Effects of Supplementary Pollination by Single-rotor Agricultural Unmanned Aerial Vehicle in Hybrid Rice Seed Production

In 2012-2015, under the conditions of different natural wind speeds, the single-rotor agricultural unmanned aerial vehicle was used for the supplementary pollination during seed production of 10 hybrid combinations with big parental row ratios in the hybrid rice seed production bases of Hunan, Hainan and Guangdong Province, and the pollination effects were studied through the investigation of pollen density in the field, outcrossing seeding rate of female parent and seed production yield. The results showed that under the parental row ratio of 6：（40-60）, the seed setting rate and yields of the supplementary pollination by single-rotor agricultural UAV could reach and even higher than those of artificial pollination, indicating the single-rotor agricultural UAV could be used in supplementary pollination for hybdd rice seed production, which could promote the whole-process mechanization of seed production.

Effect of wind field below unmanned helicopter on droplet deposition distribution of aerial spraying

Wind field is one of the important factors affecting the distribution characteristics of aerial spraying droplet deposition.In order to reveal the impact mechanism of droplet deposition distribution by the wind field below agricultural unmanned helicopter rotor,in this study,the wind field distribution below uniaxial single-rotor electric unmanned helicopter rotor was measured by using a wireless wind speed sensor network measurement system for unmanned helicopter.The effects of wind field in three directions(X,Y,Z)below the rotor on droplet deposition distribution were analyzed with the condition of aerial spraying droplet deposition in rice canopy,and the regression model was established via variance and regression analyses of experiment results.The results showed that,the wind field in Y direction had a significant effect on droplet deposition in effective spray area,the wind field in Z direction had an extremely significant effect on droplet deposition in effective spray area,and the corresponding significance(sig.)values were 0.011 and 0.000.Furthermore,the wind field in Z direction had a significant effect on the penetrability and uniformity of droplet deposition in effective spray area,the corresponding sig.values were 0.025 and 0.011 respectively.The wind speed in Y direction at the edge of effective spray area had a significant effect on droplet drift,the sig.value was 0.021.In addition,the correlation coefficient R of the regression model was 0.869 between droplet deposition in effective spray area and the wind speed in Y and Z directions,and 0.915 between the uniformity of droplet deposition in effective spray area and the maximum wind speed in Z direction.The result revealed the influencing mechanism of the wind field below the rotor of uniaxial single-rotor electric unmanned helicopter on the distribution of aerial spraying droplet deposition.The results can provide guidance for the actual production application of aerial spraying to reduce liquid drift and improve the utilization rate of pesticide.

Distribution regularity of downwash airflow under rotors of agricultural UAV for plant protection

In the plant protection spray operation of UAVs,the process of droplet from formation to sedimentation target is affected by airflow,easy to form uneven deposition.Accurately description of rotor downwash flow field,clarification of velocity vector distribution at different heights of the UAV rotor flow field,simulation of the flow field with high precision,which are the prerequisites for accurately analyzing the droplet deposition distribution in rotor downwash flow field.Based on CFD method,the detail of rotor flow field was numerically calculated.Taking LTH-100 single-rotor agricultural UAV as the research object,the three-dimensional solid model of UAV was established,the Reynolds average N-S equation was used as the control equation and the RNGκ-εas the turbulence model to simulate the flow field of UAV in hover and lateral wind conditions,the wind velocity distribution at different altitudes of rotor downwash flow field was studied.The simulation results of the hover state showed that:In the flow field,the peak velocity appears in a circular distribution below the distal axis of the rotor.With the decrease of height,the peak velocity distribution area showed a tendency to expand gradually after small shrinkage;When the distance from the rotor was not more than 1.5 m,the downwash flow field presented an axisymmetric distribution based on the rotor axis,and the variation rate of velocity in the peak velocity was basically the same,turbulence in downwash flow field made the flow field more complex when the distance from rotor was larger than 2.0 m.On this basis,the optimal flight altitude of UAV is 1.5 m.Wind velocity test of the flow field was carried out on a rotor test bench,wind velocities at four altitudes of 0.5 m,1.0 m,1.5 m and 2.0 m were measured to verify the coincidence between the simulated and measured values.The test results showed that:the relative error between the measured and simulated values at four measurement heights were between 0.382-0.524,and the overall average relative errors was 0.430,which verified the confidence level of simulated values for measured values.When the lateral wind velocity was 3 m/s,4 m/s and 5 m/s,the simulation results showed that:The distribution trend of airflow velocity at the same altitude in lateral-wind flow field with different wind speeds was similar;When the lateral wind speed was 5 m/s,the coupling field formed by the lateral wind and rotor airflow cannot reach the height of 2 m below the rotor.The results of this study can provide more accurate environmental conditions for theoretical analysis of droplet deposition regularity in the flow field,and also provide methodological guidance for the related research on rotor flow field of multi-rotor UAV.