2024, Vol. 7, Special Issue 4

author(s)
T Kavya, Sushilendra, Sunil Shirwal, Vijayakumar Palled, AG Sreenivas and Ananda N

abstract
Drones have revolutionized modern agriculture by offering precision and efficiency in pesticide spraying. This study evaluates the performance of a hexacopter drone for pesticide application and aims to determine the optimal combination of operational parameters to maximize swath width. The independent parameters include type of nozzle (flat fan nozzle, hollow cone nozzle and spinning disc nozzle), forward speed (2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 m s^-1) and height of spray (1, 1.5, 2, 2.5 and 3 m) while swath width is the performance evaluation criterion. The experiments were conducted using Taguchi L-25 orthogonal experimental design, the study identifies a combination of a forward speed of 6 m/s, a height of spray at 3 m, and a spinning disc nozzle as optimal, resulting in a swath width of 7.19 m. These findings emphasize the importance of selecting appropriate operational parameters for effective pesticide application.