Designing and Static Performance Testing of Auger Type Fertilizer Metering Device with PID Control

Abstract

The rapid development of technology has brought a positive impact on the agricultural sector, primarily through the concept of precision agriculture. Precision fertilization is critical to improving agricultural quality and productivity by adapting the right actions to the right place at the right Time according to land variability. One approach that is considered successful is fertilization based on nutrient adequacy levels, which can provide optimal fertilization recommendations. The purpose of this study is to obtain an auger-type variable rate mating device that can control the dose of granular fertilizer. The results showed that the variable rate metering device auger type that had been tested could work quite well in controlling the dose of granular fertilizer. This can be seen from the static calibration of the auger-type metering device producing a linear correlation of each motor with a correlation equation y = 0.0041x – 0.025 with a coefficient of determination R2 = 0.9543 and the results of testing stair step response and step response both without fertilizer and with fertilizer show that the system can follow the set point commands given.