Article Sidebar

Download
PDF
Statistic
Read Counter : 769 Download : 425

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Main Article Content

Abstract

The sprayed chemicals by drones have been widely reported to be off-targeted and not uniformly distributed. This study aims to evaluate the drone blade’s revolutions per minute (RPM) and its travelling pattern at different payloads and flight speeds. The obtained results were used to relate to the potential effects on the quantity and quality of spraying. In a test flight on an area of 1000 m2, a hexacopter, Advansia A1 was tested in 6 different flying paths of 56 m length. The drone was set to fly at 5 payloads (10, 8, 6, 4, and 2 kg) and 4 flying speeds (i.e. 1, 3, 5, and 7 m.s-1) combinations. The drone travelling pattern and individual rotor blade rpm at each payload-flying speed combinations were analysed. From the result, the RPM of each rotor blade were found to decrease by 14 to 20% as the payload was decreased from 10kg to 0kg. Thus, in actual spraying activities, the changes in RPM could produce a downwash airflow pattern that continually varies from starting point up to the finishing point that would effect on pesticide's distribution along the flying path. On drone travelling pattern, at higher flying speed, a much lesser time and distance was required for the drone to be stabilized to the targeted speed. This relates to the longer time needed by the drone to accelerate and decelerate. The average real speed of the drone was notably reduced to 0.96, 2.72, 3.83 and 4.05  m.s-1, in which, it was, far less than the initial specified speed set at 1, 3, 5, and 7  m.s-1, respectively. The drone flying pattern during spraying needs to be considered for application rate determination to avoid for the crops to be under or over pesticide applications. The obtained finding is remarkably critical and useful in ensuring the efficiency of agricultural chemical spraying activities using drone.

Keywords

Aerial spraying Agricultural drone UAS Flying behavior Spraying management

Article Details

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

How to Cite
Ismail, S. A. ., Yahya, A. ., Mat Su, A. S. ., Asib, N. ., & Mustafah, A. M. . (2021). Drone Payload and Flying Speed Effects on Rotor Blades’ RPM and Traveling Pattern for Agricultural Chemical Spraying . Basrah Journal of Agricultural Sciences, 34, 157–170. https://doi.org/10.37077/25200860.2021.34.sp1.16
Download Citation
Endnote/Zotero/Mendeley (RIS)
BibTeX

References

  1. Berner, B. (2018). Estimation of liquid deposition on plants sprayed from a drone. 4th Workshop on Applied and Sustainable Engineering. Koszalin University of Technology, Poland. https://mendelnet.cz/pdfs/mnt/2018/01/85.pdf
  2. Berner, B., Chojnacki, J. (2017). Use of drones in crop protection. In Proceedings of IX International Scientific Symposium Farm Machinery and Processes Management in Sustainable Agriculture. Lublin. 46 –51. https://doi.org/ 10.24326/fmpmsa.2017.9
  3. Doruchowski G., (2013). Challenges and advances in pesticide application technology. Communications in Agricultural and Applied Biological Sciences, 78, 3-5.
  4. Faiçal, B.S., Pessin, G., Ueyama, J., Freitas, H., Gomes, P.H., Mano, L.Y., Carvalho, A., Krishnamachari, B. (2017). An adaptive approach for UAV-based pesticide spraying in dynamic environments. Computers and Electronics in Agriculture 138, 210–223. https://doi.org/ 10.1016/j.compag.2017.04.011
  5. Giles, D. K., & Billing R. (2014). Unmanned aerial platforms for spraying: Deployment and performance. Aspects of Applied Biology .12. 63-69. https://www.cabdirect.org/cabdirect/abstract/20143073873
  6. He, X. K., Bonds, J., Herbst A., & Langenakens J. (2017). Recent development of unmanned aerial vehicle foor plant protection in East Asia. International Journal of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, 10, 18-30. https://doi.org/ 10.3965/j.ijabe.20171003.3248
  7. Huang, Y, B., Hoffmann, W. C., Lan, Y., Wu, W., & Fritz, B. K., (2009). Development of a spray system for an unmanned aerial vehicle platform. Appl. Eng. Agric. 25, 803– 809. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/188134805.pdf
  8. Huang, Y. B., Thomson, S. J., Hoffmann, W. C., Lan, Y. B., & Fritz, B. K. (2013). Development and prospect of unmanned aerial vehicle technologies for agricultural production management. International Journal of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, 6, 1-10.
  9. Ismail, S. A., Yahya, A., Mat Su, A. S., Asib, N., & Mohd, M. A. (2019). Chemical spraying using Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) in wetland rice cultivation in Malaysia. 2019 ASABE Annual International Meeting. Paper Number: 1902854. https://elibrary.asabe.org/abstract.asp?aid=50682&t=3&redir=&redirType=
  10. Lan, Y. B., Chen, S. D., & Fritz, B. K. (2017). Current status and future trends of precision agricultural aviation technologies. International Journal of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, 10, 1–17.
  11. Meivel, S., Maguteeswaran, R., Gandhiraj, N., & Srinivasan, G., (2016). Quadcopter UAV based fertilizer and pesticide spraying system. International Academic Research Journal of Engineering Sciences, 1, 8-.12.
  12. Morley, C. G., Broadley, J., Hartley, R., Herries, D., McMorran, D., & McLean, I. G., (2017).The potential of using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for precision pest control of possums (Trichosurus vulpecula). Rethinking Ecology, 2, 27–39. https://doi.org/ 10.3897/rethinkingecology.2.14821
  13. Qin, W. C., Qiu, B. J., Xue X. Y., Chen C. Xu Z. F., & Zhou Q. O. (2016). Droplet deposition and control effect of insecticides sprayed with an unmanned aerial vehicle against plant hoppers. Crop Protection, 85, 79-88’. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cropro.2016.03.018
  14. Su, A. S. M., Yahya, A., Mazlan, N., & Hamdani, M. S. A. (2018). Evaluation of the spraying dispersion and uniformity using drone in rice field application. Malaysian Society of Agriculture Engineers (MSAE) Conference of Universiti Putra Malaysia.https://elibrary.msae.my/papers/volume-1/issue-1/evaluation-of-the-spraying-dispersion-and-uniformity-using-drone-in-rice-field-application/
  15. Teske M. E., Wachspress D. A., & Thistle, H. W. (2018). Prediction of aerial spray release from UASs. Transaction of the ASABE, 61, 909-918.
  16. Wang, S. L., Song, J. L., He, X. K., Song, L, Wang, X. N., & Wang, C. L. (2017). Performances evaluation of four typical unmanned aerial vehicles used for pesticide application in China. International Journal of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, 10, 22–31. https://www.ijabe.org/index.php/ijabe/article/viewFile/3219/pdf
  17. Zhang, P., Deng, L., Lyu, Q., He, S. L., Yi, S. L. , Liu, Y., Yu, Y., & Pan, H. (2016). Effect of Citrus tree shape and spraying height of small unmanned aerial vehicle on droplet distribution. International Journal of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, 9, 45-51. https://ijabe.org/index.php/ijabe/article/view/2178
  18. Zhang, S. C., Xue, X. Y., Sun, Z., Zhou, L. X., & Jin, Y. K. (2017). Downwash distribution of single rotor unmanned agricultural helicopter on hovering state. International Journal of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, 10, 14-24. https://ijabe.org/index.php/ijabe/article/view/3079