Agricultural sprayer performance control system

Abstract

An agricultural sprayer includes a spray boom supported by a frame, a spraying system comprising a set of spray nozzles spaced along the spray boom, and a control system configured to control the spraying system to spray a liquid based on a target application to an agricultural field, generate a spray performance metric indicative of performance of the spraying system relative to the target application, and generate a control signal to control the agricultural sprayer based on the spray performance metric.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . An agricultural sprayer comprising:
 a spraying system comprising one or more spray nozzles; and   a control system configured to:
 control the spraying system to spray a liquid to an agricultural field based on a target application; 
 receive an indication of a machine disturbance in a path of the agricultural sprayer on the agricultural field, the machine disturbance representing a predicted movement of at least one spray nozzle, of the one or more spray nozzles, relative to a surface of the agricultural field; 
 generate a spray performance metric based on the predicted movement of the at least one spray nozzle, the spray performance metric being indicative of performance of the spraying system relative to the target application; and 
 generate a control signal to control the agricultural sprayer based on the spray performance metric. 
   
     
     
         2 . The agricultural sprayer of  claim 1 , wherein the predicted movement relative to the surface comprises a predicted movement of the at least one spray nozzle that is perpendicular to a travel direction of the agricultural sprayer. 
     
     
         3 . The agricultural sprayer of  claim 2 , wherein the predicted movement relative to the surface comprises a predicted movement that changes a distance between the at least one spray nozzle and the surface of the agricultural field. 
     
     
         4 . The agricultural sprayer of  claim 1 , wherein the target application comprises at least one of a target dispersal area on the surface of the agricultural field or a target volume of the liquid on the surface of the agricultural field. 
     
     
         5 . The agricultural sprayer of  claim 1 , wherein the control system is configured to:
 determine a target travel speed for the agricultural sprayer on the agricultural field based on a comparison of the spray performance metric to a spray performance metric threshold; and   generate the control signal to control the agricultural sprayer based on the target travel speed.   
     
     
         6 . The agricultural sprayer of  claim 5 , wherein the control system is configured to:
 generate a user interface with a target performance user input mechanism; and   generate the spray performance metric threshold based on user actuation of the target performance user input mechanism.   
     
     
         7 . The agricultural sprayer of  claim 5 , wherein the control signal automatically is configured to control a travel speed of the agricultural sprayer based on the target travel speed. 
     
     
         8 . The agricultural sprayer of  claim 5 , wherein the control signal is configured to control a display device to render an indication of the target travel speed. 
     
     
         9 . The agricultural sprayer of  claim 5 , wherein the agricultural sprayer comprises:
 a towed implement that carries the spraying system, and   a support machine configured to tow the towed implement.   
     
     
         10 . The agricultural sprayer of  claim 1 , wherein the one or more spray nozzles are carried on a spray boom, and the machine disturbance comprises spray boom vibration. 
     
     
         11 . The agricultural sprayer of  claim 1 , wherein the control signal is configured to control a display device to render an indication of the spray performance metric. 
     
     
         12 . The agricultural sprayer of  claim 1 , wherein the indication of the machine disturbance is based on a terrain map that identifies a topology of the agricultural field. 
     
     
         13 . The agricultural sprayer of  claim 1 , wherein the indication of the machine disturbance is based on an image of the agricultural field obtained from an imaging sensor. 
     
     
         14 . The agricultural sprayer of  claim 1 , wherein the indication of the machine disturbance is based on historical field data representing a prior machine disturbance detected at a particular area of the agricultural field. 
     
     
         15 . A method performed by an agricultural sprayer, the method comprising:
 controlling a spraying system comprising one or more spray nozzle to spray a liquid to an agricultural field based on a target application;   receiving an indication of a machine disturbance in a path of the agricultural sprayer on the agricultural field, the machine disturbance representing a predicted movement of at least one spray nozzle, of the one or more spray nozzles, relative to a surface of the agricultural field;   generating a spray performance metric based on the predicted movement of the at least one spray nozzle, the spray performance metric being indicative of performance of the spraying system relative to the target application; and   generating a control signal to control the agricultural sprayer based on the spray performance metric.   
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein
 the predicted movement relative to the surface comprises a predicted movement of the at least one spray nozzle that changes a distance between the at least one spray nozzle and the surface of the agricultural field, and   the target application comprises at least one of a target dispersal area on the surface of the agricultural field or a target volume of the liquid on the surface of the agricultural field.   
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 15 , and further comprising:
 determining a target travel speed for the agricultural sprayer on the agricultural field based on a comparison of the spray performance metric to a spray performance metric threshold; and   generating the control signal to control the agricultural sprayer based on the target travel speed.   
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein the agricultural sprayer comprises:
 a towed implement that carries the spraying system, and   a support machine configured to tow the towed implement.   
     
     
         19 . An agricultural sprayer comprising:
 a spray boom supported by a frame;   a spraying system comprising a set of spray nozzles spaced along the spray boom;   a boom movement sensor configured to generate a sensor signal indicative of movement of the spray boom in a direction that is perpendicular to a travel direction of the agricultural sprayer; and   a control system configured to:
 control the spraying system to spray a liquid based on a target application to an agricultural field; 
 generate a spray performance metric based on the sensor signal indicative of movement of the spray boom, wherein the spray performance metric is indicative of performance of the spraying system relative to the target application; 
 determine a target travel speed for the agricultural sprayer on the agricultural field based on a comparison of the spray performance metric to a spray performance metric threshold; and 
 generate a control signal to control the agricultural sprayer based on the target travel speed. 
   
     
     
         20 . The agricultural sprayer of  claim 19 , wherein the target application comprises at least one of a target dispersal area on the agricultural field or a target volume of the liquid on the agricultural field.