• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.113-121
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• 2010

Land consolidation ratio for rice paddy fields reached to 64.7% as of 2008 in Korea, and this also accelerated automation of field machinery. Especially, research on autonomous tractors has been continuously conducted. Tillage is one of the labor-, energy-, and time-consuming field operations. Most important requirements for autonomous tractors would be travelling path planning and electronic system to control the tractor to follow the path. The instruction of computer was required to conduct the tillage operation in field with unmanned traveling tractor. This instruction was coincidently used in the control of the traveling path and the motion of tractor. The objectives of the study were 1) to characterize and model tillage operating sequence, turning pattern, and 2) to develop tillage path formation programs for autonomous tractor and evaluate the performance.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.161-172
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• 2018

Purpose: During tillage operations, the selection of a working machine (tool) depends on the soil conditions as well as the type of tillage operation to be performed. The goal of this research was to ascertain the effects of varying working machine parameters of a compact disc harrow on tillage operations under various soil moisture content (SMC) conditions. Methods: The working machine parameters were the disc spacing and machine speed. The tillage parameters under investigation were the soil inversion ratio (SIR), tillage cutting depth (TCD), and soil clod breakage ratio (SCB). To determine the SIR, the areas of the white regions before and after tillage were obtained. The ratio of the difference of the areas of the white regions before and after tillage to the area of the white regions before tillage was considered as the SIR. The SCB was obtained as the ratio of the weight of soil clods after sieving with a mesh size of <0.02 m to the total weight of the soil clods before sieving. The soil TCD was measured using a tape measure at random points after the tillage operation. The resulting data were statistically analyzed in a one-way analysis of variance. Results: The highest soil inversion was achieved when the machine speed was 0.2 m/s with the disc spaced at 0.2 m in the 16.5% SMC. At a 0.4-m/s machine speed and 0.3-m disc spacing the highest soil breakage was achieved in the 26.5% SMC. The highest TCD was achieved at a 0.2-m/s machine speed and 0.2-m disc spacing in the 16.5% SMC. Conclusions: It was concluded that varying the working machine parameters, such as the disc spacing and machine speed, could significantly affect the soil inversion and soil clod breakage; however, it had no significant impact on the TCD.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Agricultural Machinery Conference
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• 1993.10a
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• pp.1053-1062
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• 1993

The effect of loading speed on soil failure was studied by using a high speed triaxial compression test. Tests were conducted at 0.35-6.2m/s loading speed to compress soil specimens of sandy loam at different moisture contents. The axial stress at fracture increased with increase in loading speed up to certain critical speeds, however they decreased as the speed up to certain critical speeds, however they decreased as the speed increased further. Experiments were also conducted in the field of sandy loam soil with the vibrating tillage tool. Tests were done at 0.33-0.85m/s tractor speed oscillating frequency 13.7hz and oscillating amplitude 59mm. The maximum oscillating velocity of tillage tool was 2.5m/s. It was observed that for the oscillating operation, initially draft slightly increased with increase in forward speed and then it decreased .For the non-oscillating operation, draft increased continuously with increase in forward speed. Approach of studying soil failure in the laboratory test can be related to the field experiments.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.223-229
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• 2007

This study was conducted to develop a 2 row type band furrow tiller for a walking cultivator. The tillage and weeding operations in the furrow of dry fields has been done manually or chemical herbicide has been applied. The application of herbicide induces soil pollution and manual operation requires heavy labor. This 2-row type implement was developed to substitute this manual operation and to minimize soil pollution. The developed implement was composed of power transmitting device, tilling device, frame and tail wheel. The max. plowing width and depth were 300mm and 180mm, respectively. The revolutions of the hexagonal shaft and the tillage shaft were $227{\sim}376rpm$ and $355{\sim}590rpm$, respectively. The adequate working speed was $0.50{\sim}0.83m/s$ and the field capacity was $0.17{\sim}0.28hr/10a$.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.343-347
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• 2011

Precise traveling and tillage operation using an autonomous tractor is difficult with the data from the Geographic Information System(GIS) because it does not include the data of the width and inclination of the field to work. The minimum turing radius of the tractor could be different from the value presented by the tractor maker due to the moisture content of the field soil or operators' skill. Two programs were developed to process data obtained with the tillage path measuring system: one for recognizing coordinates of the 4 field corners, and the other for recognizing the minimum turning radius of the tractor.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Agricultural Machinery Conference
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• 2000.11b
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• pp.178-187
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• 2000

The tillage operation by rotary implements is widely done in Korea. In the case of rotary implements, the tillage depth control system is one of important implement control systems. A contact type-sensor for measurement of the ground height was designed and fabricated to evaluate the possibility of application of the sensor on the tillage depth control system. Indoor experiments were conducted to obtain static and dynamic detection characteristics of the sensor under various conditions; 1) several moisture contents for four soil samples, 2) two soil surfaces with a designed configuration, 3) four heights of the sensor from the soil surface, 4) five traveling speeds of the carrier on which the sensor was attached, and so on. The experimental results showed the detection characteristics of the sensor sufficient as the ground height sensor of the tillage depth control system.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.521-528
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• 2002

Rotary and plow implements are mainly utilized for the tillage operation in Korea, and a implement control system for agricultural tractors was designed and fabricated to improve the working accuracy and efficiency. The control system was composed of three units: 1) sensors fur detection of angle of liftarm, draft force, engine rpm, tillage depth and so on, 2) a controller, and 3) hydraulic circuits, which included solenoid valves and so on, for operation of three point linkage and implements. The control system can control the speed(high and low speed) of implements by adjusting input flow rates of the hydraulic cylinder which was controled by two speed valve, which was composed of a solenoid valve and a orifice. Indoor experiments were conducted to evaluate response characteristics of the designed implement control system under experimental conditions of various engine nm, two kinds of input flow rates of the cylinder and some input frequency. The results of experiments showed the response characteristics sufficient to use as the implement control system fur agricultural tractors.

• Journal of Drive and Control
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.54-61
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• 2022

This is a basic study analyzing emissions of an agricultural tractor during tillage operations. In this study, CO, THC, NOx, and PM considered as emission factor were analyzed during plow and rotary tillage operation by the tractor. Engine torque and rotational speed were measured through ECU. Engine power was calculated using engine torque and rotational speed. The emissions was calculated based on the number of units, rated power, load factor, and operating time. Results showed that the load factor was calculated almost twice, which was higher than 0.48. It was also observed that the emission of the tractor was variable for different agricultural operations because tractor loads were different based on operations. There was a difference in emissions due to differences in plow and rotary working hours. To estimate the emission of agricultural tractor based field operations in detail, it is necessary to consider TAF (Transient Adjustment Factor) and DFA (Deterioration factor). In the future, TAF and DFA will be considered to estimate emissions of the agricultural tractor. Finally, results of this study can contribute to the literature to estimate tractor emissions accurately.

• Journal of Drive and Control
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.36-45
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• 2022

The aim of this study was to verify an E-driving system of a 44 kW-class electric tractor using agricultural workload data. Workload data were acquired during field test (plow tillage, rotary tillage, loader operation, field driving, asphalt driving) using a conventional tractor with a load measurement system. These workload data were converted to data of a 44 kW-class tractor based on the load factor of the engine. These data were used to verify the design of the E-driving system of an electric tractor. High-load operations such as plow tillage, rotary tillage, and loader operation could be performed at stage L and stage M. High-speed operation (asphalt driving) could be effectively performed at stage H using a rated rotational speed of the motor. As a result, the E-driving system of the electric tractor was possible to perform all major agricultural operations according to gear stages of range shift. Based on results of this research, we plan to develop an electric tractor equipped with an E-driving system and conduct research on actual vehicle verification in the future.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.22 no.11
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• pp.1509-1517
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• 2013

So far, most studies associated with soil carbon sequestration have been focused on long term aspect. However, information regarding soil carbon sequestration in short term aspect is limited. This study was conducted to determine changes of soil organic carbon content and stability of carbon in response to compost application rate and tillage management during rice growing season(150 days) in short term aspect. Under pot experiment condition, compost was mixed with an arable soil at rates corresponding to 0, 6, 12, and 24 Mg/ha. To determine effect of tillage on soil carbon sequestration, till and no-till treatments were set up in soils amended with application rate of 12 Mg/ha. Compost application and tillage management did not significantly affect soil organic carbon(SOC) content in soil at harvest time. Bulk density of soil was not changed significantly with compost application and tillage management. These might result from short duration of experiment. While hot water extractable organic carbon(HWEOC) content decreased with compost application, humic substances(HS) increased. Below ground biomass of rice increased with application of compost and till operation. From the above results, continuos application of compost and reduce tillage might improve increase in soil organic carbon content and stability of carbon in long term aspect.