I want to thank the Department of Agricultural Mechanization Engineering in the College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Hunan Agricultural University, for the funding provided and also the opportunity to use resources available in the institution in carrying out this research. Special thanks go to my supervisor, Professor Xie Fangping, for his continuous guidance and support towards realizing this piece of work. I want to also thank my study mates Mr. Xiushan Wang, Xunwei Wang, Minzhang Liu, Xin Cao, Mimi Yang, Jiaxing Kang, and Zheng Yang Wu for their support in directing me on how to get some resources that were vital to my studies. I will also like to say thank you to my friend Fondzenyuy Cedric Mangeh III for his courage and support in conducting the experiment. Finally, I also want to thank Chen Chang Guang, engineer at the Engineering Training Center, for his assistance in assembling some parts of the setup used for the experiments.
