Development of an Agricultural Drone for Pesticide Spraying

Abstract

Modern agriculture increasingly adopts unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to enhance productivity and minimize human exposure to harmful chemicals. This research presents the design and development of a quadcopter-based drone equipped with a pesticide spraying system. The drone integrates brushless DC motors, electronic speed controllers, a flight controller, Li-Po battery, and a liquid spraying module. The proposed system aims to deliver efficient pesticide distribution while reducing labor and operational costs. Performance evaluation indicates that the developed drone produces adequate thrust to lift the payload and operate safely in agricultural environments.

Introduction

The text discusses the development of a UAV-based agricultural spraying drone designed to improve farming efficiency and reduce human exposure to harmful pesticides. Traditional pesticide spraying methods are labor-intensive and unsafe, while agricultural drones provide faster, more precise, and environmentally friendly spraying solutions. Research shows that UAV spraying systems can reduce chemical usage, labor costs, and environmental impact through automated flight control and precision farming technologies.

The proposed system uses a quadcopter built with an F450 frame, brushless DC motors, propellers, ESCs, a flight controller, Li-Po battery, FPV camera, transmitter-receiver system, and a spraying mechanism consisting of a pump and nozzles. The drone operates by receiving signals from a transmitter, processing them through the flight controller using gyroscope and accelerometer sensors, and controlling motor speed through ESCs to maintain stable flight. A pump pressurizes pesticide liquid and sprays it through flat fan nozzles, while the FPV camera provides live video monitoring.

The drone’s overall weight is approximately 12.7 kg, including payload, and its eight motors generate sufficient thrust for stable maneuverability. Battery endurance calculations show a flight time of about 10.4 minutes at full throttle, enough for spraying operations before refilling. Experimental results confirm that the quadcopter achieves stable flight and demonstrates the feasibility of UAV-based pesticide spraying for modern precision agriculture.

Conclusion

The developed UAV spraying system provides an efficient and safer alternative to manual pesticide spraying. The design demonstrates sufficient thrust, stability, and spraying capability. Future improvements may include GPS navigation, autonomous flight paths, and advanced sensors for crop monitoring.

References

[1] B. Balaji et al., “Design of UAV for crop monitoring and pesticide spraying,” International Journal of Research Trends and Innovation, 2018. [2] R. Desale et al., “Quadcopter UAV based fertilizer spraying system,” IJSART, 2019. [3] S. Kurkute et al., “Drones for smart agriculture,” IJRASET, 2018.

Copyright

Copyright © 2026 Daravath Nithin, Mehbub Alom, K. Vasanth, S. Shiva Kumar, G. Santosh, Mr. N. Naresh. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.