Drone Productivity Calculator: how to use it
The calculator estimates how long a spray-drone job takes and where that time goes. It compares four ways to run the mission, so you can decide whether saving a few minutes is worth the extra work.
Before you start
- It models a rectangular field sprayed in a back-and-forth pattern.
- The tender (truck or trailer) waits on one of the two edges where the drone turns. Spraying starts at Corner A of that edge.
- Results update as you type. Change one setting at a time to see what it does.
1. Field and flight pattern
| Field length and width | The size of the treated area. |
| Passes run | Along the length or along the width. The sketch shows the passes, the tender edge and Corners A and B. |
| Headland | No headland, or one headland pass around the boundary before filling in the middle. |
2. Tender and crew
| Where the tender starts | Corner A, the middle of the tender edge, Corner B, or a distance from Corner A. Watch the tender move in the sketch. |
| Refill and battery swap | Minutes from landing to take-off at each stop. |
| Tender water capacity | When the tender can’t fill the next load, it goes for more water. |
| Round trip for more water | Minutes to fetch water and come back. |
| Time to move the tender | Pack up, drive, re-mark the tender’s position for the drone, and be ready. |
| Crew | One person: the drone sits on the ground while the tender moves or goes for water. Two people: the loader does those jobs while the drone flies, and the drone only waits if a job takes longer than a sortie. |
| Shortest tender move worth making | Your nuisance threshold. Moving-tender missions test steps from this length up and use the fastest. |
| Battery charge time (optional) | Adds an estimate of how many battery sets keep the drone from waiting. |
3. Drone settings
| Spraying speed and application rate | As programmed for the job. |
| Pass spacing | Distance between neighbouring passes. This sets the route. |
| Swath width | Width the drone covers consistently. It doesn’t change the time. It only tells you whether swaths overlap or leave strips unsprayed, which may be what you want for banded spraying. |
| Drone tank | The volume you load. |
| Turn time at the end of a pass | Seconds from spray off to spray on. |
| Ferry speed, full and empty | Flying out to the work and back to the tender. |
| Speed up and slow down | On by default. Drones need distance to reach spraying speed and to stop. About 1 m/s² comes from DJI T100 flight records. |
Reading the results
Fastest way to run this job
The mission with the shortest total time, its work rate, and what it costs in extra work.
Compare missions
The four missions, each with one bar showing where the time goes:
| Mission | What happens |
|---|---|
| Fixed tender, fly until empty | The baseline, and what most crews do. The drone sprays until the tank is empty, wherever that is. |
| Fixed tender, top up at the tender edge | At the tender’s side of the field, the drone comes back early if it can’t finish the next out-and-back pair of passes. That means more stops but less ferrying. |
| Moving tender, fly until empty | The tender moves along its edge to stay opposite the work. |
| Moving tender, top up at the tender edge | Both ideas together. |
Each mission shows a “Worth it?” line, for example “3.1 min saved for 2 extra jobs (1 stop, 1 tender move)”. The calculator doesn’t decide for you. Whether a few minutes justifies the busy work is your call.
Details
Select a mission to see a time table by activity: spraying, turning, speeding up and slowing down, ferrying, stops, and waiting for water or tender moves. Below it are the number of sorties, stops, tender moves and water runs, and the time in the air per sortie.
Download results
Download results saves a printable page with your inputs, the four missions, where the time goes, and a tender plan: where to park the tender, when to move it, when to fetch water, and which passes each load covers. Reset restores the sample job.