Desenvolvimento de aplicativo para o cálculo de mistura de grãos avariados e úmidos, descontos e massa específica

Abstract

Agricultural products after harvest are usually not in suitable conditions/standards for storage and/or commercialization, mainly in terms of moisture content, impurities, and damaged grains. Therefore, upon receiving a grain load, storage facilities immediately proceed with sampling and classifying the received product to verify its condition. If necessary, they apply discounts to the payment value due to the costs associated with pre-cleaning and drying processes, which remove excess impurities and moisture to ensure the product meets the appropriate standards for safe storage and/or commercialization. It is common for storage facilities to handle batches with a higher amount of damaged grains than is commercially acceptable. To address this issue, a common practice is to mix these batches with others that have fewer damaged grains, thus achieving a batch with a commercially acceptable level of damaged grains; this technique is called blending. In storage facilities, calculations of discounts due to impurities and moisture content, as well as blending calculations, are routinely carried out, along with periodic checks of bulk density. These calculations are typically performed using spreadsheets, websites, and even mobile device applications. With the increasing use of smartphones in society and in rural areas, there is an opportunity to develop solutions that support companies and workers in the grain storage sector. Therefore, this work aims to develop a smartphone application that performs calculations related to grain blending, bulk density, and discounts (breakage) due to impurities and moisture content. The app was developed using the App Inventor 2 platform, and its development was divided into two stages: the first stage involved designing the layout of the screens and creating the graphical elements for buttons and other screen components; the second stage focused on developing the algorithms for performing the calculations and interacting with the screen objects. The application was named Silo Calc, and it features eight screens: a home screen, which directs the user to the other screens; a calculation screen for blending products with different amounts of damaged grains; a calculation screen for blending products with different moisture contents; a bulk density calculation screen; a discount (breakage) calculation screen due to impurities and moisture content; a reports screen, where the reports generated on the calculation screens can be accessed; a help screen; and a credits screen. The adopted methodology allowed the creation of an intuitive, easy-to-use application that also provides access to usage information, making it a useful tool for performing routine calculations in storage facilities or even by producers.