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Copyright of Transactions of the Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering is the property of Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Transactions of the Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering is the property of Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Transactions of the Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering is the property of Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Transactions of the Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering is the property of Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Transactions of the Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering is the property of Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Transactions of the Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering is the property of Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Transactions of the Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering is the property of Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Transactions of the Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering is the property of Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Transactions of the Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering is the property of Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Transactions of the Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering is the property of Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Transactions of the Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering is the property of Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Transactions of the Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering is the property of Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Transactions of the Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering is the property of Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Transactions of the Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering is the property of Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Transactions of the Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering is the property of Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) have widely been served as a new technology in agricultural aviation plant protection and pest control in China. However, it is highly demanded to improve the accuracy of UAV spraying pesticides and operational efficiency. In this study, a Variable Rate Application (VRA) of a centrifugal spraying system was designed for precise placement and timing of pesticide application in specific field conditions using the network Real-Time Kinematic (RTK) technology. STM32F103 single-chip microcomputer was used for the core controller. A serial port of controller was selected to obtain the global position system (GPS) information. A network modular Data Terminal Unit (DTU) was connected to realize the network RTK technology via the serial port of the controller. The control voltage was used to tailor the speeds of the centrifugal nozzle motor and peristaltic pump. A Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) was used to control the output voltage from the core controller to the armature of motors in this system. The speed of the centrifugal nozzle motor determined the output droplet size, while the speed of peristaltic pump determined the flow rate and amount of spray fog. The agricultural dataset before the system working was acquired using the airborne multispectral camera, ground object spectrometer, and handheld GPS. A prescription chart was also constructed using ArcGIS software. In the system working, the GPS modular was used to capture the location longitude and latitude data for the system to read and analyze. The system was always real-time searching the UAV geographical position during the spraying pesticides process using the GPS data, and then matching the position using the orthogonal grid. Meanwhile, the system was used to real-time tailor the changes in the duty cycle of output PWM, after matching the decision of the prescription map. The speeds of the centrifugal nozzle motor and the peristaltic pump were then to control the particle size and application amount of the UAV. The operation data was finally uploaded to the monitoring platform for real-time display and storage. Several spraying experiments were carried out in the research base of South China Agricultural University in Zengcheng City, Guangdong Province of China. The airborne spraying device was carried on the MG-1p plant protection UAV using a developed DJI Drone. The sampling points of droplets were set to match the planting density of crops, where the water-sensitive paper was used to collect the droplet data. After UAV operation, the water sensitive paper was collected into a plastic bag for later use. An hp4678 scanner was selected to map the collected water-sensitive paper after the experiment. A DepositScan software was utilized to analyze the water-sensitive paper in each sampling area after image acquisition. A detailed dataset was obtained, including the deposition amount, coverage density, and particle size of droplets. The data demonstrated that the accuracy of the device was within 0.6 m at the operating speed of 2 m/s. The application effect was finally stabilized within 2.2 m in the case of continuous operation. Particle size varied smoothly in the boundary area of prescription, as the rotating speed of the centrifugal nozzle increased. The findings can provide a sound basis for the improvement of variable application technology of plant protection UAV in precise agriculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Transactions of the Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering is the property of Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Transactions of the Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering is the property of Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Transactions of the Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering is the property of Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Transactions of the Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering is the property of Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Transactions of the Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering is the property of Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Transactions of the Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering is the property of Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Transactions of the Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering is the property of Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Transactions of the Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering is the property of Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Transactions of the Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering is the property of Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Transactions of the Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering is the property of Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Transactions of the Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering is the property of Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Transactions of the Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering is the property of Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Transactions of the Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering is the property of Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Transactions of the Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering is the property of Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Transactions of the Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering is the property of Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Transactions of the Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering is the property of Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Transactions of the Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering is the property of Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Transactions of the Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering is the property of Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Transactions of the Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering is the property of Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Transactions of the Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering is the property of Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Transactions of the Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering is the property of Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

With the rapid development of agricultural aviation, electric multi-rotor unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) for planting protection are favored in plant protection operations due to their advantages of vertical take-off and landing, air hovering, and easy operation. However, because of its low aerodynamic efficiency, there are currently problems such as low loading mass and short battery life, and it is still necessary to optimize and improve it. The lift characteristics is one of the important parameters for the performance test of the multi-rotor UAV. However, few tests have been conducted on the lifting characteristics of multi-rotor UAV. How do we comprehensively evaluate the lifting characteristics of various types of multi-rotor UAV and make comparisons and judgments on the performance of multi-rotor UAV. At present, there are no standards to follow. Only by clearly defining the evaluation index for lift performance, and by standardizing the test methods and evaluation criteria, the performance of the multi-rotor UAV can be judged and the suggestions for optimization and improvement can be given. Based on the existing research results, this paper considered the functional effectiveness criteria of helicopters combining economy, weight reduction, and heat transfer. A method of test and evaluation for the lift characteristics of the semi-tethered multi-rotor UAV is proposed. It includes performance testing semi-tethered platform, lift characteristics test method and index, and lift characteristics evaluation method. In order to verify the feasibility of the method, the performance test of 3 different models (four-rotor, Type I; six-rotor, Type II; and eight-rotor, Type III) was carried out. The test results show that the 3 models have great difference in power load, weight efficiency and thermal efficiency ratio. Type III is the best in power load, 7.6 mN/W larger than the worst Type I. The best Type I is 0.33 larger than the worst Type Ⅱ in weight efficiency. The best Type III is 10.5 N/°C larger than the worst Type I in thermal efficiency ratio. It reflects the difference in motor and propeller selection and structure of the 3 models of aircraft during the design process, thus showing difference in the performance of the whole machine. On the basis of the above index test, combined with the mathematical model of multi-rotor UAV power system, a scoring method is put forward to evaluate the lift characteristics of the multi-rotor UAV using the power load, weight efficiency and thermal efficiency ratio. The results of the comprehensive score of the 3 types are as follows: Type III > Type I > Type II. The results show that the proposed evaluation method can effectively evaluate the lift characteristics of different types of multi-rotor UAV. It can more objectively and accurately assess the technical level of multi-rotor UAV and strengthen the management of multi-rotor UAV in use. The test and evaluation method presented in this paper can not only be used to evaluate the performance of the multi-rotor UAV, but also provide a reference for the further improvement of the model performance. Of course, in the performance evaluation of multi-rotor UAV, the improvement of power load, weight efficiency and thermal efficiency ratio cannot be excessively pursued, and the balance of technical performance, reliability performance, safety performance, and economical efficiency should be upheld. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Transactions of the Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering is the property of Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Transactions of the Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering is the property of Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Transactions of the Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering is the property of Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Transactions of the Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering is the property of Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Transactions of the Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering is the property of Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Transactions of the Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering is the property of Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Transactions of the Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering is the property of Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

With the widespread application of plant protection unmanned aircraft vehicle (UAV) in China, the application technology of plant protection UAV has attracted attention, and the environmental risk from the uniformity of deposition distribution and droplet drift loss is also an important question. At present, there are few test methods focusing on the droplet distribution in the environment of plant protection UAV. In this paper, a set of stereoscopic test methods for low-altitude low-volume plant protection UAV was designed mainly based on the international standards ISO 22866 and ISO 24253. The methods concluded two parts of the ground distribution and airborne distribution. The ground distribution was collected by the standard collectors (Petri dishes and Polyvinyl Chloride card) arranged on the ground according to the ISO standard. The airborne distribution mainly used a vertical sedimentation testing framework. The droplets of aerial drift were collected by Polytetrafluoroethylene lines and rotary tube brushes. The accurate flight parameters (fight speed and working width) of each test were captured by a camera UAV (Phantom 4A, produced by DJI) above the ground 80 m. Two three-axis ultrasonic anemometers (Gill, USA) were installed above ground 2 and 5 m respectively, which could obtain real-time meteorological data including the wind speed, wind direction and temperature. There were four types plant protection UAVs for testing, the MG-1s (DJI, 8 rotors), 3WQF-120-12 (Anyang Quanfeng, 1 rotor), 3W-TTA6-10 (Beifang Tiantu, 6 rotors) and 3W-TTA8-20 (Beifang Tiantu, 8 rotors), they were tested respectively with the nozzles of IDK 120-015 and TR 80-0067 produced by Lechler (Germany). A new calculation method was proposed, and total deposition around UAV was calculated for verifing the accuracy of method. Total ground sedimentation and aerial disappearance were calculated to represent all available pesticide, and evaluate the environmental risk respectively. The results showed that the ground deposition rate of all tests was between 53.6% to 76.6%, the highest ground drift rate was rich to 17.4%, and the airborne drift rate could be as high as 14.7%. This test system could collect 62.4%～101.7% droplets around the UAV sprayed by plant protection UAV. The drifts of 4 tested plant protection UAV installed IDK nozzles were obviously less than that with TR nozzles, meanwhile, the nozzle changing also reduced the ground deposition in some tests. Different plant protection UAVs had different distribution regular patterns of deposition when they installed TR or IDK nozzles. It meant the designs of different plant protection UAVs needed to select the right nozzles after finishing the distribution test for different types of nozzles. Thus, the most suitable nozzle type of each UAV should be tested and selected before the UAV working. This test method can effectively and systematically collect and analyze the droplets distribution of plant protection UAV and the drift regularity in the work area, which can provide a new reference for the comprehensive evaluation of the plant protection UAV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lodging has been regard as one of the major destructive factors for crop quality and yield, resulting in an increasing need to develop cost-efficient and accurate methods for detecting crop lodging in a routine manner. Nowadays, rapid evolvement in unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and sensor technology has allowed high accurate and more accessible in monitoring crop development and health status with adequate temporal, spatial, and spectral resolutions. Compared with satellite and airborne photogrammetry, UAV with proper sensors offer a flexible, convenient, and cost-effective way to provide desired and customized observations on crop fields. Previous studies have extensively examined and verified the potential of UAV-based lodging recognition by leveraging photogrammetric algorithms, geospatial computing analysis, as well as pertinent agricultural expertise. As a substantive extension of previous published proceeding papers, this work presents a complete UAV-based survey methodology for monitoring lodging maize. Multispectral images of lodging mature maize in Youyi farm of Heilongjiang Province were collected to extract the lodging area. There were 4 crop forms in the research area: not-lodging maize with green leaves, not-lodging maize with yellowish leaves, lodging maize with yellowish leaves, and black shadows, based on the multispectral image. The 2 vegetation indexes and 8 co-occurrence measures texture features were calculated, and the feature sets of maize lodging area extraction was constructed on the basis of the above 2 kinds of predictors and spectral reflectivity features. 5 types of maize lodging identification feature sets were sifted, which included spectral feature set, normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) feature set, red edge normalized difference vegetation index (NDVIR-edge) feature set, single-class texture feature set and multi-class texture feature set. The maximum likelihood method was used to identify maize lodging for all feature sets. Finally, we analyzed the classification error of 4 crop morphology, extraction error and Kappa coefficient of lodging area under different features. The results showed that maize lodging area extracted by spectral feature set and NDVI feature set was larger than measured lodging area, which mainly because the wrong classification of not-lodging B pixels into lodging pixels, while the main reason for the inaccurate maize lodging area obtained by NDVIR-edge feature was that the not-lodging B maize and the not-lodging maize affected by edge effect were classified into lodging. Extraction area of lodging maize by single texture feature set was smaller because some of the not-lodging B maize pixels were classified as lodging pixels, but more lodging pixels was misclassified as not-lodging pixels. Single and multi-class texture feature sets could remove the shadow of blade gap well with appropriate texture filtering window selected, but multi-class feature set had higher extraction accuracy. It was difficult to distinguish the lodging maize from the not-lodging maize with yellowish leaves in mature period, and there was no significant difference in spectral reflectance feature between the 2 crop morphology. Therefore, when we identified these 2 types of crop morphology, a large number of misclassification pixels would be generated. The multi-class texture features extracted from UAV multispectral images could accurately extract maize lodging area. The average error of 4 crop morphology was 9.82%, the extraction error of lodging area was 3.40%, and the Kappa coefficient was 0.84. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid and accurate acquisition of evapotranspiration in field crops is an urgent issue to be solved in crop evapotranspiration researches. In this paper, the feasibility of estimating crop coefficient by unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) remote sensing in maize under different water stresses was analyzed. The experiment was conducted in Zhaojun town Experimental Station in Dalate Qi, Inner Mongolia. Full irrigation (TR1) was designed as 50% of field water holding capacity based on previous research results and local situation, which was considered as the base. The water stress condition (80% of the base soil moisture) was designed in the fast growth stage for TR2-TR4. The 82% and 43% of the base soil moisture were also designed for the late growth stage of TR2 and TR3, respectively. In addition, in the middle growth stage, the water stress with 65% of the base soil moisture was designed for TR4. The maize was planted on May 20th,2017. The whole growth period lasted 110 days. The sprinkled irrigation was used for the experiment. The experimental area was partitioned into 4 regions for the different treatments. In each region, a squared area with the side length of 12 m was chosen for plant height and leaf area index measurements. The measurements were carried out every 2-5 days. Soil moisture at 30-cm depth was determined in each area as the surface soil moisture. Meanwhile, climatic parameters such as precipitation, air temperature, relative humidity and so on were collected from local meteorological station. Crop coefficient was calculated by dual crop coefficient method proposed by FAO56 based on meteorological parameters and plant height. The UAV multispectral monitoring system was to obtain the canopy spectral vegetation index of field maize under different water stress conditions. The UAS images were obtained at the same time with the plant height measurement. The simple ratio index was calculated based on reflectivity of red and near infrared band. The dynamic change of leaf area index, soil moisture, simple ratio index, and crop coefficient was analyzed. The results showed that the water stress heavily affected the leaf area index, the simple ratio index and the surface soil moisture was decreased in the late growth stage of maize, and the crop coefficient was low in the late growth stage. The correlation analysis between the crop coefficient, simple ratio index, leaf area index and surface soil moisture showed that the surface soil moisture had the highest correlation with the crop coefficient for the treatment of TR1, TR2 and TR4 but the leaf area index was highly correlated with the crop coefficient in the TR3. By stepwise regression analysis, the 3-variable model had the highest accuracy with the adjusted determination coefficient of 0.63, root mean square error of 0.21 and the normalized root mean square of error of 25.16%. The validation showed the determination coefficient of 0.60, root mean square error of 0.21 and the normalized root mean square of error of 23.35%. It indicated that the 3-variable model was well to estimate crop coefficient. The results provide a method support for crop coefficient estimation by UAV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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In this paper, SfM-MVS (structure from motion with multi-view stereo) method was introduced to construct a high precision terrain model of the typical gully on the Losses Plateau of northern Shaanxi in China, with oblique aerial photos acquired by a COTS (commercial off-the-shelf) UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) (DJI INSPIRE-1) and 30 high-precision pre-deployed ground control points (GCPs) measured by FIFO A30 RTK (real-time kinematic). A sequence of 194 oblique photos were captured by UAV camera with 70°pitch angle following a dual-Z shaped flight route, which were in comparison with 74 orthophotos captured by a nadir-point UAV camera in single Z shaped flight route. The photos were imported into PhotoScan software for terrain construction along with POS (position and orientation) information. Firstly, a preliminary alignment of aerial photos was performed as well as a rough estimation of camera parameters. The RMS (root mean square) reprojection error of tie points was 0.808 pixel and the maximum reprojection error was 41.143 5 pixel. Secondly, the corresponding projections of GCPs were marked on each photo and a set of GCP references were established in PhotoScan. Thirdly, camera estimation was iteratively optimized with high precision GCP references until errors of GCPs and reprojection errors of tie points met desired standard. After 4 iterations, the GCP errors were stabilized and its reprojection error was down to 0.538 pixel, and the RMS reprojection error of tie points also decreased to 0.51 pixel and its maximum reprojection error was down to 7.8 pixel. Fourthly, based on the optimized camera parameters and original aerial photos, depth image of each photo was calculated and a dense gully point cloud model consisting of 9 537 948 points was built through PMVS (patch-based multi-view stereo) algorithm in PhotoScan. And fifthly, the 30 GCPs were classified into 2 categories; 10 GCPs that numbered multiples of three were selected as check points to evaluate the overall accuracy of gully model, while the others were used as geo-reference to the WGS-84 system. Finally, the georeferenced gully dense point cloud was rasterized to gully DEM (digital elevation model) and triangulated to gully TIN (triangulated irregular network) from which the gully DOM (digital ortho-photo map) was built. Afterwards, the accuracies of oblique photos derived gully point cloud model as well as DEM and DOM results were analyzed and compared with that of ortho-photos. Box plot of GCP errors verified the consistency between the X/Y/Z errors of check GCPs and reference GCPs in oblique photo result. Thus the constructed gully dense point cloud has a roughly 0.096 m planimetric RMSE and 0.018 m vertical RMSE, which fulfills the requirement of DLG (digital line graphic) and DOM in 1:500 scale (GH/Z 3003-2010). The achieved accuracy well meets the requirement of high precision gully modeling and monitoring. The result of ortho-photos has a 0.105 m planimetric RMSE and 0.036 m vertical RMSE. That confirms a 50% improvement of vertical accuracy with oblique photos. The overall density of the gully point cloud is 12 680 points/m2, which is comparative to terrestrial laser scanning, and it avoids the uneven sampling caused by multi-station assembling of TLS (terrestrial laser scanning). Except from a small patch of inner part in concave gully head, there aren't obvious holes in gully head or walls in the model. In addition, the area covered with vegetation can also be correctly constructed. On the contrary, there are open holes in concave gully head and vegetated area in ortho-photo result. Seen from the DEM and contour lines map of the gully, the constructed terrain model gives a fine description of gully morphology. However, there are burrs and breaks in contour line caused by vegetation outside the gully, which shows the necessity of vegetation removal. In general, the proposed method has advantages in high precision gully terrain modeling and shows great ability to further application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]