Abstract
An UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) can target much smaller areas with lower flight altitudes than conventional, piloted airplanes. In agriculture, UAVs have been mainly developed and used for chemical application and remote sensing. Application of fertilizers and chemicals is frequently needed at specific time and location for highly accurate site-specific management. UAVs provide a technology to fulfill the goals of such site-specific crop management as part of modern precision applications to agricultural crops. This research focused on development of a new low-volume sprayer for an UAV helicopter to be used for vector control, which is potentially extended to crop production management. The developed UAV-based low-volume sprayer was able to deliver liquid covering the 30-m swath width, 42-m downwind. Deposition results from monofilament lines demonstrated that the spray coverage was sensitive to the power voltage but not release height, while the deposition measurement from rotary impactors may need to be refined to achieve higher resolution and lower variance. The developed UAV application technology is useful for precision delivery of chemicals to the right place at right time.
Highlights
An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is an unpiloted unmanned aircraft that can be remotely controlled or flown autonomously based on pre-programmed flight plans or more complex dynamic automated guidance systems
This research focused on development of a new low-volume sprayer for an UAV helicopter to be used for vector control, which is potentially extended to crop production management
Deposition results from monofilament lines demonstrated that the spray coverage was sensitive to the power voltage but not release height, while the deposition measurement from rotary impactors may need to be refined to achieve higher resolution and lower variance
Summary
An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is an unpiloted unmanned aircraft that can be remotely controlled or flown autonomously based on pre-programmed flight plans or more complex dynamic automated guidance systems. Miller (2005) reported an experiment to determine the effectiveness of using an UAV for dispersing pesticides to reduce human disease due to insects. In the experiment a commercial off-the-shelf Yamaha UAV, the RMAX type, was outfitted with both liquid and granular pesticide dispersal devices, and a series of tests were performed to evaluate the effectiveness of the UAV to perform aerial pesticide delivery. The Huang et al (2009) spray system was developed and integrated with the flight control system of the helicopter, which has a maximum payload of 22.7 kg. The research from this paper further developed and evaluated the system for low volume spray in a small scale field, which will promote the application of the system for pesticide application for vector control from human diseases and crop production management in precision agriculture
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