#Smart Agriculture

Agricultural Machinery Engineering September 4, 2026

Agricultural Machinery Engineering 101: Agricultural Drones — Airframe Design for Spraying and Growth Sensing

The term 'agricultural drone' actually covers two systems with very different characters: spray drones that carry pesticides and fertilizer, and sensing drones that measure crop condition. This article reads through actual machine specs and public materials the spray system of tank/pump/nozzle, NDVI as a growth indicator, and the structure of Japan's Civil Aeronautics Act and flight-level regulations.

Fundamentals · 9 min Agricultural Machinery Engineering September 4, 2026

Agricultural Machinery Engineering 101: RTK Guidance — From Satellite Positioning to Autonomous Steering and Variable-Rate Application

RTK-GNSS delivers centimeter-class position, but by itself it steers nothing. This article works through the engineering chain that makes 'RTK guidance' actually reduce labor and sharpen precision in tractors and rice transplanters: AB-line/curve/contour guidance patterns, the control loop that feeds lateral deviation back into steering angle, and the link to yield and application maps.

Fundamentals · 10 min Agricultural Machinery Engineering September 3, 2026

Agricultural Machinery Engineering 101: The Combine Harvester — From Cutting to Cleaning and Automation

The head-feeding combine harvester that cuts rice, threshes it, separates the grain, and stores it in a tank. This article reads the combine as mechanical engineering — why it originated in Japan, the internal material flow, the equations used to measure loss, yield/quality sensors, the published specs of current models, and where autonomous operation and electrification stand today.

Fundamentals · 18 min Agricultural Machinery Engineering September 3, 2026

Agricultural Machinery Engineering 101: The Rice Transplanter — How Seedlings Are Moved Into the Paddy, One Hill at a Time

A rice transplanter is not just a machine that carries seedlings. This article reads it through equations and public materials — the feed system that cuts a seedling mat down to one hill at a time, the trajectory of the planting claw, row/hill spacing and depth, paddy-surface tracking via floats, and everything from walk-behind machines to robotic units.

Fundamentals · 21 min