Investigation of a Feedrate Sensor for Combine Harvesters

The agricultural combine harvester is one of the most complex of machines used in cereal grain production. It is believed that significant increases in efficiency and productivity could be realized if several of the machine adjustments could be automatically controlled. One of the most important parameters to measure and control is the feedrate, i.e. the mass flow rate of material entering the machine.

This paper reports on an investigation of a sensor, using electrical capacitance techniques, to measure feedrate.