Development of an electric reaper: A clean harvesting machine for cereal crops.

Presented by
Saddam Hussain
21AG61R20

M.TECH. (FARM MACHINERY AND POWER)

Agriculture and Food Engineering Department, IIT
Kharagpur
 Contents
•Introduction

•Objectives

•Materials and Methods

•Results and Discussions

•References
 INTRODUCTION
 Traditional manual harvesting of paddy with sickles is a labour-consuming
process, which requires 25% of total labour and 20% of the total cost of
operation required for paddy cultivation.

• Further, the shortage of labour and unexpected weather change are the
barriers for timely harvesting and cause greater loss to the farmers in
delaying the harvesting operation.

• For achieving better quality and higher yield of the crop, timely harvesting
is an essential factor.

• Therefore, for timeliness in harvesting operation, it is essential to adopt

mechanical harvesting methods.
• But most of the mechanical harvesters are run with fossil fuel.

• Faster depletion of fossil fuel, increase in their price and non-availability of fossil
fuel in rural areas are the primary challenges in the mechanization of agriculture in
rural areas.

• Further, mechanization at the cost of environmental pollution is unacceptable.

• Under such circumstances, the use of power storage technology (battery) for
harnessing energy is gaining popularity for use in agricultural machinery.
• Battery power has been used for stationary applications such as operation of
threshers, sprayers and pumps.

• So it is certain that there is a scope of using battery technology for carrying out
harvesting of any crop.

• A few researchers had developed electric cutters for cutting grass, shrubs and
bushes.

• However, these machines operate on the principle of impact cutting and

practically it is not suitable for cereal crop harvesting as impact cutting of cereal
crops leads to shattering losses.

• Hence, it was decided to develop a battery-operated walk-behind type VCR

(Electric reaper) for Indian farmers with small size landholdings and to evaluate its
performance in the paddy fields.
 OBJECTIVES
• To develop a battery-operated walk-behind type VCR (Electric reaper) for
Indian farmers with small size landholdings and to evaluate its
performance in the paddy fields.
 MATERIALS AND METHODS
Development of the electric reaper (e‑reaper)

• Selection of cutting width is a crucial factor for designing the e-reaper. It is known
that forward velocity and cutting width affect power requirement and field capacity of
a reaper.

• Hence, the cutting width was decided based on minimum power requirement and
maximum field capacity, i.e. it is a multi-objective optimization problem.

• The objective functions with stated constraints are given below:

Minimize fm(x), m = 1, 2.
Subject to 1.5 ≤ x(1) ≤ 2.1
f (1) = x(1) × x(2) × x(3) (1)
f (2) = −(x(2) × x(3) × 0.36) (2)
0.4 ≤ x(2) ≤ 1.0
 where ƒ(1) = cutting power, kW; ƒ(2) = field capacity, ha/h; x(1) = specific
cutting energy, kJ/m2; x(2) = cutting width, m; x(3) = forward speed, m/s.

Fig. 1 Optimization of cutting width

• 1 km/h (0.27 m/s) is the average walking speed of an operator in carrying out any
agricultural operations with power tiller/VCR. So, both the objective functions are
minimized at a forward speed of 0.27 m/s.
• The cutting width was optimized using MATLAB—multi-objective genetic
algorithmic technique with the stated constraints

• Solving a multi-objective optimization problem is generally understood by

computing a set of Pareto optimal solutions (Pareto front).

• The Pareto front is a set of non-dominated solutions, being chosen as optimal if no

objective can be improved without sacrificing at least one other objective.

• Cereal crops like paddy and wheat are cultivated at a row spacing of 20 cm. Hence,
the cutting width is decided based on the number of rows to be cut in one pass.

• From the Pareto front cutting width, more than 0.6 m (for cutting three rows) had
more power consumption and cutting width less than 0.6 m had lower field
capacity.

• Again solutions have a cutting width of 0.55 m, 0.64 m and 0.74 m having field
capacity and power requirement nearly similar to a cutting width of 0.60 m but are
inappropriate as it cannot cover the rows with the cutter bar.
• optimal solution in the Pareto front (Fig. 1). The obtained optimal solution point
has a cutting width of 0.60 m, cutting power of 0.25 kW and field capacity of
0.059 ha/h.

• Based on the cutting width of the e-reaper, the conveying unit and the
propelling unit were designed.

• The total power required by the reaper comprised three parts, i.e. power
required for cutting, power required for conveying and power required for
propelling.

• The header unit of e-reaper consisted of a cutting unit and a conveying unit.
Hence, the power required for cutting and conveying unit was summed up as
power required for header unit.

• Separate power source for header unit and propelling unit was used to
overcome complicated transmission system and minimize the power losses in the
e-reaper as the cutting and forward speed are different and also they require
rotation in different planes.
 Details of the design with power requirement
• Cutting unit
 A reciprocating type cutter bar having 76.2 mm stroke length was used with a total
cutting width of 600 mm. Eight standard blades of width 76.2 mm, trapezoidal in
shape and serrated at the top were riveted to mild steel (MS) flat of size 25 × 5 mm.

 Ledger guards were fastened to an MS flat of size 65 × 6 mm and it was fixed below
the cutting knives. Two knife clips were used to keep the knives in proper position
with a clearance of 0.5–1.0 mm between the knife and the ledger plate.

 A slider crank arrangement was used to convert the rotary motion of the header
shaft to a reciprocating motion of the cutter bar.

• Conveying unit
 The conveying unit consisted of three crop dividers, two star wheels and two lugged
chains. The crop dividers were made of metal sheets to guide the standing crop to the
cutting unit.
 The star wheels with an outer diameter of 300 mm and 7 fingers at the edges were
selected.

 The lugged chain of length 1748 mm and lug pitch of 134.5 mm with 13 lugs were used
in the conveyer chain.

 Power from a DC motor was transmitted to the upper and lower conveyer lugged chains
through a chain and sprocket arrangement.

 The upper conveyer lugged chain rotates the star wheels, which pushed the crop towards
the cutting unit.

 Pressure springs were provided below the star wheels to keep the crop in an upright
position while it was conveyed out of the reaper.
 •Propelling unit
 Pneumatic wheels of an overall diameter 37 cm and a load carrying capacity of 180 kg
were selected to provide sufficient traction to propel as well as to support the weight of
the reaper.

 Dog clutch was attached to each of the propelling wheels to engage and disengage
power supply to the wheels and was actuated by using a lever provided with the handle
of the reaper.
• Frame
The frame of the e-reaper was made of MS angles (40 × 40 × 3 mm), MS rods (ϕ25
mm) and MS flats (50 × 5 mm). It was made to support the weight of the DC motors,
batteries and header unit.

 The overall length, width and height of the reaper were 1970 mm, 988 mm and 1050
mm, respectively. Total weight of the reaper (including batteries and motors) was 135
kg.

• Power requirement and sources

 The power required for operating the e-reaper was calculated by summing up the
power required for cutting, conveying and propelling the reaper.
 In general, the conventional VCR has only one power source (IC engine) from which
power is transmitted to the header unit and propelling unit.

 This complicates the transmission system and increases the losses.

 Therefore, two different power sources have been used in the developed e-reaper.
Further using one power source for both cutting and propelling the reaper will
increase the size of the motor as well as battery.

 Hence, the weight of the battery, as well as the frame to carry the battery and
motor, will increase. It will create a manoeuvring problem as well as more power will
be required to move the reaper.

Fig. 2: Exploded view and power transmission of the header unit in e-reaper
 Results and discussion
The developed e-reaper is shown in Figure.

Fig 3: Developed e‑reaper

 Performance of e‑Reaper
 The performance of e-reaper was evaluated in paddy fields with different varieties of
paddy crop (IR-36, Badshabhog and Saurav with plant height of 700 mm, 1200 mm and
650 mm, respectively) at a grain moisture content of 15–32% and straw moisture
content of 60–72%.

 From the field evaluation, it was found that the developed e-reaper could work
effectively for 2 h continuously without any power breakdown.

 The maximum power consumed by the header unit and propelling unit during paddy
harvesting was found to be 550 W and 322 W, respectively. This power consumption
was within the permissible limit of the selected motors.

 The electric reaper could cut the paddy crop with a stubble height of 50–80 mm,
conveyed the cut crop and dropped it in a windrow.

 The effective field capacity of the reaper was measured to be 0.04–0.06 ha/h. The
field efficiency of e-reaper was found to be 66% by taking the ratio of actual field
capacity to theoretical field capacity. The e-reaper has a cutting efficiency of 98%.
 Limiting the forward speed of the reaper to 1 km/h helped the operator to harvest
comfortably without clogging.

 The e-reaper is also suitable in clay fields. During harvesting soil is generally dry,
having a moisture content of 13 ± 2% and cone index (strength) of soil at this
condition is sufficient to develop enough traction to move the reaper.

 The daily exposure of hand vibration, A(8) for the e-reaper was measured to be 9.9
m/s2, which is lower as compared to IC engine-operated conventional VCR A(8) of
19.76 m/s2. Lower vibration was observed due to lesser moving parts. The
acceptable limit for daily hand vibration A(8) is 5 m/s2 (Monarca et al. 2008).

 The advantage of using DC motors is also reflected from the lesser noise produced
during harvesting as compared to IC engine-operated reapers.

 The noise at the operator’s ear level and at a distance of 10 m from the reaper
during harvesting with e-reaper was measured to be 88 and 60 dB(A), respectively,
which are below the standard limit.
 The batteries used in the e-reaper were charged using a DC battery charger. The
batteries need charging after every 2 h of field operation. For recharging all the batteries,
a total time period of 2 h is required.

 The weights of six batteries are only 30 kg. The total weight of the developed e-reaper
with 6 batteries is 135 kg, whereas the conventional VCR is 225 kg.

 Due to zero carbon emission, the e-reaper did not produce any pollution; hence, it is an
environment-friendly harvesting machine.
 Cost analysis for harvesting with e‑reaper

The field capacity of the e-reaper was 0.06 ha/h. The annual use and work-life of the
reaper was considered as 200 h and 6 years, respectively.

 Hence, the battery needs to be replaced in every 3 years as the life of the battery is 3–5
years. Hence, 2 sets of batteries are required for operating the machine for 6 years.

 Three labours were required for operating the e-reaper to harvest 1 ha of paddy, and
the operator’s cost was taken as Rs 350 (5$) per day.

 Using these data, the total cost of harvesting paddy with the developed e-reaper was
computed as Rs 2933 (41 USD) per ha. In manual harvesting, 185 man-h/ha is required for
carrying out the operation (Varshney et al. 2004).

 Thus, the total cost of manual harvesting of paddy is Rs 8094 (113.3 USD) per ha. Thus,
harvesting paddy with e-reaper resulted in a saving of Rs 5161(72.25 USD) per ha.
 Conclusions
 The developed reaper powered by rechargeable batteries with a standard cutter bar
of cutting width 600 mm and a stroke length of 76.2 mm could cover 0.06 ha/h and is
suitable for small land sizes.

 As compared to IC engine-operated VCR, the area covered by the developed reaper

was lesser but it did not produce any exhaust emission, and the noise and vibration
were 4.34% and 49.89%, lesser, respectively.

 The cost of operation with the developed e-reaper was 63% lesser than the
traditional method of harvesting. Hence, this reaper is an economically viable
harvesting machine for small and marginal farmers of India.
 The developed reaper, unlike IC engine-operated VCR, is not suitable for logged crops.
When it is used for tall variety paddy (850 mm), chances of overlapping occur as the
cutting width is only 600 mm.

 These difficulties are negligible as compared to the benefit obtained of operation

cost, easiness in manoeuvrability and zero exhaust emissions.
 Modification of the power transmission to header unit and propelling unit may be
taken up to improve transmission efficiency.

 Further studies are needed to incorporate solar panels to the developed electric
reaper so that it can be operated for a longer period of time as the batteries will be
charged during the harvesting operation.
 References
• Arjya Utkalini Sahoo1 · Hifjur Raheman, ” Development of an electric reaper: a
clean harvesting machine for cereal crops”. Published online: 20 March 2020
Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
Thank you