Applications of SMALL Unmanned Aerial Systems in Agriculture.

Satellite and aerial imaging technologies have been explored for a long time as an extremely useful source of collecting cost-effective data for agricultural applications. In spite of the availability of such technologies, very few growers are using the technology in their agricultural practices for making informed management decisions. This is particularly the case for small to medium size growers. The major challenges that limit the agricultural applications of remotely sensed aerial images are the high cost, timeliness, and the lack of resolution of acquired images for certain applications. In this presentation, we describe the utilization and implementation of affordable, light weight, Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) for various applications in agriculture. The commercially available UAS platform are very easy to operate and quite user-friendly. UAS can provides high resolution remotely sensed data which can be used in different applications such as yield estimation, inventory management, and disease and stress detection. UAS enables growers to make information-based management decisions and could potentially help them to improve their productivity and profitability. The overall objective of this presentation is to provide up-to-date information about this technology and explain the current potentials and limitations of UAS applications in agriculture.