Patent ID: 9420776
Filing Date: 2016-08-23
CPC Classification: A01M

Claim Text:
1. An apparatus for selectively treating plants comprising: a frame arranged to provide a plurality of horizontally spaced apart, non-overlapping treatment regions sized and configured to receive a plant to be treated, the frame separating the plurality of horizontally spaced apart, non-overlapping treatment regions; a plurality of sensors supported by the frame, each treatment region including at least one sensor which is arranged to monitor the respective treatment region for a targeted plant to be treated, each of the plurality of sensors producing an output indicative of the presence or absence of an object in the respective treatment region; a fluid delivery system including a plurality of application devices, each treatment region including at least one application device; and an electronic controller operatively coupled to the plurality of sensors and operatively coupled to the fluid delivery system, the electronic controller configured to receive the respective outputs of the plurality of sensors at a sampling rate over a time interval to create a plurality of historical sensor readings, the electronic controller configured to determine a longitudinal width of the object in the respective treatment region from the plurality of historical sensor readings and classify the object within the respective treatment region as the targeted plant or a non-targeted plant based on the longitudinal width of the object, such that for each treatment region the electronic controller controls the fluid delivery system to deliver an application fluid through the respective application device when the targeted plant is detected in the respective treatment region.