This list-serve has been rather inactive, so here's a
futuristic issue to pique your imagination:
Over the weekend, I happened to read an interesting article
in NY Times concerning the fact that the US Federal Aviation
Authority has recently begun regulatory changes that will allow
commercial use of drone aircraft in non-military applications. The
article is available at
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/18/technology/drones-with-an-eye-on-the-public-cleared-to-fly.html?emc=eta1,
but you may need a subscription to view it.
The gist of the article is that drone manufacturers are
looking for new business options as US military orders are or will
be (hopefully?) slowing with the troop draw-down in Afghanistan. The
article mentions "crop dusting" as one potential civilian use for
drones. That mention triggered a number of questions.
Is anyone aware of companies that are actively testing drones
for pesticide applications? Given the tremendous losses that occur
when weather conditions prevent conventional sprayers from getting
through apple orchards in eastern United States, helicopter drones
might prove both useful and cost-effective for rapid-response
pesticide applications. With modern GPS capabilities, drones could
presumably be programmed to accurately fly over tree rows, adjust for
wind-associated drift problems, and return to a predetermined parking
area for refilling a spray tank. Even if lift capabilities meant
that the drone could only spray one acre per tank, application speed
might still allow it to cover acreage much faster than conventional
sprayers. Spending a million dollars for a drone might sound
far-fetched, but various accounts suggest that PA apple farmers lost
far more than a million dollars last year when 50 days of rain during
the primary scab period created difficulties in maintaining fungicide
coverage. One drone operator in that area might have been able to
save a lot of acres from scab.
Other interesting questions:
1. How much weight could a million-dollar drone carry?
2. Can they operate in adverse conditions (i.e., during rain, with
shifting wind currents a low altitudes)?
2. Are helicopter drones quieter than conventional helicopters, or
at least no nosier than conventional airblast sprayers? If not, then
noise becomes an issue for many fruit farms located near residential
areas. (For many orchards in the east, fixed-wing drones would be
undesirable because home-owners adjacent to orchards don't appreciate
being buzzed by low-flying aircraft, and they would go absolutely
nuts if they learned that pilotless drones were carrying pesticides
over their properties!)
3. What kind of additional regulations might be imposed/required for
a pesticide-laden drone vis-a-vis safety of neighboring properties,
etc?
4. Should agrichemical companies be looking for new chemistries
and/or formulations that might work better for aerial applications
than most of the current products that must be absorbed or adsorbed
into the cuticle to be rainfast. The older fungicides that were
often applied via aircraft in northeastern United States (back before
air applications were mostly discontinued) were contact fungicides
that could be readily redistributed by rainfall. Thus perfect
coverage of the all foliage was not essential because final coverage
was enhanced by the same rains that brought on scab infection
periods. I'm not certain how well any of the fungicide products
developed since 1985 would actually work when applied via aircraft
when trees already have enough open leaves to limit coverage that
occurs via aerial application (e.g., during bloom). Coverage with
fixed wing and conventional aircraft was enhanced by the turbulence
generated from the wings or the rotors, but a small drone might
generate less turbulence and redistribution might therefore become
more important.
I don't expect to see crop-duster drones in NY orchards in the near
future, but they may well become practical within the next decade.
Sounds like an interesting business for an agricultural techie who
always wanted to fly planes but is afraid of heights.
--
**************************************************************
Dave Rosenberger
Professor of Plant Pathology Office: 845-691-7231
Cornell University's Hudson Valley Lab Fax: 845-691-2719
P.O. Box 727, Highland, NY 12528 Cell: 845-594-3060
http://www.nysaes.cornell.edu/pp/faculty/rosenberger/
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