A Study on Improving the Performance of the Planting Device of a Vegetable Transplanter

Abstract

Purpose: Due to the growing demand for vegetables all year round, the use of vegetable transplanters has become widespread in agricultural production. However, the type of planting device used for the transplanter affects its overall efficiency. Problems such as inaccurate planting angles and inefficiently wide transplanting hole diameters of the planting device has limited the efficient use of some vegetable transplanters. Our goal in this study was to improve the efficiency of the transplanter by analyzing and modifying the linkages of the planting device of a vegetable transplanter. Methods: Because of its widespread usage in Korea, a linkage-type planting device was used for the experiment, which was divided into three parts. In the first part, the physical trajectory of the tranplanter was extracted using a CCD (charge-coupled device) camera and analyzed. In the second part, a simulated trajectory was developed using Recurdyn 3D software. The simulated and actual trajectories were then compared and analyzed. In the third part, based on the results of the comparison, improvements were made on the linkages of the transplanter and a demonstrative exercise was conducted. Finally, in experiment B, the performance was evaluated through an exercise using both the existing and improved planting devices. Results: The results demonstrated that the average planting angle was improved by 4.96 mm, the soil intrusion diameter was improved by 11.30 mm, and the planting depth was improved by 0.68 mm. Conclusion: It was concluded that the efficiency of a vegetable transplanter can be improved by modifying the linkages through simulations and field demonstrations