• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.453-462
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• 1999

At the time of discontinuing the publishing of RDA Journal of Farm management and agricultural engineering the present paper is to review the research results produced since 1962 to 1998. During the three decades, from 1960s to 1980s, the main research efforts were focused o mechanization of rice farming which contributed in food grain productions. In the 1990s, the research direction was shifted to horticultural productions and producing high quality agricultural products. We had put stress on practical use of farm mechanization, mainly on transplanting and seeding operation for rice and upland and horticultural crops productions and harvest and threshing machinery developments, in which we thought our research direction had not been quite right. However, in the future we are going to promote mechanization on livestock and upland crops productions. Furthermore, we have a plan to employ cutting edge technologies in agricultural machinery developments in order to automate and unman all farm operations satisfying the needs of advanced agricultural mechanization technology in the twenty first century.

• Korean Management Science Review
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.73-95
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• 2000

In Korea, the distribution channel for agricultural products is notorious for its complexity and ineffectiveness. In this sense, the Agricultural Cooperative has tried to clarify the distribution channel and reduce its length. However, there still exist much room for improvements. The Internet shopping mall specific for agricultural product, therefore, is drawing much attention because it can reduce the length of distribution channel drastically and improve effectiveness from the distribution perspective. To test the validity of such Internet-driven shopping mall, we gathered questionnaire data from the Internet based Hannaro Shopping Mall which is run directly by the Agricultural Cooperative. We performed experiments respectively for the two groups of operating personnel and consumers. Experimental results showed that several important factors can be identified which are significant statistically and deemed to have meaningful relationship with performance variables. Our results also showed that the Internet shopping mall has a great potential for improving the effectiveness of the distribution channel of the agricultural products.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.53 no.5
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• pp.43-51
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• 2011

Irrigation facilities are spread over demand area in a low density and exposed in the field requiring efficient operation and maintenance. Thus, it could be more efficient to manage an irrigation system when it is with wireless sensor network (WSN) using RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) application. A WSN, a kind of ubiquitous sensor network composed of wireless network, RFID and database management system was developed for agricultural water management in terms of operational status and maintenance requirements. Identification code for RFID tag was designed and an application for RFID reader was developed for field data collection, and a database management system was constructed for managing irrigation facility attributes. The system was installed in I-dong irrigation districts in Gyounggi-province, Korea and the operated results showed the applicability of the WSN for agricultural water management.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.182-190
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• 1996

A macerating technique which can apply to the mechanical production system of the agricultural by-product was developed to increase the utilization of agricultural waste and solve the shortage problem in the forage supply for the livestock production. The macerating method is to shred the agricultural by-product by the two rolls which rotate at different speeds each other. The testing macerator was built and the optimum operating conditions are suggested. Results of this research are as follows: 1. The increase of the base roll speed and speed ratio between two rolls shows the better shredding index but decrease the drying rate. The optimum conditions of the base roll speed and the speed ratio between two rolls for the rice straw are 1200 rpm and 1.7-2.0 respectively. 2. The macerated alfalfa was dried to the 15%(w.b.) within 3 hrs in a field at speed ratio of rolls, 2:1 and base roll speed, 1800rpm. 3. The milled surface and straight knurled surface for the macerating roll have same effect on the drying rate of material. Both rolls have self-cleaning functions during operation.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.531-536
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• 2003

This study was carried out to develop a vacuum nozzle seeder for large seeds and performance was tested on seed feeding, arranging. and sowing peformance. The results of this study were as follows： The operation of feeding device of the seeder was programmed to operate a period of setting time after sowing 6 rows. The setting time was decided based on a discharged seed by the angular speed of feeding roller. The arranging accuracy of 'tuktozwa', 'hukjong' and 'chambak' was 96.4％, 95.2％ and 89.4％ respectively. The working performance was 75.6sheet/hr which was 3.8 times higher than that of manual work. An average seeding rate of 1 grain was 97.8％.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.36 no.6
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• pp.397-406
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• 2011

In this study, surveys on operation status of the 73 tractors with rated power of over 75 kW from six provinces in Korea were performed to obtain basic data required for development and efficient use of the high-power and high-performance tractors. And types of tractors and implements, operation crops, types of operations, annual operation areas, annual operation days, annual operation hours, operation speeds and widths, and problems and improvements in use were investigated. Most (91.7%) of the tractor surveyed were operated for forage and silage crops such as rice straw, whole barley, rye grass, reed canary grass, sudan grass, and the remains were operated for upland crops such as ginseng, sweet potato, potato, chinese cabbage, radish. Main operations of the tractors were cutting, baling, and wrapping for forage crops, plow tillage, rotary tillage, and manure spreading. About half (47.9%) of the tractors were used exclusively for forage crop harvesting such as forage crop cutting, forage baling, and bale wrapping, 24.5% of the tractors were used exclusively for plow or rotary tillage, and 27.4% of the tractors were used for both forage crop harvesting, and plow or rotary tillage. For the tractors with power ranges of 75~83, 89~94, 98~101, 113, 124 kW, average annual operation areas per tractor for plow tillage, rotary tillage, forage crop harvesting (cutting, baling, wrapping), and manure spreading operations were analyzed as 112.6. 144.8, 158.9. 390.0. 215.6 ha, respectively. and total average annual operation area per tractor was 171.3 ha. Average annual operation days per tractor for those operations were analyzed as 24.1, 28.9, 38.3, 55.4, 33.4, respectively, and total average annual operation days per tractor was 33.6. Average annual operation hours per tractor for them were analyzed as 260.0, 321.6, 408.1, 664.8, 413.8, respectively, and total average annual operation hours per tractor for the all tractors was 377.1. Ranges of operation widths of plow tillage, rotary tillage, forage crop cutting, forage baling, bale wrapping, and manure spreading operations were shown as 1.5~2.6, 2.3~3.0, 1.8~3.2, 1.8~2.0, 1.8~2.3, 3.1~6.6 m, respectively. Ranges of operation speed of plow tillage, rotary tillage, forage crop cutting, forage baling, bale wrapping, and manure spreading were shown as 6~9, 4~11, 9~16, 8~15, 8~17, 12~16 km/h, respectively.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.58 no.5
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• pp.19-28
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• 2016

This study was to design the optimal locations of the water level monitoring to quantify the agricultural water use in irrigation area supplied from an agricultural reservoir. In most of agricultural areas without TM/TC (Tele-Monitoring and Tele-Control) or monitoring network, irrigation water have been supplied on conventional experience and agricultural reservoir have been operated based on the operating simulation results by HOMWRS (Hydrological Operation Model for Water Resources System). Therefore, this study quantified the amount of agricultural water use in an irrigation area (Musu Reservoir, Jincheon-gun) by establishing water level monitoring network and analyzed the agricultural water saving effect. According to the evaluation of the economic values for water saving effect, the saving agricultural water of 1.7 million ton was analyzed to have economic values of 0.85 million won as water for living, and 1.78 million won as water for industrial use. It is identified to secure economic feasibility of the new water monitoring network by establishing one monitoring point in the entrance, irrigation area and endpoint through the economic analysis.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.54 no.5
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• pp.123-128
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• 2012

For optimal reservoir operation and management, there are essential elements including water supply in agricultural reservoir and demand in irrigation district. To estimate agricultural water demand and supply, many factors such as weather, crops, soil, growing conditions cultivation method and the watershed/irrigation area should be considered, however, there are occurred water supply impossible duration under the influence of the variability and uncertainty of meteorological and hydrological phenomenon. Focusing on agricultural reservoir, amount and tendency of agricultural water supply and demand shows seasonally/regionally different patterns. Through the analysis of deviation and changes in the timing of the two elements, duration in excess of water supply can be identified quantitatively. Here, we introduce an approach to assessment of irrigation vulnerable duration for effective management of agricultural reservoir using time dependent change analysis of residual water supply and irrigation water requirements. Irrigation vulnerable duration has been determined through the comparison of water supply in agricultural reservoir and demand in irrigation district based on the water budget analysis, therefore can be used as an improved and basis data for the effective and intensive water management.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.323-330
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• 2001

The regular maintenance and repair status of major farm machinery such as power tiller, farm tractor, rice transplanter and combine harvester etc., were surveyed and analyzed for the full-time farmers in order to get basic information for promoting farm machinery productivity. The survey was carried out through 209 farmers from 9 provinces. The results of this study can be summarized as follows; 1. The regular maintenance of farm machinery was conducted at repair shop(49.5%) or dealer agency(12.0%), and also conducted by farmers at their house(34.9%). 2. For the status on the cleanness or exchange times of engine oil, fuel filter and air cleaner, most farmers conducted fewer times than the necessary times. And, 5.3%, 7.7%, and 2.9% of surveyed farmers experienced breakdowns due to the insufficient cleanness or exchange oil, fuel filer, and air cleaner, respectively. 3. Most farmers(76.1%) recognized the necessity of farm machinery training or education, and they preferred one week for the training period, simple or easy maintenance for the training level, agricultural technical center or farm machinery manufacturer for the training agency. 4. Complete recognition of operation manual and sufficient maintenance before-, during-, and after-operation for the farm machinery can minimize the breakdowns, enlarge the endurance prevent the safety accidents, and promote productivity of farm machinery. And, these can be accomplished by the thorough training or education for agricultural machinery.

• Agribusiness and Information Management
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.30-36
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• 2014

This study was conducted to determine the major patent and analyze the patent trend of unmanned and automated agricultural production for the open field operation. As a result of conducting a search for patent applications related to these technologies, 1,080 valid patents were selected by evaluating the relevance of the patents and removing noise patents. As a result of the country-based analysis using the selected valid patents, it was found out that the largest number of patent applications were filed in the United States with 541 cases, followed by Japan with 326 cases, the European Union with 128 cases, and Korea with 85 cases. Upon classifying the valid patents into core technology, the path generation and tracking technology accounts for 33% with 353 cases; the implementing control with environmental condition technology accounts for 22% with 236 cases; the robot design technology accounts for 21% with 228 cases; the plant and environment sensing technology accounts for 19% with 206 cases; the yield and quality monitoring technology accounts for 5% with 58 cases. Finally, 10 core patents were selected by performing a patent index evaluation. The United States registered all of the 10 core patents. The results showed that Korea falls behind in the open field-related unmanned and automated agricultural production, compared to other developed agricultural countries.