The ‘see and spray’ tech on the ground rigs are really going to save on chemical. In years of row crop farming I would somtimes have a 2 gallon spray gun on the cabless tractor, while cultivating corn or soybeans, so I could spray really tough and hated weeds, like jimson, cocklebur, burdock, and thistle, that escaped the front mount cultivator shovels.
The drones can fly slow enough to do that as well. However, aerial applicators rely on the vortexes to fan outward the spray, so spot spraying would require narrower passes, which means a lot more passes.
And with manned helicopters flying that slow the propwash is sure wreck spray pattern, and snaps leaves off of corn stalks.
The helo drones are probably already being used to blow water drops off of cherrys. There’s been some pilot deaths from that chore. Flying a helo back and forth, just above a hover mode, is a dangerous low flying skill.
“2 gallon spray gun on the cabless tractor”
Did you grab that wand and spot-spray manually?
“However, aerial applicators rely on the vortexes to fan outward the spray, so spot spraying would require narrower passes, which means a lot more passes.”
The video discusses the drone vortex being used to distribute the spray to a 32 ft width swath. With that prop wash, it doesn’t sound like the drones can be used to spot spray. I would think automated spot spraying requires an in-the-ground rig. I’ve seen a number of university research project videos of such robotic spot spraying as well as spot-burning of young weeds.