Method and experiment for height measurement of scraper with water surface as benchmark in paddy field

Leveling technology of paddy fields is an important part of the mechanization of rice production, which ensures the consistent depth of water layers to restrain the growth of weeds and improve the utilization of pesticides and fertilizers. However, when the working distance increases in paddy fields (due to laser energy attenuation and laser spot diffusion), the reliability and efficiency of existing laser-leveling technology decreases. To address those problems, a new leveling technology that uses water surface as a benchmark is introduced. The proposed method of water surface as a benchmark to measure the height of the scraper and a benchmark-Recognition algorithm embedded in the proposed method was developed. Experiments were conducted to validate the effectiveness and accuracy of the proposed method by comparing the results with those of existing methods (height measurement for scraper with laser plane as benchmark). The results obtained by the proposed method have similar trends in variation and higher resolution.