Use of Quadcopter Wakes to Supplement Strawberry Pollination

Abstract

Pollinators are critical to the world's ecosystems and food supply, yet recent studies have found pollination shortfalls in several crops, including strawberry. This is troubling because wild and managed pollinators are currently experiencing declines. One possibility is to try and provide supplemental pollination solutions. These solutions should be affordable and simple for farmers to implement if their use is to be widespread; quadcopters are a great example, already used for monitoring on many farms. This paper investigates a new method for artificial pollination based on wind pollination that bears further investigation. After determining the height where the lateral flow is maximized, we performed field experiments with a quadcopter assisting natural pollinators. Although our results in the field were inconclusive, lab studies show that the idea shows promise and could be adapted for better field results.