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Online Modeling of Separation Behavior of a Conventional Combine Harvester
Published by the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers, St. Joseph, Michigan www.asabe.org
Citation: Paper number 023088, 2002 ASAE Annual Meeting . (doi: 10.13031/2013.10564) @2002Authors: Koen Maertens, Josse De Baerdemaeker
Keywords: Recursive identification, Separation process, Combine harvester
Modeling the internal process of a combine harvester is a difficult task. A huge amount of
parameters influences the process and highly non-linear and stochastic terms are present.
Therefore, it is useful to install a monitoring system to measure those process parameters that are
directly related with the performance and behavior of the combine.
A New Holland CX820 conventional combine harvester, with a commercial CX precision farming unit,
is equipped with extra sensors to measure actual cutting width and feedrate. During the summer of
2001, measurements are carried out on a field with varying crop conditions and a feasibility study is
carried out about the possibilities to track the separation behavior of the conventional combine
In this paper, a recursive algorithm is constructed based on the quasi-Newton optimization method.
The resulting procedure makes it possible to track the processability of the harvester online. Latter
information can directly be used to design automatic tuning systems and as extra evaluation
parameter for new crop varieties and field treatments.