Real-Time Calibrated Cotton Yield Monitor

Cotton yield monitors are important in determining the variability of revenue and profit across farm fields. Multiple yield monitors have been developed and marketed over more than a decade, but their use remains limited, and part of the reason for this is a perceived lack of accuracy and repeatability. This project is designed to couple a highly accurate calibration system with a yield monitor that has proven effective at the research level. The new system is comprised of six major components: two mass flow sensors, one field-programmable gate array (FPGA) as a data processing system, the weight-based calibration system, a display, and a GPS receiver. The goal of the study is to combine these components in terms of sensing, data acquisition, and communication, so that accurate yield information can be recorded and displayed in real time.