LAUSR

BACKGROUND While unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are increasingly being used to deliver small-scale aerial pesticide applications there remains uncertainty over their efficiency in terms of uniformity of spray deposition and their application efficiency. Consequently, a field study was designed to quantify factors influencing the uniformity of spray deposition from a multi-rotor UAV that is operated commercially in New Zealand. Two sampling systems for measuring spray deposition, a continuous horizontal string and steel plates placed on the ground, were compared. RESULTS The spray deposit distribution characteristics and calculated lane separation values (distance between flight lines that produce a maximum coefficient of variation (CV) of 30% for spray deposits) were strongly influenced by wind speed, nozzle position, release height, ground speed, and droplet size. Lane separation values ranged from 1 to >5 m. Swath distribution parameters (spread and position of peak deposition) derived from plates were not significantly different to those derived from string. However, total deposition on strings relative to plates increased with small droplets. Reducing plate sampling intensity from 0.25 m intervals to 0.5 m and even 1.0 m had only a minor effect on estimates of swath parameter values. CONCLUSIONS The potential for precision spraying from UAV platforms has yet to be achieved with improvements required in hardware and software. Further, mechanistic models are needed to quantify how complex interactions among multiple operating and meteorological variables influence spray deposition. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.