Study on Spray Deposition and Drift Characteristics of UAV Agricultural Sprayer for Application of Insecticide in Redgram Crop (Cajanus cajan L. Millsp.)

Abstract

Insecticide applications are typically being carried out with traditional manual spraying equipment in redgram, which leads to inadequate control of insects due to higher crop height. The modern deployment of tractor-drawn spray machines causes serious damage to the crop. In this connection, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) spray technology has great potential for precise insecticide application in redgram crops. One of the important machine parameters influencing droplet deposition and drift characteristics in UAV sprayers is downwash airflow generated by a multi-rotor propeller. A field experiment was carried out at the redgram research field (N11.01, E76.92), Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, during 2021–2022 to study the spray drift and deposition characteristics of an autonomous UAV sprayer. The Imidacloprid (a.i. 17.8SL) insecticide mixed with water in a ratio of 1 mL per liter was sprayed with a UAV sprayer. Water-sensitive paper samples were kept at upper, middle, and bottom positions on the leaves, and data were analyzed for the spray droplet size, deposition rate, droplet density, and area coverage both in target and non-target areas using Spray Deposit Scanner software. UAV spray droplet deposition rate (2.93 ± 0.17, 2.01 ± 0.08, and 2.21 ± 0.162.38 μL cm−2), droplet density (47 ± 4.04, 53 ± 3.61, and 52 ± 8.74 droplets cm−2), and area coverage (15.72 ± 0.39, 16.60 ± 0.71, and 14.99 ± 0.39%) were highest in the upper layer as compared to the middle layer (droplet deposition rate: 1.21 ± 0.08, 1.07 ± 0.03, and 0.77 ± 0.02 μL cm−2; droplet density: 42 ± 2.52, 43 ± 8.50, and 38 ± 2.52 droplets cm−2; area coverage: 10.95 ± 0.81, 11.22 ± 0.56, and 8.57 ± 0.44%) and bottom layer (droplet deposition rate: 0.41 ± 0.06, 0.35 ± 0.03, and 0.33 ± 0.03 μL cm−2; droplet density: 22 ± 4.36, 17 ± 3.51, and 19 ± 4.51 droplets cm−2; area coverage: 2.78 ± 0.29, 2.95 ± 0.45, and 2.46 ± 0.20%, respectively). In the spray drift test, there was a higher droplet deposition rate (1.63 ± 0.09, 1.93 ± 0.05, and 1.82 ± 0.06 μL cm−2), area coverage (14.40 ± 0.07, 17.54 ± 0.36, and 16.42 ± 0.30%), and droplet density (46 ± 3.61, 54 ± 2.08, and 45 ± 3.21 No’s cm−2) in the target area as compared to the non-target area (droplet deposition rate: 0.88 ± 0.02, 0.46 ± 0.03, 0.22 ± 0.05, and 0.00 μL cm−2; droplet density: 23 ± 1.53, 11 ± 2.08, 6 ± 1.53, and 0.00 droplets cm−2; area coverage: 7.58 ± 0.34, 4.41 ± 0.19, 2.16 ± 0.05, and 0.00%, respectively), which may have been due to the downwash airflow produced by the multi-rotor propeller of the UAV sprayer. Finally, the UAV-based spraying technology results showed that the downwash air produced by the six-rotor propeller improved the penetrability of insecticide to crop leaves and led to a higher droplet deposition rate, droplet density, area coverage, and droplet penetrability on the upper layer, middle layer, and bottom layer of the plants.