Abstract
Plant protection treatments are of paramount importance to the food supply chain, especially with a growing world population. However, they pose serious risks to the health of operators, bystanders and ecosystems, so the products have to be very carefully administered in order to reduce the dispersion to the environment, which also represents a loss of income for the farmer. The extent of the problem calls for an increased awareness by all stakeholders and new solutions of growing complexity. This, in turn, raises the demand for (i) base research toward new, performance-oriented solutions, (ii) a certification system to guarantee the adoption of good practices to protect functionality and human and environmental health, and (iii) the tailoring of specialized solutions to various operating contexts such as alpine areas. Within this framework, the Agroforestry Innovations Lab (AFI-Lab) is launching a research branch dedicated to sprayer performance and certification in synchrony with local stakeholders, both industrial partners and farmer communities. Aim of this work is to present the equipment that has been developed in aid of this activity, and some preliminary results obtained, with particular attention to the realization of a wind tunnel for the investigation of atmospheric spray drift, mainly through optical instruments. The tunnel measures 6 × 10 × 30 m (W, H, L) and allows airflows of up to 5 m/s. Within it, vertical and horizontal patternators can be accommodated to characterize the deposition performance of orchard sprayers during simulated treatments with advanced tracing solutions. A laser Particle/Droplet Image Analysis system is also installed within a dedicated test bench for the characterization of nozzles. The work is closed with a roadmap of the activities and a panoramic of the potential side applications of the facility.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Gil, E., Llorens, J., Gallart, M., Gil-Ribes, J.A., Miranda-Fuentes, A.: First attempts to obtain a reference drift curve for traditional olive grove’s plantations following ISO 22866. Sci. Total Environ. 627, 349–360 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.01.229
Grella, M., Marucco, P., Manzone, M., Gallo, R., Mazzetto, F., Balsari, P.: Indoor test bench measurements of potential spray drift generated by multi-row sprayers. In: 2021 IEEE International Workshop on Metrology for Agriculture and Forestry (MetroAgriFor), Trento-Bolzano, Italy, pp. 356–361, November 2021. https://doi.org/10.1109/MetroAgriFor52389.2021.9628652
Torrent, X., Gregorio, E., Douzals, J.-P., Tinet, C., Rosell-Polo, J.R., Planas, S.: Assessment of spray drift potential reduction for hollow-cone nozzles: Part 1. Classification using indirect methods. Sci. Total Environ. 692, 1322–1333 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.06.121
Kuster, C.J., Hewitt, N.J., Butler Ellis, C., Timmermann, C., Anft, T.: Measurements of the dermal exposure to bystanders from direct off-crop drift during the application of plant protection products. Ann. Appl. Biol. 179(1), 123–133 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1111/aab.12686
Wang, C., et al.: Spray drift characteristics test of unmanned aerial vehicle spray unit under wind tunnel conditions. Int. J. Agric. Biol. Eng. 13(3), 13–21 (2020). https://doi.org/10.25165/j.ijabe.20201303.5716
Becce, L., Amin, S., Carabin, G., Mazzetto, F.: Preliminary spray nozzle characterization activities through shadowgraphy at the AgroForestry Innovation Lab (AFI-Lab). In: 2022 IEEE Workshop on Metrology for Agriculture and Forestry (MetroAgriFor), Perugia, Italy, pp. 136–140, November 2022. https://doi.org/10.1109/MetroAgriFor55389.2022.9965106
Becce, L., Bloise, N., Guglieri, G.: Optimal path planning for autonomous spraying UAS framework in precision agriculture. In: 2021 International Conference on Unmanned Aircraft Systems (ICUAS), Athens, Greece, pp. 698–707 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1109/ICUAS51884.2021.9476690
Bloise, N., Carreno Ruiz, M., D’Ambrosio, D., Guglieri, G.: Wind tunnel testing of remotely piloted aircraft systems for precision crop-spraying applications. In: 2021 IEEE International Workshop on Metrology for Agriculture and Forestry (MetroAgriFor), Trento-Bolzano, Italy, pp. 378–383, November 2021. https://doi.org/10.1109/MetroAgriFor52389.2021.9628600
Altana, A., Becce, L., Lugli, P., Petti, L., Mazzetto, F.: Uranine as a tracer for rapid detection of spray deposition. presentato al AIIA 2022: Biosystems Engineering Towards the Green Deal, Palermo (2022)
Altana, A., Becce, L., Avancini, E., Lugli, P., Petti, L., Mazzetto, F.: Cost-effective tracing techniques for the rapid characterization of spray deposition and drift through electrical conductivity and fluorescence. In: 2022 IEEE Workshop on Metrology for Agriculture and Forestry (MetroAgriFor), Perugia, Italy, pp. 164–168, November 2022. https://doi.org/10.1109/MetroAgriFor55389.2022.9964955
Acknowledgements
The tractor in Fig. 2 by Igor Bistritski, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution (https://skfb.ly/6YZQ9). Credits for the CFD views: CUBIT s.c.a.r.l.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Becce, L., Carabin, G., Mazzetto, F. (2023). Agroforestry Innovations Lab Activities on Sprayer Performance and Certification. In: Ferro, V., Giordano, G., Orlando, S., Vallone, M., Cascone, G., Porto, S.M.C. (eds) AIIA 2022: Biosystems Engineering Towards the Green Deal. AIIA 2022. Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering, vol 337. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-30329-6_31
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-30329-6_31
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-30328-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-30329-6
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)