DESIGNING AN ELECTRONIC SYSTEM TO MEASURE THE PERFORMANCE INDICATORS OF THE TRACTOR-IMPLEMENT SYSTEM

The objective of this study is to design an electronic system using the Arduino electronic controller is a low-cost, accurate, and easy-to-install system to measure and record the effective parameters of the tractor-implement system. In addition to field testing of this system using three plows: moldboard, chisel, and disc plow. Experiments were carried out in the fields of the College of Agriculture - University of Basra, Karma Ali site, in silty clay soil. The basic design of the system generally consists of two systems, the first is the transmitter and the second is the receiver. The transmitting system consists of three sensors (Encoder Sensor, Ultrasonic sensor, and Load Cell). This system sends the signal wirelessly via (H-C 12) to the other receiving electronic system. The receiving system's function is to receive the transmitted signal from the sending system. This system saves data automatically via a (Micro SD Card) with a memory card specified by the designer with a capacity of no less than (2GB). The results of the tests showed a high match in the values of the depth of plowing measured by the ultrasonic sensor and the depth of plowing measured by traditional methods (R-Squared is 0.9978). The results also indicated that the actual and theoretical forward speed values measured using the encoder sensor were identical to the traditional methods R-Squared = 0.9941 and 0.9986, respectively. Which proves the device's accuracy and high reliability. The results showed that the traction requirements at a forward speed of 0.51 m/sec and plowing depth of 25 cm, were (14.3, 11.25, and 10.35 kN) for moldboard, chisel, and disc plow, respectively. The results also showed that the traction force increased by (72-75%) and (45-50%) when the plowing depth and forward speed were increased, respectively. The disc plow showed less slip compared to the moldboard and the chisel plow. The results also indicated that the effect of tillage depth is greater than the effect of forwarding speed on the slip percentage.