A Performance Comparison of Variable Rate Technologies for Spot-Specific and Uniform Spraying for Citrus Orchard

Abstract

Shortly, the demand for food production will increase, and the challenges to agriculture, including climate change, land degradation, farmable land availability and labor effort, will be resolved by applying precision agriculture techniques. In modern precision agriculture, variable rate (VR) technology is one of the key research areas. This technology provides an improved adjustment of agrochemical dosage to the trees by applying pesticide spraying to only areas where trees are detected based on their heights. This paper presents the testing results of an indigenously developed spot-specific sprayer for orchards based on tree detection through ultrasonic sensors. Lab Results show that spot-specific spraying provides 40% of agrochemical savings for an area of 100 acres compared with traditional spraying for the citrus orchard. Such technology can facilitate the farmers by automatic pesticide sprayers and economically protect the plants.

Keywords

• orchard sprayer
• object detection
• ultrasonic sensor
• solenoid valves
• micro-controller