FlexiDose - a spraying system developed for variable pesticide dosage without using pesticide injection methods

摘要

A crop sprayer, FlexiDose, has been constructed for temporal and spatial changes of the pesticide dose on the go. The system consists of two tanks of fluid. One tank contains spray volume with a normal concentration of pesticide. The other tank contains pure water. The flows from the two tanks are mixed together in a chamber positioned closely to the nozzles in order to reduce the time delay. The automatic sprayer is programmed by a Lab View PID controller program. The sprayer could process the doseon the go within ±5% of the set dose more than 95% of the time. The sprayer has a lower concentration gradient between the two fluids to be mixed compared with sprayers using a pesticide injection system. Additionally, the system is almost independent of pesticide properties and also suited for powder formulations.