Automation of liquid fertilizer application aystem in a direct drill machine

Abstract

An automation system was designed to measure and monitor the amount of liquid fertilizer sprayed on a direct drill machine with the ability to apply liquid fertilizer. The clogging of spray nozzles is a common problem in liquid fertilizer machines. The objective is to detect clogged spray nozzles during the application of liquid fertilizer and to allow the tractor driver to monitor the amount of liquid fertilizer discharged with this designed automation system. It gives a visual warning to the driver when the flow is zero. Flow sensors are mounted on the spray nozzles of the machine. The machine was operated at 540 rpm PTO speed. A total of 30 measurements were taken from each flow sensor with 3 replications. The actual volume was found from the amount of liquid collected in the scaled vessels that are placed under the spraying nozzles and the measured volume obtained from the flow sensors. The calibration curve of the liquid fertilizer system was created by performing a regression analysis with measurements taken from the sensors and scaled vessels. At the same time, the real volume and the volume measured by the sensor were compared with the t-test and analyzed whether there was a statistically p< 0.05 difference between the measurements. As a result of the measurements, the volume measured by the sensor was slightly higher than the actual volume. The mean difference was calculated as 0.17 liters and the standard deviation as 0.08 liters. The regression curve between the actual and the measured volume shows that there is a high linear relationship and the regression coefficient was calculated as R2= 0.947. At the same time, since p=0.012 (p<0.05) was found as a result of the independent two-way t-test, it was determined that there was no statistical difference between the actual volume and the measured volume.