1st Workshop BOOK - project RHEA

A Five-Step Approach for Planning a Robotic Site-Specific Weed Management
Program for Winter Wheat
A Five-Step Approach for Planning a Robotic Site-Specific
Weed Management Program for Winter Wheat
Cesar Fernández-Quintanilla*, Jose Dorado*, Carolina San Martín*,
Jesus Conesa-Muñoz** and Angela Ribeiro**
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*Institute for Agricultural Sciences (CSIC), C/ Serrano 115B, 28006 Madrid, Spain
(e-mail: cesar@ica.csic.es)
**Centre for Automation and Robotics (UPM-CSIC), Crtra. Campo Real Km 0,2
28500 Arganda del Rey, Madrid, Spain
(e-mail: angela.ribeiro@csic.es)
Abstract: A Five-Step procedure is proposed to be used in weed control programs
based on the use of a robot fleet. The five steps are: 1) field inspection, 2) longterm
decisions, 3) current year decisions, 4) unit distribution & path planning, and
5) online decisions. Monitoring weed populations at various times could be
achieved using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) equipped with cameras and GPS. A
long-term decision module could be used to optimize the choice of crop and
herbicide rotations as well as the tillage system. A computerized system should
quickly query databases containing information about the weeds present in each
field and the herbicides available to control them, performing calculations to
determine the cost effectiveness of each option. The system should generate a
georeferenced prescription map indicating the sites were each herbicide should be
sprayed. This map should provide the information required to decide the optimal
distribution of the spraying units of the fleet and their corresponding navigation
plans. Final spraying decisions should be based on both, prescription maps and
online information coming from sensors located in the sprayer.
1. Introduction
Weed control can be approached either on a hit or miss basis or as a carefully
planned and coordinated program. The second alternative is most likely to yield
success. A well planned program consists of a number of appropriate operations
coordinated in a sequence. Various types of weed management programs have
been devised to fit different types of situations (Clarke, 2002; Newman, 2002;
Sheley et al., 2010).
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