Internal defects such as browning of the flesh and blackening and rot of the ovary of pear can be easily developed because of the inadequate environmental conditions during the storage and distribution of fruit. The quality assurance system for the agricultural product is to be settled in Korea. All defected agricultural products should be excluded prior to the distribution to enhance the commercial values. However, early stage on-line defect detection of agricultural product is very difficult and even more difficult in a case of the internal defects. The goal of this research is to develop a system that can detect and classify internal defects of agricultural produce on-line using VIS/NIR transmittance spectroscopy. And Shingo pear, which is one of the famous species of Korean pear, was used for the experiment. Soft independence modeling of class analogy (SIMCA) algorithm was employed to analyze the transmittance spectroscopic data qualitatively. On-line classification system was constructed and classification model was developed and validated. As a result, the correct classification rate (CCR) using the developed classification model was 96.1 ％.

In Korea, quality evaluation of dried oak mushrooms are done first by classifying them into more than 10 different categories based on the state of opening of the cap, surface pattern, and colors. And mushrooms of each category are further classified into 3 or 4 groups based on its shape and size, resulting into total 30 to 40 different grades. Quality evaluation and sorting based on the external visual features are usually done manually. Since visual features of mushroom affecting quality grades are distributed over the entire surface of the mushroom, both front (cap) and back (stem and gill) surfaces should be inspected thoroughly. In fact, it is almost impossible for human to inspect every mushroom, especially when they are fed continuously via conveyor. In this paper, considering real time on-line system implementation, image processing algorithms utilizing artificial neural network have been developed for the quality grading of a mushroom. The neural network based image processing utilized the raw gray value image of fed mushrooms captured by the camera without any complex image processing such as feature enhancement and extraction to identify the feeding state and to grade the quality of a mushroom. Developed algorithms were implemented to the prototype on-line grading and sorting system. The prototype was developed to simplify the system requirement and the overall mechanism. The system was composed of automatic devices for mushroom feeding and handling, a set of computer vision system with lighting chamber, one chip microprocessor based controller, and pneumatic actuators. The proposed grading scheme was tested using the prototype. Network training for the feeding state recognition and grading was done using static images. 200 samples (20 grade levels and 10 per each grade) were used for training. 300 samples (20 grade levels and 15 per each grade) were used to validate the trained network. By changing orientation of each sample, 600 data sets were made for the test and the trained network showed around 91 % of the grading accuracy. Though image processing itself required approximately less than 0.3 second depending on a mushroom, because of the actuating device and control response, average 0.6 to 0.7 second was required for grading and sorting of a mushroom resulting into the processing capability of 5,000/hr to 6,000/hr.

In the agricultural field, a machine vision system has been widely used to automate most inspection processes especially in quality grading. Though machine vision system was very effective in quantifying geometrical quality factors, it had a deficiency in quantifying color information. This study was conducted to evaluate color of beef using machine vision system. Though measuring color of a beef using machine vision system had an advantage of covering whole lean tissue area at a time compared to a colorimeter, it revealed the problem of sensitivity depending on the system components such as types of camera, lighting conditions, and so on. The effect of color balancing control of a camera was investigated and multi-layer BP neural network based color calibration process was developed. Color calibration network model was trained using reference color patches and showed the high correlation with L*a*b* coordinates of a colorimeter. The proposed calibration process showed the successful adaptability to various measurement environments such as different types of cameras and light sources. Compared results with the proposed calibration process and MLR based calibration were also presented. Color calibration network was also successfully applied to measure the color of the beef. However, it was suggested that reflectance properties of reference materials for calibration and test materials should be considered to achieve more accurate color measurement.

An autonomous tractor requires not only automatic steering (automatic guidance) but also automated control of tractor functions and implement operations. Examples of tractor functions include engine throttle, transmission speed, and 3-point hitch position. Implement operations include tillage, planting, and cultivating. This article provides an overview of a map-based methodology used for the implementation of autonomous field operations of agricultural tractors. The procedure for developing autonomous field operation maps were presented, and several important issues in the implementation of map-based autonomous operations were discussed. These issues included combining field operation maps, position offset, and real-time sensing and update of field operation maps.

Achievements in the real-time soil spectro-photometer are: an improved soil penetrator to ensure a uniform soil surface under high speed conditions, real-time collecting of underground soil reflectance, getting underground soil color images, use of a RTK-GPS, and all units are arranged for compactness. With the soil spectrophotometer, field experiments were conducted in a 0.5 ha paddy field. With the original reflectance, averaging and multiple scatter correction, Kubelka-Munk (KM) transformation as soil absorption, its 1st and 2nd derivatives were calculated. When the spectra was highly correlated with the soil parameters, stepwise regression analysis was conducted. Results include the best prediction models for moisture, soil organic matter (SOM), nitrate nitrogen (NO$_3$-N), pH and electric conductivity (EC), and soil maps obtained by block kriging analysis.

A mathematical model was developed for estimating the mechanical interrelation between characteristics of soil and main design factors of a tracked vehicle, and predicting the tractive performance of the tracked vehicle. Based on the mathematical model, a computer simulation program (TPPMTV) was developed in the study. The model considered the continuous change in tension for the whole track of a tracked vehicle, the analysis of shape and tension of the track segment between sprocket and first roadwheel, and the side thrust on both sides of grouser by the active earth pressure theory in predicting the tractive performance of a tracked vehicle. Also, the model contained not only sinkage depth of the track but the pressure distribution under the track in analyzing the side thrust. The effectiveness of the developed model was verified by performing the draw bar pull tests with a tracked vehicle reconstructed for test in loam soil with moisture content of 18.92％. The predicted drawbar pulls by the model were well matched to the measured ones. Such results implied that the model developed in the study could estimate the drawbar pulls well at various soil conditions, and would be very useful as a simulation tool for designing a tracked vehicle and predicting its tractive performance.