A Review on UAV-Based Applications for Precision Agriculture

Emerging technologies such as Internet of Things (IoT) can provide significant potential in Smart Farming and Precision Agriculture applications, enabling the acquisition of real-time environmental data. IoT devices such as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) can be exploited in a variety of application...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Information (Basel) 2019-11, Vol.10 (11), p.349
Main Authors: Tsouros, Dimosthenis C., Bibi, Stamatia, Sarigiannidis, Panagiotis G.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agriculture
Crop diseases
Crops
Data processing
Decision making
Digital agriculture
Electronic devices
Farmers
Farming
Farms
Image acquisition
Image processing
Internet of Things
iot
Machine learning
Monitoring systems
New technology
precision agriculture
remote sensing
Remote sensing systems
review
Satellites
Sensors
smart farming
Temporal resolution
uas
uav
unmanned aerial system
unmanned aerial vehicle
Unmanned aerial vehicles
Vegetation
Workflow
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Summary:Emerging technologies such as Internet of Things (IoT) can provide significant potential in Smart Farming and Precision Agriculture applications, enabling the acquisition of real-time environmental data. IoT devices such as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) can be exploited in a variety of applications related to crops management, by capturing high spatial and temporal resolution images. These technologies are expected to revolutionize agriculture, enabling decision-making in days instead of weeks, promising significant reduction in cost and increase in the yield. Such decisions enable the effective application of farm inputs, supporting the four pillars of precision agriculture, i.e., apply the right practice, at the right place, at the right time and with the right quantity. However, the actual proliferation and exploitation of UAVs in Smart Farming has not been as robust as expected mainly due to the challenges confronted when selecting and deploying the relevant technologies, including the data acquisition and image processing methods. The main problem is that still there is no standardized workflow for the use of UAVs in such applications, as it is a relatively new area. In this article, we review the most recent applications of UAVs for Precision Agriculture. We discuss the most common applications, the types of UAVs exploited and then we focus on the data acquisition methods and technologies, appointing the benefits and drawbacks of each one. We also point out the most popular processing methods of aerial imagery and discuss the outcomes of each method and the potential applications of each one in the farming operations.
ISSN:2078-2489
2078-2489
DOI:10.3390/info10110349