Until today, reforestation and pest control jobs have been performed with traditional methods for capsule dropping. Using light-manned aircraft that entail high costs for logistics, maintenance, and operation. In addition to needing at least one trained pilot and a technician who is responsible for the manual release of the capsules. However, with the latest technological advances in the field of drones, all this is reduced to the use of an UAV powered by an avionics control system.
An example of use for capsule dropping for reforestation would be to install payloads in the drone, such as clay capsules containing tree seeds.
These are released according to the defined parameters (distance, period, etc.), and the next rain will cause seed germination. Regarding capsule dropping for fighting against pests, we could take as an example project “Drones Against TseTse.” In which Embention has collaborated with its avionics system Veronte Autopilot 1x and its control software Veronte Pipe, all this installed in the NM& F300 aircraft.
“Drones Against TseTse” project is a system for SIT (Sterile Insect Technique) application where sterile TseTse flies are released from the capsule dropping system containing them. Capsule dropping starts while the drone is inside the selected control area, following the preconfigured route in its avionics system.
Capsule Dropping with Veronte Pipe
For Embention, it is a must that capsule dropping operations are as simple and easy to use as possible. Therefore, the “Capsule Dropping” tool has been included in Veronte Pipe software together with other wizards for “one-click missions.”. This tool allows us to perform reforestation or pest control missions in a simple and efficient way, defining the mission in just a few minutes.
As it can be seen in the attached video, it is just needed to select the control area by using the “capsule dropping” tool. Once it is selected, the mission is automatically generated and ready to perform the takeoff. Some parameters can also be customized. These parameters are the orientation of the path, the separation between the parallel traces of the mission, the turning radius for the drone, the AGL altitude, and the separation in meters for the capsule dropping.
