Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicle to Spread Natural Enemies for Biological Control in Dynamic Environments

摘要

In order to control the population of vectors responsible for the transmission of diseases, such as chikungunya, dengue and huánglónging (HLB), with greater effectiveness and less impact to the environment, we had the dissemination of lines of research focused on the applied biological control, which consists of the release of natural predators from these vectors. However, when this task is performed manually by humans, they are susceptible to the risks presented by the environment, whether it is difficult to access the affected area or the presence of venomous animals, such as snakes and hornets. Given this scenario, and following the development of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), there is a proposal to use them to automate this task. However, external factors, such as wind, can influence the movement of these vehicles and consequently the effectiveness in performing certain tasks. Thus, this work had as purpose the study about the influence of the wind under free falling objects, which, in the scenario of this work, are the glasses containing the natural enemies of a certain pest, and the proposition of a strategy to be taken by the aircraft, in order to ensure the effectiveness of the task at hand. During the tests performed in a simulated environment, it was observed that the mathematical modeling of the wind and the strategy taken by the aircraft at run time were able to achieve good results, allowing the cup to be deposited very close to the pre-defined location.