RuAviation

Agriculture is one of the most promising areas for the application of unmanned aerial systems (UAS), which is confirmed by data from the global agricultural drone market, which is already estimated at $3.6 billion and is forecast to grow to $5.7 billion by 2030.

The increased demand for UAS in agriculture is due to their ability to efficiently and accurately apply fertilisers and pesticides while avoiding mechanical damage to crops. “Despite the growing interest, the Russian market is still catching up, as there are no mass-produced domestic drones that meet global standards and have passed all necessary state certifications,” Transport of the Future reported.

At the All-Russian Field Day, where the company presented an updated model of Russia’s first mass-produced agrodrone, the Hector S-80 with a 70 per cent localisation level of components, Yuri Kozarenko Transport of the Future CEO said that Hector will be able to occupy this niche.

“We have already developed and started production of our own engines, propellers, drivers, flight controllers and batteries. We have obtained a BAS operator certificate for our Drone-Service business. The next step is to obtain the S-80 BAS type certificate, scheduled for July-August this year. Now Dron-Service already processes tens of thousands of hectares of crops annually. After passing all the necessary stages, we expect to multiply the volumes and perform work on domestic UAS,” Yuri Kozarenko said.

The Hector S-80 drone is capable of carrying a payload of up to 40kg and processing up to 18 hectares per hour. In the course of the modernisation work was done to improve the aircraft: the payload was increased, nozzle systems for uniform spraying were improved, a digital platform for fully autonomous operation was developed, and the overall performance of the device was increased.

Yuri Kozarenko added that their target is to occupy more than 30% of the market for UAV-based agricultural field treatment services in the next 5-7 years. The company is confident that through innovation and significant localisation of components they will be able to set a new standard in the Russian agricultural drone industry.