Agricultural Mechanics Laboratory

The Agricultural Mechanics laboratory is dedicated to research and covers an area of approximately 200 m2. It has various measuring instruments and equipment, suitable for testing and developing experimental prototypes, carrying out trial tests and preliminary activities for field experiments.

Among the most significant equipment are:

• vertical test bench for calibrating sprayers for tree crops;
• specific test bench for calibrating sprayers for treatments on canopied vineyards;
• test bench with sonic anemometer for characterising air flows produced by sprayer fans;
• test bench for dimensional characterisation of droplets dispensed from nozzles, based on image processing;
• patented prototype for the release of natural antagonists for use in biological/integrated crop protection;
• test bench for the measurement of vibrations transmitted to the hand-arm system during the use of portable vibratory stone fruit harvesters;
• image analysis system comprising high-resolution digital reflex camera (RGB) equipped with macro optics, scanner and image processing software;
• multi-spectral camera for the acquisition of images in the visible and near infrared (VIS-NIR), complete with processing software;
• thermal camera for acquiring images in the thermal infrared (TIR), complete with processing software;
• set of hot-wire anemometers useful for measuring the flow rate of air sucked in by sprayer fans and a fan anemometer for measuring air speed;
• weather stations for monitoring the main agro-meteorological quantities (temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and direction, rainfall, solar radiation);
• equipment for assessing air quality in terms of dust, VOC, carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide, as well as for measuring temperature, humidity and wind speed;
• equipment for assessing noise and vibration risks in the working environment. The system is PC-based, is complete with a microphone and accelerometer calibrator and allows the acquisition of signals from microphones and accelerometers (uniaxial or triaxial) and their subsequent processing according to current regulations. There is also a sound level meter and a vibrometer for immediate preliminary measurements;
• sensor spheres for measuring the mechanical stresses suffered by the fruit as a result of impacts during processing and post-harvest conditioning;
• 3D scanner suitable for modelling small objects, in particular fruit and vegetable products with a view to simulating their behaviour following impact;
• materials testing machine for determining the main mechanical characteristics;
• equipment for analysing soil characteristics (structure, moisture, etc.), such as a stove, precision scales, sieves and hand drills;
• spectrophotometer for measuring leaf deposition in plant protection treatments;
• equipment for milking plant controls as required by ISO 6690;
• A series of workshop tools for small mechanical operations (circular saw, metal cutter, drill press, hand drill, hand grinder, compressor, hoist, crane) and small agricultural machines (knapsack blower, portable shaker for olive harvesting, pruning saws); prototypes of machines for fig tree management.

Among the software used, in addition to the common office packages, are applications for 2D and 3D CAD drawing (Autocad, Solid Edge), for image processing (ArcGIS, QGIS, ImageJ, CorelDRAW) for implementing mathematical models (Matlab, R), and for statistical analysis (SPSS, R).

Capacity:
Number of workstations: