{"id":797,"date":"2014-07-16T10:46:14","date_gmt":"2014-07-16T17:46:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/droneanalyst.com\/?p=797"},"modified":"2017-01-04T10:26:33","modified_gmt":"2017-01-04T18:26:33","slug":"drone-tech-winners-and-losers-at-the-precision-aerial-ag-conference-2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/droneanalyst.com\/2014\/07\/16\/drone-tech-winners-and-losers-at-the-precision-aerial-ag-conference-2014\/'","title":{"rendered":"Drone Tech Winners and Losers at the Precision Aerial Ag Conference 2014"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week my colleague Mitch Solomon and I were privileged to be in the company of more than one thousand farmers in rural Decatur, IL, for the two-day Precision Aerial Agriculture Show 2014<\/a> (PAAS 2014).\u00a0 Mitch covers five key takeaways from the show in his post about the event<\/a> \u2013 including the most salient one: There is no killer drone app for farmers \u2013 rather, drones are a tool with many apps and high ROI.\u00a0 In this post, I\u2019ll give an accounting and analysis of the players in attendance that are supporting the market for drones in agriculture. Some were present, others were mentioned but weren\u2019t present, and still others were surprisingly absent on all counts.<\/p>\n

Bottom line<\/strong><\/p>\n

Regardless of which vendors attended or exhibited, here\u2019s what you need to know with regard to the drones vendors serving or intending to serve the agriculture market:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Most of the companies that serve this market are small businesses. It is clear they are working hard to learn firsthand what farmers want from small drones and in doing so are establishing networks of distributors and service providers that will lock other players out of the market.<\/li>\n
  2. Manufacturers of small drones for precision agriculture are consolidating around DJI and 3DRobotics for their flight control and mission planning software \u2013 mainly because of functional maturity and low-cost.<\/li>\n
  3. The large aerospace companies and Department of Defense (DoD) contract vendors do not have a presence in this market. Even though some have participated in agricultural academic studies, as a whole their products are unknown in the farming community. These vendors simply have not established the necessary relationships with growers, dealers, coops, agronomists, and local service providers. \u00a0As a result, it\u2019s probably too late for them to capture any significant U.S. agriculture market share.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Present and Accounted For<\/strong><\/p>\n

    AgEagle<\/a> \u2013 AgEagle had the enviable booth position just inside the show floor, which made it hard to ignore. Its purpose-built fixed-wing flyer with uTHERE<\/a> flight controller and Canon S100 camera goes for about US $12,500. \u00a0It’s similar to in looks\u00a0to a\u00a0Ritewing Zephyr II<\/a>,\u00a0but has an epoxy hard shell that makes it more\u00a0durable. Additionally the airfoil is a semi symmetrical allowing it to carry much more weight. \u00a0AgEagle’s\u00a0system comes with a catapult to get it in the air fast, where it will fly at 40 mph and cover approximately 600 acres in 30 minutes. A cloud-based aerial agronomic imagery solution is offered in partnership with MyAgCentral<\/a>, a division of DN2K. This solution has a fully integrated workflow function that streamlines the process of flying fields and capturing, storing, processing, viewing, and sharing aerial images. For instance, \u2018shape files<\/a>\u2019 can be imported into SMSTM<\/sup> Software<\/a> for use with variable rate applicators. Information on that partnership can be found here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    Agribotix<\/a> \u2013 Agribotix gets that what is most important in the drone market is data services — not the aircraft. The company deploys a proprietary software solution to deliver geo-referenced aerial images immediately after a flight and high-resolution color and NDVI maps within hours of collection. These images are hosted on Agribotix\u2019s servers for access from multiple devices, including mobile devices so that growers can take them into the field while scouting. \u00a0Notwithstanding, they do offer the Hornet, which is a simple fixed-wing UAS suitable for agricultural applications.\u00a0 The unique thing here is that you can rent it on a seasonal lease. It uses open-source hardware and software to keep costs low.<\/p>\n

    Crop Copter \/ Chief Agronomics<\/a> \u2013 Matt Barnard, a farmer and founder of this drone vendor, understands what growers wants because he listens.\u00a0 Crop Copter offers TBS Discover<\/a> and his own more durable quad and hexacopter through Van Horn Precision Technologies<\/a>. They provide the imaging services and support – and even repair – the flyer.\u00a0 All units are complete and ready-to-fly.<\/p>\n

    Farm Intelligence<\/a> \/ FourthWing<\/a> \/ WingScan<\/a> \u2013 These Minnesota-based affiliates work in tandem to provide a complete hardware and software solution for precision agriculture. WingScan is the image data and decision support software platform. Fourth Wing is the designer and manufacturer of a small unmanned aircraft system they call Vireo.\u00a0 Vireo comes equipped with a dual-band sensor that is capable of capturing near infrared (NIR) and visual (RGB) data in a single pass. Farm Intelligence sells the device via its FI2<\/sup> Sales and Leasing<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    Field of View LLC<\/a> \u2013 Field of View engineers and sells remote sensing devices for drones that service the agricultural and mapping industries. Their GeoSnap VN-TC is an add-on for the commonly used multispectral cameras.\u00a0 It generates a log of image-associated position and attitude data and manages image capture by triggering the camera based on GPS coordinates.\u00a0 Image log file can be imported into packages like Agisoft<\/a> to get complete geo-referenced image maps.\u00a0 Look for Field of View products to operate with the open-source\u00a0MAVLink Micro Air Vehicle Communication Protocol<\/a> soon.<\/p>\n

    Horizon Precision Systems<\/a> \u2013 This company\u2019s booth was packed \u2013 almost the entire show – and the reason is simple: Horizon offers low-cost entry-level systems. Based in Champaign, Illinois, the company is an offshoot of Horizon Hobby, LLC<\/a>, which has distribution facilities in the United States, Europe, and China. It has decades of experience developing, distributing, and servicing all types of radio control products. So it is no wonder they created this agriculture-focused subsidiary.<\/p>\n

    Hoverfly<\/a> – Hoverfly demonstrated its tethered UAS called “LiveSky.”\u00a0 Tethered UAS, in this case a quadcopter, can stay aloft for much longer than those reliant on a battery alone since power is transmitted from a ground source to the copter via a long tether. This system is interesting because the LiveSky would maintain its position above the control device, allowing you to theoretically place it in a truck bed and drive around with it hovering above the truck. You can view a one-minute video of their demo on YouTube here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    MLB Company<\/a> – During the show, founder Stephen Morris showcased his company\u2019s $150,000 Super Bat UAV. It\u2019s a high-end drone model that can fly thousands of feet in the air and survey up to 55,000 acres in a single day. When it took to the skies for a demo, all heads turned because it was the only gas-engine-powered drone at the show.\u00a0 All others were electric, and their motors could barely be heard above the sound of wind, but of course they can\u2019t fly nearly as long.<\/p>\n

    Pix4D<\/a> \u2013 Pix4D is a software package used to convert the hundreds of aerial images that are taken by drones on survey flights into geo-referenced 2D mosaics and 3D surface models and point clouds similar to Autodesk ReCap 360.<\/a> Their software is bundled by many UAS vendors \u2013 including SenseFly, which while on site, handed over the pictures from their demonstration flight earlier in the day.\u00a0 This gave Pix4D the opportunity to show a 3D surface model of a demonstration field.\u00a0 Pretty cool.<\/p>\n

    PrecisionHawk<\/a> \u2013 PrecisionHawk\u2019s fixed-wing Lancaster platform is impressive. Its lightweight design allows for swappable sensors, and it diagnoses and monitors in flight critical data like battery life, operational weather\/wind limitations, structure cracks, and fatigue analysis. But as I have written about here<\/a>, PrecisionHawk views itself as a data company, not a drone company. As such, it offers a service it calls PrecisionMapper<\/a>, which is a cloud-based application that gives anyone the ability to upload, store, process, and share their aerial image data.<\/p>\n

    Precision Drone<\/a> \u2013 Precision Drone LLC is an Indiana company that manufactures multirotor drones built specifically for crop surveillance.\u00a0 The company also offers Precision Vision\u2122, a crop health imaging software package that delivers a composite video overlay showing the true health of a field in color contrast, which lets growers see how much sunlight is being absorbed by the crop canopy.<\/p>\n

    SenseFly<\/a> \u2013 Of all the demos given at the show, SenseFly\u2019s fixed-wing flight of its eBee Ag<\/a> drone was truly impressive. The hand-launched and self-landing eBee is constructed of EPP foam and carbon fiber, with detachable wings. It can fly for 45 minutes to a radio-link range of 3 km (1.86 miles), driven by a LiPo battery-powered pusher propeller. eBee Ag can cover up to 1,000 hectares (2,470 acres) in a single flight.<\/p>\n

    In this small demo, the operator did a great job of explaining flight operations in real-time. For example, he programmed the aircraft to fly a lawn-mower pattern up and down the demo field.\u00a0 But when he commanded, the plane would divert off pattern to photograph an area of interest.\u00a0 When that diversion was complete, the plane would resume the pattern where it left off.\u00a0 Its images are great, too. The vehicle comes with a 12 megapixel Canon S110 NIR (near infrared) still camera as standard with various sensor options, each one electronically integrated in the aircraft\u2019s autopilot.<\/p>\n

    Trimble<\/a> \u2013 Similar to SenseFly, Trimble\u2019s UX5 fixed wing aerial imaging solution is impressive. Their unit is fully autonomous, flight programmable, and comes with a dedicated Windows-based rugged tablet. It uses a Sony NEX-5 camera outfitted with a Voigtlander lens.\u00a0 This makes for very accurate imaging. But unfortunately they do not offer it for sale in the U.S. yet.\u00a0 Even so, they are working with teams that have regulatory approval for test flights and are perfecting their offering.<\/p>\n

    [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][Update February 18, 2015:\u00a0check with each vendor for their current product offering]<\/em><\/p>\n

    Not Present but Accounted For<\/strong><\/p>\n