Performance evaluation of UAV sprayer on cotton crop

Abstract

Insecticide applications are an essential aspect of agriculture to control pests and diseases. Traditional pest control methods are time-consuming, and exposure to chemicals causes serious health problems, such as cancer, breathing difficulties, and damage to the nervous system of human beings. The present study focused on an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) sprayer for insecticide application on cotton crops. The UAV sprayer was evaluated in a cotton field at 3 levels of flight height (1.5, 2.0, 2.5 m) and flight speeds (4.0, 4.5, 5.0 m/s) for effective spray distribution. The optimized operational parameters of flight speed of 4.0 m/s and flight height of 1.5 m were suggested by Design expert. The UAV was capable of spraying the liquid at the top, middle, and bottom positions of leaves satisfactorily. The VMD observed to increase with an increase in flight height and a decrease in flight speed. A similar trend was observed for NMD also. The droplet size (VMD) of cotton crop varied from 444 to 353.11 μm, and NMD varied from 49.33 to 95 μm. The droplet density decreases as flight height and flight speed increase, and the droplet density varied from 198.22 to 353.33 droplets/cm2. The reduction in the whitefly population was found to be 73.52%, and an 88.58% reduction in the pink bollworm larvae population was found in the cotton.