was repeated at pre-determined times of a day for all the subjects. The data was analyzed statistically to find the optimum values.Nine agricultural workers who were free from cardiac and other ailments were selected for operating weeders and sprayersA polar heart rate monitor was used to measure physiological response of the operators during field operation. During the experiments, the external parameters of ambient temperature and relative humidity and light intensity of the atmosphere was measured with Thermal hygrometer. Each subject was asked to operate the weeders and sprayers in the experimental field for 30 min and heart rate and energy expenditure rate was recorded for every 1 mininterval.  The oxygen consumption rate was computed by using recorded H.R values. The same procedure was repeated at pre-determined times of a day for all the subjects. The data was analysed statistically to find the optimum values

Design and selection of agricultural machinery using a quality function deployment technique

The demand of agricultural machinery has been increasing day by day due to lack of availability of human power and increasing the cost of cultivation. The agricultural machinery development is hundreds of time what they were several years ago. The growth of agro industry depends on the farmers; so the production of farm products must be based on farmer’s requirement. Even though they are producing required products still there is a gap between farmers and designers. The most agricultural machinery operator having suffered injuries on shoulder, wrist and elbow, most researchers have concentrated their attention on propelling efficiency or biomechanics issues, not operation interface based on operator s’ requirements. Though some innovative changes have been introduced in the engineering aspect, they are not as popular as expected in rural and urban areas because of the lack of knowledge from farmers. Hence a study was proposed to compile the farmer’s requirements and designers possibilities by using a simple technique of Quality function deployment (QFD). A survey was conducted to identify the farmers, dealers problems and requirements by a group of technical people and the opinions were compared and finally the majority opinions were sorted out and fitted in QFD approach to identify the major needs and problems of farmers for designing and development of machinery based on their opinions’ at the production level of agro industry

Estimation of plant nitrogen content using digital image processing

A manually operated four wheel test trolley was designed and developed for acquiring outdoor color images of plant under controlled illumination to predict crop nitrogen content in field.  This set up consists of a camera to capture the plant image, four lights to control illumination and a laptop for processing the signal.  The developed unit was evaluated rigorously for paddy crop for four observations at fifteen days interval after transplantation.  The results were compared with the chlorophyll content of the crop measured by SPAD meter and the chemical analysis of plant leaf.  The processing of the color plant image was done in MATLAB 7.0 program.  Various features such as R, G, B, normalized ‘r’ and normalized ‘g’ were analyzed for both the processes.  Regression models were developed and evaluated between various image feature and the plant nitrogen content and observed that, the minimum accuracy was found to be 65% with an average accuracy of 75% (Standard Deviation +1.9), actual and predicted values of nitrogen percent were linearly correlated with R2 value (0.948), this showed that the plant nitrogen content can be successfully estimated by its color image feature.   Keywords: precision agriculture, digital image processing, site specific nitrogen applicatio

Reduction of hand transmitted and whole body vibrations experienced by tractor operators by using piezo crystal material

 A study was proposed to investigate the effects of vibration on tractor operator’s health attempting a biodynamic and physiological approach.  The source vibration levels at steering wheel and seat for the hand transmitted and whole body vibration during different tractor operations were measured.  Two isolators, one commercially available, made of styrene butadiene rubber (SBR) and the other custom designed, made of piezo-electric material embedded in SBR were tested for attenuation of vibration.  It was observed that an average 40% reduction in vibration intensity was experienced with installation of custom-designed isolator underneath the tractor operator’s seat.  The measured values of vertical vibration at operator’s seat were found to be within 8 h fatigue decreased proficiency boundary limit.  Incorporation of custom-designed isolator reduced the muscle load to a maximum of 44.37% in erector spinae muscle during first tilling operation, while flexor carpi radialis in transport attained 23.03% reduction.   Keywords: Piezo crystal, vibration, transmissibility, accelerometer, isolators

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Not AvailableA manually operated four wheel test trolley was designed and developed for acquiring outdoor color images of plant under controlled illumination to predict crop nitrogen content in field. This set up consists of a camera to capture the plant image, four lights to control illumination and a laptop for processing the signal. The developed unit was evaluated rigorously for paddy crop for four observations at fifteen days interval after transplantation. The results were compared with the chlorophyll content of the crop measured by SPAD meter and the chemical analysis of plant leaf. The processing of the color plant image was done in MATLAB 7.0 program. Various features such as R, G, B, normalized ‘r’ and normalized ‘g’ were analyzed for both the processes. Regression models were developed and evaluated between various image feature and the plant nitrogen content and observed that, the minimum accuracy was found to be 65% with an average accuracy of 75% (Standard Deviation ±1.9), actual and predicted values of nitrogen percent were linearly correlated with R2 value (0.948), this showed that the plant nitrogen content can be successfully estimated by its color image feature.Not Availabl

PORTABLE TRACK SUSPENSION ROBOT WITH ARM

Tracked locomotion offers superior mobility characteristics over wheeled or legged vehicles for locomotion in unstructured environment. Design of track suspension robot with arm deals with a tracked robot with suspension capable of moving on any terrain specially designed for military purpose and rescue operations in remote areas

Development and Optimization of Operational Parameters for Tractor-Operated Boom Sprayer for Field Crops

Spraying is a crucial practice in agriculture, especially for the application of chemical pesticides that play a vital role in protecting crops. However, there has been a worrisome rise in the annual consumption of pesticides, leading to significant concerns. The excessive use of these pesticides has resulted in substantial wastage, which is a cause for alarm. To address these issues and enhance the efficiency of pesticide application, a tractor-operated boom sprayer was developed to ensure effective spraying. The study focused on evaluating and optimizing three operational factors: spacing between nozzles (30, 40, 50 cm), spray boom height (80, 90, 100 cm), and pressure (17.5, 21.0, 24.5 kg.cm-2). A factorial Completely Randomized Design (CRD) approach was employed, 81 experiments were conducted and data were analyzed statistically by using the SPSS software package to investigate the effect of operational parameters on the performance of the sprayer. The results revealed that the operational parameters were significantly influencing the swath width and percent of overlap during spraying. The optimum combination of operational parameters was obtained using the R-software, the optimum combination for obtaining maximum swath width and minimum overlap is spacing between nozzles at 50 cm, spray boom height at 90 cm, and operating pressure at 24.5 kg.cm-2. The swath width and overlap at optimum combination were 7.77m and 43.12%, respectively. Implementing this optimal combination significantly improved the performance of the spraying activity, ensuring better coverage