Agriculture is one type of industry where the drone technology could earn huge potential growth.
Known for their ability to help in surveying crops and gathering farmland information real-time, drones can also be designed to spray crops on vast areas of land.
Chinese-based company DJI is launching Agras MG-1, an eight-rotor drone that is specifically designed to be used for agricultural work. Mainly tasked to spray crops, the company's latest drone model has the ability to cover seven to 10 acres of land within one hour. It is also capable of holding 2.6 gallons of liquid.
"Open the next chapter of agriculture with new technology," said DJI on its official site. "Dajiang MG-1 designed for crop protection field design, integration of advanced flight control, reliable internal circulation cooling system, a portable folding airframe and control simple custom remote control, to provide you with efficient, safe, and convenient operation tool plant protection."
According to DJI, the MG-1 offers a more efficient way, at least more than 40 times better, in spraying crops compared to doing it manually. Equipped with a microwave radar, the latest drone model easily scans the stretch of land underneath and is even capable of keeping the right distance from crops, allowing it to spray the liquid in just the required amount. It can cover at least 26 feet in every second while modulating the amount of sprayed liquid in order to gain an even coverage.
"Dajiang MG-1 custom built for the plant protection operations of flight control, flight stability, precise response to the instruction, the job control convenient, simple exercises to get started," said DJI. "Alternatively spraying intelligent, auxiliary and manual mode of operation, to cope with various terrain requirements. Painted farmland without prior testing in flight directly plan a route, you can perform an automatic sprinkler, simple, intuitive, and efficient."
Some of the notable features offered by MG-1 include efficiency in operation, excellent reliability, precision spray, convenient mode of operation, intelligent memory function, automatic terrain following and custom remote control. It also has a portable folding rack design which makes it easy and convenient to transport.
"Dajiang MG-1 uses an innovative Y-type folding machine arm design, installation without tools, easy and convenient," said DJI. MG-1 body is mostly precision forming technology combined with high-strength carbon fiber material, strong light, so work efficiency and improve reliability.
DJI is initially launching the MG-1 in China and Korea with plans to also make it available in other markets. As for the price, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) said that the agriculture-inspired drone will cost around $15,000.
