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Could the newest farmhand be a drone?
Research in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences is bringing drone technology to agriculture, one of the major industries with excellent potential for growth. Specifically, drone technology is being tested with sheep at Virginia Tech.
"We are looking at ways drones can be used on small farms," said Dan Swafford, project associate for Virginia Cooperative Extension. "Farms could use drones as a 'check-on' tool to ensure that sheep are where they are supposed to be."
Drones can help farmers gain quick access to see if an animal is in need or injured, to examine if a ewe has delivered a new lamb, or more generally to check the status of the farm.
Agriculture is one of the industries where drones will make a big impact in the coming years. A report from PricewaterhouseCoopers found that the potential market for agricultural drones is $32.4 billion because high-tech systems with the ability to monitor crops or livestock can reduce human errors and save time and money.
Do drones make more sense than static cameras with CCTV?
(Score: 4, Informative) by TheRaven on Wednesday January 24 2018, @03:22PM (14 children)
Yes. Farms are big. It's feasible to drive around them and use a drone to skim over the adjacent fields. Wiring the entire thing up with CCTV means either a mesh network and a lot of solar power and batteries, or laying power cables all across the farm. The CCTV cameras then have to be completely weather resistant, whereas the drone can be used only in good weather.
I've also heard that drones are starting to be used for crop dusting in some quite large deployments.
sudo mod me up
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday January 24 2018, @03:28PM (7 children)
As soon as you talk about the costs of weatherproof static CCTV cameras and their power source, and wired or wireless network, it suddenly sounds like drones might be a whole lot cheaper. Possibly even more versatile. You can get camera footage from more vantage points than static cameras.
But what about in areas where the yokels want to have "drone hunting season" and shoot down your drones?
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 24 2018, @03:46PM
Haven't you activated the Kamikaze mode on your drones?
(Score: 2) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Wednesday January 24 2018, @03:56PM (1 child)
That's when you run after them shouting "GED ORF MOI LAAAND!!!"
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday January 24 2018, @04:51PM
Oy saw a snike!
Eat head beeg blow oys and a huge tile.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday January 24 2018, @04:00PM
Your friendly Russian supplier have a solution for you: meet Charlene [youtube.com]
And it does have the kamikaze mode if you need to take out a light vehicle.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by Snow on Wednesday January 24 2018, @04:56PM
They'll yell "DERYL!! If you shoot my drone again, I won't let you borrow my hay baler next summer!"
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Wednesday January 24 2018, @05:47PM (1 child)
A farm / ranch / etc that uses these probably has plenty of room between the neighbors to not need to worry about disturbing the neighbors. You say Yokel, I say pissed of dude with a gun, who doesn't like idiots flying a spy machine over their land.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday January 25 2018, @02:37PM
I say pissed off dude with a gun, who doesn't like people flying a commerical drone over other land adjacent to theirs and thinks they can shoot at anything airborne because they live by their own rules and the law does not apply to them because they're special and they have rights, etc. And they know they are not smart enough to do 'geek stuff' but focus on brawn over brains. And Football!!!
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday January 24 2018, @04:29PM
Concur, and you can't really get good detail with PTZ, even in an open field, on more than a few acres. Try to get decent fixed coverage on a ranch of 1000 acres, especially with less than perfectly flat and clear terrain, and fixed cameras would not only be ridiculously expensive to install, but also ridiculously expensive to maintain.
A single drone is a kind of extreme PTZ cam. It can fly high (up to 400', legally) for the wide shot, identify areas of interest, and zoom in as close as needed. With ~25 minutes flight time and 30mph cruise, that's an effective operational radius of over 5 miles, or coverage of > 50,000 acres from a single launch point, and that launch point can be on the back of a pickup truck.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 24 2018, @05:16PM (3 children)
IT is as cost limiting as you make out. Fixed point but rotational cameras still make sense. One great thing is getting mesh or AP across the area. Allows for better position control and backbone to carry drones' video home. Most likely rent land or tower space to cell companies for second income to help offset cost.
So stopping looking at fix point camera as a large cost - for a single use. Look at the composite use, net price comes down quickly.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Freeman on Wednesday January 24 2018, @05:58PM (2 children)
A drone is what $500 - $1,500? One decent camera is say $200. Now, how many fixed point cameras do you need to cover 50 acres? We'll assume he can dig the trench with his tractor / ditch witch and not even factor that into the equation. He still needs to pay for the cable and the cable won't lay itself. Also, a good setup would require PVC pipe, so you don't need to worry about re-laying cable or finding where in the 2 miles of cable the break is. Then again, you could go with wireless and solar panels. That'll be a lot less hassle, but probably the same cost or more. The drone is a lot less hassle, can be flown to pretty much anywhere / angle / etc that you might need to get to and may even be "fun". That fun may wear off as you use it daily, or you may enjoy that sucker to death. It certainly beats the cost / time / skill / etc required to be a certified pilot.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by qzm on Wednesday January 24 2018, @08:03PM (1 child)
Great.
I assume the drone is weatherproof (including heavy rain and/or wind))?
No? Well, no use at all then.
There are no noise of flight restrictions in the area?
As this is a commercial use the drone operator needs licensing and quite probably must file a flight plan for each use?
Animals are not going to be spooked by it? (Have you ever worked with sheep?)
The drone can handle animals under and around trees?
Sorry, this smells a lot like a 'we have a fun tech to play with, let's find excuses to use it's
Yes, I live in a farm.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Wednesday January 24 2018, @11:11PM
A drone while not silent isn't anywhere near like flying a true airplane or military type drone over your house. The "drones" we're talking about are somewhat larger RC toys, just better build quality and definitely more expensive. I would be surprised, if you had to file flight plans for each use as these things are low flying objects. When I was a teenager, we shot model rockets off without filing flight plans, admittedly not huge ones, but the Drones aren't meant to be flying that high either. The "Drone" we're talking about can definitely be flown in a manner as to see animals under and around trees. The "Drone" we're talking about is like those tiny "drones" in the toy aisle, just more like a foot or two across. The nice expensive ones can hover in the air. The cheapo ones at Walmart, require you to have pretty good reflexes and a good size area to play around in. Unless you and your neighbor don't mind it flying off into the neighbors yard, or in a creek, etc.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 25 2018, @02:52AM
Yamaha has sold remotely piloted helicopters for crop spraying for many years,
https://www.yamahamotorsports.com/motorsports/pages/precision-agriculture [yamahamotorsports.com]
No need for any university studies, the use case is already well established.