Farms & Farm Machinery #401

News
Images are taken by drone to generate a
map of the area that needs spraying
We don’t want
people to think
it’s a drone-based
sprayer
SPRAYER
Sprayer manufacturer Hardi has taken a big step into the
technological space, launching a selective spraying system,
which it claims could reduce chemical use and costs by up
to 90 per cent. Lincoln Bertelli reports
Centimetre perfect
. Hardi says that chemical use, labour and wastage can
be reduced by up to 90 per cent with GeoSelect
Hardi’s newest innovation, GeoSelect, marks the
company’s “first step into genuine technology” with
a software package that works in tandem with drone
images to identify and spray exactly where weeds
are on a paddock.
It uses a “decoupled” structure, meaning the
images are taken by drone before being processed
quickly without loss of resolution and delivering a
precise map of which areas require spraying.
Multiple lightweight antennas, described as
“rugged and waterproof”, are mounted along
the sprayer’s boom to ensure precision to the
centimetre when spraying, even factoring in
boom deflection and weather conditions.
Crucially, GeoSelect works with standard Hardi
spray nozzles.
GeoSelect was unveiled in Adelaide in July and
Hardi Australia’s chief executive Bill Franklin said
at the launch the technology had been the result of
several years’ effort.
“We don’t want people to think it’s a drone-based
sprayer,” he said.
“The drone is the means of capturing the
image. GeoSelect is pure software. Our guys
have written software to overcome barriers which
existed previously.
“It identifies the precise geolocation of target
vegetation and records that, so you get full recording
of every activity and it preserves the original spatial
resolution.”
Franklin said the decoupled structure, with
imaging and spraying being separate, had numerous
advantages that had not been obvious when Hardi
first set out to create the software.
“Some of those arise from knowing exactly
what there is to spray before you’re in the paddock,”
he explained.
“When you’re there with a camera, you’ve got to
drive past it before you know it is present.
“By taking the images before then, we know
exactly where the targets [are] and we know
how many targets are in the field so we can
thereby work out how much chemical we’ve
got to take on.”
Other advantages, Franklin said, included
knowing in advance which areas did not require
treatment and therefore saving on labour, fuel,
ground compaction and machine depreciation.
The company estimates that chemical use, labour
and wastage can be reduced by up to 90 per cent
with GeoSelect.
In a field test run by Hardi, live data was processed
with up to 5mm accuracy and a 99.7 per cent hit rate.
Boom deflection can also be measured down
to the nearest 0.1 degree and Franklin said this
precision was crucial for GeoSelect’s success.
“If you’re running a 48m boom or bigger you can
get quite substantial deflection,” he said.
“Where your traditional sprayer thinks your boom
is compared to where it actually is might be something
completely different.
“GeoSelect measures that accurately – it has
additional GPS sensors along the boom to give
you precision and accuracy in terms of where
the nozzles actually are at the point of firing.
“When we showed it to our own sales guys to start
with, they didn’t believe we could get the nozzle
response times we are actually getting.
“Latency in firing is automatically calculated, we
can take in and consider other ambient measurements
and metrics such as winds and cross-winds,
and all of that is processed within the algorithm and
10 Farms & Farm Machinery