{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,7]],"date-time":"2026-07-07T15:51:49Z","timestamp":1783439509977,"version":"3.54.6"},"reference-count":22,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"16","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2024,8,8]],"date-time":"2024-08-08T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1723075200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001809","name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["61973156"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["61973156"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001809","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Sensors"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The operational parameters of plant protection unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) significantly impact spraying effectiveness, but the underlying mechanism remains unclear. This paper conducted a full factorial experiment with varying flight speeds, heights, and nozzle flow rates to collect parameter space data. Using the Kriging surrogate model, we characterized this parameter space and subsequently optimized the average deposition rate and coefficient of variation by employing a variable crossover (mutation) probability multi-objective genetic algorithm. In the obtained Pareto front, the average sedimentation rate is no less than 46%, with a maximum of 56.08%, and the CV coefficient is no more than 13.91%, with a minimum of only 8.42%. These optimized parameters enhance both the average deposition rate and spraying uniformity compared to experimental data. By employing these optimized parameters in practical applications, a balance between the maximum average deposition rate and minimum coefficient of variation can be achieved during UAV spraying, thereby reducing pesticide usage, promoting sustainable agriculture, and mitigating instances of missed spraying and re-spraying.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/s24165132","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,8,8]],"date-time":"2024-08-08T12:13:14Z","timestamp":1723119194000},"page":"5132","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":8,"title":["Optimization of Operational Parameters of Plant Protection UAV"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"24","author":[{"given":"Wei","family":"Xing","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Automation Engineering, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 211106, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yukang","family":"Cui","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Mechatronics and Control Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Xinghao","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Automation Engineering, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 211106, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jun","family":"Shen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Automation Engineering, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 211106, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,8,8]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","first-page":"49","article-title":"Effect of adjuvant types and concentration on spray drift potential of different nozzles","volume":"31","author":"Wang","year":"2015","journal-title":"Trans. Chin. Soc. Agric. Eng."},{"key":"ref_2","first-page":"38","article-title":"Review of agricultural spraying technologies for plant protection using unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)","volume":"14","author":"Chen","year":"2021","journal-title":"Int. J. Agric. Biol. Eng."},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"314","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ast.2019.04.044","article-title":"Electric propulsion system sizing methodology for an agriculture multicopter","volume":"90","author":"Vu","year":"2019","journal-title":"Aerosp. Sci. Technol."},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Hu, P., Zhang, R., Yang, J., and Chen, L. (2022). Development status and key technologies of plant protection UAVs in China: A review. Drones, 6.","DOI":"10.3390\/drones6110354"},{"key":"ref_5","first-page":"1","article-title":"Current status and future trends of precision agricultural aviation technologies","volume":"10","author":"Lan","year":"2017","journal-title":"Int. J. Agric. Biol. Eng."},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Chen, P., Douzals, J., Lan, Y., Cotteux, E., Delpuech, X., Pouxviel, G., and Zhan, Y. (2022). Characteristics of unmanned aerial spraying systems and related spray drift: A review. Front. Plant Sci., 13.","DOI":"10.3389\/fpls.2022.870956"},{"key":"ref_7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"693","DOI":"10.1007\/s11119-012-9274-5","article-title":"The application of small unmanned aerial systems for precision agriculture: A review","volume":"13","author":"Zhang","year":"2012","journal-title":"Precis. Agric."},{"key":"ref_8","first-page":"1","article-title":"Development and prospect of unmanned aerial vehicle technologies for agricultural production management","volume":"6","author":"Huang","year":"2013","journal-title":"Int. J. Agric. Biol. Eng."},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Wang, J., Lv, X., Wang, B., Lan, X., Yan, Y., Chen, S., and Lan, Y. (2023). Numerical simulation and analysis of droplet drift motion under different wind speed environments of single-rotor plant protection UAVs. Drones, 7.","DOI":"10.3390\/drones7020128"},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1284","DOI":"10.1016\/j.cropro.2008.03.010","article-title":"Droplet size spectra classification categories in aerial application scenarios","volume":"27","author":"Hewitt","year":"2008","journal-title":"Crop Prot."},{"key":"ref_11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"21","DOI":"10.13031\/2013.29467","article-title":"Effects of spray mixtures on droplet size under aerial application conditions and implications on drift","volume":"26","author":"Fritz","year":"2009","journal-title":"Appl. Eng. Agric."},{"key":"ref_12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Wen, S., Zhang, Q., Yin, X., Lan, Y., Zhang, J., and Ge, Y. (2019). Design of plant protection UAV variable spray system based on neural networks. Sensors, 19.","DOI":"10.3390\/s19051112"},{"key":"ref_13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"105282","DOI":"10.1016\/j.compag.2020.105282","article-title":"Experimental evaluation of UAV spraying for peach trees of different shapes: Effects of operational parameters on droplet distribution","volume":"170","author":"Meng","year":"2020","journal-title":"Comput. Electron. Agric."},{"key":"ref_14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Joshi, D., Deb, D., and Muyeen, S.M. (2022). Comprehensive review on electric propulsion system of unmanned aerial vehicles. Front. Energy Res., 10.","DOI":"10.3389\/fenrg.2022.752012"},{"key":"ref_15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"79","DOI":"10.1016\/j.cropro.2016.03.018","article-title":"Droplet deposition and control effect of insecticides sprayed with an unmanned aerial vehicle against plant hoppers","volume":"85","author":"Qin","year":"2016","journal-title":"Crop Prot."},{"key":"ref_16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Wang, B., Zhang, Y., Wang, C., and Teng, G. (2022). Droplet Deposition Distribution Prediction Method for a Six-Rotor Plant Protection UAV Based on Inverse Distance Weighting. Sensors, 22.","DOI":"10.3390\/s22197425"},{"key":"ref_17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Chen, S., Lan, Y., Zhou, Z., Ouyang, F., Wang, G., Xiaoyu, H., and Cheng, S. (2020). Effect of droplet size parameters on droplet deposition and drift of aerial spraying by using plant protection UAV. Agronomy, 10.","DOI":"10.3390\/agronomy10020195"},{"key":"ref_18","first-page":"46","article-title":"Effect of aerial spray adjuvant applying on the efficiency of small unmanned aerial vehicle for wheat aphids control","volume":"11","author":"Meng","year":"2018","journal-title":"Int. J. Agric. Biol. Eng."},{"key":"ref_19","first-page":"109","article-title":"Effect of flight parameters on distribution characteristics of pesticide spraying droplets deposition of plant-protection unmanned aerial vehicle","volume":"33","author":"Wang","year":"2017","journal-title":"Trans. Chin. Soc. Agric. Eng."},{"key":"ref_20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Wen, S., Zhang, Q., Deng, J., Lan, Y., Yin, X., and Shan, J. (2018). Design and experiment of a variable spray system for unmanned aerial vehicles based on PID and PWM control. Appl. Sci., 8.","DOI":"10.3390\/app8122482"},{"key":"ref_21","unstructured":"Lophaven, S.N., Nielsen, H.B., and S\u00f8ndergaard, J. (2002). DACE: A Matlab Kriging Toolbox, Technical University of Denmark. Technical Report."},{"key":"ref_22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"182","DOI":"10.1109\/4235.996017","article-title":"A fast and elitist multiobjective genetic algorithm: NSGA-II","volume":"6","author":"Deb","year":"2002","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Evol. Comput."}],"container-title":["Sensors"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1424-8220\/24\/16\/5132\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,10]],"date-time":"2025-10-10T15:32:09Z","timestamp":1760110329000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1424-8220\/24\/16\/5132"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2024,8,8]]},"references-count":22,"journal-issue":{"issue":"16","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,8]]}},"alternative-id":["s24165132"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/s24165132","relation":{},"ISSN":["1424-8220"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1424-8220","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2024,8,8]]}}}