Yuntao Lu , Wei Hong , Wei Wu , Jie Zhang , Shijuan Li , Baohua Xu , Kun Wei , Shengping Liu
{"title":"The impact of temperature regulation measures on the thermodynamic characteristics of bee colonies based on finite element simulation","authors":"Yuntao Lu , Wei Hong , Wei Wu , Jie Zhang , Shijuan Li , Baohua Xu , Kun Wei , Shengping Liu","doi":"10.1016/j.biosystemseng.2025.01.012","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biosystemseng.2025.01.012","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In recent years, the increasing frequency of extreme weather events and temperature fluctuations have posed significant threats of the survival of bee colonies. While artificial control of hive temperature can effectively protect bee colonies and conserve honey, there is a current lack of quantitative research on the effects of regulatory measures on colony temperature and heat loss. This study employs finite element simulation to model the thermodynamic changes in hives under various ambient temperatures and regulatory measures. The findings indicate that the minimum heat loss in beehives occurs at an ambient temperature of 34 °C. Variations in ambient temperature significantly affect the internal temperature and heat loss within the hive. An increase in colony size contributes to internal hive temperature control and enhances energy efficiency. However, the opening of ventilation ports at the top of the hive can lead to a several-fold increase in heat loss and should be used judiciously. It is recommended to use insulation materials with a thermal resistance value exceeding 25 K W<sup>−1</sup> for optimal insulation effects. This study elucidates the impacts of ambient temperature and regulatory measures on the thermodynamics of bee colonies, thereby aiding in enhancing the survival capability of bee colonies under extreme weather conditions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":9173,"journal":{"name":"Biosystems Engineering","volume":"250 ","pages":"Pages 306-316"},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143152598","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Weiyun Hua , Long He , Paul Heinemann , Minghui Zhu
{"title":"Precision heating strategy based dynamic heater path planning for frost protection in apple orchards","authors":"Weiyun Hua , Long He , Paul Heinemann , Minghui Zhu","doi":"10.1016/j.biosystemseng.2024.12.002","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biosystemseng.2024.12.002","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Frost is one of the severe weather events causing economic losses in agriculture. Traditionally, heating can be applied in an orchard during a frost event either using fixed heaters or mobile heaters to travel through. However, both traditional heating strategies have limited heating capacity. In this study, a precision heating strategy was proposed to prioritise applying heat to orchard canopies with high heating demands utilising multiple heaters. The precision heating experiment in a simulated orchard environment with dynamic multiple goal points was implemented by an improved A-Star path-planning algorithm, in which a path cost estimation method based on linear programming was presented to find the optimal paths for multiple heaters and a conflict-based search (CBS) method was used to generate collision-free paths. In addition, an estimation method for the heater number based on the precision heating strategy was proposed and the difference of the heater number between precision heating and traditional heating was compared. The simulated results show that the improved A-Star algorithm had higher search efficiency, resulting in 36.8% less total path cost and 98.7% less computational time than the control group. The comparison between precision heating and traditional heating indicates that the number of heaters used in the precision heating strategy decreased by 96.8% and 85.9% compared to the traditional fixed heating strategy and mobile heating strategy, respectively. Overall, this study provided a concept of high heat-demand priority precision heating and proved its superiority for frost protection.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":9173,"journal":{"name":"Biosystems Engineering","volume":"250 ","pages":"Pages 117-132"},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143153075","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Fracture type and excitation and detachment forces of Chinese walnuts under dynamic conditions in vibration harvesting","authors":"Changyi Liu, Daochun Xu, Jiale Cao","doi":"10.1016/j.biosystemseng.2024.12.005","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biosystemseng.2024.12.005","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Vibration harvesting is a highly effective method for the large-scale mechanised harvesting of walnuts. However, theoretical analysis and study of the detachment force and fracture type under dynamic conditions is lacking in the current research on walnut detachment during vibration harvesting. Here, a theoretical model of walnut motion under applied vibration is established to obtain the relationship between the excitation force and the response frequency and amplitude. A stress analysis of the Chinese walnut fruit is then carried out to determine the fracture type. Dynameter and field harvesting experiments were conducted to verify the theoretical analysis and make further explorations. The results demonstrate the correctness of the formula for calculating the excitation force and verify that the fracture type of walnuts under vibration harvesting is bending fracture. The proposed fracture zone index <em>β</em> is found to be between 0.235 and 0.385. Moreover, using a novel video extraction method, the walnut fruit detachment force was determined to range from approximately 6.2 to 8.4 N. These results provide a reference for choosing vibration parameters and calculating the excitation force.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":9173,"journal":{"name":"Biosystems Engineering","volume":"250 ","pages":"Pages 94-104"},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143153076","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Panagiotis Papazoglou , Ioannis Navrozidis , Stefanos Testempasis , Xanthoula Eirini Pantazi , Anastasia Lagopodi , Thomas Alexandridis
{"title":"Early detection of bacterial canker in tomato plants using spectroscopy for smart agriculture applications","authors":"Panagiotis Papazoglou , Ioannis Navrozidis , Stefanos Testempasis , Xanthoula Eirini Pantazi , Anastasia Lagopodi , Thomas Alexandridis","doi":"10.1016/j.biosystemseng.2025.01.009","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biosystemseng.2025.01.009","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div><em>Clavibacter michiganensis</em> subsp. <em>michiganensis</em> (Cmm) causes bacterial canker in tomatoes, causing severe yield loss. It would be of practical research interest within smart agriculture to develop an effective and quick method to distinguish pre-symptomatic infected tomato plants from healthy ones to take protective measures in time. In this study, artificially inoculated tomato plants with Cmm were grown in a temperature-controlled chamber. Using the Relief method, 25 wavelengths in the visible spectrum (cyan and red regions) showed the highest statistical differences, between healthy and asymptomatic infected tomato plants, two days before the first appearance of the foliar symptoms, in each plant. In addition, inoculated tomato plantlets showed differences in contrast to healthy ones, in the near-infrared spectrum, thirteen days after the inoculation with Cmm. The spectral data were used for the creation of early detection models of healthy and inoculated pre-symptomatic plants, in a specific number of days before the appearance of the first symptoms, in each plant, and in a specific number of days-post inoculation, using two ML algorithms (SVMs and kNN). The algorithms proved effective and robust in the discrimination of the two classes of the two instances mentioned. Furthermore, three patterns of data-preprocessing followed before the training of the algorithms, i.e. the case of multidimensionality, the application of PCA, and the use of Relief method. Finally, six models were created for datasets that contain spectral data of asymptomatic inoculated with Cmm and healthy tomato transplants, all of which showed very high overall accuracy, ranging from 92 to 100%.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":9173,"journal":{"name":"Biosystems Engineering","volume":"251 ","pages":"Pages 1-10"},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143158209","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Cécile M. Levrault , Jur T. Eekelder , Peter W.G. Groot Koerkamp , Johan P.M. Ploegaert , Nico W.M. Ogink
{"title":"The cubicle hood sampler: Design of a practical system for the measurement of dairy cows’ methane production rates","authors":"Cécile M. Levrault , Jur T. Eekelder , Peter W.G. Groot Koerkamp , Johan P.M. Ploegaert , Nico W.M. Ogink","doi":"10.1016/j.biosystemseng.2025.01.014","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biosystemseng.2025.01.014","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Monitoring methane production from individual cows is crucial for the implementation of greenhouse gas reduction strategies. However, monitoring methane production rates (<strong>MPR</strong>) under practical conditions and with acceptable levels of accuracy, intrusiveness, and throughput remains challenging. In this study, we present a renewed design of the Cubicle Hood Sampler (<strong>CHS</strong>) as a potential solution to this challenge.</div><div>Placed in the cubicles, the CHS collects and analyses the methane content of the air exhaled by cows when lying down. The ability of four CHS units to recover known MPR was assessed in three series of recovery tests using a reference method (artificial reference cow (<strong>ARC)</strong>). For the fluxes tested, there were no significant difference in recovery rates (mean 110.5 ± 8.7%) between CHS units (<em>p</em> = 0.207), production rates (<em>p</em> = 0.080), and repetitions (<em>p</em> = 0.148). Recovery rates appeared not to be significantly different from 100% (<em>p</em> = 0.154), and root mean square error equated 35.0g, which is considered acceptable for MPR levels of 200 and 400g/day. Repeatability equated 0.94, showing the high repeatability and reliability across replicates. These results place the CHS as a promising tool for on-barn methane measurements. However, the radio frequency identification used to link measurements to specific cows did not yield sufficient levels of correct identification. Similarly, the monitoring of head poses was not satisfactory, and the CHS still requires further improvements to be made.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":9173,"journal":{"name":"Biosystems Engineering","volume":"251 ","pages":"Pages 11-19"},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143159181","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Evaluating the influence of straight-plain types of rotary tiller blades with various edge curves on maize residue using DEM","authors":"Shilin Zhang , Yuxiang Huang , Xiaojun Gao , Yubin Bi , Jianxin Dong , Hongbo Zhao , Pengfei Zhao , Xian Jia","doi":"10.1016/j.biosystemseng.2024.11.016","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biosystemseng.2024.11.016","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In no-tillage and minimum tillage systems, the abundance of crop residues and stubble left on the soil surface poses considerable challenges in seedbed preparation and residue handling for seeders in maize-wheat rotations. This study utilised the Discrete Element Method (DEM) to develop models illustrating the interactions between plain-straight blades featuring three edge-curves (Archimedean spiral, sinusoidal-exponential spiral, and logarithmic spiral) and maize residues, encompassing stubble and straw. Simulation experiments were employed to evaluate the soil disturbance, operational resistance, torque requirements, and residue-cutting efficiency of these various blade types at four initial static slide-cutting angles (ISSCAs: 35°, 45°, 55°, 65°). The simulation results exhibited an error of <7.5% compared to actual measurements of straw bending properties and soil cone index. The results showed that blade length, curvature, and dynamic slide-cutting angle range increased with higher ISSCA values. The elevation in slide-cutting angles notably enhanced the slide-cutting performance of the blade, leading to diminished torque requirements and draft forces within specific ISSCA ranges while improving residue-cutting efficiency. The stubble-cutting revealed more obvious soil disturbance than straw-cutting due to the adhesion between roots and soil. Notably, all three blade types exhibited increased vertical force and amplified soil disturbance area at 65° ISSCA during stubble cutting, primarily influenced by blade length. The Archimedean spiral blade demonstrated superior residue-cutting efficiency at 55° ISSCA while exhibiting reduced torque demands, operational resistance, and soil disturbance among all treatments. The findings help optimise the structure of plain-straight blades and field residue management.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":9173,"journal":{"name":"Biosystems Engineering","volume":"250 ","pages":"Pages 49-61"},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143153962","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Correlation between rheological properties and maturity of passion fruit based on machine vision","authors":"Fan Lin , Dengjie Chen , Caihua Lu , Jincheng He","doi":"10.1016/j.biosystemseng.2024.12.008","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biosystemseng.2024.12.008","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Rheological properties play an important role in food production and quality control. This research explores the relationship between rheological parameters and quality characteristics of passion fruit and establishes a maturity classification model for passion fruit based on its rheological properties. Each sample undergoes a rheological test, texture profile test, puncture test, and physicochemical index test. These tests aim to gather precise mechanical and physiological information on passion fruit. We built a mechanical testing platform and used machine vision to analyse the micro-deformation of fruit. The platform can measure the real-time contact area and load value to obtain accurate stress values during compression. Non-destructive rheological tests were conducted on intact passion fruit to get the elastic modulus during the loading stage. It is highly consistent with the results of traditional Hertz contact theory. Additionally, the stress relaxation parameters were obtained by fitting the five elements Maxwell model during the holding stage. Notably, there are strong correlations between the rheological parameters and most texture parameters or physicochemical indicators, with the highest correlation coefficient reaching 0.703. Therefore, the rheological parameters were utilised as inputs for maturity classification models (GBDT, MLP, and AdaBoost). All models achieved satisfactory classification results. Particularly, the GBDT model demonstrated excellent classification performance and generalisation capability, with Precision, Recall, and F-Score of 80.44%, 80.08%, and 80.26%. The results show that it is feasible to determine the maturity of passion fruit based on non-destructive rheological characteristics.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":9173,"journal":{"name":"Biosystems Engineering","volume":"250 ","pages":"Pages 236-249"},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143152588","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Development of a spectral repository for the identification of western Himalayan medicinal plants using machine learning techniques","authors":"Kishor Chandra Kandpal , Shubham Anchal , Anirudh Verma , Amit Kumar","doi":"10.1016/j.biosystemseng.2024.11.014","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biosystemseng.2024.11.014","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The identification of medicinal plant species is a crucial task for assessing the status of our bioresources. Conventional methods primarily rely on taxonomy and laboratory-based instruments, which are time-consuming and require the requisite expertise. Thus, there is an escalating demand for efficient techniques that can quickly identify these precious species. The advent of Hyperspectral Remote Sensing (HRS) with artificial intelligence has significantly increased the scope of HRS techniques by offering rapid and precise plant identification. This study utilised non-imaging HRS handheld sensors to build a spectral repository for 10 important medicinal plant species from diverse locations across Indian Himalayan states, representing varying altitudinal and ecological conditions. The spectral repository encompasses 1237 distinct spectral signatures obtained from the leaves and canopies of the targeted plant species. Subsequently, an identification model has been developed using Random Forest (RF) with several feature selection methods, and it has been revealed that the RF model, coupled with wrapper-based feature selection, is an effective combination for classifying the targeted plant species. The calibration and test datasets accounted for accuracies of 87.87% and 91.39%, respectively, with corresponding kappa coefficients of 0.85 and 0.89. Furthermore, the developed RF model was applied to ‘PRISMA’ satellite data to identify <em>Saussurea costus</em> crops in farmers' croplands, achieving a classification accuracy of 81.31% and a kappa coefficient of 0.76. Therefore, the study highlights the potential of integrating RF, <em>in-situ</em> HRS, and satellite HRS for the non-destructive, precise, and accurate identification of medicinal plants that can significantly contribute to biodiversity conservation and sustainable resource management.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":9173,"journal":{"name":"Biosystems Engineering","volume":"249 ","pages":"Pages 58-70"},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143149854","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Shaomin Xu , Sifang Long , Zixian Su , Khawar Hayat , Lijuan Xie , Jinming Pan
{"title":"Egg characteristics assessment as an enabler for in-ovo sexing technology: A review","authors":"Shaomin Xu , Sifang Long , Zixian Su , Khawar Hayat , Lijuan Xie , Jinming Pan","doi":"10.1016/j.biosystemseng.2024.11.008","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.biosystemseng.2024.11.008","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The culling of day-old male chicks remains a significant challenge for the egg-laying industry. While <em>in ovo</em> sexing technology has made strides, it has yet to achieve an optimal balance between early identification of sex at hatching, high sensitivity, and non-invasive operation. This paper aims to provide a comprehensive review of the research progress in <em>in ovo</em> sexing from various perspectives and to explore potential solutions in light of industrial practices and key technological bottlenecks. This study describes an efficient detection method for low-concentration samples and provides recommendations for the rapid detection of sex markers in chicken embryo allantoic fluid. Given the complexity of optical signals and the significant individual differences among eggs, the paper underscores the importance of evaluating egg characteristics in advancing <em>in ovo</em> sex determination technology. Based on this core concept, the use of multimodal data fusion strategies are advocated for <em>in ovo</em> sexing. This approach aims to deepen researchers' understanding of the complex relationship between sex labels and the high-dimensional data of breeding eggs, thereby injecting new momentum and direction into the development of this field.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":9173,"journal":{"name":"Biosystems Engineering","volume":"249 ","pages":"Pages 41-57"},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2024-12-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142759110","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}