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WSU tests UAV agricultural apps
Teams from Washington State University (WSU) and Digital Harvest are partnering to test an unmanned aerial vehicle's (UAV) ability to blow rainwater off cherry orchards to avoid fruit losses, WSU announced on 11 August.
Over the next few months, WSU will test the 11-foot Yamaha RMAX unmanned helicopter as an alternative to hovering helicopters to dry off cherry crops. Rainwater on cherries and similar fruits cause premature decay and, eventually, a loss of marketable fruits.
The Yamaha RMAX was developed in Japan and has been used for spraying rice crops since 1997. It has a weight of 141lbs and load capacity of 61lbs.
If the UAV is successful in the trials, the WSU team may next target the application of this UAV for targeted spraying and chemical dispersal.
The research is being funded through the Emerging Research Issues grants programme of the WSU College of Agricultural, Human and Natural Resource Sciences. The FAA has already given a 333 exemption for the UAV to fly and undergo tests for research purposes.
Lav Khot, assistant professor of biological systems engineering, WSU Center for Precision and Automated Agricultural Systems, said: 'Traditional helicopters can be cost prohibitive and problematic, and there is not any hard data on the effectiveness of helicopters and orchard sprayers for rainwater removal.
'We hope our research will show the efficacy of the RMAX and also analyse data to share with tree fruit growers. In Japan, it is common for family farms to pool resources to utilise the RMAX to spray their fields. We could foresee the same partnering with farms in the Pacific Northwest. We are excited to get the data sets back and work with Digital Harvest and Yamaha on the next phase of testing.'
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