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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Wooster, Ohio » Application Technology Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #296801
Title: Influence of travel speed on spray deposition uniformity from an air-assisted variable-rate sprayer

Author
item LIU, HUI - The Ohio State University
item Zhu, Heping
item SHEN, YUE - The Ohio State University
item CHEN, YU - The Ohio State University
item ZONDAG, RANDY - The Ohio State University
item OZKAN, ERDAL - The Ohio State University

Submitted to: Symposium Proceedings
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/10/2013
Publication Date: 8/20/2013
Citation: Liu, H., Zhu, H., Shen, Y., Chen, Y., Zondag, R., Ozkan, E. 2013. Influence of travel speed on spray deposition uniformity from an air-assisted variable-rate sprayer. In: Proceedings of the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers Annual Meeting, July 21-24, 2013, Kansas City, Missouri. ASABE Paper No. 131594610.http://dx.doi.org/10.13031/aim.20131594610.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: A newly developed LiDAR-guided air-assisted variable-rate sprayer for nursery and orchard applications was tested at various travel speeds to compare its spray deposition and coverage uniformity with constant-rate applications. Spray samplers, including nylon screens and water-sensitive papers (WSP), were mounted inside tree canopies to measure spray deposits and coverage. Experiments were conducted with six different size tree species in commercial nurseries and travel speeds ranged from 3.2 to 8.0 km h-1. Test results showed that variable-rate sprayer was able to adjust spray outputs to match canopy structures and travel speeds. For the variable-rate application, there were no significant variations in spray deposits and coverage for each tree species among the travel speeds of 3.2, 5.6 and 8.0 km h-1. The variable-rate application had significantly lower variations in spray deposits within canopies of different size trees than the constant spray application.