Epsilon Open Archive

Abstract

This is the proceedings from the symposium on “Computers, electronics and control engineering in agriculture” hold in Sweden 1986. There were participants from all countries in Scandinavia. There were also invited speakers from The Netherlands, United Kingdom and west Germany. Computers, electronics and control engineering have become more and more powerful tools not only for agricultural engineering research activities but also for a better efficiency in agricultural and horticultural production processes. The symposium was needed for making researchers, university teachers and research students in agricultural engineering in the Scandinavian countries aware of the research frontier within the subject. With the subject is meant not only applications within agriculture but also connected areas such as biotechnology, microbiology, meteorology, ergonomics and so on. The purpose of the symposium was: - to state the present research frontier in different parts of the research field - to identify needs for further research and development - to find a suitable way for future Scandinavian research and development within the subject. Area The symposium consisted of six sections. Sections I—III dealt with the agricultural production processes. Each of these sections was discussed by speakers from two different viewpoints, namely: - to throw light on the biological demands for, needs for and cinditions of applications of electronics, computers and control engineering - to throw light on the present possibilities to solve the existing problems of applications of computers, electronics and control engineering, state the research frontier and discuss the most probable directions of further research and product development. The fourth section discussed different ergonomical viewpoints connected to the use of electronic equipment in agriculture, while the fifth section concerned about the impact on the management on the farm firm. Both these sections also discussed the need for further research. The sixth section of the symposium was a general discussion. This report has been edited by Bruno Nilsson who also was responsible for the organisation of the symposium. The symposium was sponsored by funds from the Council of Ministers in the Nordic Countries.