SMART SPRAYING SYSTEM USING

02-05-2020

QUADCOPTER
M. Aarthilakshmi, S. Meenakshi, A. Poorna Pushkala, V. Rama@Ramalakshmi, N.B. Prakash.

Abstract: Indian agriculture needed production and protection materials  to realize high productivity . Agriculture fertilizer and
chemicals frequently needed to kill insects and the growth of crops. The WHO (World Health Organization) estimates there are more
than 1 million pesticide cases every year. That more than one lakh deaths each year, especially in developing countries due to the
pesticides sprayed by human beings. The quadcopter is used to spray the Pesticide as well as fertilizer to avoid the humans from
pesticide poison. The quadcopter carries pesticides to spray all over the farm which reduces the work of farmers as well as finishes his
work soon. The application of pesticides and fertilizers in agriculture is an important area for crop yields. Traditionally pesticides are
sprayed in agriculture manually so this kind of system harms humans and leads to many serious health issues. The pesticide affects
the nervous system of humans and also leads to disorders in the body. So there should be a method to reduce this kind of backdrops.
This model is used to spray the pesticide content to the areas that can't easily accessible by humans. The drone is used to spray the
liquid as well as solid contents which are done by the sprayers. Here the farmer can control the drone using an android app and he can
connect to the app using Bluetooth module which is interfaced in the drone. Here we have used the Arduino board which is the open-
source electronics prototype platform that is interfaced with the Bluetooth module. This paper concentrates on spraying the pesticide
using drones. A large number of pesticides can be avoided and spraying them in a required quantity and small areas by using a
quadcopter. The quadcopter is getting more excessively used due to many reasons such as Easy to build and assemble, complexity is
less. Generally, in most cases quadcopter is used. Here we are using for spraying the pesticides in the crop yields.
Keywords: Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, BLDC Motor, ESC, Lipo Battery, Sprinkler.

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1 INTRODUCTION mapping, etc .Finally, all the hardware and

This project aims to overcome all the ill effects software designs are made open-source. Now
of pesticides on human beings also used to a Days multi-copter UAVs especially
spray pesticide over large areas in a short quadcopters with state-of-the-art controllers
interval of time compared to conventional have gained quite a huge interest from the
spraying by using an automated aerial engineering community because of many
pesticide over large areas in a short interval of reasons like controlling all directions of
time compared to conventional spraying by movement in fling and hovering at certain
using an automated aerial pesticide sprayer. points like a helicopter. Farmers can now start
We use an autonomous quadcopter for this using drones for pesticide spraying, Drones
purpose. An autonomous quadcopter is can lift around 15 liters of pesticide at one time
capable of balancing on its own and flying from and cover a pretty large area in one go. This
an origin to a goal using preset paths and makes it easy for the farmers as he just has to
directions. The quadcopter implements PID program the drone and left it fly over the field in
control, an ultrasonic sensor to detect predefined patterns to cover the maximum area
obstacles, and an autonomous flight algorithm. with pesticides this is turning out to be a very
The quadcopter is a four-armed, four-rotor fast and efficient way of spraying pesticides
propelled helicopter with inherently unstable and also safe as a farmer does not inhale the
and nonlinear dynamics. Though it is difficult to toxic fumes. In India, as individual farms are
develop control systems achieve stability, the small and the use of drones is useless their
final system development can be very agile man companies have equipped with drones. A
and with the capability of unidirectional group of farmers can get together and rent this
movement much more than other drone from these companies and spray in their
UAVs like planes and helicopter (with field. Thus, the idea was generated in our mind
single rotor). In the UAV world, Quad-rotors why can’t we use these types of drones in
features one of the highest payload capacities Agricultural fields, and then we started
making it possible to load it with a myriad of developing our initial idea.
sensors. Quad-rotors are often utilized for 2 OBJECTIVES.
both indoor and outdoor data The main objective of the proposed work is as
collection like surveillance, building follows:
  To provide automatic spraying capability
to an Arial vehicle.
 To use sensor fusion concept using
accelerometer and gyroscope for direction
orientations of Arial vehicle.
 To implement the system based on KK
Board
3 PROPOSED SYSTEM Fig.2 Brushless DC motor
This project aims to overcome the ill effects of
pesticides on human beings and also used to ELECTRONIC SPEED CONTROLLER
spray pesticides over large areas in a short interval
of time compared to conventional spraying by An electronic speed control or ESC is an electronic
using an automated aerial pesticide sprayer. This circuit that controls and regulates the speed of an
device is a combination of spraying mechanism on electric motor. It may also provide reversing of the
a quadcopter frame. motor and dynamic braking. Miniature electronic
speed controls are used in electrically powered
radio-controlled models. Full-size electric vehicles
also have systems to control the speed of their
drive motors.

Fig.1. Spraying Pesticides Using Quadcopter

3.1 WORKING PRINCIPLE

The quadcopter is a device with an intense mixture
of Electronics, Mechanical, and mainly on the Fig 3. Electronic Speed Controller
principle of Aviation. The Quadcopter has four
motors whose speed of rotation and the direction KK Board
of rotation changes according to the user’s desire
to move the device in a particular direction (i.e. KK2.1 Multi-Rotor controller manages the flight of
Takeoff motion, Landing motion, Forward motion, (mostly) multi-rotor Aircraft (Tri copters,
backward motion, leftward motion, rightward Quadcopters, Hex copters, etc.). Its purpose is to
motion). stabilize the aircraft during flight and to do this, it
takes signals from onboard gyroscopes (roll, pitch,
The rotation of motors changes as per the and yaw) and passes these signals to the
transmitted signal send the 6-Channel transmitter. Atmega324PA processor, which in-turn processes
The program for which is written in the AT-MEGA signals according to the user's selected firmware
16 chip. The signal from the microcontroller goes to (e.g. Quadcopter) and passes the control signals to
ESC’s which in turn controls the speed of the the installed Electronic Speed Controllers (ESCs)
motor. One of the most common and popular flying and the combination of these signals instructs the
drone designs is the Quadcopter, which is a type of ESCs to make fine adjustments to the motors
drone that is lifted and propelled by four rotors. rotational speeds which in-turn stabilizes the craft.

3.2COMPONENTS DESCRIPTION
Brushless DC Motor

A brushless DC motor consists of a rotor in form of

a permanent magnet and stator in form of
polyphase s armature windings. It differs from the
conventional dc motor in such that it doesn’t
contain brushes and the commutation is done
using electrically, using an electronic drive to feed
the stator windings. Fig 4. KK Board
Multi-Rotor control board also uses signals from Nozzles are used for three purposes: to distribute a
your radio system via a receiver (Rx) and passes liquid over an area, to increase liquid surface area,
these signals together with stabilization signals to and create impact force on a solid surface. A wide
the Atmega324PA IC via the aileron; elevator; variety of spray nozzle applications use several
throttle and rudder user demand inputs. Once spray characteristics to describe the spray.
processed, this information is sent to the ESCs
which in turn adjust the rotational speed of each
motor to control flight orientation (up, down,
backward, forwards, left, right, yaw)

FRAME

This Q450 Quadcopter Frame is made from Glass

Fiber which makes it tough and durable. They have
the arms The Q450 Quadcopter Frame is very
Fig 7.Sprayer Module
popular and mostly used Multirotor Frame by the
ultra-durable Polyamide-Nylon which are the
stronger molded arms having a very good 3.3 COMPONENTS DESIGNING
thickness so no more arm breakage at the motor
mounts on a hard landing. The arms have support MAXIMUM AMPERE RATING
ridges on them, which improves stability and
provides faster forward flight. Brushless ESC’s are used to control brushless
motors that are used on most quadcopters. The
maximum amperage an ESC can handle needs to
be greater than the motor/prop combination will
draw. In terms of ESC, suggesting 20%-50% extra
Amps are a good rule to ensure your ESC does not
burn out. For example, the current rating for the
motor is 22A so ESC you are considering 30A
should do fine.

Here is a simple formula,

Fig 5.Frame ESC=1.2–1.5xmaxamp rating of the motor.

So, we can select ESC between the ranges of 26A

to 33A..
TRANSMITTER-RECEIVER
VOLTAGE FROM BATTERY
A farmer does not require a highly complicated Make sure your ESCs the ability to withstand the
remote control to operate the drone. What he voltage from the chosen battery. If you remember
needs is an easy to use controller which is our motor draws max 15amp, so watt value for 3s
affordable as possible. One of the cheapest and and 4s will be
good quality remote is the FlySky FS-CT6B.
At 3s battery 11.1 x 15 = 166.5 Watt
At 4s battery 14.8 x 15 = 222 Watt
Since our motor and ESC are not much efficient
incapable of 4s battery we used 3s battery only.
Since our motor is of max current 16 Amp and we
can take the ESC of 30A. Due to reason or
formulae

ESC (A) = 1.2 – 1.5 x max amp of motor

= 1.5 x 16
Fig 6.Transmitter-Receiver = 25.
So, we have chosen the ESC of 30A.
SPRAYER MODULE THRUST CALCULATION OF DRONE WITHOUT
SPRAYING SYSTEM
A spray module is a precision device that
facilities the dispersion of liquid into a spray.
General required thrust is given by a formula T = 2.64 Kg
mentioned below it is Therefore, the min to min amount of thrust
produced by all motors is 2.64 Kg.
Thrust required = (total weight of setup) x 2/4. THRUST WITH SPRAYING SYSTEM
Required Thrust when we assemble the spraying
Therefore, according to the frameless, and batter equipment to the drone. It will be given by,
and other sets up, we are getting a weight of 1300 T2 = (weight of drone + weight of
grams. That is frame weight is 950 grams and seeding equipment) x 2/4
others will roughly weight 350 grams. T2 = (1300 + 400) x 2/4
T2 = (1700 x 2)/4
Required Thrust = 1300 x 2/4 T2 = 3400/4
= 2600/4 T2 = 850 grams.
= 650 grams. Since the thrust produced by the individual
motor is 943 grams, that thrust is greater than the
Here we get the required thrust for each motor amount of thrust required with the combination of
should be 650 grams for each motor. Now we have drone and spraying equipment, so our system will
to calculate the actual amount of thrust that is be in a safe condition and work effectively.
going to produce by an individual motor. According
to some sources have found that the thrust BATTERY CALCULATION
generated by the motor is given by the following We have to calculate the amount of energy it is
formula consuming; hence we have now calculated the
source required by the battery.
T = [(eta x p) 2 x 2 x pi x r2 x air density] ^1/3 Maximum source = discharge rate * capacity
Where, = 20 x 2200
Eta = prop hover efficiency let us take it as 0.7 – = 44000
0.8 = 44 Amp
P = Shaft power PROPELLER CALCULATION
= voltage x current x motor efficiency We have,
R = radius of propellers in meters Payload Capacity + The weight of the craft
Air density = 1.22kg/m3 itself=Thrust * Hover Throttle %
Voltage = 10 V For example, if you choose 3s LiPo
Current = 16 A battery to supply power. Your purpose is 10 * 4.7
Efficiency = 75% = 0.75 and throttle is 75%. The weight of the craft itself is
Eta = 0.7 1700 g and we, want to build our quadcopter which
Then, can load 1000 grams.
Thrust is T = [(0.7 x 10 x 16 x 0.75)2 x 2 x 3.14 x 1000 + 1700 = T x 75%
0.127^2 x 1.22] ^0.33 T = 2700/0.75
= [(84) ^2 x 0.123] ^ 0.33 T = 3600 grams
= (7056 x 0.123) ^ 0.33 This amount of thrust should be provided
= 871.92 ^ 0.33 by 4 motors, so we can calculate individual thrust
= 9.348 N required by,
Therefore, Thrust calculated T = 3600/4
T = 9.348 N T = 900 grams
= 9.348 x 0.101 Kg Since the thrust required is 900 grams, as
= 0.943 Kg we calculated above thrust produced or generated
Hence, the thrust generated by each motor = 943 by each motor is 943 grams. The system will be
grams safe or will run without any defect. Finally, we have
Since we have 4 motors in the quadcopter, the concluded to select the 4 propellers of size 10 x
total thrust generated by all motors is given by 4.5 inch which 2 supposed to rotate CW and CCW.
multiplying, thrust with 4 They weigh 20 grams per pair, so the total weight
Total thrust is 80 grams.
T = 943 x 4 grams
= 3772 grams 3.4 BLOCK DIAGRAM
T = 3.772 Kg.
If we again choose any less efficiency in motor
then we will take some factor of safety, if they work
only 70% efficiency in the above 70% efficient
work, we can produce a thrust of Thrust
T = 3.722 x 70/100
 By successful implementation of such a project, the
affective spraying of pesticides can be achieved. It
is the start of precision agriculture. This exposure
to highly toxic pesticides to humans can be
prevented. This is important as pesticide poisoning
is a serious cause of death and other diseases
among farmers. This can also be used in places
where laborers are hard to find. Also, the cost can
be minimized because the farmer would not have
to spend more money on providing labor. One can
hasten the pesticide spraying process and cover a
large area in a short time. This is also important not
only for farmers but for people who do not have
enough time to nurture crops. They can use our
project to spray pesticides much quickly.
Encounters with venomous snakes, which can be
found regularly in fields can be prevented. The
farmers safely cover their bodies to prevent an
attack of deadly insects and snakes. It will not be
Fig 8. Flying Quadcopter necessary if a quadcopter is used for this purpose.
As spraying is a drone from a lower altitude,
environmental pollution can be reduced. Too much
pesticide can cause some serious pollution but by
using a quadcopter we are performing precision
agriculture so there will not be any wastage.

6 FUTURE SCOPE
Weight lifting capacity of the quadcopter can be
increasing the number of motors or by increasing
the propeller size or by increasing the rpm of the
motors. Increased weight lifting capability will allow
us to carry more pesticide carrying capacity can be
increased by increasing the size of the tank.

Flight time can be increased by increasing the

Fig 9. Spraying Pesticides battery capacity. But the problem is that when
battery capacity increases the weight of the battery
4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS will also increase. In the future, there may come
After arming the quadcopter the throttle was raised batteries that have better capacities and lesser
which made the quadcopter lift off. Then the weight.
forward motion was carried out using the receiver.
A larger area can be covered by using more
The quadcopter moved left,right, forward and,
nozzles can be arranged in the form of an array.
backward depending on the input to it. All the
Using a greater number of nozzles will result in the
controls were working properly. The receiver was
pesticide in the container depleting faster.
able to pick up the signal from distances over 50m.
The sprayer module worked when the channel
associated with it was turned on. The quadcopter 7 REFERENCE
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[1] M.Aarthilakshmi, is studying final year,

Electrical and Electronics Engineering in
National Engineering College, Kovilpatti.
([email protected])
[2] S. Meenakshi, is studying final year, Electrical
and Electronics Engineering in National
Engineering College, Kovilpatti.
([email protected])
[3] A.Poorna Pushkala, is studying final year,
Electrical and Electronics Engineering in