Soft computing is a set of "inexact" computing techniques, which are able to model and analyze very complex problems. For these complex problems, more conventional methods have not been able to produce cost-effective, analytical, or complete solutions. Soft computing has been extensively studied and applied in the last three decades for scientific research and engineering computing. In agricultural and biological engineering, researchers and engineers have developed methods of fuzzy logic, artificial neural networks, genetic algorithms, decision trees, and support vector machines to study soil and water regimes related to crop growth, analyze the operation of food processing, and support decision-making in precision farming. This paper reviews the development of soft computing techniques. With the concepts and methods, applications of soft computing in the field of agricultural and biological engineering are presented, especially in the soil and water context for crop management and decision support in precision agriculture. The future of development and application of soft computing in agricultural and biological engineering is discussed.

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The influence of drying temperature on rice taste quality was studied in this paper. The heated-air temperature of 40℃, 45℃, 50℃, 55℃, and 60℃, respectively, were used to dry fresh paddy. The critical drying temperature of 45℃ for paddy rice with an initial moisture content of 21.36% w.b. was obtained, which induce the rice taste value declining significantly. Also, the amorphous starch matrix inside the rice kernel, which takes the shape of hardly dissolved starch granular, was observed by electron microscope. The fatty acid content of the rice increases as the drying temperature, which results in a higher degree of rice aging and restrains starch gelatinization during rice cooking. Those are key factors leading to the degradation of rice taste in the post-drying paddy. In order to preserve rice taste quality, a drying temperature below 45℃ is recommended for drying paddy, if its initial moisture content is less than 21.36%. The relationship between the major rice ingredients viz protein, amylose, moisture, and fat acid and taste value was established based on the experiment data used to predict rice taste quality.

An opto-electronic sensor system for measuring seed spacing uniformity with different types of seeds is described in this paper. It consisted of a rectangular photogate block (124 × 92 mm) with 24 phototransistors (diameter, 3 mm) receiving light beams from 24 light emitting diodes (diameter, 3 mm) opposite them, a digital input/output board in a personal computer, and power supplies. The opto-electronic system was tested by comparing seed spacing measurements obtained from the opto-electronic system with measurements of the same seed spacings obtained from a grease belt test stand. The tests were conducted with different types of seeds including regular-pelleted (diameter, 3.8-4.5 mm), mini-pelleted (diameter, 3.2-4.0 mm), and medium-encrusted sugar beet seeds (3.2-3.6 mm in diameter by 1.8-2.6 mm in thickness), and pelleted chicory seeds (diameter, 2.8-3.3 mm). Results showed that the adjusted opto-electronic seed spacings were not significantly different from the same seed spacings measured with the grease belt test stand. The opto-electronic sensor system worked well to obtain 508 seed spacings with regular-pelleted and mini-pelleted sugarbeet seeds and pelleted chicory seeds. The opto-electronic sensor system missed two seeds and detected two "phantom" seeds out of 170 seed spacings with the medium-encrusted sugarbeet seed.