As the world faces the unknown with the coronavirus pandemic, public officials have turned to agricultural drones to help them guard against the spread of COVID-19 pathogens.
Why agricultural drones? Unmanned agricultural aircraft are equipped to spray chemicals. Their spraying capabilities have been adapted to disinfectant duties.
Still unknown is how long pathogens last on hard surfaces. World health officials have said it could be anywhere from hours to several days, depending on the surface.
Regardless, stopping the spread of a virus needs to be done as quickly as possible, which makes aerial spraying an attractive solution. High-efficiency spraying of disinfectants by drones is up to 50 times faster than applications by ground crews.
From Nutrients to Disinfectants
In normal agricultural use, DJI Agras drones apply liquid nutrients and pesticides to crops in fields. Drone-based aerial feeding of crops and killing of harmful insects has been proven in studies and in the real world to increase yields. Spraying crops with drones cost a fraction of what hiring services with piloted aircrafts costs. It’s also more convenient because a farmer or one of his employees can do the spraying without having to accommodate the schedule of a crop duster.
During the pandemic, the need to disinfect large areas was presenting a problem for public health officials in China, where Covid-19 was first encountered. Using handheld spraying equipment deployed by ground crews threatened the safety of personnel. It was time consuming, so workers spent a great deal of time potentially exposed to chemicals and pathogens.
DJI went to work to find an alternative to ground-applied disinfectants over wide areas. The company, the world’s leading designer and manufacturer of civilian drones, started by pledging $1.5 million to China’s pandemic control efforts. Then it worked on adapting Agras agricultural drones to disinfection duties.
Disinfecting Bigger Areas Faster
DJI, working with county governments in China, has used agricultural drones to disinfect about 6.5 billion square feet across 1,000 counties. The drones have disinfected outdoor areas, traffic hubs, residential developments, factories, industrial parks and waste treatment plants. Drones sprayed disinfectant on more than 32 million square feet of surfaces in Shenzhen province alone, including road surfaces in contaminated neighborhoods.
To disinfect, crews load the agricultural drones with chlorine or ethyl-alcohol mixtures. DJI has worked with officials to find the best concentrations based on circumstances, including whether the area is known to be infected or not.
Spraying has reduced the risks workers face compared with ground-based applications:
- Workers have less exposure to the virus, both because they spend less time in contaminated areas and because they do not physically cover all the ground that they would have to walk if applying with ground-based equipment.
- Workers spend less time exposed to the chemicals they handle.
Devices
- DJI Agras T16 Agricultural Hexacopter
- Extra Spray Bottles
- Extra Intelligent Flight Batteries
- Battery Management Systems with Charging Hub
Hello. I am looking at the the t16 for disinfecting. Backpack floggers atomize to 50 microns. Are there nozzles for the t16 that will get it to 50 microns? How much does downdraft effect the spray? Would downdraft effect 50 microns adversely?
hi we are the leading survey company in Bangladesh . and we are closely working with government , big group , private sector, and may others industries . and due to covid-19 sitution and our govt is planning to subsidies in the UAV syystem we need to take the opportunity. and we are interested in the following sector to develop by buy your UAV sysytem .
1. agriculture(spray ) 2. security(police department)3. fire department (for spraying disinfection ) 4. surveying (mapping)
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