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| A little more detail on the use of WeedSeeker in the video. They are able to spray up to 18 to 20 mph. The sensors actually react very fast, the issue is the time it takes to get the spray material to the ground, this is dealt with by placing the nozzle solenoid about one foot behind the sensors and a speed control that varies the delay between the time the sensors identify a plant and the nozzle fires.
The sensors cannot tell the difference between type of plants, only if it is a green living plant, so the use is for burn down, or in the case of Australia a "broadacre" fallow situation. They often rotate between summer and winter crops and have longer "fallow" times that seen in North America. Also, they do not get the cold winters, so weeds can grow all year long.
In some very dry areas of Australia, they even wait for every other year, or even every third year to raise a corp due to rainfall, so often they must keep their fields weed free for very long periods of time to build soil moisture.
Because the WeedSeeker sensor allow for such a reduction in spray materials, they are finding they can use more expensive, but more effective spay material that in the past would have been cost prohibitive to broadcast Spray.
My company, NTech Industries, manufactures both the WeedSeeker and GreenSeeker but the sensors are somewhat different. The WeedSeeker is only a "on-off" sensor. We do have a couple of customers in Australia who have both a WeedSeeker and a GreenSeeker system on the same applicator. | |
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WeedSeeker down under
