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.
Develop an unmanned aerial vehicle based automatic aerial spraying system
An unmanned aerial vehicle based automatic control spraying system was designed.A highly integrated micro-computer with an independent functional module was used.Plenty of experiments was performed to show the effectiveness of this system.A minimum coefficient of variation was 25%, when flying at common work environment. To perform plant-protection operations, an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) based automatic control spraying system was designed in China. The system used a highly integrated and ultra-low power MSP430 single-chip micro-computer with an independent functional module. This allowed route planning software to direct the UAV to the desired spray area. The test results of route precision showed that in a 3-4m/s crosswind, route deviations were around 0.2m. The result of multiple-spraying swath uniformity tests showed a minimum coefficient of variation of 25% when flying at a height of 5m with a spraying swath of 7m and a wind speed of 0-2m/s. When the spraying swath was 9m or 5m, the coefficients were 34% and 41%, respectively. Spray uniformity for these UAV tests were superior to the Standard Requirement for ultra-low volume spraying variation coefficient, 60%.
Influence of Diluted Spent Wash of Sugar Industries Application on Yield of and Nutrient Uptake by Sugarcane and Changes in Soil Properties
A pot experiment was conducted to study the effect of irrigation with tube well water (S0) as well as with spent wash diluted for 25 (S25), 50 (S5O) and 100 (S100) times on yield of and nutrient uptake by sugarcane grown on Typic Chromustert. The results revealed that application of spent wash diluted at any level increased the sugarcane yield and nutrient uptake significantly over S0. Less diluted spent wash gave higher yield of biomass than the concentrated one. Though, there was tendency for slight increase in the soil salinity due to use of spent wash, yet the nutrient availability of P, K and S increased considerably. Further, there was indication of betterment in some physical conditions of soil.