Drones and Farming

[PearOrchard]

Does anyone utilize a drone to scout and photograph your crops? I just bought a DJI drone to check water, find weak points in my fields, and keep track of harvest progress. I've saved tons on atv fuel and get a much better prospective being able to view whole fields. I just started dabbling with mapping my land and realized there is a bit of a learning curve. I have also been using it to document the daily going-ons for my father who recently had heart surgery and can't be at the farm right now. It's amazing to me how clear and sharp the pictures are. I'm not sure if I'd recommend the DJI Phantom for a farming drone because of the restrictions, but most drones have really good cameras nowadays. Here's a quick video I threw together for my dad. The combine is a Case 2388.

The Lone Harvester - YouTube

 

[ruffdog]

That is a very nice video and I like the music. What is the crop? If it was that wet in our corn/bean fields, we would never get back out! I know our local seed retailer had a drone for a while but he is selling out because of illness.

 

[PearOrchard]

I couldn't do without my drone now that I have one. I would like to buy a few different ones for different tasks. The crop is rice and we don't have any other choice this year because of all the rain we've had. The music was royalty free on Youtube, but fit nicely with all the footage I shot. I'm working on a moisture sensor I could hang from the bottom of the drone and drag through the rice heads to see it they are dry enough to cut. I'm wheelchair-bound so the only way I trek through a field is with a tractor or UTV which would destroy a lot of crop.

 

[dragoneggs]

Pretty dang good. Definitely have some scenery and life that you captured well!

 

[newbury]

I couldn't do without my drone now that I have one. I would like to buy a few different ones for different tasks. The crop is rice and we don't have any other choice this year because of all the rain we've had. The music was royalty free on Youtube, but fit nicely with all the footage I shot. I'm working on a moisture sensor I could hang from the bottom of the drone and drag through the rice heads to see it they are dry enough to cut. I'm wheelchair-bound so the only way I trek through a field is with a tractor or UTV which would destroy a lot of crop.

Just be careful around trees. From another thread:

Spent a couple hours up a tree. Yesterday i managed to stick my drone in a tree about 46 ft above the ground. This morning we went back to recover. My extension ladder got me to a nice sturdy branch about 16 ft up. No way i could make it up to location. After a few attempts, my extendable paint pole with extended pole pool plus wife痴 handicap sock aid (has hook) resulted in a pole 30+ ft that i managed to thread thru upper branches and eventually dislodge drone. Couldnt believe how well it was caught. Glad i was able to sit on that branch rather than balance on the ladder, but all that arms over head stuff took its toll. I was toast by the time we finished.

View attachment 573553
View attachment 573554
I think this is 2nd, not final pole.

So, no mowing/bushhogging today. Tomorrow.

 

[PearOrchard]

When I first saw that pic, I thought he had harpooned himself through the neck. My drone has sensors on all sides and the bottom and won't let me get within 4ft of anything which has saved me more than a couple times.

 

[bunyip]

I use a dji mavic pro and check our fences a couple of times a week as the horses often break them, faster than walking around and the 4k resolution is brtlliant, also more compact than the phantom although it was a toss up at the time as the price was similar, only one front collision avoidance sensor thoough.

 

[CobyRupert]

Cool video.

How do you know where the "wet spots" are in rice field? Errr, that's my northern mentality, I mean the soft spots that you're going to get stuck in?

I'd be nervous as #### to drive 10 feet into that field!

 

[Alien]

I make my own Drones. All are fully autonomous but I can use a transmitter to fly them if I wish.
The drought has affected our bush quite badly and after viewing this I took the ATV for a drive and found that only one type of tree has been affected. We mainly have Spotted Gums, Ironbark, Bloodwood and Stringy bark. It appears that only the Stringy barks are dying at this point. The whole area is affected. Not much we can do but monitor I guess. Luckily our koalas mainly populate the Ironbarks so they are OK for now.
Incidentally, since I started autonomous flights I have never had an encounter with a tree or anything else. The computer flies them better than I do. (close to 200 flights now I guess.)

 

[PearOrchard]

I make my own Drones. All are fully autonomous but I can use a transmitter to fly them if I wish.
The drought has affected our bush quite badly and after viewing this I took the ATV for a drive and found that only one type of tree has been affected. We mainly have Spotted Gums, Ironbark, Bloodwood and Stringy bark. It appears that only the Stringy barks are dying at this point. The whole area is affected. Not much we can do but monitor I guess. Luckily our koalas mainly populate the Ironbarks so they are OK for now.
Incidentally, since I started autonomous flights I have never had an encounter with a tree or anything else. The computer flies them better than I do. (close to 200 flights now I guess.)

Looks pretty clear. What is your setup? I built one back in 2014, but it wasn't anything like what's available now.

 

[3930dave]

Liking the video Pear :thumbsup:, thanks for posting that.

Towards the end, the front tires are pushing a bow-wave... not something I'm used to with a combine, but I know zero about rice. Too bad you couldn't send some extra water down Alien's way....

Alien - what do you load for auto flight - gps track and preferred elevation, then the avoidance sensors trigger deviation as needed ?

Rgds, D.

 

[Alien]

I use the Dart 450 frames. I have 3 of those and a 600 for mounting a gimbal and SJ4000 with a 90 degree lens. They take beautiful vids, however in this case I used this one with a Firefly Q6 and no stabilisation. I just made a soft mount and used inbuilt camera stabilisation. It works pretty well for a cheaper setup. I don't bother with 4K as my Mac has trouble working with that.
I use a Windows computer with QGround Control and set waypoints where I want to go. I have a range of 4 klm. (2200 battery)
This pic was taken at 40 meters altitude at a speed of 12 meters per sec. I use a PX4 (Pixhawk) Flight controller.
The Firefly only works well in good light. No good for lower light conditions. I can add a small vid if you want to see the result.
That little radio TX on the rear sends a signal to show where the drone is on Google Earth and is also used to program the FC.

 

[3930dave]

Neat project Alien !

Thanks for taking the time to post the details.

Rgds, D.

 

[Alien]

No problems, I enjoy it! My drones. Two have Radio transmitters and one is WiFi. All have about the same range. WiFi distance surprised me actually.
If I smell smoke in the air I send up a drone and look around so I know whether to panic or not.

 

[PearOrchard]

Those look like racer frames...that means they're probably pretty nimble, right? I'm using DJI's GS Pro for my waypoints and mapping, but once I get used to it I may upgrade to Pix4D. I have an old Pixhawk that I was wanting to rig up on my atv for puddling purposes.

 

[Alien]

Too big for racer frames but there are smaller versions. They have lots of room to add stuff on and have LEDS etc already on board. I bought 4 kits from Hobby King, (an extra for spares)
My neighbour has a Mavic but he wants to build one like mine. The kits were on special down to Au$22 each from around Au$90. I just add motors, ESCs and pixhawks etc.
I also have some flying buddies that bought some as well. Pixhawks are great gear.
Nimble? Yes. I can do aerobatics, flips etc but prefer auto flight and videos. (it's an age thing )

 

[Alexavez2]

Thank you for the post

 

[cqaigy2]

Nice setup Alien.

 

[Alien]

Thanks, It has been a big learning curve but I feel I am on top of it now. I just bought a Samsung Galaxy Tablet S4 and am using that now for missions. It is easier to carry around than a laptop.
Works fine.