Ecodesign method of intelligent boom sprayer based on Preferable Brownfield Process

Abstract

An intelligent boom sprayer (IBS) can realize efficient, precise and variable pesticides spraying operations on diverse crops and terrains by reconfiguring its hardware/software modules. Therefore, an ecological and reconfigurable design development strategy for IBS to get design goals, such as detachability, recyclability, maintainability, and reusability, will play a key role in ensuring the functions, service life and quality requirements of the product. After analyzing connotation and features of IBS,the Brownfield Process (BfP) was optimized to construct a Preferable Brownfield Process (P-BfP) which could achieve IBS ecodesign goals through analyzing the applicability and interference of IBS design and using Axiomatic Design (AD) as a main optimization theory role. The content identification and communication mechanism of the P-BfP were studied. The importance of existing resource reuse and standardization in the product design process for ecodesign was also highlighted. Dynamic models of BfP and P-BfP were built by using System Dynamics (SD) for providing a method to optimize the P-BfP design process. The simulation results showed that the P-BfP is more suitable for IBS design than the BfP from the time dimension by applying Vensim PLE and can improve the operating efficiency by 40% and reduce the training time by 50% while scientifically guiding the development of IBS. Finally, the feasibility of P-BfP was illustrated through comparing boom structure development result. The research results provide valuable scientific guidance for the ecodesign of reconfigurable modular products like IBS.