Professor Huang Xiaomao hosts the academic salon. (Photo/ Li Xintong)
On May 18, an academic salon themed on “Agricultural UAVs Drive Rural Revitalization” was held at HZAU. Huang Xiaomao (Professor from College of Engineering of HZAU) elaborated the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) about its technology and device of sequential seeding and fertilizing, and led students to explore application and challenges of UAVs as “Flying Farmers” during agricultural digital transformation.
“What can UAVs do?” Mr. Huang raised a question at first.
“Aerial photography, delivering and remote sensing...” Students actively responded.
“Their main functions include aerial photography, remote sensing survey and crop monitoring. They can also be used for feeding, fertilizing, seeding and pesticide spraying. UAVs feature strong maneuverability, mobility, no-touch with ground, high-efficiency, and precise and intelligent unmanned operation,” Huang started the salon with the introduction to the definition, functions and features of drones.
“It’s called aerial seeding. UAVs are suitable for direct seeding of rice and rape without being disturbed by topography and surface conditions,” Mr. Huang also said, “UAVs are able to sequentially seed a large field in strips, reducing cost and increasing benefit. They help construction of creative crop landscape design, and can accomplish fine tasks like variable rate prescription.
“Pioneering Agritourism for Rural Revitalization. UAV Sequential Seeding Technology makes great contribution to sightseeing agriculture. By virtue of Beidou RTK high precision positioning technique and path planning technology, UAV sampling projects the pattern onto farmland plots in proportion, then accurately sows different seeds to designated plots. Finally, plants will grow into a ‘landscape’ as designed,” Mr. Huang presented the implementation of the technology through pictures and videos, which impressed students with astonishing beauty of crop landscape. Meanwhile, he noted that creative field landscape played an role in advertisement and extension, which promoted the integration of the first and the third industries, and UAVs ushered into the automatic unmanned era.
Student Xiang Meirong asked, “Which one costs less, aerial seeding or manual seeding?”
“The evaluation of economic costs is related to multiple factors such as crop size. In the long term, aerial seeding saves more energy and time with higher efficiency, thus it has lower costs,” Mr. Huang answered.
Then another student Lin Zhengrong asked, “Did you meet any serious obstacle during the research on UAV Sequential Seeding Technology?”
Mr. Huang answered that the main challenge was how to avoid the influence of airflow and achieve the desired result by dropping seeds at a low height. He added, “Scientific research is a road with challenges and opportunities. Only by continuously learning and broadening horizons can we make breakthroughs.”
He encouraged students to forge ahead when facing difficulties and keep innovating to make contributions to science.
After the salon, student Zhao Zhidong said, “I have deeper understanding of UAVs’ application in agriculture. And I hope in the future, I can use what I have learned to promote agricultural digital transformation and rural revitalization.”
Translated by: Xiao Ying
Supervised by: Jin Bei
Source: http://news.hzau.edu.cn/2023/0525/66647.shtml
