Machine Automation & Autonomy in Agriculture

A special issue of AgriEngineering (ISSN 2624-7402). This special issue belongs to the section "Computer Applications and Artificial Intelligence in Agriculture".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 October 2021) | Viewed by 5042

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Agricultural & Biological Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA
Interests: machine systems analysis and control; conventional and electrified powertrains; internal combustion engines; mobile emissions control; alternative fuels; agricultural automation; digital agriculture
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
Agricultural and Biological Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA
Interests: machine systems and automation: agricultural machine design and logistics; precision agriculture technologies evaluation and application; automated systems design and modeling

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue intends to collect international, cutting-edge research outputs that will accelerate the automation of agricultural equipment.

We encourage you to consider the opportunities for impact magnification enabled by this journal’s open-access format and open-source spirit.

Contributions to this Special Issue are encouraged from research related to, but not limited to, the following areas:

  • Modeling, development, and testing of technologies enabling the transition from partial automation to full autonomy;
  • Machine automation applications in row crops, specialty crops, livestock, forestry, and other agricultural sectors at various scales;
  • Systems analysis of agricultural automation on techno-economic, infrastructure, agronomic, energy, sustainability areas, etc.;
  • Human factor explorations of interactions with automated and autonomous machine systems;
  • Integration of emerging digital agricultural insights into automated machine systems;
  • Individual and/or scalable distributed machine systems;
  • Path planning and route optimization of agricultural machine systems;
  • Alternative energy utilization and storage systems enabled via automation.

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. AgriEngineering is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • automation
  • autonomy
  • robotics
  • digital agriculture
  • precision agriculture
  • control
  • machine-vision
  • artificial intelligence
  • sensors
  • human factors
  • distributed systems
  • systems analysis

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

13 pages, 1426 KiB  
Article
Development, Fabrication and Performance Evaluation of Mango Pulp Extractor for Cottage Industry
by Muhammad Ehtasham Akram, Muhammad Azam Khan, Muhammad Usman Khan, Usman Amin, Muhammad Haris, Md Sultan Mahmud, Azlan Zahid, Mirian Pateiro and José M. Lorenzo
AgriEngineering 2021, 3(4), 827-839; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriengineering3040052 - 21 Oct 2021
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 4543
Abstract
The loss of fresh fruits after harvesting is not new since it has constantly been a challenge for humankind. The growing population in developing countries, where food shortages exist, require serious food security measures to address hunger and malnutrition. Present research focused on [...] Read more.
The loss of fresh fruits after harvesting is not new since it has constantly been a challenge for humankind. The growing population in developing countries, where food shortages exist, require serious food security measures to address hunger and malnutrition. Present research focused on the development, fabrication and testing of mango pulp extractor to assist small-scale fruit farmers in the countryside with a view to minimizing fruit spoilage. The unit, whose major material was food grade stainless steel (SS-304), consists of major components such as teflon brushes mounted shaft, motor, main frame, hopper, extraction compartment, pulp outlet, fruit residue outlet, perforated sieve and bearings. After construction, the machine was tested at three feed rate (2.0, 2.5, 3.0 kg/min) and extraction speed levels (500, 900 and 1400 rpm). Each of these factors was replicated three times, which resulted into 3 × 3 × 3 factorial experimental design. The optimum operating parameters for maximum pulp yield, maximum extraction efficiency and minimum extraction losses were determined. The physicochemical analysis of the extracted pulp was also carried out. Results revealed a maximum pulp yield of 77.9%, highest extraction efficiency of 96.03% and highest extraction loss of 9.3%. The mango pulp extraction machine was found to be affordable, easy to operate and maintain. The breakeven point of the machine was found to be 40 h if the machine is operated at its peak capacity. Therefore, it is recommended for small-scale farmers and for cottage industry. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Machine Automation & Autonomy in Agriculture)
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