Author(s): SILVA, B. S. da; CABREIRA, T. M.; De SOUZA, J. O.; MATIAS. N. R.; MACHADO, R. A. O.; JORGE, L. A. de C.; FERREIRA JR., P. R.

Summary: Agricultural pests and diseases can cause financiallosses on the scale of millions per year and threaten food security.Biological control (BC) is a natural phenomenon to mitigate a particular population of pests, making them less abundant and harmful. The use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) as a platform to support BC is promising due to the low cost, high efficiency, and wide application range. UAV coverage path planning is necessary to an effective dispersion over an agricultural area. However, in many cases, this planning is carried out empirically by pilots in the field. It is necessary to address several need to be taken into account in the searchfor automation and optimization of coverage route planning forBC using UAVs, such as: identifying the main characteristicsof the coverage area, looking for suitable landing and takeoff points,determining the distance between the parallel line of the coverage trajectory due to the biological agent in use,setting the flight altitude, safely returning to the base, andgenerating ready-to-fly route coverage files. This article presentsa framework and implementation containing a coverage pathplanning algorithm for automating biological control routes considering essential aspects of a real-world scenario. Actual flights using the framework implementation show the efficiency and reliability of the proposed approach.

Publication year: 2023

Types of publication: Paper in annals and proceedings

Unit: Embrapa Instrumentation

Keywords: Coverage Path Planning, Route planning, UAV