Abstract

This is a report from project: "Studies on the input of labour and machinery in crop production and management in farming" financed by Lantbrukets fond för upplysningsverksamhet och utvecklingsarbete in Sweden. Data concerning input of labour, management and machinery in crop production is essential for all type of planning and for machinery construction. Traditional data acquisition require lots of manpower, therefore an automated system for time and performance data acquisition is of great interest. A data acquisition system based on tractors equipped with sensors has been designed. Data concerning tractor performance, engine rpm, used gear, speed, slippage and fuel consumption has been collected in combination with timedata. Using two separated, yet by time stamping combined, data acquisition systems information concerning tractor and implement usage in the field is obtained and stored on tape for later processing. Tractor parameters are collected once a minute by a time controlled logger. A HP-41 calculator works as measurement controller. Data transfer is handled on the HP-IL loop and stored on mini data cartridges. 16 readings are made each minute and the tape has the capacity of storing data from 16 hours continuous farmwork. Work performance parameters are collected and stored in a MICRONIC 900 hand-held computer. If the tractor driver leaves the cabin for more than 20 seconds, the driver is questioned on return about the cause of interruption. Time stamps and cause type-code are stored in RAM. To collect data about geographical displacement the driver is instructed to make appropriate coding while arriving to and leaving from the fields/farm centre. Three tractors have been equipped with these acquisition units. They have been on different farm sites and used by the farmers in their regular work. The system has been working very well and data from more than 200 workdays were stored until winter 85/86. Data from the two acquisition systems are stored in files. To handle the large amount of data, data about data (meta-data) are stored in a relational databank, thereby allowing data to be sorted and retrieved by logical selection. By way of example collected data are presented in graphs and charts. Presented data show measurements from plowing. The interpretation of data and the forms for an interpretation model is discussed in brief.

Keywords

computer; data collection; data storage; farming systems; instruments; management; measurement; relational data base

Published in

Rapport - Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet, Institutionen för lantbruksteknik
1988, ISBN: 91-576-3350-9
Publisher: Institutionen för lantbruksteknik, Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/125636