A very topical article appeared in the recent edition of Stormwater Magazine based on US usage but would seem highly relevant for use in Australia right now.
A post grad student used drone flights and various software programs to assess the landscape following fire, in California but this seems highly useful for eastern and south eastern Australia right now in early 2020 to assess our burnt landscapes.
The emphasis was on how the landscape patterns have been changed and how this has influenced how the hydrology of the area has been impacted.
The link is below and should be readily available.
Seems a very timely application, now that some rain seems to be arriving which may quench a number of the fires.
Link is:
https://www.stormh2o.com/erosion-control/article/21117902/eyes-in-the-sky?utm_source=EC+Weekly+Newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=CPS200114039&o_eid=0996E9426678A4U&rdx.ident%5Bpull%5D=omeda%7C0996E9426678A4U&oly_enc_id=0996E9426678A4U
Showing posts with label drones. Show all posts
Showing posts with label drones. Show all posts
Thursday, January 16, 2020
Friday, February 22, 2019
Soil Moisture Monitoring by Drone
Australian stuff from Monash University. Very neat and very useful.
Monash University engineers are working with Australian farmers to help them improve irrigation practices by using autonomous drone technology. (Image source: Monash )
Autonomous Drones for Soil Moisture Mapping Help Farmers Use Water More Efficiently (Video)
Monash University engineers are working with Australian farmers to help them improve irrigation practices, reduce water use and maximise crop harvest by using autonomous drone technology.
As severe drought continues to devastate farmland and impact food supply across Australia, a Monash University research team, led by Professor Jeff Walker, has spent the past two years developing a drone-based autonomous soil moisture mapping system for irrigated paddocks.
Monash University engineers are working with Australian farmers to help them improve irrigation practices by using autonomous drone technology. (Image source: Monash )
The team has recently completed field experiments using optical mapping which can determine soil moisture levels in the near-surface. The data taken from the drone can be downloaded and used to produce a map of ground soil moisture levels to inform the farmer on how best to irrigate the paddock.
While equipped with optical mapping as a proof-of-concept, the drone has now advanced to passive microwave sensing technology using L-Band waves, with further research being conducted on the potential for using P-band waves. P-Band waves are expected to be able to measure up to 15cm into the soil unimpeded by vegetation and tillage features.
Drones have the capacity to analyse soil moisture at metre-level scales within a paddock, allowing farmers to focus on specific crop irrigation, and overcomes the challenges of aircraft or satellite mapping.
Testing has taken place across two farms in regional Victoria and Tasmania. One was at a dairy farm using a centre pivot irrigator and the other was a crop farm using a linear shift irrigator.
“We need to produce 60% more food with the same amount of land and water, and we can only achieve this by being more efficient with the water we use through irrigation,” Professor Walker, Head of Civil Engineering at Monash University, said.
“We need to know how much the crop needs, how much moisture is already there and apply just the right amounts of water in the correct places to avoid wastage while keeping the crop at its peak growth.”
Good soil moisture allows for the optimal growth and yield of crops, while at broader spatial scales also regulates weather, climate and flooding. The water levels in the soil controls evaporation over land and thus the energy fluxes into the atmosphere. This drives the atmospheric circulation, which drives climate.
“If the soil is too dry, crops can fail due to a lack of water. But if the soil is too wet, crops can not only fail but pests and diseases can flourish,” Professor Walker said.
Professor Walker said the farming industry has welcomed smarter and more automated practices, but there are few tools available to make the already difficult workloads of farmers more manageable.
“At best, farmers might have a single soil moisture sensor in a paddock, but this doesn’t allow for the optimal application of water, especially as this resource becomes scarcer. Plus it won’t take into account moisture variation levels across the individual paddocks,” Professor Walker said.
As crop failures due to a lack of water have enormous human and financial consequences, Professor Walker said Australian farmers need to become more efficient in soil moisture mapping by using ‘precision agriculture’ methods such as autonomous soil moisture mapping using drones.
“Farmers also need to cooperate; water conservation and efficiency is a collective responsibility. Everyone needs to do their part to use water more effectively or we’re at risk of running out completely,” Professor Walker said.
“As the world’s driest continent facing climate change, a growing population and a greater demand for food, water conservation should be one of Australia’s top priorities.”
This project is part of Monash University’s expanding interdisciplinary focus on the use of data and technology to solve real-world problems for today and in the future.
The Autonomous Drones for Soil Moisture Mapping project was funded by Monash Infrastructure through a seed funding scheme. This project forms part of Professor Walker’s wider research into soil moisture mapping and autonomous farming.
News source: Monash University
Video source: Posterboy Media on Vimeo
Wednesday, October 28, 2015
Integrated Pest Management by Drone
Australians are an inventive lot.........but at times they do not seem to capitalise on the commercial success of their inventions.
It has been a big week on this front - what with the Flow Hive as well as a successful system for dispensing predatory insects [ for integrated pest management] by.....drone, to save time and improve evenness of dispersal.
This has appeared on several web sites here in Australia but deserves wide coverage.
A great idea for Australian agriculture which is rapidly moving towards using IPM in many crops. This technology might be the key to further advances as certainly the dispersal of the insects and disease agents can at times be difficult, especially in remote and difficult terrain.
More here including photos -
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-10-25/inventor-creates-drone-to-spread-predatory-insects-over-farmland/6877700
------------------------------------------
A former Queensland strawberry farmer turned inventor has begun using drones to spread predatory insects over farmland so they can kill pests that would otherwise eat the crops.
"It's going to be the only way that beneficial bugs are going to be dispensed in the future," Sunshine Coast inventor Nathan Roy said.
Over 18 months, Mr Roy has developed and trialled a drone system using an eight-bladed helicopter carrying a special bag with a spreading device.
"You have to be very careful how you handle the bugs. You have to store them and you have to cart them the correct way. And then when you're doing the mixing on site there's a bit of a technique to that as well," Mr Roy said. It has been a very big learning curve for the inventor, from getting patents to obtaining the necessary licences from the Civil Aviation Safety Authority.
Key to achieving success has been finding the Goldilocks spot in the sky — how high the drone should work above the crops.
Too high and not enough bugs get where they need to be, but too low, and there are too many.
Mr Roy has also researched the best time of day, humidity and wind.
But Mr Roy has had success on a number of farms including Merv Schiffke's strawberry operation at Bellmere, north of Brisbane.
"All your insects and stuff there, they can adapt quickly and get resistance to chemicals, but they can't get resistance to some little critter eating them," Mr Schiffke said.
Currently people spend hours spreading beneficial insects on crops by hand — a task accomplished in minutes by an unmanned aerial vehicle.
"What would take four or five people, two or three hours to put out over a couple of hectares, they can do in 10 minutes," Mr Schiffke said.
"So I think it's going to be very effective. Its going to be very uniform and I think what they're doing is going to be something the industry will use into the future."
Using drones could also have big implications for the rearing of beneficial pests, taking it from a labour intensive and expensive niche market to the mainstream.
"That's been a real hurdle for us. We get these great bio control agents and we get them out to our growers and then they often find it's a bit laborious you know," entomologist Dan Papacek, who runs the Bugs For Bugs insectary at Mundubbera.
"So the next step is going to be this step towards improved, mechanised release systems and that's a very exciting part of our way forward I believe," Mr Papacek said.
It has been a big week on this front - what with the Flow Hive as well as a successful system for dispensing predatory insects [ for integrated pest management] by.....drone, to save time and improve evenness of dispersal.
This has appeared on several web sites here in Australia but deserves wide coverage.
A great idea for Australian agriculture which is rapidly moving towards using IPM in many crops. This technology might be the key to further advances as certainly the dispersal of the insects and disease agents can at times be difficult, especially in remote and difficult terrain.
More here including photos -
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-10-25/inventor-creates-drone-to-spread-predatory-insects-over-farmland/6877700
------------------------------------------
Drones are emerging as the latest tool in biological pest control on Australian farms.
A former Queensland strawberry farmer turned inventor has begun using drones to spread predatory insects over farmland so they can kill pests that would otherwise eat the crops.
"It's going to be the only way that beneficial bugs are going to be dispensed in the future," Sunshine Coast inventor Nathan Roy said.
Over 18 months, Mr Roy has developed and trialled a drone system using an eight-bladed helicopter carrying a special bag with a spreading device.
"You have to be very careful how you handle the bugs. You have to store them and you have to cart them the correct way. And then when you're doing the mixing on site there's a bit of a technique to that as well," Mr Roy said. It has been a very big learning curve for the inventor, from getting patents to obtaining the necessary licences from the Civil Aviation Safety Authority.
Key to achieving success has been finding the Goldilocks spot in the sky — how high the drone should work above the crops.
Too high and not enough bugs get where they need to be, but too low, and there are too many.
Mr Roy has also researched the best time of day, humidity and wind.
But Mr Roy has had success on a number of farms including Merv Schiffke's strawberry operation at Bellmere, north of Brisbane.
"All your insects and stuff there, they can adapt quickly and get resistance to chemicals, but they can't get resistance to some little critter eating them," Mr Schiffke said.
Currently people spend hours spreading beneficial insects on crops by hand — a task accomplished in minutes by an unmanned aerial vehicle.
"What would take four or five people, two or three hours to put out over a couple of hectares, they can do in 10 minutes," Mr Schiffke said.
"So I think it's going to be very effective. Its going to be very uniform and I think what they're doing is going to be something the industry will use into the future."
Using drones could also have big implications for the rearing of beneficial pests, taking it from a labour intensive and expensive niche market to the mainstream.
"That's been a real hurdle for us. We get these great bio control agents and we get them out to our growers and then they often find it's a bit laborious you know," entomologist Dan Papacek, who runs the Bugs For Bugs insectary at Mundubbera.
"So the next step is going to be this step towards improved, mechanised release systems and that's a very exciting part of our way forward I believe," Mr Papacek said.
Friday, May 10, 2013
UAVs Already Operational in Agriculture in Australia
Like I said a few weeks back - UAVs , or drones, are coming soon to a place near you. And agriculture is the lead area where they will be used.
Read this article [ ABC today, 10 May 2013] - http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-05-10/yamaha-uav/4681552
With a great shot of the helicopter - an unmanned Yamaha 4m long fitted with controlled droplet low volume spray rig for weed spraying serious woody weeds, in remote parts of Western Queensland.
The most interesting part is the expected usage rate of their equipment - and they are not the only supplier remember - in coming years.
They really do fill a niche in agriculture and land management.
[photo from ABC web site]
Read this article [ ABC today, 10 May 2013] - http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-05-10/yamaha-uav/4681552
With a great shot of the helicopter - an unmanned Yamaha 4m long fitted with controlled droplet low volume spray rig for weed spraying serious woody weeds, in remote parts of Western Queensland.
The most interesting part is the expected usage rate of their equipment - and they are not the only supplier remember - in coming years.
They really do fill a niche in agriculture and land management.
[photo from ABC web site]
 |
| near Camooweal, near NT / Qld border spraying prickly acacia |
Wednesday, March 06, 2013
The Drones are Coming - VERY Rapidly
Drones have been a major success in military areas in recent years. And this success is now rapidly translating into commercial areas.
I wrote a blog some months ago on this topic and even in this brief period, a lot has been happening.
In Australia, regulations are developing although slowly, but aim to minimise rules for low power short range drones, often small quadricopters. While of some commercial interest, it is larger units that are increasingly of interest commercially, and the area where they potentially pose some airspace problems.
Areas of use include mining and agriculture / pastoral use, ecological studies and remote sensing for R and D purposes, real estate photography......use your imagination! And of course commercial spying, and related issue including police and related agencies use for traffic monitoring in real time anywhere, survelliance activities, and no doubt customs and border patrols.
Last week the ABC produced another informative article and tv segment on the issue.
Be aware........it could be coming to get you.
Read more here -
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-03-01/drones-set-for-large-scale-commercial-take-off/4546556
I wrote a blog some months ago on this topic and even in this brief period, a lot has been happening.
In Australia, regulations are developing although slowly, but aim to minimise rules for low power short range drones, often small quadricopters. While of some commercial interest, it is larger units that are increasingly of interest commercially, and the area where they potentially pose some airspace problems.
Areas of use include mining and agriculture / pastoral use, ecological studies and remote sensing for R and D purposes, real estate photography......use your imagination! And of course commercial spying, and related issue including police and related agencies use for traffic monitoring in real time anywhere, survelliance activities, and no doubt customs and border patrols.
Last week the ABC produced another informative article and tv segment on the issue.
Be aware........it could be coming to get you.
Read more here -
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-03-01/drones-set-for-large-scale-commercial-take-off/4546556
Sunday, October 21, 2012
Computer Systems Drive Modern Agriculture
Paul Wallbank an Australian commentator on technology joins Tony Delroy to discuss how technology affects your business and life.
This week we’re talking about how the agricultural industry is using smartphone apps and the web. A list of apps for farmers is available from the NSW Department of Primary Industry website.
We’ll also be looking at how machines are talking – in agriculture, the next generation of farm equipment will be sending data straight to the farmers’ tablet or laptop computer using the technologies we’re seeing in jet engines and other high tech equipment.
This was the topic last Thursday night [ 18 October 2012] and you can listen to the podcast or replay available off the Tony Delroy Nightlife show [ ABC radio] http://www.abc.net.au/nightlife/ .
He seemed a bit surprised that stodgy old farmers [and many are older citizens] are actually fairly major users of technology in their business.
From phone apps related to fertiliser and crop prices, to RFID ear tags in animals to aid management, precision agriculture operations in grain growing, robotic operation tractors, drones [ yes - in use already in some places] to photograph and highlight areas in fields of disease, fertiliser deficiencies,, poor plant populations etc, not to mention monitoring rangelands, automated gates / drafting and animal medication and watering systems. Then there are uses of google and satellite images for rangeland management, property management planning, use of weather radars on phones or in the farm office. Plus the wide range of computer technology in equipment including spray rigs, seeders, harvesters [ often connected to other systems for precision agriculture and ultimately management of the next crop], grain dryers, moisture meters and many, many more. Then there is the office - with networked computers, agricultural farm management software, modern accounting software and use of skype, email and webinars for training.
Agriculture is not necessarily a staid industry with straw chewing, slow talking hicks. The modern farmer [meaning across a wide range of enteprises] is switched on to modern technology.
Sometimes though, they do not get the best of services in telecommunications to the rest of the world.
This week we’re talking about how the agricultural industry is using smartphone apps and the web. A list of apps for farmers is available from the NSW Department of Primary Industry website.
We’ll also be looking at how machines are talking – in agriculture, the next generation of farm equipment will be sending data straight to the farmers’ tablet or laptop computer using the technologies we’re seeing in jet engines and other high tech equipment.
This was the topic last Thursday night [ 18 October 2012] and you can listen to the podcast or replay available off the Tony Delroy Nightlife show [ ABC radio] http://www.abc.net.au/nightlife/ .
He seemed a bit surprised that stodgy old farmers [and many are older citizens] are actually fairly major users of technology in their business.
From phone apps related to fertiliser and crop prices, to RFID ear tags in animals to aid management, precision agriculture operations in grain growing, robotic operation tractors, drones [ yes - in use already in some places] to photograph and highlight areas in fields of disease, fertiliser deficiencies,, poor plant populations etc, not to mention monitoring rangelands, automated gates / drafting and animal medication and watering systems. Then there are uses of google and satellite images for rangeland management, property management planning, use of weather radars on phones or in the farm office. Plus the wide range of computer technology in equipment including spray rigs, seeders, harvesters [ often connected to other systems for precision agriculture and ultimately management of the next crop], grain dryers, moisture meters and many, many more. Then there is the office - with networked computers, agricultural farm management software, modern accounting software and use of skype, email and webinars for training.
Agriculture is not necessarily a staid industry with straw chewing, slow talking hicks. The modern farmer [meaning across a wide range of enteprises] is switched on to modern technology.
Sometimes though, they do not get the best of services in telecommunications to the rest of the world.
Saturday, June 09, 2012
UAVs on Steroids
I blogged a while back about drones / UAVs and their role in modern agriculture and pastoral production, at least of aricraft and helicopters that were low cost and effective.
The article here covers military drone aircraft, remotely piloted uAVs, used by Australian military overseas in Afganistan. They are leased through an intemediary company from the owners, an Israeli company.
I have no doubt of their capabilities, imaging and related sensing tools and similar technologies. Well beyond what the average citizen imagines even.
Remember the scene in the movie 'Patriot Games" of IR imaging of bodies in a tent in the desert? That was declassified then, in the late 1980s.
The point is, today's military activities will be tomorrow's civilian capabilities with these technologies, particularly for deployment by firms offering services to industry. The agriculture and pastoral industries will be among the users, and many will find it cost effective for a range of tasks.
Read the story.......it is quite fascinating, if you are into the use of remotely piloted aerial vehicles.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-06-08/australias-drone-war-in-afghanistan/4058058?WT.svl=news0
The article here covers military drone aircraft, remotely piloted uAVs, used by Australian military overseas in Afganistan. They are leased through an intemediary company from the owners, an Israeli company.
I have no doubt of their capabilities, imaging and related sensing tools and similar technologies. Well beyond what the average citizen imagines even.
Remember the scene in the movie 'Patriot Games" of IR imaging of bodies in a tent in the desert? That was declassified then, in the late 1980s.
The point is, today's military activities will be tomorrow's civilian capabilities with these technologies, particularly for deployment by firms offering services to industry. The agriculture and pastoral industries will be among the users, and many will find it cost effective for a range of tasks.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-06-08/australias-drone-war-in-afghanistan/4058058?WT.svl=news0
Friday, March 23, 2012
Civilian Drones Seem to be the Issue of the Moment
While I blogged about the use of unmanned vehicles, or drones in rural applications recently, it seems the topic has deveoped a life of its own.
Today the national newpsaper in Australia, "The Australian" has a significant article about UAV use in civilian mode. Click on the link and read it:
Much of the story is a bit short of real facts for Australia and a bit skewed in relation to some of the facts, also for Australian use. Australia already has some rules for their use, developed by the air traffic management services nationally. They may get modified as usage develops- but there are some rules already. The newspaper article does not mention any Australian developers of UAV machines, yet there are several who are of world class, and already supply military products world wide.
Ideas abound on use - be imaginative. There must be many many options worth considering for agriculture in the broad sense at reasonable cost.
Definitely keep a watch on developments.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)