2 WEDNESDAY , DECEMBER 13 , 2017
Gadget smart
With Ife Ogunfuwa
09080019063 ( SMS only ) iadedapo @ punchng . com
• Source : www . agriculturewire . com
Six ways drones are changing the face of agriculture
UNMANNED aerial vehicles – better known as drones – have been used commercially since the early 1980s .
According to www . technologyreview . com , today , practical applications for drones are expanding faster than ever in a variety of industries , thanks to robust investments and the relaxing of some regulations governing their use . Responding to the rapidly evolving technology , companies are creating new business and operating models for UAVs .
The total addressable value of drone-powered solutions in all applicable industries is significant — more than $ 127bn , according to a recent PwC analysis .
Among the most promising areas is agriculture , where drones offer the potential for addressing several major challenges . With the world ’ s population projected to reach nine billion people by 2050 , experts expect agricultural consumption to increase by nearly 70 per cent over the same time period . In addition , extreme weather events are on the rise , creating additional obstacles to productivity .
Agricultural producers must embrace revolutionary strategies for producing food , increasing productivity , and making sustainability a priority . Drones are part of the solution , along with closer collaboration between governments , technology leaders , and industry .
Six options for agricultural drones
Drone technology will give the agriculture industry a hightechnology makeover , with planning and strategy based on real-time data gathering and processing .
PwC estimates the market for drone-powered solutions in agriculture at $ 32.4bn . Following are six ways aerial and groundbased drones will be used throughout the crop cycle :
Sandboxing
SANDBoxINg is a software management strategy that isolates applications from critical system resources and other programmes . It provides an extra layer of security that prevents malware or harmful applications from negatively affecting your system , www . techterms . com says .
Without sandboxing , an application may have unrestricted access to all system resources and user data on a computer . A sandboxed app on the other hand , can only access resources in its own “ sandbox .”
An application ’ s sandbox is a limited area of storage space and memory that contains the only resources the programme requires . If a programme needs to access resources or files outside the sandbox , permission must be explicitly granted by the system .
# Takeaway
Soil and field analysis
Drones can be instrumental at the start of the crop cycle . They produce precise 3-D maps for early soil analysis , useful in planning seed planting patterns . After planting , drone-driven soil analysis provides data for irrigation and nitrogen-level management .
Planting
Start-ups have created drone-planting systems that achieve an uptake rate of 75 per cent and decrease planting costs by 85 per cent . These systems shoot pods with seeds and plant nutrients into the soil , providing the plant all the nutrients necessary to sustain life .
Crop spraying
Distance-measuring equipment — ultrasonic echoing and lasers such as those used in the light-detection and ranging , or LiDAR , method — enables a drone to adjust altitude as the topography and geography vary , and thus avoid collisions .
Consequently , drones can scan the ground and spray the correct amount of liquid , modulating distance from the ground and spraying in real time for even coverage . The result is increased efficiency with a reduction in the amount of chemicals penetrating into groundwater . In fact , experts estimate that aerial spraying can be completed up to five times faster with drones than with traditional machinery .
Crop monitoring
Vast fields and low efficiency in crop monitoring together create farming ’ s largest obstacle . Monitoring challenges are exacerbated by increasingly unpredictable weather conditions , which drive risk
For example , when a sandboxed app is installed in oS x , a specific directory is created for that application ’ s sandbox . The app is given unlimited read and write access to the sandboxed directory , but it is not allowed to read or write any other files on the computer ’ s storage device unless it is authorised by the system . This access is commonly granted using the open or Save dialog box , both of which require direct user input .
While sandboxing provides added security for users , it can also limit the capabilities of an application . For example , a sandboxed app may not allow command line input since the commands are run at a system level . Utilities such as backup programmes and keyboard shortcut managers may not be granted sufficient permissions to function correctly . For this reason , some programsme cannot be sandboxed . and field maintenance costs . Previously , satellite imagery offered the most advanced form of monitoring . But there were drawbacks . Images had to be ordered in advance , could be taken only once a day , and were imprecise .
Further , services were extremely costly and the images ’ quality typically suffered on certain days . Today , time-series animations can show the precise development of a crop and reveal production inefficiencies , enabling better crop management .
Irrigation
Drones with hyperspectral , multispectral , or thermal sensors can identify which parts of a field are dry or need improvements . Additionally , once the crop is growing , drones allow the calculation of the vegetation index , which describes the relative density and health of the crop , and show the heat signature , the amount of energy or heat the crop emits .
Health assessment
It is essential to assess crop health and spot bacterial or fungal infections on trees . By scanning a crop using both visible and near-infrared light , drone-carried devices can identify which plants reflect different amounts of green light and NIR light . This information can produce multispectral images that track changes in plants and indicate their health .
A speedy response can save an entire orchard . In addition , as soon as a sickness is discovered , farmers can apply and monitor remedies more precisely . These two possibilities increase a plant ’ s ability to overcome diseases . And in the case of crop failure , the farmer will be able to document losses more efficiently for insurance claims .
What ’ s next ?
Looking further into the future , UAVs might involve fleets , or swarms , of autonomous drones that could tackle agricultural monitoring tasks collectively , as well as hybrid aerial-ground drone actors that could collect data and perform a variety of other tasks .
So , what ’ s slowing the progress of drones in agriculture ? Beyond the barriers to widespread drone adoption in all industries — safety of drone operations , privacy issues , and insurance coverage questions — the biggest agricultural concern is the type and quality of data that can be captured . To address this , the industry will push for more sophisticated sensors and cameras , as well as look to develop drones that require minimal training and are highly automated .