NOZZLE ATTITUDE CONTROLLER FOR SPOT AND VARIABLE RATE APPLICATION OF AGRICULTURAL CHEMICALS AND FERTILIZERS

Fecha de publicación: 06/02/2003
Fuente: Wipo "precision farming"
A nozzle attitude controller for use in connection with a farming apparatus for precision farming, the apparatus comprising an applicator vehicle (20), a boom (22) supported by and extending across the rear of the vehicle (20), a manifold (28) rotatably supported by the boom (22), a plurality of nozzles (26) disposed from the manifold and oriented in a direction opposite to the direction of movement of the vehicle (20), but disposed at an angle with respect to the horizontal (theta), the attitude controller including a linear actuator (40) operated by a stepper motor (41) and a radar sensor (42) which connects to the stepper motor (41) and which measures the speed of the vehicle such that pulses from the radar sensor (42) to the stepper motor (41) moves the linear actuator (40) to change the angle of the nozzle (theta) so that the horizontal component of its velocity is equal and opposite to the speed of the vehicle.