Design and Implementation of a Semi-Automatic Pesticide Spraying Quadcopter: Challenges and Opportunities

The use of drones in agriculture has revolutionized traditional farming practices, offering innovative solutions for tasks such as pesticide application. This study presents the design, development, and evaluation of a pesticide spraying quadcopter using the CC3D flight controller and NodeMCU microcontroller. The Quadcopter F450 frame was chosen as the drone platform due to its modular design and adaptability. The CC3D flight controller was employed for flight stabilization, while the NodeMCU was integrated to enable remote operation of the spraying mechanism, providing a semiautomatic functionality tailored for ease of use by farmers. Preliminary testing demonstrated that the drone could achieve flight; however, challenges in stabilizing the quadcopter under the additional payload of the pesticide sprayer were observed, necessitating further tuning and refinement. Despite these issues, the spraying system was successfully controlled remotely, offering a practical and user-friendly solution for precision pesticide application. This work highlights the feasibility of developing low-cost, semi-automated drones for agricultural applications, with the potential for further enhancements to improve stability and payload management. The findings provide insights into the integration of hardware and software components for agricultural drone systems and outline key considerations for future advancements.