ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Sustainable and Intelligent Phytoprotection
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpls.2025.1570272
Effect of operational parameters on spray performance and drift characteristics in UAVbased agrochemical application in pigeon pea crop to control thrips
Provisionally accepted
Gatkal Raosaheb1*
S.M. Nalawade1M.S Shelke2*G. B Bhanage1N. M More1
Ramesh Sahni3*M.S. Deshmukh1
Marcel Mikeska4
Jan Najser4- 1Mahatma Phule Krishi Vidyapeeth, Rahuri, Maharashtra, India
- 2Vasantrao Naik Marathwada Agricultural University, Parbhani, Maharashtra, India
- 3Central Institute of Agricultural Engineering (ICAR), Bhopal, India
- 4VSB-Technical University of Ostrava, Ostrava, Moravian-Silesian Region, Czechia
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In the past few years, UAV application in agriculture has increased significantly due to higher efficiency and safety, simple operation, reduced labor requirements, and saving chemicals as compared to conventional sprayers. The UAVs are widely used in agriculture, providing flexibility and more profit to farmers. In recent years, research has been conducted on various operational parameters of UAV, there has been no experiment or study on effect of operational parameters and drift characteristics of UAV and control of thrips in pigeon pea crop. Therefore, this study evaluated the effect of operational parameters of UAV based spraying system on the performance of agrochemical application in pigeon pea crop to control thrips. A field study was conducted to determine the performance parameters in terms of droplet deposition density, droplet size, coverage, spray deposition, and relative span at different flight heights (1.5, 2, and 2.5 m above the crop canopy) and flight speeds (2, 2.5, and 3 m/s). Water sensitive papers (WSPs) were placed at three canopy zones (bottom, middle, and top zones) of the pigeon pea plant. The maximum droplet density, droplet size, coverage, spray deposition, and relative span factor at the top, middle, and bottom canopy zones were 54.
Keywords: UAV spraying, pigeon pea, Drift, Flight speed, flight height, Droplet density, Droplet size, coverage
Received: 06 Feb 2025; Accepted: 28 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Raosaheb, Nalawade, Shelke, Bhanage, More, Sahni, Deshmukh, Mikeska and Najser. 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:
Gatkal Raosaheb, Mahatma Phule Krishi Vidyapeeth, Rahuri, 413722, Maharashtra, India
M.S Shelke, Vasantrao Naik Marathwada Agricultural University, Parbhani, 431 402, Maharashtra, India
Ramesh Sahni, Central Institute of Agricultural Engineering (ICAR), Bhopal, India
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.