CYBERJAYA, Malaysia, Aug 25 (Bernama-PRNewswire) — Oryctes, the world’s first precision spot spraying drone designed for oil palm was launched today at a MyDroneX Exclusive event held at Futurise, Cyberjaya. The 16L drone, which applies spray fluid with centimetre-level precision at the centre of oil palms, was designed and developed by a Malaysian team over a 12-month period, and is the latest development in agrotechnology that capitalises on advancements in unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technology.
Named after the rhinoceros beetle (Oryctes rhinoceros), Oryctes is engineered to potentially eradicate this agriculture pest which has long been known to inflict extensive damage on young oil palm crops. Oryctes applies pesticide directly onto oil palm crowns to protect growing shoots, which are particularly vulnerable to beetle attacks, thus reducing or eliminating the need for manual spraying which exposes workers to strong chemicals for prolonged periods of time.
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