As an agricultural engineer I'm always interested in new movements, especially related to equipment, in agriculture. Over the last few months and years there have been a drive underway to adapt a military technology, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), for use in the private sector. There is lots of potential to use this technology to make our lives easier and more efficient. One obvious application would be in agriculture. UAVs are suited to cover large expanses of land in a rapid manner, gathering information along the way. Agriculture has become more and more about information, especially with the advent of Precision Agriculture and all of it's trappings. Up until now, aerial images have been gathered by either using satellite images or aircraft. Both require a good amount of investment in time and resources. UAVs have the potential to become the standard vehicle by which to take aerial images. These images can also be used to evaluate plant stress, count cattle, track predators or monitor assets. Use of this technology in agriculture is in it's infancy and will continue to mature, grow and develop in the coming months and years.
My hope is that I can provide you with information and insight from the eyes an agricultural engineer who has worked on a farm and has interest in seeing UAV technology be a useful tool for farmers and producers.
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