Standards Development

Scope

This standard specifies field measurements to determine the spray deposition, deposition location, and its variation in a plane surface area, distributed by UAV sprayers are used to apply plant protecting products (PPP) to arable and vegetable crops. It also specifies a procedure to quantify the intended and the realised distribution.

This standard also applies to the UAV spray application for seedlings and small shrub crops (young gooseberry) operations. This standard allows flexibility in the arrangement of field tests, but specifies standardized measurement procedures that are useful to compare the results from different field experiments or laboratory test.

It does not deal with the deposition of spray outside the treatment zone, in crop canopy nor that lost as spray drift.

Purpose

Efficacy of plant protection products (PPP), their safety to the crop and the environment may be much influenced by spray deposit distribution. During the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) spraying operation, the dose of the active ingredient that is retained, distributed and located over target surfaces such as those presented by plants - or non-target surfaces such as soil - needs to be measured in a manner that is both precise and predictive.

The location, numbers and sampling structures used to monitor sprayed deposits need to be defined in a standard manner to enable results from different experiments to be compared. The spraying deposition test quantifies the chemical deposition rate in the target area and describes the deposition distribution at different locations in the canopy and on the soil surface. Spray distribution from UAV is merely affected by nozzle characteristics, flight altitude, flight speed, meteorological conditions, and the airflow field of the UAV. These dynamic factors can all be elements of a test to determine the quantity and the variation in spray deposit.