Justifying the Operation Parameters of a Robotic Cassette Loading Device of the Carousel Type for a Selection Seeder

Introduction. The development and implementation of automated and robotic machines and devices for performing works on selection and seed production of grain and other crops creates conditions for increasing productivity and reducing labor intensity of work and contributes to increasing the production volume of domestic crop seeds. For sowing crops at the 2nd stage of selection work, there are used cassette seeders, which have special loading devices for feeding cassettes with seeds divided into portions to autonomous seeding units, the number of which corresponds to the number of cells in the cassette. The robotic cassette loading device of selection seeders is designed for successive movement of cassettes with seeds to the seeding units and for feeding cassette blocks to the working area according to a specified program when performing the technological process of sowing on seed plots for breeding grain, leguminous and other crops. In this case, there must be ensured strict coordination of the robotic cassette loading device and seeder seeding units operation and for this it is necessary to justify the engineering parameters of the robotic cassette loading device taking into account its design.Aim of the Study. The study is aimed at analyzing the robotic cassette loading device operation in the interaction system between the seeder working parts during the technological process of sowing crops on selection breeding plots and justifying the parameters of the robotic cassette loading device of the carousel type for loading the selection seeder seeding units.Materials and Methods. To determine the parameters of the robotic cassette loading device, there were used physical and mathematical dependencies describing the operation of the robotic cassette loading device in various modes during selection sowing of grain and other crops at the second stage of work.Results. There were substantiated the parameters of the robotic cassette loading device of the carousel type for two operating modes: feeding cassettes in the working area to the discharge outlets of the work table and feeding a block of cassettes into the working area. There were calculated parameters of the manipulator mechanisms. For the actuator moving the cassettes, the minimum force is 7.2 N, the rod length is 700 mm, the rod speed is 60 mm/s, and for the electric motor rotating the robotic cassette loading device moving platform, the rotation frequency of the output shaft is 10 r/pm, the minimum required power on the output shaft of the moving platform drive is 55.7 W.Discussion and Conclusion. There were determined the engineering parameters of the robotic cassette loading device of the carousel type for loading the seeding units of a selection seeder at the 2nd stage of selection work. The calculation of the cassette feed speed of 0.033 m/s during the main sowing operation was carried out for the initial parameters: the seeder operating speed of 3.0 km/h, the plot length of 1 m and the length of the inter-tier path 0.5 m. For the cassette block feed mode, there was calculated the angular velocity of rotation of the moving platform (1.05 radians per second), at which the cassette block feed will take 1 second.