Development of Crop-Spraying Module for Multi rotor Drone

This study proposes a crop-spraying module that is detachable and can be used with any multirotor drone system with larger than 600-mm diagonal diameter. The module is designed to independently operate and can instantly connect to a smartphone as it is Bluetooth-controlled. The spraying system is controlled using an Arduino microcontroller, which is connected to MDD3A motor driver for 12-V pump and also HC-05 Bluetooth module for wireless system control via smartphone. In this study, the low-cost Tarot X6 multirotor drone kit has been used as the system platform for the module development. During the hover flight test, the system is tested at three pump voltage settings and two altitudes to determine its operational capabilities. The flight test is conducted with a flying speed of 7.0 m/s and altitude of 1.4 m above ground, where the mission is observed and the total area covered by sprayed colored water per flight is estimated. The observed mission performance is compared with that of some commercial agriculture drones. Overall, it can be taken that the unit cost of this developed crop-spraying module with Tarot X6 drone is considered low cost though its performance is found to be slightly inferior to the commercial ones.