Spray drift evaluation of the Ecorobotix ARA spot sprayer: A technical performance comparison between the Ecorobotix ARA and the shielded bed sprayer

The Ecorobotix ARA spot sprayer detects weeds and crops and sprays only the desired target using nozzles with a small top angle. The design of the Ecorobotix ARA is similar to the shielded bed sprayer, which is listed as a 95% drift reducing technology on the Dutch DRT-list. A condition of the shielded bed sprayer is to use spray nozzles with a medium (M) or coarser spray quality. Drop size measurements using the ISO 25358 reference threshold nozzles show that the (often) used Euspray IC1012 spot spray nozzle has the required droplet size M up to 2.5 bar spray pressure and the Euspray IC1X502 nozzle until 2.0 bar spray pressure. A technical performance comparison has been made between the Ecorobotix ARA and the remaining conditions of the shielded bed sprayer in a full-field spraying scenario. The conditions which are not similar between the machines individually all have a positive effect on the reduction of spray drift. The expectation is therefore that the amount of spray drift reduction of the Ecorobotix ARA sprayer is equal to or higher than the shielded bed sprayer.