Author:

Keywords:

Combine harvester, Straw quality sensing, LiDaR sensing

Abstract:

The reduction of straw length in the threshing section of a combine harvester is considered as an important indicator of the process quality. An aggressive threshing action or discontinuous flow of the crop material invokes high impact -and friction forces on the crop. This breaks up the straw, resulting in a swath of low volume which complicates the subsequent baling process. Threrefore, the impact of the settings of the threshing process on swath volume has been assessed in this study. An experimental design was applied to produce swaths at different machine settings. The resulting swaths have been scanned with a LiDaR (Light Detection and Ranging)-sensor. A two-way ANOVA showed a significant effect of concave clearance and rotor speed on the swath height. A quadratic model between these parameters and the swath height showed a good correlation (R²=0.79)