A new spray deposition pattern measurement system based on spectral analysis of a fluorescent tracer

Authors: WEN, YAO - BEIJING ACADEMY OF AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES; ZHANG, RUIRUI - BEIJING ACADEMY OF AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES; CHEN, LIPING - BEIJING ACADEMY OF AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES; Huang, Yanbo; YI, TONGCHUAN - BEIJING ACADEMY OF AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES; XU, GANG - BEIJING ACADEMY OF AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES

Submitted to: Computers and Electronics in Agriculture
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/7/2019
Publication Date: 3/15/2019
Citation: Wen, Y., Zhang, R., Chen, L., Huang, Y., Yi, T., Xu, G. 2019. A new spray deposition pattern measurement system based on spectral analysis of a fluorescent tracer. Computers and Electronics in Agriculture. 160:14-22.

Interpretive Summary: Aerial application of crop protection and production materials from unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is a unique way to conduct site-specific management in small scale over crop fields. In order to quantify the spray deposition for evaluation of spray efficacy scientists of National Research Center of Intelligent Equipment for Agriculture, Beijing, China and USDA ARS Crop Production Systems Research Unit at Stoneville, Mississippi, developed a fluorescence trace system for measuring spray deposition based on fluorescence signal detection and spectral analysis. The results indicated that the system could reliably measure the sprayed tracer signal delivered from an UAV and explain the droplet deposit distribution over 80%. This research project provides a new tool for rapid and continuous detection of droplet deposition for aerial application sprays from UAV for crop protection and production.

Technical Abstract: A fluorescence trace system for measuring spray deposition based on spectral analysis was developed. In the spraying experiment of this system, a quadrotor unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) was used, and the droplet distribution was obtained by using a droplet capture paper strip with a fluorescence tracer solution with 1% mass concentration. The system measured the spectral characteristic curve of the paper strip, which indicated that the fluorescence tracer of the droplet capture paper strip was sensitive in the band of 485–495 nm with the excitation of ultraviolet light. The correlation coefficient between spectral data measured by the droplet capture paper strip and droplet deposition parameters measured by the water-sensitive paper cards was approximately 0.9. Univariate linear regression models were built to determine the droplet deposit distribution, with a determination coefficient of approximately 0.8. This research provides a new tool for rapid and continuous detection of droplet deposition for aerial application from UAV for plant protection.