Designing, and static and dynamic evaluation of tractor-back fertilizer sprayer with variable rate technology (VRT)

Abstract

In recent years, concerns about utilizing various chemical toxicants in different sections of agriculture and also environmental pollutions increased and also convinced researchers and scientists in agricultural sector to discuss and offer new methods related to improve the toxicant management. One of the main disadvantages of increase the use of chemical toxicants in agriculture is transfer chemical materials to food through the soil and cause liver or respiratory cancer. Nowadays, in most countries, spraying fertilizer in farm fields is done without regard to changes in soil toxicant and also need of plant to toxicant and carried out uniformly to all parts of the farm and finally toxicant use and environmental pollution would increase. In developed countries, development of precision farming and using Variable Rate Technology (VRT) is growing rapidly. One of the vital nutrients for plant growth is nitrogen (N). Due to the lack of nitrogen in most agricultural soils, utilizing of nitrogen toxicant in agriculture is more than all other toxicants. On the other hand, excessive consumption of nitrogen would have negative effects on water quality and ecosystem of living organisms. In this paper, designing, construction and evaluation of chemical liquid toxicant spray with Variable Rate Technology (VRT) were carried out and it's used two types of electric valves in Variable Rate Technology (VRT). This technology has an intelligent processor system that spread the toxicant based on soil needs. System performance has been evaluated at different temperature and humidity. Finally, it has been concluded that valve opener have a stepper motor and busted water which have higher performance speed rather than analog gas valve cutter. In addition, humidity and ambient temperature had little effect on the system and toxicant spraying by the system saving $15 per acre and also is useful than traditional methods. By accurate available toxicant at the farm level, it's possible to plenty of products would die and has maximum environmental negative effects.