In many Indian regions, paddy wheat is the main crop rotation and facing the problem of straw incorporation for seed bed preparation in short period. The handling of straw in combine harvested paddy fields is a significant issue in the paddy wheat rotation. In order to solve this issue, efforts were carried out to cut paddy straw into small pieces by the newly proposed counter-rotating blades, followed by the simultaneous incorporation of a rotary tiller into the soil. Therefore, a tractor operated chopping cum tilling mixing machine was developed. In the study, three different blades (straw management system (SMS) Serrated, cutter bar and SMS plain) were tested in the terms of torque and required to chop the straw. SMS serrated blade was best suitable for the chopping mechanism as it required minimum cutting torque for the straw bunches. The developed chopping cum tilling mixing machine was tested at three different levels of forward speed (1.77, 2.3, and 3 km h⁻¹), moisture content at three levels (35 ± 3.4, 24 ± 2.2 and 17 ± 2.6%) with fix rotary tiller rotational speed of 810 rev min⁻¹. Optimum operating condition of the machine was obtained at a forward speed of 1.9 km h⁻¹ and a moisture of 24%. At these optimized values, the mixing index (96%), mean weight diameter (7.9 mm), bulk density (1230 g cc⁻¹) and fuel consumption (3 l h⁻¹) were 96%, 7.9 mm, 1230 g cc⁻¹ and 3.0 l h⁻¹ respectively. The developed machine performs three operations i.e., chopping, tilling, and mixing in single pass for effective in-situ straw management.

In this work, the mechanical properties of paddy straw were evaluated using force-deformation curves and neural network approaches. The mechanical strength of the paddy straw was estimated at Moisture Contents (MC) of 10.8, 13.5, and 18.4% (w. b.), on distinguished internode positions, that is, N1, N2, and N3, and with applied Loading Rates (LR), that is, 25, 30, and 35 mm/min, respectively. Results shows that the values of Bending Strength (BS), Shear Strength (SS), and Young's Modulus (YM) were increasing from 5.35 to 17.34 MPa, 4.99 to 7.35 MPa, 0.43 to 1.39 GPa, respectively, through the node position from N3 to N1 with a decrease in MC and an increase in load through internode N1 to N3. Thus the MC and LR at different internode positions significantly (P<0.05) affected the BS, SS, and YM of paddy straw. The Levenberg-Marquardt’s backpropagation based neural network was used to model the mechanical properties of paddy straw. The lower value of RMSE (0.69) and higher value of R² (0.9998) indicates a best fit for the developed model. The coefficients of determination for BS, SS, and YM were 0.9994, 0.9942, and 0.998, respectively, indicating that the neural network model for estimating the mechanical properties of paddy straw can be used as an excellent alternative under selective experimental conditions.

Self-propelled hydraulically operated multi-utility platform for orchard management system (SOMS) was developed to increase the accessibility of pickers to fruit on trees and to carry out orchard management practices like spraying and pruning. The platform was designed for vertical reach of 6 m and load carrying capacity of 200 kg. Point manipulation programme was developed by Microsoft Excel add in and by trial and error, position of the standard components were decided to determine the centre of gravity of the machine. Standard components were placed over the chassis in such an arrangement that, the centre of gravity (CG) always remain over the chassis during entire operation of the platform from minimum to maximum height with designed load. Forces acting on the chassis were analyzed to find out weight transfer and impending stability in various terrain conditions, various bucket positions loads on the bucket. The prediction equation for the determination of horizontal center of gravity (X_cg) was verified with the true value collected by keeping the wheels of SOMS on individual electronics weighing balance. The average absolute variations between the predicted and measured values of X_cg were within 0.44 % and 3.53%.