Study on the Mechanism of Motion Interaction between Soil and a Bionic Hole-Forming Device

Abstract

Due to the lack of water resources, the main agricultural planting method used in the northwest region of China is plastic film mulching, with precision hole sowing performed on the film after mulching. However, conventional hole-forming devices damage the compactness of the soil hole while moving on the plastic film, causing seed misplacement. Therefore, this study designed a bionic hole-forming device based on the oriental mole cricket. In order to explore the interaction between the hole-forming device and the soil, a typical soil discrete element particle model was established, and its contact parameters were calibrated. An experiment was conducted to compare the performance of the bionic hole-forming device with a conventional device using discrete element method and multi-body dynamics (DEM-MBD) coupled simulations. The results revealed that the bionic hole-forming device caused less soil disturbance during the hole-forming process and could reduce the sowing operation resistance compared to the traditional device. Compared to traditional square and cone-shaped hole-forming devices, the soil resistance of the bionic hole-forming device was the smallest, at 7.51 N. This work provides a reference for the optimization of hole-forming devices for plastic film sowing.

Biomimetic Design of Soil-Engaging Components: A Review

“…The curved-toothed disc not only met the drag reduction performance but also further improved the straw-cutting efficacy by 26.31% [31]. [24], (b) tea garden bionic subsoiler [8], (c) bionic rotary blade [24], (d) bionic fixed hole-forming device [20].…”

“…It visually demonstrates that the bionic subsoiler is subjected to less force at the same moment. Wang et al [ 20 ] also designed a bionic hole-forming device for seeding by image processing with contour curve fitting, as shown in Figure 1 c. Through simulation analysis, it was found that the velocity distribution of soil particles on the bionic curve was more uniform, which made the bionic hole-forming device show a smaller soil penetration resistance than both traditional square- and cone-shaped hole-forming devices, measuring only 7.51N. At the same time, the disturbance of the soil caused by the device was also reduced as the resistance was reduced.…”

“… Low-resistance soil-engaging components inspired by mole crickets. ( a ) Structure of the claw toes on the forefoot of the mole cricket [ 24 ], ( b ) tea garden bionic subsoiler [ 8 ], ( c ) bionic rotary blade [ 24 ], ( d ) bionic fixed hole-forming device [ 20 ]. …”

“…Some researchers have found that the multi-claw structure of mole rats also plays a key role in efficient digging. The five claws of a mole's hand are in the same plane during excavation, working collectively to enhance soil-cutting performance and diminish the [24], (b) tea garden bionic subsoiler [8], (c) bionic rotary blade [24], (d) bionic fixed hole-forming device [20].…”