ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Agron.
Sec. Climate-Smart Agronomy
This article is part of the Research TopicInnovative Technologies and Applications of UAV in Precision Agriculture to Mitigate Climate ChangeView all 3 articles
Optimizing UAV operation parameters for enhanced pesticide deposition in tobacco fields
Provisionally accepted
- 1Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou, China
- 2Luoyang Branch of Henan Tobacco Company, Luoyang, China
- 3Xuchang Branch of Henan Tobacco Company, Xuchang, China
- 4Henan Academy of Agricultural Sciences Institute of Tobacco Research Author Institution is Unverified, Zhengzhou, China
- 5Zhengzhou Tobacco Research Institute, Zhengzhou, China
- 6Xuchang Branch of Henan Tobacco Company Author Institution is Unverified, Xuchang, China
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Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have rapidly advanced as plant protection machinery in recent years. They are capable of spraying pesticides efficiently and are suitable for a variety of complex terrains. This study evaluated the spraying performance of two UAVs (T20P and T40) under different operational parameters during three growth stages of tobacco: the rosette, vigorous, and maturity stages. Aiming to clarify the optimal operating parameters for UAVs at each stage. The results indicated that variations in operational parameters significantly affected the deposition and distribution of droplets. For T20, the optimal parameters for the rosette stage were a flight speed of 3 m·s-1, a flight height of 2 m, and a spray volume of 50 L·ha-¹. During the vigorous growth stage, the optimal parameters were a flight height of 2.5 m, a flight speed of 4 m·s-1, and a spray volume of 50 L·ha-¹. For the maturity stage, the parameters were a flight height of 2.5 m, a flight speed of 3 m·s-1, and a spray volume of 50 L·ha-1. For T40, the optimal parameters for the rosette stage were a flight height of 3 m, a flight speed of 3 m·s-¹, and a spray volume of 50 L·ha-¹. During the vigorous growth stage, the parameters were a flight height of 3.5 m, a flight speed of 4 m·s-¹, and a spray volume of 50 L·ha-¹. For the maturity stage, the parameters were a flight height of 3.5 m, a flight speed of 3 m·s-¹, and a spray volume of 50 L·ha-1. These results provide a reference for UAV operation at different tobacco growth stage.
Keywords: UAV, Operation parameters, Tobacco, Droplet distribution, Aerial spraying
Received: 27 Sep 2025; Accepted: 20 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Tianliang, Pu, Jing, Chengjun, Guiyao, Xiaowei and Te. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Zhao Te, zhaote@henau.edu.cn
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