2015 and 2016 could be when drones really start to take off in agriculture. At least that’s what a lot of those active in the drone community have been saying.
“There is a lot of excitement around the world about this technology in agriculture use and for good reason,” says Chad Colby, a UAS consultant who’s become widely known in agriculture circles through his talks at UAS conferences around the country. “I’ve witnessed so many changes over the past three years,” he says. “Today, we are moving toward the fact that these will be another tool in the farmer’s toolbox.”
So just what are those major changes that have caused a lot of moving and shaking in agriculture and from the FAA in the past couple years? Here’s a timeline to help you get caught up:
February 2012: FAA Modernization and Reform Act
This put into motion a requirement that FAA would address a safe integration of UAS through a five-year roadmap.
November 2013: Roadmap announced
The roadmap is released for integrating UAS into the nation’s airspace, ensuring FAA supports widespread use of UAS, with a goal of establishing requirements for operators.
December 2013: Test sites announced
FAA announces that six states win the bid for official UAS testing sites. The sites allow for testing of UAS in controlled environments to gather data on how different UAVs perform. The states where testing is taking place include Virginia, Nevada, Texas, New York, Alaska and North Dakota.
February 2015: Small UAS (sUAS) rules, comment period
FAA proposes regulations that would allow for regular use of sUAS (under 55 lbs), including safety rules for non-recreational operations. Commenting closed in April 2015. This move is significant for agriculture because most UAVs used for ag fall in the sUAS category. Comments are still being reviewed, and FAA says it will publish its official rules by June 17, 2016.
May 2015: FAA expands sUAS horizons
FAA announces partnerships through its Pathfinder Initiative to explore the next steps for UAS operation beyond what was proposed for sUAS in February. Most important to agriculture is the extended visual line-of-sight operations testing that will be done in rural areas. UAV maker PrecisionHawk is announced as a partner. Thomas Haun, PrecisionHawk VP of strategy, said through the partnership they want to push the proposed rules to allow users to operate beyond line of sight. “We believe this will unlock significant value in ag – keeping the UAV in the air for a significant time would create tremendous amount of value,” he says.
We’ve heard of the benefits of drones in ag: speeding up crop scouting, identifying pest or nutrient issues in crops and addressing them right away, checking for weather damage, finding pivot breakdowns on irrigation systems, checking drainage system performance – the list goes on. (Search “Take to the sky” on FarmIndustryNews.com to read the original article from 2013 on the details of drone technology and benefits of use.) But how do these things help growers justify the cost of purchasing a drone in the first place?
The American Farm Bureau released its findings last month on a study calculating the return on investment that drones for agriculture can provide growers. They looked at using drones for crop scouting, crop insurance and 3D terrain mapping. In partnership with Informa Economics, and Drone as a Service (measure32.com) the created an ROI Calculator to measure drone usage ROI. When measuring the return gained through enhanced crop scouting, for example, ROI is $12 per acre for corn, $2.60 per acre for soybeans, and $2.30 per acre for wheat. The ROI Calculator used to measure this will soon be available for farmers and service providers online.
While this is one specific example, and the types of drones available and the field conditions in which they operate vary widely, it’s a solid case showing how drone usage can pay off.
Colby spoke at this year’s InfoAg precision ag conference last month in St. Louis to a packed room of growers and precision ag professionals and one of his key messages was that you do not have to spend a lot of money to get a useful UAS package.
“You don’t need to spend big money to get a great ship for ag use. You can spend $1000 to $2000 depending on extras, additional batteries, a case, etc. And they are reliable. If operated correctly these ships are very good tools that work very well,” he says. Compared to what’s spent on some other farm inputs, that’s pretty cheap. And the type of imagery you get out of a system – like basic RBG photos – can tell you a lot about your fields. Colby notes that a 4th generation farmer is going to know what he or she sees when shown an image of a field with noticeable yellow strips showing a deficiency in their corn. NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) imagery takes it a step further by indicating density but may require working with a service provider to get real meaning out of the process.
Let’s face it: Drones represent some very innovative technology; it’s neat to see farming from a different perspective; and they’re also simply fun to fly.
“I’ve been known to get sunburnt tonsils from a day of watching them in the sky,” said Kevin Price, Executive VP of Research and technology development, AgPixel/RoboFlight Systems, at his drone session at InfoAg.
Plenty of farmers are flying drones for recreation on their farms right now. The drone sessions at InfoAg were packed to the brim with attendees, and lots of people shot their hands up when asked if they were operating a drone on their farms now.
Many are capturing aerial footage during planting, harvest and more, and sharing that on YouTube and other social media channels. (Search “YouTube drones” on FarmIndustryNews.com for a roundup of those called “Viewing farming from a new angle for 2014.”) Colby notes that this alone – farmers sharing recreational drone footage on social media – is in itself a great way for growers to share the story of agriculture with a broad audience.
But if you have one or plan to get one soon, you have to know the rules. If flying recreationally, adhere to the rules established like keeping your aircraft within visual line of site, flying no higher than 400 feet and avoiding adverse weather conditions. Visit http://knowbeforeyoufly.org/for-recreational-users for a full list and consider joining an organization like the Academy of Model Aeronautics, which promotes safe flying of small aircraft.
Flying commercially is a different story and right now requires a Section 333 exemption from FAA.
Peggy Hall, assistant professor, field specialist, agricultural & resource law, said using your sUAS to check on your crops for scouting and identifying problems – that’s a business purpose, in a recent sUAS webinar hosted by the National Ag Law Center.
FAA has issued nearly 1,000 333 exemptions so far, and until they release the official rules of operation for sUAS for commercial purposes next year, flying one for business, and making money off of it in any way, requires that exemption.
The future looks bright for drone use in agriculture, but giving the technology a try for fun right now is also a reality. And the conversation doesn’t end here: Visit farmindustrynews.com for even more coverage, an interactive quiz to test your drone knowledge, galleries, blogs and more around the topic.
Being at the forefront of a new industry gives Empire Unmanned the opportunity to tap into a market teeming with possibility.
It also allows the Hayden-based company to help set the standard for just who can pilot their unmanned aircraft systems as demand for Empire’s precision mapping services continues to increase.
“The biggest customer out there is agriculture, and they’re the one with the most potential,” said Brad Ward, president of Empire Unmanned. “It’s limitless — we will never run out of acreage in the United States to fly over.”
Empire Unmanned is an Idaho company venture between Empire Airlines of Hayden; ADAVSO of Star, Idaho; and Blair Farms of Kendrick, Idaho.
In January, ADAVSO became the first entity in the nation to be granted a Section 333 exemption to fly drones commercially for agriculture by the Federal Aviation Administration.
“Now that we’ve already kind of broken that ice, the exemptions are coming out a lot faster,” Ward said. “You can call it the future, or give it whatever kind of cliche you want, but the fact of the matter is there’s a business opportunity growing in this industry.”
Ward added that capitalizing on the opportunity requires a company with the aviation, maintenance, and management expertise of Empire Airlines. In March, Empire Unmanned began using six FAA-certified private pilots and 10 visual observers to fly drones and capture precise images of farms throughout the Northwest.
Using certified pilots is beneficial, Ward said, because they are familiar with federal aviation regulations and terminology. All of their pilots have flown multiple airplanes, he added, which makes transitioning to a new aircraft easier.
But, with only two of the pilots having an agricultural background, there are challenges in transitioning to the brand new industry.
“The problem is because it hasn’t been available before. We’re having to educate the growers and the ag industry on what benefit it has and where it fits into what they do,” Ward said. “That education is going on as we grow.”
As the company expands, Ward said he’s looking toward a proposed UAS (Unmanned Aircraft System) Operator Certificate. The certificate process would include a background check and knowledge test, similar to the one required for a private pilot certificate, but remove the medical requirements.
“The person who flies this aircraft doesn’t need legs. If they’re not physically qualified to fly an airplane with passengers I don’t really care,” Ward said. “What I really want is a crop advisor that’s already kind of in the industry. I want to hire that guy because he already knows how to talk to farmers and he knows what he’s looking for.”
Ward hopes that the UAS certificate program will open up the pool of available talent to include people with agricultural experience, as well as those who have flown radio-controlled aircraft for years and know the computing associated with it.
Although selecting talent from this wider pool will require more training and a rougher transition, Ward thinks the outcome will speak for itself.
“By the time he’s done and is through that first growing season, he’s ideal for what we need,” Ward said. “Every pilot needs to be a salesman. They’re the ones that are meeting the grower in the field, explaining what the product does and what it can do for them.”
Alma, August 20th, 2015– The management team of Agrinova (Alma, Quebec) and Hovercam-Media (Saint-Félicien, Quebec), two members of the Unmanned Aerial System Centre of Excellence,are proud to announce their new project “Using precision multispectral aerial imagery as a productivity diagnostic tool in the culture of wild blueberries” has been accepted by the NationalScience and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) for a total value of $25,000.
This project combines blueberry culture research and UAV applications.
In a wild blueberry crop (Vaccinium angustifolium), numerous causes have a direct impact on blueberry plants which may cause significant losses. Thus, the gathering of plants is uneven and sparse for different reasons, such as genetic variability (clones), the presence of weeds, the soil conditions or poorly adapted terrain features. Being unable to explain the reasons behind theses phenomena’s, it is currently very difficult for companies to carry out a practical and proper treatment
adapted to the specificity of the field.
Under the supervision of Agrinova, the main objective of this project is to experiment using low altitude aerial imagery as a mapping tool for blueberry fields, and analyse the variability of ground cover and as projected performance indicator. The project will also be used to demonstrate the numerous possibilities for agriculture, using unmanned aerial vehicules (UAVs) and remote sensing aerial imagery.
This research project will be conducted during La Bleuetière des Blancs’ 2015 crop season, in the
Municipality of l’Ascension, Lac-Saint-Jean. This is not their first innovative project which makes
them a key partner in this project.
Curtis Moore of Apis Remote Sensing Systems in Hays, Kan., retrieves one of the small Unmanned Aerial Systems demonstrated during the Colby event. (Terry Anderson/Midwest Producer)
COLBY, Kan. — It may have been a bit foggy, but that didn’t deter the demonstrations of small Unmanned Aerial Systems near Colby on Aug. 10. About 50 farm producers, agribusiness representatives and others interested in drone technology attended the outdoor display, followed by an indoor presentation by the demonstration companies and other experts.
The event was organized by the Kansas Ag Research and Technology Association (KARTA).
The fog may have hampered observations, but the four airborne systems could be heard as they criss-crossed nearby fields, sending live visuals back to equipment on the ground.
Apis Remote Sensing Systems of Hays, Kan., demonstrated an AgEagle fixed-wing system, manufactured in Neodesha, Kan., as well as a four-prop helicopter-type drone. Chris Pope of Crop Quest in Dodge City and Thomas Harris of Agribotix in Boulder, Colo., also demonstrated four-prop drones.
The exhibitors noted the fast advancements in the aerial systems, despite lack of clear regulations from the Federal Aviation Administration. The UAVs are being used as part of commercial agronomy packages.
An Iowa State University field day at the end of this month will feature a discussion on using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles on the farm. Ryan Bergman in the ISU’s Department of Ag and Biosystems Engineering is the organizer of the field day.
He says the UAV’s can be another tool used by growers. “There’s still a lot of unknowns in the area of UAV’s and aerial imagery specifically in the agriculture sector,” Bergman says. “And so a lot of what we are going to be showing at the field day, and a lot of the research that my team is doing here at Iowa State is focused around how do we utilize this imagery to help us make better management decisions for our operations and allow us to cost-effectively utilities this new tool.”
Bergman says the images from the drones can turn up many issues in the fields. “We can tell a lot of differences across the field, compaction issues show up relatively well in a lot of aerial images, drainage issues show up extremely well. Those are some of the early things that we are seeing, but we think there a lot of other uses that we can employ aerial imagery in down the road,” according toe Bergman.
While the drones are a new tool to get information on your crops, Bergman says its just one piece of the puzzle. “Whatever you are see in the imagery — at this point we aren’t recommending that you can make a management decision of that really — unless you can verify it on the ground what’s happening. It’s completely visual, so there can be a lot of times be other factors that are affecting that image and it may not be due to the crop,” Bergman says. He says growers will still have to do some leg work once they find potential issues in the images from a drone.
“That’s one thing that we’ve really been stressing — if you see something in the image that should tell you where in the field you should look — and then you go out there and look. And based on what you are seeing in the field based on the image, then you can make a decision off of that,” Bergman explains. An attorney with the Center for Agricultural Law and Taxation at Iowa State will also be on hand for a discussion on the legal issues surrounding UAV’s.
“That’s still kind of a gray area right now, and so that’s why we have her coming to kind of talk through some of those issues with the growers,” Bergman says. The field day is August 27th at the ISU research farm located near Boone on Highway 30. The field day starts at 8:30 and is free to the public.
Figure 1: For airborne precision agriculture applications, the spectral range most desired is the VNIR, which spans 400 to 1,000 nm. Image: Headwall Photonics Inc.
The push to make food and poultry products safer, more wholesome and more plentiful is leading to new initiatives commonly described as “crop science” and “precision agriculture.” Although there are many facets to these initiatives, the ability to “see” the desired field of view with a high degree of spectral and spatial resolution can lead to many scientific breakthroughs that benefit the global community.
In some cases, the desired field of view can be an entire crop field or vineyard as seen from an aircraft or unmanned aerial system (UAS). In other cases, it can simply be crops or poultry moving at rapid speed mere feet away along a conveyor line. Characteristic of both is motion, which allows a sensor (either multispectral or hyperspectral) to capture frames of high-quality spectral image data that can be analyzed later. A complete representation is called a hyperspectral data cube, which is a stack of images of the same object or scene—essentially an image for each wavelength.
The practical difference between multispectral and hyperspectral primarily lies in the number of spectral bands captured. Multispectral imaging captures between five to 30 bands, with gaps between those bands. Hyperspectral captures hundreds, with very dense and continual spectral information for each pixel in the image. In some cases, one will be more desirable to the other. However, a hyperspectral sensor gives the option of “seeing” everything. Spectral signatures are powerful discriminators, and it’s useful to know when a particular chemical fingerprint is there or not. There are many instances where the granularity and specificity of hyperspectral image data is absolutely necessary.
Hyperspectral imaging has the unique ability to extract meaningful scientific information from the scene or field of view. It allows users to detect the presence of a material based on its spectral fingerprint. It also allows users to classify and separate materials into spectrally similar groups. Discrimination, characterization and quantification are also hallmarks of the technology.
The ability of hyperspectral sensors to exhibit a high degree of discrimination means scientists can classify those disease conditions, and also build an image that faithfully pin points where it is and how invasive it might be. Since the image data is GPS-coordinated and orthorectified during post-processing, the scientific value is significant: irrigation and fertilizing decisions are more precise, speciation is more accurate and crops that might be lost are saved. Indeed, the very same hyperspectral imaging technology that can make existing crop harvests more bountiful can also help survey the land in famine-affected areas so crops can be planted with a higher degree of success.
Since motion is needed for hyperspectral imaging to create a data cube, it meshes perfectly with the rapid growth of the UAS across industry, research and academia. The UAS is more affordable, smaller and lighter than fixed-wing manned aircraft and, thus, is more readily deployable in unforgiving areas of the world. Armed with precise instrumentation, such as hyperspectral sensors, a UAS can deliver truly life-enriching information beneficial on a global scale. Entire economies depend on the success of agriculture: citrus in Florida; coffee in South America; vineyards in northern California. Across them all, UAS with hyperspectral sensors are deployed at a rapid pace.
One common mistake prospective users make is misjudging the work needed to integrate the entire flight/sensor package. Obviously, size and weight matter because a UAS, especially the small hand-launched ones, will typically have a strict payload limit. Hyperspectral sensor manufacturers, such as Headwall Photonics, recognize this and are making their instruments small, light and more integrated. For example, Nano-Hyperspec (Figure 1) is only 3 in x 3 in x 4.7 in and weighs less than 1.5 lbs. But, in that small space sits the data storage chip, and the GPS attaches directly to the sensor rather than connected by cables that take up space and add weight. In addition to smaller and more integrated sensors, Headwall also helps to fully integrate the flight package. This means not only the sensor, but also helping with the UAS, the GPS and, if desired, LiDAR instrumentation. LiDAR is a common add-on for precision agriculture work and other remote-sensing research.
Figure 2: Diffraction grating. Image: Headwall Photonics Inc.
The value of this integration work is a quicker time to deployment and more success with capturing precise image data. This work also turns a basic UAV or “drone” into a useful UAS.
For airborne precision agriculture applications, the spectral range most desired is the visible/near-infrared (VNIR), which spans 400 to 1,000 nm. Most everything worth seeing can be seen in the VNIR range; but occasionally the shortwave infrared (SWIR), from 900 to 2,500 nm, provides useful data. One option is to simply have two sensors capturing the respective VNIR and SWIR image data, both controlled simultaneously by hyperspectral image software. Another is to have an integrated dual sensor package that co-registers the pixels from each sensor, producing data from 400 nm up to 2,500 nm. While heavier and larger than the Nano, it’s perfectly suitable for bigger UAVs and fixed-wing manned aircraft.
The basic design of a hyperspectral sensor is shown in Figure 2. Reflected light passes through a lens, then through an image slit, which allows a sliver of the scene, image to reach a curved concentric mirror. A high-performance diffraction grating then diffracts the reflected light precisely, and without any unwanted artifacts or aberrations, onto a second concentric mirror, which images the sliver of the scene image onto a camera focal plane array (FPA), but with spectral information spread in the direction perpendicular to the slit direction. By recording this spectral data for that one sliver of the scene and repeating this while moving either the sensor or the scene to capture the spectral data for the next adjacent sliver of the scene image, the hyperspectral image of the full scene can be captured. The spectral range of the sensor is dependent on the FPA technology: silicon (300 to1,100 nm), indium gallium arsenide (InGaAs) (700 to 1,700 nm), indium antimonide (InSb) (1,000 to 5,000 nm) and mercury cadmium telluride (MCT) (1,000 to 1,4000 nm). Hyperspectral sensors of this type are often referred to as line scanners, and the design described above is a concentric one. Because there are no moving parts within the sensor, the resulting instruments are robust and stable across temperature.
Figure 3: Aberration-correction is a very desirable feature made possible through precisely engineered diffraction gratings. Image: Headwall Photonics Inc.
Aberration-correction is a very desirable feature made possible through precisely engineered diffraction gratings. The job of the grating is to diffract the light precisely, and this is accomplished by the design of the grating and its groove profile. Gratings can be planar, convex or concave, and the groove profiles are precisely engineered so each grating is application-specific. They can also be engineered in very small sizes, meaning the instruments that contain them are similarly small and light. Figure 3 depicts the basics of a diffraction grating.
The natural tendency is for image degradation to occur off to the edges of the field of view. These aberrations are corrected by the diffraction grating, meaning the entire wide field of view is crisp from one edge to the other. For UAS deployment, this is crucial, because it can actually help optimize the flight efficiency since fewer passes over the field are needed in order to faithfully and sharply capture all the image data the sensor sees.
Hyperspectral imaging isn’t limited to airborne deployment. The technology is also used along inspection lines for high-value specialty crops, such as nuts and fruits, and for poultry and seafood. In fact, the USDA is working with Headwall Photonics to push the science of hyperspectral imaging forward with the goal of improving the inspection accuracy of poultry. The end result is a new technology that delivers higher-quality food products to consumers, while delivering demonstrated differentiation and maximized value to producers.
Thanks to their ability to “see” with a high degree of specificity and discrimination, hyperspectral sensors can spot anything other imaging and vision techniques might miss. The sensors can also “grade” harvested crops in a manner that allows the producer to maximize yields.
agriculture can provide growers. They looked at using drones for crop scouting, crop insurance and 3D terrain mapping. In partnership with Informa Economics, and Drone as a Service (measure32.com) the created an ROI Calculator to measure drone usage ROI. When measuring the return gained through enhanced crop scouting, for example, ROI is $12 per acre for corn, $2.60 per acre for soybeans, and $2.30 per acre for wheat. The ROI Calculator used to measure this will soon be available for farmers and service providers online.
Many are capturing aerial footage during planting, harvest and more, and sharing that on YouTube and other social media channels. (Search “YouTube drones” on FarmIndustryNews.com for a roundup of those called “Viewing farming from a new angle for 2014.”) Colby notes that this alone – farmers sharing recreational drone footage on social media – is in itself a great way for growers to share the story of agriculture with a broad audience.
