Drone Sprayers

[Two Tone]

Nah, Definitely needs a CDA rotary atomiser system to reduce the volume of liquid by 90% and/or extend the area covered with each load by 10.

 

[exmoor dave]

Exactly our thinking, and currently the only viable application for uav sprayers due to the regs. We're trialing the Agras system for bracken control. We took our PA7 test not so long ago using it - great fun!

The tech is definitely here. And the regs authorities are starting to take note and catch up. Not long now until fully autonomous (and collaborative) uav spraying I reckon, as others have already mentioned.

Ours in action....

and close up..

Please please please can you keep us up dated on this

This would be ideal for the ground I have that I need to control bracken on.

Have you put asulox though it?

 

[sleepy]

Nah, Definitely needs a CDA rotary atomiser system to reduce the volume of liquid by 90% and/or extend the area covered with each load by 10.

What are the rules about CDA in the UK?

 

[Richard Devon]

This is her I think..... http://www.xaircraft.cn/en/xplanet/explore

Any idea what the nozzles are Richard? They don't look standard....

Sorry Hugh, I didn't get time to look. They were packing up when I got to it and as I said we were really struggling with the language so didn't really get beyond tank size, price and batteries.

 

[Two Tone]

What are the rules about CDA in the UK?

As far as I know, boom mounted rotary atomisers are legal, But hoisted atomisers such as the Ulvamast, which rely on the wind to carry the droplets across a field are not.

I used to use a boom mounted machine which has cable driven atomisers and a 200 litre tank. Putting on fungicides, pgrs, insecticides and trace elements at 20% of whatever rate the agronomist would suggest for a conventional jet sprayer, using 10l/ha and a droplet size of 100 microns (um).

I.e. if the agronomist wanted to use half rate, then you use 20% of half rate!

For herbicides 20l/ha at 120um:
Residual full rate
Contact 40% rate
Translocated 30% rate

The savings were huge! And the yields too. But that was in the days when 12m sprayers were the norm.

There were 2 ways of driving the atomisers:
Electric motor and drive belt with 3 pulleys to give 3 speeds: 2000, 3500 and 5000 rpm
Trouble was that the chems ate the belts or caused too much slippage.

Cable driven using a central enclosed pulley box with one speed adjustable central hydraulic motor, driving belts connected to pulleys that are connected by bowden cables to each atomiser. These were good at you could get exactly the speed needed to achieve the right size droplet. Though it always seemed to me that you needed 4500 and 5500 rpm.

They did eventually invent an atomiser head with an internal electric motor, meaning no belts needed. The liquid also cooled the motor which helped. But by the time this came out, 24 meters was becoming the norm.

CDA requires a boom that is extremely stable and does not jerk.
But essentially, it cut our entire spray bill by over half.

 

[sleepy]

As far as I know, boom mounted rotary atomisers are legal, But hoisted atomisers such as the Ulvamast, which rely on the wind to carry the droplets across a field are not.

I used to use a boom mounted machine which has cable driven atomisers and a 200 litre tank. Putting on fungicides, pgrs, insecticides and trace elements at 20% of whatever rate the agronomist would suggest for a conventional jet sprayer, using 10l/ha and a droplet size of 100 microns (um).

I.e. if the agronomist wanted to use half rate, then you use 20% of half rate!

For herbicides 20l/ha at 120um:
Residual full rate
Contact 40% rate
Translocated 30% rate

The savings were huge! And the yields too. But that was in the days when 12m sprayers were the norm.

There were 2 ways of driving the atomisers:
Electric motor and drive belt with 3 pulleys to give 3 speeds: 2000, 3500 and 5000 rpm
Trouble was that the chems ate the belts or caused too much slippage.

Cable driven using a central enclosed pulley box with one speed adjustable central hydraulic motor, driving belts connected to pulleys that are connected by bowden cables to each atomiser. These were good at you could get exactly the speed needed to achieve the right size droplet. Though it always seemed to me that you needed 4500 and 5500 rpm.

They did eventually invent an atomiser head with an internal electric motor, meaning no belts needed. The liquid also cooled the motor which helped. But by the time this came out, 24 meters was becoming the norm.

CDA requires a boom that is extremely stable and does not jerk.
But essentially, it cut our entire spray bill by over half.

So why is no one putting one of these things under a drone
http://www.microngroup.com/files/micromax.pdf

 

[hughwra]

Please please please can you keep us up dated on this

This would be ideal for the ground I have that I need to control bracken on.

Have you put asulox though it?

Will do!

We haven't put Asulox through yet - it's a grey area currently on legalities and we missed the boat this year. I've heard the CRD and some PPP suppliers have been discussing them for a while. But there are still different opinions on whether it's legal or not. We are basically waiting for it to play out, making sure we have all the permissions available and getting some trial plans in place.

A trip to exmoor next year to rid some bracken sounds good!

We'll be holding some demo days around April next year if you wanted to see it in action. Pm me if so.

 

[hughwra]

Sorry Hugh, I didn't get time to look. They were packing up when I got to it and as I said we were really struggling with the language so didn't really get beyond tank size, price and batteries.

Could be worth an email to them.... It sounds like a serious bit of kit. Full RTK and even a weather station!

 

[exmoor dave]

Will do!

We haven't put Asulox through yet - it's a grey area currently on legalities and we missed the boat this year. I've heard the CRD and some PPP suppliers have been discussing them for a while. But there are still different opinions on whether it's legal or not. We are basically waiting for it to play out, making sure we have all the permissions available and getting some trial plans in place.

A trip to exmoor next year to rid some bracken sounds good!

We'll be holding some demo days around April next year if you wanted to see it in action. Pm me if so.

Sounds good,

We're lambing in April but keep me updated on any demo days abd I'll see what I can do.
Cheers

 

[Pheasant Surprise]

These guys will be at Croptech. Are they members on here?

http://www.cropangel.com

 

[joe soapy]

http://www.microngroup.com/ulva_bracken_pack

Got one of these here, the atomizer weighs very little, so with a light battery the only
heavy bit would be the chemical