Development and Preliminary Evaluation of a Spray Deposition Sensing System for Improving Pesticide Application

Sensors

Melissa A. Kesterson¹  Joe D. Luck²  Michael P. Sama³ 

[1] Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE 68583, USA;;Department of Biological Systems Engineering, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE 68583, USADepartment of Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40546, USA;

关键词: spray deposition;    pesticides;    droplet spectra;    wireless data acquisition;   

DOI  :  10.3390/s151229898

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

An electronic, resistance-based sensor array and data acquisition system was developed to measure spray deposition from hydraulic nozzles. The sensor surface consisted of several parallel tin plated copper traces of varying widths with varying gap widths. The system contained an embedded microprocessor to monitor output voltage corresponding to spray deposition every second. In addition, a wireless module was used to transmit the voltage values to a remote laptop. Tests were conducted in two stages to evaluate the performance of the sensor array in an attempt to quantify the spray deposition. Initial tests utilized manual droplet placement on the sensor surface to determine the effects of temperature and droplet size on voltage output. Secondary testing utilized a spray chamber to pass nozzles at different speeds above the sensor surface to determine if output varied based on different application rates or spray droplet classification. Results from this preliminary analysis indicated that manual droplets of 5 and 10 μL resulted in significantly different values from the sensors while temperature did not consistently affect output. Spray chamber test results indicated that different application rates and droplet sizes could be determined using the sensor array.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.