Energy Savings from Optimised In-Field Route Planning for Agricultural Machinery
1
Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Food Science (DISAFA), Faculty of Agriculture, University of Turin, Largo Braccini 2, 10095 Grugliasco, Italy
2
Institute for Bio-economy and Agri-Technology (IBO), Centre for Research & Technology—Hellas (CERTH), 57001 Thessaloniki, Greece
3
Department of Engineering, Faculty Science and Technology, Aarhus University, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Sustainability 2017, 9(11), 1956; https://doi.org/10.3390/su9111956
Received: 31 July 2017
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Revised: 12 October 2017
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Accepted: 22 October 2017
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Published: 27 October 2017
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Precision Agriculture Technologies for a Sustainable Future: Current Trends and Perspectives)
Various types of sensors technologies, such as machine vision and global positioning system (GPS) have been implemented in navigation of agricultural vehicles. Automated navigation systems have proved the potential for the execution of optimised route plans for field area coverage. This paper presents an assessment of the reduction of the energy requirements derived from the implementation of optimised field area coverage planning. The assessment regards the analysis of the energy requirements and the comparison between the non-optimised and optimised plans for field area coverage in the whole sequence of operations required in two different cropping systems: Miscanthus and Switchgrass production. An algorithmic approach for the simulation of the executed field operations by following both non-optimised and optimised field-work patterns was developed. As a result, the corresponding time requirements were estimated as the basis of the subsequent energy cost analysis. Based on the results, the optimised routes reduce the fuel energy consumption up to 8%, the embodied energy consumption up to 7%, and the total energy consumption from 3% up to 8%.
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Keywords:
auto-steering systems; area coverage; operations planning
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MDPI and ACS Style
Rodias, E.; Berruto, R.; Busato, P.; Bochtis, D.; Sørensen, C.G.; Zhou, K. Energy Savings from Optimised In-Field Route Planning for Agricultural Machinery. Sustainability 2017, 9, 1956. https://doi.org/10.3390/su9111956
AMA Style
Rodias E, Berruto R, Busato P, Bochtis D, Sørensen CG, Zhou K. Energy Savings from Optimised In-Field Route Planning for Agricultural Machinery. Sustainability. 2017; 9(11):1956. https://doi.org/10.3390/su9111956
Chicago/Turabian StyleRodias, Efthymios, Remigio Berruto, Patrizia Busato, Dionysis Bochtis, Claus G. Sørensen, and Kun Zhou. 2017. "Energy Savings from Optimised In-Field Route Planning for Agricultural Machinery" Sustainability 9, no. 11: 1956. https://doi.org/10.3390/su9111956
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