TY - GEN
T1 - Development of An Automatic Airflow Control System for Precision Sprayers Based on Tree Canopy Density
AU - Mahmud, Md Sultan
AU - Zahid, Azlan
AU - He, Long
N1 - Funding Information:
This study was supported in part by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) 's National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) Federal Appropriations under Project PEN04547 and Accession No. 1001036, a USDA NIFA Crop Protection and Pest Management Program (CPPM) competitive grant (Award No. 2019-70006-30440), and Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) Graduate Student Grant GNE20-234-34268.
Publisher Copyright:
© ASABE 2021.All right reserved.
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - The airflow of a sprayer is a primary component for successfully carrying spray droplets to the target trees. With the variation in orchard tree canopies, it is essential to control the airflow during spray operation. The study aimed to develop an automatic airflow control system for precision sprayers, considering the tree canopy densities for successful spray droplet depositions. The system was developed by retrofitting an iris damper at a three-point hitch airblast intelligent sprayer, which was installed at the sprayer's fans air inlet. A light detection and ranging (LiDAR) sensor was installed at the top of the sprayer. The LiDAR was used to acquire the tree canopy data, and a motor was employed to control the damper's opening with a micro-controller. To investigate the usefulness of the airflow control, a series of field tests was conducted at two different canopy density orchards with different varieties (GoldRush and Fuji). A total of eight trees (four trees from each variety) were randomly selected, and three different damper openings (full opening, intermediate opening, and full closing) were tested for each tree. Water sensitive papers (WSPs) were placed at five different locations of the tree (top, middle, bottom, back-left, and back-right). The airflows were measured at the back-side of the trees, and the spray performance was evaluated based on spray droplet depositions at the WSPs. A canopy density measurement algorithm scripted in MATLAB® was used to measure the canopy point density of individual trees. Two relationships (models) were built between 1) tree canopy points densities and airflows 2) canopy densities and damper openings. The combination of the two models was used to assess the amount of airflow required for a specific canopy density. Results of this study reported the system achieved good mean spray depositions of 37.4%, 36.09%, 51.01%, 23.0%, and 23.72% at the top, middle, bottom, back-left, and back-right positions, respectively for high-density trees using full damper opening. The intermediate opening provided some good insights for low-density trees, however, extensive investigations are needed to make the recommendation.
AB - The airflow of a sprayer is a primary component for successfully carrying spray droplets to the target trees. With the variation in orchard tree canopies, it is essential to control the airflow during spray operation. The study aimed to develop an automatic airflow control system for precision sprayers, considering the tree canopy densities for successful spray droplet depositions. The system was developed by retrofitting an iris damper at a three-point hitch airblast intelligent sprayer, which was installed at the sprayer's fans air inlet. A light detection and ranging (LiDAR) sensor was installed at the top of the sprayer. The LiDAR was used to acquire the tree canopy data, and a motor was employed to control the damper's opening with a micro-controller. To investigate the usefulness of the airflow control, a series of field tests was conducted at two different canopy density orchards with different varieties (GoldRush and Fuji). A total of eight trees (four trees from each variety) were randomly selected, and three different damper openings (full opening, intermediate opening, and full closing) were tested for each tree. Water sensitive papers (WSPs) were placed at five different locations of the tree (top, middle, bottom, back-left, and back-right). The airflows were measured at the back-side of the trees, and the spray performance was evaluated based on spray droplet depositions at the WSPs. A canopy density measurement algorithm scripted in MATLAB® was used to measure the canopy point density of individual trees. Two relationships (models) were built between 1) tree canopy points densities and airflows 2) canopy densities and damper openings. The combination of the two models was used to assess the amount of airflow required for a specific canopy density. Results of this study reported the system achieved good mean spray depositions of 37.4%, 36.09%, 51.01%, 23.0%, and 23.72% at the top, middle, bottom, back-left, and back-right positions, respectively for high-density trees using full damper opening. The intermediate opening provided some good insights for low-density trees, however, extensive investigations are needed to make the recommendation.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85114273690&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85114273690&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.13031/aim.202100132
DO - 10.13031/aim.202100132
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85114273690
T3 - American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers Annual International Meeting, ASABE 2021
SP - 436
EP - 446
BT - American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers Annual International Meeting, ASABE 2021
PB - American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers
T2 - 2021 American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers Annual International Meeting, ASABE 2021
Y2 - 12 July 2021 through 16 July 2021
ER -