Abstract
Boom sprayers have been known by their excellency in field efficiency worker’s safety and pest control efficacy. The boom sprayer in Korea that was developed for paddy field is not suitable for upland field of which shape is irregular and inclination is steep, due to heavy chemical tank long boom width and manual on-off control of spraying. The goal of the study was to develope a boom control system that could control boom angles of left and right boom automatically and independently corresponding to local field slope. The prime mover was selected as a cultivating tractor. Main results of this study were as follows. 1. Ultrasonic sensor whose response time was 0.1s and response angle was within $\pm$20$^{\circ}$was selected to measure distance. Voltage output of the sensor(X, Volt) had a highly significant linear relationship with the vertical distance between the sensor and ground surface(Y, mm) as follows; Y=0.0036X-0.437 2. Left and right section of the boom could be folded up by a position control device(on-off control) which could control the left and right boom independently corresponding to local slope by equalizing distances between the sensor and boom at the center and left/right boom. Most reliable DB(dead band) was experimentally selected to be 75$\Omega$(6cm). 3. At traveling velocity of 0.3~0.5m/s RMS of error between desired and achieved height was less than 4.5cm The developed boom angle controller and boom linkage system were evaluated to be successful in achieving the height control accuracy target of $\pm$10cm.
