As technology advances in all areas of society and industry, the technology used to produce one of life's essentials - food - is also improving. The majority of agriculture production in developed countries has gone from family farms to industrial operations. With the advent of large-scale farming, the automation of basic farming operations has increasingly made practical and economic sense. Broccoli, which is still harvested by hand, is one of the most expensive crops to produce. Investing in sensing technology that can provide detailed information about the location, maturity and viability of broccoli heads has the potential to produce great commercial benefits. This technology is also a prerequisite for developing an autonomous harvester that could select and harvest mature heads of broccoli. This thesis details the work done to develop a computer vision algorithm that has the ability to locate the broccoli head within an image of an entire broccoli plant and to distinguish between mature and immature broccoli heads. Locating the head involves the use of a Hough transform to find the leaf stems and, once the stems are found, the location and extent of the broccoli head can be ascertained with the use of contrast texture analysis at the intersection of the stems. A co-occurrence matrix is then produced of the head and statistical texture analysis is performed to determine the maturity of the broccoli head. The conceptual design of a selective autonomous broccoli harvester, as well as suggestions for further research, is also presented. / Master of Science

Wearable and mobile devices are an important part of our daily life. Most of those devices are powered by batteries. The limited life span of batteries constitutes a limitation, especially in a multiple-day expedition, where electrical power can not access conveniently. At the same time, there is a huge amount of energy stored in the human body. While walking, there is a large amount of power dissipated in the human body as negative muscle work and the energy loss by impact. By sourcing locally and using locally, human body energy harvesting is a promising solution. This dissertation focuses on harvesting energy from the human body to power wearable and mobile devices while poses a minimum burden on the human body. Three topics related to the human body energy harvesting are explored, i.e, energy harvesting backpack, negative muscle work harvester, and energy harvesting tile/paver. The energy harvesting backpack was invented in 2006. Extensive work was done to improve the performance of backpack energy harvester. The backpack is modeled as a spring-mass-damper system. Mechanical Motion Rectifier was added to the spring-mass-damper system to increase the frequency bandwidth. A spring is added to the spring-mass-damper system, between the harvester and the backpack mass, and a inerter-based 2DOF (degree-of-freedom) backpack is created. The inerter-based 2DOF backpack improves the power output, frequency bandwidth, and power stroke ratio performance. MMR was added to the inerter-based 2DOF backpack to reduce the peak stroke. Compared with the conventional spring-mass-damper backpack, the MMR and inerter-based 2DOF backpack can harvest more power with large bandwidth at a small sacrifice of stroke. The electric damping was also tuned to increase the power output and bandwidth for the energy harvesting backpack. The negative work harvester mounts on the human ankle and harvests energy in the terminal stance phase in human walking, when the calf muscle is doing negative muscle work. This harvester is an analogy to regenerative brake in vehicles. The energy harvesting paver/tile harvests energy when the heel contacts with ground and energy are dissipated by impact. / Doctor of Philosophy / Wearable and mobile devices are an important part of our daily life. Most of those devices are powered by batteries. The limited life span of batteries constitutes a limitation, especially in a multiple-day expedition, where electrical power can not access conveniently. At the same time, there is a huge amount of energy stored in the human body. While walking, there is a large amount of power dissipated in the human body as negative muscle work and the energy loss by impact. By sourcing locally and using locally, human body energy harvesting is a promising solution. This dissertation focuses on harvesting energy from the human body to power wearable and mobile devices while poses a minimum burden on the human body. Three topics related to the human body energy harvesting are explored, i.e, energy harvesting backpack, negative muscle work harvester, and energy harvesting tile/paver. The energy harvesting backpack was invented in 2006. Extensive work was done to improve the performance of backpack energy harvester. The backpack is modeled as a spring-mass-damper system. Extensive work have been done to make the energy harvesting backpack broad frequency bandwidth. The negative work harvester mounts on the human ankle and harvests energy in the terminal stance phase in human walking. This harvester is an analogy to regenerative brake in vehicles. The energy harvesting paver/tile harvests energy when the heel contacts with ground and energy are dissipated by impact.

京都大学 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(農学) / 甲第24913号 / 農博第2576号 / 新制||農||1103(附属図書館) / 学位論文||R5||N5476 / DFAM / 京都大学大学院農学研究科地域環境科学専攻 / (主査)教授 飯田 訓久, 教授 近藤 直, 教授 野口 良造 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Agricultural Science / Kyoto University / DFAM

In der vorliegenden Arbeit wird die Entwicklung eines kinetischen Energy Harvesters vorgestellt, der auf Grundlage des elektrostatischen Wandlerprinzips aus Vibrationen elektrische Energie generiert. Für die Umsetzung wurde eine Siliziummikrostruktur entworfen, die für Arbeitsfrequenzen unter 100 Hz ausgelegt ist. Die Zahnstruktur der verwendeten Elektroden ermöglicht Spaltabstände im Submikrometerbereich und folglich große Kapazitätsänderungen, die durch die Elektrodengeometrie zusätzlich mit einer höheren Frequenz als die mechanische Bewegung stattfinden. Vergleichsweise große Leistungsausbeuten und geringe Quellimpedanzen sind dadurch erreichbar. Die geometrischen Parameter der Elektroden wurden unter Berücksichtigung der auftretenden Fertigungstoleranzen und Wechselwirkungen zueinander optimiert. Für die Ausnutzung einer ausreichend großen Inertialmasse wurde ein feinwerktechnisch hergestellter Hebelmechanismus an die Mikrostruktur angekoppelt. Über diesen wird zusätzlich ein neuer Ansatz zur Abstimmung der Eigenfrequenz des Harvesters umgesetzt. Experimentelle Untersuchungen zeigten Ausgangsleistungen im einstelligen Mikrowattbereich bei Anregungen im Zehntel m/s²-Bereich. Durch fortschreitende Optimierungen der Fertigungstechnologie sind noch deutliche Leistungssteigerungen um mindestens zwei Größenordnungen möglich. Weiterhin wird ein Energiemanagementsystem vorgestellt, welches die effiziente Übertragung der Energie auf den Verbraucher ermöglicht. / In this work the development of a kinetic energy harvester using the electrostatic conversion principle is presented. The silicon microstructure is designed to work in frequency ranges below 100Hz. Its toothed electrode structure enables gap distances in the sub micrometer range and consequently high changes of capacitance. Additionally, due to the electrode geometry the frequency of the capacitance changes is higher then the frequency of the mechanical movement. Thus high power outputs and low source impedances can be reached. The electrodes geometric parameters were optimized considering manufacturing tolerances and interactions of the parameters. To reach a sufficient inertial mass, a lever mechanism manufactured by precision engineering was connected to the microstructure. This mechanism also allows the implementation of a new method of frequency tuning. In experimental tests power outputs in the single digit microwatt range under excitations of 0.3 m/s² were reached. In accordance of further optimizations of the manufacturing technology significantly higher outputs, by at least two orders of magnitude, are possible,. Furthermore an energy management system is presented, that allows the efficient transfer of the electrical energy to the consumer.

In der vorliegenden Arbeit wird die Entwicklung eines kinetischen Energy Harvesters vorgestellt, der auf Grundlage des elektrostatischen Wandlerprinzips aus Vibrationen elektrische Energie generiert. Für die Umsetzung wurde eine Siliziummikrostruktur entworfen, die für Arbeitsfrequenzen unter 100 Hz ausgelegt ist. Die Zahnstruktur der verwendeten Elektroden ermöglicht Spaltabstände im Submikrometerbereich und folglich große Kapazitätsänderungen, die durch die Elektrodengeometrie zusätzlich mit einer höheren Frequenz als die mechanische Bewegung stattfinden. Vergleichsweise große Leistungsausbeuten und geringe Quellimpedanzen sind dadurch erreichbar. Die geometrischen Parameter der Elektroden wurden unter Berücksichtigung der auftretenden Fertigungstoleranzen und Wechselwirkungen zueinander optimiert. Für die Ausnutzung einer ausreichend großen Inertialmasse wurde ein feinwerktechnisch hergestellter Hebelmechanismus an die Mikrostruktur angekoppelt. Über diesen wird zusätzlich ein neuer Ansatz zur Abstimmung der Eigenfrequenz des Harvesters umgesetzt. Experimentelle Untersuchungen zeigten Ausgangsleistungen im einstelligen Mikrowattbereich bei Anregungen im Zehntel m/s²-Bereich. Durch fortschreitende Optimierungen der Fertigungstechnologie sind noch deutliche Leistungssteigerungen um mindestens zwei Größenordnungen möglich. Weiterhin wird ein Energiemanagementsystem vorgestellt, welches die effiziente Übertragung der Energie auf den Verbraucher ermöglicht. / In this work the development of a kinetic energy harvester using the electrostatic conversion principle is presented. The silicon microstructure is designed to work in frequency ranges below 100Hz. Its toothed electrode structure enables gap distances in the sub micrometer range and consequently high changes of capacitance. Additionally, due to the electrode geometry the frequency of the capacitance changes is higher then the frequency of the mechanical movement. Thus high power outputs and low source impedances can be reached. The electrodes geometric parameters were optimized considering manufacturing tolerances and interactions of the parameters. To reach a sufficient inertial mass, a lever mechanism manufactured by precision engineering was connected to the microstructure. This mechanism also allows the implementation of a new method of frequency tuning. In experimental tests power outputs in the single digit microwatt range under excitations of 0.3 m/s² were reached. In accordance of further optimizations of the manufacturing technology significantly higher outputs, by at least two orders of magnitude, are possible,. Furthermore an energy management system is presented, that allows the efficient transfer of the electrical energy to the consumer.

JPS Teknik AB in Färila, located in the middle of Sweden, is a company in manufacturingsaw units to harvester heads. This thesis is about the company's best selling saw unit, JPSR5500. The saw unit is powered by a hydraulic motor, the torque is transmitted from themotor into the saw unit thought a spline coupling. In this spline coupling, some of the unitshave been weared out after about 2000 harvester machine hours. When the splines wear outthe failure induce a total stop, the bolt connecting the hub and the motor shaft breaks, and thesaw unit assembly get loose. The purpose with this study is to find the root cause of thefailure and the goal is to give suggestions to improve the design to avoid failure. The method used to achieve the purpose is based on Ullman's mechanical design processwhere a root cause analysis is a central part. This analysis is built on two main pillars, aliterature study concerning previous research about wear in spline couplings and a knowledgebased study about the product with a customer focus. A sample of previous research in thistopic is about the load distribution in a spline coupling due to different load cases and angularmisalignment, wear mechanisms and the effect of washers in a pretension bolt joint with adynamic working condition. The main conclusions of this study is that the hydraulic motor axis should be extended. Theoperator's manual and assembly instructions should be updated and revised annually, thecompany should also invest in education and training for the users of the product.

Made available in DSpace on 2017-07-25T19:29:38Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 PauloGarbuio.pdf: 663014 bytes, checksum: 5f3236b310c6477d3da99f8d0845a166 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-06-20 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / In Brazil, the best dairy farm efficiency levels are obtained in the cities of Castro and Carambeí, State of Paraná. This efficiency was reached due to the animal genetics and the feed management, where the corn whole plant silage has been wide used. To the highest profit of the silage, some stages must be considered. The main stages are the selection of the forage harvest point, the plants chopping and the silo compaction. This work aims to present the possible interactions between the factors: plants water content, forage harvester setup with the plant particles size and de silage compaction process. The two corn hybrids (SPEED e 2B688) studied had been harvested in five times (105, 108, 112, 118, 123 seeding after days). In every harvest time it was evaluated the relative participation of the plant components, the dry matter, the fresh mass and grains yields and the milk line, to each corn hybrid. To the silage chopping evaluation, 120 plants were harvested and chopped with a forage harvest using three setups. The chopped material was used to the particles size determination and later submitted to the compaction process. To the grains and fresh mass yield, and milk line evaluation, the treatment was the harvest times, with five replications. The analysis of variance applied completely randomized experimental design. It was analyzed the correlation between the dry matter and the milk line. The particle size and silage bulk density analysis was carried through a factorial 5x3 design with four replications, where the first factor had been the harvest times, and the second the three forage harvester setups. Only one hybrid presented a high correlation between the milk line and the dry matter, showing the milk line method to be not a good way to evaluate the dry matter of plants, and behaves by different ways according the corn hybrid. To the grains yield, the SPEED hybrid showed difference, between the first and the three last harvest times. The compaction test showed a high correlation between the green mass density with the plant maturation, where plants with highest dry matter content make the compaction more difficult. Differences was verified to the silage bulk density according to the forage harvest setup, when the chopped material in the setup to theoretical cut length (TCL) of 2mm had easy compaction that the setups to TCL of 6,5 and 11 mm. To the particle size, when evaluated the hybrid 2B688, the different plant dry matter levels had not effects in the average particle size. However, to the hybrid SPEED, the particles size reduced with the plants maturation. To the evaluated materials, the dry matter content, as well as the forage harvest setups affected the green mass bulk density and the real particles size. The forage harvest setup changes resulted in different particle sizes that the informed by the manufacturer. / No Brasil, os melhores índices em eficiência leiteira encontram-se nos municípios de Castro e Carambeí no Paraná, alcançados devido à genética dos animais e ao manejo alimentar, em que a silagem de planta inteira de milho tem sido largamente utilizada. Para o máximo aproveitamento da silagem várias etapas devem ser consideradas, tais como escolha do ponto de colheita da forragem, fragmentação das plantas bem como o processo de compactação. Neste sentido, o objetivo deste trabalho é discutir as possíveis interações entre o conteúdo de água da forragem e a regulagem da colhedora nos tamanhos de fragmentos e na densidade da silagem. Em todos os ensaios utilizaram-se dois híbridos de milho (SPEED e 2B688), sendo estes colhidos em cinco épocas (105, 108, 112, 118, 123 dias após semeadura (DAS)). Foram determinados nos genótipos a participação relativa dos componentes formadores das plantas, a matéria seca (MS), o rendimento de massa verde, seca e de grãos e a linha do leite. Para a fragmentação foram colhidas manualmente 120 plantas, estas submetidas à uma colhedora de forragem, em três regulagens. O material fragmentado foi utilizado para a determinação dos tamanhos de fragmentos e submetido ao processo de compactação. Para o rendimento de grãos, de massa verde e seca e a determinação da linha do leite, utilizaram-se como tratamentos as épocas de colheita, com cinco repetições. Os valores foram submetidos à análise de variância em delineamento inteiramente casualizado (DIC). Realizou-se também a análise de correlação entre MS e linha do leite. As análises de tamanho de fragmento e densidade da silagem foram realizadas no esquema fatorial de 5x3 com quatro repetições, onde o primeiro fator foram as épocas de colheita, o segundo três regulagens da máquina (2, 6,5 e 11 mm de comprimento teórico de fragmento (CTF)). Foi verificada estreita relação entre a linha do leite com a MS de um dos genótipos, o que mostra que esta metodologia não é a mais indicada para determinar a MS das plantas, e é variável com o genótipo. Quanto ao rendimento, houve diferença na variável grãos para o híbrido SPEED, entre a primeira e as três últimas épocas de colheita. No ensaio de compactação, observou-se alta relação entre a densidade de massa verde com a maturação da planta, em que plantas com elevado conteúdo de MS dificultam a compactação. Constataram-se também diferenças para a densidade da silagem conforme regulagens da máquina, sendo que a regulagem de 2 mm de CTF, favorece a compactação quando comparada as regulagens de 6,5 e 11 mm de CTF. No ensaio de tamanho de fragmento verificou-se que para o híbrido 2B688, os teores de MS da planta não mostraram efeito sobre o tamanho médio de fragmento porém, para o híbrido PEED verificou-se redução no tamanho de fragmento real com a maturação das plantas. Concluiu-se que, para os genótipos, o conteúdo de MS bem como as regulagens da máquina interferem na densidade de massa verde e nos tamanhos de fragmentos reais obtidos. A alteração das regulagens da máquina resulta em tamanhos de fragmentos diferentes aos indicados pelo fabricante.

Detta examensarbete har gjorts på uppdrag av Rottne Industri AB och berör matarhjulens dubbinträngning i virket. Matarhjulen sitter monterade i skördaraggregatet i skördaren, en skogsmaskin som används vid skogsavverkning. Då inträngningen, som uppstår av dubbarna på matarhjulen, är för stor (>5mm) bildas skador på virket vilket är ett utbrett problem inom skogsmaskinindustrin. Studien kartlägger de vanligaste dubbmönstrens skadeåverkan under kontrollerade och vetenskapliga förhållanden där testerna är designade för att efterlikna verklig skogsavverkning. I studien utförs två tester. Det första visar sambandet mellan presskraft och inskjutningsmått för respektive dubbmönster. Det andra är utformat för att se förmågan att överföra kraft mellan dubbmönstret och virket, så kallad skjuvdragning. Sju dubbmönster kommer att undersökas i studien. Om man ser till den tekniska information utvunnen ur testerna så har finnskogsvalsen med dubbla ribbor ett klart övertag speciellt i skjuvningssituationer. Däremot måste fler aspekter tas med i beräkningarna vid valet av dubbmönster. En av dem är tendenser för barkpackning i mönstrets håligheter. Då finnskogsvalsen med dubbla ribbor är ett förhållandevis tätt mönster måste omfattande undersökningar göras angående den aspekten innan det kan tas i fullt bruk. / This diploma work has been done on commission by Rottne Industri AB and affects the feed rollers and their stud’s penetration in timber. The feed rollers are mounted in the harvester head which sits on a timber cutting machine used for harvesting wood (harvester). When the damage caused by the studs is too deep the timber is permanently damaged which is a big problem for the industry. Two tests is carried out in the study. The first shows the connection between the pressing force and the damage depth made by the studs. The second test is designed to show the stud patterns ability of transferring power from the feed rollers to the timber. Seven stud patterns are examined in this study. According to the technical information retrieved by the tests finnskogsvalsen with double ribs has the best characteristic abilities, especially in the pull test. But more aspects has to be dealt with before this pattern can be used in the reality. One obvious problem this stud pattern could have is a tendency to store bark during operation, this is a major problem in the woods.

<p>Detta examensarbete har gjorts på uppdrag av Rottne Industri AB och berör matarhjulens dubbinträngning i virket. Matarhjulen sitter monterade i skördaraggregatet i skördaren, en skogsmaskin som används vid skogsavverkning. Då inträngningen, som uppstår av dubbarna på matarhjulen, är för stor (>5mm) bildas skador på virket vilket är ett utbrett problem inom skogsmaskinindustrin. Studien kartlägger de vanligaste dubbmönstrens skadeåverkan under kontrollerade och vetenskapliga förhållanden där testerna är designade för att efterlikna verklig skogsavverkning.</p><p>I studien utförs två tester. Det första visar sambandet mellan presskraft och inskjutningsmått för respektive dubbmönster. Det andra är utformat för att se förmågan att överföra kraft mellan dubbmönstret och virket, så kallad skjuvdragning. Sju dubbmönster kommer att undersökas i studien.</p><p>Om man ser till den tekniska information utvunnen ur testerna så har finnskogsvalsen med dubbla ribbor ett klart övertag speciellt i skjuvningssituationer. Däremot måste fler aspekter tas med i beräkningarna vid valet av dubbmönster. En av dem är tendenser för barkpackning i mönstrets håligheter. Då finnskogsvalsen med dubbla ribbor är ett förhållandevis tätt mönster måste omfattande undersökningar göras angående den aspekten innan det kan tas i fullt bruk.</p> / <p>This diploma work has been done on commission by Rottne Industri AB and affects the feed rollers and their stud’s penetration in timber. The feed rollers are mounted in the harvester head which sits on a timber cutting machine used for harvesting wood (harvester). When the damage caused by the studs is too deep the timber is permanently damaged which is a big problem for the industry.</p><p>Two tests is carried out in the study. The first shows the connection between the pressing force and the damage depth made by the studs. The second test is designed to show the stud patterns ability of transferring power from the feed rollers to the timber. Seven stud patterns are examined in this study.</p><p>According to the technical information retrieved by the tests finnskogsvalsen with double ribs has the best characteristic abilities, especially in the pull test. But more aspects has to be dealt with before this pattern can be used in the reality. One obvious problem this stud pattern could have is a tendency to store bark during operation, this is a major problem in the woods.</p>

Energy harvesting is playing an increasingly important role in supplying power to monitoring and automation systems such as structural health monitoring using wireless sensor networks. This importance is most notable when the structures to be monitored are in rural, hazardous, or limited access environments such as busy highway bridges where traffic would be greatly disrupted during maintenance, inspection, or battery replacement. This thesis provides an overview of energy harvesting technologies and details the design, prototyping, testing, and simulation of an energy harvester which converts the vibrations of steel highway bridges into stored electrical energy through the use of a translational electromagnetic generator, to power a wireless sensor network for bridge structural health monitoring. An analysis of bridge vibrations, the use of nonlinear and linear harvester compliance, resonant frequency tuning, and bandwidth widening to maximize the energy harvested is presented. The design approach follows broad and focused background research, functional analysis, broad and focused concept generation and selection, early prototyping, parametric modeling and simulation, rapid prototyping with selective laser sintering, and laboratory testing with replicated bridge vibration. The key outcomes of the work are: a breadth of conceptual designs, extensive literature review, a prototype which harvests an average of 80µW under bridge vibration, a prototype which provides quick assembly, mounting and tuning, and the conclusion that a linear harvester out performs a nonlinear harvester with stiffening magnetic compliance for aperiodic vibrations such as those from highway bridges. / text