AERIAL SEEDING APPLICATION FOR REFORESTATION

Due to the presence in the forest fund of the Russian Federation of a sufficient number of areas that are inaccessible, unsuitable or inefficient for the use of ground-based mechanization tools (felling, burning, forest canopy, ravine-beam network, slopes), it is advisable to sow forest seeds from the air using unmanned aircraft systems.

Design and Experimentation of an Aerial Seeding System for Rapeseed Based on an Air-Assisted Centralized Metering Device and a Multi-Rotor Crop Protection UAV

To improve the overall mechanization level of rapeseed production in China, especially in some hilly regions where ground machinery cannot enter the fields or can only enter with very low economic benefits, a special aerial seeding system for rapeseed based on a miniature air-assisted centralized metering device was designed and tested in this study. Unlike existing commercial aerial seeding systems, the proposed seed meter was a miniaturized version derived from the traditional air-feeding seed meter on ground planters. The new version contained a redesigned seed feeding component to overcome problems of serious air backflow to the seed box and difficult seed feeding after miniaturization. Three groups of experiments were designed and conducted to optimize the parameters of the seed meter and test its performance. Results from the orthogonal experiment showed that the seed feeding component performed best when the seed layer thickness was 45 mm, the rotational speed of the gear disc was 45 r/min, and the airflow pressure was 2450 Pa. Results from the static workbench test showed that the designed seeding system had a maximum average total sowing efficiency of 537.17 g/min, with the maximum values of the stability variation coefficient of total seeding rate (seven ports) and the consistency variation coefficient between each port was 2.37% and 4.89%, respectively. Field tests further proved that the designed aerial seeding system could work stably, uniformly, and efficiently, so that the agronomic requirements of rape crop planting could be well met.

Development tendency of sowing air operating technology by unmanned aerial vehicles in artificial reforestation

The choice of technology and technical means for sowing seeds is formed on the basis of analytical information on the structural characteristics of areas for artificial reforestation. The identification of the trends in the development of aerial forest processes by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) is based on the methodology for a systematic review and patent search, taking into account the following criteria: the accuracy of the search, the inclusion of results, exclusion of results, extraction, and comparison of actual data. The main development trends are determined by: creation of aerial seeding technology on unsuitable and (or) inaccessible areas using UAVs with an integrated precision sowing device; development of new aerial control system, distinguished by the structure of closely integrated inertial-satellite monitoring system that provides for the loss of satellite measurements of the determination of all parameters of the motion of unmanned aerial vehicles by an autonomous algorithm, new types of sensors, functional components and algorithms for nonlinear filtering of positional parameters and parameters of angular motion of UAV; effective from the computational point of view, methodology of online monitoring of dynamic nonlinear objects based on information from electronic maps and satellite measurements; radically new complex studies of the relationship between the main operations of alternative presowing treatment and survival and preservation of forest cultures. The technology of forest aerial seeding during the development and setting for production will ensure: reduction in the environmental load on the environment and costs of artificial reforestation in these areas with simultaneous and subsequent monitoring of the results; optimal seed sowing schemes, taking into account the silvicultural requirements, and high-precision navigation of the UAV in the event of the loss of satellite measurements; use of high-quality reproductive material with specified qualitative characteristics, obtained with the use of technical means, which, at the earliest stage of processing, allocate viable color-seeded races, which are the basis for obtaining forest cultures with improved hereditary properties, and form seed-capsules with necessary physiological and physical and mechanical properties providing protective functions in the juvenile stage of ontogenesis.