Automated system for precision volunteer potato control (WPB.7212)

Volunteer potatoes are a severe weed in several crops in the Netherlands. Volunteer potatoes are potatoes that survived after in the previous year potatoes were grown. They have to be controlled since they are a source for the spread of diseases to neighbour potato crops. Effective mechanical or chemical control very difficult and manual control involves a high labour input (up to 30 h/ha).The objective of the project was to design and develop effective detection and removal mechanisms for volunteer potato control. Spectral and other properties of volunteer potatoes and sugar beet plants are used to discriminate between them. The detection is connected to a specially developed droplet on demand system to deposit a small amount of glyfosate on the volunteer potato plants to effectively kill them.Detection and removal are integrated in a system that can be connected to a tractor. The prototype is tested in the field and showed that very good results could be achieved, although some improvements are still needed for a machine for practice.