Develop an unmanned aerial vehicle based automatic aerial spraying system

Abstract

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%.