Unmanned Aerial Systems are used widely in APAC to apply crop protection products and their usage is spreading to other regions as well. Bayer is active with and around UAS in all of those regions and focused on get it used in an efficient and safe manner. Research around efficacy, efficiency, and human and environmental safety is being conducted indoor and outdoor.  There are certain advantages clearly linked to this remotely controlled type of application when comparing it to other established methods. Yet, there are also some challenges associated with this type of technology. One aspect is, that they differ widely with their specifications and layouts in general, and with their individual spray system (hydraulic nozzle vs. spinning disc) and nozzle placement in particular. Being in use for just some years the technology will clearly evolve further and even with being comparable young quite a lot has changed already, with development cycles being fast. Manufacturers such as DJI and XAG launch new models on a yearly basis and learn also to include crop protection application aspects into their systems.  Within Bayer we want and need to understand this technology and its parameters to best adjust them to our needs and/or fully leverage on their potential. Special need is there to ensure spray quality, even when taking the wide range of systems into account. Hence it is in our interest to improve the way they are operated at so that efficacy, efficiency, and safety are kept, ideally improved. Bayer is much engaged with institutes and authorities to come to a holistic evaluation and thus to understand the impact different systems and settings have.  Within the presentation the UAS will be compared and positioned to other system with regard to several factors. A high-level overview will be given about what is known and established and where challenges lay ahead of us and further improvements are expected.

Unmanned aerial systems: An ag chem perspective on the technology

ACS Fall 2021

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.