A DISCRETE ELEMENT MODEL FOR AGRICULTURAL DECISION SUPPORT

One of the main goals of precision agriculture researches is to define a suitable decision support system (DSS) for farm management with the goal of optimizing returns on inputs while preserving resources. Therefore, our long-term objective is the development of an adequate DEM model which can be adapted in the actual decision support system (DSS) to create a new model driven decision support system (MDDS) to refine operational parameters. In this study a preliminary step of our study is discussed: the predicted role of DEM modelling in decision making and a possible numerical model for corn stalk. The consequences of the study clearly demonstrate that the discrete element method is capable to reinforce agricultural decision support systems in the future and it is worth further analysing it.