Although news coverage around them is mostly focused on use in
military operations, drones can be used across multiple industries.
Using diverse payloads, ranging from GoPro cameras to professional
cameras, drones can be used to perform a variety of tasks, ranging from
reconnaissance missions in the military to, possibly, delivering pizza.
According to a study by the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International
(AUVSI), the drone, or UAV, industry in the U.S. could produce up to
100,000 new jobs and add $82 billion in economic activity between 2015
and 2025. Those numbers are pretty significant. However, the industry
has a bit of a trek to get to them.
This is because privacy concerns balance the case for drone use. A
majority of countries in the world today use a loose set of guidelines
to govern drone use. A notable exception is Japan, which uses drones
extensively for agriculture purposes.
With regulation governing drone use up for discussion in 2015, the United States could soon follow Japan’s lead.
About three weeks ago, I visited 3D Robotics, a startup that
manufactures drones. As I mentioned earlier, commercial use of drones is
limited in the States. As a result, approximately fifty percent of the
startup’s customers are located outside the States.
According to Sue Rosenstock, 3D Robotics spokesperson, a third of
their customers consist of hobbyists, another third of enterprise users,
and a third use their drones as consumer tools. “Over time, we expect
that to change as we make more enterprise-focused products, such as
mapping applications,” she explains.
Started by former Wired editor Chris Anderson, 3D Robotics is an
end-to-end solutions startup. It’s operations are spread across Berkeley
(where Anderson is based), San Diego, and Tijuana in Mexico. It is
vertically integrated (just like Apple )
and manufactures its own hardware and software. While vertical
integration increases upfront development costs, it offers greater
control for the company to market its products to specific industries,
such as agriculture.
Drones In Agriculture
3D Robotics is already conducting tests with farmers to understand
user needs and test custom drones for agriculture. “Our approach is to
make a product that fits into a farmer’s actual equipment,” says Brandon
Basso, lead researcher at 3D Robotics. “We want them to use drones the
same way that they use their other farming equipment.”
In the absence of data regarding use of drones in agriculture, 3D
Robotics is working off educated guesses and formulating use cases.
These guesses break down typical cost structures for farming to
incentivize farmers to use drones.
Brandon Basso
As an example, Basso says farmers spray pesticides uniformly over
their crop to protect them from fungal infections. “It is not
environmentally great or financially great,” says Basso. According to
him, the use of drones can mitigate some of these drawbacks. For
example, farmers can choose to not spray pesticides based on an aerial
survey of their crop using drones. Alternately, they can selectively
spray pesticides only on plants that need attention, thus minimizing
environmental damage and saving money.
Drones, which are fitted with payloads such as cameras, enable
farmers to get a bird’s eye-view of their crop by flying at low
altitudes. Using Infra-red imaging, drones can also detect which plants
are sick and which ones are healthy. Basso says healthy plants reflect
more infrared radiation, as opposed to plants which have fungal
infections.
3D Robotics has deconstructed its tests into a series of stages that are closely linked to an actual drone operation.
During the Mission Planning stage, Basso and his team discuss
objectives and goals of a particular flight mission. Subsequently, they
spend time drawing out an automated flight path for the mission. This
path enables them to map out the best coverage area for the flight.
Flight times for drones can vary from less than ten minutes to
approximately forty minutes flight time. This time is a function of
payloads and rotors used in that particular drone. Basso says drones
used for agricultural purposes have a longer flight time but are unable
to carry much load. Images and data are processed using imaging software
once drones return to their original takeoff point.
Pablo Lema, Sales Director, flies Iris, the latest quadcopter from 3D Robotics
However, drones are, as yet, a fairly technical affair. While their
operations have been simplified, data crunching and imaging processing
from drones still require technical knowledge. As such, 3D Robotics is
not selling its drones directly to farmers. Instead, the startup sells
drones to crop analysts, who recommend them to farmers.
Privacy And Drones
As I mentioned earlier, drone use has come under increased scrutiny
due to privacy concerns. The agriculture industry is no different. A
majority of farms still rely on a number of manual methods for crop
care. Licenses for drones are granted on a case by case basis. In the
meanwhile, plans to grant access to US skies for drones by September
2015 are already delayed.
However, Rosenstock is not worried. “I would be surprised if there
wasn’t distrust of new technology,” she says, adding that they (3D
Robotics) are tech innovators and not police. “We leave regulation to
the legislators,” she says.
