Drones are becoming increasingly important in agriculture and many farmers are going in for drone purchases in these modern days. Farmers are nowadays relying on high-level drone technology that can provide them with fast and efficient solutions.
The agricultural industry is now embracing drone technology and using these sophisticated tools to transform modern farming. The use of drones in agriculture is currently helping agricultural businesses meet the changing and growing demands of the future. Moreover, high-tech drones permit farmers, and the drone pilots that operate them, to increase efficiency in certain aspects of the farming process, from crop monitoring to planting, livestock management, crop spraying, irrigation mapping, and more.
Drones collect raw data and convert it into useful information. Therefore, they can be used for various applications in drone farming, such as monitoring the following parameters:
- Crop health – Damage made by insects; color change due to pest infection
- Vegetation indices– Leaf area, anomaly detection, treatment effectiveness, phenology, yield
- Plant height – Plant height and density
- Plant scouting– Plant size, plot statistics, stand number, compromised plots, planter skips
- Water requirements – Water-stressed parts of the field/orchard in need of watering
- Soil analysis – Nutrient availability for plant nutrient management
Best Drone Practices
1. Soil and field analysis: The drone survey allows farmers to get information about their land’s soil conditions. Multispectral sensors capture data that may be used for seed planting patterns, field soil analysis, irrigation, and nitrogen control. Farmers may comprehensively examine their soil conditions using precise photogrammetry/ 3D mapping.
2. Planting: Planting seeds is one of the latest and less common uses of drones in agriculture. Planting with drones can help you to reach areas that can be replanted without endangering workers. With a team of two operators and 10 drones capable of planting 400,000 trees each day, they can also plant significantly more effectively.
3. Crop spraying: The use of drones to provide spray treatments is already common in some areas. Drone sprayers for agriculture can reach locations that are difficult to reach, like steep tea plantations at high heights. Drone sprayers eliminate the need for personnel to traverse fields with backpack sprayers, which can be dangerous to their health. Drone sprayers apply very tiny spray treatments that may be targeted to particular locations, increasing efficiency and lowering chemical costs.
4. Crop monitoring: The biggest challenge in farming is the size of the fields and the inefficiency of crop monitoring. Increasingly variable weather conditions worsen monitoring issues, increasing risk and field maintenance costs. Previously, satellite imagery was the most advanced form of monitoring. But there were drawbacks too. Drones can provide precise field mapping including elevation information that allows growers to find any irregularities in the field. Knowing the elevation of a field helps determine drainage patterns and wet/dry zones, allowing for more effective watering tactics.
5. Irrigation: Drones equipped with hyperspectral, multispectral, or thermal sensors can detect areas of a field that are dry or in need of improvement. Drones can also calculate the vegetation index, which indicates the relative density and health of the crop and reveal the heat signature, which is the amount of energy or heat the crop releases, once the crop is growing.
6. Health check: Assessing crop health and spotting bacterial or fungal infestations on trees is critical. Drone-borne equipment can distinguish which plants reflect various quantities of green light and near-infrared light by scanning a crop with both visible and near-infrared light. This data may be used to create multispectral pictures that track plant changes and indicate their health.
A quick response may be able to rescue a whole orchard. Furthermore, once a disease has been identified, farmers may more accurately administer and monitor treatments. These two options improve a plant’s capacity to resist illness. In the event of crop failure, the farmer will be able to easily document losses for insurance claims.
Benefits of Drone Technology
As innovators introduce new technologies, their commercial uses increase day by day. As drone technology solutions become more common, it also becomes more cost-effective. In agriculture, they have a plethora of advantages. Some are as follows:
Enhanced Production – The farmer can enhance production capabilities through comprehensive irrigation planning, adequate monitoring of crop health, increased knowledge about soil health, and adaptation to environmental changes.
Effective and Adaptive Techniques – Drone use allows farmers to receive regular information on their crops and aids in the development of more effective agricultural practices. They can adjust to changing weather conditions and utilize resources efficiently.
Greater safety of farmers – Using drones to spray pesticides in difficult-to-reach terrains, contaminated areas, higher crops, and power lines is safer and more convenient for farmers. It also helps farmers avoid crop spraying, resulting in less pollution and chemicals in the soil.
Faster data for quick decision-making – Drone surveys provide farmers with reliable data processing, allowing them to make quick and deliberate judgments without second-guessing, saving time spent on crop scouting. The drone’s various sensors allow it to capture and analyze data from the entire field. The information may be used to target issue regions such as sick or unhealthy crops, various colored crops, moisture levels, and so on. The drone may be outfitted with a variety of sensors for different crops, allowing for a more precise and flexible crop management system.
Less wastage of resources – Drones in agriculture enables optimum usage of all resources such as fertilizer, water, seeds, and pesticides.
99% Accuracy rate – The drone survey helps farmers calculate the exact land size, segment the various crops, and indulge in soil mapping.
Useful for Insurance claims – Farmers utilize the data collected by drones to file crop insurance claims in the event of damage. While being insured, they even analyze the risks and losses linked with the land.
Evidence for insurance companies – Agricultural drones are used by agricultural insurance companies for efficient and reliable data. They document the damage that has happened to calculate the appropriate monetary compensation for the farmers.
Drones have changed the course of obtaining data in almost every type of industry, and will only deem to become bigger and better in the coming years. Drones have already vastly altered the agricultural industry and will continue to grow in the coming years. While drone use is becoming more useful to small farmers, there is still a way to go before they become part of every farmer’s equipment roster, particularly in developing nations.
Ready to start Agricultural Drones Services? Contact KnackForge’s Drone technology experts Today to Get Started!
]]>
Drones & 3D Mapping
The preservation of historic buildings is important. Lunan Bay, a popular tourist destination for its spectacular red castle is on the verge of collapse. Following centuries of wear from history and the sea. Skykam Drone Services used this as an opportunity to demonstrate our 3D mapping services. We set out to create an automated aerial 3d map that can be measured down to centimetre accuracy, in order to preserve this architectural wonder before it’s too late! Providing conservationists with a baseline accurate 3d model, which future deterioration can be measured against.
What is a 3D Mapping Drone?
3D Mapping using drones is a new technology that has been quickly gaining popularity in recent years. They allow us to capture pinpoint accurate 3d maps, which provides for a better understanding of an environment and can help plan out specific routes or areas where certain obstacles might be found during initial planning or maintenance.
If you are looking to have peace of mind when building out your home or business, then 3d mapping drones may just be the technology for you. These aerial vehicles capture pinpoint accurate three-dimensional maps that can provide an understanding of what is going on in any given environment, which will help future construction plans go much smoother!
Why is 3D Mapping so beneficial to historic sites?
3D Mapping is a technique for the creation and inspection of detailed, virtual representations. These assessments can be used by archaeologists to measure historic landmarks for documentation. This can then be used as a baseline to measure against for future inspections. Conservationists can use these 3D aerial surveys to find areas that could cause problems in the future, This allows conservationists to measure wear, damage, looking for areas that may cause an issue in the future – saving not just time but also resources like money spent on repairs or prevent irreversible damage.
Using Drone Surveys to bring history to life
3D mapping drones offer an amazing way to preserve and share the world’s historic sites with 3-dimensional models. These accurate models can be used in tours, apps for mobile devices or even real life! This is because our drones capture data using laser scanning technology which creates incredibly detailed measurements of structures so no one will ever forget what was here before us – it’ll always remain intact through generation’s too; all thanks to drone technology.
How does a 3D mapping drone work?
The drone flies a GPS-directed flight in the grid pattern, snapping pictures at regular intervals. This process takes only minutes depending on location size. Then our industry-standard 3D-Mapping software turns these images into an accurate map model of your building or site for future reference!
The advantages of drones in protecting our heritage?
Drone Surveying is the future of 3d mapping and conservation, as our Red Castle demonstration provides an excellent example. Drones give us a bird’s-eye view not possible before while creating accurate measurements that are measurable with great detail! As we became more aware of environmental damage to historic locations like The Red Castle; Thanks to these flying robots they can be preserved, drones make it easier than ever before to capture how something was original – by using drones they can be preserved for generations yet to come!
Lunan Bay’s red castle is a popular tourist destination. It once hosted royal weddings, but now it is on the verge of collapse. 3D mapping drones offer an amazing way to preserve and share the world’s historic sites with 3-dimensional models in high resolution for all to experience when they can’t visit in person. What other landmarks or historical sites would you like to see preserved this way? Let us know your thoughts!
The following guest post was written by James Leslie, Founder of Skykam. Skykam is an Edinburgh based drone service.
]]>
Drones in architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) sectors are often used for marketing, project progress and site observations. UAVs are a more accessible and convenient alternative to helicopters and planes.
However, there are more benefits from using drones in the construction lifecycle than just site inspection and promotion. Recently companies are exploring other potential benefits of drones to improve worksite productivity, automated asset audits, safety detection, and validating contractor claims for payment.
Drones are effective in the data collection and project tracking helping site managers analyse the project from an overarching view and ensuring that everything is going according to plan.
There’s plenty of tangible benefits that can be delivered from incorporating drone data gathering into your construction workflows and decision making processes.
Here are 5 ways drones can help AEC projects improve on site productivity and ensure project success.
1. Capturing unique site insights
Drones can survey hundreds of acres in a couple of hours. These aerial cameras collect more site data in a shorter period of time that can be used for land surveying and to generate 3D models and maps. These 3D models are crucial for engineers, architects and construction planning helping them in almost every stage of the construction project. These maps and models are used to identify issues, help in the design engineering and public infrastructure, report on project progress and even to showcase the eventual construction in 3D space or virtual reality (VR) to stakeholders.
Drones are well suited to quickly survey and scan buildings, bridges, towers and large construction site areas. You can fly drones both indoors and outdoors to capture the entire site area, including underground, high rise buildings and more.
Some companies are also using cutting edge payloads (thermal cameras and LiDAR) for up close, aerial asset inspections to identify structural defects and resolve them in real time.
For engineering companies, drone inspections ensure maximum value for site planning and maintenance activities as there is more detailed information on existing conditions easily gathered using drones that can avoid wasted time and resources for maintenance activities that are not required or can be delayed until a later date.
For some construction companies drones are providing significant savings in logistics planning and operations by scheduling deliveries just in time using drones to inform site activities and inform schedules on a daily basis.
These are just some of the innovative ways the AEC industries are utilising drone technology but there are plenty more use cases emerging everyday.
2. Improved On-Site Safety:
Safe Work Australia is a government body that develops national policies relating to work health and safety and also records fatalities across all sectors in Australia
According to the reports by Safe Works Australia, about 16% of workplace fatalities were in construction, with the sector employing 9.2% of the workforce.
Most construction workers lose their lives on site by falling from high rise platforms. Other causes of on site casualties include, being crushed under heavy machinery, electric shocks, asphyxiation etc.
To prevent such fatalities on the site, companies are opting for drones to replace manual inspections and fixed CCTV camera installations. Instead of sending workers into difficult working conditions you can use a drone to inspect down pipelines or up high towers and buildings. Its alot safer and faster to just use a drone for the job in many instances.
For inspections, drones aid automated defect detection through aerial asset inspection, helping contractors identify and eliminate risks thereby improving workers safety, informing repairs and maintenance and having more information about the existing conditions.
3. Reduced Downtime
A construction site is nothing short of a battlefield with so many things happening at once! It is very difficult for project managers to keep track of everything happening onsite at anytime.
In construction projects, the onsite risks are both physical and economical. Injuries are not only damaging to the individual but also to the company, its culture, project completion and ultimately affects the bottom line.
Drone technology helps contractors reduce operational downtime and cut down on project costs.
They help project managers with asset management, stockpile inspection, and keeping track of raw materials, staff and machinery onsite. You can keep a record of every brick, steel girder, cement bag and plant at the site and see exactly what goes where or easily check what is not where it should be.
This prevents workers from decreased productivity and ensures that you are not overcharged by your contractors for claims for payment. It’s surprising that many companies don’t have a proess to validate contractors’ claims for payment on large construction projects. When it really can be so simple to check.
I would recommend you hire a professional team of drone experts to help you with site data collection and analysis. The drone data is only as good as the specific insights that an industry-specific company can provide with detailed analysis and reporting. Its of little use to have hundreds of photos of a construction project, but can be essential to have surveying drawings and accurate sitemaps of the project to share with site engineering and project teams.
It can be confusing to understand the difference and navigate those that can deliver accurate, measurable and repeatable data versus those that can really only deliver you pretty pictures and videos. Its important to partner with a company with the industry-specific understanding, experience and analysis to turn drone data into meaningful project insights.
A few things that the competent drone service provider will consider on your project requirements:
- What is the data to be gathered and to what specifications?
- How accurate do you require the measurements to be?
- What CRS and datum are to be used?
- How often do you need this data supplied?
- How and where are you using the supplied data and for what purpose?
- What systems and GiS applications will you incorporate the data into?
4. Preventing Expensive Mistakes
Contractors often use drones to conduct the preliminary site inspection before commencing any construction activities on the location. It is very cumbersome to manually inspect every corner of the site to ensure that it is ideal for the construction project.
With drone surveying you can cover a large area, capturing the topography and environmental attributes of the site. Identifying issues and site planning requirements to ensure the project starts and continues with little disruption.
This drone survey also gives you a holistic idea of the neighbouring locations, surrounds and local environment etc. Using this information, you can gauge the cost of procuring and transporting raw materials from one location to the site, including planning access and minimising costly delays.
Site analysis and drone surveying is extremely effective for road construction projects as it plays a major role in engineering, planning, issue detection and ultimately preventing expensive mistakes.
The images captured by drones are geo-tagged and can be live streamed to project managers for accurate real-time insights. This kind of immediate feedback helps to identify immediate challenges, obstacles, design flaws, potential accidents onsite that can be managed and avoided.
For instance, you can check out this short video to explain how we use drones to monitor and report on a road construction project in Victoria.
5. Transparent Project Updates
Drone data can be manipulated and processed into a multitude of products and easily into more accessible file formats.
The drone gathered data combined with other onsite techniques can be validated and converted into 2D maps, 3D models, images, videos, virtual reality visualisations etc. depending on your project requirements.
The most common format is to feature the drone footage on your website, social media and company communications or business proposals.
When professionally edited, drone footage combined with some visual storytelling skills, presents the project in an easy to understand and impressive format that your clients, investors and stakeholders can easily understand and consume. This often builds trust and confidence in the company and its staff and can help a business in securing larger contracts in future.
Construction projects often stretch over longer periods and stakeholders and clients need regular updates to ensure that the project is on schedule and key milestones are met. Using drones to capture onsite activities at key stages of the project helps with transparent project reporting and giving your clients and stakeholders immediate updates on the project success.
The bottom line
Drones have only emerged as useful tools in AEC industries over the last 10 years and have proven to be an absolute game changer for the AEC industries who are adopting this technology.
If you are new to drone technology, I’d recommend you hire a professional drone services company to ensure you optimise the use of the technology for more than just the basics.
Drone experts are well versed about the CASA regulations and have the necessary training and licenses required to fly drones commercially in Australia.
You can reach out to our drone experts at Avian and Just Drones for your drones sales and drone services needs.
About the author
Chris Patchell is the General Manager and Director of Operations at AVIAN Australia. He is
an avid drone enthusiast and loves innovative technologies. Chris is highly motivated with a hands-on approach to drones, surveying and laser scanning and his goal is to create awareness about drone
technology in Australian AEC industries.
On his days off, he is often scouting locations for photogrammetry and laser scanning as a hobby.
These days you’ll find Chris in Melbourne, Australia using his drones and laser scanners
to capture and recreate the real world in digital space for a range of clients and innovative applications.
]]>