Citation :

Wan Akashah Wan Jamaludin, Omar Mohd Faizan Marwah, Muhammad Nuruddin Abd Halim, Muhammad Zulafif Rahim, "Evaluation of UAV Flight Speed for Effective Pineapple Plantation Spraying," International Journal of Engineering Trends and Technology (IJETT), vol. 74, no. 5, pp. 384-391, 2026. Crossref, https://doi.org/10.14445/22315381/IJETT-V74I5P125

Abstract

A Crewless Aerial Vehicle (UAV) is a flexible flying platform suitable for fertilizing operations, regardless of the geographical factor, without the need for dedicated landing sites. The application of Precision Agriculture (PA) is tested in the pineapple plantation as a solution through UAV spraying. Proper application of agricultural products in the field is critical to plant growth and sustainability. The lack of product results in insufficient growth or deficiency, and too much will lead to runoffs. The study aims to evaluate the spraying performance through droplet deposition density and spray coverage rate on pineapple. A low flight altitude of 2 m from the ground with varying flight speeds (1.00, 1.50, and 2.00 m/s) and a 2 m spraying boom with a hollow cone nozzle was used with a straight flight pattern through the field. The pineapple leaves are lined with two layers of Water-Sensitive Papers (WSP) and a fixed spraying rate of 7.65 L/min through a pineapple field following the Malaysian Pineapple Industrial Board (MPIB) standard. Results showed a decrease in the mean droplet density deposition with an increment in flight speed from 1 to 2 m/s. Exhibiting a drop from 60 to 35 L/cm2 at the upper layer and 28 to 19 L/cm2 for the lower layer. The mean spray coverage had a similar pattern observed relative to flight speeds of 75 to 65% at the upper layer and 55 to 40% at the lower layer. Concluding a poor performance in droplet density and spray coverage if the drone speed exceeds 1.5 m/s.

Keywords

Agriculture Drone, Droplet Distribution Flight Speed Optimization, Aerial Spraying System.

References

[1] Laporan Banci 2024 Pertanian, DOSM, Putrajaya, Malaysia, 2025. [Online]. Available: https://storage.dosm.gov.my/census/census_agri_2023_pineapple.pdf

[2] Badril Abu Bakar et al., “A Review of Mechanization and Automation in Malaysia's Pineapple Production,” Advances in Agricultural and Food Research Journal, vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 1-13, 2023.
[CrossRef] [Google Scholar] [Publisher Link]

[3] Narayan Raosaheb Gatkal et al., “Review of UAVs for Efficient Agrochemical Spray Application,” International Journal of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 1-9, 2025.
[CrossRef] [Google Scholar] [Publisher Link]

[4] Siti Noor Aliah Baharom et al., “Comparative Performance of Fertiliser Application using Unmanned Aerial Spraying System and Boom Sprayer on MD2 Pineapple Crop,” Journal of Tropical Agriculture and Food Science, vol. 51, no. 2, pp. 87-94, 2023.
[Google Scholar] [Publisher Link]

[5] Saurav Ranabhat, and Randy Price, “Effects of Flight Heights and Nozzle Types on Spray Characteristics of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Sprayer,” AgriEngineering, vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 1-17, 2025.
[CrossRef] [Google Scholar] [Publisher Link]

[6] Sili Zhou et al., “Design of and Experiment with Physical Perception Pineapple Targeted Flower Forcing-Spraying Control System,” Horticulturae, vol. 11, no. 6, pp. 1-20, 2025.
[CrossRef] [Google Scholar] [Publisher Link]

[7] Kuang-Yueh Pan et al., “YOLO-CMST: Towards Accurate Pineapple Flowering Induction using YOLO-based Models with the Cross Multi-Style Translator,” Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, vol. 235, 2025.
[CrossRef] [Google Scholar] [Publisher Link]

[8] Wei-Cai Qin et al., “Droplet Deposition and Control Effect of Insecticides Sprayed with an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Against Plant Hoppers,” Crop Protection, vol. 85, pp. 79-88, 2016.
[CrossRef] [Google Scholar] [Publisher Link]

[9] Fiaz Ahmad et al., “Effect of Operational Parameters of UAV Sprayer on Spray Deposition Pattern in Target and Off-Target Zones During Outer Field Weed Control Application,” Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, vol. 172, pp. 1-10, 2020.
[CrossRef] [Google Scholar] [Publisher Link]

[10] Juan Wang et al., “Meteorological and Flight Altitude Effects on Deposition, Penetration, and Drift in Pineapple Aerial Spraying,” Asia‐Pacific Journal of Chemical Engineering, vol. 15, no. 1, pp. 1-14, 2020.
[CrossRef] [Google Scholar] [Publisher Link]

[11] Inês Simões et al., “Spray Quality Assessment on Water-Sensitive Paper Comparing AI and Classical Computer Vision Methods,” Agriculture, vol. 15, no. 3, pp. 1-24, 2025.
[CrossRef] [Google Scholar] [Publisher Link]

[12] Adhitya Saiful Hanif, Xiongzhe Han, and Seung-Hwa Yu, “Independent Control Spraying System for UAV-based Precise Variable Sprayer: A Review,” Drones, vol. 6, no. 12, pp. 1-23, 2022.
[CrossRef] [Google Scholar] [Publisher Link]

[13] Guobin Wang et al., “Field Evaluation of Spray Drift and Environmental Impact using an Agricultural UAV Sprayer,” Science of the Total Environment, vol. 737, pp. 1-13, 2020.
[CrossRef] [Google Scholar] [Publisher Link]

[14] Muhammad Nurfaiz Abd. Kharim et al., “Droplet Deposition Density of Organic Liquid Fertilizer at Low Altitude UAV Aerial Spraying in Rice Cultivation,” Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, vol. 167, 2019.
[CrossRef] [Google Scholar] [Publisher Link]

[15] Shefali Vinod Ramteke, Pritish Kumar Varadwaj, and Vineet Tiwari, “Comparative Evaluation of UAV Nozzle Geometries for Sustainable Water and Pesticide Management in Rice Cultivation,” Biology and Life Sciences Forum, vol. 54, no. 1, pp. 1-8, 2025.
[CrossRef] [Google Scholar] [Publisher Link]

[16] Rohazrin Abdul Rani et al., “Pineapple Crop Fertiliser Application Method: A Preliminary Study on the Performance and Effectiveness of a Boom Sprayer and a Sprayer Drone,” Advances in Agricultural and Food Research Journal, vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 1-11, 2022.
[CrossRef] [Google Scholar] [Publisher Link]

[17] Daniel E. Martin, Wayne E. Woldt, and Mohamed A. Latheef, “Effect of Application Height and Ground Speed on Spray Pattern and Droplet Spectra from Remotely Piloted Aerial Application Systems,” Drones, vol. 3, no. 4, pp. 1-21, 2019.
[CrossRef] [Google Scholar] [Publisher Link]