aerial spraying.
With its 60 liter tank it can work 30 hectares per flight.
In the impressive agribusiness exhibition that is taking place these days in San Nicolás, a small plane called Mangangá attracts attention.
It is an unmanned aerial vehicle for phytosanitary applications that began to be developed at the end of 2017 by Ariel Stocchi, a young doctor in Materials Sciences, a Conicet researcher, along with some colleagues from the institution, members of the University of Mar del Plata and the company Aerodyca, who formed a public-private consortium in order to give shape to the project that received a silver medal at the Ternium Awards ceremony at Expoagro.
The aircraft was designed for Argentine production conditions, it has a 4.30 meter wingspan (width from one wingtip to the other) and weighs 150 kilos, flies at 100-120 km/h, has a 30-speed internal fuel engine. HP and less than 300 cm3, and has a tank capable of loading 60 liters of product allowing spraying between 20 and 30 hectares per flight.
For its operation, a flight route is preloaded, which the same team determines how it will cover, the device takes off, makes the passes and when the tank is empty it returns to be recharged and continue with the batch.
“With this vehicle, the operating costs of application per hectare are reduced compared to those of a manned aircraft, therefore, for a small batch, it is convenient to go with this device.
Fuel consumption is much lower, not counting what has to do with insurance, garage, logistics, inspections, etc. ”, he added.
In addition, "the application is more precise due to automation, with the use of GPS RTK (real time kinematic), it is more controlled and allows those 60 liters of product to cover 20 or 30 hectares, depending on the dose."
Mangangá is intended as a complementary tool for conventional aero-applicators, so that they can use it in medium batches with greater operational ease and at a lower cost.
For a few months they have been carrying out test flights and adjustments to autonomous operation.
“We started working with the autopilot and the aircraft on a smaller scale, with a smaller plane, for a security issue and we are already extrapolating it to this one.
We did everything with manual control and now we are moving to autonomous control.
These are stages that have to be followed very rigorously, because in aeronautics, what fails leads to a total destruction of the equipment”, explains Ariel.
Specifically, they are dedicated to the electronic integration of all flight systems, in computer simulations and in the integration to the final device.
"For now everything is perfect, although we always continue working to improve," says the researcher.