Evaluation of Power Requirement for a Self-Propelled Garlic Collector Based on Load Experiments and Variable Impact Analysis Under Various Operating Conditions

Garlic is a labor-intensive underground crop in Republic of Korea, where harvesting and collection require substantial manual work. Although self-propelled garlic collectors have been introduced, most were developed empirically, and quantitative evaluations of their load characteristics and power requirements under field conditions remain limited. This study quantifies the power requirements of the driving, collection, and transport parts of a self-propelled garlic collector and examines the effects of driving speed, collecting speed, transporting speed, and working depth. A field measurement system was developed to record torque, rotational speed, flow rate, and pressure, and these data were used to calculate the power requirement of each major component and the overall machine. Results showed that driving speed was the dominant factor affecting total power use, as the driving part displayed a clear increase with higher speeds. In contrast, the collection and transport parts exhibited only minor changes, and the influence of working depth was negligible. The maximum total power requirement was 12.28 kW, about 30% of the rated engine power of 40.2 kW, indicating that engine capacity exceeded actual requirement. These findings provide quantitative insights into self-propelled garlic collectors and essential data for future studies on engine downsizing and power transmission design.