Design and Testing of a Crawler-Type Orchard Air-Assisted Electrostatic Sprayer

To address the challenges of low mobility and difficulty in depositing pesticide droplets on the backside of fruit tree leaves, this study proposes a method combining a crawler-type chassis with an electrostatic spraying system to design a crawler-type air-assisted electrostatic orchard sprayer. The developed crawler-type chassis meets the operational environmental requirements of the sprayer, with both operating speed and mobility achieving the design goals. Test results show that the designed air-assisted electrostatic nozzle can achieve a charge-to-mass ratio of 1.0 mC/kg at the outlet. The droplet coverage on the front side of leaves with electrostatic spraying is slightly lower than that of non-electrostatic spraying, but the coverage on the backside is higher. This research provides a reference for the design and application of air-assisted electrostatic sprayers.