Various examples are discussed for creating punched holes into a plastic mulch covering a top soil bed and precisely spraying herbicide for a limited time into each of the punched holes and on the top soil located directly below each of the punched holes in a plasticulture vegetable production operation.

A sprayer boom charging system for an agricultural sprayer is provided that allows a wet boom to be pre-loaded or charged during a charging session with liquid product before starting a spraying session. The boom charging system may deliver liquid product into the boom sections at their downstream ends to flow in a charge-flow or reverse flow direction that is opposite a normal spray delivery flow direction. This purges air from the boom sections and pushes it into the product tank that also collects the purging liquid product so that no liquid product is released onto the ground during the charging session.

An apparatus and method of applying liquid product to a crop growing in a field. A plurality of drop assemblies are laterally spaced along the boom structure, each of the plurality of drop assemblies include a boom mounting bracket which supports a vertical support member and a spray assembly disposed at a lower end of the vertical support member, the boom mounting bracket having a first pivot axis oriented substantially perpendicular to the boom structure. The drop assemblies are movable from a working position to a transport position. In the transport position the vertical support member is pivoted about the first axis such that the vertical support member is oriented toward the boom structure. In the working position the vertical support is oriented substantially perpendicular to the boom structure.

A mobile agricultural sprayer includes a chemical tank that holds a chemical fluid to be sprayed at a worksite and a rinse fluid tank that holds rinse fluid. The mobile agricultural sprayer also includes a first sensor coupled to the rinse fluid tank configured to detect a characteristic of the rinse fluid within the rinse fluid tank, and, generate a first sensor signal indicative of the characteristic of the rinse fluid. The sprayer also includes a distribution system, including a fluidic pathway and a nozzle, configured to pump the rinse fluid from the rinse fluid tank along the fluidic pathway through the nozzle of the sprayer. The sprayer also includes a second sensor coupled to the fluidic pathway configured to detect a characteristic of the fluid within the fluidic pathway, and generate a second sensor signal indicative of the characteristic. The sprayer also includes a residue detection system configured to receive the first and second sensor signals and, based on the received sensor signals, determine a concentration of residue within the fluidic pathway.

An automatic agricultural machine according to the present invention includes: a fixed base disposed on farmland; a first-direction movement guide part installed on the fixed base so as to be spaced apart from the farmland; a first-direction movement trolley configured to travel on the first-direction movement guide part; and an automatic spraying device configured to travel on a second-direction movement guide part connected to the first-direction movement trolley, wherein traveling control of the first-direction movement trolley and winding control of the second-direction movement guide part are performed on the basis of at least any one of the trigonometric function principle and the Pythagorean theorem.

An agricultural sprayer arrangement includes a chassis, at least one ground engaging traction member carried by the chassis, a liquid tank carried by the chassis, a boom carried by the chassis, a fluid conduit associated with the boom that is fluidly connected to the liquid tank, a spray nozzle that is fluidly connected to the fluid conduit and includes a nozzle body, a differential pressure sensor with a first pressure sensor in the fluid conduit associated with the spray nozzle and a second pressure sensor in the nozzle body, and an electrical processing circuit coupled to the differential pressure sensor. The differential pressure sensor is configured to output a pressure difference signal and the electrical processing circuit is configured to report a blocked nozzle when the pressure difference signal is less than a predetermined threshold value.

The present invention relates to an unmanned aerial vehicle (10) for spraying an agricultural field. The UAV has a liquid reservoir (20), a liquid spray gun (30), and a plurality of sets of rotor blades (40). The liquid spray gun has a spray axis extending away from the liquid spray gun. Each one of the plurality of sets of rotor blades is connected to a corresponding one of a plurality of drive shafts (50). A first drive shaft (51) of the plurality of drive shafts has a first drive axis extending longitudinally through the first drive shaft that is configured to be at a first angle to the spray axis. A second drive shaft (52) of the plurality of drive shafts has a second drive axis extending longitudinally through the second drive shaft that is configured to be at a second angle to the spray axis. The first drive axis and second drive axis are located in substantially the same first-second plane. The first angle extends away from the spray axis in a first direction and the second angle extends away from the spray axis in a second direction. The first direction is different to the second direction The liquid product ejected from the spray gun is at least partially entrained by a downwash of air from a first set of rotor blades connected to the first drive shaft and by a downwash of air from a second set of rotor blades connected to the second drive shaft.

The invention is intended for the organization of an automated process for spraying of liquid means of chemical treatment from unmanned vehicles, for example, in precise farming systems. The use of a replaceable, marked and hermetically sealed liquid subsystem in the spray device of the invention, along with an integrated self-diagnosis system, using compressed gas energy and a pressure regulator instead of standard pumps, reduces the weight of the spraying device, improves spraying accuracy, ensures personnel safety and accounting of the accumulated life resource of the main units of spraying devices. All this in combination enables to create fully automated spraying systems.

A spray system for an agricultural machine is configured to include a valving arrangement and multiple liquid product lines coupled to spray nozzle assemblies such that the valving arrangement can connect the product lines to the spray nozzle assemblies in different ways to achieve different modes of operation. Such modes can include providing agricultural liquid product flow through the spray nozzle assemblies at differing rates and/or flushing the product through the spray nozzle assemblies in differing directions. This can be achieved by controlling the valving arrangement to selectively connect any of the lines to pump for supplying product, to tank for returning product, or to block the lines to inhibit the flow of product. In one aspect, the product multiple lines can be of different sizes to enable more modes of operation, such as greater or lesser flow rates while spraying.

The present invention provides a molluscicide application apparatus and process that disperses the molluscicide below the water's surface in a manner that minimizes air entrainment and ensures that the molluscicide solution settles at the targeted floor of the body of water, such as a river or lake bed where driessenid mussels are concentrated, and do not rise to the water's surface or disperse. The present invention also maintains a desired viscosity level, for example, 180 centistokes, at typical freshwater temperatures varying from 15 C. to 25 C. by adjusting the flow rate and/or nozzle orifice area of the molluscicide application.