Masters Thesis

Drones in Precision Agriculture: Corn Field Testing and Sampling Through Drone Mapping

The evolution of drones has drastically changed since their military beginnings. Through the technological advances of drones, they are now able to assist in a plethora of areas including agriculture. Precision agriculture involves using information from sensors within agricultural fields and using this to make the farm and labor more efficient. The present research dives into understanding variations in crop fields and the differences in crops through the use of drone mapping. The main question at hand involves examining if differences in elevation of a corn field with water runoff resulted in the crop variations. The methodology of this research involves the use of a Phantom drone, with the software DroneDeploy, for gathering samples and determining the results of variations in the corn crops. Corn fields on the Fresno State University campus were the source of sampling. A Veris machine was utilized in order to collect soil samples at GPS located spots where variations occurred. Through the maps created by DroneDeploy there were differences in elevation found where corn crops varied. This finding illustrates how elevation and gravity can affect nutrients and water being allowed to different areas in the soil. Through this research, further studies of agricultural fields can be done with drones enabling farmers to look at variations in their fields, sample the inflicted areas, and understanding the implications of variations. This method can reduce labor hours and expenses as well as enhance the time efficiency for farmers and their product.

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