Development and evaluation of drone mounted sprayer for pesticide applications to crops
Application of crop protection materials is one of the crucial operations in agriculture to meet ever demanding food production. The drone mounted sprayer mainly consists of BLDC motors, LiPo (Lithium polymer) batteries, peticide tank, pump, and supporting frame. Six BLDC motors were mounted to hexa-copter frame to lift of 5 kg payload capacity. Two LiPo batteries of 6 cells — 8000mAh were used to supply the necessary current required for the propulsion system. A 5 liter capacity conical-square shaped fluid tank was used to hold the pesticide solution. A 12 V DC motor coupled with pump was used to pressurize spray liquid and then to atomize in to fine spray droplets by means of four nozzles. A suitable aluminium supporting frame was used to mount the spray liquid tank, sprayer motor, spray and supporting legs (landing gears) for safe take-off and landing. The entire drone mounted sprayer operation controlling with the help of transmitter at ground level, HD FPV camera also provide at front down side of drone sprayer unit to monitoring the live spaying operation. 1.08 ha h−1, respectively at a forward speed of 3.6 km h−1 and 1m height of spray. The cost of operation for groundnut and paddy crops using drone mounted sprayer has been worked out 345 and Rs. 367 Rs ha−1 respectively. The spray uniformity was increased with increase in height of spray and operating pressure. A VMD and NMD of spray droplet size were measured and it was found to be 345 and 270 μm, respectively in lab condition. This sprayer is very useful where human interventions are not possible for spraying of chemicals on crops including rice fields and orchard crops as well as crops under terrain lands. This technology greatly helpful for small farming community in reducing cost of pesticide application and environmental pollution but also biological efficacy of application technology.
Drift and deposition of ultra-low altitude and low volume application in paddy field
Abstract: Field trials were performed to evaluate various techniques for measuring spray deposition and aerial drift during spray application to paddy field. The application of a spraying agent containing the fluorescent dye Rhodamine-B was applied by an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) which flew at a height of 5 m, a speed of 3 m/s, and the wind speed of 3 m/s. The results showed that because the downdraft produced by a helicopter rotor increased the penetrability of crops, there is a higher deposition on the upper layer and the under layer than the traditional spraying. The average deposition on the upper layer accounts for 28% of the total spraying ,the deposition on the under layer accounts for 26% of the total spraying. The deposition on the under layer takes up 92.8% of the deposition on the upper layer. Droplets drift data showed that the drift of non-target area took up 12.9% of the total liquid spray. The 90% drifting droplets were located within a range of 8 m of the target area; the drift quantity was almost zero at a distance of 50 m away from the treated area. 
Keywords: paddy field, ultra-low altitude, low volume, UAV, droplet drift, deposition 
DOI: 10.3965/j.ijabe.20140704.003 
 
Citation: Xue X Y, Tu Kang, Qin W C, Lan Y B, Zhang H H. Drift and deposition of ultra-low altitude and low volume application in paddy field. Int J Agric & Biol Eng, 2014; 7(4): 23－28.
Autonomous navigation for unmanned aerial vehicles based on chaotic bionics theory
In this paper a new reactive mechanism based on perception-action bionics for multi-sensory integration applied to Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) navigation is proposed. The strategy is inspired by the olfactory bulb neural activity observed in rabbits subject to external stimuli. The new UAV navigation technique exploits the use of a multiscroll chaotic system which is able to be controlled in real-time towards less complex orbits, like periodic orbits or equilibrium points, considered as perceptive orbits. These are subject to real-time modifications on the basis of environment changes acquired through a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) sensory system. The mathematical details of the approach are given including simulation results in a virtual environment. The results demonstrate the capability of autonomous navigation for UAV based on chaotic bionics theory in complex spatial environments.