US-20260123621-A1 - AGRICULTURAL SPRAYER WITH SPOT SPRAY CONTROL

US20260123621A1US 20260123621 A1US20260123621 A1US 20260123621A1US-20260123621-A1

Abstract

An agricultural sprayer with a spot spray control system. Spray data together with one or more dynamic factors arising during operation of the agricultural sprayer and/or one or more sprayer-specific characteristics of the agricultural sprayer are used in real-time to control nozzles of the agricultural sprayer to control the spraying of a liquid from the nozzles. The nozzle control may include determining one or more of nozzle selection, nozzle state change timing, nozzle flow rate, and other operational characteristics of the nozzles.

Inventors

Andrew Muehlfeld
Eric Taipale
Nicholas Witthoeft

Assignees

DEERE & COMPANY

Dates

Publication Date: 20260507
Application Date: 20250903

Claims (20)

1 . A system comprising: an agricultural sprayer that includes a spray boom with nozzles that are controllable to be turned on and off; spray data stored on the agricultural sprayer; and a controller on the agricultural sprayer that is connected to and controls operation of the nozzles to spray a liquid based on the spray data and one or more of the following: a) one or more dynamic factors; b) one or more sprayer-specific characteristics of the agricultural sprayer.
2 . The system of claim 1 , further comprising a sensor for capturing spray data and providing the spray data to the agricultural sprayer prior to operation of the nozzles.
3 . The system of claim 2 , wherein the sensor is configured to determine a nozzle delay timing by detecting and comparing a nozzle on time and a nozzle off time.
4 . The system of claim 2 , wherein the sensor comprises a camera and is coupled to an unmanned aerial vehicle.
5 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more dynamic factors comprise one or more of a buffer, a boom height, a nozzle velocity, and an air velocity.
6 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more sprayer-specific characteristics comprise one or more of a nozzle height, nozzle delay timing, nozzle specifications, and nozzle layout.
7 . The system of claim 5 , further comprising a boom height sensor coupled to the agricultural sprayer and configured for determining the boom height.
8 . The system of claim 5 , further comprising at least two navigation sensors coupled to the agricultural sprayer and configured for determining a nozzle location by interpolating between the location of two navigation sensors.
9 . The system of claim 5 , further comprising an air velocity sensor coupled to the agricultural sprayer and configured for determining the air velocity.
10 . A system comprising: an agricultural sprayer that includes a spray boom with nozzles that are controllable to be turned on and off; spray data stored on the agricultural sprayer; and a controller on the agricultural sprayer that is connected to and controls operation of the nozzles to spray a liquid based on the spray data, nozzle specifications, and boom height.
11 . The system of claim 10 , further comprising a sensor for capturing spray data and providing the spray data to the agricultural sprayer before the operation of the nozzles.
12 . The system of claim 11 , wherein the sensor comprises a camera.
13 . The system of claim 11 , wherein the sensor is coupled to an unmanned aerial vehicle.
14 . The system of claim 10 , further comprising a boom height sensor coupled to the agricultural sprayer and configured for determining the boom height.
15 . The system of claim 10 , further comprising a navigation sensor coupled to the agricultural sprayer and configured for determining a nozzle velocity.
16 . An agricultural sprayer comprising: a spray boom; one or more nozzles coupled to the spray boom; at least one tank for storing a liquid; a pump for providing the liquid to the nozzles from the tank; and a spot spray control system comprising: a navigation sensor coupled to the spray boom and configured to determine a position; a boom height sensor coupled to the spray boom and configured to determine a boom height; and a controller in communication with the navigation sensor for receiving the position and the boom height sensor for receiving the boom height, the controller configured to receive a spray data, a nozzle specification, and a nozzle layout, determine a modified spray data based on the position, the boom height, the spray data, the nozzle specification, and the nozzle layout, and control the nozzles according to the modified spray data.
17 . The agricultural sprayer of claim 16 , further comprising the controller receiving one or more sprayer-specific characteristics that comprise one or more of a nozzle height, and nozzle delay timing to determine the modified spray data.
18 . The agricultural sprayer of claim 16 , further comprising a sensor for capturing the spray data and providing the spray data to the agricultural sprayer prior to operation of the nozzles
19 . The agricultural sprayer of claim 16 , wherein the controller comprises a central control module for controlling the pump by varying the pump speed or turning the pump on or off and for controlling the nozzles via a valve control module; a field computer for receiving operator input and for controlling the central control module according to the operator input; a spot spray control module in communication with the field computer and configured to receive spray data, the valve control module controls the operation of the nozzles to spray the liquid.
20 . The agricultural sprayer of claim 18 , wherein the sensor is configured to determine a nozzle delay timing by detecting and comparing a nozzle on time and a nozzle off time.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 63/715,073, filed on 1 November 2024, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference. FIELD The technology described herein relates to precision agriculture. BACKGROUND In agriculture, the use of sprayers to apply liquids in crop fields is known. Examples of liquids include, but are not limited to, pesticides and fertilizers. Pesticides include herbicides, fungicides, insecticides, and the like. In the example case of a herbicide to be applied on a weed, it is desirable to spray only the weed in order to minimize herbicide usage, which saves money, reduces negative environmental and health impacts of herbicide, and reduces injury to the crop which can reduce yield and profit. One approach for reducing herbicide usage is referred to as on-machine or proximal sensing. These proximal systems detect weeds with cameras mounted on the boom of a sprayer, then actuate nozzles to spray the detected weeds in real time. Weed detection and spraying of the herbicide occur on the same vehicle, within seconds of each other. Another approach involving herbicide usage control is to capture images of a field using an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) or drone, process the images to detect weeds in the field, then generate a weed prescription file which is then imported to a sprayer. The sprayer uses the weed prescription file to spray the areas prescribed by the weed prescription file. To account for various error sources which are not known at the time of generating the weed prescription file, the weed prescription file that is generated includes buffers applied to the weed data so that the nozzle of the sprayer sprays a larger area to ensure the weed receives herbicide. For example, for any particular weed, the buffer may be a length of 2 or 3 meters before and after the weed in the direction of travel of the sprayer to ensure that herbicide is actually applied to the weed. Another example is turning on additional nozzles to act as a width buffer to ensure that herbicide is actually applied to the weed. However, applying the buffer(s) to spray a larger area increases the amount of herbicide used and reduces savings. SUMMARY An agricultural sprayer with real-time spot spray control is described. Spray location data together with one or more dynamic factors arising during operation of the agricultural sprayer and/or one or more sprayer-specific characteristics of the agricultural sprayer are used in real-time to control nozzles of the agricultural sprayer to control the spraying of a liquid from the nozzles. The nozzle control can include, but is not limited to, one or more of nozzle selection, nozzle flow rate, and nozzle state change timing. The liquid that is sprayed by the agricultural sprayer can be any liquid that is applied to an agricultural field by an agricultural sprayer. Examples of liquids include, but are not limited to, pesticides and fertilizers (these liquids may generally be referred to collectively as agricultural field liquids). Examples of pesticides include, but are not limited to, herbicides, fungicides, and insecticides. Additional examples of pesticides that can be used include those defined at www.epa.gov/safepestcontrol/why-we-use-pesticides. Examples of dynamic factors that may be used in the spot spray control described herein include, but are not limited to, one or more of boom height, nozzle velocity, and air velocity. Examples of sprayer-specific characteristics that may be used in the spot spray control described herein include, but are not limited to, one or more of nozzle specifications, nozzle delay timing, and nozzle layout. The spray location data provides location data, such as coordinate positions on Earth or locations determined relative to camera(s) or other objects on the agricultural sprayer, where spraying is to occur. In an embodiment, the spray location data may be generated away from the agricultural sprayer, for example based on analysis of images captured by a UAV, and then saved on the agricultural sprayer. The spray location data may be in the form of a spray instructions file that is stored in suitable storage on the agricultural sprayer. In another embodiment, the spray location data may result from on-machine or proximal sensing, where the locations are determined relative to the cameras on the agricultural sprayer (or other objects on the sprayer) used to capture images as the sprayer traverses the field. Spray location data generated away from the agricultural sprayer can be generated prior to the sprayer beginning to spray the field. For example, UAV imagery may be captured a period of time before spraying, such as 1 or 2 hours or one day before spraying. In addition to a spray locations file, the UAV images may be analyzed to determine what types of pests are in the field. In the case of an herbicide application, the UAV images may be used to determine wh