Developed by Tillett and Hague Technology Ltd and their partners in UK Hort LINK projects this spot spraying machine uses computer vision to detect weeds amongst a growing crop and applies a small dose of herbicide to the weed ensuring it dies whilst leaving the crop undamaged. This 6m wide experimental machine travels at up to 5km/hr and can spray a variety of different herbicides, though most work over the past 5 years has been done with glyphosate. The principle target of this machine is large difficult to kill broadleaf weeds such as volunteer potatoes in drilled crops such as onions, leeks, carrots and parsnips, though the technology has much wider potential applications.
The technology is now being commercialised by Garford Farm Machinery under licence from Tillett and Hague Technology and will be marketed from 2014 as part of the Robocrop range of vision guided precision weeding equipment. The demonstrator has already won an innovation award at the 2014 LAMMA agricultural machinery show.
12 фев 2014
