scholarly journals Performance Assessment of Farm Machinery for Persimmon Fruit Cultivation in a Japanese Mountainous Area

2022 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-31
Author(s):  
Atsushi Yamamoto ◽  
Tsumugu Kusudo ◽  
Masaomi Kimura ◽  
Yutaka Matsuno

Japanese agriculture is facing a decrease in agricultural workers. Mechanization, both to save time and reduce physical input, is essential to solving this issue. Recent worldwide progress in Internet-of-things technology has enabled the application of remote-controlled and unmanned machinery in agriculture. This study was conducted in the Gojo-Yoshino mountainous region in Nara, Japan, which is famous for its persimmon cultivation. The performance of newly introduced smart agricultural machinery was studied in the field by simulating cultivation work. The results showed that the remote-control weeder, speed sprayer, and remote-control mini crawler carrier saved 90%, 75%, and 5% of weeding, spraying, and harvesting times, respectively, when compared with conventional methods. Such time savings led to an 8% decrease in the total working time spent on persimmon cultivation. In addition, using the speed sprayer showed improvement in the fruit’s quality. Results of the power assist suits did not show a time-saving effect but showed a reduction of physical burden. These results suggest that the mechanization of persimmon cultivation is efficient and labor-saving, and satisfies the need for farmers. However, the high investment costs remain an issue in extending mechanization to the region.

Author(s):  
Xiaoyu Guo ◽  
Yongxin Peng ◽  
Sruthi Ashraf ◽  
Mark W. Burris

Connected vehicle (CV) technology can connect, communicate, and share information between vehicles, infrastructure, and other traffic management systems. Recent research has examined and promoted CV and connected automated vehicle (CAV) technology on managed lane systems to increase capacity and reduce congestion, as managed lane systems could be equipped with advanced infrastructure relatively quickly. However, the effect on travel considering, information-based managed lane choice decisions in a CV environment is not clear. Therefore, this research analyzed the potential effects on a managed lane system with connected vehicles considering several travel behavior elements, including drivers’ willingness to reroute and their choice of managed lanes based on individual travel time savings. This study analyzed the potential effects on a managed lane system by assigning different market penetration rates (0%, 10%, 50%, 100%) of CVs and informing CV drivers about travel time savings for a 10-mi stretch at 5-min intervals. How the traffic performance measurements (i.e., throughput, travel time saving, average speed and average travel time) vary under different market penetration rates of CVs is then investigated. Two major conclusions are reached: (i) although information exchange was assumed to be instantaneous between vehicles and the system, there existed a response time (or time delay) in the macroscopic traffic reflection; (ii) managed lane use may decrease, when travel time information becomes available, since drivers perceive they are saving more travel time than they actually do save.


2011 ◽  
Vol 328-330 ◽  
pp. 2014-2018
Author(s):  
Chao Ming He ◽  
Huan Li ◽  
Guo Sheng Fei ◽  
Qiang Wang

Reliving the stress of the urban public transport, the metro system is greatly superior to other transport methods on the load, energy consumption, mean drive speed, arrival on time and comfortableness. The passengers comfortable is the important part for developing the train operation strategies. For optimization of the energy, time saving and the passengers comfortableness during operation of the train, the proper objective function is designed. The train operation strategy for meeting the inter-stop passengers comfortableness at the curves was developed and the energy and time savings of the section were combined, and the optimization operation plan for the whole line was designed, to better meet the metro train operation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 209
Author(s):  
Sungin Choi ◽  
Jung-Seo Park

As the scale of offshore plants has gradually increased, the amount of management points has significantly increased. Therefore, there are needs for innovative process control, quality management, and an installation support system to improve productivity and efficiency for timely construction. In this paper, we introduce a novel approach to deal with these issues using augmented reality (AR) technology. The core of successful AR implementation is up to scene matching through accurate pose (position and alignment) estimation using an AR camera. To achieve this, this paper first introduces an accurate marker registration technique that can be used in huge structures. In order to improve the precision of marker registration, we propose a method that utilizes the natural feature points and the marker corner points in the optimization step simultaneously. Subsequently, a method of precisely generating AR scenes by utilizing these registered markers is described. Finally, to validate the proposed method, the best practices and its effects are introduced. Based on the proposed AR system, construction workers are now able to quickly navigate to onboard destinations by themselves. In addition, they are able to intuitively install and inspect outfitting parts without paper drawings. Through field tests and surveys, we confirm that AR-based inspection has a significant time-saving effect compared to conventional drawing-based inspection.


2017 ◽  
Vol 25 ◽  
pp. 2861-2876
Author(s):  
Masafumi Morisugi ◽  
Ryuta Mori ◽  
Naoki Sakamoto ◽  
Kazunori Nakajima ◽  
Eiji Ohno

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Po-Wei Cheng ◽  
Tzi-Dar Chiueh ◽  
Jyh-Horng Chen

AbstractLatest simultaneous multi-slice (SMS) methods greatly benefit MR efficiency for recent studies using parallel imaging technique. However, these methods are limited by the requirement of array coils. The proposed Coherent Wideband method, which employs an extended field of view to separate multiple excited slices, can be applied to any existing MRI instrument, even those without array coils. In this study, the Coherent Wideband echo-planar imaging method was implemented on 7 T animal MRI to exhibit comprehensive enhancements in neuro-architecture, including diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and functional MR studies (fMRI). Under the same scan time, the time-saving effect can be manipulated to increase the number of averages for DTI SNR improvement, reducing fractional anisotropy difference by 56.9% (from 0.072 to 0.041) and the deviation angle by 64% (from 25.3° to 16.2°). In summary, Coherent Wideband Echo Planar Imaging (EPI) will provide faster, higher resolution, thinner slice, or higher SNR imaging for precision neuro-architecture studies.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Po-Wei Cheng ◽  
Tzi-Dar Chiueh ◽  
Jyh-Horng Chen

Abstract Latest simultaneous multi-slice (SMS) methods greatly benefit MR efficiency for recent studies using parallel imaging technique. However, these methods are limited by the requirement of array coils. The proposed Coherent Wideband method, which employs an extended field of view to separate multiple excited slices, can be applied to any existing MRI instrument, even those without array coils. In this study, the Coherent Wideband echo-planar imaging method was implemented on 7T animal MRI to exhibit comprehensive enhancements in neuro-architecture, including diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and functional MR studies (fMRI). Under the same scan time, the time-saving effect can be manipulated to increase the number of averages for DTI SNR improvement, reducing fractional anisotropy difference by 56.9% (from 0.072 to 0.041) and the deviation angle by 64% (from 25.3⁰ to 16.2⁰). In summary, Coherent Wideband EPI will provide faster, higher resolution, thinner slice, or higher SNR imaging for precision neuro-architecture studies.


Author(s):  
Hakan Eser ◽  
Mehmet Ali Dincer ◽  
Yalcin Isler

In this study, a platform to develop remote control appliactions via bluetooth communication by using general purpose microcontroller boards and Adroid-based devices was designed. This system was designed to integrate easily into all kind of devices that was developed by students or manufacturers in especially biomedical area. In addition, it has an Android application. It is possible to transmit control statements wirelessly from a microcontroller board or an Android-based device to another microcontroller board via bluetooth. On the client-side board, there are PWM-driven led illumination control, servo motor control and four on-off relay controls. The implemented system is designed to use easily for educational purposes. Time saving from sofware design applications is aimed in this study.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Po-Wei Cheng ◽  
Tzi-Dar Chiueh ◽  
Jyh-Horng Chen

Abstract Latest simultaneous multi-slice (SMS) methods greatly benefit MR efficiency for recent studies using parallel imaging technique. However, these methods are limited by the requirement of array coils. The proposed Coherent Wideband method, which employs an extended field of view to separate multiple excited slices, can be applied to any existing MRI instrument, even those without array coils. In this study, the Coherent Wideband echo-planar imaging method was implemented on 7T animal MRI to exhibit comprehensive enhancements in neuro-architecture, including diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and functional MR studies (fMRI). Under the same scan time, the time-saving effect can be manipulated to increase the number of averages for DTI SNR improvement, reducing fractional anisotropy difference by 56.9% (from 0.072 to 0.041) and the deviation angle by 64% (from 25.3⁰ to 16.2⁰). In summary, Coherent Wideband EPI will provide faster, higher resolution, thinner slice, or higher SNR imaging for precision neuro-architecture studies.


2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 614-621 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deborah M. Mullen ◽  
Richard Bergenstal ◽  
Amy Criego ◽  
Kathleen Cecilia Arnold ◽  
Robin Goland ◽  
...  

Background: Diabetes care is predominately done at home by the patient. When clinics do not have a reliable, easy process for obtaining this patient data, clinical decisions must be made with incomplete verbal recall reports. Unused or inaccessible glucose data represent a large information gap affecting clinical decision making. This study’s purpose was to design an optimized glucose device download system with a standardized report and to evaluate its efficiency. Methods: Observations and evaluations of glucose data retrieval occurred at two clinics; an additional clinic utilized the optimized process doing only post process timings. Patients/families and clinicians were surveyed about their experiences with the system and the standardized report (AGP). The study was approved by all the sites’ IRBs. Results: Optimized systems saved staff at least 3 min per patient. Standardized AGP reports and an optimized data system made the work flow of glucose data easier to complete. The AGP report was preferred by patients, families, and clinicians. Conclusions: An optimized system takes advantage of patient lobby downtime to download glucose devices and ensures that diabetes clinical decisions are made utilizing all available data. Staff and patients liked the software lobby system and found it a valuable time-saving tool.


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