We mainly service ACT and surrounding areas upto 200kms away. But always happy to travel further if required.
For the spraying drones, the answer is 20L, but it may be the wrong question. A better question is what area can it cover at what water rate. From landing with a depleted spray tank we can be back in the air, all loaded up again in just over a minute. We plan our spraying so that the drone’s spray tank needs refilling when it is near us.
Our on-farm and on-task experience has shown, that in comparison to other equipment, the drone is a great option for:
Our DJI AGRAS drones may be considered semi-autonomous. The operator defines the work area on an electronic map, determines the height to spray from, speed to spray at, type of nozzle being used (with resultant swath width) and required water rate per Ha. Obstacles are marked off as avoid areas. The radar system is set to passively or aggressively maintain height and the drone is set either to use D-RTK or just its two on-board GPS units.
The drone then makes its computations and requests permission to launch and conduct the task. By law, the operator must be immediately ready to take manual control of the drone from the flight computer should it be required.
Spot-spraying and similar tasks are primarily conducted by the operator.
We like to conduct spraying operations from 1.5m above the target. This sounds high in comparison to a spray boom at 0.75 to 0.5m but the drone takes advantage of the downdraft produced by its rotor system to accelerate the spray toward the ground. From 1.5m with 95⁰ even flat fans, we achieve seamless coverage underneath the drone and a tidy 4m swath width overall.
The drone then makes its computations and requests permission to launch and conduct the task. By law, the operator must be immediately ready to take manual control of the drone from the flight computer should it be required.
Spot-spraying and similar tasks are primarily conducted by the operator.
There are restrictions to aerial spray drone usage after dark in Australia because although the drones hold night vision capabilities, it is safer to fly in daylight for precise navigation, obstacle detection and overall safety.
We are fully licensed by CASA, & have comprehensiveinsurance
The remote pilot and the drone combine to avoid obstacles. The pilot marks off known obstacles during field planning and the drone uses its radars to avoid unexpected obstacles.
Our operations conducted so far demonstrate that at 20L/Ha water rates, about 8 Ha can be covered an hour. At 40L/Ha water rate, it is around 5 Ha an hour. As the water rate increases, the area covered per hour decreases. This is reflected in our pricing. So as you can see, it is not going to do 1000 Ha of cotton, in fact, that would take more than a week to complete with the drone, probably best to call an air tractor or at least a ground rig. But, it can cover a useful area for many agricultural concerns.
The other limiting factor may well be the Delta T of the day and/or other spraying environment conditions. As a result, for planning, we suggest we can cover 50 Ha a day assuming a chemical that needs appropriate environmental conditions being applied at a water rate of 40L/Ha.
We plan not to run out of spray, but refill the drone at a planned ‘pit stop’, where it may also get a battery change. If we don’t quite get it right, the drone automatically ceases operations, creates a ‘waypoint’ of where it was when it ran out of spray, returns to us for a refill, then heads back to where it left off, and recommences spraying.
We implement several safety measures including pre-flight inspections, exclusion areas, buffer zones, and real-time monitoring. Our operators are trained to handle emergencies and adhere to safety protocols.
Our pilots carefully monitor weather conditions, judge for wind speed limitations, check for temperature extremes and fog to minimize severe weather impacts on our operation.
