Track: Agriculture
Assessing the Efficiency of Agricultural Chemical Application with Differential GPS and ArcView GIS
Arthur F. LangeAgriculture constantly strives for improved efficiencies. Agricultural application or swathing efficiency is one area of interest given the potential of new technologies in precision farming. Tools and techniques are needed to assess application efficiency so in-field guidance techniques can be compared and quantified. One measure of application efficiency is the occurrence of overlap in applications. An analysis method using ArcView GIS and the ArcView Spatial Analyst extension was developed to evaluate the application efficiency of ground-based applications using different guidance systems. This GIS method was compared to an alternative method based on Trimble software called TrimMap. The TrimMap and ArcView GIS methods gave similar answers for all treatments. The guidance techniques or "treatments" investigated were a traditional form of guidance based on a foam marker system, a submeter accurate differential GPS receiver with light bar guidance and a centimeter accurate GPS receiver with light bar guidance. Overlap area was highest with the foam marker, was less with the submeter GPS, and lowest for the centimeter GPS guidance treatment.
Arthur F. Lange
Trimble Navigation
645 North Mary Avenue
Sunnyvale, CA 94086
USA
Telephone: 408-481-2994
Fax: 401-481-2097
E-mail: art_lange@trimble.com