The Optoelectronic Installation for Counting the Seeds of Agricultural Crops

Abstract

Modern laboratory devices for counting the seeds are widely used in grain-cleaning enterprises and in research and agricultural centers, but they have disadvantages. (Research purpose) The research purpose is in design an innovative compact automatic optical-electronic plant for counting the seeds, which will have a minimum size and function according to a pre-set algorithm. (Materials and methods) The article describes the determined parameters of an optoelectronic device for counting the number of grains, taking into account the requirements for laboratory devices for counting the seeds of various agricultural crops. Authors have studied the operation of a device for counting the seeds of various agricultural crops using a designed algorithm. The installation has been modernized. The feeding mechanism has been changed and modern optoelectronic elements have been added to the recognition system, which make it possible to perform high-quality seed counting. (Results and discussion) It was found that the optocouplers added to the design after an experimental study of 10.000 seeds of wheat, corn, sunflower, rice, and oats showed deviations in time depending on the culture of 5-10 percent. (Conclusions) It was found that the design of an automatic optoelectronic plant for counting the number of seeds provides an effective process of working according to a predetermined algorithm with high accuracy of estimating the number of seeds (an error of about 1.8 percent). The device has a minimum overall size (3-5 kilograms). It was found that using a DC motor allows to create vibration on the plane for feeding seeds to the analysis zone. The developed installation has a minimum number of elements, which makes it possible to increase the reliability of its operation and durability to several decades.