Then there's the mapping and survey configuration, a fixed camera pointed straight downwards. The drone flies over the area you want mapped in a grid pattern, then returns with a data set that can be run through a software package to produce accurate 3D and contour maps, analyse slopes and waterway features and plan drainage. Bulk said this information can be used to increase productivity and reduce compliance costs.
Bulk said the third payload on display uses a 'very clever' sensor, used to create the Normalised Vegetation Indices (NDVI), which produce colourised maps that shows the information collected in an easy to use manner.
"[NDVIs] are one of the main applications that people use to really measure the health of their crops. You can detect diseases two weeks before they're visible to the naked eye," she said.
These new generation drones will be on the market in the next couple of months, and a larger crop dusting and spraying drone is in the final stages of field testing.
The sprayer drone first came to Fieldays as a prototype two years ago, and the latest version is just about ready to go to market.
Bulk said it was ready from a production stand-point, now it was just about how it worked in the field.
"It's not so much what the equipment can do as how practical it actually is in the field, and what the actual yield and benefit you get with it," she said.
