ONE SMART SPRAY – intelligent, on-target weed control
Modern-day farms cannot do without targeted weed control if they want to grow plenty of high-quality food and feed in a sustainable way.
ONE SMART SPRAY, a product of the eponymous Bosch/ BASF joint venture, makes the most of state-of-the-art technologies to minimize herbicide use while managing weeds just as effectively. It even enables real-time documentation.
Challenge: Find a smarter, more selective way of applying herbicides
Herbicides increase crop yields, but blanket use is neither profitable nor sustainable. Crops, soil, and weeds have to be monitored in real time to apply herbicides in a targeted, more effective way. This requires a reliable camera-based system.
Solution: Develop a sophisticated system and ramp it up from a prototype to a series manufactured product
An intelligent solution, ONE SMART SPRAY protects crops effectively while significantly reducing herbicide use. This system features ultra-precise camera technology combined with digital services and agronomic intelligence. It draws on image-processing algorithms developed by ITK to scan the field on the fly and pinpoint crop rows and weeds. Detecting weeds in less than 100 milliseconds with greater than 95 percent accuracy, it enables targeted treatment in real time.
The system learns online as the camera sweeps the field to continuously optimize algorithms and achieve highest performance and detection rates. All data are aggregated using CAN & ISOBUS real-time monitoring and data logging, and made available for documentation and evaluation via the connectivity unit on the digital platform provided by xarvio® Digital Farming Solutions. A holistic cyber security concept comprehensively protects sensitive agronomic data.
The field camera unit featuring crop recognition technology
- Segments the image to distinguish between the plant and soil
- Applies classic image processing algorithms to detect crop rows and extract weed features
- Learns online on the fly to optimize adaptive parameters based on historical data
- Employs heterogeneous multi-core architecture to meet runtime requirements while keeping algorithm development options open
Added value: Minimal herbicides for greater profits and sustainability
Easy to use and remarkably reliable, ONE SMART SPRAY is an integrated solution serving to apply herbicides intelligently, with far greater accuracy. It keeps fields free of weeds with a minimum of herbicides to boost overall efficiency and further the cause of more sustainable farming.
