Control of the sugar cane harvester topper

Abstract

Operation of a mechanical sugar cane harvester is a skill and labour intensive task. The operator has many functions to manually control under difficult conditions. The focus of this paper will be one of these functions: the topper. The height at which the topper cuts the cane stalk has considerable effect on the quality of the product, and ultimately the return to the grower. A sensor has been constructed that will measure and return a real-time signal of the height of cut on the cane stalk by the topper. It is proposed that the introduction of some form of closed loop control system for the topper may reduce the responsibility of the harvester operator.