A Preliminary Study of Seeding Absence Detection Method for Drills on the Soil Surface of Cropland Based on Ultrasonic Wave without Soil Disturbance

Abstract

Seeding absence detection is essential during seeding operation, since it affects the subsequent crop performance. Existing methods cannot detect the seeding absence position immediately after planting without soil disturbance. In this paper, a nondestructive detection method for finding out the seeding absence position of drills is put forward. It focuses on the echo energy reflected by the circle energy inside the tilled cropland soil, to which the sensor is attached directly on the soil surface, not on ultrasonic waves that penetrate the soil-seed medium below tilled soil. Firstly, the energy circle is used to analyze the sound field distribution characteristics of the sensor in cropland soil. According to the size difference of the seeding absence length value and energy circle diameter, the total energy for three different cases with eight steps for each case is discussed in detail, and in order to find the left and right boundary lines and the length value of seeding absence, a program is designed to help with calculating four base positions automatically. At last, the nondestructive detection method is evaluated by the experiments, and the results demonstrate that the proposed method is accurate, efficient, and convenient in finding the seeding absence position of drilling seeds on the soil surface without soil disturbance.