Measure grain loss incurred by cleaning unit of a combine harvester with piezoelectric sensors

Abstract

About 11% of the lands covering Iranian territory are assigned to agriculture, so as to fulfil nutrient needs of about 75% of the Iranian population. Meanwhile, wheat production is seen to enjoy a highlighted position. Within the recent past, a great deal of discussion has been dedicated to the subject matter of wheat loss in the course of the chain from agricultural production to consumption, so as to find solutions for attenuating such a loss, especially in the course of harvesting the crop using combine harvester. Even though some reports indicated such losses to be as much as 20%, the corresponding figures to industrial countries typically range within 2-5%. Grain loss monitoring system is one of the ways to measure the amount of the grain loss in the combine harvesters. The piezoelectric sensors with great sensitivity are usually utilized in this kind of systems. In order to measure grain loss incurred by cleaning unit of a combine harvester, five piezoelectric sensors are used at an approximate spacing of 14cm. TL072 and LM311N were used to amplification of the recorded signal. In order to evaluate the sensor performance, the device was subject to in-lab investigations indicating the best results at the calibration factor (CF) of 5.