Xing Xiaobo, 40 years old, is an unmanned plant protection machine operator at Qingdao Baowen Sanhe Agricultural Machinery Service Professional Cooperative. Due to his passion for drone aerial photography, he resigned from his job at a state-owned enterprise in 2017 and joined the unmanned plant protection industry. Over the past six years, Xing Xiaobo and his team have achieved a plant protection and defense area of over 4 million acres, making them one of the few capable individuals in the local drone defense “circle”.
There are many techniques for spraying pesticides on plant protection drones, such as some diseases and pests at the roots of plants. If the downward airflow generated by the rotor cannot increase the penetration of the fog flow to the crops, it may not be able to spray to the roots and have no effect, “Xing Xiaobo said. For the past six years, Xing Xiaobo has regarded his interests as a profession, delving into them bit by bit, analyzing them from the altitude of airplanes to the spraying volume, exploring different crops, seasons, and flight times. Xing Xiaobo believes that a qualified “pilot” also needs to have knowledge to deal with unexpected situations of plant protection drones, and know how to repair and maintain them. During specific operations, the “pilot” should determine the spraying width and travel speed of the aircraft based on the wind speed and direction of the day.
As an important component of precision agriculture, plant protection drones have advantages such as high efficiency, precision, and environmental protection, which promote the mutual promotion and coordinated development of intelligent agricultural machinery and smart agriculture. In Xing Xiaobo’s view, being able to fly drones does not necessarily mean being a qualified “pilot”. Plant protection and flight prevention are the technological integration of “humans”, “machines”, and “agents”. In addition to “machines” and “humans”, they also require the support of drugs. Compared with traditional pesticide spraying, plant protection and flight prevention have specific requirements for pesticide concentration, dispersion rate, and adhesion. Nowadays, the number of crops used for drone defense is increasing, and the types of diseases and pests vary. Therefore, dispensing and medication have become essential knowledge for a qualified “pilot”.
As a high-tech agricultural equipment, precise application of plant protection drones has the characteristics of good effectiveness and strong water-saving and pesticide saving capabilities, and has now become a “new favorite” in the field. With the support of new technologies such as 5G, the Internet of Things, and artificial intelligence, many people have switched careers and entered the aviation defense industry. Xing Xiaobo introduced that his team now has more than 30 “flying hands” who carry out their own flight defense operations on a regular basis, and concentrate their operations on unified defense and governance tasks. Excluding drones, vehicles, gasoline, and labor costs, his team’s “pilots” can earn 120000 to 150000 yuan annually.
Xing Xiaobo is full of hope for the future. He believes that the future unmanned plant protection machine will be an information technology equipment that integrates “remote sensing+pesticide application”, achieving precise and variable pesticide application, and can quickly analyze and diagnose farmland information. It can carry out unmanned inspections of farmland, monitoring of diseases, pests, and weeds, drought conditions, evaluation of seedling rates, and yield prediction. There is still a long way to go in the future, and he will keep in mind his original intention. By constantly learning new knowledge, he will become a skilled agricultural fighter and lead the “Flying Hand” team to provide better services to farmers.
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