An Assessment of Low-Cost Tractor Motorization with Main Farming Implements
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The paper is very interesting due to its objectives and due to its effort to solve engineering problems with simulation in AmeSim. The later one is a strong tool for generating and testing virtual models in real time, allowing the engineers to assess and improve the performances and characteristics of their designs.
The present paper has some limits that must be addressed:
The title may be reconsidered:
Line 3: ”...Behavior With Principal Farming Implements...” should be as follows ”...Behavior With Main Farming Implements...”
Line 10: ”The objective of this work is to evaluate of the low-cost...” should be as follows: ”The objective of this work is to evaluate the low-cost....”
Line 12: ”in the First time...” should be as follows: ”First time....” or ”In the first place...”
Line 15: ”within...” should be as follows: ”Within....”
Line 15: ”The role of this to resulted in...” should be as follows: ”The role of this is to obtain a fuel saving....”
Lines 44, 48, 51: references are made different in comparison to each other: some of them are .[].
others are like [].
why is such a difference in the approach?
Line 60: Meaning of the sentence is not clear. Should be revised.
Line 67: Wang and Wang (2014) is nowhere to be found in the reference list.
Line 70: Su and Karimi (2015) is nowhere to be found in the reference list.
Line 71: Lin, Wang, Hu and Gong (2010) is nowhere to be found in the reference list.
Line 76: ”actuator to one and reported a 60% energy saving. [21, 22].” meaning is problematic and the worlds are not clear.
Line 89: ”high tractive force during operation” world tractive should be replaced with traction
Have you developed a real tractor or just a virtual model in Amesim program?
what is the difference between a 1D and 2D model, because in the figure 2 there is given the 1D model. Which is the 2D model, and why is not presented?
When the modes are described, there are used multiple tables for some markers, but the tables are not numbered.
Figure 3. Gear of a gearbox .... Title should be reconsidered. Which is the gear that is pointed out, because it is not clear? Or is it Gears of gearbox? What is going to be?
Subtitles such as those from lines 266, 271, 273, 281, 285, 287, 291, 292, 296 etc. must be highlighted or underlined (bold) in some way.
Equations should be aligned to the right.
Line 280: Sentence is not clear.
Line 303: conditions of equation 24 are not properly placed.
Line 331: In "Hevap J/kg] and is equal to" the unit of measurement is not correctly expressed
FMEP is friction mean effective pressure? It is not explained precisely.
BMEP is brake mean effective pressure.
Both are used as symbols / abbreviations but are not given exactly as they should be.
Line 390: "Figure 3. Electric motor operation" should be renamed maybe to something more meaningful, such as, for example, "Figure 3. Operation modes of the electric motor-generator assembly"
Which is the operation sign in the equation 48? line 402.
Line 407 "3. Electric current" has no meaning. Why is there number 3 at the beginning.
Line 465: "The results of these simulations are carried out with a low-cost tractor." Simulations are not realized upon a virtual model? Data provided by the low cost tractor are used in the simulation?
Titles of the figures 6 and 7 should be revised.
Titles of figures 9 and 10 should be revised.
Title of the figure 12, 13 and 15 should be capitalized.
Style of the title Figure 16 should be revised. First letter T is bold and different from the others.
Some revisions should be operated at the rest of title figures.
Line 617: "Sela explains a significant decrease in consumption and rejection [69]." Wht is rejection?
Results are quite interesting, but maybe some additional comparisons with other works in the field should be provided.
Line 622:
In ”References” list:
[1] S. Paillard, Agrimonde – Scenarios and Challenges for Feeding the World in 2050, springer, 2014. .... correct form is ”Springer”
[5] K. T. Renius, «Fundamentals of tractors Design,» springer , switzlans, 2020. .... correct form is ”Springer”, Switzerland
[6] worldbank, «Options for Increased Private Sector in Resilience Investment Focus on Agriculture,» 2017..... correct form is Worldbank
[13] M. E. m. S. B. H. M. Yassine Zahidi, «Determining the Optimal Motorization for Low-Cost Tractor,» ijssst, vol. 21, 2020. What is the meaning of M. E. m. S. B. H. M.? May be this a self citation?
[17] F. Ceresoli, «Excavator with Two or Three Arms: Dynamical Behavior and Structural Implications,» University of Brescia
Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, italy, 2020. ..... correct form is Italy
[20] Q. W. B. H. W. G. Tianliang Lin, «Development of hybrid powered hydraulic construction machinery,» Automation in Construction,
vol. 19, n° %11, pp. 11-19, 2020.
...........What is the meaning of n° %11,?????
[25] O. H. P. H. &. G. J. W. Dagci, «Power-Split Hybrid Electric Powertrain Design with Two Planetary Gearsets for Light-Duty Truck
Applications,» IFAC-PapersOnLine, p. 8–15, 2015.
.......... correct form is pp. 8–15,
[26] n. ,. D. v. M. B. d. J. J. T. K. ,. M. S. Thijs van Keulen a, «Design, implementation, and experimental validation of optimal power
split control for hybrid electric trucks,» Control Engineering Practice, p. 20, 2012. What the point of this ”n. ,. D. v. M. B. d. J. J. T. K. ,. ”?
[27] M. F. Luigi Bodria, «EVOLUTION AND PROSPECTS OF AGRICULTURAL MECHANIZATION IN THE WORLD». there are very little specifications about this title. Where are the editors. Who is the publisher? What city? What country? what page have you cited? in which year has the book been printed?
[28] M. G. Y. &. M. J. M. Ehsani, «Hybrid electric vehicles:architecture and motor drives,» Proceedings of the IEEE, vol. 95, n° %14, pp.
719-728, 2007. what is the meaning of this ”n° %14”???
[54] A. K. V. A. Timo Janhunen, «ULTRA-LOW NOx HCCI-COMBUSTION IN THE Z ENGINE,» Aumet Oy, finland, 2016.
.......... correct form is Finland
Author Response
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Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
This paper presents an evaluation of a low-cost tractor, equipped with a parallel hybrid engine. Some interesting simulations using the the AMEsim software are described for several operational conditions of the vehicle. My comments to improve the manuscript are:
1) Please include information of electric motors (induction motor, synchronous motor, CD motor) used for this kind of applications. It is recommended to include some comments about the advantages of the kind of selected electric motor with respect to other architectures of electric machines.
2) Control of electric motors represents an important part for the efficient and robust operation of the vehicle. Include some description about the control technique implemented for the electric motor.
3) Include the mathematical model of the dynamics of the vehicle required for analysis and control of the vehicles. Include the expressions of the controllers for tracking of the planned motion trajectories. It is recommended to add a section with the summarized information of the differential equations, variables, and system parameters needed for analysis and design of motion control.
4) Please include all the values of the electrical and mechanical parameters of the vehicle.
5) Section of References should be improved in order to properly describe the complete information of references: name of authors, journal, volume, issue, pages, year etc.
Author Response
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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
The paper presents a very interesting issue, but it is written in a form that needs deep improvements.
I'll give you only some suggestions:
English form and puntuaction marks
please have a native English speaker reread the manuscript. Only to give you some examples: Lines 12, 13,14, ecc.: after the period, a capital letter is needed! Line 10: ... objective of this work is to evaluate of the low-cost.... I'm not an English mother language speaker, but I don't understand the sentence "of the". The text is full of errors of this kind which do not bring out the essence of the work (see also Line 616 with for no reasons all capitalized words).
Furthermore, you put the period before each bibliographic references, which is not required by the editorial rules of the journal.
More over there are some repetitions that suggest that the work has not been well re-read: please see, for example, lines 38-40 and 599-601.
State of the art
Line 79 and line 88: I don't understand why you state that some innovations showed a reduction of 10% in fuel efficiency
Hybrid architecture adopted
In this paragraph you have not entered any description or picture of the hybrid tractor, but you descibe it in lines 465 to 472 in "Results and discussion" section. I think you have to move this description into the appropriate paragraph.
Matematical model
You have spent 11 pages (54% of the paper!) to describe the mathematical metod used by a commercial software, but you have not declared the total duration of the test to evaluate the percentage of operation of the electric motor only on the total time; you simply state that, for example, the electric motor worked for 150 s, but which was the total duration of the test? Similar methods are very common in the automotive sector to evaluate the series-parallel hybrid cars (as Toyota Prius for examples). I suggest to reshape deeply all this paragraph to remove unnecessary details (Line 131: do you think it is useful the aerodynamic losses in agriculture when working at 7-8 km/h?) and to introduce the real goals of the research (efficiency, fuel saving, feasibility for agriculture, etc.) that you have simply listed in the very interesting 23 (!) Figures (from 5 to 28) but without a comment (or almost) on the findings you had.
I suggest a deep reshape of the manuscript in order to balance better the method and results sections.
Author Response
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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 2 Report
The manuscript has been properly improved according to some comments provided by the Reviewer. As authors mentioned in the paper, the permanent magnet synchronous motor represents a very good alternative for automotive traction. Thus, it recommended to include some references of recent contributions related to synchronous motor control techniques as such: Dynamic output feedback control for desired motion tracking on synchronous motors; Extended PI feedback tracking control for synchronous motors.
Author Response
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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
Sorry but I don't see the reshape work that I suggested. Only few correction on punctuation and improper use of capital letters (however not complete) and some .
No picture and description of the tractor, no discussion about the figures, I suggest to not waste this opportunity ti publish a good idea, but in an improved form
Author Response
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 3
Reviewer 2 Report
There is no additional suggestion to improve the paper.
Author Response
I would like to thank you for the time given. Also, for the pertinent remarks that allowed us to improve the quality of our work.
Reviewer 3 Report
As suggested previously, this work in interesting, but needs more comments of the results and less pages of matherials and methods.
Attacched only some suggestions
Comments for author File: Comments.pdf
Author Response
First of all, I would like to thank the reviewers for the time given. Also, for the pertinent remarks that allowed us to improve the quality of our work.
Dear reviewer thank you for your pertinent comment and i want to inform you that all the suggestion are done.
