Design of Laboratory Environment for Development of Cleaning System Automation

This paper addresses the design of a laboratory environment for research and development activities used for automating the cleaning process in a combine harvester. The aim is to facilitate closed-loop automation test runs with extended duration. By utilising individual MOG and grain feeding units as well as recirculating the biomass material any combination of these occurring in an actual field can be simulated in the laboratory. An analysis of the laboratory set-up required for closed-loop automation test was conducted, showing the need to run short tests for performance evaluation, modelling and sensor evaluation as well as long duration runs for closed-loop automation testing and verification. The overall design of the biomass feeding system and cleaning system test stand with material sampling and re-circulation was described. The biomass feeding showed a reasonable good accuracy with a coefficient of determination at R²=0.99 and R²=1.00 for MOG and grain respectively. Evaluation of trends for grain loss, tailings grain and tailings MOG dependency on fan speed showed good resemblance between acquired material samples from field and laboratory. The continuous cleaning system laboratory facilities are expected to provide a significant advantage in the design and verification process for state of the art automated cleaning systems as well as future generations to come.