OPERATIONAL STUDY OF DRONE SPRAYING APPLICATION OF PHYTOSANITARY PRODUCTS IN VINEYARDS

The use of drones in topics related to precision agriculture to improve the efficiency in the application of phytosanitary products to vineyards increases every day. Drones are especially productive in difficult orographic terrains, where other mechanical systems such as tractors cannot be used. This study shows the development and implementation of a methodology to determine key parameters to decide the suitability of a drone to a spraying task (i.e. spraying time for a certain parcel, number or tank refills required), taking into account the technical specifications of a certain commercial model. For the validation, the data of a vineyard belonging to the Rías Baixas appellation of origin (NW Spain) and the technical specifications of drones from three different manufacturers (i.e. DJI, Hylio and Yamaha) are used. Results show that the Hylio AD122 with a phytosanitary tank of 22 L provides the best performance, with a productivity around 6 minutes per hectare. Keywords: drone spraying; vineyard; precision agriculture; aerial works