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Why use a drone for agriculture? Drones for crop spraying Crop inspection drones Agricultural mapping drones and best drone-mapping software DJI drones - a total solution for agriculture Drones for agriculture - case studies Drones v satellites Skippy Scout - drone crop scouting app Drones for agriculture FAQsNext-generation farming.
For centuries, farmers have walked their fields monitoring the health of their crops. It is a time-consuming process. But this is changing.
Agriculture drones are becoming a key driver to helping farmers increase crop production, monitor and inspect crop growth, build a richer picture of their fields, improve farming efficiency, and maximise outputs.
Among the many benefits, drone data can be used to extract soil characteristics - including temperatures, moisture, and elevation - which helps more accurate soil sampling.
Drones and their sophisticated sensors can help farmers plan and troubleshoot irrigation systems, helping with water flow management and usage; monitor plant emergence and population to drive replanting decisions and improve crop models; and decide harvest plans by helping farmers anticipate a harvest's quality and final yield.
On-demand and high-resolution drone data is also perfect for capturing and accurately reporting events that lead to economic loss, like crop injury and reduced health.
The versatility of drones and their sophisticated sensors enables farmers to utilise the technology for a number of reasons. These include:
Automated, targeted and precise.
Agricultural drone spraying is becoming an increasingly popular application, helping to maintain crop health and yields.
Drones are being deployed for spraying for disease, weed, and pest control, as well as spreading pesticides and fertilisers.
Using drones for this application makes sense, offering a fully-automated, targeted and precise solution, and replacing labour-intensive, time-consuming, and potentially harmful use of backpack sprayers and other equipment.
This method is particularly useful in areas where the terrain is undulating, steep, or hard to access.
Deploying a drone is also a cheaper option than using crop dusters to spray fields too large for manual labour.
Crop spraying drones are particularly prevalent in China, where government subsidies promote the use of agricultural drones. Leading drone manufacturer DJI has responded to this demand by engineering the Agras spraying drones. There are currently more than 40,000 active Agras on the market.
Spraying drones are not currently legal in the UK, but trials are being conducted to try to change this. Many of these tests are based around bracken growth on inaccessible hillsides in upland areas important for sheep production. The aim is to build a portfolio of evidence to highlight the positive uses of crop-spraying drones and convince decision-makers to allow drone spraying.
High-tech agricultural spraying drones, the DJI Agras series is designed to increase efficiency and manageability of plant protection and fertilisation.
For instance, the T30 drone has a 30L operation tank, features 16 sprayers and has a 9m spraying width. The drone is capable of covering 16 hectares per hour. It also has a 30kg spreading tank, with 7m spreading width, and is capable of spreading 1 ton of fertiliser per hour.
Meanwhile, the Agras T16 features a 16L spray tank and is able to spray 24.7 acres (10 hectares) per hour. This is much faster than manual spraying methods.
The Agras series can be deployed for a fully-automated, targeted, and precise spraying solution, allowing modern farms to save on labour while maximising coverage and outputs.
For increased efficiency, the Agras series can be used for swarming. Up to five Agras T16 drones can be controlled by a single T16 remote controller, while one Agras MG-1P controller can control up to five MG-1P aircraft simultaneously - doubling the efficiency of single-pilot operations.
Using drones for crop spraying is a far more efficient and cost-effective process than manual methods.
This table provides a breakdown of the benefits in real terms of deploying a DJI Agras drone over traditional methods, in terms of efficiency, safety, and control. This example is based on the DJI Agras T16 but provides a snapshot of the overall benefits when deploying any drone in the Agras series.
|
Manual |
DJI Agras T16 |
|
|---|---|---|
|
Efficiency |
7-10 acres a day |
150 acres per hour |
|
Work Standardisation |
Manual planning |
Coordinate with the positioning system to carry out path planning and improve work efficiency. |
|
Pesticide Type |
Common pesticides |
Supports special aviation chemicals, high utilisation rate, can save more than 20% of pesticides. |
|
Control Effect |
It is easy to leak or re-spray, and low pesticide penetration.
Due to the low efficiency of work, it is difficult to carry out large-area protection in a short period of time, which is not suitable for unified control.
|
The pesticide is sprayed uniformly and has good penetration due to the downwards wind stream from the aircraft.
Can carry out large-area operations in a short period of time.
|
|
Safety |
Workers are very close to pesticides, which is a serious health hazard. |
The worker is separated from the pesticide and does not need to access hard-to-reach areas. |
Save money and identify problems through aerial data.
Crop inspection is a vital part of farming and a drone can be deployed to capture fast, accurate, and meaningful insights.
Drones can carry a combination of zoom, thermal, multispectral, NDVI, and visual cameras to draw precise data which cannot be seen with the naked eye, or is difficult to collect from ground level.
This provides vital real-time insights about crop growth, differences between healthy and distressed plants, and weed control, thus enabling agricultural professionals to identify issues quickly, precisely and accurately, and to better target their field scouting.
Drones can be used to carry out these surveys as frequently as the job demands. This precise and repeatable multi-year drone data allows for better planning and monitoring of improvements, such as ditches and evolving fertiliser applications.
As an added advantage, this meaningful data can be processed instantly and can be shared quickly with key staff and decision-makers to help maximise agricultural outputs.
As the world's leading drone manufacturer, DJI has a number of solutions to help farmers collect vital insights about crop health and vegetation management.
The Phantom 4 Multispectral is a dedicated drone for precision agriculture, enabling agricultural professionals to capture plant-level data.
The drone features a built-in imaging system comprising 1 RGB camera and a multispectral camera with five sensors covering the blue, green, red, red edge and near-infrared bands.
Users can switch between NDVI images and the live RGB feed to highlight attention areas and enable targeted treatment decisions.
The Phantom 4 Multispectral benefits from RTK accuracy, while the DJI TimeSync system allows for accurate positioning data on images captured by the cameras.
This enables farmers to make timely and informed decisions on crop treatment and health, which lowers costs, saves on resources, and helps to maximise yields.
The DJI Matrice M300 RTK is another reliable option for farmers. While not strictly an agricultural drone, the M300 RTK can be integrated with different payloads to capture key farming insights, including the H20T camera which boasts thermal and zoom capabilities. Thermal imaging has a range of applications in agriculture, such as irrigation scheduling, detecting plant disease, and estimating fruit yields, while a zoom camera can be used to hone in on specific areas.
The DJI Matrice 300 RTK can also be integrated with third-party payloads, enabling farmers to pair the drone with dedicated and specialist NDVI and multispectral sensors.
Meanwhile, the DJI Mavic 2 Enterprise Series offers a lightweight, foldable and portable option for farmers. The standard Mavic 2 Enterprise features a dynamic zoom camera, while the Mavic 2 Enterprise Dual comes with thermal capabilities. Both drones can carry modular accessories, such as a loudspeaker, spotlight, and beacon, to add versatility to agricultural missions.
Multispectral imaging camera sensors are playing a vital role in agriculture, especially when integrated with a drone.
This imaging technology uses a range of wavebands - including red, red-edge, and near-infrared - to highlight a wealth of meaningful agricultural insights, which in turns leads to smarter and more informed farming.
Generally speaking, multi-spectral sensors collect light from various wavelengths that the human eye cannot distinguish. This imagery helps farmers learn more about soil productivity, plant health, estimate crop yields, and manage irrigation, among other things.
Among the many benefits of multispectral imaging, farmers can find out about NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index); the index of plant greenness and the classic indicator of plant health. NDVI data enables agriculture professionals to learn more about canopy coverage, pest outbreaks, soil moisture, and how to optimise crop rotation.
Farmers can also collect data from multispectral vegetation bands for a range of insights. These bands include:
Because multispectral imaging plays an important role in agriculture, numerous drone solutions are on the market to enable this data collection.
The DJI Phantom 4 Multispectral is an all-in-one, out-of-the-box solution, with the ability to capture RGB and multispectral data covering the blue, green, red, red-edge, and near-infrared bands.
Other leading solutions include the RedEdge-MX Dual Camera Imaging System, from MicaSense, providing 10 bands for advanced remote sensing and agricultural research. It can be integrated with DJI drones, such as the Inspire 2, and UAS in the Matrice 200 Series.
Meanwhile, the 4P and 4P+ sensors, from SlantRange, allow accurate data collection across six spectral bands, and can be integrated with DJI DRONES through DJI’s Payload SDK.
Key Insights - Quickly.
Drone mapping is becoming a key tool for farmers.
Digitising your field helps to maximise operational efficiency and monitor crop production, plant breeding, irrigation, and animal damage.
Drone mapping provides better insights into crops from above, serving as the foundation for work on the ground.
Turn images into insightful maps which can help with decision-making and can be shared quickly.
Drone mapping also provides the chance to set pre-determined flight paths for autonomous missions and repeatable and accurate data collection.
Drone mapping can provide the following insights:
The DJI Phantom 4 RTK is an ideal drone for agricultural mapping.
The Phantom 4 RTK performs aerial mapping 100 times faster than manual operations, helping to scan and map target areas to identify all aspects of a field.
Benefits of the DJI Phantom 4 RTK include:
Drone farm mapping software is an important part of using UAS for agriculture, turning collected data into meaningful insights.
Drone mapping software can also be used to streamline the process of deploying a drone, by creating pre-mission flight paths for greater efficiency and automated flights.
There are a number of leading drone farm mapping software solutions on the market. Here's a look at some of them:
DJI's 3D modelling and drone mapping software package can be used to great effect for agriculture.
The DroneDeploy software package offers agriculture intelligence to enhance year-round management decisions.
Harness The DJI Ecosystem For A Complete Farming Solution.
DJI has launched a complete farming solution, from planning to operation, conducted entirely from drones and associated software.
This comprehensive package makes agricultural practices more efficient by combining a range of drones, such as the DJI Agras series, the DJI Phantom 4 RTK, and the DJI Phantom 4 Multispectral.
DJI Terra - a drone mapping software package - can also be utilised in this DJI farming ecosystem to produce agricultural maps from the collected drone data and generate targeted flight paths.
The information below shows how multiple DJI platforms can be brought together to provide an end-to-end precision agriculture package.
Navigating challenging terrain is now easier, thanks to digitised farming methods.
The DJI Phantom 4 RTK can scan and map target areas to identify all aspects of a field and DJI Terra can process this data to create maps and reconstructions for a range of agricultural insights. This information can then be used to deploy the DJI Agras T16 to specific areas.
In Orchard mode, DJI Agras drones can identify each tree, generate 3D flight routes based on their shapes, and conduct efficient spraying.
The DJI eco-system can be harnessed to provide a comprehensive solution to monitor crop health and generate treatment procedures.
The Phantom 4 Multispectral can scan target areas and generate multispectral charts that provide actionable insights into crop health and help formulate variable spraying and seeding maps.
Users can access DJI Terra shapefiles and apply them to spraying and seeding operations, carried out by Agras drones.
Real-world stories highlighting the benefits of deploying UAS for farming.
Which method is best for agriculture?
Drones are more efficient and more effective for farming than manual methods. But how do they compare to satellites?
In truth, both have their advantages, and come down to the specific application.
However, there are certain times when drones have the advantage.
Take cloud cover, for example. Satellite imagery can be severely affected by cloud cover, limiting what can be seen. A drone, on the other hand, can fly closer to the earth, below the cover of cloud, to obtain the data you need.
There's also the issue of satellites flying around the earth within a certain time. If you want immediate data capture, it can be best to deploy a drone.
Because drones can fly closer to the ground, they can collect extremely precise data, taking shots to distinguish a weed or a crop, or show each particular plant. Because of its distance from the earth, a satellite can't capture that level of detail.
However, if high-precision is not a priority, then satellites can have the advantage, especially over big farms where they can cover a larger area.
Thanks to their wide scope, the collected image is complete, eliminating the need for image stitching. In contrast, because drone shots capture smaller areas, image stitching is needed following drone flights.
Another advantage of using satellites is that their records go further back. Thanks to this archive data, you can time travel and build a longer picture of your farm.
But, while the drones versus satellite question is valid, it doesn't always have to be a choice between the two. Rather, using them together can be extremely useful, spotting an initial problem through a satellite and then deploying a drone to hone in on the issue and tackle it precisely and quickly.
Drone crop monitoring app.
To help promote drones for agriculture, heliguy™ has partnered with UAS farming company, DroneAG.
UK-based Drone AG has created Skippy Scout, an award-winning real-time crop monitoring tool designed to make farmers’ lives easier by saving time, increasing efficiency and providing accurate results.
This crop monitoring app uses drones to automatically capture images which are analysed by ground-breaking artificial intelligence (AI) to offer arable farmers vital broadacre crop insight.
The phone-based app uses GPS and mapping software to autonomously fly a drone to points in a field selected by the farmer. The images taken by the drone are interpreted by the app to provide an accurate green area index (GAI) and count emerging plants. The quality of image collected can also identify weeds and is accurate enough to capture insect damage on a single leaf.
Jack Wrangham, of DroneAG, said: “Farmers have always walked their crops. However, the time to do this in the traditional way is diminishing.
“As farm sizes increase and labour units per hectare decline, the risk of losing crops because a problem has not been identified quickly enough will increase. Skippy Scout offers every farmer the chance to see and evaluate crops easily and efficiently using just a phone and a drone."
Skippy Scout can be integrated with a range of DJI drones, including the Mavic Mini.
Farming drones - your questions, answered
Drones are helping to revolutionise agriculture by providing farmers with fast, accurate, and repeatable data collection, which in turn provides vital insights and helps drive decision-making.
This depends on your needs. But DJI has a range of UAS in its agriculture ecosystem, such as the Agras crop-spraying drones; P4 Multispectral crop-monitoring drone; and the Phantom 4 RTK farm mapping drone.
If you are flying your drone for commercial reasons, then yes, you will need to undergo drone training. From the end of December 2020 in the UK, training requirements will change; determined more by the size of your drone, rather than being defined by commercial or non-commercial operations. For more information about drone training, click here.
