Novel Applications for Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) in Cropland.

Utilization of small unmanned aircraft in agriculture is rapidly expanding. Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) in agriculture is not limited by technology to fly and capture the images, but rather on the image processing end as well as by a lack of information regarding which existing platform to use for image capture. The North Dakota State University - Carrington Research Extension Center is part of a test site for the integration unmanned aerial vehicles into civilian airspace. As a result, a fixed-wing and roto-copter aircraft were used to capture color, infrared, and thermal images over research trials. These images were analyzed with ArcGIS and correlations were made to data collected on the ground. The data evaluated include nutrient management (sulfur and nitrogen), weed control, crop maturity, plant density, water stress, and others. Strong relationships existed between ground and aerially acquired data for nutrient deficiencies, between-row weed control, physiological maturity, and plant population. While much of this data can currently be acquired through ground-based systems, there are many applications for UAS which can collect more data than ground or satellite-based units and lead to more advanced, and rapid decision-making strategies.