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Development of a novel mechatronic system for mechanical weed ...

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Results and discussion<br />

Be<strong>for</strong>e the activation <strong>of</strong> the <strong>system</strong>, the vertical positions <strong>of</strong> the RGB fibre optic<br />

and laser sensors need to be adjusted in order to cover as many plants as<br />

possible with their detecting range. RGB sensor reacquires an additional<br />

calibration <strong>of</strong> the target colour typical <strong>for</strong> the crop plant and its growing stage. If<br />

the plants’ colour palette includes wider spectral range, the sensitivity <strong>of</strong> the<br />

RGB sensor to certain colour can be increased. After the adjustment has been<br />

done the <strong>system</strong> needs to be positioned to the initial position which is actually<br />

the first plant in one row. At this point the <strong>system</strong> is ready <strong>for</strong> the plant centre<br />

position detection. After the start, the algorithm waits until the linear position<br />

reaches the first/next value equal to the multiplier <strong>of</strong> the sampling distance<br />

which is a triggering signal <strong>for</strong> the execution <strong>of</strong> the next step. If the linear<br />

position is located inside the searching area it is necessary to calculate the<br />

indexing counter value which is used <strong>for</strong> building an array with the date<br />

containing in<strong>for</strong>mation about the position and sensor values (TRUE/FALSE).<br />

This subroutine repeats until the index reaches the value <strong>of</strong> the array length<br />

equal to the quotient <strong>of</strong> searching area size and sampling distance. In that<br />

moment building <strong>of</strong> the array is completed and the middle position <strong>of</strong> the data<br />

pattern can be calculated. Middle position calculator returns the linear position<br />

value corresponding to the middle position <strong>of</strong> the plant and the time stamp when<br />

the plant detection sensor has acquired this value. The flow chart <strong>of</strong> the<br />

algorithm <strong>for</strong> the plant centre position detection is illustrated in Figure 5.2.<br />

59

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