Parameterization of Food Wastes to Develop an Automatic Recycling System for Livestock and Poultry Feed

Food wastes are known as one of the big concerns in urban management because of grain consumption gain, environmental pollution, and traditional waste management methods. The reuse of restaurant waste can reduce the cost of producing animal food production. This study attempts to find related parameters to use in the development of an automatic recycling machine and also a suitable method for food waste management (wastes of restaurants in universities and other academic environments) to use in various animal diets. Determination of various parameters including the percentage of dry matter (using a dryer), protein (using Kjeldahl test), fat (using Soxhlet extractor), and energy (using Calorimeter bomb test) were done in this research. Relevant parameters were also extracted from common diets used in livestock and poultry feed and then compared with the parameters obtained from the wastes. The results showed the average value of dry matter in different diets by 82.89% is three times more than this parameter in extracted food by 29.42%. The protein percentage, fat percentage, and energy value in extracted food (25.59%, 13.26%, and 4.41 cal/Kg, respectively) is sufficient to use in different diets. The average value of the protein percentage, fat percentage, and energy value in different diets is 23.75%, 4.27%, and 3.50 cal/Kg, respectively. The archived results indicated that it is possible to use processed food waste in livestock and poultry diets and these substances can be a good alternative to some of the diets. The output of this research will use in developing a sustainable waste material recycling system. Finally, the extracted parameters are used in designing a recycling system

重量作物のための収穫ロボットの開発 [全文の要約]

この博士論文全文の閲覧方法については、以下のサイトをご参照ください。https://www.lib.hokudai.ac.jp/dissertations/copy-guides

Design and Experimental Study on an Innovative UAV-LiDAR Topographic Mapping System for Precision Land Levelling

Topographic maps provide detailed information on variations in ground elevation, which is essential for precision farmland levelling. This paper reports the development and experimental study on an innovative approach of generating topographic maps at farmland-level with the advantages of high efficiency and simplicity of implementation. The experiment uses a low-altitude Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) as a platform and integrates Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) distance measurements with Post-Processing Kinematic Global Positioning System (PPK-GNSS) coordinates. A topographic mapping experiment was conducted over two fields in Henan Province, China, and primitive errors of the topographic surveying data were evaluated. The Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) between elevation data of the UAV-LiDAR topographic mapping system and ground truth data was calculated as 4.1 cm and 3.6 cm for Field 1 and Field 2, respectively, which proved the feasibility and high accuracy of the topographic mapping system. Furthermore, the accuracies of topographic maps generated using different geo-spatial interpolation models were also evaluated. The results showed that a TIN (Triangulated Irregular Network) interpolation model expressed the best performances for both Field 1 with sparse topographic surveying points, and Field 2 with relatively dense topographic surveying points, when compared with other interpolation models. Moreover, we concluded that as the spatial resolution of topographic surveying points is intensified from 5 m × 0.5 m to 2.5 m × 0.5 m, the accuracy of the topographic map based on the TIN model improves drastically from 7.7 cm to 4.6 cm. Cut-fill analysis was also implemented based on the topographic maps of the TIN interpolation model. The result indicated that the UAV-LiDAR topographic mapping system could be successfully used to generate topographic maps with high accuracy, which could provide instructive information for precision farmland levelling

Autonomous Robotic System for Pumpkin Harvesting

The present study focused on the development, optimization, and performance evaluation of a harvesting robot for heavyweight agricultural products. The main objective of developing this system is to improve the harvesting process of the mentioned crops. The pumpkin was selected as a heavyweight target crop for this study. The main components of the robot consist of mobile platforms (the main robot tractor and a parallel robot tractor), a manipulation system and its end-effector, and an integrated control unit. The development procedure was divided into four stages: stage I (designed system using Solidworks), stage II (installation of the developed system on a temporary platform), stage III (developed system on an RT-1 (Yanmar EG453)), and stage IV (developed system on an RT-2 (Yanmar YT5113)). Various indicators related to the performance of the robot were evaluated. The accuracy of 5.8 and 4.78 mm in x and y directions and repeatability of 5.11 mm were observed. The harvesting success rate of 87~92%, and damage rate of 5% resulted in the evaluation of the final version. The average cycle time was 35.1 s, 42.6 s, and 43.2 s for stages II, III, and IV, respectively. The performance evaluations showed that the system’s indicators are good enough to harvest big-sized and heavy-weighted crops. Development of the unique and unified system, including a mobile platform, a manipulation system, an end-effector, and an integrated algorithm, completed the targeted harvesting process appropriately. The system can increase the speed and improve the harvesting process because it can work all day long, has a precise robotic manipulation and end-effector, and a programmable controlling system that can work autonomously

Effect of Different Working and Tool Parameters on Performance of Several Types of Cultivators

In this study, the effects of tillage depth, forward speed and soil moisture content during the cultivator operation on the draft force, energy requirement, and soil disturbance were investigated using five types of cultivators. The experiments were performed in the factorial design based on the randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications in loamy sand soil. Different soil moisture contents (factor A) from 5 to 16% for dry soils and 17 to 35% for wet soils, forward speed of tractor (factor B) at four levels of 1.16, 1.61, 1.97, and 3.82 km/hand working depth (factor C) at two levels of 10 and 20 cm were selected. The analysis of variance results showed that the main effects on the draft force, energy requirement, and soil disturbance were significant. With increasing the forward speed, working depth, and blade width, the draft force, energy requirement, and soil disturbance significantly increased. As the soil moisture content increased, the amount of draft force decreased. The average maximum draft force and energy requirement are related to the crescent cultivator and the lowest ones to the cultivator with a sweep blade. The maximum amounts of draft force and energy requirement at the speed of 3.82 km/h were 296.702 N and 0.03708 MJ in the dry conditions, respectively. The average maximum draft force and energy requirement are related to the crescent cultivator and the lowest ones to the cultivator with a sweep blade. The average maximum draft force and energy requirement in dry soil at 10–20 cm depth were 313.534 N and 0.039204 MJ, respectively, and the lowest values were 189 N and 0.019512 MJ in wet soil at the depth of 0–10 cm, respectively. The highest mean value of the area obtained from the profiles was 254.62 cm2 related to the dry conditions and forward speed of 3.82 km/h, and the lowest mean value of the area obtained in the wet conditions was 199.6 cm2 at the forward speed of 1.16 km/h. The highest average area obtained from the profiles was observed in the dry conditions for C4 as 434.813 cm2 and the lowest one was 57.94 cm2 in the wet conditions for the cultivator with a chisel blade and L-shaped shank. The highest average area created by cultivators at the 10–20 cm depth in the dry conditions was 332.875 cm2 and the lowest one at the 0–10 cm depth in the wet conditions was 123.55 cm2. The results of this study can help the designers and manufacturers of agricultural machinery to effectively design and manufacture the machinery with optimum draft and energy requirements