Sci-fi meets agriculture

[rabler]

Thought a few people here would appreciate this off-topic picture. Agricultural spraying drone and service truck. Young couple operates it. Drone carries 10 gallons (80 lbs) of spray, weighs 220 lbs fully loaded, and is about 11 ft in diameter with the rotors. Support truck with generator, charging for the drone batteries and a refill chemical tank, and obviously a launch platform on top. I rent out about 10 acres to a local farmer who arranged this service, they asked to park in my back driveway as it is the highest point next to the cornfield. They GPS map the field (mostly using google maps). He said he manually flies the perimeter to check borders and obstacles before turning it loose. Apparently they get significantly more uniform coverage than crop dusters so it is a sought after service. They did this field in the hour just before sunset on Friday evening.

I got to watch it take off, it has several red/green clearance/orientation lighting and looks very much like something out of a sci-fi movie. It did make me a bit nervous as they were both on top of the deck and those rotors look like they'd do significant damage if a gust of wind or a control mishap sent it the wrong direction.

 

[mmcmdl]

Found out just how wide Indiana is the past 4 weeks . Elkhart was our home place twice when traveling . Sure is a lot of corn out there .

 

[rabler]

Found out just how wide Indiana is the past 4 weeks . Elkhart was our home place twice when traveling . Sure is a lot of corn out there .

We commonly drive through Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa. We joke the variation in scenery goes from corn fields on the right and soybeans on the left, to corn on the left and soy on the right.

 

[C-Bag]

Thought a few people here would appreciate this off-topic picture. Agricultural spraying drone and service truck. Young couple operates it. Drone carries 10 gallons (80 lbs) of spray, weighs 220 lbs fully loaded, and is about 11 ft in diameter with the rotors. Support truck with generator, charging for the drone batteries and a refill chemical tank, and obviously a launch platform on top. I rent out about 10 acres to a local farmer who arranged this service, they asked to park in my back driveway as it is the highest point next to the cornfield. They GPS map the field (mostly using google maps). He said he manually flies the perimeter to check borders and obstacles before turning it loose. Apparently they get significantly more uniform coverage than crop dusters so it is a sought after service. They did this field in the hour just before sunset on Friday evening.

I got to watch it take off, it has several red/green clearance/orientation lighting and looks very much like something out of a sci-fi movie. It did make me a bit nervous as they were both on top of the deck and those rotors look like they'd do significant damage if a gust of wind or a control mishap sent it the wrong direction.
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Very cool. I didn’t know they did that but sure makes sense. My wife’s nephew works as a Drone pilot for a company that takes all kinds of jobs. He goes all over the world. The last time he was through here he was going to like Tracy or close to there to do a LiDAR scan of an almond orchard that was under contract to UC Davis for a study. He’s always managed to be on the cutting edge of whatever he goes for. His drone was about a quarter that size but was the biggest I’d ever seen and would fold up into this 3x3 square case.

 

[SLK001]

If you think Indiana is wide, drive thru Texas.

 

[Dhal22]

It's about 10 hours from Atlanta to Texas, it's another 10 hours across Texas.

 

[Nutfarmer]

30 to 40 thousand for the drone vs hundred of thousands for an Agcat plane makes this cost effective. I would think because of a lighter pay load it would take longer to spray a field. Not having to ferry the drone might make up for some of the time. As a side note there are computer controlled unmanned air blast sprayers that will operate down the row of orchards with out hitting a tree. Have been looking at this type of drone to cover the top of pecan trees the air blast sprayer can’t reach.

 

[C-Bag]

30 to 40 thousand for the drone vs hundred of thousands for an Agcat plane makes this cost effective. I would think because of a lighter pay load it would take longer to spray a field. Not having to ferry the drone might make up for some of the time. As a side note there are computer controlled unmanned air blast sprayers that will operate down the row of orchards with out hitting a tree. Have been looking at this type of drone to cover the top of pecan trees the air blast sprayer can’t reach.

Hmm, the outfits I worked for were fruit oriented and even though we lived in the middle of walnut orchards I was only involved with fruit. So I’m not sure how the spraying is different but I remember modifying on air sprayer to use a different/cheaper pump and the bosses being super skeptical but when they analyzed to drop size all was good to their surprise and mine. Point being they seemed to be more focused on the underside of the leaves. Is there a difference in the focus on nut trees?

I would think a hybrid of the ground drone tethered to flying drone would be the best of both worlds where the flying drone would get power and pesticide feed from the ground drone would be worthwhile.

 

[Nutfarmer]

Most insects are on the underside of a leaf. That is why an air blast sprayer works well. The down wash from the drone might work similar to a helicopter down wash thus penetrating the leaf canopy.

 

[C-Bag]

The down wash from the drone might work similar to a helicopter down wash thus penetrating the leaf canopy.

We had several pull behind(that was the type I replaced the pump on) and one WWII vintage deuce and a half that had vertical spray bar powered by a Detroit diesel. Talk about SPRAY! There was no air blower, just high pressure. No doors and with that Detroit screaming away behind the cab I would have thought nobody would want to run that thing but they actually fought for it! I asked one of the guys why and he said it was because it wouldn’t spray you in the face at the end of the rows because it wasn’t pull behind(even though the pull behinds had cabs!) and you didn’t have to kick the PTO out when you rounded a row, just turn the outside of the spray bar off. The worst thing about that rig was getting parts for the deuce and a half. The spray bar was tall enough you had to fold it down to transport or you could tangle overhead lines.