Method, vehicle and system for weed control management
The present invention relates to a method ( 10 ) to control weeds comprising the steps of: a) acquiring geopositional information of planted crop seeds on an agricultural field and generating a crop seed map, b) acquiring soil elevation data and the corresponding geopositional information of the soil elevation on the agricultural field where the crop seeds have been planted or are being planted at at least two different time points and generating soil surface profile maps of the agricultural field, the soil surface profile maps showing the soil surface profiles at the at least two different time points, c) comparing the soil surface profile maps and the crop seed map to identify differences in the soil elevation profile that are not associated with seed growth of the planted seeds on the agricultural field, d) generating a weed control agent spray map on the basis of the differences in the identified soil elevations on the agricultural field that are not associated with seed growth of the planted crop seeds on the agricultural field.
1 . A method to control weeds comprising the steps of:
a) acquiring geopositional information of planted crop seeds on an agricultural field and generating a crop seed map;
b) acquiring soil elevation data and the corresponding geopositional information of the soil elevation on the agricultural field where the crop seeds have been planted or are being planted at at least two different time points and generating soil surface profile maps of the agricultural field, the soil surface profile maps showing the soil surface profiles at the at least two different time points;
c) comparing the soil surface profile maps and the crop seed map to identify differences in the soil elevation profile that are not associated with seed growth of the planted seeds on the agricultural field;
d) generating a weed control agent spray map on the basis of the differences in the identified soil elevations on the agricultural field that are not associated with seed growth of the planted crop seeds on the agricultural field.
2 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the data for the crop seed map and the soil surface profile map showing the soil surface profile at the first time point are acquired on the agricultural field with an agricultural vehicle at the same time.
3 . The method according to claim 1 , further comprising the step of:
e) applying a weed control agent to the agricultural field according to the weed control agent spray map.
4 . The method according to claim 3 , wherein the steps a) to e) are performed prior to the emergence and/or during the emergence of a plurality of shoots of the crop seeds and/or weeds on the agricultural field.
5 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the geopositional information of the planted crop seeds on the agricultural field is acquired by at least one sensor that is configured to record geopositional information of the crop seeds impinging on the soil during planting of the crop seeds.
6 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the soil elevation data and the corresponding geopositional information of the soil elevation on the agricultural field is acquired with a sensor that is configured to generate pulses of light towards the soil surface and to measure the time for any reflections and location determining means.
7 . A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium including executable instructions for weed control management, which when executed by at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to carry out the steps of:
a) receiving geopositional information of planted crop seeds on an agricultural field;
b) generating a crop seed map on the basis of the information received in step a);
c) receiving soil elevation data and the corresponding geopositional information of the soil elevation on the agricultural field where the crop seeds have been planted or are being planted at at least two different time points;
d) generating soil surface profile maps of the agricultural field, the soil surface profile maps showing the soil surface profiles at the at least two different time points on the basis of the information received in step c);
e) comparing the soil surface profile maps and the crop seed map;
f) identifying differences in the soil elevation profile that are not associated with seed growth of the planted seeds on the agricultural field;
g) generating a weed control agent spray map on the basis of the differences in the identified soil elevations on the agricultural field that are not associated with seed growth of the planted crop seeds on the agricultural field.
8 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium according to claim 7 , wherein the executable instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, further cause the at least one processor to carry out the step of:
h) instructing a vehicle to apply a weed control agent to the agricultural field according to the weed control agent spray map.