DJI Agras T50: Refined Capabilities for Precision Agricultural Drone Spraying and Spreading

DJI Agras T50

The DJI Agras T50 is DJI’s latest spraying and spreading drone solution for the Australian market. The Agras T50 supersedes the hugely successful Agras T40 drone. The improvements introduced on the T50 expand on the safety and overall efficiency when compared to the T40.

DJI Agras T50 Key Specs

  • Liquid Payload Capacity: 40 L

  • Spreading Payload Capacity: 50 kg/75 L

  • Max Operational Flight Speed: 10 m/s

  • Maximum Take-Off Weight (MTOW): 103kg

  • Weight Excluding Battery: 39.9 kg

  • Max Spraying Efficiency: 21 ha/hr

  • Max Spreading Efficiency: 1.5 t/hr

  • Spraying Flow Rate: 16 L/min (2 Sprinklers)

  • (Optional) Max Flow Rate: 24 L/min (4 Sprinklers)

  • Droplet Sizes: 50-500um

  • Spreading Rate: 108 kg/min (medium-sized urea)

  • Spreading Granule Size: 0.5mm-5mm

  • Max Spreading Width: 8m

  • Spraying Width: 4-11m

  • Forward/Back Phased Array Radars & 2-Pair Front Binocular Vision System For Obstacle Detection & Avoidance

  • Built-In UHD FPV Camera for Situational Awareness & Aerial Surveying (13 ha in 10 min)

  • Supplied With DJI RC Plus Controller with 7” Screen Size

  • Max 2km Range (Supports DJI Relay For Longer Range)

  • Supports RTK

  • Hovering Flight Time Without Payload: ~18 min

  • Hovering Flight Time With Max Spraying Payload: ~7 min

  • Hovering Flight Time With Max Spreading Payload: ~6 min

  • Charger Input Requirements: 9000W input

  • Charger Output: 7200W

  • Charge Time: ~12min from 30%-95%

Additional information can be found on the official DJI AGRAS T50 Specs.

It is highly recommended to use a generator on-site to manage charging for your batteries. This allows you to have a continuous operation on site with just 3 flight batteries (some customers may use 4 flight batteries). We recommend a generator rated to 10kVA or higher, which can produce at least, 9000W of real power. The generator should ideally support pure-sine wave output, and it would need 2 15A outlets. Talk to us to seek recommendations on generators.

How to Automate Operations With the DJI Agras T50

The DJI Agras T50 drone can be manually flown, but it is designed with automation in mind. The remote controller comes preloaded with the DJI Agras software that allows for manual operation of the aircraft, in addition to supporting in-field automated flight planning. Below are the available flight planning options on the DJI RC Plus controller:

  • A-B route planning (suitable for regular fields with little to no obstacles)

  • Route planning using the “Walk With RC” feature. This allows the operator to mark the boundary of the flight area and mark the location of any in-field obstacles using the GPS or RTK positioning of the remote controller itself (RTK positioning requires an RTK module for RC Plus). The user would need to walk around with the remote controller to use this function. This is suitable for small, irregular fields.

  • Route planning using the location of the drone via manual operation of the drone. This requires the operator to fly the drone manually in field-planning mode and use its GPS or RTK positioning to record the flight boundary and mark obstacles. This may be used for medium-sized irregular fields.

  • Route planning using satellite map view. This allows the operator to create a boundary using the satellite map view – this is not recommended as the satellite can be out-of-date and inaccurate.

  • The T50 also supports the ability to perform mapping using its built-in UHD camera to create an updated, higher resolution and a more precise overlay compared to the satellite view to allow for safer and more accurate flight planning.

  • You can also import DJI Tile files from DJI Terra or Shapefiles from 3rd-party software of high-precision field maps (and prescription maps) produced by a separate aircraft, such as the DJI Mavic 3 Multispectral (sold separately). The use of multispectral datasets allows for variable-rate continuous or spot-spraying operations to be conducted using the DJI Agras T50 drone.

Applications

Agricultural drones, including the DJI Agras T50, are revolutionising farming practices. These flying marvels, also known as ag drones or spraying drones, have seamlessly integrated into the agricultural landscape, offering a slew of benefits for farmers. Spraying drones efficiently handle the application of fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides, fungicides, seeds, and more. What's remarkable is their ability to execute these tasks with superior cost-effectiveness, speed, and accuracy compared to conventional methods. Ag drones are now actively involved in day-to-day operations in Australia. Equipped for tasks like drone seed spreading and precise application of agrochemicals, they're changing the game.

In modern farming, the precise application of agrochemicals is paramount. It's a fine balance that demands speed, precision, and care. These drones address this challenge head-on, ensuring that the right chemicals are introduced in the correct quantity, location, and timing. This precision prevents unnecessary costs, maintains crop quality, and optimises yields. With agricultural drones leading the charge, farming enters a new era of efficiency and sustainability. The DJI Agras T50 delivers outstanding performance across a range of agricultural crop spraying and spreading various payloads, but beyond its role in spraying and spreading, it can also generate RGB maps using its built-in UHD mapping camera.

We have seen DJI Agras drones being used for the treatment of weeds in hard-to-access terrain, in areas where you normally would have to seek the support of helicopter-based spraying or the use of crop dusters which are both expensive, dangerous, and not a very precise means of targetted spraying. We have also seen the growth of the use of drone spraying in broadacre applications as they tend to save on water usage and reduce the amount of chemical usage through more targeted applications. Most recently, drones are being used in complete end-to-end precision agricultural workflows, where a multispectral drone is first used to map the field and generate crop-health intelligence, this information can then be used to generate a multispectral index such as NDVI or NDRE and more. These indices can then used to create a variable-rate flight plan that enables the DJI Agras T50 drone to autonomously change its rate of chemical spraying and spreading in real time as it flies over the field with respect to the defined rates for each crop health zone.

Recent storms across Australia have also led to an increase in demand for ag drones as they offer an unintrusive method to spray and spread without disturbing the ground.

The role of DJI Agras drones in increasing yield, improving farming safety, and enhancing the efficiency of farming operations is pivotal.

Operation Ideal Coverage
Fields 21 Hectares per hour
Orchards 4 Hectares per hour
Spreading 1500 kg of granules per hour

Spraying & Spreading Rate

The Agras T50 provides versatile options with a 2-sprinkler and 4-sprinkler system, allowing you to tailor the output volume to meet specific agricultural needs.

Option Max Flow Rate
2 Sprinklers 16 L/min
4 Sprinklers 24 L/min
Spreader 108 kg/min

The integration of a solenoid valve enhances the precision of the sprinklers, significantly reducing leakage and minimising payload loss.

For spreading tasks, the T50 introduces an innovative spreader with a spiral channel, ensuring smoother and more consistent dispersal, thereby enhancing coverage and extending the spreading radius to 8 meters.

Phase Array Radar

Understanding objects in the environment allows any drone to operate safer and more efficiently. Avoiding obstacles protects your drone from harm and creates a more consistent flight path for performance. The Agras T50 has been upgraded with a secondary Phase Array Radar (PAR) at the rear, doubling the RF channels for improved detection precision.

With two PARs and four vision cameras, the T50 excels in terrain following, capable of handling inclines up to 50°, which enhances its performance in varied agricultural landscapes.

New App Functions

The T50 offers new software features that increase operational flexibility and efficiency:

  • Multi-plot Management: This feature divides a field into individual plots, enabling targeted operations for either spraying or spreading.

  • Sided Spraying: By utilising the 4 sprinklers, the Agras T50 can reach boundaries and dynamically change sprinklers to spray any edge without repositioning and/or missing spots, which wastes battery and payload.

  • Big Route Spacing: Larger route spacing options are available for the T50, with a 72m spraying spacing and 25m for spreading.

  • Fruit Tree Route Segmentation: Better adjust flight lines to better match the orchard’s layout.

  • Fruit Tree Mode for Spreading: Orchard & Forestry applications now have options for granular spreading.

DJI Agras T25

As a complement to the Agras T50, DJI also offers the Agras T25—a smaller, lighter alternative designed for medium-sized fields. While it carries a smaller payload and covers less area per hour, it benefits from greater affordability, a more compact folded footprint, and easier relocation due to its lighter design.

DJI Agras T25 (Left), DJI Agras T50 (Right), while spraying within field

DJI Agras T25 (Left), DJI Agras T50 (Right)

You can explore our DJi Agars T50 packages, and other crop spraying and spreading bundles here: https://prismatech.com.au/commercial-drone-products/drone-spraying

We encourage you to contact us to learn more about the DJI Agras T50 and the DJI Agras T25 drones. Please feel free to enter your contact details below or give us a call at (02) 42 583 489.

Previous
Previous

DJI Zenmuse H30 Series: Inspection Just Got Smoother and Smarter

Next
Next

DJI Mavic 3 Enterprise Series: A Comprehensive Guide to Choosing the Best Suited Mavic 3 Enterprise Series Drone