Browsing by Subject "Precision Agriculture"
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Item Automation of a Wireless Cotton Module Tracking System for Cotton Fiber Quality Mapping(2010-10-12) Sjolander, Andrew J.The ability to map the profit made across a cotton field would enable producers to see in detail where money is being made or lost on their farms. This ability, which requires sitespecific knowledge of yield, fiber quality, and input costs would further enable them to implement precise field management practices to ensure that they receive the highest return possible on each portion of a field and do not waste materials and other inputs throughout the field. Investigators at Texas A&M previously developed a wireless-GPS system that tracks where a module of cotton comes from within a field. This system is a necessary component in mapping fiber quality, which is a major determiner of price and thus profit. Three drawbacks to the previous wireless-GPS system are that (1) a person must manually trigger the system to send wireless communications when a field machine dumps its load of cotton, (2) multiple field machines of the same type (e.g., two cotton pickers) cannot be used simultaneously on the same system within the same field, and (3) no software is available to automatically produce fiber-quality maps after the data are downloaded from the gin. The first two drawbacks, the need for an automatic communication-triggering system and the needed capability for multiple field machines of the same type are the problems addressed in this work. To solve the first problem, a sensing and control system was added to a harvester to automatically indicate when the machine is dumping a basket load of cotton so that wireless messages can be automatically sent from the harvester to subsequent field machines without human intervention. This automated communication-triggering system was incorporated into the existing wireless- GPS system, rigorously field tested, and ultimately proven to operate as designed. Linking data collected with this system together with classing information will enable producers to create fiber-quality maps, and linking fiber-quality maps with yield and input-cost maps will enable them to create profit maps. Additionally, a radio-frequency identification (RFID) system was integrated with the wireless-GPS system to allow for multiple field machines of the same type. The RFID system was also rigorously field tested and proven to operate as designed. Finally, the entire system was field tested as a whole and operated according to design. Thus, the wireless-GPS module tracking system now operates without human intervention and works with multiple field machines of each type, two additional capabilities required for practical use in large farming operations.Item Engineering applications of soil information system (sis): precision irrigation and drainage systems design(2009-05-15) Ceylan, Bilge KaganThe objectives of this internship were to demonstrate and apply the knowledge and technical training obtained during Doctor of Engineering coursework and to become familiar with the organizational approach to problems. These objectives were fulfilled in three commercial research and development projects in the field of precision agriculture. The first project involved optimization of a center pivot irrigation system in coordination with the system?s manufacturing company in order to apply irrigation water to maintain uniform soil water content across the field. An optimization-simulation model was developed for this purpose using a dynamic programming approach. The simulations run by the optimization model showed that the existing pivot speed prescription resulted in a more uniform soil water content across the field reducing the crop yield losses. The objective of the second internship project was to analyze the agricultural drainage industry for identification of the potential applications of the spatial soil information into agricultural drainage design and construction. In order to accomplish this task, a comprehensive literature survey was conducted with an emphasis on the drainage approximate equation and numerical methods. Software tools that are currently employed in drainage design and construction were evaluated. A detailed market analysis was conducted with a focus on the industry stakeholders. A strategic strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) analysis was conducted for the agricultural drainage industry using Porter?s five forces method. The last internship project involved investigation of the potential for using soil information obtained by SIS in the assessment of soil salinity. A correlation analysis was conducted between the soil paste extract electrical conductivity values measured in the laboratory on collected soil samples and those estimated using the soil resistivity values collected by the SIS, which is a measure of soil salinity. The results showed no clear correlations. While the internship projects provided the intern the opportunity to apply some of the analytical methods learned as part of the Doctor of Engineering coursework, they also provided invaluable experience for the intern to understand research and development projects in a business environment, which was one of the major objectives of the internship.