This document discusses the use of agricultural drones in India. It begins with an overview of the importance of agriculture to the Indian economy and population. It then discusses how precision agriculture and drone technology can help enhance productivity and efficiency by providing accurate field data. The document outlines the various sensor technologies used on agri-drones and their applications, which include soil and crop monitoring, precision spraying, irrigation management, and mapping. The benefits of agri-drones are higher yields, reduced costs and pesticide use, and improved decision making. Challenges to adoption include system and technology issues.

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Agricultural drones
Hasnain Ansari

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National Drone Academy Proprietary and Confidential
Contents
• Overview of agricultural industry in India
• Agricultural drones
• Precision agriculture
• Agri-drone technology
• Working of agri-drones
• Agri-drone – sensors
• Agri-drone’s applications
• Advantages of agri - drone
• Dis-advantages of agri – drone
• Challenges- system issues
• Conclusion

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• As of 2021, India is the second-largest food producer in the world and a global leader
in the agriculture sector
• Indian agricultural sector contributes 20% to Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
• Agriculture is the prime source of livelihood for approx. 58% of the country's
population, mainly for rural areas
• Agricultural sector is expanding with parallel industries at a rate of 2.1% (2019-20)
• Irrespective of Indian agriculture's contribution to the GDP, India is yet to enhance
productivity in agriculture sector
• To enhance productivity and efficiency in agriculture sector many dimensions and
concerns need to be identified, supported, and equipped with resolutions.

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• Resources are inadequate, not allotted according to weather conditions, or have not
been exploited to their maximum
• These hindrances have granted multiple opportunities for growth and development in
the world of technology
• Presently, unsuitable methods are adopted for monitoring crops, water irrigation,
using pesticides and other farming activities
• Governments has recognized the importance of food security and the values of
environmental degradation, pollution, and water scarcity, the urgency to overcome
certain obstacles arose.

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• The predicted world population will be 9 billion by 2050
• Agricultural consumption will increase by approx. 70%
• To cope up with current population growth there is need to squeeze more out of
every acre of land, every drop of water, each and every available resource responsibly
• Drones and Precision Agriculture (PA) provide data that helps farmers to take
inventory of their crops and estimate crop yields faster
• Drone applications in agriculture range from mapping, field management and
surveying to cropdusting and spraying

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• Precision Agriculture (PA) is a farming management concept based on observing,
measuring and responding to inter and intra-field variability in crops
• PA ensures efficiency of inputs like water and fertilizer to maximize productivity,
quality, and yield also includes minimizing pests, unwanted flooding, and disease
• PA defines a Decision Support System (DSS) for farm management with the goal of
enhancing returns on inputs while preserving the resources provides information to:
 Build up a record of farm
 Improve decision-making
 Raise greater traceability
 Enhance marketing of farm products
 Improve lease arrangements and relationship with landlords
 Enhance the inherent quality of farm products

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• The drones used for agriculture purpose are called agricultural drone
• Agricultural drones are same as other types of drones categories as:
 Multi- rotor drones
 Fixed-wing : have long-range flight capacity, when a large area is to be covered
• Drones are essential for smart farming help farmers to optimize :
 To improve the use of inputs (seed, fertilizers, water, pesticides)
 To react quickly to threats (weeds, pests, fungi)
 To save time crop scouting (validate treatment/actions taken)
 To improve variable-rate prescriptions in real time and estimate yield from a field.

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How can drones support Indian agriculture?
• The adaptation of drone technology eliminate any guesswork or ambiguity and focus
on accurate and reliable information
• Drones technology enhance farming activities to solve issues related to farming by
filling the gap of human error and inefficiency through traditional farming methods
• Agri-drone empowers the farmer to familiarize with specific environments and make
choices accordingly
• The received data supports to regulate crop health, crop treatment, crop scouting,
irrigation, and carry out field soil analysis and crop damage assessments
• The drone survey helps boost crop yields and minimize time and expenses.

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Who invented the agricultural drone?
• The first drone in the agricultural sector were developed in the 1980s for crop dusting
purposes
• Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences developed a camera drone in 1991 for
taking observations on crop trials
• Another development came from a Hungarian engineer Laslo Kiss, introduced a
methanol-driven drone weighed 17 kg

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• Drones include a navigation system, GPS, multiple sensors, high-quality cameras,
programmable controllers, and tools
• Farmers currently use satellite images as an introductory guide for farm management
• Drone provides more precise data than satellites for precision agriculture, then
process the data captured into agri-tech software

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• Data capturing from agri-drone takes place in the following stages:
• Analyzing the area
 Identifies the territory being tested
 First step includes establishing a boundary, analyses of the area, and then
uploading the GPS information into the drone's navigation system
• Uploading the data
 After capturing the required data through sensors, it is processed for
interpretation
• Output
 After collecting the data, formatted to understand correctly for precision farming.

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• Typically, drone comprises a Global Positioning System (GPS), navigation system,
sensors and cameras, programmable controllers and tools for automated flights
• Use of GPS technology coupled with Geographic Information System (GIS) facilitates
monitoring and mapping of crops
• Data acquisition process in agri-drones follows the following steps:
 Indicating flight parameters
 Autonomous flights
 Data upload
 Data delivery
• Process for smart farming solutions in India:
 Fly
 Analyze
 Act

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• Indicating flight parameters
 Involves outlining and evaluating of area to monitor and uploading GPS data into
the drone navigation system
• Autonomous flights
 Flight planning software marks automated flight path around the surveillance area
as per pre-established factors and drone flies through that path to collect the
required data
• Data upload
 Drone submits the captured data from the field for further processing and analysis
• Data delivery
 Uploaded data are processed and made available in a readable format to access
 Database provides information that helps for improved farm management and
decision making

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• Agri-drones uses following sensors for data collections:
 Visual sensor
 Multispectral sensor
 Thermal sensor
 LiDAR sensor
 Hyper spectral sensor
 Biological sensors

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Visual sensor
• called an RGB sensors collects red, green and blue wavelengths of light. These
wavelengths are visible to the human eye and used for:
 Aerial mapping and imaging
 Photogrammetry and 3D reconstruction
 Plant counting
 Surveillance
 Emergency response
 Surveying and land use application.

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• Multispectral sensor: collect visible and nonvisible wavelengths, like infrared and
ultraviolet and used for:
 Plant health measurement
 Water quality assessment
 Vegetation index
 Plant counting

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Thermal sensor
• Capture differences in radiant energy to show the relative temperature of objects (in
comparison to one another)
• Capture the energy of wavelengths within the long wave infrared area of the spectrum,
beyond visual wavelengths and used for:
 Heat signature detection
 Livestock detection
 Surveillance and security
 Water temperature detection and water source detection
 Emergency response

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Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR)
• Remote sensing technology that illuminates the crop with a laser and calculates
distance by measuring what is reflected back
• Help farmers to improve agricultural production and promote sustainable farming
practices. LiDAR is used for
 3D digital surface modeling stockpile calculation
 Surface variation detection and flood mapping
 Penetrates through vegetation
 It can perform plant height measurement by collecting range information from the
plant canopy and the ground below (as opposed to the passive optical imagers that
provide height data from the canopy)

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Hyper spectral sensor
• Collect data as a series of narrow and contiguous wavelength bands provides high level
of performance in spectral and radiometric accuracy
• These sensors are heavier than visual and multispectral sensors, requires a drone with
greater payload capacity with large battery capacity to keep drone aloft for longer
• Collected data used to protect against yield loss by early detection and identification of
diseases. These sensors are used for:
 Plant health measurement
 Water quality assessment
 Vegetation index calculation
 Full spectral sensing
 Spectral research and development
 Mineral and surface composition surveys

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• Biological sensors
 Used to check the presence of specific micro-organisms and atmospheric elements
 Drone flies to unsafe areas to take air or water quality readings

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Agri-drone’s applications
• Farmers need exact and up to date information on the health crops and the
environmental condition of the land
• Extreme weather changes create additional obstacles to productivity
• Use of agri-drone increase productivity, reestablishes traditional agricultural practices
and achieves them as follows:
 Soil and field analysis
 Planting
 Crop spraying
 Crop monitoring
 Irrigation management
 Crop damage assessment
 Livestock tracking
 Mapping/Surveying
 Cropdusting/Spraying
 Planning future crops
 Scaring birds

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Agri-drone’s applications(contd..)
Soil and field analysis
• Agricultural drones survey collect field level data about land's soil conditions
• Drone gathers data over a field, camera takes many still images then produce precise
maps for soil analysis,
• Received data are useful in planning seed planting patterns, irrigation, and nitrogen-
level management
• Precise 3D mapping permits to analyze their soil conditions thoroughly.

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Agri-drone’s applications(contd..)
Planting
• Drone-planting systems allow drones to shoot pods, their seeds, and crucial nutrients
into the soil
• This technology reduces costs of planting and increases consistency and efficiency
• This system invented but hardly used

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Agri-drone’s applications(contd..)
Planting
• Drone-planting systems works in two steps:
 First step: mapping drones fly more than 300 feet above the land, collect detailed
and specific data about the soil quality to select the locations for planting the trees
and species
 Second step : A drone flies over the ground, automatically follows the map to plant
seeds in already prepared soil, drones flame the pods rapidly to pierce the soil.

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Agri-drone’s applications(contd..)
Crop spraying
• Drones equipped with automatic sensors and cameras can detect infected areas and
spray on them without touching healthy crops
• Advanced drone technology allows to spray crops with precision and speed than a
traditional method
• Spraying pesticides on crops with the drones limit human exposure to pesticides,
fertilizers and other harmful chemicals
• Pesticides with harmful chemicals considered hazardous to humans
• It reduces 30% wastage of pesticide in manual spraying
• Reduce manual labour .

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Agri-drone’s applications(contd..)
Crop spraying- how it works?
• Drones with RGB sensors and multispectral sensors identify and treat problematic areas
• Drone gathers information and sends the data on a real-time basis
• On the basis of real time data drones sprays exact amount of liquid using scanning and
calculating the distance from the ground and covers all the ground by spraying in real-
time
• This increases efficiency with a reduction in the number of chemicals penetrating into
groundwater

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Agri-drone’s applications(contd..)
Advantages of crop spraying
• High field capacity and efficiency:
 Drones have less turnaround time can spray 50-100 acres per day depending upon
the capacity of drone which is 30 times more than the traditional sprayer
• Wastage reduction:
 Due to a high degree of atomization in spraying, 30% of pesticide is saved
 Pesticides in the form of fog can be sprayed at all levels of the crop
• Water saving:
 Drone utilizes ultra-low volume spraying technology, thus saves 90% of water
compared to traditional methods
• Lower cost:
 Compared to traditional methods, the cost of drone spaying is reduced by 97%.

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Agri-drone’s applications(contd..)
Crop monitoring
• With large fields, it is nearly impossible to inspect all the crops and determine their
overall health
• Drones collect aerial images of crops to monitor their health and yield
• Allow farmers to inspect each and every area across the field effectively, stay updated
with the health of crops, and identify areas that need immediate attention on time
• Drones equipped with near infrared camera sensors collect Normalized Difference
Vegetation Index (NDVI) and infrared (IR) images
• Infrared cameras determine light absorption rates and evaluate the overall state of
crops
• This allows to view the changes in the crop which are invisible to the human eye
• From this information, using the NDVI health of the crops can be determined.

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Agri-drone’s applications(contd..)
Crop monitoring
• The real-time, accurate information help farmers take important measures to improve
crop production and productivity
• Incase of crop failure, farmer can document the damages for insurance claims.
• In addition to crop health, drones can create detailed GPS maps of the crop field area
• This allows farmers to better plan where crops are being planted to maximize land,
water, and fertilizer usage

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Agri-drone’s applications(contd..)
Crop monitoring- how it works
• By scanning a crop using visible and near-infrared light, drone carried devices can find
which plants are reflecting the different amounts of NIR light and green light
• This information produces multispectral images which follow changes in plants and
show their health
• A speedy response can save an entire firm
• These possibilities increase a plant’s ability to overcome disease and in the case of crop
failure

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Agri-drone’s applications(contd..)
Irrigation management
• Drones equipped with thermal cameras identify which parts of a field are dry or need
improvements
• These issues can severely affect crop yields and quality
• Thermal drones give better way to understand fields through more frequent inspections
and survey

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Agri-drone’s applications(contd..)
• Crop damage assessment
 Plants reflect visible and near-infrared light and its intensity varies with health
status and stress levels experienced by plants
 Agricultural drones with multispectral sensors and RGB sensors detect field
areas caused by weeds, infections, and pests
 Drones with sensors scans crops to track crop health over a time and monitor
response to remedied measures

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Agri-drone’s applications(contd..)
Livestock tracking
 Drone survey allows the farmers not to keep track of their crops only but also
monitor the movements of their cattle
 Drones with thermal imaging cameras allow to monitor livestock
 The operator can check in on the heard to see if there are any injured, missing, or
birthing animals
 Drones give livestock farmers a new way to keep an eye on their livestock at all
times, resulting greater profits

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Mapping/Surveying
• Drones based agriculture mapping help farmers remain area-wise updated on the
plants status and point out which field areas require attention
• Agricultural drone models are equipped with flight planning software that allows the
user to draw around the area needs to be covered
• Drones inspect the field with infrared cameras and determine the state of crops
• Then, the software makes an automated flight path and, in some cases, even prepares
the camera for shots

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Mapping/Surveying
• As the drone flies, it automatically takes pictures using onboard sensors and the built-
in camera, and uses GPS to determine when to take each shot
• Based on real-time and accurate information, farmers can take measures to improve
the state of plants in any spot of the field
• Surveillance and crop health assessment forms the basis of the use of drones for
enhancing agricultural insurance tools for cross verifying farmers’ insurance claims.

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Cropdusting/Spraying
• To maintain yields, crops require proper fertilization and pesticide application
• Manually driving a vehicle through the fields to spray or crop dust by manned
airplane to spray are methods of the past
• Crop spraying drones can carry large liquid storage reservoirs, can be operated more
safely (even autonomously), and can be operated and maintained at a fraction of the
cost compared to crop dusters.
• This helps reduce costs and potential pesticide exposure to workers who would have
needed to spray those crops manually.

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Planning future crops
• Dropping traditional, time-consuming planting methods, the farmer can leverage
drones to identify areas with most suitable soil conditions for planting crops
• Some advanced drone models also allow to shoot seeds into the field with high speed
and spray with water, fertilizers or pesticides, significantly reducing manual labour,
time and costs spent on these processes.

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Scaring birds
• Birds are the major problem after sowing seeds of many crops
• Needs labour to protect the field
• A couple of drone flights can scare the birds away from field.

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• Enhanced production
 Farmer can improve production capabilities through comprehensive irrigation
planning, adequate monitoring of crop health, increased knowledge about soil
health, and adaptation to environmental changes
• Effective and adaptive techniques
 Drone usage results in regular updates to farmers about their crops and helps
develop strengthened farming techniques
 Adapt to weather conditions and allocate resources without any wastage
• Greater safety of farmers
 Safe and convenient for farmers to use drones to spray pesticides in terrains,
infected areas, taller crops, and power lines

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• Faster data for quick decision-making
 Drone surveys helps farmers with accurate data processing that boost to make
quick decisions to save the time invested in crop scouting
 Various sensors of the drone help to capture, analyze data from the field
 Data can focus on problematic areas like infected crops/unhealthy crops, different
colored crops, moisture levels, etc.
 Drone with several sensors helps in accurate and diverse crop management system

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• Less wastage of resources
 Agri-drones enables usage of all resources like fertilizer, water, seeds, and
pesticides
• 99% Accuracy rate
 The drone survey helps farmers calculate the precise land size, segment the various
crops, and indulge in soil mapping
• Useful for insurance claims
 Farmers use the data captured through drones to claim crop insurance in case of
any damages
 They even calculate risks/losses associated with the land while being insured
• Evidence for insurance companies
 Agricultural insurance sectors use Agri-drones for efficient and trustworthy data
 Capture damages occurred for estimation of monetary payback to the farmers.

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• Flight time and range
 Due to higher payloads, the flight duration of agri-drones is short, ranging from 20-
60 minutes
 Results in limited coverage of land with every charge
 Cost of drones increases significantly with longer flight time.
• Initial cost
 Surveying agri-drones are fixed wings and cost is more
 Drones with imaging sensors, software, hardware and tools initial cost is high
• Connectivity
 Online coverage is unavailable in the farm
 Any farmer wants to use drones has to invest in connectivity or buy a drone with
local data storing capability in a format that can be transferred and processed later

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• Weather dependent
 Drones are weather dependent
 Under windy or rainy conditions, flying drones is not easy, unlike traditional aircraft
• Knowledge and skill
 An average farmer cannot analyze the drone images as it requires specialized skills
and knowledge to translate it to any useful information
 Farmer has to acquire the skills and knowledge of software of image processing or
hire skilled personnel with analysis software
• Misuse
 There is a chance of misuse to trespass the privacy of people and illegal transfer of
information.

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• Extend battery life (stay aloft for 5-15 minutes - limited ground coverage)
 Flight time and range are expected to increase by advancement in primary
technologies like battery storage and reduction in payload weights
• Variety of drone types (semi-autonomous, hand launched etc.)
• Research data on reliability is missing (500 hrs, 1000 hrs etc. useful life)
• Weather robust
• Missing data network to download images and videos from multiple drone
• Minimize solar flare impact on navigation
• Safety issues
• Developments in above will ensure that farmers get more benefits from the use of
drones in agriculture

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• Agricultural drone technology is the future of Indian farming can transform traditional
farming methods
• Drones have changed the process of data collection and will become bigger and better
in the coming years
• Drone technology has the potential to transform farms and agriculture practices with
accurate, real-time data
• With complete data analytics at fingertips, farmers and agribusinesses can gain control
over farm activities, resources, expenses and output
• Though it is complex technology stand as a challenge to be familiar with, it will yield its
results in no time once learned
• Farmers need training in the drone industry to obtain reliable data to ensure planning
of everything from determining business goals and choosing the right drone software
and features.

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• Indian government is promoting the use of drones in agriculture and has taken the
Indian agricultural industry by storm
• Making agriculture more sustainable is the objective
• Some of the contributions of the different Indian states in adopting drone technology
in agriculture are:
 Karnataka - Pesticide spraying with Drones
• Government of Karnataka, through its of Agriculture Department enable farmers,
agriculturalists and students of agricultural universities with modern smart
techniques that include usage of drones for pesticide spraying and precision
agriculture
 Tamil Nadu - Pesticide spraying
 Kerala - UAVs for spraying bio control agents.

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