Due a lack of effective post-emergence herbicides, most vegetable crops are hand weeded following cultivation to remove in-row weeds. This operation is costly and finding labor to perform the task has become increasingly difficult. Precision micro-sprayers for delivering herbicides have been developed, but lack sufficient speed, accuracy and off-target spray control to be commercially viable. To address this, a high speed, centimeter scale resolution sprayer that can spot apply herbicides to weeds with minimal off-target spray while traveling speeds that are viable for commercial farming operations was developed. The objective of this research was to evaluate the performance of the device in terms of spray delivery accuracy, off-target spray quantity, weed control efficacy and crop safety. The spray assembly comprised 12 custom-built spray modules spaced 1 cm apart. The device was tested with lettuce in the laboratory at a travel speed on 2.0 mph while targeting three weed species at three stages of growth. Results showed that targeting accuracy of spray delivered was ± 2 mm and that the percentage of off-target spray was less than 3%. Weed control efficacy exceeded 95% and there was no observable crop injury. Improvements to the original design were identified and the enhanced sprayer was found to provide sub-centimeter precision. Practical applications of the technologies developed include precision spot spraying of weeds in lettuce, carrot, onion, spring mix and other vegetable crops. A remaining technical challenge for the realization of an automated precision weeding machine is the development of a camera imaging system capable of reliable crop/weed differentiation. Field testing of the precision spot sprayers is also needed.
Click the following link to watch presentation on Centimeter Scale Resolution Spot Sprayer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBNGsIu27K0