Unmanned Helicopter Type Aircraft for the Pesticides and Fertilizers Application

Digital agricultural production is based on robotic agricultural technologies for the use of pesticides and fertilizers using unmanned aerial systems, which are based on unmanned aerial vehicles for monitoring agricultural land, the pesticides application, fertilizers and other agrochemicals. (Research purpose) To develop an unmanned helicopter based aircraft for applying pesticides and fertilizers, and to substantiate its technological parameters. (Materials and methods) The authors used methodological recommendations on the use of chemicals in the precision farming system, regulatory and technical documentation for unmanned aircraft systems. (Results and discussion) The authors determined the unmanned aerial vehicle main flight technical and technological parameters for the implementation of the applying pesticides and fertilizers process. They established the dependences of its productivity on the norms of introducing working fluids of pesticides and fertilizers, the agricultural field length, and the approach distance to the field. (Conclusions) The authors developed a helicopter-type unmanned aerial vehicle of a coaxial design with a take-off mass of 280 kilograms and a payload of 50-80 kilograms, a rotor diameter of 5.3 meters, a constructive boom width with sprayers of 5 meters, a working flight height of 1-5 meters, a working speed of 40-60 kilometers per hour, the rate of working fluid of pesticides application 10-20 liters per hectare and nitrogen fertilizers 30-120 liters per hectare. They established rational values for the application rates of pesticides – 10-20 liters per hectare, the agricultural field length – at least 0.8 kilometers, ensuring maximum productivity in flight hour when processing the agricultural field. They showed that the flight distance minimizing from the runway to the field significantly increased the productivity of applying pesticides and fertilizers.

1. Shpaar D., Zakharenko A.V., Yakushev V.P., et al. Tochnoe sel’skoe khozyaystvo [Precision Agriculture]. Saint-Petersburg: Pushkin. 2009. 397 (In Russian).

2. Izmaylov A.Yu., Artyushin A.A. Kolesnikova V.A., et al. Metodicheskie rekomendatsii po primeneniyu sredstv khimizatsii v sisteme tochnogo zemledeliya [Guidelines for the use of chemicals in the precision farming system]. Moscow: VIM. 2016. 100 (In Russian).

3. Kuznetsov G.A., Kudryavtsev I.V., Krylov E.D. Retrospektivnyy analiz, sovremennoe sostoyanie i tendentsii razvitiya otechestvennykh bespilotnykh letatel’nykh apparatov [Retrospective analysis, current status and development trends of domestic unmanned aerial vehicles]. Inzhenernyy zhurnal: nauka i innovatsiya. 2018. N9. 1-19 (In Russian).

4. Marchenko L.A., Mochkova T.V., Kurbanov R.K., Krasnoborod’ko V.V. Osnovnye trebovaniya k bespilotnym letatel’nym apparatam dlya vneseniya udobreniy i pestitsidov [Basic requirements for unmanned aerial vehicles for fertilizer and pesticides]. Vestnik VIESKH. 2018. N4(33). 107-112 (In Russian).

5. Izmaylov A.Yu., Lobachevskiy Ya.P., Smirnov I.G., Kolesnikova V.A., Marchenko L.A. Substantiation of parameters of unmanned aerial vehicles for pesticides and fertilizers application in precision farming system. International scientific journal mechanization in agriculture & conserving of the resources. 2017. N5. 168-171 (In English).

6. Spiridonov A.Yu., Kurbanov R.K. Obosnovanie parametrov bespilotnogo letatel’nogo apparata dlya differentsirovannogo vneseniya trikhogrammy [Parameters ustification of an unmanned aerial vehicle for the differential trichograms introduction]. Vestnik VIESKH. 2018. N4(33).101-106 (In Russian).

7. Wang L.H., Lan Y.B., Yue X.J., Ling K.J., Cen Z.Z., Cheng Z.Y. et al. Vision-based adaptive variable rate spraying approach for unmanned aerial vehicles. International Journal of Agricultural and Biological Engineering. 2019. 12(3). 18-26 (In English).

8. Faigal B.S., Freitas H., Pedro H.G., Mano L.Y., Pessin G., Carvalho A.C.P.L.F., Krishnamachari B., Ueyama J. An adaptive approach for UAV-based pesticide spraying in dynamic environments. Computers and Electronics in Agriculture. 2017. 138. 210-223 (In English).

9. Koç C. Design and Development of a Low-cost UAV for Pesticide Applica-tions. Journal of Agricultural Faculty of Gaziosmanpasa University. 2017. 34(1). 94-103 (In English).

10. Huang Y., Hoffmann W.C., Lan Y., Wu W., Fritz B.K. Development of a Spray System for an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Platform. Applied Engineering in Agriculture. 2009. Vol. 25. N6. 803-809 (In English).

11. Kale S.D., Khandagale S.V., Gaikwad S.S., Narve S.S., Gangal P.V. Agriculture Drone for Spraying Fertilizer and Pesticides. International Journal of Advanced Research in Computer Science and Software Engineering. 2015. Vol. 5. Iss. 12 (In English).

12. Xue X., Lan Y., Sun Z., Chang C., Hoffman W.C. Develop an unmanned aerial vehicle based automatic aerial spraying. Computers and Electronics in Agriculture. 2016. 128. 58-66 (In English).

13. Nikitin N.V., Spiridonov Yu.Ya., Shestakov V.G. Nauchno-prakticheskie aspekty tekhnologii primeneniya sovremennykh gerbitsidov v rastenievodstve. [Scientific and practical technology aspects of using modern herbicides in crop production]. Moscow: Pechatnyy Gorod. 2010. 122-123 (In Russian).

14. Kobzar’ V.F., Shulyak I.I., Kobzar’ M.I. Faktory, vliyayushchie na kachestvo aviatsionnogo opryskivaniya mnogoletnikh nasazhdeniy [Factors affecting the quality of aerial spraying of perennial plantations]. Zashchita i karantin rasteniy. 2009. N10. 43-45 (In Russian).

15. Shumilin V.M., Agarkov V.M., Belozerov V.V., et al. Aviatsiya v sel’skom i lesnom khozyaystve [Aviation in agriculture and forestry]. Moscow: Kolos. 1995. 132-135 (In Russian).