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This study was conducted to develop system for high speed rice transplanting machines. The control system includes a sensor detecting the tilt angle of the seedling bed, a micro-controller and a hydraulic system consisting of a double acting cylinder, a four-way three-position solenoid valve, a relief valve and a hydraulic pump. The levelling system shared the pump with the existing steering control, resulting in a tandem center circuit for the steering and levelling control systems. Using the input signal from the sensor, the micro-controller determined and generated the output signal to control the cylinder through the solenoid valve to keep the seedling bed always parallel to the water surface regardless of soil unevenness during the transplanting operations. Both an ON/OFF and a PWM control schemes were tested. When the flow rate was more than 1 ι/min in the ON/OFF control, the system showed unstable rolling. However, in the PWM control, the system worked stably although the flow rate was more than 1 ι/min. The PWM control showed a better performance when a large difference between the angle and the dead band of the control system occurred. The characteristics of tile system response to given tilt angles were predicted by a computer simulation. Both the ON/OFF and the PWM control systems worked well providing that the operating and waiting times were properly adjusted.
