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THE MECHANISM OF DRONE SEEDING TECHNOLOGY: A REVIEW

Article in Malaysian Forester · June 2021

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THE MALAYSIAN FORESTER 2021, 84 (2): 349 - 358

THE MECHANISM OF DRONE SEEDING

TECHNOLOGY: A REVIEW

OMAR FARUQI MARZUKI1,2,*, ELLIE YI LIH TEO1,2 AND

AZMIN SHAKRINE MOHD RAFIE3
1 Institut Ekosains Borneo, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Jalan Nyabau, 97008 Bintulu, Sarawak,
Malaysia
2 Department of Science and Technology, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 97008 Bintulu, Sarawak,

Malaysia
3 Department of Aerospace Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Selangor,

Malaysia

*Corresponding author
Email: omar_faruqi@upm.edu.my

Abstract : The utilization of drone in various fields such as agriculture,

reforestation and seaport is a valuable addition. Aligning the current technology
advancement and The Fourth Industrial Revolution (IR 4.0), reforestation and
agriculture are integrating drone technology into their ecosystem. As illegal
rapid deforestation is increasing and there is a need to replant trees in order to
prevent soil erosion, reduce fire risks as well as restore wildlife habitats,
reforestation using drone seeding have been explored. Agricultural drone can
provide fast seed sowing, hence reducing the working time. This paper reviews
the recent advancement in drone mechanism specifically for seeding and
planting.

Key words: Drone, seeding, sowing, reforestation, agriculture.

INTRODUCTION

Drone or unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is a pilotless aircraft. Due to its versatility
in various applications such as in agriculture, mining, oil & gas and other industrial
facilities, it has attracted much research interest resulting in constant advancement in
the drone technology. One of its application is in agriculture sector which can be used
in multiple areas, enabling limitless aerial perspectives such as crop monitoring, crop
planting, livestock management, crop spraying, irrigation, and mapping. Besides that,
drone can also be used to curb illegal deforestation. Illegal deforestation is the main
degradation cause of the world’s forests and it is widespread in most parts of the
world. The illegal timber industry is worth an estimated $52 - $157 billion annually
(Transnational Alliance to Combat Illicit Trade 2019). Due to the rampant issue,
researchers have explored various ways to restore the forests affected. One of the
novel ideas is by using drone for forest seeding as reported by (Rana and Hima 2020).
Both (Berner 2020) and (Choudhury et al. 2017) highlighted the advantage of drone
seeding is in its utilization at inaccessible area compared to conventional sowing
method. This paper reviews the current state of drone seeding technology mechanism.

Drone Seeding

Drone seeding or sowing can be defined as a drone equipped with seed carrying
container with release mechanism for control and guidance to disperse the seed from
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the air to the ground. In the current stage of drone seeding technology development,
the words drone seeding and drone sowing can be used interchangeably. Seeding in
the context of drone application can be categorized into seed capsule or germinated
seed and bare seed. Seed capsule or germinated seed can be defined as fertilized seed
immerse in nutrient pellet to increase the survival rate during planting while planting
bare seed is simply by scattering the seed on the soil.

Overall, the drone used for reforestation and agriculture is classified as

multirotor. Depending on the number of rotor used, the type of multirotor drone can
be categorized as quadcopter for using four rotors, hexacopter for using six rotors and
octocopter used eight rotors. Drone rotors are used for control and propulsion. Thus,
drone seeding technology is a combination of drone and seeding mechanism installed
below the drone.

Yamunathangam et al. (2020) proposed Pixhawk quadcopter drone for

reforestation with 1.36 kg seed load container controlled by seed disperser wheel
connected to servo motor. ArduPilot software is used to plan the seed disbursement
location while the Pixhawk flight controller was used to control the nozzle wheel
rotation as shown in Figure 1. It was found that the drone seeding along the roadside
can improve the success rate of reforestation.

Figure 1. Reforestation drone (Yamunathangam et al. 2020).

Andrio (2019) proposed hexacopter drone seeding for reforestation using

0.16 kg seed load canister with stopper as shown in Figure 2. The canister door is
controlled by a motor and it can carry 40 Tamarindus indica seeds. The proposed
drone coverage area is 10000 m2. The researcher suggested using hexacopter drone
for improvement in the drone seeding performance and payload.

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Figure 2. (a) The seed canister (arrow) attached to the drone (b) Components of the
reforestation drone.

Fortes (2017) proposed reforestation using PixFalcon quadcopter drone

through designed seed dispenser mechanism controlled by a Lego 5V DC motor
(Figure 3). The seeds inside the container are dispersed through rotational outlet
control by infrared sensor controlled by Arduino hardware and software setting.
ArduPilot software is used in planning seed locations and drone waypoints. The study
found that a large seed releasing compartment and mechanism are required for
accurate and efficient seed dispersing to prevent seeds clogging.

Figure 3. (a) Reforestation drone with seed disbursement attached at the bottom (b)
The seed dispenser was built using Lego and combined with a motor.

In a study conducted by Dampage et al. (2020) a quadcopter drone seeding

for soft soil paddy using half 1.5-liter bottle as container to disperse 2 kg seeds load
through nozzle with driving mechanism was proposed. The 3D printer nozzle was
designed from SolidWorks software while Arduino software was used to control the
shutter and the rate of paddy seeds dispersal (Figure 4). The waypoints for the bare
seed rice dispersal were then planned with the ArduPilot software and it was dispersed
by triggering an independent control box. The designed drone seeding coverage area
was 100 m2. The researchers found that by predetermining the height and spacing,
seed wastage can be avoided when dispersing the rice seed .

A study by Worakuldumrongdej et al. (2019) was on the Pixhawk quadcopter

drone for wet rice seed sowing using designed hopper with a capacity of 20 rice
capsules to be fed into a spiral spinner to shoot the rice seed capsule (Figure 5). The
drone uses four 10-inches diameter propellers. The seeding mechanism was 3D
printed using PLA material and it is controlled with the Arduino software and a motor
driver. The yellow-coloured capsule which can be easily observed, contains both
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germinated rice seed and peat moss. By encapsulating the rice seed, it can increase
wet soil penetration during the drone seeding process. ArduPilot software is used in
planning the drone seeding planting waypoints. The speed of drone must not be lower
than 4 m/s to maintain the seeding precision.

Figure 4. (a) A complete assembly of agriculture drone (b) 3D printed nozzle (c)
The connection between nozzle and seed container.

Figure 5. (a) Simulation for seed disbursement through centrifugal force when the
capsule is dropped in the center (b) The yellow-coloured capsules which
encapsulates the rice seed and peat moss.

Fan et al. (2018) studied on granules for hexacopter drone seeding. The
planting granules material contain polyacrylamide (PAM), grass seed, fertilizer, and
additives. The seed granules dispersed from drone grew successfully at the targeted
eroded soil (Figure 6).

Jubair et al. (2018) proposed the crop seeding quadcopter drone using 0.17
kg load container drop into disk with holes controlled by servo motor as shown in
Figure 7. The seeding mechanism was designed using SolidWorks software and it was
built using plastic and aluminum. The target crops are mustard seed and red spinach

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due to their spherical shape. The drone waypoints are planned using ArduPilot
software while Arduino software is used for control. Based on the results found, the
authors suggested that drone seeding for crops is seven times faster compared to
manual seeding.

Figure 6. (a) Planting granules (b) Granule disbursement using the drone (c) Granule
dispersed on the ground. (d) Successful germination from dispersed
granule.

Figure 7. (a) The design of agriculture drone (b) Nozzle mechanism with a seed
container (c) The seed container attached at the bottom of the drone.

Lalkumar et al. (2018) proposed an agricultural quadcopter drone with

interchangeable container between spraying and seeding as shown in Figure 8a. The
drone used four 12-inch diameter propellers and coverage area is around 5500 m2.
Koranne et al. (2017) proposed a seed container for drone using Arduino software to
control the nozzle shutter. It was suggested that the guidance plate at the end nozzle
helped improve seed distribution efficiency (Figure 8 b). Saheb and Babu (2017)
proposed an agriculture quadrotor drone seeding using seed container with pipe nozzle
to shoot seed by acting on impact upon drone landing on the ground (Figure 8c).

A rye seeding hexacopter drone using 2.7 kg load tank with spreading disk
(Figures 9a,b) was designed by Chojnacki and Berner (2018). The DJI S900
commercial drone used six 15-inches diameter propellers and it is attached to a
powered Greenmill seeder. The seeding test was done under laboratory conditions
with the drone attached to the test stand. At a height of 1 m, the downwash from the
drone propeller helped in spreading the seed equally around the target area.
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Figure 8. (a) Agriculture drone using aluminum frame with container attached at the
bottom (Lalkumar et al. 2018) (b) Drone seeding mechanism by Koranne
et al. (2017) which disburses seed through guide plate (c) Seed container
with impact nozzle attached at the bottom of the drone (Saheb and Babu
2017).

Figure 9. (a) The dimension of height and distance of seed nozzle from patternator
(b) The seed distribution pattern on the patternator after seeds were
disbursed from drone.

Song et al. (2018) proposed a single-rotor drone seeding with centrifugal

disc-type sowing Figure 10a. The seeder system can spread the seed up to a certain
diameter as the outer sowing area receives less seed. Li et al. (2016) proposed a rise
seed octocopter drone using 3.7 kg load hopper with rotating disc output driven by
direct-current dynamo as shown in Figure 10b. From the study, it was found that the
seed sowing consistency was hard to maintain by using the gravity feed system
proposed.

Other than experimental, simulation studies have also been conducted by

Felismina et al. (2017a, b) who simulated a universal seeder system and an
aerodynamic shaped container for drone seeding application using Computational
Fluid Dynamic (CFD) and Computer Aided Design (CAD) as shown in Figure 11a. It
was found that drag force can be reduced depending on the movement of the drone
with seed container. Barman et al. (2017) proposed a drone seeding design using seed

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injector (Figure 11 b) where the seeds will be released through an injector hole based
on preset node.

Figure 10. (a) Drone sowing mechanism by Song et al. (2018) (b) Agriculture drone
by Li et al. (2016).

Figure 11. (a) Drone seeding with aerodynamics seed container design, CFD flow
current line and CFD displacement field on seeder holder test (Felismina
et al. 2017a, b) (b) The drone seeding mechanism design which disburse
seeds through a hole at the bottom of container (Barman et al. 2017).

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Shortcomings of drone seeding mechanism

A closer look at the literature on drone seeding, however, revealed several

shortcomings. The first is on the seed container nozzle. All the container nozzles are
designed for specific seeds which are the seed type, size and shape. Secondly is the
aspect of missing seed capsule. Majority of researchers have applied seed
disbursement without ground penetration. Ground penetration requires hard seed
capsule that can withstand impact upon hitting and penetrating the ground. To date,
various aspects of the drone seeding mechanism have been explored. However, the
firing mechanism using air compressor have yet to be researched. By using air
compressor as the firing mechanism, it will give an additional push to the dispersed
seeds, helping them to penetrate the ground upon landing.

CONCLUSION

The general seeding mechanism can be divided into two. The first mechanism requires
a feeder to drop the seed into the nozzle before spreading them. The second
mechanism is by shooting the seed through the nozzle. Shooting mechanism requires
additional components such as air compressor. Next, the control mechanism mainly
uses the open source electronics like Arduino software and other hardware that allow
researchers to design and build the seed output stopper and spreader. The drone is
built from commercially available parts or on-shelf drone. This can help researchers
to focus on the design and set up of the attachment and seeding mechanism. Open-
source waypoints like ArduPilot software is used to control drone autonomously and
to setup routes for seed dropping.

Majority of drone seeding mechanism utilizes gravity drop to spread the

seed. The drawback of this approach is that the seed stay above the ground and are
exposed to various risks such as weather conditions and animals. The rain can wash
away the seed from the initial target planting location and the seeds are also
susceptible to wildlife attack. Seed capsules can give seed protection from the external
threat and improve seed survival rate. Shooting seed from the drone to penetrate the
ground can secure the preset planting location. Seeds that are gravity dropped can
have an additional sticky outer layer material to hold them at the planting location.

The challenge in developing the seed shooting mehanism would be the seed
type, size, shape and to a certain extent, weight. Weight affects the drone carrying
performance. These factors can help increase the seed establishment on the ground.

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