Comparison between 60° and 30° hollow cone nozzles for targeted UAV-spray applications in vineyards

Uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) for spray applications are raising interest in agriculture. In 3D crops, a portion of off-target losses is caused by the UAV broadcast-spraying. Spray applications can help reduce inter-row ground losses by better targeting just the canopy. 'This paper presents a comparison between 30° and 60° spray angle hollow cone nozzles when tested with a customised UAV-spray system. The concept behind this approach was to reduce the spray angle to better target the vine canopy in order to increase canopy deposit and reduce ground losses. However, the results indicate that the nozzle spray angle does not have a significant impact on canopy deposition, and in some cases, using a 30° spray angle may lead to increased ground losses.