In China, crop planting area is about 5.1 million km2 and crop self-sufficiency rate is more than 99%. However, equipment used for chemical control is falling behind. About 70% of plant protection machinery is equivalent to that of developed countries in the 60s or 70s, with ~10% considered equivalent, internationally, to the state of the art in the 80s to 90s. This state of application equipment is disproportionate to the rapid development of pesticides and their use resulting in: Low efficacy of pesticides, excessive pesticide residues in agricultural products, environmental pollution, crop damage and high operator exposure. This reality makes it difficult to meet the requirements of the new plant protection mission. Aerial spraying is a useful alternative application method which is characterized by high efficiency and efficiency, strong stereo regularity, low crop damage, low labor intensity, etc. With a growing shortage of labour in rural areas and a small scale farmland structure, the trend in Chins is now resulting from an increase in economic innovation, e.g. small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) increasing over the last 10 years in agricultural research and applications. In this paper, novel types of small remote controlled UAV with 5-40 l liquid-tank and 5-20 m spray swath width introduced for chemical application under different conditions in China will be described. The study of the influence of application parameters of UAV on droplet deposition will be discussed, as will temperature change rate effect tested by thermal infrared imagery to reflect the droplets deposit on rice canopy. The results show: Small unmanned aerial spraying equipment is ideal for efficient pest control on small plots; canopy temperature change is a suitable indicator for droplet deposition; thermal infrared imagery reflects the droplets deposit law exactly; and, the optimum application parameters of small UAV at flight altitudes of 2-4 m, flight velocities of 1-3 m/s, and application rates of 4.5-7.5 l/ha could be determined.

New development of small unmanned aircraft application techniques in China

248th National Meeting (2014)

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