Design of variable-rate liquid fertilization control system and its stability analysis
Keywords:
fertilization control system, variable-rate technology, precision fertilization, closed-loop control system, improved PID control algorithm, SimulinkAbstract
Variable-rate technology (VRT) has been paid more attentions by farmers in an attempt to match inputs to local growing conditions efficiently. Farmers in every country are highly encouraged to adopt this practice rather than uniform-rate application (URA). However, the standard methods and design used to quantify application accuracy for VRT remain lacking. Therefore, a variable-rate liquid fertilization control system was designed to meet accurate fertilization demand. The designed control system could enable the real-time proportion and mixture of three kinds of liquid fertilizers, namely, N, P and K, in accordance with decision support subsystem. The task controller reads related information and sends such data to the control system, which is responsible for fertilization operation. The controller could realize liquid fertilizer adjusting through the electromagnetic flow control valves. A high-precision flow meter could measure the fertilization amount, which is sent as feedback to the controller to form a closed-loop control system based on the improved proportional-integral-derivative (PID) control algorithm that could enhance the stability and accuracy of precision variable-rate liquid fertilization control systems. Comparisons between the actual and planned application rates indicated good performance for both static and field experimental trials. Mathematical models and transfer functions for some functional modules were then constructed by classical theories to derive a system characteristic equation. To verify the static and dynamic performances, the control system was simulated using the Simulink module on Matlab. Results showed that the variable-rate fertilization was in accordance with the planned data and that the signal trace effect was good. The error was less than 5% for fertilization amount and fertilizer proportion, respectively, and the control response time was 6 s. Keywords: fertilization control system, variable-rate technology, precision fertilization, closed-loop control system, improved PID control algorithm, Simulink DOI: 10.25165/j.ijabe.20181101.2583 Citation: Zhang J C, Hou S Y, Wang R T, Ji W Y, Zheng P, Wei S. Design of variable-rate liquid fertilization control system and its stability analysis. Int J Agric & Biol Eng, 2018; 11(1): 109–114.References
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[2] Yang C, Everitt J H, Bradford J M. Comparisons of uniform and variable rate nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizer applications for grain sorghum. Transactions of the ASAE, 2001; 44 (2): 201–210.
[3] McBratney A, Whelan B, Ancev T. Future directions of precision agriculture. Precision Agriculture, 2005; 6(1): 7–23.
[4] Du R C, Gong B C, Liu N N, Wang C C, Yang Z D, Ma M J. Design and experiment on intelligent fuzzy monitoring system for corn planters. Int J Agric & Biol Eng, 2013; 6(3): 11–18.
[5] Farooque A A, Zaman Q U, Schumann A W, Madani A, Percival D C. Delineating management zones for site specific fertilization in wild blueberry fields. Applied Engineering in Agriculture, 2012; 28(1): 57–70.
[6] Koch B, Khosla R, Frasier W M, Westfall D G, Inman D. Economic feasibility of variable-rate nitrogen application utilizing site-specific management zones. Agronomy Journal, 2004; 96(6): 1572–1580.
[7] Huang Y B, Thomson S J, Hoffmann W C, Lan Y B, Fritz B K. Development and prospect of unmanned aerial vehicle technologies for agricultural production management. Int J Agric & Biol Eng, 2013; 6(3): 1–10.
[8] Al-Saqer S M, Hassan G M. Optimization of solenoid valve for variable rate application system. Am. J. Agric. Biol. Sci., 2011; 6: 348–355.
[9] Fulton J P, Shearer S A, Chabra G, Higgins S F. Performance assessment and model development of a variable-rate, spinner fertilizer disc applicator. Transactions of the ASAE, 2001; 44: 1071–1081.
[10] Fulton J P, Shearer S A, Higgins S F, Hancock D W, Stombaugh T S. Distribution pattern variability of granular VRT applicators. Transactions of the ASAE, 2005; 48: 2053–2064.
[11] Olieslagers R, Ramon H, de Baerdemaeker J. Performance of a continuously controlled spinning disc spreader for precision application of fertilizer. Proceedings of the 1st European Conference on Precision Agriculture, 1997; pp.661–668.
[12] Schueller J K, Wang M W. Spatially-variable fertilizer and pesticide application with GPS and DGPS. Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, 1994; 11: 69–83.
[13] Fulton J P, Shearer S A, Higgins S F, McDonald T P. A method to generate and use as-applied surfaces to evaluate variable-rate fertilizer applications. Precision Agriculture, 2013; 14: 184–200.
[14] Thomson S J, Smith L A, Hanks J E. Evaluation of application accuracy and performance of a hydraulically operated variable-rate aerial application system. Transactions of the ASABE, 2009; 52(3): 715–722.
[15] Ralf B, Nash E, Grenzdörffer G. GIS in Agriculture. Springer Handbook of Geographic Information. Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2011; pp.461–476.
[16] Tumenjargal E, Badarch L, Kwon H, Ham W. Embedded software and hardware implementation system for a human machine interface based on ISOAgLib. Journal of Zhejiang University Science C, 2013; 14(3): 155–166.
[17] Jiang J C, Chen H X, Zheng T X. Implementation of ECU’s online programming based on CCP. Computer Engineering, 2011; 37(5): 241–243.
[18] Lawrence H G, Yule I J. A GIS methodology to calculate in-field dispersion of fertilizer from spinning-disc spreader. Transactions of the ASAE, 2007; 50: 379–387.
[19] ASAE Standards. Procedure for measuring distribution uniformity and calibrating broadcast spreaders (47th ed.). St. Joseph, MI: ASAE, 2002.
[20] ESRI. ArcView GIS, version3.3. Redlands, CA: Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc., 2001.
[21] Inoue K, Nii K, Zhang Y, Atanasov A. Tractor guidance system for field work using GPS and GYRO. Proceedings of International Scientific Conference on Energy Efficiency & Agricultural Engineering, 2009; pp.280–295.
[22] Noguchi N, Reid J F, Zhang Q, Will J D, Ishii K. Development of robot tractor based on RTK-GPS and gyroscope. 2001 ASAE Annual International Meeting, 2001; Paper Number: 01-1195.
[23] Yang C, Everitt J H, Bradford J M. Comparisons of uniform and variable rate nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizer applications for grain sorghum. Transactions of the ASAE, 2001; 44 (2): 201–210.
[24] Noguchi N, Will J, Reid J, Zhang Q. Development of a master-slave robot system for farm operations. Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, 2004; 44: 1–19.
[25] He E B, Du Q G, Feng Y. Fuzzy-PID control of body height adjustment for vehicles with electrically controlled air suspension, Machine Tool & Hydraulics, 2012; 40(5): 86–88.
[26] Astrom K J, Hagglund T, Hang C C, Ho W K. Automatic tuning and adaptation for PID controllers: A survey. Control Eng. Practice, 1993; 1(4): 699–714.
[27] Xie N L, Huang X Y. The integral separation PID control algorithm on digital voltage regulator. Journal of Xiangnan University, 2009; 30(5): 33–35. (in Chinese)
[28] Zhang Y F, Chen H B, Feng X H, Zhang Q X. PID control algorithm and its integral term improvement, Technology Innovation and Application, 2013; 24: 66–67.
[29] Lang C L, Qian H F. Modeling and simulation of the control system of the deep application of liquid variable fertilizer application. Modernizing Agriculture, 2012; 2: 49–51.
[30] Yu J, Yang P. Control for the first order system with pure delay time based on a multiple capacity process transfer function standard form. Technique and Method, 2014; 33(23): 84–86.
[31] Yu J, Yang P. Research on MCP standard function control scheme of the first order system with pure delay time. Automation Application, 2014; 12: 3–6.
[32] Bai J, Han J W. Study on PID parameters turning method based on MATLAB/Simulink. Journal of Harbin University of Commerce: Natural Sciences Edition, 2007; 23(6): 673–676. (in Chinese)
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Published
2018-01-31
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Zhang, J., Hou, S., Wang, R., Ji, W., Zheng, P., & Wei, S. (2018). Design of variable-rate liquid fertilization control system and its stability analysis. International Journal of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, 11(1), 109–114. Retrieved from https://ijabe.migration.pkpps03.publicknowledgeproject.org/index.php/ijabe/article/view/2583
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Power and Machinery Systems
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