On December 7th INDUCT was featuring in the TV programme ‘Innovatiekanaal’ (‘Innovation Channel’) on Kanaal Z. This programme gives you an overview of our activities together with three of our long-term partners: Agriplant, Case New Holland (CNH) and KULeuven. We explain how we use the Open Innovation paradigm to bring innovation to a wider audience.
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INDUCT will collaborate with Agriplant to improve the accuracy of the plant distance of their automatic planting machine, the Agriplanter. On the Agriplanter a robot takes the young plants out of a tray, one row at a time, and places the plants on a transport belt. The plants are then handed over to the planting mechanism through a number of vertical belts.
Agriplant is one of the leading constructors of automatic planting machines in Europe, and even the world. The limited accuracy of the planting distance (the distance between two successive plants), is the most important draw-back of the automatic planting machine. If the accuracy can be increased, the number of potential customers increases tremendously.
At the start of this innovation trajectory, INDUCT and Agriplant visited a number of customers to see the machine at work in the field. Based on what we saw there, we defined a project proposal to improve the accuracy of the plant distance. In collaboration with Agriplant we then decided to submit a SME-Innovation Project (‘KMO-Innovatieproject’) to the IWT with INDUCT as subcontractor.
One of the main reasons for Agriplant to work with INDUCT on this project is that INDUCT can also take care of the commercial implementation of the solution after the innovation project. When they need support on the implemented solution after the project, they can also turn to INDUCT for help. Moreover INDUCT can help them with the submission and administration of innovation subsidies.
Note that feasibility studies executed by INDUCT for Flemish SMEs can be paid for through the so-called KMO-portefeuille, which offers a 50% discount.
The objective is to control the speed of a combine harvester on the road such that the noise and the exhaust fumes are minimized. For this purpose two inputs are available: the setting of the hydrostatic pump and the engine speed of the diesel engine. Since the noise and the exhaust fumes depend on the engine speed of the diesel engine, the objective is to lower the engine speed as much as possible without compromising on acceleration performance.
A controller is designed that runs at minimal engine speed at all times, and only increases the engine speed during acceleration. The driving experience of the operator remains intact, and the combine harvester runs at a much lower engine speed.
Challenge: nonlinear relation between speed and both inputs. Relation dependent on the selected gear.
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Following a swath with for instance a forage harvester is a tedious task for the operator. The objective of this system is to measure the swath with a laser scanner and to follow the swath automatically. This was implemented on a combine harvester which has the same steering mechanisme as a forage harvester.
Challenge: nonlinear system. The response of the wheels strongly depends on the field circumstances.
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