Assoc. Prof. Dr. Vu Ngoc Anh – an Aeronautical Engineering lecturer at HCMUT – Bach Khoa (Vietnam HCMC National University) has been successfully constructing numerous models of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) since he was just a university student. 

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Vu Ngoc Anh is one of a few young lecturers to be recognized as an associate professor at age 37. He is also renowned for his scientific studies, the achievement of constructing and developing the multi-rotor and special purpose private jet models.

When he was just a senior Aeronautical Engineering student at HCMUT – Bach Khoa, Vu Ngoc Anh and his friends had successfully designed the model of UAV. This product was not really appreciated by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Thien Tong – a former Head of Aeronautical Engineering major because the model was fully designed by Vu Ngoc Anh and his friends, but not based on any existing models at the time.

After 3 years of researching and testing, he and his co-workers eventually built an agriculture purpose drone named NOBA ROBOTICS AQ 10. The drone weighs about 25 kilograms with the operation time of 15-20 minutes and the speed of 0-10 meters per second. It can be used to spray pesticides all over 1 hectare in 10 minutes, which is 50 times faster than manual spraying. In order to spray pesticides over rice crops, the drone is designed with an additional container so that it can work continuously in extreme weather.
► Assoc. Prof. Doc. Vu Ngoc Anh and his students constructing the pesticide spraying drone

According to Assoc. Prof. Dr. Anh, the crop-spraying drone can accomplish the work of 28 manual workers. Especially, with the water-saving spraying system, the drone can save up to 90% of water and 30% of pesticides when compared to manual spraying, yet ensuring the property of pest eradication. In 2019, the first version of the drone was transferred to Dak Lak Province due to the province’s investment. The second version of the drone is used to help farmers spray pesticides. The third one is planned to use for seed planting in forests and will be executed in 2020.

The total expenditure to build the three drones is more than 1 billion VND. Particularly, 400 million VND of the total cost will be subsidized by Dak Lak Province’s budgetary resources and the remaining costs come from the personal expenditure. All of the money is used for both constructing and importing components. 

At the moment, Anh is asking for permission to attract investors for mass production and permission to operate the drones to support the farmers. Moreover, his group is researching to optimize the vehicle and bring down the price for the farmers to easily buy one. And his group is also working on the improvements of the vehicle in order to plant seeds in empty or mangrove forests which are often difficult for reforestation.

In 2020, HCMUT – Bach Khoa is enrolling students majoring in high-quality programmed Aeronautical Engineering.
The major of Aeronautical Engineering is designed for students who are passionate about planes and aircraft. The program includes a group of core subjects in Aeronautical Engineering such as aerodynamics, flight mechanics and flight control, aircraft structure, Archimedes system, aircraft design and maintenance, etc.