Development of an Optical Sensor to Measure Direct Injection Spraying System Performance

Evaluation of direct injection sprayer’s performance is an important step for a successful direct injection sprayer technology development. A low-cost optical sensor was developed to characterize direct injection system response by dynamic measurement of fluorescent dye concentration. The method is based on sensing the fluorescence of mixture by the light-to-voltage converter equipped with integral optical green filter TSLG257. The dye is excited by one blue light LED HLMP-CB15 (emission band of 472 nm ± 32). The light transmittance was measured by the converter in two on-line positions to LED; the emitter and transmitter placed longitudinally at 45° angle and transversally at 90° angle to flow line. The measurement of transmittance for concentrations between 0 to 10 mg/l showed that the trend is linear for concentrations under 2.5 mg/l (R2 > 99%).The results showed that the offset for longitudinal measurements is bigger than for the transversal ones (about 600%) because of the direct interception of the light by the converter. The highest sensitivity is related to the transversal 90° position transmittance. The amplification of the excitation power of the LED by varying current supply between 50% and 100% gave a proportional increase of the sensitivity without affecting the linearity. Test results of sensor showed that it can be used to calibrate direct injection system accurately and to characterize the performance of the system for upstream and downstream injection location

STUDY OF THE EFFECT OF TWO SURFACTANTS ON SPRAY RETENTION BY BARLEY LEAVES

Surfactants are nowadays very useful additives to improve the effectiveness of phytosanitary treatments. They contribute to change the types of impact and thus the amount of spray retained by the leaves of the treated plant. We performed tests of retention on whole barley plants on BBCH 12 stage and small pieces of barley leaves at the same stage of growth. Spraying was done in three ways: water without surfactant, water with Break-Thru S240 and water with Li700. The three slurries of fluorescein contained in an amount of 0.2 g / l. Fluorescein retained by the leaves in both cases is then measured by a spectrofluoremeter. The retention tests on whole plants show that it is tripled by the first surfactant and doubled by the second. By cons on small pieces of barley leaves, the amount was increased by the use of surfactants but not to the same scale. This study concluded that the use of surfactants in spray pesticides may increase the amount of retention as a function of leaf area and the surfactant used

Double numérique d'une usine à plantes - approches holistique pour une recherche et une production intelligentes

We present an operational and evolutive Digital Twin (DT) designed to bring Functional Structural Plant Model (FSPM) in the bioengineering field and that relies on the six following tenets: imaginary, monitoring, predictive, prescriptive, autonomous and recollection DT (Verdouw et al., 2021). The implementation of this conceptual framework brings together several research domains in a coherent, holistic entity. The real-world entity is a research-oriented plant factory fitted with environmental and RGB-D sensors, while the virtual entity revolves around the CPlantBox FSPM. The core of the presentation addresses the parametrization of the FSPM and RGB-D data assimilation in the twinning process.9. Industry, innovation and infrastructur

Comparison of spray retention on synthetic superhydrophobic surface with retention on outdoor grown wheat leaves

peer reviewedA method has been designed to test the retention of drops generated by a moving agricultural nozzle using high speed imaging both on synthetic and leaf surfaces. The method allows a precise investigation of spray retention by a characterisation of impact speed, drop diameter and impact behaviour. The paper presents a comparison of the spray behaviour on the synthetic surface with the behaviour on outdoor grown wheat leaves fixed on a microscope slide. Target surfaces were horizontal. A range of surface tension was tested using the tank-mix adjuvant Break-Thru S240 at different concentrations in distilled water. Results show the relevance of a synthetic surface for use as reference for the assessment of spray application efficiency. The drop behaviour on the superhydrophobic slide was representative of difficult-to-wet leaves surfaces. The reference surface avoids the natural variability of leaves and is therefore more suited to conduct comparative assessment of formulation retention performance.EUREKA project 4984 VEGEPH

THE EFFECT OF LEAF ORIENTATION ON SPRAY RETENTION ON BLACKGRASS

Spray application efficiency depends on the pesticide application method as well as target properties. A wide range of drop impact angles exists during the spray application process because of drop trajectory and the variability of the leaf orientation. As the effect of impact angle on retention is still poorly documented, laboratory studies were conducted to highlight the effect of leaf orientation on drop impact outcomes. Measurements were performed with a high-speed camera coupled with a retro-LED lighting. Size and velocity of the drop were extracted by image analysis. Drop impact types were determined by the operator. Drops were produced with a flat-fan nozzle mounted on a movable ramp. Excised blackgrass [Alopecurus myosuroides HUDS. (ALOMY)] leaves were stretched between two parts of a U-shaped support. A surfactant (Break-Thru® S240) was sprayed to highlight the effect of mixture surface tension. The whole device was tilted from 0 to 90°. Relative volume proportions were computed within of an energy scale divided into 11 classes. These proportions have been weighted by an average volume distribution and the results were summed for all energy classes to obtain the total volume proportions for each impact outcomes and for all leaf angles. For distilled water (high surface tension) the increase of rebound proportion with the increase of drop impact angle is highlighted. For surfactant (lower surface tension), it results in an increase of drop fragmentation in Cassie-Baxter wetting regime. To be statistically representative, bigger drop samples should be used

Development and validation of a framework allowing the evaluation of photovoltaic and photosynthetic productions of agrivoltaic systems

PhD Proposal on the development of a modeling framework for agrivoltaics13. Climate action7. Affordable and clean energy2. Zero hunge

Spray controller for horizontal boom movements compensation

peer reviewedLongitudinal spray distribution is mainly affected by the horizontal speed variations of the nozzles. Manufacturers classically try to reduce unwanted nozzles movements using horizontal boom suspension but these methods show performance and price limitations. The purpose of this paper is to propose a spray controller aiming to compensate the effect of the horizontal boom movements on the spray distribution besides the effect of tractor speed variations. The controller is based on three main parts: a control law describing the relationship between nozzle speed, nozzle flow and spray coverage; a real time measurement of the boom horizontal speed variations using micro-machined capacitive accelerometers and Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) no zzle flow actuators. A prototype was developed using a processor board controller (dSpace) and tested on a laboratory test bench. The nigrosine solution spray coverage was measured using image analysis for field representative multi-sine nozzle speed variations. The spray coverage uniformity using the spray controller showed about 51% compensation of the spray coverage variations observed without controller

Selection of the most efficient wavelength bands for discriminating weeds from crop

peer reviewedThe aim of this study was to select the best combination of filters for detecting various weed species located within carrot rows. In-field images were taken under artificial lighting with a multispectral device consisting of a black and white camera coupled with a rotating wheel holding 22 interference filters in the VIS-NIR domain. Measurements were performed over a period of 19 days, starting 1 week after crop emergence (early weeding can increase yields) and seven different weeds species were considered. The selection of the best filter combination was based on a quadratic discriminant analysis. The best combination of filters included three interference filters, respectively centred on 450, 550 and 700 nm. With this combination, the overall classification accuracy (CA) was 72%. When using only two filters, a slight degradation of the CA was noticed. When the classification results were reported on field images, a systematic misclassification of carrot cotyledons appears. Better results were obtained with a more advanced growth stage. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved