Astral Aerial Solutions a Kenyan based drone operator that was initially founded on the principle of supporting Astral Aviation, the affiliate cargo airline operator, with last mile delivery in hard to reach regions and areas in Kenya has officially kicked off its last mile delivery campaign at Tilisi Developments PLC.

The ROC 001 holder (First drone operating certification), Astral Aerial Solutions has partnered with two international companies, Swoop Aero and Skyports to advance its last mile drone service and avail a supplementary transportation service across various industries. Astral Aerial already provides agricultural spraying, mapping, inspections and surveying with drones, and has now entered the market with a completely visionary service.

Swoop Aero, a global drone logistics manufacturer and operator deploying an integrated logistics network n Australian based drone medical delivery services provider, Skyports, a global drone services operator, and Astral Aerial Solutions have pieced together the perfect team and service product to officially kick off Kenya’s drone delivery industry.

How will it work? 

The Swoop Aero cargo delivery platform shall be implemented to transport medicines, vaccines, and medical samples from healthcare facilities to clinics and/or patients in need. The drone has a 4.7kg payload capability, as well as cold chain enabled delivery, making it suitable for the transportation of a variety of medical products. The platform has a vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) design and has a range of 175 km, travelling at a speed of 200 km/hr. Making it fit for accessing remote locations with minimal space requirements. This is typically the case for most healthcare institutions. Upon delivery, and cargo offload, the drone can then be sent back to the control hub by a simple press of a button to launch its return flight. Therefore, medical practitioners can easily integrate the delivery system into their workflow with minimal upskilling requirements.

Astral Aerial will be providing the last mile delivery service off the Swoop Aero platform in partnership with Skyports.

Astral Aerial Solutions has successfully coordinated with the national airspace regulator (KCAA), to ensure that the operations are in line with the Kenyan RPAS regulations and that they meet safety and security standards. The operator is also proud to be the first drone operator to secure Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) flight and operation demonstration approvals!

The End Game?

Despite the initial service provision being centred around last mile delivery in the health sector, Astral Aerial aims to provide delivery solutions across every imaginable industry including e-commerce. So the next time you receive a package from a rider or driver, imagine in the not so distant future, receiving your packages via drones!

After conducting several test flights against the desert locusts, we quickly realized that we would have to improve our efficiency in terms of pesticide coverage. To do this, we could either improve flight times or improve the spray technology in order to increase our efficiency enough to feasibly support ground and aircraft response teams. Furthermore, we took the advice of several stakeholders conducting spray operations including the FAO to make the switch to Ultra Low Volume spraying known as ULV.

This meant retrofitting the drone to carry an entirely new spray platform that would potentially improve our spray efficiency and improve the impact of drones in the fight. With ULV, we would possibly integrate drone desert locust control into existing response actions cost effectively and at a larger scale, as the technology would ensure we covered a larger area with the same quantity of pesticide.

Spoiler alert!…..We Took The Detour….

The DJI Agras T16 drone is a powerful and efficient sprayer on its own. But for desert locust control and other similar applications — such as spraying the Qualea Qualea birds — we needed to boost the spray effectiveness to enable better supplementing of existing control technologies.

Our original spray drone is considered as medium to low volume spraying that uses emulsifiable concentrate known as EC. The chemical is mixed with water. From our previous experience with transporting spray chemicals in remote regions, we learnt that it is difficult to find water to mix and in other cases, there were no roads leading to the locust roosting sites. We were literally forced to carry large quantities of water manually over long distances, which is extremely difficult.

Read more about our experiences piloting drone desert locust control here

Using EC formulation, we covered a single hectare in approximately 10–12 minutes. The time taken to complete 1 hectare needed to be improved. After consulting, we learnt about ULV technology and the improvement in efficiency it would bring. The technology fitted onto the drone utilizes a brushless motor atomizer that allows for smaller droplets. Stakeholders that are already performing spray operations informed us that they were achieving outputs of 1 litre per hectare in a minute! This would drastically improve our efficiency.

We also learnt that using ULV formulation would mean that we would not have to carry water and would therefore improve the logistics of the operation. Since the formulation is “sticky” it is considered to make the control liquid more effective.

Using the figures from the ULV manufacturer, we aimed for up to seven times improvement. This improvement would mean drastically reducing the amount of spray chemical applied, and with the tiny droplets (forming more of a mist) increase chemical penetration on the destructive pests and therefore our effectiveness in the field. The main advantage we expect is the increase in hectares covered over a single flight compared to the EC method we initially used. Furthermore, the biopesticide we will use is more effective in ULV formulation.

Shopping around

We noticed there wasn’t a drone equipped with ULV capabilities on the market; we quickly realized that purchasing one was not really an option that was open to us as much as we were open to it. Our next best option was to do it ourselves. We thought: “we have the drone, we know exactly where to get ULV sprayers and finally, we’re smart!”

So, it was decided. Astral Aerial Solutions would integrate a ULV system onto their crop spraying drone.

On to the drawing board

The modifications kicked off as any typical project would; that is, importing, sourcing, negotiating and gathering our parts and tools together at the workshop. We procured the ULV system from Micron which was the pioneer of ULV technology. Micron would partly assemble a lightweight ULV nozzle in Europe, while Astral was responsible for the build, integration, and system testing in Nairobi. The build was led by Allan Mwanzia, our trusty head of all things technical at Astral. He was able to source other electrical components from suppliers in Nairobi and also went as far as going to the junkyard, finding an aluminium window channel that was perfect as a boom to hold the ULV nozzles.

The team went through manuals, white papers, videos and lengthy conversations with advisors. It was a steep learning curve over such a short period, but we pulled through because we’re really smart! To start-off, we assembled the potential meters, and connected the system to the drone pipe supply and spray tanks. After this, we connected the assembly with a power source, (i.e. batteries). The biggest concern was that the battery would drain too quickly, especially when running 4 or 5 sprayers, though we later found that the rate of power consumption is low enough to spray for several hours on a single charge.

To be able to power the assembly in flight and use least additional systems, we reduced the chemical pipes from four to one that lead to the sprayers. This effectively divided the usage of the chemical by 4 while increasing the area covered in a spray flight.

Lastly, we inserted a shunt on the supply pipe that leads some of the chemical back to the tank to prevent excessive chemical supply to the ULV spray discs as that can easily increase the size of the spray droplets.

Finally we integrated the spraying system to the Agras T16 drone, while making safety considerations to avoid voiding the warranty on the drone. The sprayers and battery were then balanced to maintain the drone’s centre of gravity (c.o.g) and carried out build quality checks to ensure parts did not move while in flight. The new ULV sprayers were now mounted onto the DJI T16 spray drone successfully!

We decided to make the new system independent of the DJI systems. This means the new system is not integrated into the drone’s electronics. We did this because we still wanted to maintain the spraying technology that was already on the drone since it still has use for our farm spraying.

Before performing actual field tests, it was important to conduct static and hover tests. This was done to ensure that the weight and balance of the aircraft was within limits and the drone was controllable. The ULV system dangles on a 3m boom and is powered by a 1kg lithium battery, so we had to ensure that the drone was stable.

Success

The project was a success, and it was all thanks to our technical team. Did I mention that we’re smart?

We now have a spraying drone kitted out with a working ULV system.

This, to us, marks the first hurdle that we have overcome. The next step is to test the drone operation in different environmental conditions and assess its performance. It’s exciting to think that we can potentially achieve a 7x increase in spraying efficiency, while reducing the spray time and increasing the drones versatility in terms of the density of chemicals that it can spray. We’re also curious to see how the drone fits into the desert locust control support efforts and how much more we can supplement ground control by reducing the area needed to be covered by ground teams, or for aircraft response by increasing the area covered per spray flight in places not accessible to aircrafts.

More importantly, how much more impact can we achieve with other pests, and/or different spray chemicals that we can now implement with the spraying drone? We don’t know yet. What we are sure of is that with these improvements, we are ready to explore the feasibility of drone implementation at scale in desert locust response as well as in other applications.

We have an exciting sprint ahead of us and a lot of exploration and learning to do.

These are exciting times!

A desert locust devours its own weight in food per day

With the very real and apparent threat to our food security, Astral Aerial, and CABI (Center for Agriculture and Biosciences International) teamed up to take on the desert locust invasion in Kenya head-on, or rather, on the head. Current estimates suggest that Kenya has procured over 216,000 litres of pesticides, with additional investments for aerial operations with aircraft and ground teams. We were of the view that drones could complement the current spraying means, as they are very targeted and can treat infestations that might otherwise be difficult to reach with vehicle-mounted or hand spraying methods. Drones could also target small swarms that may not be feasible to control by aircraft, populations that escape the aerial sprays, and roosting locusts in inhabited areas or agricultural lands.

The mission was clear cut! Astral Aerial was armed with two DJI Agras T16 crop-spraying drones, for targeted overhead spraying, CABI with the Green Muscle biopesticide that’s tough on locusts yet gentle on the environment, the elocust3m locust tracking platform application of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and a very committed friendly local scouting team that kept its ears to the ground, tracking locust movements deep into the night and practically watching them fly and determine which village they would land. The objective was simple. We needed to test best practices on using this new technology to spray desert locusts. However, as a complementary solution to current methods, we needed to establish a scientific basis for the approach, provide tactical assistance in combating the voracious locusts while keeping the environment safe, and get out there and test!

Armed with the tools and the goodwill, we were ready to cross enemy lines. Or were we?

First of all, it’s important to note that locusts favor roosting sites located AT THE END OF THE WORLD! The drive to the roosting sites was equally grueling as it was exciting, testing the limits of our 4×4 vehicles. Needless to say, we can only applaud the intricate tracking and communication structure that the local communities and county agricultural officers have developed to track locust movements in the county. The local communities report locust sightings to county officials spread out across the region. The officials then relay the information to the county commissioner of special programs (CC) who co-ordinates with response teams (us).

“No love lost for locusts at first sight”

Our first mission was more of a reconnaissance mission, where we wanted to find out modes of co-ordination, verify scouting and locust tracking effectiveness, assess drone spraying performance, and collect spray test samples of sprayed insects. We drove to Maralal – an area in Northwest Kenya – as advised by the county officer as it was a strategic location for easier tracking and reaching of roosting swarms.

As soon as he gave us the news, we were ready for him to point at the swarm location, and we would execute the attack. Simple, right? Wrong! The problem was, he pointed 12 km away from our “strategic” waiting site!

Challenges:

This was our first bump on the road so we did what anyone in our position would do. We simply got over it, looked for a place to spend the night and decided to wake up bright and early, ready to chase down the swarms. The following day, the swarms had moved to another area called Tepele area in Wamba North, (Samburu North), a 50 km distance from our location. This distance seems manageable on a tarmac road, but we are talking about a less than thrilling drive on a murram road, where if it rained we would need to cancel our trip. But, we followed the swarms there. We have to give it to the local community on tracking these swarms because, in retrospect, they are definitely not easy to find.

When we got there, we found that they were in an inaccessible valley that we couldn’t access by driving or walking. We deployed a survey drone to assess the roosting site, and strategized on how to carry out the spraying exercise. The swarm consisted of mostly immature locusts (pink in color), a few mature ones, and some were even mating. Once planned out, we launched the sprayer drone for spot spraying over the swarm and after that, waited for the pesticide to take effect. After some time, locust activity slowed down noticeably. Unfortunately, we could not assess the pesticide kill rate as locust movement was rapid, while the pesticide itself was slow acting.

We called it a day and decided to try again the following day, but this time spraying would start earlier while the temperature was still low to ensure the locusts’ inactivity. In general, as the ground warms up during the mid-morning, the locusts collect some heat that allows them to start their flight.

On the following day, at 0800 hrs, we arrived at Ndoyo Nasipa area, where the locusts had roosted the previous night. The roosting site was inaccessible by road, so we had to walk 5 km to get to them! Sounds easy, walking, right? But we had to carry all the equipment including the drone, batteries, and the pesticide! At this point we realized two things; the locusts were not going to make this easy for us, and we should all just go ahead and cancel any planned fitness activities we had for the duration of the project because they were clearly not needed anymore – although carrying the equipment for the distance could count for a good calories burner.

We arrived at the site and were all set to begin spraying, but could not. Apparently, an aircraft was scheduled to carry out spraying at the time on the same swarm. We had to wait until 1049 hrs to begin spraying and continued until 1200 hrs. Basking locusts were disturbed by the aircraft flight and started milling, ready to fly. Luckily, the temperature was too low for them to fly. The aircraft sprayer had covered the central swarm area. We targeted the edge of the swarms to supplement the aircraft coverage. We also targeted tree tops, shrubs and ground swarms at close proximity for increased effectiveness. We then waited for 2 hours to estimate mortality. Going forward we need to have clear co-ordination and open communication lines between response teams to avoid duplicating efforts.