Patent ID: 7142966

Claim:
A method of applying substances to an individual section of an area of land according to the specific requirement of the individual section comprising the steps of: (a) reading data indicative of the specific substance requirement for individual sections of the area of land from an electronic map and inputting said data into a data processor; (b) traversing the area with a vehicle having an engine that drives a transmission, the transmission including means for varying the speed of the vehicle without adjustment of the engine speed, sensors for establishing the speed of the vehicle, the position of the vehicle, and the drive ratio of the transmission, the vehicle having attached thereto at least one appliance comprising an application mechanism for application of the substance to the area, which mechanism is driven by the vehicle; (c) inputting the application rate of the or each appliance into the data processor; (d) inputting a desired constant engine speed into the data processor; (e) traversing the area with the vehicle with the engine speed set at the desired engine speed; (f) establishing the position of the vehicle; (g) generating a signal to indicate a requirement for adjustment to the transmission to increase or decrease the speed of the vehicle to match the individual section requirement to the application rate of the appliance at the desired constant engine speed; and (h) adjusting the transmission according to the signal generated by the data processor.