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80 % stake of the mammoth $ 127 billion commercial drone market .
As Paterson observes : “ Drone tech is new , but there is no doubt that it will continue to grow and form a large part of farming operation , both for collecting and analysing information and on targeted , variable-rate applications .”
Aerobotics , which is a sevenperson company , has a joint venture in place in Australia , with contracts flowing in and is currently seeking funding partners as it expands in western markets .
With an American study showing that corn , soybean and wheat farmers could save an estimated $ 1.3 billion annually by using drones to increase crop yields and reduce input costs , the team is making steady progress in this sector . This is largely due to its affordability , ease-of-use and one-flight data versatility .
The drones provide valuable data to the farmers , including determining where crops are under stress which helps to increase yields . “ It ’ s all about early problem detection ,”
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Paterson says , “ Farmers can also use this data for reducing input costs by reducing both water and chemical usage .”
Aerobotics helps farmers manage their land through drone aerial photography and data analysis . Aerobotics supplies end-to-end drone solutions that include data processing , analysis software and support . Their main focus is to develop turnkey systems , which collect actionable data for their clients .
Aerobotics has just over 40 clients , including farmers and consultants or service providers who fly for farmers . “ Some have their own drones and some use our drones ,” says Paterson .
Engineers
Aerobotics was established by two engineers , James Paterson and Benji Meltzer , who are both in their mid-20s and were top of their undergraduate class at UCT . Paterson and Meltzer studied respectively at the famed Massachusetts Institute of Technology ( MIT ) and the Imperial College of London .
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Paterson grew up on a farm in Clanwilliam in the Western Cape and has been inventing tools to assist in agriculture from his primary school days . Paterson has a passion for engineering and farming , which is complemented by Meltzer ’ s strong talents in data collection and analysis .
Initially , Aerobotics were building the drones locally , but drones have become commoditized and now they import the drone systems . Elaborates Paterson : “ Our main focus is on data processing and providing useful information the client , we decided to import the drone systems . We still have to do some modification to ensure we provide the right system for the job .”
Aerobotics ’ first client was the University of Stellenbosch ’ s Plant Readers Laboratory and the group just
“ We can also processes data from off-the-shelf systems such as the DJI Phantom or Inspire , but the amount of data we can extract is less than if we use a proper multispectral camera ( such as on our drones ).”
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Services
What can farmers expect from Aerobotics ’ services ? For farmers , the company provides a farm management and monitoring system . Our drone analytics provides and measures the following : ûûHigh resolution , GPS referenced visual maps
ûûNDVI maps for plant health monitoring
ûûAggregated data maps on a per-tree or per-area basis .
ûûVolumes and heights of crops or trees .
ûûDifference maps showing how the above data changes over time .
The Aerobotics ’ software can plan a flight path to maximise coverage of a farm ’ s cropland as well as fly itself from take-off to landing . The company has two vehicles to collect data : a fixed wing AeroHawk and quadcopter Scout .
Costs
The costs involved in drones are variant . The fixed-wing drone with a multispectral camera costs
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