A novel variable rate fertilization system based on the Android platform

A variable rate fertilization system based on the Android platform is presented in this paper. It consists of a vehicle-mounted monitoring terminal and a variable rate actuator. The vehicle-mounted monitoring terminal is the key component for variable rate fertilization decision-making. It is responsible for collecting real time positioning information and outputting instructions to the variable rate actuator. With direct manipulation of a user interface, the vehicle-mounted monitoring terminal provides a good visual control platform for the variable rate fertilization process. As an outstanding mobile operating system, Android provides the perfect interface for Global Position System which can be easily used for the spatial positioning in variable rate fertilization. We apply the mobile geographic information system to obtain a map display and the spatial position searching. The variable rate actuator is implemented with a servo control system which can precisely adjust the application rate of fertilizer. A fertilization relational model is used as the control strategy for variable rate fertilization. The position control of the servo system shows a fast response speed with less overshoot for adjustment of the fertilizing amount.