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Drones Take Off in Agriculture Industry

posted by martyb on Wednesday January 24 2018, @02:20PM   Printer-friendly
from the aerial-areal-screening dept.

Phoenix666 writes:

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?

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  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 25 2018, @02:52AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 25 2018, @02:52AM (#627516)

    Yamaha has sold remotely piloted helicopters for crop spraying for many years,
        https://www.yamahamotorsports.com/motorsports/pages/precision-agriculture [yamahamotorsports.com]

    History of Use

    Yamaha has been operating remotely piloted helicopters for commercial purposes since 1991 and has amassed well over 2 million total flight hours. In Japan alone, there are over 2,500 Yamaha remotely piloted helicopters utilized in agricultural applications, carrying out pest control in 35% of Japan's rice fields. Furthermore, remotely piloted helicopters are used in applications other than agriculture, such as academic research, disaster prevention, observation and survey work.

    No need for any university studies, the use case is already well established.

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