Evaluation of aerial spraying application of multi-rotor unmanned aerial vehicle for Areca catechu protection

• DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2023.1093912
• Publication Date: 2023-03-06T16:58:14Z
• Authors: Juan Wang; Chao Ma; Pengchao Chen; Weixiang Yao; Yingbin Yan; Tiwei Zeng; Shengde Chen; Yubin Lan
• Keywords: Catechu; Areca

Multi-rotor unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is a new chemical application tool for tall stalk tropical crop Areca catechu, which could improve deposit performance, reduce operator healthy risk, and increase spraying efficiency. In this work, experiment was carried out in two A. catechu fields with leaf area index (LAI) values, different operational parameters were set. Spray quality, spray drift, ground loss studied evaluated. The results showed that the larger LAI of lesser coverage deposition. maximum reach 4.28% minimum 0.33%. At flight speed 1.5 m/s, sprayed droplets had best penetration worst loss. overall deposition effect poor when altitudes greater than 11.09 m over 2.5 m/s. Comparing to distance 90% total drift increased double under same operating parameters. This study presents reference data UAV protection.