Nozzle with a Feedback Channel for Agricultural Drones

Abstract

In recent years, small drones have been used in agriculture, for spraying water and pesticides. Although spraying systems affect the efficiency of agricultural drones considerably, research on the spraying system of drones is insufficient. In this paper, a new nozzle with a feedback channel is proposed for agricultural drones. The proposed nozzle was manufactured through 3D printing, and its performance was compared with that of the nozzle used in commercial agricultural drones. Images taken with a high-speed camera were digitally processed, to track the area and location of spray particles, and the spraying characteristics were evaluated based on the size and uniformity of the droplets obtained from the images. The proposed nozzle provided a better performance, as it could spray smaller droplets more uniformly. Commercial nozzle droplets have an average diameter of 1.76 mm, and the proposed nozzle has been reduced to a maximum of 215 μm. In addition, the full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the commercial nozzle is 0.233, but the proposed nozzle is up to 1.519; the proposed nozzle provided better performance, as it could spray smaller droplets more uniformly. Under the condition of 30 kg, the best performance in the proposed nozzle, the minimum value of the average droplet diameter of the nozzle without feedback channel is 595 μm and the maximum value of FWHM is 1.329. Therefore, a comparison of the performance of the proposed nozzle with that of a nozzle with no feedback channel indicates that the feedback channel effectively reduces the droplet diameter and improves the spraying uniformity. It is expected that the proposed nozzle can be useful for designing the spraying systems of agricultural drones.

A Review: Development of Plant Protection Methods and Advances in Pesticide Application Technology in Agro-Forestry Production

“…[131][132][133], centrifugal atomization with rotating disc (or rotating cage, rotating cup) [131,[134][135][136], aerodynamic atomization (air blast) [131,137], ultrasonic wave atomization [131] and electrostatic atomization [102,103,131], as well as the principle of droplet control and optimal technology [138]. In order to achieve specific spray performance, it is necessary to study nozzles with special requirements and design specific structures with desirable hydrodynamic characteristics, such as low-drift air-induction nozzles [139], variable rate nozzles [140], bypass nozzles to increase flow range [141], rotary cup atomizers for controllable droplets [135], intermittent flow control nozzles using pulse modulation [142], fan-shaped nozzles with a feedback channel to reduce droplet diameter and improve spraying uniformity [143], etc. Generally, the combination of atomization methods can be developed for atomizing pesticides.…”

Research on Methods Decreasing Pesticide Waste Based on Plant Protection Unmanned Aerial Vehicles: A Review

“…At a speed of 3.11–3.79 m/s in a crosswind, compared with the traditional HCN nozzles of UAV sprayers, the application of AIN promotes spray deposition and uniformity and significantly reduces deposition and air drift. Kim et al (2021) proposed a new type of nozzle with a feedback channel, which can spray smaller droplets more uniformly. The existence of the feedback channel effectively reduces the droplet diameter and improves the spray uniformity.…”

Aplicação de pesticidas com veículos aéreos não tripulados nas culturas de café, citros e feijão

“…Por outro lado, a aplicação aérea tem desempenhado um papel importante na promoção da produção agrícola devido à sua flexibilidade e por ser capaz de aplicar produtos agrícolas em grandes áreas dentro de janelas estreitas consideradas ideais para o tratamento fitossanitário (WANG et al, 2018b). A tecnologia de pulverização aérea também reduz os custos de mão de obra e remove o risco de danos físicos às lavouras e ao solo causados pelos rodados de uma máquina terrestre (KIM et al, 2021).…”