Abstract
The abstract of the text discusses the application of drone systems for spraying pesticides in advanced agriculture. It highlights the use of drones as a promising alternative to manual spraying, focusing on technological advancements in hardware, flight controllers, sensors, and spraying systems to improve precision, efficiency, and crop yields in agriculture. The research aims to address health issues faced by farmers due to manual pesticide spraying and explores the potential of drones in revolutionizing agricultural practices.
Introduction of drones
In today's world, the demand for food resources has increased due to a growing population, leading to higher demands on the agricultural sector. To meet these demands, agriculture is adopting automation technologies like drones, which are unmanned aircraft used for various applications. Drones play a significant role in smart agriculture by combining technologies such as robotics, artificial intelligence, big data, and the internet of things to increase food production rates and efficiency in farming practices.
About UAV platforms
In the context of the International Conference on Advances in Mechanical Engineering-2022, the text discusses UAV platforms, focusing on fixed-wing and rotary-wing drones. Fixed-wing drones have a streamlined wing structure that generates lift as they move, resembling traditional aircraft but without a pilot onboard. These drones use engines or electric motors for thrust and are equipped with control surfaces like ailerons and elevators to control movement.
Working principles of drone
The working principle of a quadcopter involves four equally spaced rotors that generate lift using BLDC motors and propeller blades. By adjusting the speed of the rotors through a flight controller, the quadcopter can take off, hover, move forward, backward, sideways, and spin. Different rotor speeds create imbalanced forces, allowing the quadcopter to perform various maneuvers such as climbing, hovering, pitching, rolling, and yawing.
What is composition of drone?
The key components of a drone include a flight controller, BLDC Motors, ESCs, propellers, battery, and a radio controller. The flight controller acts as the brain of the drone, receiving data from the radio transmitter and onboard sensors to control motor speed. BLDC Motors provide rotational motion, propellers convert this motion into thrust for lift, and the battery powers all components. Additionally, the drone includes sensors like accelerometers and gyroscopes for monitoring acceleration, force, and orientation.
How to control the drones?
The control approach for drones can be either manual or autonomous. In manual control, humans give real-time commands using transmitters like radio transmitters, Bluetooth, or Wi-Fi, which are then processed by the drone's flight controller. Autonomous control, on the other hand, follows pre-specified instructions given by humans in mission planning software, allowing the drone to operate independently without real-time human intervention.
Recent trends and future challenges
Recent trends in agriculture show an increasing use of drones due to technological advancements, offering benefits such as reduced manual labor for farmers, improved accuracy, and faster operations. Drones are now widely employed in various agricultural tasks like crop monitoring, seeding, pesticide spraying, and irrigation, with a primary focus on pesticide spraying. However, challenges such as limited flight time, payload balancing, and efficiency for large-scale operations remain significant hurdles in the widespread adoption of drones in agriculture.
Crop spraying methods
The text discusses the use of drones for crop spraying in agriculture to address issues like pests and weeds. Drones are equipped with storage tanks, nozzles, and pressure pumps to spray pesticides accurately on crops, reducing health hazards to humans and increasing crop output. The article emphasizes the benefits of using autonomous drones for tasks like crop monitoring and precise spraying of pesticides and fertilizers in agriculture.
Discussions
The conclusions drawn from the text highlight the significant potential of drones in agricultural applications, ranging from soil monitoring to the precise spraying of seeds and pesticides. While drones offer numerous benefits, there are challenges to address, such as minimizing drone weight, maximizing flight time, and enhancing autonomous control for more precise operations in agriculture. The text emphasizes the importance of ongoing research and development to optimize drone technology for efficient and effective use in the agricultural sector.