The fruit trees have matured and the crops have harvested abundantly. We no longer have to bear mosquito bites to spray pesticides or take care of farmland. Even when the lights are dark at night, using ‘small flower sprinklers’ and’ small probes’ developed by college students, we can view the scene and sprinkle everything in a comfortable air-conditioned room. On August 28th, in an orchard in Gangmen Town, Suixi County, Zhanjiang City, Guangdong Province, during the day, Mr. Li, a fruit farmer, uses a specially designed nozzle to spray pesticides on a drone. At night, he sits inside the house and watches the clear images uploaded from the screen. He has to give likes to students at Guangzhou Nanyang Vocational College of Technology.
Using drones to transport pesticides to irrigate crops and scan and analyze the ripening of fruits greatly improves work efficiency compared to manual labor, but the expenses are much higher than before. Some fruit tree leaves may not even be able to spray pesticides, which once made the team anxious. The traditional factory pesticide spray nozzle is prone to clogging, large particles, and poor atomization effect. After investigation, nearly half of the pesticides are wasted. “said Wu Jintao, a 2022 computer application technology major at the School of Information Engineering at the university. As the leader of this year’s plant protection drone flight prevention team, after listening to the suggestions of nearby township fruit farmers, he immediately led the team to and from the laboratory and practice base, striving to improve the nozzle device to solve the problem.
How to design the holes, how many codes to set the turning force, and how to achieve 360 degree full coverage spraying… For more than a month, there has not been much progress in improving the nozzle. To achieve no blind spots in spraying while also improving the atomization effect and coverage, the team found that improvements based on the original nozzle did not seem to solve the problem. So they decided to broaden and seek novelty. Through seeking advice from college teachers, drone technicians, and consulting materials, the team members have conducted over 130 experiments from drawings to models, and then to samples. With the effort, the newly designed detached electric nozzle has gradually taken shape.
The spraying task of 800 acres can be achieved in one day, with a 40% increase in operational efficiency and at least a 70% increase in pesticide utilization. Wu Jintao introduced that the new nozzle has applied for patent technology, meeting the requirements of the vast majority of orchards, farmland, and terrain. It is not easy to block during the operation process, greatly improving the atomization effect, and achieving 360 degree non dead angle spraying. From the tree crown to the ground, as well as the front and back sides of leaves, it can achieve effective protection.
The good times did not last long, and the news of a “plane explosion” once again plunged the team into deep thought. According to the characteristics of pest and disease activities, they found that during the process of unified prevention and control, pesticide spraying operations from 1 to 3 am had the best effect. However, during the operation, the soil raised by the wind would adhere to the lighting fixtures. At night, the observation ability of drones was poor, and they were also affected by dust and lighting, which could easily lead to drone collisions and falls, known as “explosions”.
Another three months passed in a hurry, with over 50 field experiments. Team members designed a coated lampshade based on the problem, with a smooth surface and good permeability. It effectively solved the problem of soil adhesion while not affecting the image and diffusing light. The lightweight texture also did not affect flight speed. At present, the team has obtained a patent for this component improvement technology, which can achieve 24-hour operation, help planters further reduce operating costs, improve the working environment, improve work efficiency, and increase the output value per acre.
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