The cultivation and harvesting of sugar beets (roots and haulm) is one of the most labour and energy consuming work processes in the agricultural industry. The improvement of the qualitative indicators of the sugar beet harvesting process as the final operation in the work flow of its production represents a multi-faceted research-and-engineering problem, which is to be solved basing on the search for new implement design concepts and overall beet harvester design layouts, the thorough theoretical substantiation of their design and process parameters, the experimental verification of the completed theoretical research with the ultimate objective of the analysis and synthesis of their rational parameters. Theoretical research must play a fundamental role in the mechanical and technological substantiation of the root lifting process. It must be used as the basis for developing rational kinematic and dynamic operation conditions in order to achieve the required quality of the performed work process as well as the streamlined energy consumption. The book can be considered as one of the first solid analytical studies of the process of vibrational digging of sugar beet roots. It offers the analysis of up-to-date engineering solutions of vibrational digging tools and experimental investigations of the first vibrational lifters, the equation of oscillating motions of digging shares.

The cultivation and harvesting of sugar beets (roots and haulm) is one of the most labour and energy consuming work processes in the agricultural industry. The improvement of the qualitative indicators of the sugar beet harvesting process as the final operation in the work flow of its production represents a multi-faceted research-and-engineering problem, which is to be solved basing on the search for new implement design concepts and overall beet harvester design layouts, the thorough theoretical substantiation of their design and process parameters, the experimental verification of the completed theoretical research with the ultimate objective of the analysis and synthesis of their rational parameters. Theoretical research must play a fundamental role in the mechanical and technological substantiation of the root lifting process. It must be used as the basis for developing rational kinematic and dynamic operation conditions in order to achieve the required quality of the performed work process as well as the streamlined energy consumption. The book can be considered as one of the first solid analytical studies of the process of vibrational digging of sugar beet roots. It offers the analysis of up-to-date engineering solutions of vibrational digging tools and experimental investigations of the first vibrational lifters, the equation of oscillating motions of digging shares.

I want to express my sincere thanks to all authors who submitted research papers to support the Third IFIP International Conference on Computer and Computing Te- nologies in Agriculture and the Third Symposium on Development of Rural Infor- tion (CCTA 2009) held in China, during October 14–17, 2009. This conference was hosted by the CICTA (EU-China Centre for Information & Communication Technologies, China Agricultural University), China National En- neering Research Center for Information Technology in Agriculture, Asian Conf- ence on Precision Agriculture, International Federation for Information Processing, Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering, Beijing Society for Information Te- nology in Agriculture, and the Chinese Society for Agricultural Machinery. The pla- num sponsor includes the Ministry of Science and Technology of China, Ministry of Agriculture of China, Ministry of Education of China, among others. The CICTA (EU-China Centre for Information & Communication Technologies, China Agricultural University) focuses on research and development of advanced and practical technologies applied in agriculture and on promoting international communi- tion and cooperation. It has successfully held three International Conferences on C- puter and Computing Technologies in Agriculture, namely CCTA 2007, CCTA 2008 and CCTA 2009. Sustainable agriculture is the focus of the whole world currently, and therefore the application of information technology in agriculture is becoming more and more - portant. ‘Informatized agriculture’ has been sought by many countries recently in order to scientifically manage agriculture to achieve low costs and high incomes.