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Effect of Downwash Airflow Distribution of Multi-Rotor Unmanned Aerial Vehicle on Spray Droplet Deposition Characteristics in Rice Crop


Affiliations
1 Department of Farm Machinery and Power Engineering, Agricultural Engineering College and Research Institute, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore 641 003, India
2 Directorate of Crop Management, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore 641 003, India
3 Department of Physical Science and Information Technology, Agricultural Engineering College and Research Institute, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore 641 003, India
 

The UAV downwash airflow pattern generated by rotor propellers is one of the significant factors influencing the characteristics of spray droplet deposition distribution. UAV sprayer and battery operated sprayer were used to study the effect of downwash airflow distribution of UAV on spray droplet deposition characteristics in a paddy field. The UAV sprayer was operated with optimized operational parameters and spray droplet characteristics, viz. spray deposition rate (µl cm–2), spray droplet size (µm), spray deposition density (No’s cm–2) and spray deposition uniformity (%) were analysed using Deposit Scan software. The UAV sprayer showed better results in spray droplet deposition rate, spray coverage per unit area and spray droplet deposition densities than the conventional battery-operated manual sprayer. Additionally, it was found that the UAV sprayer increased the chemical’s penetration into crop leaves, leading to higher chemical deposition on both the upper and lower layers of rice leaves.

Keywords

Chemical Spray Deposition, Deposition Uniformity, Downwash Air, Droplet Size, Manual Spray, Water Sensitive Paper.
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  • Effect of Downwash Airflow Distribution of Multi-Rotor Unmanned Aerial Vehicle on Spray Droplet Deposition Characteristics in Rice Crop

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Authors

D. Yallappa
Department of Farm Machinery and Power Engineering, Agricultural Engineering College and Research Institute, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore 641 003, India
R. Kavitha
Department of Farm Machinery and Power Engineering, Agricultural Engineering College and Research Institute, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore 641 003, India
A. Surendrakumar
Department of Farm Machinery and Power Engineering, Agricultural Engineering College and Research Institute, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore 641 003, India
B. Suthakar
Department of Farm Machinery and Power Engineering, Agricultural Engineering College and Research Institute, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore 641 003, India
A. P. Mohan Kumar
Department of Farm Machinery and Power Engineering, Agricultural Engineering College and Research Institute, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore 641 003, India
M. K. Kalarani
Directorate of Crop Management, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore 641 003, India
Balaji Kannan
Department of Physical Science and Information Technology, Agricultural Engineering College and Research Institute, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore 641 003, India

Abstract


The UAV downwash airflow pattern generated by rotor propellers is one of the significant factors influencing the characteristics of spray droplet deposition distribution. UAV sprayer and battery operated sprayer were used to study the effect of downwash airflow distribution of UAV on spray droplet deposition characteristics in a paddy field. The UAV sprayer was operated with optimized operational parameters and spray droplet characteristics, viz. spray deposition rate (µl cm–2), spray droplet size (µm), spray deposition density (No’s cm–2) and spray deposition uniformity (%) were analysed using Deposit Scan software. The UAV sprayer showed better results in spray droplet deposition rate, spray coverage per unit area and spray droplet deposition densities than the conventional battery-operated manual sprayer. Additionally, it was found that the UAV sprayer increased the chemical’s penetration into crop leaves, leading to higher chemical deposition on both the upper and lower layers of rice leaves.

Keywords


Chemical Spray Deposition, Deposition Uniformity, Downwash Air, Droplet Size, Manual Spray, Water Sensitive Paper.

References





DOI: https://doi.org/10.18520/cs%2Fv125%2Fi2%2F172-182