Placing seeds precisely

With parts from the specialist: Mechanical engineers at FH Münster receive support from the industry

Münster/Steinfurt (28. August 2020). When a sowing machine is used in the field, it should be as efficient as possible – and, for example, recognise where which amount of seed is needed to give each plant the best possible standing space. Steffen Wermers, from the Department of Mechanical Engineering, calls this “coordinate-based work”. Together with his colleagues Bernhard Vogelsang, Prof. Manfred Große-Gehling and graduate engineer Marcus Mangelmann, the scientific employee of the Laboratory for Agricultural Machinery Technology on the Steinfurt campus is currently working on making this precise work possible with so-called precision seeders and the corresponding software. The four-member team obtains the necessary components and device interfaces for this from experts in the industry.

“GRIMME Landmaschinenfabrik provided us with the power units”, explains Vogelsang, pointing to the red and yellow device for spreading beet seed. The machines are equipped with drives from KAG (Kählig Antriebstechnik GmbH), which now supports the department with hardware and software interfaces during commissioning. “We are pleased about the help of the two companies and the good cooperation”, says Prof. Große-Gehling.

In the long term, the team would like to develop its own software to be able to control the power units on a coordinate basis. “A long-term goal is to combine coordinate-based seeding with precision mechanical hoeing,” Wermers says. This allows weeds in the field to be removed before crops germinate. “These would be possible topics for student work”, adds Große-Gehling.

(Photo: FH Münster/Frederik Tebbe; Text: Press Office FH Münster)