MECHANISM DESIGN FOR CONTROLLED MAIZE (ZEA MAYS L.) SEED PLACEMENT FOR DESIRED LEAF ORIENTATION

The project team's long-term vision is the development of a commercially available precision corn planter that can effectively and efficiently place seeds in a specific location and seed orientation to increase plant populations and yields while operating at field capacities similar to current planters.The proposed project will focus on the development of a reliable prototype corn seed delivery system that orients the seed and places it in the soil while maintaining the desired orientation once the furrow is closed. The specific objective is to design and evaluate prototype metering/orienting systems capable of planting corn seeds with the radical down and parallel to the row.