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Precision agriculture with drones - an overview
Article · September 2023
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University of Bari “Aldo Moro”
Department of Computer Science
Precision agriculture with drones - an overview
Alessandro Carelli
September 19, 2023
1
Abstract
Precision agriculture is a strategy that allows the collection, analysis and processing of
data with the help of technology, with the aim of improving productivity, quality and
sustainability in agricultural activity. Alternatively, it can be defined as a strategy that
uses modern equipment, taking into account the characteristics of the soil and the
cultivation needs.[8] In recent years the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), also
commonly called drones, in the field of precision agriculture is growing more and more.
This paper deals with the types and use of drones in agricultural activity and also other
aspects of them such as regulations, augmented reality and disease identification.
2
Contents
Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 5
Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) ......................................................................................6
The use of drone for precision agriculture ....................................................................... 8
Regulations ....................................................................................................................10
Soil sampling and Augmented Reality ........................................................................... 11
Use of drones for plant disease detection ......................................................................13
Conclusions ................................................................................................................... 14
References .................................................................................................................... 15
3
List of Figures
Figure 1 [11], Fixed Wing, Single rotor helicopter, quad copter, hexa copter, octo copter.
page 6
Figure 2 [1]. Rotary Copter Drone being operated in Agriculture Field (Left) and Fixed
Wing Drone (Right). page 8
Figure 3 [7], the augmented reality glasses. page 11
4
Chapter 1
Introduction
Agriculture presents various challenges, as regards productivity, lack of manpower,
climate change, plant and animal health, etc... So in recent years we have thought of a
more advanced agriculture, characterized by technology and scientific progress.
Precision agriculture can lead to gains in productivity and quality [2]. Furthermore, the
use and interest in unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) has grown a lot. In reality, drones
are mostly used for military purposes, also some countries, for example India, have
banned their use, but high annual growth has been recorded in the use of UAVs by
civilians, especially in agriculture [1]. Drones can offer different functionalities such as
taking pictures, detecting pests/diseases, monitoring fields and much more… In this
paper we will discuss the various types of drones and how they can be exploited in
agricultural activities (Chapter 2 and 3) , we will show how the regulations work in
different countries (Chapter 4), we will talk about soil sampling and augmented reality
(Chapter 5) and lastly we will discuss the use of UAVs in identifying diseases (Chapter
6).
5
Chapter 2
Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV)
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), also commonly called drones, are considered as
unmanned aerial systems, it is possible to deal with drones for short distances or with
drones for long distances and at high altitudes. The first UAV model that was produced
was the Unmanned helicopter Yamaha RMAX, it was introduced for agriculture pest
control and crop monitoring applications. [6]. UAVs are mainly classified into: Fixed
Wing Airplanes and Rotary Motor Helicopters. Fixed Wing Airplanes can fly at higher
speeds from approximately 40 km/h to 72 km/h and can cover a range of 500 to 750
acres per hour, while Rotary Motor Helicopters can perform specific tasks and move at
a constant speed in restricted areas. [1]
We can classify drones on the number of rotors:
a) Single rotor helicopter,
b) quad copter,
c) hexa copter,
d) octo copter [6].
Figure 1 [11], Fixed Wing, Single rotor helicopter, quad copter, hexa copter, octo
copter.
The basic architecture of a drone, not including payload sensors, consists of:
Frame
Brush-less motors
Electronic Speed Control (ESC) modules
A control board
An Inertial Navigation System
Transmitter and receiver modules.
Furthermore, given that drones are semi-autonomous, the drone has to fly according to
the definition of a flight path in terms of waypoints and flight altitude and therefore has a
6
positioning measurement system. There is also an altimeter for flying at constant flight
altitudes. The devices have some sensors embedded on the payload. In case of
precision agriculture, the sensors embedded on drones are: multispectral camera,
thermal camera, RGB camera and Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) systems [2].
Often using UAVs there is a ground control station to control the flight and analyze the
data of the drones. Some systems can be configured and controlled simply from a
smartphone. Costs range from $1000 for the simplest systems up to $10k/$20k for the
more advanced ones with extra cameras and features. [4]
7
Chapter 3
The use of drone for precision agriculture
The development of drones in recent years has led to many advantages and allows
many operations to be carried out easily, such as observing areas that are difficult for
humans to reach, tracking illegal activities and much more [1]. Regarding agriculture,
UAVs cover a wide range of features, for example: crop classification, crop and weed
detection, cropland mapping, and field segmentation [3].
Figure 2 [1]. Rotary Copter Drone being operated in Agriculture Field (Left) and
Fixed Wing Drone (Right).
Currently the main applications of UAVs in agricultural activity are:
1.Biomasses, crop growth and food quality monitoring.
2.Precision farming, such as herbicide applications.
3.Harvesting and logistics optimization.
Furthermore, in these applications, the use of the drones' integrated cameras is
included.
Based on the sensors used we define:
A)applications based on multispectral and thermal cameras
B)applications based on RGB cameras [2].
Among the main advantages of using drones in precision agriculture we have:
8
A) Agriculture Farm Analysis: the drones carry out inspections of the fields from above,
allow the generation of 3D maps of the terrain and, furthermore, analyze the soil
providing useful data for irrigation and nitrogen for example.
B) Time Saving: carrying out field checks and reaching every corner can be difficult for
farmers, especially when dealing with many tons of hectares of fields. Drones can do
these inspections easily, gathering the necessary information.
C) Higher Agriculture Yield: another aspect is the application of pesticides, water and
fertilizers in the field and everything monitored by the drone, thus increasing the overall
quality.
D) GIS Mapping Integration: GIS Mapping is a system that allows you to trace field
boundaries and obtain flight patterns, this system leads to better management of
resources, costs, and more...
E) Imaging of Crop Health Status: drones offer crop health imaging through the use of
different sensors such as infrared, NVDI and multispectral sensors. This allows
monitoring of crop health [1].
9
Chapter 4
Regulations
Regulations define what are the safety requirements and the rules to be respected for a
safe flight. Generally the regulations are defined by the country's civil aviation authority,
but the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has been dealing with the
standards of UAVs since 2005 [9].
For example, in Italy the use of drones is legal and, being part of the European Union,
the regulations defined by the EU are being used. In addition, some country-specific
regulations are defined.
Some of the most important rules to follow are:
A) Drones must be operated at least 50 meters (164 feet) from people and 150 meters
(492 feet) from congested urban areas.
B) Drones are not allowed to fly over people or crowds, including sporting events,
concerts and other large events.
C) Drones cannot fly at night [10].
In the United States, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has designated the
devices as small unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS), i.e. systems under approximately
25 kg without a crew on board. These unmanned aerial vehicles flying in the must
operate under the rules of a community-based organization for recreational purposes.
UAVs weighing over 250g must be registered with the FAA [9].
Some countries can use drones much more widely, for example Canada, Europe, Asia
and South America do not have many regulations and a more extensive use is allowed.
Japan, in particular, is concerned with herbicide applications in rice fields and their less
accessible fields [4].
10
Chapter 5
Soil sampling and Augmented Reality
Soil sampling allows you to collect informations regarding field fertilization. Generally
the minimum sampling frequency is once every 5 years and every 10 hectares of land.
For precision agriculture, this is not enough, we want to collect samples from regions
that are internally consistent by limiting the number of samples needed. Therefore,
management zones are used to divide the field into smaller regions.
Augmented reality (AR) means the superposition of virtual objects on the real world. AR
can be used to provide information and perform tasks, and the use of AR in agriculture
has emerged a lot in recent years.
For precision agriculture purposes, the field will be divided into management zones.
Each management zone will have similar characteristics throughout the region and will
have different properties from other zones. The use of AR will allow the farmer to collect
soil samples, all of this must happen in an easy and intuitive way. The most comfortable
hardware tool seems to be wearable augmented reality glasses, leaving your hands free.
Figure 3 [7], the augmented reality glasses.
11
In the same piece of field it is possible to find different types of soil and these variations
can be identified through an RGB camera in aerial imaging with a drone.
To allow the drone to see the color variations present in the soil, some conditions must
be respected:
(a) conditions must not change during the flight, (b) the shadows and reflections of the
soil surface represent the nominal color of the soil and not the variation of moisture in
the surface, (c) the lighting must be sufficient for the camera. To prevent that moisture
conditions creates any problem, it is necessary that all the soil has the same level of
water on the surface [7].
12
Chapter 6
Use of drones for plant disease detection
Plant diseases are a very important aspect of agriculture, which can affect the quality
and quantity of agricultural products. In recent years, given the great evolution of drones,
they have also begun to be used in this field, i.e. the identification of plant diseases.
Drones can be used for multiple diseases and plant types. It is possible to deal with
diseases that actually show symptoms, while there are diseases where it is necessary
to control their temperature, for example.
Diseases can be classified into a few main categories, one categorization scheme is
related to disease-causing pathogens, which are: fungus, bacteria, virus, nematode and
abiotic. Mainly, among the most studied diseases we find blight and subsequently wilt,
the most important pathogen is fungus.
Regarding the UAVs used to identify diseases, as previously mentioned, we can
distinguish 5 different drones: a) fixed-wing, b) single-rotor, c) quadcopter, d)
hexacopter, and e) octocopter. Among these, the most used for diseases detection
studies is the quadcopter, followed by the hexacopter [5].
13
Chapter 7
Conclusions
The market of drones and their uses are expanding year after year and have brought a
great revolution in many fields, such as agriculture. This paper described the various
types of drones and their most common uses. Furthermore, has been discussed
regulations, augmented reality and disease identification about UAVs.
14
Chapter 8
References
[1] - Vikram Puri, Anand Nayyar & Linesh Raja (2017) Agriculture drones: A modern
breakthrough in precision agriculture, Journal of Statistics and Management Systems,
20:4, 507-518, DOI: 10.1080/09720510.2017.1395171
[2] - Pasquale Daponte et al 2019 IOP Conf. Ser.: Earth Environ. Sci. 275 012022
DOI 10.1088/1755-1315/275/1/012022
[3] - Zualkernan, I.; Abuhani, D.A.; Hussain, M.H.; Khan, J.; ElMohandes, M. Machine
Learning for Precision Agriculture Using Imagery from Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
(UAVs): A Survey.Drones2023,7,382. https://doi.org/10.3390/drones7060382
[4] - Stehr, N.J. (2015), Drones: The Newest Technology for Precision Agriculture.
Natural Sciences Education, 44:8991. https://doi.org/10.4195/nse2015.04.0772
[5] - Chin, R., Catal, C. & Kassahun, A. Plant disease detection using drones in
precision
agriculture.
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(2023).
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11119-023-10014-y
[6] - UM Rao Mogili, B B V L Deepak, Review on Application of Drone Systems in
Precision Agriculture, Procedia Computer Science, Volume 133, 2018, Pages 502-509,
ISSN 1877-0509, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2018.07.063.
[7] - Janna Huuskonen, Timo Oksanen,
Soil sampling with drones and augmented reality in precision agriculture, Computers
and Electronics in Agriculture, Volume 154, 2018, Pages 25-35, ISSN 0168-1699,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compag.2018.08.039.
[8] - https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agricoltura_di_precisione
[9] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulation_of_unmanned_aerial_vehicles
[10] - https://uavcoach.com/drone-laws-in-italy/
[11] - Hanif, A.S.; Han, X.; Yu, S.-H. Independent Control Spraying System for UAVBased Precise Variable Sprayer: A Review. Drones 2022, 6, 383.
https://doi.org/10.3390/drones6120383
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