Design and Test of a Straw-Clearing-Depth Self-Adaptive Control System of a Front-Mounted Seedbed-Preparation Device

In northeast China, most seedbed-preparation devices use the ground-wheel profiling method to ensure their operational stability. However, during the wide-width operation of the front-mounted seedbed-preparation device, the poor trafficability characteristics and the low profiling accuracy of the ground-wheel profiling mechanism result in unstable straw clearing depth, poor straw clearing quality, and the low operational efficiency of the seedbed-preparation device. In order to solve the above problems, a straw-clearing-depth self-adaptive control system of a front-mounted seedbed-preparation device was designed. The key structural design of the self-adaptive control system was completed through theoretical analysis. The performance test results of the self-adaptive control system showed that the lifting speed of the front-suspension mechanism was greater than 0.2 m/s in the manual button control mode, and the relative error between the target value and the actual value of the straw clearing depth was 10.8% under the self-adaptive profiling control mode. The three-factor and five-level quadratic regression orthogonal rotation center combination test method was adopted to conduct a parameter combination optimization test, with the machine operation speed, the operation depth of the straw clearing knife, and the straw covering amount as test factors, and the straw clearing rate, the qualified rate of operation depth, and the consistency of straw clearing between rows as evaluation indices. The results indicated that when the machine operation speed was 5~8.8 km/h, the operation depth of the straw clearing knife was 50 mm, the straw covering amount was 0.9~1.44 kg/m2, the straw clearing rate was &ge:86%, the qualified rate of operation depth was &ge:86%, and the consistency of straw clearing between rows was &ge:83%. Field tests were carried out on the machine using operation speeds of 5 km/h, 6 km/h, 7 km/h, and 8 km/h under the conditions of an operation depth of the straw clearing knife of 50 mm and a straw covering amount of 1.2 kg/m2. The results showed that the straw clearing rate, the qualified rate of operation depth, and the consistency of straw clearing between rows were all within the optimized range under different machine operation speeds, which was basically consistent with the optimized results.