The United States’ Federal Aviation
Administration is coming close to declaring regulations for drones, paving the
way for widespread farm use.
The Association for Unmanned Vehicle
Systems International, a trade group, says agriculture could account for 80 per
cent of all commercial drone use.
They are good for transmitting detailed
information about crops to combines and sprayers, directing them very precisely
to problem spots and cutting down on the amount of water and chemicals that a
farmer needs to use in those areas.
They might do more for environmental protection than all of the loud-mouthed environmental activists.
The Federal Aviation Administration has
approved more than 50 exemptions for farm-related operations since January.
Companies with those exemptions say
business has grown, helped by quick advances in the technology.
Transport Canada has detailed
regulations for drones with restrictions increasing according to weight. Under
2.5 kilograms there are few restrictions, other than limiting flights to
daylight hours and flight paths to be within sight of the operators.
The restrictions increase for weights up
to 25 kilograms, then full licencing is required for those 35 kilograms or
heavier.
Bret Chilcott of Kansas-based AgEagle,
which sells unmanned aerial vehicles and the software to help operate them,
says his company took its first orders last year. Now it has a backlog of
several hundred orders. He is quoted in
the Winnipeg Free Press saying the technology has transformed the market during
that short period.
"Last year users had to land their
aircraft and then take the data to the computer," he says. "Now the
data appears on your iPad or hand-held device a few minutes after flight."
That data could be pictures, 3-D images
of plants, thermal readings of crops or animals or other observations that a
drone could make while in the air. Information that in the past took days to
collect — or could not have been collected at all — can be gathered now in
minutes or hours and, in some cases, integrated with separate data collected
from other high-tech farm machinery.
Chilcott is optimistic that the
technology to scout out problem spots so precisely will be transformative
because farmers can limit spraying just to those places.
An FAA proposal this year would allow
flight of the vehicles as long as they weigh less than 55 pounds, stay within
the operator's sight and fly during the daytime, among other restrictions.
Operators would have to pass an FAA test of aeronautical knowledge and a
Transportation Security Administration background check.
Thomas Haun of North Carolina-based
PrecisionHawk, another company with an exemption, says it is unclear what the
business will look like eventually. Farmers may hire services that have
unmanned aerial vehicles or every farm may get its own drone. Most likely, it
will be a combination.
