Development and assessment of a novel servo‐controlled spraying system for real time adjustment of the orientation angle of the nozzles of a boom sprayer

Abstract

BackgroundPesticide spray drift, which is the movement of pesticide by wind to any location other than the intended area, is hazardous to human, animal, food safety and environmental health. It is not possible to completely eliminate spray drift during spraying with field crop sprayers, but spray drift can be reduced by developing new technologies. The most common methods to reduce spray drift are carrying the droplets to the target with air‐assisted spraying, electrostatic spraying, preferring air induction nozzles and boom shields. With these methods, it is not possible to make a change on the sprayer depending on the wind intensity during spraying. In this study, a novel servo‐controlled spraying system was designed and developed to change the nozzle orientation angle in the reverse direction of the wind current to reduce the ground spray drift in real time and automatically in a wind tunnel. The displacement in the spray pattern (Dc) was used as a ground drift indicator for each nozzle to evaluate the spray drift.ResultsThe developed system, operated by LabVIEW software, calculated different nozzle orientation angles depending on nozzle types, wind velocities and spraying pressures. Orientation angles calculated for different test conditions achieved in reduction were up to 49.01% for XR11002 nozzle, 32.82% for AIXR11002 nozzle and 32.31% for TTJ6011002 nozzle at 400 kPa spray pressure and 2.5 m s−1 wind velocity.ConclusionThe developed system, which has a self‐decision mechanism, calculated the nozzle orientation angle instantaneously according to the wind velocity. It has been observed that the adjustable spraying nozzle system, sprayed with high precision towards the wind in the wind tunnel, and the developed system have advantages compared to conventional spraying systems. © 2023 The Authors. Pest Management Science published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry.

Optimization of the current spray angle of the nozzles of the adaptive distribution system of a single-support boom sprayer

“…Where (12) From the Pythagorean theorem, the square of half the length of the hypotenuse BD is equal to the sum of the squares of the legs p and b 0 /2, or: (13) , 04044 (2024) E3S Web of Conferences https://doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/202449404044 494 AEES2023 Substituting ( 13) into (12) we get: (14) From the diagram in Figure 2 it is obvious that the current value of p will change in accordance with dependence (7). Taking into account that (15)…”

“…It is well known that one of the main factors contributing to a decrease in the quality of spraying is vibrations of the boom in the transverse-vertical plane. The works of A. Omarov [10], A. Bayat [12], V. Chentsov [13] and others rightly note the possibility of compensating for the negative influence of vibrations by controlling the geometry of the spray plume. However, until now there have been no attempts to analytically substantiate the operating parameters of an adaptive working fluid distribution system.…”

Anti-Drift Technology Progress of Plant Protection Applied to Orchards: A Review

“…Drift during spraying cannot be completely eliminated by plant protection sprayers, but it can be reduced by developing new techniques [78][79][80]. For example, Bayat et al [81] designed and developed a novel servo-controlled spraying system, which can change the nozzle's directional angle in real time and automatically, opposite to the direction of the airflow, to minimize ground spray drift. Salcedo et al [82] used a 3D ultrasonic anemometer to dynamically assess the airflow produced by an axial fan airflow delivery system.…”