Browsing by Subject "Anwendungssoftware"

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An expert system for planning and designing dairy farms in hot climates
(2008) Samer Mohamed, Mohamed; Jungbluth, Thomas
Planning and designing dairy farm facilities is a sophisticated work where a multitude of procedures should be carried out which requires time and efforts; moreover, making mistakes is also possible. Therefore, it is necessary to develop computer tools that have the ability to pre-process the data so as to produce value-added information, in order to accelerate analyses and to improve decision-making. Eleven simulation models were developed to plan and design several dairy farm facilities. Subsequently, an electronic spark map (decision tree) was developed for each simulation model, and then the simulation models were integrated into the relevant spark maps. Afterwards, C# language (C Sharp), which is an object-oriented programming language, was used to develop an expert system via the simulation models and the electronic spark maps. The developed expert system is able to plan and design several dairy farm facilities, e.g. housing system (corrals system), shade structure and roof material, concrete base, cooling system, milking parlor, forage storage, and manure handling system. Subsequently, it plans the farmstead layout, and it leads to implement the technologies, equipments, and machines required for performing several farm operations. Furthermore, it studies water and electricity requirements of the planned dairy farm and the available sources on site. Moreover, it calculates the capital investment and the fixed, variable, and total costs. Data of 6 dairy farms were used to carry out the expert system validation and evaluation. The differences between the actual and calculated values were determined and the standard deviations were calculated. The coefficients of variation range between 3% and 7%. The required input data are 358 thereof a multitude will be recommended by the expert system itself; consequently, it computes and displays 372 output data with the ability of saving and retrieving data. Besides, the system?s accuracy had been calculated using the actual and calculated values of the different outputs and it was found 98.6%. However, the system?s syntax includes 22106 lines. It can be concluded that the developed expert system can be used successfully for planning and designing dairy cow farms in hot climates.