An improved version of Lemken’s vision-based guidance system for its Steketee range of inter-row hoes is said to be more effective at detecting very young vegetable plants, providing greater precision at early crop growth stages.

The IC-Light control system developed in-house by Lemken engineers captures the RGB colour range and the current version is said to reliably distinguish between hues of green and red.

A self-learning capability improves performance the more the system is used.

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However, the new IC-Light+ version also captures hues of blue, enabling it to detect very young plants or plants with an especially fine structure.

It is particularly useful for hoeing accuracy in crops of onions, leeks, broccoli and red cabbage, which have a high proportion of blue in the leaves.

The camera images five rows of plants at a time and Lemken says the “plus” version can detect rows of onions as small as a pin, enabling the control system to adjust the hoe position to work within 2cm of crop plants at up to 15kph.

Lemken Steketee EC Weeder hoe with IC Light guidance © Lemken

The Steketee range of inter-row hoes comprises a large number of overall and inter-row working widths and soil-working tools to suit different crops, and the EC-Steer parallel mounting frame with mechanical or vision-based steering.