Technology for Automation of Weed Control in Specialty Crops

Fennimore, Steven A.; Slaughter, David C.; Siemens, Mark C.; León, Ramón G.; Saber, Mazin N.

doi:10.1614/wt-d-16-00070.1

Cited by 105 publications

(85 citation statements)

References 69 publications

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“…Commercially available camera‐guided cultivators and first‐generation robotic weeders being used by commercial growers have two major components: machine detection of the crop, and actuators that control the weeds …”

Section: Weed Control Robotsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Robotic weeders can improve weed control options for specialty crops

Fennimore

Cutulle

2019

Pest Management Science

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Specialty crop herbicides are not a priority for the agrochemical industry, and many of these crops do not have access to effective herbicides. High-value fruit and vegetable crops represent small markets and high potential liability in the case of herbicide-induced crop damage. Meanwhile, conventional and organic specialty crop producers are experiencing labor shortages and higher manual weeding costs. Robotic weeders are promising new weed control tools for specialty crops, because they are cheaper to develop and, with fewer environmental and human health risks, are less regulated than herbicides. Now is the time for greater investment in robotic weeders as new herbicides are expensive to develop and few in number, organic crops need better weed control technology and governments are demanding reduced use of pesticides. Public funding of fundamental research on robotic weeder technology can help improve weed and crop recognition, weed control actuators, and expansion of weed science curricula to train students in this technology. Robotic weeders can expand the array of tools available to specialty crop growers. However, the development of robotic weeders will require a broader recognition that these tools are a viable path to create new weed control tools for specialty crops. ActuationActuators consist of devices such as cultivators that uproot weeds, those that damage weed foliage with propane burners, lasers Pest Manag Sci 2019; 75: 1767-1774

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Section: Weed Control Robotsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Robotic weeders can improve weed control options for specialty crops

Fennimore

Cutulle

2019

Pest Management Science

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“…A thorough overview of this eld can be found in Fennimore et al (2016, while we here will focus on a few relevant technical aspects.…”

Section: 3mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Weeds compete with crop plants for moisture, nutrients and sunlight and will have a significant negative impact on yield without sufficient weed control. Typical weed control methods for row crops include a combination of pre-emergence herbicide application, pre-emergence tillage, mechanical row harrowing and postemergence herbicide application -if a selective herbicide or crop resistance is available, Fennimore et al, 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Robotic in-row weed control in vegetables

Utstumo

Urdal

Brevik

et al. 2018

Computers and Electronics in Agriculture

118

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Vegetables and other row-crops represent a large share of the agricultural production. There is a large variation in crop species, and a limited availability in specialized herbicides. The robot presented here utilizes the systematic cultivation techniques of row crops to navigate and operate in the eld. By the use of machine vision it separates seeded vegetable crops from weed, and treat each weed within the row with individual herbicide droplets, without aecting the crop. This Dropon-Demand (DoD) method allow the use of non-selective herbicides and signicant reductions in herbicide use.This thesis presents six research papers concerning the development of the DoD system and the mobile robot. The robot is tailored to its purpose with cost, maintainability, ecient operation and robustness in mind. The three-wheeled design is unconventional, and the design maintains maneuverability and stability with the benet of reduced weight, complexity and cost. The DoD system for herbicide application has been developed within and in connection with this project. The inuence of liquid properties viscosity and surface tension on the formation and stability of droplets has been tested in lab trials. A control circuit for synchronized control of solenoid valves was developed and tested.Indoor pot trials with four weed species demonstrated that the Drop-on-Demand system (DoD) could control the weeds with as little as 7.6 µg glyphosate or 0.15 µg iodosulfuron per plant. The results also highlight the importance of liquid characteristics for leaf retention, as the common herbicide glyphosate had no eect unless mixed with suitable additives. The trials document the DoD eect on weed species not previously described in literature, and with an alternative herbicide to glyphosate, iodosulfuron. A eld trial with the robot was performed in a carrot eld, and all the weeds were eectively controlled with the DoD system.iii Abstract The robot and DoD system represent an important contribution to the range of systems presented witin Precision Agriculture for in-row weed control -a movement which as a whole represent a paradigm shift to the environmental impact and health risks of weed control, while providing valuable new tools to the producers. My advisor, Prof. Jan Tommy Gravdahl has the ability to delve deeply into a wide array of technical elds. He has been a solid and consistent support, which has been vital for me to bridge the divide between the industrial and academic worlds. I will strive for the opportunities to work more together.Friendships have grown both at NTNU, UMN and Adigo which will outlast this thesis. I thank you, my family, colleagues and friends for the support to complete this journey. And not the least, I thank my wife Camilla. This introduction will describe the background for the project and its motivation, and the context and relationship between each paper is described in Section 1.4. The conclusion in Chapter 3 will tie together our ndings and describe our perspective on the path forwards for Drop on De...

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“…Automated weed control, including weed detection and removal, has gained significant popularity in the community of precision farming over recent years (Bechar & Vigneault, 2017; Fennimore, Slaughter, Siemens, Leon, & Saber, 2016), due to its great potential to improve the weeding efficiency while reducing the environmental and economic costs. Many robotic weed control systems have been proposed with focuses primarily on single tactics (Slaughter, Giles, & Downey, 2008): selective chemical spraying (Lee, Slaughter, & Giles, 1999), mechanical weeding (Pannacci, Lattanzi, & Tei, 2017), flaming (Datta & Knezevic, 2013), and electrical discharging (Blasco, Aleixos, Roger, Rabatel, & Molto, 2002; Vigneault & Benoît, 2001; Xiong, Ge, Liang, & Blackmore, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Robotic weed control using automated weed and crop classification

Aravecchia

Lottes

et al. 2020

Journal of Field Robotics

113

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Autonomous robotic weeding systems in precision farming have demonstrated their full potential to alleviate the current dependency on agrochemicals such as herbicides and pesticides, thus reducing environmental pollution and improving sustainability. However, most previous works require fast and constant‐time weed detection systems to achieve real‐time treatment, which forecloses the implementation of more capable but time‐consuming algorithms, for example, learning‐based methods. In this paper, a nonoverlapping multicamera system is applied to provide flexibility for the weed control system in dealing with the indeterminate classification delays. The design, implementation, and testing of our proposed modular weed control unit with mechanical and chemical weeding tools are presented. A framework that performs naive Bayes filtering, 3D direct intra‐ and inter‐camera visual tracking, and predictive control, while integrating state‐of‐the‐art crop/weed detection algorithms, is developed to guide the tools to achieve high‐precision weed removal. The experimental results show that our proposed fully operational weed control system is capable of performing selective mechanical as well as chemical in‐row weeding with indeterminate detection delays in different terrain conditions and crop growth stages.

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Technology for Automation of Weed Control in Specialty Crops

Cited by 105 publications

References 69 publications

Robotic weeders can improve weed control options for specialty crops

Robotic weeders can improve weed control options for specialty crops

Robotic in-row weed control in vegetables

Robotic weed control using automated weed and crop classification

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