Digital Cameras Recognize Weeds, Control Sprayers
Cameras may become tools to fight weeds, reduce herbicide use.
Taking pictures of weeds may not seem like the best way to keep them from harming crops. But digital cameras may soon become important weed-fighting tools in farm fields. They may also make it possible to cut herbicide use, according to an entomologist with the University of Minnesota Extension Service.
"The cameras are used in site-specific pest management systems," says Ian MacRae. "German researchers at the University of Bonn's Institut Fur Pflanzenbau have successfully developed a prototype onboard system to identify and treat weed species in the field."
MacRae says the researchers, Roland Gerhards and Walter Kuhbauch, described the system at a recent international scientific meeting. They use digital cameras mounted on a boom across the front of a tractor.
The cameras photograph the plant canopy and send the images to an onboard computer. A database in the computer compares the plant canopy images with 80 different weed images and decides if the photo depicts a weed or crop plant. If it's a weed, the computer signals the sprayer to open a nozzle and apply herbicide. Because the computer knows the camera's location on the boom, only nozzles over the plant are opened.
While all this is going on, the computer also logs the location of the weeds on an onboard geographic information system, creating a weed map of the entire field.
"The system is apparently about 80 percent efficient in identifying weeds, and will err on the conservative side," says MacRae. "In other words, if it can't identify a plant, it will not trigger a herbicide application. And since areas without weeds get no herbicide, the system has the potential to greatly reduce overall herbicide application."
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