What are the main uses of drones in agricultural production?

Agricultural drones are usually called agricultural plant protection drones, which are mainly used for agricultural and forestry plant protection. Chemical agents, seeds, powder, etc. can be sprayed by ground remote control or GPS flight control.

Compared with traditional plant protection operation, UAV plant protection operation has the characteristics of accurate operation, high efficiency, environmental protection, intelligence and simple operation. In addition, agricultural plant protection UAV has a broad application prospect because of its small size, light weight, convenient transportation, flexible flight control and good applicability to different plots and crops, so it has attracted wide attention from the public in recent years.

There are many types of drones, and there are roughly two classifications used in the agricultural field:

1) can be divided into oil-driven UAV (engine as power device) and electric UAV (motor as power device) according to power division;

2) According to the aircraft structure, it can be divided into fixed-wing UAV, single-rotor UAV and multi-rotor UAV.

Fixed-wing aircraft is mainly used for farmland information collection and farmland remote sensing, which has the characteristics of large load, fast flight speed and high work efficiency. (For more information, please visit Euronet. ) generally flying at ultra-low altitude, 5-7 meters away from the crop canopy, which requires high terrain in the working area and is widely used in open-air farms.

Single-rotor and multi-rotor UAVs are relatively small in size and load, flexible in operation and high in efficiency, suitable for working in scattered farmland plots, and have strong practicability in plant protection operations in rural areas of China.

At present, the application of UAV in agricultural production has achieved initial results, mainly in the following six aspects.

I. Plot and Soil Analysis The agricultural drone is equipped with high-definition cameras and advanced sensors, which can draw accurate three-dimensional maps of plot and soil analysis and make detailed sowing plans, which played a vital role in the early stage of agricultural production. At the same time, this agricultural drone can also closely monitor the land conditions and provide strong data support for later irrigation and soil nitrogen content management.

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Uav shell

Second, the aerial seeding scientists racked their brains and developed a perfect drone seeding system. The system can simultaneously inject seeds and all the nutrients needed for their growth into the soil. This technology has improved the nutrient absorption rate of seeds by 75% and reduced the sowing cost by 85%. It not only ensures the survival rate of seeds, but also relatively reduces the consumption of other resources, which can be described as killing two birds with one stone.

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Drone seeding

Third, agricultural drones equipped with ultrasound, radar and advanced spraying systems are widely used in plant protection operations, also known as plant protection drones. This type of UAV can continuously adjust the flying height according to the geographical terrain, identify and avoid obstacles independently, and spray crops accurately and evenly by means of advanced spraying system. This technology greatly reduces the amount of pesticides and reduces the pollution of plant protection to water and environment. According to experts' estimation, compared with traditional machinery, the efficiency of plant protection drones is as high as five times, which will greatly reduce the consumption of manpower and material resources.

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Drone sprinkler irrigation

Fourth, the large plot of crop monitoring and the low efficiency of crop monitoring are another major pain point in agricultural production. With the global temperature rising, climate change becomes more and more unpredictable, and the management and maintenance of land conditions become more and more difficult. In the past, farmers mainly relied on satellite images to assist crop monitoring, but the cost was too high and they needed to buy in advance, so the daily average service efficiency was difficult to provide real-time and accurate crop monitoring information. Agricultural UAV equipped with real-time image system came into being, which provided a reliable and effective guarantee for farmers to monitor crop growth more accurately and take timely and effective prevention and control measures.

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satellite imagery

5. Agricultural irrigation Agricultural UAV is equipped with hyperspectral, multispectral and thermal sensors, which can accurately analyze and identify arid areas of plots and provide strong data support for precision irrigation operations. In addition, in the process of crop growth, this drone can also calculate the vegetation index and analyze the crop density and health status through the heat emitted by the crops themselves.

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Multispectral

Six, crop health assessment crop health assessment and timely detection of pests and diseases is one of the necessary guarantees for high-quality agricultural production. Agricultural UAV is equipped with visible infrared and near infrared emitting devices, which can accurately analyze the amount of green light and near infrared light reflected by crops, draw multi-spectral images, and track the changes and health status of crops. Farmers can formulate quick and effective prevention and control measures according to the corresponding data to protect crops from pests and diseases, thus significantly improving agricultural production efficiency.