Drones as an emerging technology can make agricultural farming easy. Drones in agriculture can be used to increase farm crop yields and accurately monitor fields, while simultaneously decreasing time, labour and resources. This represent a new way of collecting field-level data, whenever and wherever needed the drone can be easily and quickly deployed.
Drones are affordable, requiring a very modest capital investment when compared to most farm equipment. Operation is relatively simple and getting easier with every new generation. They are safe and reliable. Drones come in two acronyms which includes; Unmanned aerial vehicles and Unmanned aerial systems. Most drones fall under the categories of rotary or fixed wing. A rotary style drone is similar to a helicopter, while a fixed wing drone looks exactly like an airplane.
ROTARY DRONE
A rotary drone is often identified by the number of rotors (propellers). An example is a quadcopter which has four rotors. A rotary drone is an excellent scouting tool for field crop operations. They are easy to maneuver across the field and can hover over problem areas. Battery life is an issue with rotary drones, since power is drained more rapidly due to the powering of multiple propellers. Flight times for many quadcopters range from 10-20minutes, and be less when flown during high wind speeds. As such, rotary drones are useful for smaller fields and scouting operations.
FIXED WING DRONES
Fixed wing drones work just like airplanes, using lift and drag to stay aloft, most fixed wing drones have only one propeller. As a result, fixed wing drones have longer battery lives, with the potential to stay in the air for 20minutes or longer. Fixed wings also can reach greater speeds than rotary drone and when combined with longer battery life, it allows the fixed wing drones to cover greater acreage. However, fixed wings require space to land, similar to an airport runway. They may be designed to land by skidding across ground.
BENEFITS OF DRONES IN AGRICULTURE
- Minimize the cost of walking in the fields or airplane fly-over filming.
- Save time scouting acres and acres of crops by foot.
- Many drones in agriculture features specialized mapping and crop health.
- Imaging can be used to accurately see crop health.
- Monitoring crops via drone is much more efficient then by foot.
- Reduce crop damage with frequent and efficient monitoring.
There are many benefits to drones in agriculture and by using professional and quality components can help increase performance and efficiency.
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