Method and an apparatus for severing or damaging unwanted plants
AssigneeTorsana Laser Technologies A/S
InventorsSvend Christensen, Joergen Schou, Torben Heisel
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Abstract
The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus capable of severing or damaging unwanted plants without using herbicides. The present invention relates in particular to an apparatus and a method for differentiating between different types of plants to allow identification of, and thus selective elimination or treatment of, individual plants. According to the present invention, the positioning of and the output power of at least one light generating means is controlled on the basis of information from an image recognition system which is capable of differentiating beween different plants.
Claims18
An apparatus for severing or damaging plants, the apparatus comprising:
- means for generating image data representing at least part of a plant,
- means for analyzing the image data and for determining whether the plant is one of a number of predetermined plants or types of plants, and, from that determination, whether the plant is to be severed or damaged,
- severing or damaging means adapted to generate and direct a beam of electromagnetic radiation toward the plant in a manner so that at least part of the plant is severed or damaged by the effect of the electromagnetic radiation,
- wherein the analyzing means are adapted to estimate from the image data of the plant a position of a stem of the plant to be severed or damaged, and wherein the severing or damaging means are adapted to direct the beam of electromagnetic radiation toward the estimated position of the stem.
A method of severing or damaging plants, the method comprising:
- providing means for generating image data representing at least part of a plant,
- providing means for analyzing the image data and determining whether the plant is one of a number of predetermined plants or types of plants, and, from that determination, whether the plant is to be severed or damaged,
- providing means for generating and directing a beam of electromagnetic radiation toward the plant in a manner so that at least a part of the plant is severed or damaged by the effect of the electromagnetic radiation,
- wherein the provided analyzing means estimate from the image data of the plant, a position of a stem of the plant to be severed or damaged, and wherein the severing or damaging means direct the beam of electromagnetic radiation toward the estimated position of the stem.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.