A drone-based spray system could be a game-changer for farmers, says a firm developing airborne agritech. The agritech team at Callaghan Innovation had a stand highlighting airborne agritech at last year's Fieldays at Mystery Creek, near Hamilton, with the main focus on SPS Automation, which has developed a drone-based spray system for controlling wilding conifers and other invasive plant species.
SPS Automation, a Christchurch-based research and development company, is flying under the radar but plans to launch its tech soon.
The firm's chief technology officer Scott Spooner says airborne agritech can change the game for farmers.
"The main thing that farmers talk to me about is they don't want to be responsible for flying these big intimidating aircraft. Contractors do fly them but, at the same time, a lot of them come from a spraying background, not an aviation or drone-based background so, they're also concerned about flying them." Unlike traditional spray drones, SPS Automation has removed the requirement for a skilled pilot by fully automating flight operations.
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Since the system is fully autonomous with remote monitoring, it requires only a single operator for multiple spray aircraft.
"Normal spray drones, which are primarily designed around crop spraying, are really restricted by their flight time. Even the latest and greatest machines only have an operational flight time of around 10 minutes of spraying," Spooner says. "For invasive plant spot spraying, you need to fly all over the show carrying the herbicide with you - 10 minutes isn't long enough. We've developed a new type of machine which is hybrid powered and it runs on petrol. This allows for what we call continuous operation. "It's not continuous flight but it allows the machine to be operating all the time. We usually fly for around 40 minutes. That seems to be the optimum fuel-to-herbicide ratio, which is a total of 25kg of liquid. We can extend that flight time out to about two hours by carrying less herbicide."
Their drones can identify invasive trees/plants using machine learning and AI, autonomously navigate through complex terrain, calculate tree specific herbicide requirements and provide a controlled targeted dose. "By being able to remotely monitor/operate aircraft on operators' behalf, we have potential to sort out a bunch of logistical issues with the CAA [Civil Aviation Authority]. "It's an interesting approach but it's also a niche for New Zealand." This is where Callaghan Innovation, a government agency supporting hi-tech businesses, comes in.
Its consultant Sophie Rebbeck says she has inherited remote-sensing drones, satellites and aircraft, and she is working with the agritech industry transformation plan group within Callaghan "trying to understand what some of their barriers are and how we could help them". "They've got their tech but it's sitting on the shelf because current CAA regulations can be quite a barrier; for example, the beyond vision and line of sight. With the current 101 certification, if you can't see your drone then you can't fly it. If you're working in large spaces, hills and gullies, it can be quite difficult."
It takes 12 to 18 months to get Part 102 CAA certification, which means expensive hardware is not generating any revenue for the firms involved in developing it.
