Performance of Electronic Controls for Field Sprayers

Abstract

Control systems fitted to agricultural crop sprayers should guarantee accurate control of delivered dose rates in order to achieve optimum use of pesticides. Their operating characteristics should maintain the required application rate even when the working speed is changed or individual sections are switched on or off. Precision farming approaches are likely to require dose rates to be varied to match the pesticide requirements of different parts of a field and this will require control systems that have a rapid response to changing requirements. A special laboratory test stand is described which is used to test the operational characteristics of such control systems. Ten commercial control systems were tested to see how they performed in relation to the German legal requirements for plant-protection equipment. The detailed requirements for the control systems demand a quick and accurate response on dynamic changes and a good dosing accuracy in the steady state. All the tested control systems fulfil the legal requirements.