Design and Development of Aerial Fertilizer Spreader for Improved Efficiency

Abstract

Crop production all over the world has been increased dramatically after the production of synthetic fertilizers. Population of the world has been increasing exponentially, putting pressure on limited resources. Now a days, the major concern is the environment. Under and overdose application of fertilizers and pesticides cause damage not only to the crop but also effects the environment. The spread ability and uniformity of the spreader pattern has become significant subject in this age of agricultural engineering. In the first phase, design and development is completed using solidworks software at Robot Design and Development Lab, NUST. In the second phase, mathematical model is developed to predict the behavior of particle ejected from unmanned aerial fertilizer spreader (UAFS) and a computer program is developed to simulate the particle trajectory and particle distribution. The unmanned aerial fertilizer spreader speed, particle size, density and the atmospheric wind are found to have significant effect on the deposition uniformity and pattern width. The height of unmanned aerial fertilizer also impacts spreading width. To analyze the actual deposition pattern,field tests are performed. Field tests are found to be associated with high degree of uncertainty in term of variable inputs. Using kinematic equations we have determined the various factors, such as the optimize length of impeller 155mm, optimize angle is between 25 to 30 degrees, optimize RPM 425 and optimize height of (UAFS) is 2 m from crop height, physical parameter such as average fertilizer particle diameter is 2 mm and bulk density is 2000 kg/m3 . The model is having potential in predicting the trends in change of deposition pattern shape and size with changes in variables like particle properties, unmanned aerial fertilizer speed, altitude and wind speed.