AGRICULTURAL
DRONE
SUBMITTED BY: ASHISH KUMAR YADAV
BE12EC041(EC-62)

INTRODUCTION
 Drones are formally known as unmanned aerial
vehicle which is essentially a flying robot.
 It can be controlled by either pilot from the ground
or it can be autonomous.
 The drones which are used for agriculture purpose
are called as agriculture drone.
 In current scenario it is also being used for
surveillance, traffic monitoring, weather monitoring.

VISUAL SENSOR
 It is used for aerial mapping and imaging
 Photogrammetry and 3D reconstruction
 Plant counting
 Surveillance
 Emergency response
 Surveying and Land use application

MULTISPECTRAL SENSOR
They range in numbers of bands and resolution topping out
under 1 cm per pixel.
Multispectral Sensors are widely used in:
 Plant health measurement
 Water quality assessment
 Vegetation index
 Plant counting

THERMAL SENSOR
Thermal sensors are best utilized in:
 Heat signature detection
 Livestock detection
 Surveillance and security
 Water temperature detection and water source detection
 Emergency response

LIDAR SENSOR
 Short range, 270º scanning LASER rangefinder
 Useful in 3D digital surface modelling stockpile
calculation
 Surface variation detection and flood mapping
 Penetrates through vegetation: It can perform plant
height measurement by collecting range information
from the plant canopy and the ground below (as
opposed to the passive optical imagers that provide
height data from the canopy)

HYPERSPECTRAL SENSOR
Hyper spectral sensors are widely used in:
 Plant health measurement
 Water quality assessment
 Vegetation index calculation
 Full spectral sensing
 Spectral research and development
 Mineral and surface composition surveys

HOW DRONES CAN BE USED IN
AGRICULTURE
Chemical applications
Land & building
management
Crop & livestock inventory
management
Crop monitoring(nutrient, water, pest)

PLANTS SHOW DAMAGE IN
INFRARED AND NEAR-INFRARED
(Chlorophyll absorbs
infrared light. Damaged
plants have less
chlorophyll)

False color image
NDVI Image (dark soil vs. regular soil. The dark green
shows higher biomass and healthier crop
Visually, this variety in particular seems to be
doing better than others on the dark soil

BUG MAPPING
Bug Mapping of Spider Mite Population in Peanut

INVENTORY MANAGEMENT IN
OPEN FIELD NURSERIES

DIAMETER ESTIMATION/PLANT
GRADE- CITRUS

PLANT COUNTING

CITRUS DISEASE/STRESS DETECTION

BIG DATA AGRICULTURE
Half of farm inputs are wasted due to
lost information(the “open loop” problem)
x 0.5x
• Opportunity: "Closed-loop farming".
Use aerial data capture to use
chemicals/water/labor only where
they’re needed.

Precision (Site-Specific)
Agriculture
 Yield monitoring and mapping
 Soil condition mapping
(variable rate fertilizer)
 Weed mapping

CHALLENGES- SYSTEM ISSUES
 Extend battery life (stay aloft for 5-15 minutes -
limited ground coverage)
 Variety of UAV types (semi-autonomous, hand
launched etc.)
 Research data on reliability is missing (500 hrs, 1000
hrs etc. useful life)
 Weather robust
 Missing data network to download images and
videos from multiple UAVs
 Minimize solar flare impact on navigation
 Safety issues

RESULTS AND CHALLENGE

Why Farming? Why Now?

Drones

BENEFITS
Highest Economic Benefit
 Spot disease/problems faster
 Use less chemicals and water
(save money, better for food
and environment)
 Improve productivity