The research describes the development of an evaporative cooling system in a non-refrigerated truck for the short-term storage of vegetables during transportation. The system comprises an evaporative cooler, storage unit, power supply, control panel, and real-time data monitoring for temperature and relative humidity. Computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulation was conducted to investigate the temperature and airflow distributions in the evaporative-cooled storage unit for five different configurations of air inlet and outlet. The configuration of one air inlet (front — lower left) and two air outlets (top — front and back centre) of the storage unit was shown to provide optimum temperature and airflow distributions and hence, was applied in the system modification. The functionality and performance of the modified system were then evaluated in terms of the cooling profile of the storage units and leafy vegetable quality for the fresh market. Three storage treatments for the selected vegetable were investigated, i.e., evaporative-cooled truck (T1), canvas truck (T2), and cold truck (T3) during a five-hour journey from Cameron Highlands to Serdang. The average temperature inside the storage units was T3 < T1 < T2. Evaporative-cooled truck exhibited an average temperature reduction (DT) of 10°C from the ambient condition. It also demonstrated a relative humidity of >90%, which was in agreement with the recommended relative humidity for leafy vegetable storage. Post-five-hour storage treatments, vegetable stored under T1 exhibited the least weight loss as compared to T2 and T3. The results indicated that the evaporative cooling system manages to preserve vegetable quality soon after harvesting, hence the potential to reduce postharvest loss during transportation.
The main challenge facing greenhouse designers is to achieve environment-appropriate greenhouses, especially in tropical regions. The excess radiant energy transmitted into the greenhouse predisposes plants to photo-inhibition and consequently reduces crop production. Lately, photovoltaic (PV) modules are equipped as a greenhouse rooftop to minimize the level of irradiation and air temperature in the greenhouse, simultaneously improving its energy consumption. Nevertheless, due to the low level of irradiation, denser conventional PV internal shading would influence the cultivated crops’ growth. Thus, Dye Sensitized Solar Cell (DSSC) possesses several attractive features such as transparent, sensitive to low light levels, and various color options that render DSSC a perfect choice able to serve substantially in energy buildings. This study assessed the microclimate conditions inside the greenhouse with semi-transparent DSSC mounted on top of it, describing the Photosynthetic Photon Flux Density (PPFD) (µmol m−2 s−1), Vapor Pressure Deficit VPD (kPa), relative humidity (%), and also temperature (°C). The Overall Thermal Transfer Value (OTTV), which indicates the average thermal energy transmission rate across the external layer of a structure envelope, is also presented. The effects of colored DSSC in altering the spectral of sunlight in reference to the Orthosiphon stamineus growth responses were determined. The information of the condition of DSSC greenhouse microclimate helps to identify the information for designing PV greenhouses and to produce income from both electric power and agronomic activity.
Developing different robotic platforms for farm operations is vital to addressing the increasing world population. A harvesting robot significantly increases a farm’s productivity while farmers focus on other relevant farm operations. From the literature, it could be summarized that the design concepts of the harvesting mechanisms were categorized as grasping and cutting, vacuum suction plucking systems, twisting and plucking mechanisms, and shaking and catching. Meanwhile, robotic system components include the mobile platform, manipulators, and end effectors, sensing and localization, and path planning and navigation. The robotic system must be cost-effective and safe. The findings of this research could contribute to the design process of developing a harvesting robot or developing a harvesting module that can be retrofitted to a commercially available mobile platform. This paper provides an overview of the most recent harvesting robots’ different concept designs and system components. In particular, this paper will highlight different agricultural ground mobile platforms and their associated mechanical design, principles, challenges, and limitations to characterize the crop environment relevant to robotic harvesting and to formulate directions for future research and development for cotton harvesting platforms.
This invention describes the development and performance of a pyrolyzer to produce biochar and wood vinegar from domestic agriculture farm waste. Two pyrolyzers (fix and portable) were designed and developed in MARDI. The system consists of a kiln with ignition area and feeder, cyclone area connected with a 7.5 cm diameter pipe, two vinegar collectors and temperature data logger. The system is capable of producing two main products, biochar and wood vinegar. The main heating materials are coconut shells and other pruning wastes such as mango and carambola, burned in the kiln under limited oxygen condition. Wood vinegar is a by-product of charcoal production. The design concept is to force the gases produced into the liquid through condensation. Theoretically, the smoke from the burned pruning wastes would rise. The gases will then enter the 7.5 cm pipe. At this stage, the pipe forces the gases to hit each other and become liquid. There is a cyclonic system to optimise the conversion of gas into a liquid. At the bottom of the system, there is one connected pipe to collect wood vinegar. An additional line is connected to the cyclone system to force the remaining gases through a smaller tube to become liquid. Overall, there are two vessels to collect the vinegar. After the functional test run, the results showed that the prototype gave satisfactory results with biochar products with 60 to 70% carbon with additional wood vinegar products suitable for eventual use. The study recommends pyrolization of waste as one of the sustainable approaches to manage abundant agricultural residues.
Manual activity in maize seeding shows an awkward posture due to repetitive movement on walking forward, body lowering, knee bending, squatting, digging, and seed sowing, which can cause body tiring. These are the symptom of human fatigue or the ergonomic hazard in an agricultural field, leading to Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSD) if done repeatedly and extended for a long time. The paper explained the ergonomic evaluation of seeding risk assessment using two methods; bare hand and lightweight motorized maize seeder. The evaluated maize seeder was designed with a minimum number of parts to make the assembly and maintenance requirements easy without affecting the functionality of the metering device. The maize seeder is easy to operate, light to carry, and convenient to use with a single-handed griper to improve ergonomics in the field. Using the concept of gravitational drop and the battery to power the motor, the farmer experiences a slightly bent body position with a relaxed posture that requires less stressful angles on seeding activity. Seeding postures on methods were evaluated using Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA) and Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA) to determine the area of bodily discomfort. The RULA result shows that the ergonomic risk score on manual seeding activity was at score 7, which is high risk compared to seeding activity using the maize seeder, which results in a score of 4 that shows a low risk.In comparison, the REBA result shows a high risk on manual seeding with a score of 11 and a low risk on seeding with a seeder, which is in score 3—seeding by bare hand, adopting poor posture at the neck, trunk, and wrist twist. The work rate for seeding maize using the conventional method and seeder was 0.114 m/s and 0.167 m/s, respectively. The study concludes that using the lightweight motorized maize seeder can reduce the risks of MSDs due to working in an awkward posture in sowing maize on the field.
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