Characteristics of Spray Applications with Drones in Brazil: Spraying System and Swath Width

Abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluate operational parameters and swath width characteristics of drone's spray applications in Brazil, considering aspects such as height and uniformity of deposition. There were evaluated 32 configurations of applications of 7 agricultural spraying drones. The technical basis for data collection was the use of a semiautomated electronic system, which analyzes the deposition of droplets on a polyester string and informs the ideal swath width for each configuration of drone applications, considering the deposition's coefficient of variation (CV). The system, denominated IFD ® (Swath Width Inspection), is based on ASAE S386.2 2018 standard. Likewise, it was collected information about flight high and drone configurations. IFD ® was a practical method to evaluate swath width and uniformity of drone applications. The results allowed an average increase on swath width of 27% compared to the swath previously used by the remote pilots. The swatch width obtained by using coarse (C) and very coarse (VC) droplet spectrum categories was 4.3 m, for median (M) 5.1 m, and fine (F) and very fine (VF) 5.2 m. The higher coefficient of variation (CV) was obtained for coarse and very coarse spray qualities, 16,7%, followed by median 16%, and fine and very fines, 14.4%.