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Recently, many studies on application of farming support and agricultural work management system using information and communication technology to management efficiency of agriculture have been progressed and agricultural machinery of high efficiency and high utilization have also been required. This has brought about consideration of the construction of such measuring system as being important that could identify operating information of agricultural vehicle including safety of vehicle body. Rudimentary operating information of agricultural packaging machinery is exactly about the characteristics of motion of vehicle. In order to identify them, 6 degrees of freedom components of vibration acceleration are required. Previous studies on measuring the vibration of vehicle body of 6 degrees of freedom components of vehicle have been through measuring of translational acceleration of translational accelerometer and rotational acceleration of gyro. However, this method has problems in that measuring system is so large and costly that it could not be regularly used in measuring vibration acceleration and identifying operating conditions of vehicle body (Choe, Jung Seob and E. Inoue, 2001; Inoue E. et al., 1990). Therefore, this study aims to examine the usefulness of MEMS (Micro Electro Mechanical System) sensor, a compact and affordable sensor which has recently received attention, for measuring vibration of agricultural vehicle by obtaining serial data of vibration acceleration using an MEMS sensor and translational accelerometer and thereby calculating and comparing RMS (Root Mean Square) and PSD (Power Spectral Density) as a step before construction of measuring system which can always identify operating conditions of agricultural packaging machinery.

Aging and feminization of farming population are a major burden on current agricultural sector, and some measures are demanding to adjust this trend. The agricultural mechanization has relieved farmers of most of the hard physical labor, but still work environments are poor, and there are a lot of harmful factors affect- ing human health. Therefore, improvement of safety and comfort in agricultural machinery is needed. In case of the most commonly used domestic agricultural machinery, agricultural tractors, operation device loca- tion and operating force are regulated by international rules such as ISO 4253, but the rule is not sufficient for domestic operators, since it was not developed for operator's comfort and was drawn out based on the westerners. In this study, we developed a technique that evaluates the conformability of tractor driving operation device for all Korean farmers including senior and women farmers. We also established evaluation equip- ments and inspection method of tractor operation conformability to promote dissemination of tractors that suit for Korean farmers' physique. In the future, the result allows tractor manufacturers to propose design guidelines for proper location and operating force of tractor operating device. It also allows domestic agri- culture manufacturers to develop agricultural machinery that considered the conformability of farmers from the design stage.

In Japan, it is required to develop rice production technology that can achieve stable targets of yield and quality, given the high demands of consumers about rice quality, the necessity of enhancing our international competitive power, and a declining trend in the production of first grade rice (Ministry of Agricultaure, Forestry and Fisheries, 2011). Rice yield is determined by yield components such as panicle number, spikelet number, percentage of ripened grains, and grain weight (Kokubun, 2010). Among these components, panicle number is the most important because it significantly affects other yield components as well as rice quality. Panicle number is largely determined by tiller number, which is affected by various factors such as air temperature (Kobayashi et al., 1985), solar radiation (Shimizu et al., 1962; Kitagawa et al., 1988), water temperature (Honjo et al., 1968; Ueki, 1968), and soil nitrogen content (i.e., quantity of ammo–nium in the soil solution and exchangeable ammonium in the soil (Ando et al., 1988). Yet, the interaction of these factors is complicated; thus, tiller number has mainly been controlled on the basis of trial and error experiences of farmers. However, unstable rice yield and quality in recent years indicate limitation of agricultural practice when based on farmer experience. Hence, the development of a prediction model that expresses the relationship between tiller or panicle number and various influential factors is required to support the decision–making process of farmers in agricultural practice. There has been a limited number of studies regarding prediction models on tiller or panicle number, with such studies being focused on factorial analysis. Tanifuji and Thokairin (1985) developed the successive prediction model for tiller and panicle numbers that focused on short–term forecasts. In this model, tiller and panicle numbers were predicted 10 to 20 days in advance by using plant length and tiller number at the time of prediction and daily mean temperature of ordinary year. This model may provide useful information to support decision–making for top–dressing; however, the model does not provide information about required basal fertilizer application, which is the most important practice to control tiller number. In addition, the explanatory variables included in the model were not sufficient to express Evaluation of a Multiple Linear Regression Model for the Prediction of Panicle Number in Rice