INDIANAPOLIS — The Smart-Apply Intelligent Spray Control System has been awarded two significant agricultural innovation awards: The American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers AE50 award and Top-10 New Product at the World Ag Expo.
“We’re excited and honored to receive these awards,” said Steve Booher, CEO. “At Smart Guided Systems, we’re committed to helping tree fruit and nut growers and nursery owners across the United States and around the world find the best spraying system for their farms, reduce overspraying and realize significant ROI to improve their overall profitability.”
The Intelligent Spray Control System was entrusted to Smart Guided Systems to be commercialized after 10 years of research and testing by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service, Clemson University, The Ohio State University, Oregon State University, Texas A&M University and The University of Tennessee.
The Smart-Apply Intelligent Spray Control System is an add-on kit that easily retrofits to most any conventional air blast sprayer. It’s based on light detection ranging technology.
The high-speed LiDAR scanners calculate the density of the trees or plants in the rows and direct the spray nozzles to turn on and off accordingly, matching the pesticide output to the canopy size and density of the crop in real time.
As a result, the Smart-Apply Intelligent Sprayer delivers the exact amount of chemicals needed to cover each tree or plant — not a drop more or less.
This is a significant improvement over ultrasonic and conventional air blast sprayers, as ultrasonic sprayers simply turn the sprayers on or off when trees are detected, and conventional air blast sprayers spray continuously until they’re turned off.
ASABE
The ASABE, an international scientific and educational organization dedicated to the advancement of engineering in agricultural, food and biological systems, has named the Smart-Apply Intelligent Spray Control System a winner of its 2020 AE50 award.
The ASABE’s AE50 award honors the year’s most innovative designs in engineering products or systems for the food and agriculture industries.
The Smart-Apply Intelligent Sprayer is featured in the January/February 2020 special issue of ASABE’s magazine Resource: Engineering & Technology for a Sustainable World.
World Ag Expo
The World Ag Expo takes place annually at the International Agri-Center in Tulare, California, and is attended by an average of 100,000 individuals from over 70 countries.
The Top-10 New Products are chosen from submissions from among the more than 1400 exhibitors displaying cutting-edge agricultural technology and advances in farming techniques.
The Smart-Apply Intelligent Sprayer was chosen for its capabilities to reduce chemical use and waste, as well as airborne drift and spray loss on the ground.