Mechanization status based on machinery utilization and workersxe2x80x99 workload in sweet corn cultivation in Malaysia Abstract   Agricultural machinery utilization in Malaysia still very low, especially in sweet corn cultivation, compared with the other crop production systems. In this study was estimated two methods to evaluate the mechanization status of the respective field operations in sweet corn cultivation in Malaysia. The first method was used the PCLHRLEGL Cartesian plot based on Production capacity, Heartbeat rate, and Energy expenditures of human labor. The second method was used mechanization index based on energy expenditures of machinery and human labor. The study aim of was to assess the mechanization status in sweet corn cultivation in Malaysia. This paper described the overall mechanization status in the cultivation of sweet corn in Malaysia, and the machinery energy, workerxe2x80x99s energy expenditure, and heart rate for various field operations that were involved in cultivation. The field operations include tillage, planting, fertilizing, spraying, harvesting, and cutting plants. Field capacity, and machinery energy for each of the operations were calculated. The calculated mechanization index was used in the study to describe the mechanization status in sweet corn cultivation. A mean overall mechanization index of 36.49% and aggregate machinery energy of 340.67xc2xa0xc2xb1xc2xa041.99xc2xa0MJha were registered for the crop. Highest mechanization index, and machinery energy were acquired in the tillage operation of 94.09% and 105.35xc2xa0xc2xb1xc2xa09.37xc2xa0MJha while the lowest mechanization index, and machinery energy were in the harvesting operation with bags of 0.83%, and 0.42xc2xa0xc2xb1xc2xa00.09xc2xa0MJha. These calculated mechanization indexes, and PCLHRLEGL Cartesian Plot were used for ranking the field operations based on their priority for mechanization. The outcome of this research could be contributed to lightening human energy expenditures and improving the mechanization status ultimately.

Agricultural robotics research applicable to poultry production: A review Abstract   The advent of agricultural robotics research worldwide has brought substantial improvement for various applications. This article provides a comprehensive review of published research and development work, emphasizing robotics enabling machine capabilities. These machine capabilities of perception, reasoning and learning, communication, task planning and execution, and systems integration have opened possibilities for intelligent automation of current and future agricultural operations, including precision livestock farming. We have focused on the Agricultural Intelligent Automation Systems which have a high potential to be applied to agricultural production and processing, especially with applicability to poultry production. Most of the published work on agricultural robotics has been in the areas of perception and reasoning. The emphases have been in the identification of objects, evaluation of product quality, monitoring of plant and animal growth and development, yield prediction, and machine guidance. There has been limited published work on the task execution and systems integration aspects of agricultural robotics. Moreover, we have reviewed agricultural robotics research from 24 universities worldwide. Agricultural robots can be divided into three categories (monitor, harvester, and both) according to various functions. Several tables are presented to summarize the information on the key subject areas reviewed in this article. We have found that there are still many challenges that need to be addressed in robotizing agricultural tasks in general and in poultry production specifically. The most common challenges in robotics applications have been developing robots for specific agricultural tasks. Examples in poultry production include monitoring environmental conditions and chicken health, egg picking, and encouraging chicken movement. The approaches to addressing the technical needs have been creating intelligent movable machines for use alongside the chickens in poultry house. The most noticeable results include Octopus Poultry Safe (OPS) robot for sanitizing poultry houses autonomously, PoultryBot for picking floor eggs, and Spoutnic for training hens to move. This trend of research and development is expected to continue. An emerging research emphasis is systems approach to study the interactions of automated tasks to achieve high efficiency in whole poultry house management.