1847results about "Weed killers" patented technology

Automatic pesticide, insecticide, repellant, poison, air freshener, disinfectant or other spray-type delivery systems are proposed for automating the delivery of these items to areas, for controlling pests easier, for improving environmental conditions, and for making it easier to freshen the air and to disinfect areas. The device includes a logic circuit and mechanisms containing a circuit that will enable a user to program the device to discharge a spray of its poison, disinfecting or air freshening spray(s) at a pre-selected time interval or day / time interval chosen in the unit's memory. An electromechanical valve opens to let contents escape when the spraying mechanism of the system is activated. The valve connects to a pressurized spray cylinder and it releases a controlled burst of insecticide, pesticide, repellant, disinfectant, and or air freshener as programmed. Control circuits allow the user to set when the system goes off.

Methods for making transgenic plants that are resistant to HPPD herbicides are presented. Polynucleotides other than those from Pseudomonas fluorescens that encode resistant HPPD enzymes are enclosed for use in the process of making transgenic plants that are tolerant to HPPD-inhibiting herbicides.

A multi-sensor device comprises a housing containing multiple sensor modules for capturing and transmitting sensor data for plants in a crop. A control unit within the housing is operable to control the sensor modules, and a communications interface is connected to the control unit for transmitting data from said plurality of sensor modules. The sensor modules can include a physiological sensor, a surface analysis sensor, and chemical sensor. The multi-sensor device can be used as a hand-held device or mounted to a mobile platform for use in an automated crop monitoring system.

A process for removing or treating harmful biological and chemical substances from an enclosure, such as a building or vehicle by using heated air. The method of the present invention is non-toxic and can be performed in a relatively short amount of time while effectively killing and removing a large proportion of dead organisms and substantially reducing volatile organic compounds.

A method and system of treating plants is provided. The method includes measuring optical properties of a plant using a plurality of spectral bands. The method further includes calculating in a computational device at least two vegetative indexes using the optical properties, each of the at least two vegetative indexes correlating to one or more plant growth parameters. The method further includes calculating in the computational device a water invariant chlorophyll index from at least two vegetative indexes using the plurality of spectral bands. The also provides for treating one or more of the plants based on the water invariant chlorophyll index.

A composition is provided that contains one or more molecular encapsulation agents within each of which is encapsulated one or more cyclopropenes and that contains one or more adjuvants selected from the group consisting of surfactants, alcohols, hydrocarbon oils, and mixtures thereof. Also provided is a method that includes the step of contacting such compositions to one or more plants or plant parts.

A portable, steam weed killing apparatus designed to be environmentally friendly, economical, fast acting and used by an individual standing in an upright position. The apparatus is intended for killing weeds and unwanted plants in gardens, flower beds and along sidewalks by application of concentrated heated water or steam thereto. The apparatus includes electrically powered, portable steam generating unit containing a water reservoir, an electric pump and an electric steam heater. The apparatus also includes an elongated, rigid guide bar with a weed cover attached to its distal end. A flexible hose delivers steam from the steam generating unit to the weed cover. During use, the weed cover is placed over the undesired plant and the steam generating unit is operated to deliver a concentrated amount of steam to the plant located inside the weed cover. In another embodiment of the invention, the steam generating unit includes a super-heating steam unit which provides saturated, super-heated steam for greater killing effect.

Therefore, the illustrative embodiments provide a computer program product comprising a computer recordable media having computer usable program code. Resource needs are determined for each plant in a plurality of plants to form individual resource needs. Conditions are identified in an environment in which the plurality of plants are located by receiving input from a sensor system to form current conditions. A plurality of per plant prescriptions are calculated for the plurality of plants using the individual resource needs and the current conditions. The application of the resource is controlled from a mobile utility vehicle to each plant in the plurality of plants using the plurality of per plant prescriptions.

The invention relates to a high-efficiency weeding robot which belongs to the technical field of agricultural machinery application. The robot comprises an automatic navigation and weed identification camera head and a control system, wherein a weeding device comprises an interline cutting and smearing weeding mechanism arranged below a trolley, and an inline weeding mechanism; the cylinder bodies of a left horizontal cylinder and a right horizontal cylinder of the inline weeding mechanism are respectively arranged at the bottom of the trolley; horizontal piston rods of the left horizontal cylinder and the right horizontal cylinder are respectively and fixedly connected with installment frames of a left vertical cylinder and a right vertical cylinder; the upper ends of the installment frames of the left vertical cylinder and the right vertical cylinder are installed in horizontal rails on the trolley to form a moving pair; the cylinders of the left vertical cylinder and the right vertical cylinder are respectively installed on the installment frames of the left vertical cylinder and the right vertical cylinder; and the lower ends of vertical pistons of the left vertical cylinder and the right vertical cylinder are respectively connected with a left end effector and a right end effector the bottoms of which are provided with electric circular saws. The invention can remove weeds in lines and among lines with high working speed and high weeding efficiency, thereby radically solving the difficulty of removing weeds in lines.

The invention discloses a machine vision based weeding robot system and a method thereof. The system comprises a robot moving platform, a field navigation device, a field grass identifying device, a weeding device and a robot control system; wherein the robot moving platform is used for executing advancing action of the robot system in the field; the field navigation device is used for acquiring navigation parameter required by movement of the robot system and sending the parameter to the robot control system; the field grass identifying device is used for acquiring field grass image information, identifying grass according to the field grass image information, obtaining identification data, calculating grass body coordinates and grass interval and sending the grass body coordinates and grass interval to the robot control system; the weeding device is used for executing weeding action; and the robot control system is used for controlling the robot moving platform to execute advancing action in the field according to the received navigation parameter and controlling the weeding device to execute weeding action according to the grass body coordinates and grass interval. The invention can realize rapid and accurate weeding operation on crop in the field.

A high speed, low cost, wide spectrum light scanning and sensor unit (10) for receiving reflected light from an object and diffracting the light into segments of wavelengths and a linear sensor array (32) having elements positioned to receive the segments and to measure the relative magnitude of such segments to define a spectral distribution of the object together with a digital identifier-controller (36) connected to said sensing device and having a memory for memorizing a spectral distribution of light representing a first standard object, and additional memory for receiving a spectral distributions of other objects and programmable logic circuitry containing a program for determining the similarity between the standard object and the other objects.

A method and apparatus for controlling weeds using concentrated solar energy is disclosed. Solar energy may be concentrated by Fresnel lens and directed by manual or automated methods at surfaces of weed plants to heat portions thereof causing damage. Shutters or other devices may be used to direct, and control intensity of concentrated, solar energy, such control preferably applied before significant concentration. In some embodiments, solar energy concentration apparatus may be integrated with ground, air, or water vehicles which may use solar photovoltaic cells for electric power for propulsion and other purposes. Vehicles may use global positioning satellite (GPS) receivers or other methods and apparatus, including video cameras, for navigation and selection of areas (e.g., row middles), plants, or portions of plants to be exposed to concentrated solar energy. Air vehicles may use hydrogen gas electrolyzed from water condensed from humid air to replenish hydrogen gas lost from containment vessels.

Disclosed herein is a light fixture. The light fixture includes at least one first light source that emits at a peak wavelength in a range of approximately 380 nm to approximately 420 nm and at least one second light source that emits at a different peak wavelength, wherein a combined light output of the at least one first light source and the at least one second light source emits a colored light that is perceived as white light. The white light is defined by having a color rendering index (CRI) value of more than approximately 50. The at least one second light source that emits at a different peak wavelength consists of an xy coordinate on a International Commission on Illumination (CIE) 1931 xy color space diagram above a black body curve within a bounded area defined by a first line of approximately y=2.23989x−0.382773 and a second line of approximately y=1.1551x−0.195082. The combined light output has a proportion of spectral energy measured in the approximately 380 nm to approximately 420 nm range of greater than approximately 20%.

A system and method for removing harmful biological and organic substances from an enclosure, vehicle or container includes protecting heat-sensitive articles within the enclosure. A plurality of temperature probes are positioned at predetermined locations within the enclosure. The air within the structure is heated to a predetermined temperature up to 400° F. to kill organisms and cause harmful substances in the enclosure to migrate into the ambient air. A negative pressure is created in the enclosure and the heated air carrying the harmful substances passed through a filter and is then vented from the enclosure and passed through a filter to remove the harmful substances from the heated air. The system effectively kills, molds, viruses and bacteria and reduces the levels of allergens and volatile organic compounds in the enclosure.

The present invention is directed to an apparatus for directing steam, hot water or hot water vapor and hot air onto a target area, the apparatus comprising a water container and a fuel container connected and supplying water and fuel to an applicator wand with an applicator head which generates steam and heat for application adjacent to the target area of application to the unwanted vegetation. Steam is generated immediately adjacent to the target area within the applicator head and combined with surplus heat from the steam generation process to produce heated steam and water vapor for application to the target area. In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the applicator wand is hand held, the applicator head having an inlet, an outlet and a body therebetween, the water and fuel being supplied to a steam generator and burner within the body of the applicator head which generates steam and hot air adjacent to the target area for application through the outlet to the target area.

The invention relates to environment-friendly type river and lake controlling and cleaning equipment. The environment-friendly type river and lake controlling and cleaning equipment comprises a boat body, power devices, a storage slot, a compression device, movable gripping devices, cut-off devices, a salvaging device and a conveying device, wherein the power devices are symmetrically mounted at the left side and the right side behind the boat body separately along the longitudinal central axis of the boat body; the compression device is positioned above the storage slot; the movable gripping devices are separately positioned at the left side and the right side of the compression device; the cut-off devices are positioned at the outer sides of the movable gripping devices; the salvaging device is positioned in front of the boat body; and the conveying device is positioned between the salvaging device and the storage slot. The environment-friendly type river and lake controlling and cleaning equipment integrates the functions of floating force adjusting, water-surface travelling, waste compacting, aquatic plant gripping, garbage salvaging, garbage conveying and the like, realizes the functions of eliminating aquatic plants in rivers and lakes as well as floating waste on the water surface, achieves the effect of dredging the rivers and the lakes, keeps water in the rivers and the lakes clean, is high in integral mechanical degree, is complete in function and is high in operating efficiency.

The invention relates to a method and system for volume-specific treatment of ground and plants as required. The aim of the invention is to improve a method and system as above, such that the distribution of plants is scanned with complete spatial coverage and the treatment of the ground or plant condition is efficiently controlled, by simultaneously taking account of morphological, plant physiological, equipment performance and specific local properties.

The invention discloses an inter-seedling weeding device and method, and relates to the technical field of agricultural machinery. The inter-seedling weeding device comprises a ground contour following device, a hoe blade lifting device, a tool setting device and a hoe blade device; and the ground contour following device comprises a contour wheel, a sliding plate, two sliding blocks, a spring and a cylindrical slide rail. The contour wheel and the hoe blade device are fixedly arranged on the sliding plate; and the sliding blocks are fixedly arranged on the sliding plate, and the sliding blocks and the spring are sleeved outside the cylindrical slide rail. The hoe blade lifting device comprises a second parallelogram mechanism and a second hydraulic cylinder, and the second hydraulic cylinder is arranged at the opposite sides or the adjacent sides of the second parallelogram mechanism. The tool setting device comprises a first parallelogram mechanism and a first hydraulic cylinder; and the first hydraulic cylinder is arranged on the opposite sides or the adjacent sides of the first parallelogram mechanism. According to the inter-seedling weeding device and method, disclosed by theinvention, the hoe blade can be protected and the seedling injuring rate during weeding can be reduced.

A method of destroying or controlling unwanted vegetation and agricultural pests is disclosed. The method produces a jet stream of treatment fluid, being mixed combustion gas and superheated or dry steam for application to thermally destroy unwanted vegetation and posts. The method involves the use of a hydrocarbon burner and a water source.

The present invention belongs to the field of pasture plant cultication technology, in the concrete, it relates to a cultivation method capable of raising drought resistance of Lucerne and protecting Lucerne from winter freezing injury. Said method includes the following steps: selecting cold resistant variety, setecting field, weeding and fertilizer application, ridge forming, ridge-seeding and field management.

The invention relates to a method for carrying out real-time identification and targeted spraying on cotton field weedsVisual system hardwares, comprising an additional light source, a CCD color video camera, an A / D converter, a DSP image processor, a D / A converter and an LCD (liquid crystal display) display; the additional light source can improve the situation in which light is not uniform or bright enough under natural conditions.The identification method comprises the following steps: a video camera installed at the front part of a weeding machine captures cotton field images in real time; after A / D conversion, the images are stored in a chip memory for being called by a DSP (Digital Signal Processor); the DSP extracts frame images from video streams and processes the frame images; green plants from soil backgrounds are segmented by the Cr characteristic method; the images are equally divided into four lines according to the arrangement of spray nozzles with each spray nozzle corresponding to a line; position features are used to recognize weeds among the lines; the weeds are recognized according to area and form features of blades; weeds position information is transmitted to a microcontroller; and the spray nozzles are opened to carry out accurate targeted spraying of weed killer to save pesticides and reduce pollution to the environment.

A method of killing or controlling vegetation particularly along roadside berms involves the application of pressurized hot water from a moving applicator head in close proximity to the ground. The pressurized hot water is applied as jets of hot water from an applicator head at a temperature in the range of 100 DEG C. to 110 DEG C. and the flow rate of about 10 liters / minute supplied from one or more pumps operating at a pump pressure of between 200 to 100 psi. The apparatus is mounted on or in a vehicle such as a van, containing a water tank (1), a boiler (2) arranged to heat pressurized water supplied by a pump (4) under pressure to the boiler (2). The pump (4) is a piston pump which supplies the pressurized water through the boiler to a hand held applicator (5) or optionally a towed boom applicator (6). The hand held applicator (5) has an applicator head inside a shroud so that the pressurized hot water is applied to the surface of vegetation as jets of water within the confines of the shroud.

A method of distinguishing individual plants within a row of plants, including directing radiation at the row of plants at an angle selected to illuminate a portion of the plant and cast a shadow at the plant center, collecting an image from the radiation reflected off of two or more contiguous plants with a detector, identifying a continuous foreground region indicative of a plant within the image, identifying points of interest within the region, classifying the points of interest as plant centers and non-plant centers, and segmenting the region into sub-regions, each sub-region encompassing a single point of interest classified as a plant center.

An apparatus (22) for selectively discriminating vegetation or plant matter (28) comprises a light emitting means (24), a light sensing means (30) and a distance sensing means (34). The light emitting means generates a beam of light (26) that can be directed onto plants or plant matter moving relative to the apparatus. The light sensing means senses light transmitted from said light emitting means and reflected from the plants or plant matter, and generates a reflection signal in response to the sensing of the reflected light. The distance sensing means senses the relative distance moved and generates a distance signal. A processing means (32) is operatively connected to the light sensing means and the distance sensing means to combine the reflection signal and distance signal to discriminate different types of plants or plant matter.

The invention discloses a method for directly seeding rice, which comprises the following steps of: preparing soil; preparing a slag fertilizer; soaking seeds and accelerating germination; digging holes and seeding in a dry field; weeding; fertilizing in a land for growing field crops; thinning; and preventing and controlling plant diseases and insect pests. Since the method for directly seeding the rice directly digs holes and seeds in the field, the method can ensure that rice in a dry area grows normally by using a little amount of water before the head sprouting process of the rice, achieves good drought-resisting and water-saving effects, eliminates the transplanting step, avoids damaging root systems of the rice, strengthens the tillering capacity of the rice, achieves high yield, simplifies the working procedure, saves labor force, has low production cost, high efficiency and convenient operation, and can be widely used for planting rice in mountain areas, hilly areas, easily droughty areas and water-lacking dead angles of pieces of paddy fields.