Instrumentação para o estudo da logística de campo em operação de colheita mecanizada de grãos

Abstract

Brazil is one of the largest grain producers in the world, and Mato Grosso the largest producer in Brazil. However, to allow double crop season, it is necessary a fast harvesting operation of the early soybean varieties, which usually occurs in periods of heavy rainfall that significantly hamper the operation. Thus, any technique or system for optimizing the harvesting operation can contribute to the success of the operation, minimizing the risk of loss and the distances traveled by the machines, reducing fuel consumption, reducing environmental impacts and also reducing operating costs with mechanization. However, in the case of large agricultural fleets, manual performance data collection is practically impossible, or impracticable, due to the large number of information that must be obtained in a short period of time, being necessary the instrumentation of the fleet to analyze the times in mechanized harvesting systems. The objective of this work was develop and validate a Data Acquisition System (DAS) that would allow data collection to enable field logistics studies in mechanized grain harvesting operations. A harvesting fleet (four combines and three grain carts) were instrumented in a Mato Grosso farm for test and validation of the developed DAS. The setup operated during the fall of 2015-2016 and one of the fields was used for preliminary analyses of field efficiency. The results show that the DAS allowed collection of data for detailed analyses of the operational logistics and showed that combines field efficiency were between 76 % and 82 % in the analyzed field.