Use of unmanned aerial vehicles in precision agriculture

Abstract

The use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in agriculture in general, and precision agriculture in particular, is expanding significantly every year. UAVs are employed in various tasks, including sowing, monitoring crop growth and yields, field mapping, and spraying crops with plant protection products (PPP) or applying fertilizers. Precision agriculture enables the integration of geospatial data, GIS and remote sensing technologies, artificial intelligence, Big Data, the Internet of Things, and other innovative solutions. UAVs provide opportunities for rapid monitoring, analyzing field conditions and dynamics, identifying problem areas requiring managerial intervention, evaluating the effectiveness of agronomic practices, and storing photogrammetric data and high-resolution images efficiently. Modern UAVs, accessible to farmers, not only deliver current information on plant condition and growth dynamics but also allow for protective treatment of fields and perennial plantations using pesticides. UAVs can provide georeferenced data on the state of cultivated crops, significantly assisting farmers in maintaining high yields. Moreover, UAVs equipped with multispectral and RGB cameras enable the prompt storage of agricultural images in the near-infrared spectrum, facilitating monitoring of vegetation health and condition. UAV imaging offers much greater detail compared to satellite imagery, achieving resolutions down to centimeters per pixel, thanks to flight altitudes ranging from 100 to 600 meters above ground. The paper outlines the use of UAVs in precision agriculture and explores field monitoring methods using UAVs. The implementation of UAV imaging technology allows for the creation of electronic field maps and the rapid adoption of managerial decisions based on the collected data. The NDVI index obtained with UAVs provides a more comprehensive and detailed representation of current conditions on individual field sections, a level of detail that is difficult to achieve with satellite imagery. It is noted that our country has strong potential for adopting UAVs in agriculture, considering their technical, economic, and human resources.