Smart Nozzle Demo

Smart Nozzle is a GPS robotics control system for agricultural sprayers. It controls the amount of chemicals used and insures that sensitive areas are not sprayed. The system has proven to reduce chemical usage by an average of 15%. It also provides GPS guidance, steering control, and satellite imagery for more effective operation.

Harrison Ag has recently ported the software to the Android operating system and has published this beta version Demo application for evaluation and comment by our users and distributors. It is almost a full featured version of the production software but has limited configuration ability and the USB communications are disabled. To make evaluations possible without the need to actually operate a sprayer, a vehicle simulator is incorporated into the Demo software. Once the navigation map is displayed (by pressing "Show Map" from the start up screen) the speed of the vehicle simulator can be adjusted by simply swiping the right edge of the touch display. Similarly the simulator heading is steered by swiping the top edge of the display.

This software, and the production software, was NOT developed for use on generic Android hardware devices. Currently the only devices that it is proven to operate with are the Motorola Xoom , Xoom2, and XYBOARD. The application requires an OpenGL GPU and a large display format. As requests are made for other devices Harrison Ag will test the device/software to verify functionality.

This beta version is also missing the online user documentation. Hopefully the menus and UI are intuitive enough for an operator familiar with the Smart Nozzle system to effectively navigate to the appropriate preferences and controls. The only controls that do not use menus are the guidance control markers and the automatic steering. The "A" and "B" points can be set by a long touch on the navigation map. A dialog will be displayed that will allow the control points to be set. In the same dialog the user has the option to toggle the display mode for vehicle following or manual panning. Once both the "A" and "B" points are set, Smart Nozzle will display the master control line in red and the local control line in yellow. A "Light Bar" icon will be displayed at the bottom of the touch screen to help with manual steering. After the control points are established the user can activate automatic steering by simply double tap the navigation map.