Design of a Non-destructive Fluorescent-image-based Fresh Meat Contamination Inspection System

( Yi-chich Chiu ),( Yi-ning Ho ) 한국농업기계학회 2018 한국농업기계학회 학술발표논문집 Vol.23 No.1

Health and safety of meat can be public concerns.Moreover, sanitation monitoring of a processing plant or a processing line is directly related to food safety.This research aims to develop a non-destructive contamination inspection system for livestock fresh food products. Fluorescent image analyzing techniques is used to detect and identify food product contamination of Escherichia coli.Fluorescence spectra data of these food product contamination is established to provide early detection of food safety problems to reduce food safety incidents.The potential of fluorescence spectroscopy was investigated for the non-destructive evaluation of Escherichia coli content and plate count on pork meat surface stored aerobically at 14 °C during. Use of excitation light and emission wavelength 200nm~400nm Excitation (Ex) Emission (Em) Matrix of fluorescence intensity was obtained and fluorescence from Escherichia coli (Ex=295 nm and Em=330 nm) was detected. Microbial spoilage on meat could be detected from fluorescence. On pork meat surface, Escherichia coli content and plate count showed high correlation. Therefore of Escherichia coli content could be a parameter of sanitation monitoring.In the Excitation Emission Matrix of fluorescence intensity, the fluorescence of of Escherichia coli was detected. Main tasks of this study include developing systems and technologies to inspect and etermine whether pork were contaminated by E. coli. Fluorescence detection and analysis systems, is design and developed based on LabVIEW graphical programing language.

The Study of Environment Monitoring System for Closed Taiwan Country Chicken House

( Yi-chich Chiu ),( Zi-yin Liu ),( Ming-yih Chang ) 한국농업기계학회 2018 한국농업기계학회 학술발표논문집 Vol.23 No.1

This paper presents an environmental monitoring system for closed Taiwan country chicken houses. The system measures various environmental parameters through sensors, uses LoRa (a long-range low-power wide area network) to record changes in these parameters, tracks the age of chickens, and comprehensively analyzes the rearing of chickens within a given period. During rearing, chickens are prone to illness and heat stress. It accessed measurement values through SHH Sensor v 2.0 and used LoRa to send the data to the base station, from which the data were uploaded onto a MySQL database. Test 1 showed that the temperature in the chicken house where the study was conducted remained fairly constant, regardless of weather conditions. However, the lowest temperature was 25.4°C during the incubation period (i.e., within 2 weeks of hatching). Test 2 showed that the chickens gained less weight on a few days during the rearing period: 27.79 g on 2 December (i.e., 44 days old), 20.46 g on 13 December (i.e., 54 days old), and 28.85 g on 14 December (i.e., 55 days old). By analyzing changes in the environmental parameters, the monitoring system contributes to the formulation of precautionary measures against the factors that negatively affect chicken rearing and approaches to preventing chickens from becoming sick, thus improving chicken quality. Moreover, it can be combined with a control system to facilitate the development of environmental control measures tailored to chickens of different ages.

Employing Lora Low-power Wireless Network for Environmental Monitoring in Agricultural Facillities

( Yi-chich Chiu ),( Pei-wen Huang ),( Ming-yih Chang ),( Whai-en Chen ) 한국농업기계학회 2018 한국농업기계학회 학술발표논문집 Vol.23 No.1

Yilan County is located on the Lanyang Plain in northeastern Taiwan. It is characterized by typical rural life styles and agricultural activities including plantation, forestry, animal husbandry, and aquaculture. However, in recent years, extreme climate events occur more frequently, reducing the yield and quality of agricultural produce. Because environmental factors have asubstantial influence on crops and livestock, promoting the use of digitalized environmental monitoring and control is key to increasing agricultural production. Because most farmlands in Yilan County are located in remote areas with poor 4G networks, this study utilized long-range (LoRa) wireless communication technology to transmit environmental monitoring data. This study conducted cost analysis of installing LoRa wireless communication technology in agricultural facilities. The research sites in this study were three test sites in Yilan. Various sensing devices were installed at the three sites. The environmental data from the three sites located in remote areas were integrated and transmitted to the base station. Meanwhile, the environmental parameters were recorded and analyzed. This measure was effective for agricultural management, cost reduction, and production of real-time feedback for managers. Constructing and managing a digitalized knowledge base allows experiences in plantation and poultry husbandry to be shared, crop and poultry diseases to be prevented, and loss in agricultural production to be reduced.

The Design of an Integrated System of Pig Manure Aft Inflow Preheating Units and Capillary Network Tube-based Thermal Insulation Units

( Yi-chich Chiu ),( Gang-jhy Wu ),( Chi-hui Chen ) 한국농업기계학회 2018 한국농업기계학회 학술발표논문집 Vol.23 No.1

This study designed an integrated system of pig manure anaerobic fermentation tank inflow preheating units and capillary network tube-based thermal insulation units. Through the inflow preheating units, the temperature of the livestock wastewater that had undergone solid-liquid separation was raised to the mid-temperature range of 30-40°C to maintain the anaerobic digestion bacteria inside the anaerobic fermentation tanks (AFTs) at a steady population in winter. Thus, the efficiency of livestock wastewater anaerobic treatment was enhanced, allowing the process to maintain a relatively high removal rate of chemical oxygen demand in winter. The developed pig manure AFTs inflow preheating unit was tested through simulation. A total of 2500 L of wastewater was pumped into the unit for preheating. The flow rate of the wastewater for heat exchange was 80 L/min. The mean temperature of simulated wastewater before heating was 15.09°, and that after undergoing heat exchange reached 82.4°C. The water for heat preservation was heated using the remaining heat of the steam that was used to heat the wastewater. When the hot water of the AFTs dropped to below 50°C, it began circulating. Analysis results indicated that the heat dissipation at the bottom of the AFTs was 277.704 kcal/h. When 600 L of hot water was pumped into the pipelines at a flow rate of 35 L/s, it could constantly supply 25320574.8 kcal/h of heat, which was greater than the heat dissipation at the AFTs’ bottom. The test site raised 1512 adult pigs, which were assumed to weigh 60 kg and above; from this number of pigs, the maximum daily yield of biogas is 300-302.4 ㎥, and the maximum power generated per day is approximately 300 kWh.

Study of Pear Orchard Environment Monitoring using Lora Wireless Sensor Network

( Pei-wen Huang ),( Yi-chich Chiu ),( Ta-te Lin ) 한국농업기계학회 2018 한국농업기계학회 학술발표논문집 Vol.23 No.1

In this study, a system for monitoring orchard environments was developed using long range (LoRa) communication technology, where environmental data were captured and analyzed remotely to establish an orchard environment database and achieve the goals of orchard environmental monitoring and early warnings. Because pear quality is susceptible to the effects of climate change, to prevent them from sustaining damage, an environmental monitoring system was constructed in three orchards in Yilan County’s Sanxing Township, Taiwan. Sensors were used to monitor various environmental data including temperature, humidity, illuminance, soil temperature, soil moisture, and wind speed. An Arduino Uno control interface card was used to collect sensor data, which were transmitted to a LoRa Gateway as well as to the message queuing telemetry transport protocol using LoRa wireless communication modules. Integrate environmental data into an orchard data database for fruit farmers to promptly understand the growth situation of their shangjiang pears, perform effective detection and analyses, and implement a crop cultivation early warning system as well as corresponding contingency plans. This study elevated the stability of outdoor environmental monitoring stations, ensured that equipment such as sensors could collect outdoor environmental data for an extended period of time, and integrated environmental parameters monitored before performing subsequent investigations.

Development of a Harvest Mechanism for Plant Factory Harvest Robots

( Shao-fang Hsu ),( Gang-jhy Wu ),( Yi-chich Chiu ) 한국농업기계학회 2018 한국농업기계학회 학술발표논문집 Vol.23 No.1

A harvest mechanism was designed and developed for harvesting plant factory cultured plants, lettuce for example. Three major components are included in the mechanism to enable it to harvest one tray of the plant at one time, line by line: a positioning unit aligns a cutting unit to one targeted harvest line, the cutting unit cuts off and collects the plants on the line, and an unloading unit transfers the harvested plants to a collecting box. The position unit then moves the cutting unit to the next line, and the cutting and collecting procedures repeated until one tray of plants were harvested. Experiments were conducted to harvest 9 trays, total 126 plants, of Boston Lettuces with the developed mechanism. The experiment results showed that the averaged time for the mechanism to harvest and unload one tray, 14 plants, of lettuce was 1060 s. The successful harvest rate was 93%. The averaged weight retain rate was 65%, and was affected by the shape of the lettuce (round-shape lettuce resulted in higher retain rate). Quality deterioration condition of the mechanism harvested lettuces was as good as those of the manual harvested ones. Although improvements, like the harvest speed, are needed, the design of the mechanism was proved to be feasible and practical. The developed mechanism will be integrated with a mobile-lifting platform to implement a developing harvest robot for plant factory harvesting.

Growth and Union Acclimation Process of Sweet Pepper Grafted by a Tubing-Grafting Robotic System

Yung-Chiung Chang,Suming Chen,Yi-Chich Chiu,Lian-Hsiung Lin,Yu-Sen Chang 한국원예학회 2012 Horticulture, Environment, and Biotechnology Vol.53 No.2

Sweet pepper ‘Andalus’ (Capsicum annuum L. ‘Andalus’) was grafted on chili pepper ‘P’ (Capsicum chinense ‘P’) by hand and by using a tubing-grafting robotic system. After grafting, the growth and condition of the seedlings grafted by machine were similar to that of the seedlings grafted by the traditional hand method. Although the cut interfaces on the mechanically grafted seedlings were more irregular, seedlings’ acclimation process was similar to that of those which had been grafted by hand. This indicates that the tubing-grafting robotic system can be applied generally to grafting operations, thus allowing improvements in production efficiency.