Agronomy, Automation, MicroFarm, Precision Agriculture, Sensing, Soil

Aerial Mapping at the MicroFarm

Centre for Land and Water residents, AltusUAS are creating detailed farm and crop maps of the LandWISE MicroFarm.

Altus Unmanned Aerial Solutions specialises in the manufacture of professional UAS systems for wide-ranging applications. They build and operate systems of high specification with features including built in redundancy, custom control interfaces and integrated emergency parachute. They offer platforms with class leading flight performance as well as all-weather capabilities.

AltusMissionNDVI
An AltusUAS Quadcopter sets off on a mission to map the MicroFarm

Even a simple aerial image is highly informative – the view from above changes perception immensely!

MicroFarm fields and Green Shed meeting venue - image captured by AltusUAS
MicroFarm fields and Green Shed meeting venue – image captured by AltusUAS

At the MicroFarm, they are using their technologies to survey the site, photogrammetry to process imagery and further analysis to create a 3D model of the MicroFarm and crops.

A composite image created from many overlapped photographs taken from a GPS guided UAV - the basis for a 3D MicroFarm model
A composite image created from many overlapped photographs taken from a GPS guided UAV – the basis for a 3D MicroFarm model
A zoom-in on part of the image showing the Green Shed and corner of a crop of mustard
A zoom-in on part of the image showing the Green Shed and corner of a crop of mustard

 

View a flythough of the model (it looks like a video of the site) on YouTube here>

AltusMicroFarmVideoImage

As well as terrain models/topographic maps, they can produce detailed NDVI information.

We are using this information to understand our site in much more detail. With individual pixels as small as about 4cm, we can zoom in practically to individual leaf scale. Do we need that? Not for many applications, but it does raise new possibilities around pest and disease identification and definitely enable us to view individual plants.

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