UAVs: the future of the field that combats crop contamination

Brazilian agribusiness has been showing very positive results over the last year. The sector ended 2017 with growth of 11% compared to the previous year and was, alone, responsible for 23,5% of the total Gross Domestic Product, according to IBGE data. In 2018, we still have a positive scenario, especially in relation to productivity. Furthermore, the sector's share in the national GDP reached R$605,2 billion. But we still have a big challenge ahead and it's worth tackling it.

One of the biggest risks in agricultural activity involves controlling pests in crops. This pest control is based on the application of pesticides to predators that attack crops, together with biological control, which employs the use of a predator organism to attack agents harmful to what was planted. Thus, the process is based on identifying the harmful organism and choosing the best method to combat it.

It is at this identification stage that technology can help contain pests, generating business opportunities. With the help of computer vision embedded in unmanned autonomous vehicles (UAVs), it is possible to map the crop area and identify harmful organisms in a short space of time. In this way, it is possible to make a decision on the containment method before the crop is contaminated. The method has been used successfully to control defoliating caterpillars.

The use of UAVs also favors the use of biological pest control methods, since the mapping of each organism in the crop takes less time, a greater effort in researching predatory organisms can be used, culminating in a reduction in the use of pesticides as a primary control method.

VANTS: How does it work?

Despite being scary, the use of computer vision used in UAVs is intuitive. It contains a thermal camera, responsible for capturing images of the crop, which is then sent to the UAV's main processing unit. This unit's mission is to coordinate flight commands to the UAV while receiving the images captured by the camera and carrying out a primary analysis of the images. The vehicle is used as an autonomous navigation agent, as well as for processing the images obtained. Its main job is to receive location coordinates and command the thermal camera unit to capture images.  

In addition to mapping and sending images for analysis in real time, the UAV also combines machine learning models, allowing the UAV itself to infer thermal activity, classifying organisms as harmful or harmless to the crop being examined. In this way, the decision-making time when choosing a pest control method is further reduced.

Technological advancement and benefits for the sector

When we talk about technological trends for the agricultural sector, some advantages must be observed carefully. Among them, reducing operational costs or increasing crop productivity are the main ones. Pest control using computer vision is no different. So, let's get to know some of the advantages of UAVs:

Despite the benefits presented by the UAV, it is necessary to pay attention to one detail. Airspace regulation, despite progress, is still moving at a slow pace. And since progress is slow, it is important to have ANATEL approval, as they have a large number of wireless communication channels. Continuous flight time is another challenge to overcome, typically being impacted by the performance of the power management and battery chosen.

New power management techniques, low-power processors and even specific chips for basic camera and flight functionality have been developed and promise to be agents to deal with flight time challenges. Regarding regulatory aspects, the speed of progress in negotiations has been positively influenced by the growing interest in the use of UAVs in the agricultural sector.

Thus, the use of technology to mitigate risk in farming activities has shown business opportunities capable of bringing benefits in reducing costs and increasing productivity on a large scale. Pest control in crops is one of the most requested solutions by those in the field and the use of thermal vision in autonomous vehicles — through the use of this technology in UAVs — can offer precision and speed in decision-making on pest control methods. , enabling a more effective fight against crop pests.