Farm automation

Today's agricultural machines and farm plants are more and more adopting automatic systems aimed to increase the complexity of the accomplished tasks, with dramatic increase of productivity, while operator fatigue is reduced and impact on environment is minimized. This course introduces to the technology on which automation is based -such as sensors, control systems, power hydraulics and electronics- and analyses the characteristics of the main applications in the farm and on agricultural machines. -Detailed Syllabus- The control system. Working principles of on/off, proportional, integral and derivative control. The PID control. Sensors on agricultural machines. Physical principles of sensing. Sensors for measuring: positioning and speed, proximity; force; flow; temperature; pressure; moisture content; crop conditions. Basic of digital electronics. Signal conversion. Microcontrollers. Data communication. ISO-BusActuators on agricultural machines. Power hydraulics. Electro-hydraulics valves. Electric actuators Automatic functionalities of agricultural machines and processes. Tractors. Harvesting machines. Sprayers and fertilizer spreaders. Working monitoring on farm machinery. Advanced sensors for the evaluation of plant status and produce quality. Precision agriculture and variable rate technologies (VRT)