The Use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for Remote Sensing of Nitrogen Status in Corn.

Small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) that can operate without constant human control are becoming more common in military and civilian applications. Small UAVs offer the advantage of quick data capture under changing environmental conditions and with wireless data transfer can be linked to variable-rate control systems to make time-sensitive nutrient or other types of applications. Using a small UAV called the “Super Swipper” tests were conducted to examine the quality of images captured by a UAV and the utility of those images for determining nitrogen requirements for corn. These tests were conducted on an 89 ha field. Four rates of N were applied at planting to simulate different amounts of plant available N. Flights were conducted at V7, VT and at R5 to determine the N status of the crop. Using the aerial images N was applied at V7 and at VT based on an algorithm developed from previous work that determined N requirements for corn based on images of the crop. Harvest data will be used to determine if the use of images from the UAV was successful in predicting N requirements for corn.