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Drones in agriculture:applications and outlook
EXPO 2015 Salar Bybordi PhD, DEIB - Politecnico di Milano,[email protected]
Luca Reggiani PhD, Researcher, DEIB - Politecnico di [email protected]
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Outline
Drones in agricultureEXPO 2015
Unmanned Aerial VehiclesApplications
UAVs for agriculture
LimitationsFuture development
Conclusions
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Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
Drones in agricultureEXPO 2015
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), commonly known as drones,can beunpiloted aerial vehiclesorremotely piloted aircrafts.
Rotary wing Fixed wing
More efficient aerodynamics
longer flights, higher speedLarge space for take-off and landing
Easier to pilot, agile maneuvering
Vertical take-off and landing
[*] "Parrot AR.Drone 2.0", N. Halftermeyer Wikimedia Commons[o] "InView Unmanned Aircraft" by Fasicle, http://www.barnardmicrosystems.com/ - Wikimedia Commons
[*] [o]
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Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
Drones in agricultureEXPO 2015
UAVs are knowing a huge, increasing interest.
The worldwide marketof drones forcivilian use:
$609 million in 2014 forecast to reach$4.8 billion in 2021
Civilian sector is about 5% of the global market but the growthrate is higher.
Compound annual growth rate: CAGR= 19%The defense sector has a growth rate = 5%
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Civilian applications:filmmaking,search operations,
inspecting and surveying,delivering supplies,monitoring and data acquisition
In the following f ields:Emergency servicesSecurityEnvironmental protectionAgriculture
Engineering and architectureMediaBusiness
Applications
Drones in agricultureEXPO 2015
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UAVs for agriculture
Drones in agricultureEXPO 2015
Data acquisitionRemote sensing
Integration with sensor networks
Monitoring (fires, fields, animals )
Chemical and biological treatments
Precision agriculture
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UAVs for agriculture
Drones in agricultureEXPO 2015
Optimization of the treatments
only where and when necessary fertilizers cut down till to 20 40 %
Reduction and prevention of wastewater consumption in some cases till to almost 90 %
Reduction of labor and material costs
Reduction of pollutionSmall UAVs are electrical machines.
Reduction of the risksAutomatic and continuous analysis of the processes and field status.Prevention.
Precision agriculture: advantages
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UAVs for agriculture
Drones in agricultureEXPO 2015
Remote sensing
Remote sensing regards the acquisit ion of informationabout an object
or surface area by means of propagated signals(e.g. electro magneticwaves as optical or microwave signals), typically emitted and/or receivedby aerial vehicles(e.g. satellites, aircrafts, UAVs).
Main limitations of satellites and aircrafts:
expensiveneed expertiseweather dependent
resolutionavailability of multi-temporal data
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UAV low alti tude remote sensing: main technologies
Visible-band, near-infrared, multi-spectral, hyperspectral cameras
Plant and soil analysisHeight, growth, health, vegetation indexes.
Irrigation, property, moisture, erosionSpecific chemical components
Thermal imaging
Plant and soil analysisIrrigation, maturity, temperature
Laser scanners
Plant and soil analysisHeight, growth, topographical maps
UAVs for agriculture
Drones in agricultureEXPO 2015
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UAVs for agriculture
Drones in agricultureEXPO 2015
UAV low altitude remote sensing: main technologies
Data can be acquired in2D/3Dand as a function oftime
Multi-temporal analysis:
a drone can repeat the survey periodically (even everyfew hours) in order to appreciate the variations of the
field status.
Opportunity of a very advanced managementandorganizationof work, irrigation, fertilization andnecessary treatments.
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UAVs for agriculture
Drones in agricultureEXPO 2015
UAV low altitude remote sensing: main outputs
Vegetation indicesPlant growth, counting, diseases identificationImpact of chemical or biological treatments
Temperature and moisture
Water issues and irrigation systemsGround erosion and modifications, topography
Acquisition of data for insurance claims (e.g. afterstorms)
Of course drones usage changes with the seasons
plants
soil
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UAVs for agriculture
Drones in agricultureEXPO 2015
Remote sensing: examples
Plant height and growthcan be derived byLaser Scanning
3D image analysisMicrowave radars.
["Plodozmian" by Lesaw Zimny - Wikimedia Commons]
The estimated height isaffected by errorsaround few cm.
These systems areapplied to corn, wheat,rice fields.
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UAVs for agriculture
Drones in agricultureEXPO 2015
Remote sensing: examples
Moisture estimation
Thermal cameras
Visible and near-infrared
reflectance
Microwave sensors
Mult i-spectral images
["Irrigation1" by Paulkondratuk3194 - Wikimedia Commons]
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UAVs for agriculture
Drones in agricultureEXPO 2015
Remote sensing: examples
NDVI (normalized difference
vegetation index) estimation:
Spectral reflectance
measurements acquired
in the visible (red) and
near-infrared regions
Other properties can be derived fromNDVI: biomass, chlorophyll concentration
of leaves, plant productivity,
["SUAS_StardustII_Ndvi_sml" by Idetec uav - Wikimedia Commons]
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UAVs for agriculture
Drones in agricultureEXPO 2015
Integration with sensor networks
UAVs operations can be controlled by means of feedbacks (wirelesssignals) from asensors network deployed on the ground.
For example:the areas covered by treatments or irrigation can becontrolled by ground sensors in presence of wind or inabsence of precise flight plans.
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Limitations
Drones in agricultureEXPO 2015
Drone usage is weather dependant(in particular wind, rain)
National regulations
Italy possible till to 25 kgFrance possible till 150 kgUS new rules in 2015
ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) ispreparing rules for 2018.
According to EASA, (European Aviation SafetyAgency), open use could be for flights within
500 meters and maximum altitude = 150 m.
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Future development
Drones in agricultureEXPO 2015
Technological steps
Increase of UAVs autonomy: automatic piloting andoperations
Automatic analysis for real-time decisions
Increase of precision in remote sensing
Advanced integration with sensor networks and robots onthe ground
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Conclusions
Drones in agricultureEXPO 2015
Today UAVs are a reality in many fields of agriculture.
However precision agriculture is about to know a further
progress and UAVs will play a crucial role.
Important savings(20% - 90%) in terms of water, chemicaltreatments and labor are expected.
Flight regulations are an issue but UAVs, for mostagriculture applications, have low weight and fly at lowaltitudes over uninhabited and private areas
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Bibliography
Drones in agricultureEXPO 2015
[1] C. Zhang, J. M. Kovacs, The application of small unmanned aerial systems for precisionagriculture: a review, Precision Agriculture, Springer, 2012.
[2] MIT Technology Review, Agricultural Drones. Relatively cheap drones with advancedsensors and imaging capabilities are giving farmers new ways to increase yields and reduce
crop damage, http://www.technologyreview.com/featuredstory/526491/agricultural-drones/,2015.
[3] I. Colomina, P. Molina, Unmanned aerial systems for photogrammetry and remote sensing:a review, ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, June 2014.
[4] D. Anthony, S. Elbaum, A. Lorenz, C. Detweiler, On Crop Height Estimation with UAVs,2014 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems.
[5] J. Primicerio, S. F. Di Gennaro, E. Fiorillo, L. Genesio, E. Lugato, A. Matese, F. P. Vaccari, Aflexible unmanned aerial vehicle for precision agriculture, Precision Agriculture, Springer, 2012.
[6] L. Hassan-Esfahani, A. Torres-Rua, A. M. Ticlavilca, A. Jensen, M. McKee, Topsoil MoistureEstimation for Precision Agriculture Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Multispectral Imagery,2014 IEEE InternationalGeoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium,2014.
[7] F. G. Costa, J. Ueyama, T. Braun, G. Pessin, F. S. Osorio, P. A. Vargas, The Use ofUnmanned Aerial Vehicles and Wireless Sensor Network in Agriculture Applications, 2012IEEE InternationalGeoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium,2012.
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