Active Force Control Applied to Spray Boom Structure

Abstract

Distribution pattern of spray boom in fields is affected by several parameters which one of the important reasons is horizontal and vertical vibrations because of unevenness surfaces. Spray boom movements lead to decrease of spread efficiency and crop yield. Generally, active suspension is employed to control and attenuate the vibration of sprayer booms because these suspensions reduce the high frequency vibration of spray booms thanks to irregularities soil. In this research, a proportional-integral-derivative controller with active force control is used to remove undesired rolling of spray boom. Simulation results depict that the proposed scheme is more effective and accurate than PID control only scheme. The AFC based scheme shows the robustness and accuracy compared to the PID controller.