Committed to constant evolution, Stara is acknowledged by its Precision Agriculture pioneering and innovation in agricultural technology.

With a history of more than six decades of operation and leadership in the agricultural machine market share in Latin America, the company innovates by presenting a solution that promises to take the operations in the field to a higher level, increasing precision, efficiency and economy when applying agricultural chemicals: Imperador Eco Spray self-propelled sprayer.

Through a Stara partnership between ONE Smart Spray - a joint venture between Bosch and BASF, the Eco Spray technology was integrated to Imperador 3000 and 4000, comprising the remarkable features already existing in the traditional version of the machine - the spot spraying. This technology applies the herbicide selectively, only where there are weeds.

According to the Research and Development Director, Cristiano Paim Buss, Imperador 3000 and 4000 Eco Spray is more competitive in agribusiness, providing the usage reduction of agrochemicals and minimizing their impacts. “As the name itself suggests, Eco Spray is an ecologically sustainable solution, which provides economy for the farmer. The sprayer is one of the machines that most operate in the farm. So, if you can reduce costs related to it, the global impact for the farmer is quite significant.”

How does the Stara Eco Spray work?

The application precision of the Eco Spray sprayer is possible thanks to the cameras of high resolution and LED lights fastened to the front boom wing of the agricultural machine. The technology allows the area reading, detecting, and processing the images in real time.

When identifying weeds, the Artificial Intelligence system sends the command to open the spray nozzles individually, activating the jet only on the targeted plant and turning it off afterwards.

“Each camera takes 15 pictures per second. Thus, on a spray boom having 37 cameras, 555 pictures are registered per second. The pictures are processed and the machine decides, in milliseconds, whether applying on that spot or not,” explains Buss. 

How was the agricultural technology developed?

The director remembers that the spot spraying concept has existed since the early 2000s, but with different detection systems that enabled only the green and biomass identification. “We understood that the great feature was using cameras to detect the range patterns. This was born in 2017, but the partnership between the companies was established in 2019.”

Therefore, combining the best of each company, the Imperador 3000 and 4000 Eco Spray agricultural sprayer was developed. “Stara provides the machine application technology and the Topper electronic technology, which controls the operations. On the other hand, ONE Smart Spray provides the cameras, lights, and control units to detect weeds in real time, during the day and night, in addition to the digital agronomic intelligence required, as a smart spraying module in Xarvio® Field Manager,” states Buss.

He highlights that to implement the technology, Stara had to structure all over the Imperador self-propelled sprayer in order to ensure the whole functionality and efficiency, resulting in longer durability and safety for the farmer. “The machine was engineered and thought for spot spraying. In other words, everything was integrated. Additionally, we had to develop a new Topper controller to process so many pieces of information in real time. Thus, there’s only one controller in the machine cab and the operator can see instantaneously where the agricultural machine is applying, creating an application map and the amount of product saved. This is a new technology.”

Operation of the Eco Spray self-propelled sprayer

It’s equipped with LED lights in two waves, one in the visible red spectrum and another non-visible infra-red one. Imperador 3000 and 4000 Eco Spray self-propelled machine can spray during the day or night, allowing that the machine operates 24 hours a day, without losing efficiency. Therefore, it provides an exceptional performance on both application modules: pre-emergent (green over brown) and post-emergent (green over green).

It’s intended to dissection in areas before the planting process, the operation mode “green over brown” consists to the direct application of the herbicide in the whole plant and on any plant in the crop field. That is, regardless of the plant type entered in the system, the Eco Spray sprayer applies to it. It creates plenty of chemical savings, having in mind that the agricultural machine can only apply where there are weeds and not on the straw or soil.

The operation mode “green over green” is capable of identifying the weeds among the emerged crop plants, separating them and applying the product only on the desired target. Thus, the spray nozzles turn on only when there are weeds in planting row units. This application modules can be used for soybeans, corn, and cotton. “The Eco Spray technology memory has a database, which currently has three operation crops: soybeans, corn, and cotton. The system can recognize the pattern, identifying where the row units of these crop plants are, and what it’s not inside this pattern, it identifies it as a weed and applies the agricultural chemical through the picture detection”, says Buss.

Other remarkable features of the technology

In addition to the features already mentioned, Eco Spray features different levels of sensitivity, that can be activated according to the farmer strategy, considering the volume and height of the weeds in the application area.

Also, the agricultural technology eases the operation logistics in the field, prolonging the spraying time, favours the water economy and provides better control of the weeds. “In Brazil, the spacing between the planting row units is narrow. For this reason, they not always are in the same direction as the row unit. They need to enter in a different angle of the crop plant, varying 5° to 30° in relation to the row unit to reduce crop damage. In such situations, even if the machine passes over the crop plant, the system can identify where the crop plant and where the weeds are”, explains Buss.

All these remarkable features are confirmed by the farmer Ulisses Vitor Tonsis of the town of Alto Taquari, in the state of Mato Grosso. He has been using Imperador Eco Spray in his farm since October 2024. “The main advantage of Imperador is applying herbicide only where it is necessary. Thanks to the technology, we note good product savings, average of 54.2 %. I do recommend Eco Spray, as it is quite functional and generates savings,” highlights the farmer, who tested the solution functionality in soybeans and corn crops.

Through technologies such as Eco Spray that Stara takes its DNA in evidence, always focused in the farmer needs and to provide positive results in the field. After all, more than manufacturing excellent agricultural machines, the company believes in agribusiness and in the production and sustainable potential of Precision Agriculture.