The problematic issues of unmanned aerial vehicle application in agriculture

BACKGROUND: The rapid development of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) today is largely driven by the needs of the defense industry. The new scientific and technological phase of research substantiates the necessity for a systematic analysis and review of existing regulations concerning the use of agrochemicals in agriculture with the application of unmanned aerial vehicles. AIM: Conducting an analysis of the current state of the application of UAV in agriculture for the use of agrochemicals and identifying problematic issues that limit the development of this field as a whole. METHODS: The material used in this study includes publications of scientific articles and reviews that cover the researched topic and are available in scientific libraries: elibrary.ru; dissercat.com; medline.ru; scholar.google.com.ru; cyberleninka.ru. Additionally, legislative acts published on the websites of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation; the Federal Air Transport Agency; the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of the Russian Federation; the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation; Rospotrebnadzor of the Russian Federation; and the Government of the Russian Federation were utilized. The study was conducted using generally accepted methods of scientific information processing: citation, grouping, editing, aggregation, and transformation into a new form. RESULTS: The study analyzes the results of existing research works, the technical capabilities of UAV fleet models, and the requirements of legislative acts regulating the operation of agricultural drones when applying agrochemicals. CONCLUSION: The imperfections of the existing legal framework, new technical capabilities of unmanned aerial vehicles, and modern advancements in agricultural chemicalization necessitate the review of current approaches and the development and justification of new strategies for the use of unmanned aerial vehicles in agriculture, particularly when applying agrochemicals.