Design and Evaluation of Three Metering Devices for Planting of Sugarcane Billets

In sugarcane production, the mean condition for high productivity depends on billets located in the furrow with uniform distribution. The focus of this paper was on development and evaluation three types of a new prototype of sugarcane metering device to plant the sugarcane billets with desired spacing. Accordingly, a prototype of the precision metering device for sugarcane was developed. The model of the metering device was designed with CATIA R21. The performance indices of the device, including quality of feed index (QFI), multiple index, miss index and precision have been taken as a set of criteria for billet spacing accuracy and were investigated under laboratory conditions using a test stand with camera system. There was significant difference of miss index, multiple index and quality of feed index among different tooth length while precision affected by speed. Four row cylindrical metering device showed a better performance compare to other types of metering device. Analytical hierarchy process (AHP) was used and 1.5 cm teeth length with forward speed of 15 m min^-1 was best found for selected sugarcane billet metering device with 91.67% for quality of feed index with 5.03% precision.