Conference Agenda

Starting from the operation characteristics of agricultural machinery equipment, the manuscript analyzes the key technical requirements of electric agricultural machinery equipment on battery parts, electric drive parts, electric drive control, energy management and collaborative control, discusses the technical methods to increase the endurance of electric agricultural machinery, adapt to low speed, large torque and multi-power output conditions, and analyzes the relevant technical research progress. The characteristics of new energy agricultural machinery products using pure electric, oil-electric hybrid, solar auxiliary power and fuel cell power are summarized, and the application of electric agricultural machinery in facility planting, hilly and mountainous areas and recreational agriculture are forecasted. Aiming at the existing problems, it is proposed to carry out research on special chassis with high trafficability, three-electricity system with high adaptability, electrification transformation of operating parts, intelligent electrification technology fusion and other aspects in the future, so as to improve the comprehensive performance of electric agricultural machinery, reduce the cost of electric agricultural machinery and promote the popularization and application of electric agricultural machinery.

Operating agricultural machinery in shallow flooded environments such as rice paddies and lotus fields presents significant mobility challenges. This study evaluated the hydrodynamic performance of a twin screw-propelled amphibious vehicle intended for use in waterlogged agricultural environments. The objective was to examine propulsion efficiency and stability under different flotation configurations and to clarify the trade-off between performance and transverse stability.

Three configurations were investigated: a baseline without flotation, a foam-only flotation system, and a foam system with additional lateral floaters. Preliminary trials showed that the baseline configuration did not provide sufficient buoyancy and submerged; therefore, only the floating configurations were tested. Static thrust, forward velocity, and slip (%) were measured at 90, 180, and 270 rpm, with five repetitions for each condition.

Results showed that thrust increased nonlinearly with rotational speed, reaching 48.33 N at 270 rpm in the foam-only configuration. The maximum forward velocity recorded was 1.2 km/h. Slip ranged from 54% to 60% and increased slightly at higher rotational speeds. Adding lateral floaters improved transverse stability but reduced thrust and forward speed by approximately 6–10%, likely due to increased hydrodynamic resistance.

These findings provide guidance for the design and optimization of screw-propelled amphibious vehicles for flooded agricultural use.

Reduction of the environmental impact of agricultural practices is a major challenge for the farming sector. This requires lowering greenhouse gas emissions and reducing the use of chemical inputs for crop protection and fertilization. In this context, manufacturers are increasingly focusing on the electrification of tractors and agricultural machinery. Replacing mechanical and hydraulic components with electric actuators can improve energy efficiency, enable more precise implement control for advanced variable-rate applications, and enhance safety and operator comfort by eliminating the cardan shaft. Although several prototypes of electric agricultural machines have been developed, only a limited number are currently commercially available. The main barrier to large-scale adoption is the power demand of electrical implements, which conventional tractors are unable to provide.

This study presents the development and energy performance assessment of electric implements: a ditcher, a leveller, a four-rotor tedder, and a leaf remover. These were tested and compared, under same operating conditions, with conventional counterparts. In all cases, the electric implements showed a reduction in Power Take-Off (PTO) power demand compared with their conventional counterparts. Energy savings relative to hydraulically driven implements were significantly greater than those observed for PTO-driven systems, owing to the lower overall efficiency of hydraulic transmissions.

The future of agricultural mechanisation increasingly hinges on electrification, precision actuation and robotics‑aligned implement design. Recent advances in targeted tillage technology for large scale row-cropping systems developed at CEI:AgER exemplify this shift away from hydraulically powered systems. Electric actuation architecture offers faster responses, higher positional accuracy, lower energy losses and simpler power distribution across large frames. The inter‑row targeted tillage prototype, when coupled with detection sensors, can actuate the blade for shallow (~5cm) and finessed soil entry to remove and invert individual weed plants. Electric drive systems allow flexible and precise control of blade kinematics and reduced system inertia, enabling the removal of weeds with minimal soil disturbance aligning with conservation agriculture principles. Design innovations include low‑disturbance blade kinematics due to passive soil‑entry mechanisms reducing power requirements. Modular electric actuators facilitate mechatronic control system flexibility that are well-suited to future platform integration. Designed as a low energy non-chemical weed control option for inter-row weeding, the system provides a scalable, automation‑ready approach to integrated weed control. These advances help demonstrate the role of electrification and innovative mechanical design to redefine implement architectures for next‑generation electrified conventional powerplants and autonomous platforms in conservation farming systems.

We explore the development of new agricultural methods that do not rely on economies of scale and examine agricultural production systems using small robots. Although tillage, which requires high power, is not suitable for small robots, this study focused on screw tillage, which is suitable for shallow tillage at low speeds. Numerical analysis was used to examine its tillage characteristics. We simulated the tillage process by applying blades simulating rotary and screw tillage to soil samples simulated as a collection of particles using the par-ticle method. The rotary tiller's rotation axis was parallel to the horizontal plane, while the screw tiller's rotation axis was perpendicular to the horizontal plane. Rotary tillage was more effective at mixing the upper layer of soil parti-cles downwards comparing to screw tillage. Screw tillage exhibited localized variations in the degree of agitation. Future work will require mechanical model experiments to verify the usefulness of this method, as well as evaluating the characteristics of screw tillage, taking into account factors such as the load gen-erated during tillage and energy efficiency.