Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Agricultural automation is one of the potential significant contributors to improv-
ing productivity and reducing consumption and adverse impacts. Effective use of
automation will help maximize production by better using inputs and will reduce the
consumption and impacts by reducing waste. It will also improve the quality of the
produced agricultural products.
As the following chapters show, the characteristics of agricultural automation
depend to a large degree on the product being produced, the local geographical and
climatic conditions, and the local political/social/economic situation. The diversity
of agriculture throughout the world is truly amazing. So the diversity of agricultural
automation is similarly great. However, there are often some common characteris-
tics. Therefore, several general characteristics in many agricultural automation sys-
tems will be discussed in this chapter.
1.2 AGRICULTURAL AUTOMATION SYSTEMS
Many agricultural automation systems, like many automation systems in most indus-
tries, perform the following actions:
r Obtain and process information
r Make a decision
r Perform some actions
It is common therefore to divide the system into three parts to facilitate discussion and
understanding. The terminology used to describe these three parts often varies. One
alternative is to term the parts “input,” “manage,” and “output.” This, or some similar set
of terms, is often a popular description for higher-level discussions of overall systems.
Sometimes they are termed according to the actions performed, such as “sense,”
“manage,” and “perform.” But perhaps the most common terminology is “sensor,”
“controller,” and “actuator.” However, care must be taken in this usage as “control-
ler” may also be used to refer to the entire automation system. This set of terms
reflects a natural division based on common hardware used. If this three-part subdi-
vision of the agricultural automation system is used, as it will be below, there is also
usually significant software content within one or more of these subsystems. In the
discussion within this chapter, software will generally be discussed with respect to
the hardware that is using it.
1.3 SENSORS
The automation system needs information to make appropriate decisions before it
takes actions. If the automation system has incorrect information, it will make faulty
decisions and will take incorrect actions. Hence, the acquired information must be
correct. The information required by many agricultural automation systems can
often be one of three types. These types are setpoints, agricultural variables, and
automation system variables.
Setpoints are desired outputs, conditions, or relationships supplied to the auto-
mation system from the outside. An example setpoint would be the desired air
