With the rapid development and continuous upgrading of robotics and artificial intelligence, modern society is full of surprises. There are sweeping robots that automatically clean the ground, service robots that accompany children and elderly people, food delivery robots in restaurants, robots that can write news, and even unmanned aircraft. Today, let's take a look at the plant protection drones that are related to people's livelihood.
Plant protection drones are unmanned aerial vehicles used for agricultural and forestry plant protection operations, mainly through ground remote control or GPS flight control to achieve chemical spraying operations. In fact, as an air platform with superior performance, UAV was first used in the military field. However, with the development of technology and social changes, drones have begun to develop rapidly in the civilian field, especially in agricultural plant protection.
Countries in the world have different degrees of application of plant protection drones, but in general, agricultural aviation technology is an important part of national agricultural production, and its application in agricultural production is increasing.
Japan is one of the first countries to use tiny agricultural drones for agricultural production. In 1987, Yamaha was commissioned by the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture to produce the first agricultural drone, the 20kg-class spraying drone "R-50". After that, Japan widely used unmanned helicopters for field crops. After more than 20 years of development, Japan has increased from 307 in 1995 to more than 2,400 now, with more than 14,000 operators, becoming the largest country in the world for agricultural drone spraying.
The United States is one of the countries with the most mature agricultural aviation application technology. It has experienced the development process from manned helicopter plant protection technology to drone plant protection technology, and has now formed a relatively complete agricultural aviation industry system. According to statistics, the United States currently has more than 9,000 agricultural aircraft, accounting for 28% of the world's total, and the direct contribution rate of agricultural aviation to agriculture is more than 15%.
In addition to Japan and the United States, Russia, South Korea and other countries have also widely used plant protection drones in agriculture. Russia has a vast land and sparse population, and has a large number of agricultural aircraft operations teams, the number is as high as 11,000, and the annual processing area of arable land accounts for more than 35% of the total arable land area. South Korea first introduced unmanned helicopters for agricultural aviation operations in 2003. Since then, the number of agricultural drones and the area of agricultural aviation operations have increased year by year. South Korea's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and the Central Committee of the Agricultural Association plan to increase 100 aircraft every year. By 2003 a total of 500 aircraft.
1. The status quo of domestic plant protection drones
In the 1950s, my country began to carry out the research and application of aerial spraying technology. In 2004, the 863 Program of the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Nanjing Institute of Agricultural Mechanization of the Ministry of Agriculture began to research and promote UAV plant protection; in 2007, my country's first project Industrialization exploration of unmanned helicopter for plant protection; promotion and trial nationwide in the past two years.
In recent years, with the development of civilian drones, plant protection drones have also begun to "fly" into ordinary people's homes. According to relevant sources, with the expansion of the scale of land transfer, there is a potential market of nearly 100 billion yuan in my country's plant protection drone industry. Although the development prospects of domestic plant protection drones are promising, there are still many obstacles to the development.
2. Classification and advantages of plant protection drones
(1) There are various types of plant protection drones, which can be divided into various types according to different classification basis.
Divided by power: oil animal plant protection drone/electric plant protection drone
Divided by model structure: Fixed-wing plant protection drone/single-rotor plant protection drone/multi-rotor plant protection drone
(2) Advantages of plant protection drones
1. Efficient and safe: Agricultural unmanned helicopters fly fast, and scale operations can reach 120-150 acres per hour, which is at least 100 times more efficient than conventional spraying; plant protection drones are operated by ground remote control or GPS flight control, and spraying operations The remote operation of personnel avoids the danger of exposure to pesticides and improves the safety of spraying operations.
2. Save water and medicine and reduce costs: Electric unmanned helicopter spraying technology can save at least 50% of pesticide use, 90% of water consumption, and greatly reduce resource costs.
3. Remarkable control effect: UAV helicopter has the characteristics of low operating height, less drift, and can hover in the air. The downward airflow generated by the rotor when spraying pesticides helps to increase the penetration of logistics to crops, and the control effect is good. .
4. Low cost and easy operation: electric drones have small overall size, light weight, low depreciation rate, easy maintenance, and low labor cost per unit operation; easy to operate, operators can generally master the essentials and execute them after about 30 days of training Task.
3. Development Trend of Plant Protection UAV
my country has 1.8 billion mu of basic farmland, about 100,000 people are poisoned by pesticides every year, and the fatality rate is as high as 20%. The application of unmanned helicopters to spray pesticides has not only great economic value, but also social value for our country: drone operations not only have super high work efficiency, do not pose a threat to the safety of personnel, but also save a lot of labor. Save agricultural input costs and ultimately increase farmers' economic benefits.
The future development trend of domestic plant protection drones is mainly reflected in five aspects:
The first is operation. Plant protection drones are complicated to operate, especially unmanned helicopters, which have higher capabilities for operators. With the continuous development of plant protection drone technology, the operation of plant protection drones will be simpler and easier for users to get started.
The second is the load. At present, the load of the plant protection drone is maintained at 5kg-20kg, and the load is too small, which makes the operation more complicated. It is believed that the load of the plant protection drone will become larger and larger in the future.
The third is price. Price is one of the factors hindering the popularization of plant protection drones. The price of domestic plant protection drones varies, but at least it ranges from 50,000 to 200,000. With the continuous development of technology, the cost of plant protection drones will drop, and the price will become lower and lower. Secondly, plant protection drone companies compete with each other and adopt the method of improving technology to control costs, so as to reduce prices to generate competitive advantages.
The fourth is service. At present, the supporting services for plant protection drones in China are lagging behind. With the continuous development of the plant protection drone industry, related supporting services such as maintenance, insurance, etc. will become more complete and mature.
The fifth is subsidies. More and more provinces in my country have begun to introduce agricultural drones, realizing the modernization of agriculture, but currently only Henan, Hunan and Fujian have implemented a subsidy policy for the purchase of agricultural drones. It has become an irresistible trend for agricultural drones to fly into farmland. It is believed that relevant departments will formulate relevant policies to allow farmers to realize scientific farming as soon as possible and embark on the road of scientific enrichment.
The emergence and development of drone plant protection machines have made great contributions to agriculture. Compared with traditional plant protection operations, it has the characteristics of precise operation, high efficiency, environmental protection, intelligence, and simple operation, saving farmers large machinery and a lot of manpower. the cost of.
