# Evaluation of Autonomous Mowers Weed Control Effect in Globe Artichoke Field
## 2 Materials and Methods
### Data Collection  
Autonomous mowers' operational data were assessed with a remote sensing system, together with two software to extract, process and display data [39]. The remote sensing system consisted of two Emlid Reach RTK devices (Emlid Ltd., Hong Kong, China) [40]; the base station was placed near the autonomous mowers charging base (Figure 3a), while the rover was installed on the autonomous mowers (Figure 3b). After the positioning and time data acquired were downloaded from the Emlid Reach RTK devices, the RTKLIB software ([PERSON], Tokyo, Japan) [41] processed the data and created a.pos file. Subsequently, the.pos file of each survey was processed with a custom-built software called \"Robot mower tracking data calculator\" (Qprel(r)srl, Pistoia, Italy). This software can calculate the percentage of area moved that was recorded every 15 min for a total time of 3 h of moving (Figure 4) [26]. For AM1 and AM3 it was necessary to purge the charge times. Thirteen time periods for six replicates of the assessment for each autonomous mower were obtained for this parameter. Figure 3: The Emlid Reach RTK devices: (**a**) the base station and (**b**) the rover installed on the autonomous mower AM2. Figure 4: Screens of the “Robot” move tracking data calculator” software displaying the moved area after 3 h of work by (a) AM1, (b) AM2 and (c) AMS. Weed cover percentage and average weed height were measured monthly for both types of weed management. Measurements were performed on 20 April, 19 May and 25 June 2021. The measurement of the weed cover percentage was obtained by processing digital images with the Canopeo app (Mathworks, Inc., Natick, MA, USA). The Canopeo app, by measuring the green cover percentage of the images, gives as a result the weed cover percentage. A Nikon Coolpix 7600 (Nikon corporation, Tokyo, Japan) was used to shoot the pictures within a square frame of 30 \(\times\) 30 cm. After taking the picture, the average weed height was measured using a grass height meter within the same square frame. For both the weed cover percentage and the average weed height, six measures in the inter-row and six measures on the row were executed during each sampling for each weed management system. The above-ground weed biomass was detected monthly on 19 May and 25 June 2021. The measurement took place by cutting and collecting the live weed biomass present within the square frame of 30 \(\times\) 30 cm. The biomass was then dried at 100 \({}^{\circ}\)C for 3-4 days (until weight was constant) and weighed. For this parameter, three surveys in the inter-rows and three on the crop rows were carried out during each sampling for both the weed management systems. Globe arithoke yield assessment was carried out on nine plants previously selected on studied areas. Yield was gradually assessed from April to May, when the arithoke heads reached the commercial characteristics (diameter of 7 cm). Globe arithoke heads were harvested and weighed, and the number and the fresh weight of heads produced for each individual plant were recorded. From these production data, the number and weight of arithoke heads produced per hectare with the two different weed management systems were calculated. The primary energy consumption of the autonomous mowers and the walk-behind fail mower were estimated. The hourly gasoline consumption of the frail mower was calculated using the following Equation (1):  
\[Ch=W\text{-}d\text{-}Cs \tag{1}\]  
where \(Ch\) corresponds to the hourly consumption of the frail mower (kg of gasoline\(\cdot\)h\({}^{-1}\)), \(W\) is the power of the engine (kW), \(d\) is the effort percentage of the frail mower engine, and \(Cs\) is the energetic efficiency of the frail mower engine (kg gasoline\(\cdot\)kWh\({}^{-1}\)). The parameters \(W\) and \(Cs\), as reported in the Honda engine GX200 manual, correspond to 4.3 kW and 0.35 kg\(\cdot\)kWh\({}^{-1}\), respectively [42], while \(d\) was assigned depending on the weed infestation level.