Last Updated: August 11, 2020
Agriculture and Farming
Laser Sensors for the Agriculture and Farming Industry
Worldwide farming is constantly progressing towards increased agricultural automation. Field operations and processing benefit from the integration of sensors in agriculture and farming to measure all aspects of the farming process. For example, machines used to pick crops from fields can be guided using laser rangefinders to detect the height of the crops relative to the ground. Here, the picking apparatus is constantly adjusting its height based on instantaneous crop height to maximize yield and minimize waste.
This application list is not intended to be exhaustive. The measuring tasks are by no means limited to these examples, and may serve as a suggestion for similar or completely different applications.
Livestock Measurement
Using the AR1000 laser distance sensor, the feed manager can collect metrics for each cow by measuring “hip height”, a major indicator for the size of a cow.
Silo Fill Level
Laser rangefinders can be mounted at the top of silos and aimed down at the surface to measure the fill level of the material in the silo. Due to the long operating range of the sensors, Acuity’s laser rangefinders are suitable for nearly any silo size.
Stockpile Height Measurement for Inventory Management and Overfill Prevention
Managers of bulk solids carefully monitor their stockpile height measurements for both overfill prevention and inventory management. These directors of heaped goods — such as grain, gravel, ore — are often looking for stockpile measurement with high-accuracy, non-contact methods.
