Development of an automated sensor based system for weed harrowing in cereals

Publication Type

Doctoral thesis

Authors

Victor Rueda-Ayala

Year of publication

2012

Editor

Institute for Phytomedicine, Department of Weed Science, University of Hohenheim

The biggest challenge for weed harrowing in wheat and barley is to carry out a site-specific weed control according to the variability in conditions of soil, weeds and crop growth stage; selectivity of harrowing and yield response may also be considered. Therefore, an algorithm to automatically adjust the harrowing intensity was developed. First, different intensities were tested and the best results in terms of weed control efficacy and yield gains, were assigned as the optimal intensity levels. Second, a decision algorithm for weed harrowing was elaborated based assessments of leaf cover, weed density and soil density, to infer the output variable intensity. Third, we tested the system in two field experiments. The system requires more validation experiments in field with variable soil types and variable weed competition. Our perspective is that real-time intensity adjustment might be achievable if cameras are attached in the front and at the rear or sides of the harrow. Then feedback of the remaining weed competition might be used as new input to the model, which would indicate the necessity of cultivating a second or more passes.

URN: urn:nbn:de:bsz:100-opus-7710