Advances in Aerial Application Equipment and Technology for Agricultural Production
A special issue of Agriculture (ISSN 2077-0472). This special issue belongs to the section "Agricultural Technology".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 July 2024 | Viewed by 997
Special Issue Editors
Interests: precision agriculture; agriculture aerial applications; UAVs and UGVs for plant protection; intelligent equipment and sensors for agriculture and forestry
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: bionic intelligent agricultural machinery; autonomous navigation; target recognition based on visual bionics; agricultural drones; agricultural artificial intelligence; soil and plant sensing; agricultural machinery information collection and control
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: precision pesticide application; spray drift control; variable-rate application system; aerial application quality evaluation; bystander exposure in pesticide application
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues
An aging population and rapid urbanization are exacerbating labor shortages in agricultural production, resulting in higher labor costs. Owing to the development of sensors and intelligent control technology, unmanned and manpower-saving aerial application equipment and technology are being iteratively upgraded to promote efficient and intelligent agricultural production. The spraying of aerial chemicals was the first aerial application technology used in agricultural production, and it is widely used in the control of large-scale and sudden diseases and pests. It is worth noting that, in China, the number of UAV sprayers employed has rapidly reached more than 100,000 as of 2021, representing a 15-fold increase over a 5-year period. Nowadays, the application domain of aerial application technology is subdivided, and it is expanding to many new application scenarios (e.g., fertilization, seeding, pollination, detasseling, and feed delivery), exhibiting great potential in agricultural production.
It should not be ignored that the performance of aerial application technology needs to be improved due to factors such as the distance between the aircraft and the target, downwash flow, etc. The mechanism implicated in the delivery of agricultural materials and movement outside/inside the crop canopy remains unclear. In addition, dedicated precision actuators, advanced systems and equipment need to be developed.
This Special Issue focuses on in-depth research addressing novel aerial application technologies and equipment for agricultural production, including remote sensing, aircraft path planning and navigation, experimental and numerical models for the movement of agricultural materials, collaboration between UAVs and UGVs, accurate application control methods and the evaluation of the application quality; this is in order to enhance the performance of aerial application so as to achieve a high and stable application quality. Research articles will cover a broad range of aerial applications for agricultural production, including chemical spraying, fertilization, seeding, pollination, and detasseling, etc. All types of articles, such as original research, opinions, and reviews, are welcome.
Prof. Dr. Ruirui Zhang
Prof. Dr. Jiangtao Qi
Dr. Longlong Li
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Agriculture is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- precision agriculture
- aerial applications
- UAV
- manned aircraft
- UAV and UGV
- chemicals spraying
- remote sensing
- multi-scenario aerial application
- aircraft path planning and navigation
- variable-rate application
- application quality evaluation
