Individual plant care in cropping systems

Individual plant care cropping systems, embodied in precision farming, may lead to new opportunities in agricultural crop management. The objective of the project was to provide high accuracy seed position mapping of a field of sugar beet. An RTK GPS was retrofitted on to a precision seeder to map the seeds as they were planted. The average error between the seed map and the actual plant map was about 32 mm to 59 mm. The results showed that the overall accuracy of the estimated plant positions is acceptable for the guidance of vehicles and implements. For subsequent individual plant care, the deviations were not, in all cases, small enough to ensure accurate individual plant targeting

Advanced Non-Chemical and Close to Plant Weed Control system for Organic Agriculture

Use of chemical has been reduced in agriculture for controlling weeds emergence. The use of alternative systems, such as cultural practices (mulching, flame, intercropping etc.) and mechanical system (hoe, tine etc.) has been introduced by various researchers. Automation technique based on sensors controlled system has enhanced the efficiency of the mechanical system for weed control. Mostly, low cost image acquisition sensors and optical sensor to detect the plant ensuring swift operation of vehicles close the crop plants to remove competitive weeds. The available system need to be evaluated to get best possible system for close to plant (CTP) weed removal. In the study various non-chemical weed control measures has been explored and 30 mechanical tools for CTP were evaluated. High precision tillage solutions and thermal weed control by pulsed lasers for eradication of stem or main shoot were found to be the most promising weed control concepts for CTP operation

Hortibot: Feasibility study of a plant nursing robot performing weeding operations – part IV

Based on the development of a robotic tool carrier (Hortibot) equipped with weeding tools, a feasibility study was carried out to evaluate the viability of this innovative technology. The feasibility was demonstrated through a targeted evaluation adapted to the obtainable knowledge on the system performance in horticulture. A usage scenario was designed to set the implementation of the robotic system in a row crop of seeded bulb onions considering operational and functional constraints in organic crop, production. This usage scenario together with the technical specifications of the implemented system provided the basis for the feasibility analysis, including a comparison with a conventional weeding system. Preliminary results show that the automation of the weeding tasks within a row crop has the potential of significantly reducing the costs and still fulfill the operational requirements set forth. The potential benefits in terms of operational capabilities and economic viability have been quantified. Profitability gains ranging from 20 to 50% are achievable through targeted applications. In general, the analyses demonstrate the operational and economic feasibility of using small automated vehicles and targeted tools in specialized production settings

Применение метода группового учета аргументов для построения системы управления автономным мобильным роботом

Рассмотрены основные положения построения системы управления автономным мобильным роботом на основе индуктивных принципов самоорганизации модели. Приведены результаты поиска целевых функций робота и функции классификации объектов по признаку препятствие/не препятствие.Розглянуто основні положення побудови системи керування автономним мобільним роботом на основі індуктивних принципів самоорганізації моделі. Наведено результати пошуку цільових функцій робота та функцій класифікації об’єктів за ознакою перешкода/не перешкода.Fundamentals of constructing an independent mobile robot’s (AMR) control system on the basis of the inductive principles of the model self-organization are considered. The results of the search for the robot objective functions and the function of the object classification according to the obstacle/not obstacle property are given

Plant Recognition through the Fusion of 2D and 3D Images for Robotic Weeding

In crop production systems, weed management is vitally important. But both manual weeding and herbicide-based weed controlling are problematic due to concerns in cost, operator health, emergence of herbicide-resistant weed species, and environment impact. Automated robotic weeding offers a possibility of controlling weeds in a precise fashion, particularly for weeds growing near crops or within crop rows. However, identification and localization of plants have not yet been fully automated. The goal of this reported project is to develop a high-throughput plant recognition and localization algorithm by fusing 2D color and textural data with 3D point cloud data. Plant morphological models were developed and applied for plant recognition against different weed species at different growth stages

La haute technologie au service de la lutte physique aux mauvaises herbes dans un contexte d’agriculture biologique

Pour les profanes, la haute technologie semble incompatible avec l’agriculture biologique. Plusieurs croient encore que le terme « biologique » implique un rejet de la haute technologie. Pourtant, la recherche sur les méthodes non chimiques de désherbage n’a cessé de progresser depuis les années 90 et offre aujourd’hui une variété d’outils et de techniques, dont certains sont issus de nouvelles technologies de pointe. Parallèlement, les méthodes et les stratégies déjà existantes provenant des techniques traditionnelles sont bonifiées avec des solutions de haute technologie. La nécessité de désherber le plus près possible de la culture exige une très grande précision dans l’opération des sarcleurs. Le développement de nouveaux systèmes de guidage optique avec une ou des caméras vidéo installées sur le sarcleur comble ce besoin en permettant de distinguer la culture du sol et de corriger la trajectoire du sarcleur si nécessaire, le tout sans intervention du conducteur. Le désherbage sur le rang demeure toujours un défi et plusieurs appareils de désherbage ont été récemment développés, principalement pour désherber le rang. La coupe des mauvaises herbes au laser ou à l’eau et l’électroporation sont d’autres avenues qui sont sérieusement étudiées. Le développement d'un robot désherbeur autonome combiné au GPS et à une caméra vidéo permettant de distinguer les mauvaises herbes de la culture est une autre innovation qui offre beaucoup de potentiel dans la lutte physique aux mauvaises herbes. La recherche et le développement demeurent toujours indispensables pour permettre l’avancement dans la lutte physique en malherbologie.High technology might be perceived as being incompatible with organic agriculture to the unacquainted. In fact, many still believe that organic agriculture implies a rejection of high technology. Nevertheless, research on non-chemical weed control methods has constantly progressed since the 1990’s, and currently there are many tools and techniques that originate from high technology. At the same time, existing strategies and methods, which could be characterized as low technology, are improved upon by using high technology solutions. The need to control weeds as close as possible to the crop row requires great precision when using cultivators. The development of new optical guidance systems using one or several video cameras placed on the cultivator improve precision by being able to identify crop plants and by steering the weeder without the operator’s intervention. Weeding on the crop row remains a challenge and several weeders have been expressly developed to address this problem. Among other weed control techniques in development, there is electroporation and cutting weeds on the crop row using lasers or water. The development of self-propelled, autonomous weeding robots using GPS and video cameras enabling them to distinguish crops from weeds has great potential in physical weed control. Research and development remain essential for the advancement of physical weed control

Hardware Software Co-Design of a Farming Robot

Food means life and no one can think about living without food. This is the most fundamental human necessity and food security is one of the major global concern of this century. With the revolution and recent advancements in the field of electronics and communication, there has been a paradigm shift from conventional farming ways to the modern one. This paper talks about the development of hardware software co-design of agricultural farming robot. Our developed farming robot has two parts namely hardware part which further consists of mechanical, electrical, control and tools segments and the software part which allows user to interact with the farming robot via cloud service. Our proposed hardware architecture is compatible with commercial Farmbot product and the developed web-based software can be extended for more features and applications. Furthermore, the developed robot has been tested and it works well

Analysis and Definition of the close-to-crop Area in Relation to Robotic Weeding

The objective of this paper is to analyse and define the field conditions close to the crop plants of sugar beet (Beta vulgaris L.). The aim is to use this study for the choice and development of new physical weeding methods to target weeds at individual plant scale level. It was found that the close to crop area is like a ring structure, comprising an area between an inner- and outer-circle around the sugar beet seedling. Physical weeding should not be applied to the area within the inner circle. The radius of the inner circle increases with the appearance of young beet leaves during the growth season. It was also found, that no weeds were germinating within 1 cm around individual sugar beet seedlings. Therefore this distance should be added to the radius of the inner circle. The space between the inner and outer circle is termed the close to crop area where physical weeding should be applied. The size of this area is defined by the developmental stage of the sugar beet fibrous root system and foliage. Thus, the determination of the growth stage of individual crop plants is necessary before any physical weeding can take place in the close to crop area. Uprooting, cutting between stem and root or damage of main shoot can do the physical control of most weed species located in the close to crop area. However, the targeting of weeds from above and from different angels above ground is limited in the close to crop area. This is caused by the fact that sugar beet leaves do not leave much space between leaves and ground and that our own study indicate that 26.4% of sugar beet plants at the 4-6 leaf stage are covering the main shoot of weeds. The most problematic weeds are the species, which have their main shoot and leaves located close to ground level. These species can either be controlled by damage of the main shoot or with a combination of shallow surface cutting and burial. Discrimination between weed species is beneficial under certain circumstances. First, the efficiency of the physical control of individual weed species is depending on the timing. Secondly some weeds species do not have significant negative impact on the yield, but instead leaving these species uncontrolled could benefit to an increased bio-diversity and reduced time and energy input for a physical weeding process. This paper is contributing to the ongoing Danish research project Robotic Weeding