• The Drone Volt’s Hercules 20 heavy lift UAV features a spraying system option. Drone Volt is selling one of the world’s strongest mass-produced drones into the Canadian market, the Hercules 20 (H-20).

  • AFGRI Technology Services (“ATS”), which focuses on the development and implementation of agricultural technology (“AgTech”) solutions, will be partnering with the University of Pretoria’s (“UP”) TuksNovation to foster innovation in the agricultural sector.

  • Agricultural technologies could help to obviate the effects of climate change and ensure the planet’s population growth doesn’t lead to a global hunger epidemic. 

  • Near the Dutch village IJsselmuiden stands the world’s first robot sorting and packing line in cucumber cultivation. Last year, the Vahl brothers introduced this innovative robot line to improve the speed and quality of the sorting process and optimize personnel deployment.

    It is a dynamic spectacle to see the sorting and packing line in full action in Vahl’s processing area. It starts with manually feeding the cucumbers, according to Dutch magazine In Greenhouses. The cucumbers slide over conveyor belts towards the weighing line. After determining the weight, the machine takes 3-dimensional photos of each fruit from above using vision technology. At that moment, the shape, thickness, length, and weight are recorded. This information is forwarded by the software to one of the seven robots hanging in a row above the conveyor belt. The gripper arms of these robots swiftly pick up each cucumber with their suction cups and stack them in crates next to the conveyor belt. The operator can set the desired crate and sorting via the machine’s dashboard.

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    A robot arm picks up each cucumber one by one and places It in the ready crate.
    A robot arm picks up each cucumber one by one and places It in the ready crate.

    “With this system, we can easily switch between crates, which is beneficial as we serve many different customers. In the morning, we often use six or seven types of packaging,” says Kees Vahl. He knows it is efficient to process three sorts simultaneously. “If you set only one at a time, the robots stand idle too often.” The speed at which the robot arms move is astonishing. Picking and packing one fruit takes a maximum of one second. The sorting line can process twenty thousand cucumbers per hour and 140,000 per day when running at full capacity.

    What is Holding Back Agricultural Robotics

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    If the line is running optimally, only six people will be needed instead of fifteen.
    If the line is running optimally, only six people will be needed instead of fifteen.

    Labor savings

    The choice for automation in greenhouse horticulture is largely about labor savings. As Vahl indicated: labor is becoming increasingly expensive, but reducing monotonous work is also a motivation for him. “This is the future. I prefer to deploy my people elsewhere rather than for packing. When the line runs optimally, we only need six people: two for feeding, two for manual packing, someone to prepare crates and boxes, and a process operator. Previously, fifteen people were sorting and packing.”

     

  • The world was formally introduced to the concept of “drones” through the use of unmanned, remote-control airplanes used in tactical military missions around the turn of the 21st Century. It seemed like science fiction, and much of how they worked was shrouded in controversial secrecy.

    It wasn’t long until the first consumer drones hit the market, replacing spy photography gear or weapons with consumer-grade cameras that fit on tiny helicopter-looking contraptions that fly using a standalone remote control or a connected app via smartphones.

    In the years since, Jeff Bezos has boldly claimed that Amazon will one day use an army of drones to deliver packages even faster than it already does, while virtually every Instagram photographer has started using drones to achieve a unique perspective on otherwise-common images.

    In addition to the far-flung and the trivial, drones are already transforming many jobs and industries, with more to come in the near future.

    How Drones Work

    Almost everyone who looks at a consumer-grade drone will sum it up as something along the lines of “a remote control helicopter.” Drones and helicopters both use rotating blades to generate vertical lift, but the four diminutive blades on most drones act to provide a more stable flight with more potential for micro adjustments than a single blade would provide.

    Plus, a set of two or three inch blades can’t inflict nearly as much damage as a single 12-inch blade might!

    Like helicopters, the rotating blades generate lift through thrust. The faster the blades spin, the more thrust a drone generates. Thanks to the incredible amount of computing power packed into even the most entry-level drones, users can pilot a drone using a simple joystick interface while the software behind the scenes makes a staggering amount of calculations.

    Want to tilt the whole drone a few degrees to change the camera angle, while still flying slowly forward? Two joysticks handle pitch, horizontal travel, and vertical climb or descent. But the four propellers are all playing off each other in incredibly complex ways, acting to generate differing amounts of lift fore and aft to create a suitable angle for the camera, then holding that angle while adhering to the user’s desired control inputs.

    If you go to YouTube and watch any videos made by the latest round of drones, the stability is staggering; the videos often have an almost eerie quality to them because of drones’ unique ability to fly lower and maneuver more quickly than helicopters, all while the drone operator previews video footage in real time.

    The four blades offer a surreal, stable, silent flight pattern that means drones have replaced helicopters for even the majority of professional and high budget film projects.

    Uses for Drones

    Aside from putting amateur photographers in the sky to capture shots that just a decade ago would have required an expensive helicopter charter, drones are enjoying  widespread adoption across a wide array of industries.

    Here’s a look at a few of the ways drones are already transforming our world by placing cameras in the sky.

    Safety
    Security cameras have been in use for decades, but now cameras can be operated beyond the realm of traditional mounting points on buildings or pillars.

    For special events, tough-to-secure areas, and even tactical search and rescue missions, drones allow all different types of first responders to monitor situations using livestreaming of video or infrared cameras.

    From border patrol to seeking out missing persons to simply monitoring large crowds, drones are making the world more secure and providing a tool that dramatically cuts down on costs and the environmental impacts associated with helicopter flights, all while minimizing the disturbance created by choppers at low altitudes.

    Firefighting
    Infrared camera-equipped drones are especially useful for identifying and fighting forest fires in remote areas. Drones are augmenting or replacing traditional fire watch towers across forest districts, allowing small, centralized teams to monitor massive amounts of forest for hot spots or emerging fires.

    Infrared technology paired with the flight abilities of drones allows firefighters to identify blazes the moment they ignite, long before smoke may be visible on the horizon. And some fire agencies are now testing unmanned firefighting drones which actually can deliver flame retardant like today’s firefighting planes and helicopters.

    Farming

    Farmers have made impressive use of drone technology. There are early versions of drone crop dusters and specialized fertilizers, and these applications are poised to grow as commercially available drones grow in size and power.

    And instead of walking the rows to monitor crop health and yield, drones allow farmers to survey massive amounts of land in minutes instead of hours–or even days. The increased efficiency of crop monitoring will lead to more efficient farming, while infrared technology again allows yield and health to be monitored at more precise levels than ever before, thus minimizing waste and maximizing crop production.

    Scientific Exploration
    From massive drones that glide high above where most airplanes fly and can circumnavigate the globe without stopping to tiny drones that ride wind and oceanic currents to study how they work, scientists are using drones to study wildlife, identify weather patterns, monitor the ozone layer, and plenty of other amazing uses.

    From minimally-invasive photography and videography to massive surveying and mapping projects, drones are capable of going places that humans cannot; and are much cheaper and safer to operate in hazardous conditions like hurricanes or remote environments with no developed landing strip.

    Revolutionize Photography and Inspection Procedures
    Aside from the consumer-facing uses that remote-control flying cameras provide, drones have revolutionized industry applications like real estate photography and inspections and even hazardous industrial inspection procedures.

    Whether it’s providing an aerial video tour, inspecting buildings for structural damage, or providing routine inspections to risky structures like power plants or offshore oil rigs, the ability to get a camera up close and personal while maintaining a safe distance is potentially a life-saver in more ways than one.

    Plus, who doesn’t like seeing a bird’s eye view when shopping for new houses?

    Future Drone Applications

    Perhaps the most notorious futuristic drone application is Jeff Bezos’ bold vision to deliver Amazon packages via a fleet of drones. His plan was immediately met with huge amounts of skepticism and naysayers who envision the logistical and safety nightmares associated with automated drones zipping all over urban areas while hoisting boxes full of who-knows-what. 

  • If you've ever tried to ripen a piece of fruit by sticking it in a bag with a banana, you've harnessed the power of ethylene.

  • If you put all humans living on the planet into an imaginary tin like sardines, the tin would be 2km long, wide and high. Amazingly, all the ants in the world would fill a similar-sized tin. Yet, despite their huge numbers, insects such as ants manage to thrive without overwhelming the natural world.Insects are true inventors of technology.

  • Technology and the Internet of Things (IoT) has made its way into our lives and businesses.

  • Insects, diseases and weeds are a farmer’s worst nightmare — pests cause severe crop damage and jeopardize harvests.

  • Ardo is a family-owned business which has grown to a €1bn turnover through commitment to quality.

  • Technology and the Internet of Things (IoT) has made its way into our lives and businesses.

  • The Fendt Momentum planter is not only one of the largest, but also one of the smartest on the market.

  • Technology and the Internet of Things (IoT) has made its way into our lives and businesses.

  • Alternative drive concepts are quickly gathering steam – and not only on the road.Tailored electric motor or hybrid solutions now also have what it takes to perform convincingly in off-highway applications.

  • The future of work is increasingly becoming today’s reality for millions of workers and companies around the world.

  • Malnutrition is a regular occurrence in children and adults in developing countries. It entails so much more than ‘hunger’. The long-term impact is a suppressed immune system, delayed growth and development.

  • In speculating about the future of agriculture, David Hollinrake, president of Syngenta Seeds and North America region director, is certain of one thing: “It’s not going to be my daddy’s farm moving forward.”

  • There’s little doubt that sustainable agriculture is the only way forward if we are to continue to produce food for generations to come.

  • As the backbone of developing economies, agriculture not only serves to feed a nation but creates employment and, often, contributes significantly to the GDP.

  • African governments should enact policies that facilitate adoption of technologies and innovations required to transform small-holder farming, international scientists said.