Our Drone Articles

From a distance it looks like almost any other drone

But a larger black panel on a prototype developed by an Auckland startup makes this one a little different, in a big way.

"We're one of the few companies in the world to deliver this technology for light-based energy transmission," said Aquila CEO and co-founder William Jeremijenko.

It's light that is invisible to the eye.

But they're using it to charge the drone while it flies, opening the doors for a raft of possibilities in the future.

"You can imagine having this on agricultural sites or mining sites where you got a love moving platforms."  Jeremijenko told 1News

"They need an energy source and you can have that energy supplied continuously by beams of light"

The ultimate goal. as he puts it, is to make an "internet of energy" - a network of satellites to send power from where it's generated to where it's needed.

Eventually they hope to send power to electric planes flying internationally.

"So with this directed energy capability you can all of a sudden create these networks that can serve any imaginable application." Jeremijenko said.

And the hope is it can be done within a decade, helping along by AUD $3 million recently secured in funding.

Making it large-scale and safe

"The reason why no-one has done this yet is because it is just that hard." fellow co-founder Nelson Smith told 1News

"There are dozens of really difficult technical problems that have only recently become fundamentally soveable."

A lot of people have tried, Smith said.

their solution involves a "lighthouse" module that can direct a beam of light to a receiver, in this case on the prototype drone.

The receiver is in effect a specialised solar panel that can work with the specialised light.

It can deliver more than what solar can.

The "Lighthouse" module on the drone

"So think of autonomous aerial vehicles, or boats, or submarines just staying forever, that's the goal" Smith said.

"The biggest reasons we can't transition to renewables is electrical propulsion just isn't good enough yet"

"However if we can charge things mid-flight suddenly all those barriers just evaporate"

The team is working to make safety a key part of the whole design.

"For me to put it in front of people , it has to be safe... we have to be so confident that it's not even going to hurt a bird, let alone a person." said Smith "And it's working beautifully so far"

Potential game changer

The drone in flight

Victoria University sustainable energy professor Alan Brent told 1News a number of companies are working on the technology.

"It's definitely a potential game changer in the power", he said.

He said serving communities in difficult terrain in difficult times could be key winners.

"Definitely for communities in topography that's very difficult to install and maintain lines if we have disasters, or earthquakes, or cyclone events - they won't disrupted using this kind of technology" he said.

Cushla McGoverin from the Dodd-Walls Centre for Photonic and Quantum Technologies calls it "solar power, amped up"

"If you don't have to bring your drone down to charge it every few hours? The potential advantage of that is massive." She said.

"In events like disaster events when you're trying to find things, agriculture is starting to use drones - it's just massivem the potential applications"

Hey guys, 

We had perfect weather for our Maryborough QLD demo in March 2023. And a fantastic site that has cotton, cane and pineapple plantations. We demonstrated the T40 over cane , showing that there is no yield loss when using it  – no compaction or damage to the tops of the cane that you get with boom sprayers. Guests could also see the strong penetration into the cane thanks to the T40’s large coaxial rotors pushing the droplets down and circulating them around inside the cane for creating exceptional efficiency.

We also demonstrated targeted spot spraying (for weeds such as Giant Rats Tail) and also manual and manual plus modes for spraying the edges of the nearby dam.

And we demonstrated the Mavic 3 Multispectral, Mavic 3 Thermal, and had the T10 there and discussed its suitability for spraying isolated gullies and small patches of weed.  

Guests were able to see a good run down of Terra too thanks to the large LED screen and an hdmi out from the RC and the laptop.

Thanks to all for a great day out.   

This is our final T30-centric spray drone demo day. We have just started shipping T40’s and expect to be focussing more on it for future demos. We used the DJI Agras T30, Phantom 4 RTK, and RTK mobile station, and Terra Ag. software.

Book a demo day here.

In this demo, we show the T30 flying from point to point, simulating automated spot spraying of individual blackberry clumps. At each point, the T30 does a 360-degree yaw (pirouette), in order to saturate each blackberry clump. Using the settings in the controller, Oscar has set how many liters of liquid to spray at each point, which the T30 executes based on yaw speed and flow rate.

• Property too wet to get your spray rig across
• Weeds getting out of control on your steep sections and gullies
• Cost of diesel becoming an issue
• Tractor churning up your root systems / destabilising soil on wet banks

In many cases, our customers are reporting their DJI T30 spray drone is getting the same kill rate as a spray rig or helicopter but using at least 60% less liquid (chemical plus water). The T30 propellers push the vapour down and circulate it in and around the surface areas of the vegetation, including the vulnerable undersides. One customer was using a helicopter spraying 50L per ha on blackberry, his T30 achieved the same kill rate spraying 18L per ha. The drone was also more precise (less drift) and is always available (kept onsite).    

With La Niña predicted to continue for several more months, spray drones will become increasingly relevant for jobs like spraying Grazon Extra, spreading Super, seeding banks, or spreading mouse baits. The T30 spray drone will cover up to 70 ha per day in open flat terrain (e.g. oats, corn), 35 ha per day in more complex terrain.

Using a spray drone is probably easier than you may think - most of the time you are not actually flying it. Rather, you prepare a Field Plan – mark your spray area boundaries over a ‘Google map’, input the desired L/ha, and the drone will set its speed and fly the mission autonomously. When it runs out of liquid or dry particles the T30 will automatically come home for a refill and then go back and resume spraying/spreading from where it left off. See video tutorial.

Drones For Hire has been operating since 2013 and is an official DJI Ag. Dealer in Australia. Here is a 2 min video of a T30 demo we did in Golspie NSW.

And some images from a T30 setup we did on Kangaroo Island.

View T30 EOFY bundles. Or consider the T10 - the little brother of the T30, better suited for smaller properties, hobby farms or less frequent spraying.

Drones For Hire visited Kangaroo Island to help customers set up their DJI T30 spray drone and Phantom 4 RTK. A lot of vegetation has grown back since the island suffered extensive bush fires in 2020. Unfortunately, some of the regrowth is unwanted weeds. DFH assisted by providing a solution to enable the customer to map the hilly terrain (P4 RTK) and then use the T30 spray drone to spray weeds and increase the proportion of grazable land. 

The brand new Agras T30 by DJI has just launched in Australia, boosting itself to the role of next-generation aircraft with its 30L spray capacity, 9m spray range, and 40 acre per hour coverage. However, there are a few other spray drones in the market that are better for different niches in the agricultural market, some of which you may be tempted to consider as well.

The Agras T30 and Agras T10 were built to service different areas in the agricultural industry, and we can help you figure out which drone suits your needs the most. Do you have a family-owned regular-sized farmstead with a few acres of crops and livestock that you would like to keep away from chemicals? Are you a commercial farmer with hundreds of acres of farmland? Are you an orchard or vineyard farmer looking for a better method of spraying your taller crops? Read on to find out which drone is best for you. 

Note: we sell the T30, and T10, but no longer sell the T20. The T20 is only included for comparison.

The Bottom Line

The most important thing about spray drones, other than the fact that they help you spray crops, is how much they spray, per hour, or per flight. You want to know how much you can get out of one battery charge or one tank of liquid before you have to recharge and refill. Whether you run a small, simple orchard or have sprawling fields of crops, you want to know how much you can get out of a fully juiced spray drone.

Spraying capabilities

The T30 has the largest tank capacity out of the three, which also leads to the biggest acre/hr spray capability, assuming constant power. The T30 boasts a carrying capacity of 30 litres of whichever herbicide or pesticide you’d like, which can be sprayed at a horizontal range of 9m wide. This allows the T30 to theoretically spray up to 40 acres an hour, which is 33% more than the previous generation Agras T20 spray drone. The T30 can also carry 40L of granules/seeds in place of the 30L of liquid, for seeding and granule spreading purposes. 

Furthermore, it can be coupled with 2 other T30s to create a swarm of spray drones that will allow you to spray 27m wide swaths, and up to 120 acres an hour. The swarming capabilities of the T30 allow farmers and farmstead owners to adopt a more modular approach to spraying crops. Are you looking to spray only around your seasonal fruits? Use just 1 of the T30s. What about a farm-wide spraying job? Get all 3 into the air and get the job done in 45 minutes. 

In comparison, the T20 is smaller and lighter (21.1 kg) than the T30 (26.4 kg), carries up to 20 L of liquid, and sprays up to 27 acres an hour. Although the T20 has the advantage of a smaller and lighter frame, it does not stand up to the T30 in terms of spraying rate or width.

Battery Life and Rechargeability

The other vital parameter of any spray drone is its battery. Specifically: how long one lasts and how many are required for continuous use. The basic details are listed below, and we can use them to go into more detail about each drone’s battery capabilities.

Each drone has its own dedicated charging station and smart battery with different voltages (except the T20, which shares batteries and charging station with the older T16 model, and the T10, which can use the T20 and T16 batteries).

Since each charging station has more than one charging slot, you can choose to either charge 1 battery at a time then quickly replacing the batteries on your drone, or get more than 2 batteries for continuous flight and to lessen the risk of running out of power between flights. Our personal recommendation is to always get 3 batteries, which is our tested minimal amount of batteries to maintain continuous flight throughout the day. 

Each drone’s battery also has a battery life, which the manufacturers supply, but it’s not worth it to cover here since you’ll have to get their specific batteries anyway. 

Spreading systems

In addition to spraying liquid, some of these drones, specifically the T30, T20, and T10, have spraying systems, which you can use to spray seeds, grains, granular fertilizer, and even solids like animal feed over fishponds. 

The rate of distribution above is according to continuous use, and with respect to the rate of manual operation. The tank capacity, spreading width, and tank opening of the drones all contribute to a significant increase in spreading capabilities for your farmstead. If you have been physically spreading granules by hand, the T10 can decrease your workload by 36x, and the T30 can do it by a whopping 105x.

If you have been using a large vehicle or anything that takes up more space and resources, consider getting a drone to do the work for you: it’s smaller, less intrusive into your crop growth, and allows you better control over your work. 

Spray Method

One of our most popular questions is “how do I start spraying with this drone? Will I have to fly it manually?”

Short answer: “Nope!” 

(Well, sort of no.) 

To spray an automatic path through your crops, you will have to create a set plan, either by:

1. Manually inputting waypoints as you fly a drone through your farm

2. Manually inputting waypoints as you walk through your farm with a remote controller

3. Or! Setting them through first or third-party software like DJI Terra, Pix4D, or Drone Deploy

How do you do this? For the first and second methods, all you need is your drone, your remote controller, and a good understanding of your farm and where you would like to spray. Spray drones will only spray where you manually set them to spray and does not make any intelligent decisions on their own other than to avoid trees and other obstacles. Even then, you should be careful to ensure that the flight path you’ve planned is as accurate as possible, and around as few obstacles as possible. As much as sensing technology has improved, your drone is NOT sentient.

However, you can use DJI Terra, Pix4D, or Drone Deploy to enhance your field mapping and planning and specify flight missions so that you save time, resources, and overall effort. These software packages allow you to set waypoints on a visual map of your farm and depending on the type of software, you may also be able to get thermal and multispectral information about your farmland to assist in targeting areas.

The DJI Terra is compatible with all Agras Spray drones, namely the T10, T20, and T30, and for the drones currently in stock (T10, T30) a 1-year subscription to DJI Terra is included in the price. DJI Terra allows you to plan flight missions, capture image data, process images into maps and models, and analyze data all in one. Both Pix4D and Drone Deploy use different images across many sources to produce ultra-high res, high-accuracy 3D maps and models, while DJI Terra is much more limited in image source compatibility, even if it is comparatively much more convenient to use than Pix4D and Drone Deploy

Tl;dr DJI Terra allows you to immediately create a flight plan with 2D images, though it does so less accurately and with a lower resolution of maps than Pix4D or Drone Deploy, which are incompatible with the T10 and T30. 

So how would you use Pix4D or Drone Deploy? Well, you’ll need the Phantom 4 Multispectral or Phantom 4 RTK. Why another drone? These 3rd party software require compatible cameras and sensors which spray drones generally do not support, which leads to the 2nd drone requirement if you’re looking for advanced mapping capabilities. 

Drone Deploy is also compatible with the Mavic Enterprise and Mavic Pro models.

Pix4D is also compatible with the Mavic 2 Enterprise Dual (RGB only) and Mavic 2 Advanced, and the Matrice 300 series drones. The following sensors from DJI are compatible with Pix4D software: Zenmuse X3, Zenmuse X4S, and Zenmuse X5S. Multispectral and thermal sensors such as the Zenmuse XT are not compatible. A full list is available here.

The Conclusive Evidence Suggests…

If you’re a farmer (orchard or crops) with a huge farm, get the Agras T30, with an accompanying Phantom 4 Multispectral or RTK.

If you’re a farmer (orchard or crops) with a slightly less huge farm (say, up to 16 acres), you’ll be able to get by with an Agras T10.

If you think you’ll want to use your drones to spray seeds and solid fertilizer, get the DJI spreading system, you’ll need it. 

Always confirm that your bundle comes with at least 3 batteries to maintain continuous flight. 

And finally, if you’re planning on getting a T30 or three, consider getting the RTK mobile station. It will bring your accuracy from a 1-2 metre range (error owing to satellite uncertainty) to 20 cm, significantly improving your drone’s spray capabilities. You can read more about it here.

Hopefully, this was informative for you, and remember to check out all the drone pages before you make a calculated decision. Feel free to call us at 1300 029 829 if you want to chat about obtaining the best spray drone for your needs!