POTENTIAL FOR AUTOMATIC WEED DETECTION AND SELECTIVE HERBICIDE APPLICATION

Weeds are frequently distributed non-uniformly within fields. Herbicide use could be reduced either by applying it only to weed-infested areas or by applying a low dose rate to the whole field and normal dose rate to weed patches. A necessary prerequisite is an effective method of weed detection. Tractor-mounted detectors do not appear to be feasible. Thus real-time weed detection and sprayer control are not currently possible. It is shown, however, that spatially variable herbicide application using a sprayer location system and a field map of weed location has potential. The data map would be constructed from a number of weed-location techniques based on image analysis, such as tractor-mounted video cameras, aerial photographs and manual field observation.