Drone-integrated illumination and power management for smart floriculture
摘要
Chrysanthemum growth and development in the Rayakottai, Krishnagiri (district of Tamil Nadu depend heavily on manual LED light operation in terms of photoperiodism and night-time pest elimination. Such a method is restricted in accuracy in timing (+/-18 min), high power consumption (148 kWh per 60 days), and non-availability of automatic adaptation to pests. In this paper, a Vision-Assisted Mechatronic Illumination Control System (V-MICS) consisting of a GPS-enabled unmanned aerial vehicle, 50 W multispectral lights, 120 W light-emitting diodes based on sensors placed in the ground, and battery automation has been proposed and implemented in a field experiment conducted for 60 days in Krishnagiri and Rayakottai, India. From experimental findings, there has been an enhancement of flowering uniformity by 21.3% (from 63.0% to 76.4%), an increase in marketable stem length by 17.3% (34.2 cm to 40.1 cm), as well as a 32.8% decrease in damage caused by pests. There was also a decrease in the frequency of pesticide applications by 28.6%, as well as an energy savings of 38.0%. Mission completion rate of the UAV subsystem was 94.7% while hover accuracy was ± 0.15 m using RTK GPS. The pest detection algorithm, based on YOLOv8, was able to adaptively adjust the lighting in less than 2 s (mAP50: 91.3%). With thermal regulation experiments, there was an average of 3.3 °C increase in canopy temperatures when below 10 °C was experienced, thereby reducing mortality by about 40% due to cold stress. Economic analysis shows an estimated payback period of 18–24 months.