Precision AI unveils their new UAV design: A Transformation of Input Application?
Index:
Ag Drone and Stratus AirSprayer Overview
Atomization
Expansion and Manufacturing
Software and Precision Spraying
Commercial Launch
The Future
Go-to-Market Strategy
Final Thoughts
Precision AI unveils their new UAV design - Precision ai
There is a growing presence of drone products and companies for crop protection application, with new systems delivering various ranges of endurance, payload capacities and styles of application.
The drone growth is driven by several factors, including the desire for precision agriculture practices, regulatory improvement and compliance measures, pursuit of cost efficiency and operational flexibility, concerns regarding environmental impacts, as well as demonstrated performance and positive return on investment.
Drones have seemingly begun to rise from the doldrums of the hype cycle.
Among these innovators driving drone technology ahead, Precision Ai announced the development of a new flexwing drone system.
Ag Drone and Stratus AirSprayer Overview
Precision Ai has announced a unique take on a drone application system:
Source: Precision ai. Image from of prototype demonstration
The Stratus AirSprayer is different than the quadcopters/rotary wing and fixed-wing UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) typically seen with ag drones. The Stratus AirDrone is a “flexwing” system— one that can carry heavier loads and stay in the air much longer than conventional drones thanks to it’s parachute feature.
When spray drones come up, we typically think of rotary wings, like what DJI typically sells, or like Guardian Agriculture.
These systems allow for precise positioning of the aircraft and they provide downwash that can help spread the spray pattern out. Downwash can improve canopy penetration, but can also have complex dynamics to it:
The biggest problem with these rotary wing systems is that they use a lot of energy, limiting battery life. These drones typically have limited payload capacity (spray tank) and a battery life of 5 to 15 minutes— leading to relatively low productive acres per hour, which hinders potential use cases in large scale row crops. For example, Guardian Agriculture, one of the more efficient rotary winged systems, highlights a productivity number of 60ac/hr.
On top, when rotary systems are flown at a sub-optimal height or speed, droplet patterns, drift, and swath width will change, leading to inconsistent performance of crop protection products and risk of off-target drift.
Fixed wing drones on the other hand will fly faster, potentially improving capacity and eliminating the uncertainty of downwash. However, still have limited pay loads, battery life and require a runway for take off and landing and can be a challenge for transportation to and from fields.
Enter the Stratus Airsprayer, a “flexwing,” autonomous drone that is gasoline powered.
The body of the Stratus AirSprayer is 3.25 metres (ten feet, eight inches) long, 2.1 metres (six feet, nine inches) wide and 2.25 metres (seven feet, five inches) high. It weighs 700 lbs empty and can carry a payload of up to 833 lbs. The boom swath width is interchangeable, 18 ft or 30 ft, and nozzles are spaced every 10 inches
The machine has a three-blade propeller at the back powered by a Rotax 100-horsepower gasoline engine, and it relies on a 541-square-foot (50.3-metre) parachute flex wing.
Precision Ai has patent-pending on the parachute design. The parachute enables users to have the convenience of drones, yet scalability to larger operations thanks to enabling heavier payloads and the ability to fly slowly enough to apply precisely.
Less filling, no battery charging, less fuel and more efficiency.
The system boasts a 5 hour flight time thanks to its fuel engine design vs. battery, which fundamentally changes the spray efficiency of the system.
The flight and application speed of the AirSprayer is an astonishing 61 km/h and it is able to take off rapidly with 350 to 500 feet (107 to 152 metres) of runway room available whether on pavement, dirt, grass or gravel.
Source: Precision Ai
The tank size size can be up to 100 US gallons (378 litres).
The combination of the aforementioned speed, tank size and flight time means that the Stratus Airsprayer can do upwards of 92 acres per hour with refill times (manually done) of 3-5 minutes and an application rate of 1.5 gallons per acre.
For context, that makes the system comparable to ground sprayer systems currently used today:
Source: Sprayer101.com
When spraying is complete, the sprayer can be loaded onto a flatbed truck or a 12-foot trailer, and the canopy folded and packed up into an easy-to-carry travel bag.
I think the parachute fold up and movement becomes one small apprehension for a farmer moving from field to field as it can take upwards of 15 minutes to set up again, which can add up over the course of a spray day.
The Stratus system is not fully autonomous— flight is autonomous, but there is still a manual need to refuel and re-fill the spray tank along with move the system around. Precision Ai states that a fully autonomous system is being worked on.
Atomization
One thing that also stood out to me was the atomization aspect of their sprayer. In Is John Deere Losing Ground in Drones or Is the Market Just Not Ready? I highlighted atomizer technology improving, leading to better potential for drones because of spray quality.
Precision Ai controls atomization in a unique way.
There are two levers – the nozzle pressure and the angle of attack. Because their system is going so fast, they leverage wind shear off the nozzles to atomize the droplets. The angle of the spray bar can adjust in real-time based on airspeed to provide the right droplet size. If pointed back and you have no wind shear, you get larger droplets. If pointed straight down or slightly forward you have increased wind shear and finer droplets, enabling control based on conditions and product needs.
Expansion and Manufacturing
In commodity row crops, ground sprayers can cover a lot of acres quickly and apply precisely. Though, the ground sprayers are not perfect as they have a trample impact (~2%) on the crop and adding more potential compaction issues to a field, and have limitations when conditions are too wet or when applying to certain tall crops (eg: corn).
Drones have the ability to be as or more precise, apply under wet conditions and minimize crop trample and compaction— the shortcomings of ground sprayers.
According to The Business Research Company’s Crop Spraying Drones Global Market Report for 2024, the market size for crop spraying drones has experienced significant growth in recent years, projected to increase from $1.78 billion in 2023 to $2.47 billion in 2024, illustrating a CAGR of 38.7%.
This has lead to a surge in drone interest and has sparked expansion of drone service providers aiding farmers with spraying tasks. Rantizo, the largest drone spraying network in the US, covered ~200,000 acres in 2023 with ambitions to expand rapidly.
In the USA in 2023, there was 3.7 million acres sprayed by drone. Most of these via Chinese manufactured drones, such as the largest global drone manufacturer, DJI. In 2022, DJI stated that more than 200,000 drones made by them were active globally and as of June 2024, stated that their systems had been used to treat over 500 million hectares globally.
Beyond the efficiency shortcomings of drones, there are two other hurdles to overcome: