Design and test of Kinect-based variable spraying control system for orchards.

Abstract

Target detection technology and variable-rate spraying technology are key technologies for achieving precise and efficient pesticide application. To address the issues of low efficiency and high working environment requirements in detecting tree information during variable spraying in orchards, this study has designed a variable spraying control system. The system employed a Kinect sensor to real-time detect the canopy volume of citrus trees and adjusted the duty cycle of solenoid valves by pulse width modulation to control the pesticide application. A canopy volume calculation method was proposed, and precision tests for volume detection were conducted, with a maximum relative error of 10.54% compared to manual measurements. A nozzle flow model was designed to determine the spray decision coefficient. When the duty cycle ranged from 30% to 90%, the correlation coefficient of the flow model exceeded 0.95, and the actual flow rate of the system was similar to the theoretical flow rate. Field experiments were conducted to evaluate the spraying effectiveness of the variable spraying control system based on the Kinect sensor. The experimental results indicated that the variable spraying control system demonstrated good consistency between the theoretical spray volume and the actual spray volume. In deposition tests, compared to constant-rate spraying, the droplets under the variable-rate mode based on canopy volume exhibited higher deposition density. Although the amount of droplet deposit and coverage slightly decreased, they still met the requirements for spraying operation quality. Additionally, the variable-rate spray mode achieved the goal of reducing pesticide use, with a maximum pesticide saving rate of 57.14%. This study demonstrates the feasibility of the Kinect sensor in guiding spraying operations and provides a reference for their application in plant protection operations.

Plant phenotyping relevance

Kinectセンサーによる柑橘樹冠体積の推定法を開発・精度検証し、可変散布制御へ応用しており、植物形態計測が中心的な技術貢献である。

Code and data availability

The article describes a Kinect-based variable spraying system with canopy volume measurements and field tests, but no public dataset, image, code, or model repository is provided. The only availability statement is a request-based one: 'The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by所述

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