Abstract
The abstract discusses the application of drone systems in precision agriculture, focusing on using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for crop monitoring and pesticide spraying to improve crop productivity and reduce health risks associated with manual pesticide application. It highlights the importance of UAV technology in agriculture, especially in developing countries like India, where a significant portion of the population relies on agriculture for their livelihood. The abstract emphasizes the potential of UAVs equipped with cameras, sensors, and spraying systems to enhance agricultural practices and address challenges such as crop diseases caused by pests and insects.
Introduction
The introduction discusses the importance of adopting advanced technologies, like UAVs, in precision agriculture to improve crop productivity, especially in countries like India where agriculture plays a crucial role. UAVs equipped with cameras and sensors are used for crop monitoring and pesticide spraying, offering a faster and more efficient alternative to traditional farming methods. The text highlights the potential benefits of UAV technology in reducing the workload of farmers and addressing issues related to crop diseases caused by pests and insects.
What is UAV?
An Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) is an aircraft that can fly without a human pilot and is controlled remotely through a radio channel. There are different types of UAV models, such as multi-rotors like quadcopters, hexacopters, and octocopters, as well as fixed-wing UAVs and single-rotor helicopters. These UAVs have varying designs and numbers of rotors that affect their flight characteristics and capabilities in different applications like precision agriculture.
How to review them?
The methodology described involves the use of a flight controller, which is a key component embedded in UAVs to manage flight operations. This controller, equipped with advanced firmware, communicates with brushless motors via Electronic Speed Controllers (ESC) to control the UAV's movement. Additionally, the UAV is operated using a Radio channel transmitter and receiver, with different controllers and methodologies utilized for various UAV configurations and tasks.
Hardware composition
In the context of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), hardware components play a crucial role in motion control and data collection. These components include sensors like accelerometers, gyroscopes, magnetometers, cameras, GPS, and various other devices that enable UAVs to sense their environment, capture data, and perform specific tasks such as crop monitoring using thermal and multispectral cameras. The hardware components listed in the table provide functionalities such as measuring acceleration, rotational motion, magnetic fields, environmental conditions, altitude, and more, contributing to the UAV's overall capabilities and applications.
Crop monitoring system
Crop monitoring using UAVs involves utilizing thermal and multispectral cameras mounted on drones to capture images of crops. These cameras record the reflectance of vegetation canopy in different wavelengths, such as blue, green, red, red edge, and near infrared. The data collected is then analyzed using the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) formula, which helps farmers assess the health and density of vegetation in their fields based on the reflectance values obtained from the images.
Irrigation system
The sprinkling system in the UAV consists of a nozzle located beneath the pesticide tank to spray pesticides downwards. It comprises two main components: the sprinkling system itself, containing the pesticides and a spraying nozzle, and a controller to activate the nozzle. A pressure pump pressurizes the pesticide to flow through the nozzle, with a motor driver integrated circuit regulating the pump pressure based on the system's requirements.
Future prediction
The future scope of UAVs in precision agriculture shows potential for further advancements in technology and agricultural applications. Anticipated developments include improved UAV technology, enhanced image processing techniques, cost reductions, longer flight times, better batteries, new camera designs, and more efficient spraying systems. Ongoing experimental studies using UAVs for remote sensing in agriculture are expected to bring significant benefits to precision agriculture and environmental monitoring.