NDSU Research Aimed at Changing Weed Management

Weed management is a top priority for farmers, and finding ways to eliminate weeds without using herbicides, while also potentially saving money, is a significant challenge. Researchers at NDSU involved with the NDSU Food, Energy and Water Security initiative are developing a system that can perform both tasks.

Two faculty involved in FEWS research, Sulaymon Eshkabilov, NDSU assistant professor of agricultural machinery engineering, and Paulo Flores, NDSU assistant professor of agriculture and biosystems, have collaborated on a site-specific weed control system.

The project is called “Developing a smart soil cultivator for in-season weed control” to support site-specific weed control, and its goal is to utilize a drone imagery-based weed control prescription to automatically and individually actuate shanks on a soil cultivator so it will make soil contact only in areas of the fields where weeds are present.

“Our proposed mechanical SSWC system can offer farmers a reliable and efficient solution for weed management, particularly when targeting herbicide-resistant weeds that skipped herbicide applications, but also can be a good fit for organic farmers,” Eshkabilov said. “The system offers energy (fuel) saving, limited soil disturbance (less soil moisture loss), and reduces wear of operational parts of the tillage equipment and tractor.”

At its current configuration, the mechanical SSWC system comprises a main frame, rows of shanks equipped with sweeping blades and an electronic control unit that instructs the blades when to move. Each shank can rotate on its mounting point, and the blades are lifted or lowered by small motorized actuators. The system utilizes a prescription “weed map” loaded into the robot’s computer to identify the location of weeds. By default, the c sweeps stay in the up position, without touching the soil. The only time the sweeping blades would make contact with the soil is when they pass over an area with weeds, as indicated by the Rx map. The actuation movement of the shanks resembles fingers pressing keys on a piano.

“Sulaymon and Paulo are demonstrating how cutting-edge robotics, advanced imaging and artificial intelligence can tackle the everyday challenges producers face,” said. Frank Casey, associate director of the North Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station and leader of NDSU’s Food, Energy, and Water Security initiative, which funded the project. “Their novel solution helps manage herbicide-resistant weeds and gives organic farmers a much-needed non-chemical option. This is the kind of practical innovation that keeps North Dakota producers competitive while reducing inputs and environmental impacts, and it is exactly the type of collaboration between agronomy and engineering that FEWS is meant to accelerate for agricultural technologies that truly benefit our producers.”

Eshkabilov’s research background includes work with robotics and automation, wireless sensing systems and data-driven agriculture with AI applications used for decision support systems, crop growth monitoring and control systems.

“This site-specific mechanical weeding system is well aligned with my robotics and automation-related research domain,” Eshkabilov said.