Evaluation of droplet deposition and effect of variable-rate application by a manned helicopter with AG-NAV Guía system

Authors

  • Weixiang Yao 1. College of Engineering, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China; 2. National Center for International Collaboration Research on Precision Agricultural Aviation Pesticides Spraying Technology (NPAAC), Guangzhou 510642, China
  • Yubin Lan 1. College of Engineering, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China; 2. National Center for International Collaboration Research on Precision Agricultural Aviation Pesticides Spraying Technology (NPAAC), Guangzhou 510642, China
  • Sheng Wen National Center for International Collaboration Research on Precision Agricultural Aviation Pesticides Spraying Technology (NPAAC), Guangzhou 510642, China
  • Huihui Zhang USDA-Agricultural Research Service, Fort Collins, CO 80526, USA
  • Yali Zhang 1. College of Engineering, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China; 2. National Center for International Collaboration Research on Precision Agricultural Aviation Pesticides Spraying Technology (NPAAC), Guangzhou 510642, China
  • Juan Wang 1. College of Engineering, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China; 2. National Center for International Collaboration Research on Precision Agricultural Aviation Pesticides Spraying Technology (NPAAC), Guangzhou 510642, China; 3. Mechanical and Electrical Engineering College, Hainan University, Haikou 570228, China
  • Chunchun Xie Shandong Ruida Pest Prerention & Control Co., Ltd, Jinan 250101, China

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.25165/ijabe.v12i1.4039

Keywords:

manned helicopter, precision agriculture, variable-rate aerial application, spray test, adjuvant, droplet deposition

Abstract

The variable-rate application is an important aspect of precision agriculture. In order to determine the regular patterns of droplet deposition and compare the actual variable-rate spraying effect of the AS350B3e helicopter with the AG-NAV Guía system, spray tests were conducted with different operating parameters and operating methods. In this study, the deposition distribution of droplets in the effective swath area was evaluated for six single-pass applications at four different flight velocities. The effects of adding adjuvant on droplet deposition, drift and droplet size were compared, and the actual variable effect of the forth-back application was verified. The analysis results showed that the position of the effective swath area was affected by natural wind velocity and wind direction, and would shift to the downwind direction area from the helicopter route of a different degree. The effective swath width increased slowly and then decreased sharply with the increase of flight velocity. It was found that flight velocity of 100 km/h was the peak inflection point of effective spray width variation. Moreover, the effect of flight velocity on the distribution uniformity of droplet deposition in the effective swath area was not significant. In the single-pass application of 90 km/h, adding adjuvant could increase droplet size in the effective swath area. The deposition increased by 8.98%, and the total drift decreased by 28.65%, of which the upwind drift decreased by 28.31% and the downwind drift decreased by 29.06%. In the forth-back application of 90 km/h, the error between actual application volume and system setting dose was 12%. The results of this study can provide valuable references for future research and practices on variable-rate aerial applications by manned helicopters. Keywords: manned helicopter, precision agriculture, variable-rate aerial application, spray test, adjuvant, droplet deposition DOI: 10.25165/j.ijabe.20191201.4039 Citation: Yao W X, Lan Y B, Wen S, Zhang H H, Zhang Y L, Wang J, et al. Evaluation of droplet deposition and effect of variable-rate application by a manned helicopter with AG-NAV Guía system. Int J Agric & Biol Eng, 2019; 12(1): 172–178.

References

Lan Y B, Thomson S J, Huang Y B, Hoffmann W C, Zhang H H. Current status and future directions of precision aerial application for site-specific crop management in the USA. Computers & Electronics in Agriculture, 2010; 74(1): 34–38.

Stevenj T, Huang Y B, Jamese H, Daniele M, Lowreya S. Improving flow response of a variable-rate aerial application system by interactive refinement. Computers & Electronics in Agriculture, 2010; 73(1): 99–104.

Xue X Y, Lan Y B. Agricultural aviation applications in USA. Transactions of the CSAM, 2013; 44(5): 194–201. (in Chinese)

Kirk I W, Tom H H. Precision GPS flow control for aerial spray applications. Precision Agriculture, 1996; 3: 815–817.

Smith L A. Automatic flow control for aerial application. Applied Engineering in Agriculture, 2000; 17(4): 449–455.

Thomson S J, Smith L A, Hanks J E. Evaluation of application accuracy and performance of a hydraulically operated variable-rate aerial application system. Transactions of the ASABE, 2009; 52(3): 715–722.

Smith L A, Thomson S J. GPS position latency determination and ground speed calibration for the SATLOC Airstar M3. Applied Engineering in Agriculture, 2005; 21(5): 769–776.

Koch B, Khosla R, Frasier W M, Westfall D G, Inman D. Economic feasibility of variable-rate nitrogen application utilizing site-specific management zones. Agronomy Journal, 2004; 96(6): 1572–1580.

McLeod I M, Lucarotti C J, Hennigar C R, MacLean D A, Holloway A G L, Cormier G A, et al. Advances in aerial application technologies and decision support for integrated pest management. Integrated Pest Management and Pest Control-Current and Future Tactics, 2012; pp.651–668.

Priddel D, Carlile N, Wilkinson I, Wheeler R. Eradication of exotic mammals from offshore islands in New South Wales, Australia. IUCN, 2011; pp.107–114.

Zhou Z Y, Zang Y, Luo X W, Lan Y B, Xue X Y. Technology innovation development strategy on agricultural aviation industry for plant protection in China. Transactions of the CSAE, 2013; 29(24): 1–10. (in Chinese)

Lan Y B. Agricultural applications of unmanned aerial vehicle. Zi Guangge, 2017; 1: 86.

Liu Y, Gu C Y. The airborne aeronautical chart assisting navigation system based on component GIS. Geomatics & Spatial Information Technology, 2009; 6: 87–89, 92. (in Chinese)

Lu Z H, Shen M X, Ji C Y. Channel planning and border algorithm in agricultural aircraft operating based on embedded and GPS technology. Journal of Anhui Agricultural, 2009; 8: 3819–3820, 3823. (in Chinese)

Xu X, Xu S, Liu Y X, Chen J S, Cai Z X, Yu Z S. Variable pesticide spraying system design based on small UAV. Guangdong Agricultural Sciences, 2014; 9: 207–210. (in Chinese）

Wang L, Lan Y B, Hoffmann W C, Bradley K F, Chen D, Wang S M. Design of variable spraying system and influencing factors on droplets deposition of small UAV. Transactions of the CSAM, 2016; 1: 15–22. (in Chinese)

Xue X Y, Lan Y B, Sun Z, Chang C, Hoffmann W C. Develop an unmanned aerial vehicle based automatic aerial spraying system. Computers & Electronics in Agriculture, 2016; 128: 58–66.

Huang W Z, Lin X A, Cao Q, Qin Y Y. Preliminary report on the experiment of spraying biological agents to control locust locus. Journal of Henan Forestry Science and Technology, 2006; 4: 16–18.

Zhong L, Qiu G H, Song J H, Shi J M, Xu F F, Zhu Q Q, et al. The effect of droplet deposition on the control of rice sheath blight. China Plant Protection, 2014; 8: 64–66. (in Chinese)

Yan R K, Wu N, Hu W J, Wang H E. Experimental report on the control of chromaphis juglandicola kaltenbach by R44Raven-Ⅱ type of helicopter. Journal of Green Science and Technology, 2016; 3: 4–6. (in Chinese)

Zhang D Y, Lan Y B, Chen L P, Wang X, Liang D. Current status and future trends of agricultural aerial spraying technology in China. Transactions of the CSAM, 2014; 45(10): 53–59. (in Chinese)

Zhang R R, Li Y, Yi T C, Chen L P. Design and experiments of control system of variable pesticide application for manned helicopter. Journal of Agricultural Mechanization Research, 2017; 10: 124–127. (in Chinese)

Lan Y B, Chen S D, Li J Y, Zhang Y L, Huang C, Yao W X, et al. Evaluation system of flying flight quality based on BeiDou locating system. Chinese Patent, CN205563277U.

MH/T Standards. 1050-2012: Field measurement methods for Aircraft spray drift, Beijing: MHT, 2012. (in Chinese)

Zhang D Y, Chen L P, Zhang R R, Xu G, Lan Y B, Wesley C H, et al. Evaluating effective swath width and droplet distribution of aerial spraying systems on M-18B and Thrush 510 G airplanes. Int J Agric & Biol Eng, 2015; 8(2): 21–30.

MH/T Standards. 1040-2011: Determining application rates and distribution patterns from aerial application equipment, Beijing: MHT, 2011. (in Chinese)

Zhu Y. Calculation of aerodynamic interactions between helicopter rotor and fuselage. Nanjing University of Aeronautics & Astronautics, 2007. (in Chinese)

Downloads

Published

2019-02-01

How to Cite

Yao, W., Lan, Y., Wen, S., Zhang, H., Zhang, Y., Wang, J., & Xie, C. (2019). Evaluation of droplet deposition and effect of variable-rate application by a manned helicopter with AG-NAV Guía system. International Journal of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, 12(1), 172–178. https://doi.org/10.25165/ijabe.v12i1.4039

Issue

Vol. 12 No. 1 (2019): IJABE

Section

Information Technology, Sensors and Control Systems

License

IJABE is an international peer reviewed open access journal, adopting Creative Commons Copyright Notices as follows.


Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:


  1. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.

  2. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.

  3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).