Agricultural Spray Boom Orientation Control via Overlapping Image Analysis
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Solution Overview
Problem
Agricultural spray booms face challenges in achieving uniform treatment due to variations in height and movement along their length, leading to inefficiencies in applying pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers, resulting in uneven spray distribution and waste.
Innovation Solution
A system utilizing pairs of image sensors on an agricultural machine to capture overlapping images, analyzing these to compute dynamic orientation parameters such as height, speed, and movement, which are used to adjust the treatment application elements in real-time to achieve a target treatment profile, ensuring even and precise application.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Area of stationary object
If a spray boom is used to apply treatment to agricultural fields, then the treatment can be applied over large areas, but variations in height and movement along the boom length result in uneven spray distribution
Solution Approach 1:
The spray boom is divided into multiple independently controllable segments or zones along its length. Each segment can be adjusted separately to compensate for height and movement variations, allowing precise control of spray distribution across different sections of the boom while maintaining coverage over large field areas.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements real-time dynamic adjustment of spray application elements along the boom based on detected height and movement variations. The spray distribution is continuously adapted during operation to maintain uniform coverage despite changes in boom position and orientation, transforming a static spray system into a dynamically responsive one.
2Productivity
If conventional spray application methods are used, then treatment can be applied to the field, but chemical waste occurs due to uneven distribution and inability to target specific areas
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies different spray characteristics to different local areas along the boom based on detected conditions. By identifying specific zones with height variations or movement patterns, the system adjusts spray parameters locally to ensure treatment is applied only where needed, improving chemical utilization efficiency and reducing waste.
Solution Approach 2:
The system continuously monitors boom height and movement through sensors and uses this feedback to real-time adjust spray application. This closed-loop control ensures treatment is applied precisely according to actual boom position, preventing over-application in certain areas and under-application in others, thereby optimizing chemical use and minimizing waste.
3Manufacturing precision
If real-time dynamic adjustment is implemented using image sensors, then treatment precision is improved, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
Image sensors serve as intermediaries that detect boom height and movement, converting physical parameters into data that can be processed by the control system. This intermediary measurement approach enables precise real-time adjustment without requiring direct complex mechanical sensors on the boom itself, simplifying the overall system architecture while maintaining high precision.
Solution Approach 2:
The system replaces complex mechanical measurement and adjustment mechanisms with an optical/electronic approach using image sensors and digital processing. Instead of using complex mechanical linkages to directly measure and adjust spray parameters, the system uses image analysis to detect boom position and electronically controls spray application, reducing mechanical complexity while improving precision.
Data Source
AI summary
There is provided a system for dynamic adaptation of a treatment applied to an agricultural field growing crops, comprising: a processor executing a code for: receiving a first and a second image from a first and a second imaging sensor, the first and second imaging sensors are located on an agricultural machine having a treatment application element(s) that applies the treatment to the agricultural field, the first and second image depict a portion of the agricultural field and overlap at an overlap region, analyzing the overlap region to compute a dynamic orientation parameter(s) of the agricultural machine, and generating instructions, according to the dynamic orientation parameter(s), for execution by a hardware component(s) associated with the agricultural machine for dynamic adaptation of the treatment applied by the treatment application element(s) to the portion of the agricultural field depicted in the first and second images to obtain a target treatment profile.