• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.31 no.2 s.115
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• pp.95-101
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• 2006

Present chemical application system using a power sprayer has been a labor intensive, ineffective and shirking task in farming. Therefore, a small RF controlled (unmanned) helicopter was suggested to replace the conventional spray system. The aerial application using the unmanned helicopter has been already utilized in Japan, where total area applied up to 704,000 ha in 2005. In this article, the status and cost analysis on the unmanned agricultural helicopter were studied. The aerial application using the agricultural helicopter helps precise and timely spraying and reduces labor intensity and pollution. The field capacity of the helicopter was found to be 60-70 ha a day. The break even point was estimated near the operating area of 750 ha annum. The development of an agricultural helicopter was necessary for taking advantages of both technique and economy.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.302-309
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• 2010

Aerial application using an unmanned agricultural helicopter would allow precise and timely spraying. The attitude of a helicopter depends on a number of dynamic variables for roll-balanced flight. Laterally tilting behavior of a helicopter is a physically intrinsic phenomenon while hovering and forwarding. In order to balance the fuselage, the rotor should be counter-tilted, resulting in the biased down-wash. The biased spraying toward right side causes uneven spray pattern. In this study, a raised tail rotor system for the roll-balanced helicopter was studied. Thrust of the tail rotor system was measured and theoretically estimated for the fundamental database of the roll-balanced helicopter design. The estimated tail thrust and roll-moment would be used to design the raising height of tail rotor and roll balancing dynamics. The unmanned agricultural helicopter required the tail rotor thrust of about 39.2 N (4.0 kgf) during hovering with a payload of 235.4 N (24 kgf). A raised tail rotor system would compensate for the physical tilt phenomena. A further attitude control system of helicopter would assist roll-balanced aerial spray application.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.94-100
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• 2008

Present chemical application method using a power sprayer has been labor intensive, costly and ineffective. Therefore, a small agricultural unmanned helicopter was suggested to replace the conventional spray system. In this study, conceptual design for developing the helicopter and a consequential prototype were reported. The overall conceptual design was initiated by deciding the type of agricultural helicopter, as the single rotor helicopter with a tail system. As the first step of the designing, an air-cooled, 2-stroke engine was selected and a prototype transmission was designed by determining the rotating speed of main rotor shaft. A 'pusher' type tail rotor system was adapted to balance the reaction torque and reduce the power use. The tail boom length was designed to avoid the rotating trajectory of the main rotor. The RF console consisted of the engine control, attitude control, and emergency control modules. Assembling the prototype concluded the mechanical development of the agricultural helicopter.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.37 no.6
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• pp.335-341
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• 2012

Purpose: While an unmanned helicopter has been extensively used for spraying chemicals on agricultural crops, its low utilization (two months per year from July to August) has recently become an issue. This study aimed to increase the utilization of the unmanned helicopter. The centrifugal rice seeder, a mounting device for rice seeding for unmanned helicopter was developed and assessed its performance. Methods: The concept of the centrifugal spraying device was to obtain design criteria for centrifugal distribution. Four types of blade shapes namely straight, curved, straight wing and curved wing were developed and used. The rotational speed of the blades was tested at 1,000, 1,200 and 1,400 rpm. Results: The blade shapes, rotational blade speed and angle of trajectory were theoretically analyzed and results were validated with a series of laboratory experiments. Conclusions: The curved wing blades provided the distribution uniformity (DU) at 1,200rpm of rotational speed and 60 degree of seed drop point. The spray uniformity of 4.2% was also achieved.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.31 no.3 s.116
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• pp.182-187
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• 2006

Aerial application using an unmanned agricultural helicopter can reduce labor and pollution. The development of an agricultural helicopter became urgent for both precise and timely spraying. In this study, a rotor system for unmanned helicopter capable of 20 $kg_f$ payload, was developed and lift capability was evaluated. A lift force over the dead weight of the helicopter was obtained at the pitch angle of $6^{\circ}$. As the pitch angle increased to $8^{\circ}\;and\;10^{\circ}$, the total lift increased to $74{\sim}81\;kg_f\;and\;86{\sim}93\;kg_f$, respectively. A range of engine speed at the rated flight condition, lifting mean payload of 23 $kg_f$ was determined. The data acquired from this study will be used for designing tail system and RF console in the next stage of the research. The rated lift capability was enough for loading 20 liters of spray material including spraying equipments.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.89-94
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• 2009

Aerial application using an agricultural unmanned helicopter was suggested for an alternative against current pesticide application methods. Centrifugal clutches play important roles in the performance and safety of the helicopter operation. A previous study analyzed and verified the power transfer theory of the guide type centrifugal clutch. Based on the clutch theory, optimal designs of the clutch became possible and feasible using a simulation method. Design criteria of the clutch were the power transfer capacity of 24.66 kW(33.5 PS) at the rated engine speed and the engaging range speed of 3,000${\sim}$3,500 rpm. Various designs were accomplished using the simulation. An optimal clutch was simulated by determining the values of spring constant and mass of friction sector, which were 94,700 N/m and 123.7 g, respectively. The design performed the power capacity of 24.86 kW(33.8 PS) and engagement speed of 3,069 rpm, meeting the design criteria. Using the designed clutch, an efficient transfer of the power would be possible for the unmanned agricultural helicopter.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.31 no.2 s.115
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• pp.102-107
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• 2006

Opening agricultural market progresses radically, reducing cost of high quality agricultural products becomes urgent. Aerial application using an agricultural helicopter helps precise and timely spraying and reduces labor intensity and pollution. The development of an agricultural helicopter was necessary for taking advantages of both technique and economy. In this study, as the first stage of developing an unmanned helicopter capable of 20kg payload, an engine was selected and a prototype transmission was designed for an agricultural helicopter. Prony type dynamo-meter was constructed, the engine was tested and then performance curve was obtained. The centrifugal clutch was engaged at the rotation speed of 3,500-4,000 rpm. Maximum power was expected at the engine speed of 5,900-6,200 rpm when adjusted at the optimal output. Based on the test results, the transmission was designed for driving main rotor shaft.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.289-295
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• 2008

The task of chemical spraying has been seriously considered as an irritating and annoying job for Korean rice farmers. An agricultural unmanned helicopter was suggested to solve this problem so as the farmers to have more decent farming condition. The objectives of this study were to analyze the adoptability of an experimental rotor blade (SW05) using the CFD simulation and also to compare the simulation results with experimental results. The simulation results showed that the induced power of this rotor reached to $57{\sim}63%$ of total power and the profile power was about $37{\sim}43%$ of total power. Therefore it can be concluded that this rotor's performance characteristics were not so efficient for the size of unmanned helicopter due to the low induced power and high profile power relatively compared with ones of conventional rotors. The comparison with experimental results showed that the tested lifts were less than 70% of simulated ones at the grip pitch of $12^{\circ}$ and decreased to 40% at the $18^{\circ}$ grip pitch. Therefore, it can be concluded that the rotor was too oversized to be used for a 15.4 kW (21 PS) engine.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.215-223
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• 2010

In order to develop an precision aerial pesticide application system to be attached to an unmanned helicopter which can be applied to small lots of land, this study analyzed the flowing and spraying characteristics of the spray droplets by the main rotor downwash by setting the application conditions at the flight altitude of 3 m, the diameter of main rotor of 3.1 m, the boom length of around 2.8 m, and the spraying rate of 8 L/ha. The results of this study are summarized below. Through analysis of the covering area ratio of the spray droplets by main rotor downwash by nozzle type, boom with tilt angle and height, it was found that the covering area ratio of the twin flat-fan nozzle of around 25% was more uniform than other types of nozzle, also boom with $10^{\circ}$ tilt angle and spraying height of 3 m was shown to be the appropriate conditions for aerial application of pesticides. It was found that the nozzle position to minimize the scattering loss of spray droplets due to vortex phenomenon at both ends of the main rotor was around 10 cm from the end of the main rotor. An application test for the aerial pesticide application system attached to the HUA-ACEI unmanned helicopter developed by the Rural Development Administration showed that the range of covering area ratio of the spray droplets was 10-25%, and the spraying width was approximately 7 m when over 10% of covering area ratio was considered for valid spraying.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.14-20
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• 2008

An agricultural unmanned helicopter was suggested for an alternative to current pesticide application methods to solve such problems as high cost, low efficiency, shirking task and unsafe work. To pursuit this trend, researches on the development of unmanned helicopters have been accelerated in Korea as well. In this research, a guide type centrifugal clutch that plays an important role in the unmanned helicopter was studied. Theoretical analyses and experimental tests were conducted for designing an optimal clutches. Main design factors of the guide type centrifugal clutch were found to be spring constant, free length of spring, mass of friction sector, contact area, allowable pressure, number of friction sector, friction coefficient, radius of drum, and clutch arrangement. And these design factors could be the functions of engaging engine speed and desired power transfer capacity. The result of the single clutch test showed the power transfer capacity of 14.1 PS at 5,800 rpm and the result of the dual clutch test showed that the capacity of 17.7 PS at 5,600 rpm. These experimental results agreed well the theoretical simulations.