Characteristics of a spot sprayer for the treatment of Rumex obtusifolius in meadows

Abstract

Machine learning has enabled the long-sought breakthrough of automated single-plant weed detection. Ecorobotix ARA is one of the first commercially available spot sprayer that allows automated single-plant treatment of broad-leaved dock plants in meadows. Compared to the treatment of the whole surface with standard field crop sprayers, herbicide reductions of over 90% can be realised. The aim of the present research was to investigate the accuracy of plant recognition and spraying. The results of the measurements for three meadows show that over 90% of broad-leaved dock plants were correctly detected. Measurements using a fluorescent tracer in the spray liquid showed that 89% of the dock leaf surface was sprayed while 11% of the leaves were left out. Overall, the results are promising and prove that this technology, which has been the subject of research for over 40 years, is now ready for on-farm usage.