08,26,2026 4 views
In June, in Xinghua, Taizhou, Jiangsu, aquatic products such as river crabs and shrimp entered a critical period of fattening and growth. At the edge of the pond, in addition to the breeders who watch the pond, mix materials, and feed, there are also DJI agricultural drones that constantly land and land.
Feeding feed, adjusting water levels, and disinfecting water bodies, which used to rely heavily on manual pond operations, are now being gradually relayed by drones.
Nowadays, not only conventional pellet feed, but also viscous materials such as frozen fish, duck liver, and fermented soybean meal that used to be difficult to sprinkle are being loaded into the sky by drones.
The problem of "sticky materials" in these aquatic ponds is being easily resolved by drones equipped with the DJI Agriculture DS100L Double Twisted Dragon Vibration Sowing System.
DJI Agricultural Double Twisted Dragon Vibration Sowing System
Large scale landing in Jiangsu
As an important aquaculture province in China, Jiangsu accounts for about half of the country's river crab production and is also a region where agricultural drone applications are relatively mature.
By the end of 2025, the cumulative operating area of DJI agricultural drones in Jiangsu has reached 360 million acres.
In June of this year, DJI Agriculture officially launched the Double Twisted Dragon Vibration Sowing System, which is targeted for aquaculture scenarios. It has taken the lead in forming large-scale applications in major aquatic production areas in Jiangsu, which also means that drones are substantially entering the core production process of aquaculture.
Difficult to spread viscous materials
Twisted Dragon+Vibration=Spreading New Solutions
Aquaculture is one of the difficult scenarios to be covered by agricultural mechanization in the long term. Taking hairy crabs as an example, during the fattening period from June to the end of October, they need to be fed almost every day, and the feed needs to be constantly changed according to the growth stage. During high temperatures in summer, farmers not only have to endure great labor intensity outdoors, but also face safety risks when working on water surfaces. At the same time, with the aging of rural labor force, "difficult employment and high costs" have become a real pain point.
In order to solve the problem of manual feeding, agricultural drones began to enter the field of aquaculture several years ago.
However, early agricultural drones could only solve the problem of spreading "conventional pellet feed". Once they encountered materials with high moisture content and extremely sticky properties such as frozen fish or duck liver, traditional falling or single stranded dragon spreading devices often had problems such as poor feeding, uneven spreading, and easy blockage.
The Double Twisted Dragon Vibration Broadcasting System is designed for these pain points.
The system adopts two sets of spiral winches for collaborative feeding, and uses vibration motors to assist in feeding. At the same time, the material box structure and feeding flow line are optimized to reduce problems such as bridging, compaction, and jamming of viscous materials during operation.
Faced with wet and slippery frozen fish that have been cut and thawed, the unmanned aerial vehicle equipped with this system operates smoothly and smoothly, achieving "no bridging, no compaction, and no material blockage".
The residual crab rate has decreased by about 20%
Feed feed for higher returns
At the same time as significantly improving efficiency, the twin-screw broadcasting system has also improved the quality of operations.
In the past, manual scattering of materials along the pond or by boat often relied on experience and intuition, making it difficult to control the material density; And drones can strictly follow the set route and parameters to achieve uniform seeding throughout the pond.
This "uniformity" has brought unexpected hidden benefits to aquaculture - reducing the casualties caused by crab fighting for food. According to the calculation of the first line pond mouth, after using the double helix dragon sowing system, the residual crab rate can be reduced by about 20%, effectively improving the uniformity of shrimp and crab products, and directly converting it into a significant increase in the average income per mu of pond mouth.
From feeding to water mixing and disinfection, drones are expanding from a single operational tool to multiple critical stages in aquaculture. The implementation of the DJI Agricultural Double Twisted Dragon Spreading System has further filled the gap in the ability of agricultural drones to spread sticky materials.
Step out of the laboratory
To solve the most 'sticky' problem
In 2024, Zhu Xiangyang, a DJI agricultural distributor who had been rooted in Yancheng, Jiangsu for ten years, received a plea from a crab farmer: "Can we let the plane scatter the frozen fish too
In order to verify feasibility, Zhu Xiangyang personally carried out preliminary modifications, tested in the pond, and then reported the problems of material blockage and adhesion encountered to the DJI Agricultural R&D team.
The R&D team found that the biggest obstacle is the vast variety of material forms.Frozen fish and fermented soybean meal not only have high water content and viscosity, but also have completely different cutting sizes and thawing degrees at each pond mouth, which can easily lead to uncontrolled feeding.
This means that the broadcasting system not only needs to be "able to sprinkle", but also needs to maintain continuous, uniform, and controllable operational effects in different pond mouths and material states.
Subsequently, the R&D team conducted multiple iterations based on feedback from frontline operations. The practical experience summarized by Zhu Xiangyang in repeated testing, such as "the feeding channel must be as close to vertical as possible", has ultimately been absorbed into product design.
After on-site polishing, the technical route of "double helix+vibration feeding" has finally taken shape.
Understand the voices of frontline crab farmers, and innovation takes root in the pond.
For DJI agriculture, innovation in agricultural equipment comes not only from laboratories, but also from ponds, plots, and the most realistic work scenarios with mud and water.
400 acre crab pond's' load reduction 'account book
From half a day to one hour
In specific breeding scenarios, the efficiency leap is more intuitive.
Jiang Zhonggang, a farmer in Xinghua, operates a crab pond covering approximately 400 acres, specializing in high-quality hairy crabs. The pond mouth requires nearly 2000 kilograms of frozen fish to be fed daily.
In the past, this was a protracted battle of physical exertion.
In summer, feeding 400 acres of pond mouth once usually requires 8 workers to enter the pond by boat under high temperature, with one person sailing and the other scattering materials, taking 4 to 5 hours to complete. When encountering heavy storm and rainy weather, the operation was forced to stop.
past
8 workers for 4-5 hours
nowadays
Three people working together for over an hour
Nowadays, this has become an easy assembly line. This year, he purchased two DJI T100S drones and equipped them with a twin screw system. With the cooperation of three people, he could complete the heavy feeding volume of the past half day in just over an hour.
In the past, personnel and ships had to travel back and forth between different ponds several kilometers apart; Now, drones can take off directly from fixed points and operate continuously across ponds. In just four months, his drone has flown about 7900 times, undertaking nearly 80% of the feeding work in Tangkou.
Faced with the long-term aging of the workforce in the aquaculture industry, workers are now liberated from the dangerous and sun exposed repeated scattering of materials, able to complete feeding in sheltered areas, and devote more energy to management details that require more experience and judgment, such as patrolling ponds and observing water quality.
Frontline demand for in-depth research on aquatic products
Creating a New Sample of Smart Fisheries
Making up for the shortcomings of mechanization in aquaculture and promoting the integration of mechanization and informatization are important directions for the current construction of smart fisheries. The large-scale implementation of the DJI agricultural double helix dragon broadcasting system is a concrete practice of low altitude technology empowering traditional fisheries.
It not only transforms the heavy manual feeding process into standardized and intelligent mechanical operations, but also provides new equipment support for the construction of digital fishing grounds in Jiangsu and even the whole country.
Future agriculture in Xinjiang will continue
Promote the large-scale and standardized development of low altitude aquaculture operations,
Assist in improving the quality and efficiency of the fishing industry.
