Smart Sprayer for Black-Grass Mapping and Resistance Monitoring

黑草(Alopecurus Myosuroides)是英国危害最大的杂草，每年造成相当大的产量损失，威胁英国谷物生产的可持续性。除草剂仍然是控制该物种的策略的关键组成部分，但由于过度使用而导致的抗性进化威胁到了除草剂的有效性。环境方面的考虑也引起了人们对这种广泛使用除草剂的担忧，包括可能对潜在有益物种产生破坏目标以外的影响。最后，现有除草策略对种植者的成本正变得昂贵得令人望而却步。精确喷洒除草剂专门针对杂草地块，而不是整个田地，提供了帮助缓解这些问题的潜力，大大减少了除草剂的使用，同时保持了对杂草的有效控制。为了促进这一点，需要开发系统，在足够早的时间点准确和快速地绘制田间杂草的空间分布图，以便能够进行干预。Spot应用需要足够强大，以避免遗漏杂草，并为种植者提供足够的信心来支持他们的吸收。该项目将使英国中小型企业Chafer能够使用博世/巴斯夫的“智能喷雾器”概念和技术来开发、制造和评估配备相机的自行式喷雾器，用于绘制黑草地图和精确地进行斑块或斑点喷洒。识别杂草的人工智能和生成精确杂草地图的能力将使Rothamsted和巴斯夫能够进行进一步的研究。该项目的成果将使田间数据的生成能够用于农学建议。这些数据将在xarvio(Tm)平台上进行分析，Rothamsted开发的模型将用于开发除草剂选择和出苗前和出苗后除草剂变量用量的定制建议。这些计划将通过喷雾系统对除草剂使用的精确(单独喷嘴)控制来实施，并在除草剂使用、成本降低和控制效果方面对照传统的“全田”管理进行绩效评估。

Black-grass (_Alopecurus myosuroides_) is the UK's most pernicious weed, causing considerable yield losses each year and threatening the sustainability of UK cereal production. Herbicides remain a key component of tactics to control this species, yet evolution of resistance due to overuse threatens their efficacy. Environmental considerations also raise concerns about such widespread herbicide use, including the potential for damaging off-target effects on potentially beneficial species. Finally, the cost to growers of existing herbicidal strategies are becoming prohibitively expensive.Precision spraying of herbicides specifically to weed patches, rather than the whole field, offers the potential to help mitigate these issues, considerably reducing herbicide use whilst maintaining effective control of the weed. To facilitate this, there is a need to develop systems for accurately and rapidly mapping the spatial distribution of the weed within the field, at time-points early enough to enable intervention. Spot application needs to be robust enough to avoid missing weeds and provide sufficient confidence for growers to support their uptake. And finally, software and machinery need to be in place for delivering the targeted, precision herbicide application.This project will enable UK SME Chafer to use the Bosch/BASF 'smart sprayer' concept and technology to develop, build and evaluate a camera-equipped self-propelled sprayer for black-grass mapping and precision patch- or spot-spraying. The artificial intelligence to identify weeds and the ability to generate precise weed maps will allow Rothamsted and BASF to conduct further research. The outcome of the project will allow field data generation to be used for agronomic recommendations. The data will be analysed on the xarvio(tm) platform, and models developed by Rothamsted will be used to develop bespoke recommendations of herbicide choice and variable-rate application of pre- and post-emergence herbicides. These plans will be implemented using precise (individual nozzle) control of herbicide application by the sprayer system, with performance evaluated against conventional 'whole-field' management in herbicide usage, cost reductions, and control efficacy.