The drone has certainly changed the world drastically. It changes the way we take aerial images (in the process, making to-hire helicopters and telescopic booms obsolete) and lets ordinary folks reach out to places previously inaccessible to do things like building inspection, disaster area observation, and whatnot.
To say that a drone changed our lives is not an exaggeration. And of late, farmers in the agriculture industry also discovered the benefit of drones – thanks to the DJI MG-1S agriculture drone. This particular specialist multicopter is designed to cover large parcels of crops quickly, saving manpower and time.
With 22 lbs (10 kg) of payload, sophisticated sensors, and a flight control system, the MG-1S is capable of covering 65-80 acres of crop-filled land in a single day pretty much hands-free. Thanks to the onboard radar system, the aircraft can maintain the exact altitude regardless of the land elevation.
The aircraft is equipped with four replaceable ceramic nozzles – a pair up front and another pair to the rear – for dispatching the liquid. Speaking of spraying, the rate of spray and the aircraft speeds are tied together and what this means is, in the event of irregular winds that cause inconsistent flight speeds, the MG-1S will not overspray or underspray.
These features make the devices perfect for industries such as agriculture, surveying, and land management, where precision and efficiency are crucial. Companies often like to buy the DJI Neo here which can help them enhance productivity and accuracy in their operations. With cutting-edge technology and customizable features, the MG-1S and similar drones are transforming how large-scale tasks are managed in various sectors.
And being a drone, the area to be covered can be preset so there’s no actual manual intervention unless necessary. MG-1S has spurred the start of a new industry that leverages drones to provide services to farmers in China. You can learn more about how drone changes the future of farming in the embedded video below.
However, deploying liquid from up above is not entirely new. In fact, the Japanese have been at it for over two decades using remote control helicopters. Yamaha is one of the companies providing such services and just last year, the company began “limited” precision agriculture services in Northern California’s vineyard.
However, the Japanese company’s Yamaha RMax unmanned helicopter is not as hands-free as DJI’s solution. It takes a skilled pilot to manually pilot the remote aircraft to dispense the liquid over the vineyard. Unlike DJI’s solution, the Yamaha RMax unmanned helicopter is not for sale. Instead, Yamaha is running a service, presumably due to the obvious high level of technicality required to maintain and fly it.
That said, as it appears, DJI’s proposition could be the winning solution in the long run. But seriously, in the age of multi-rotor flying crafts, why Yamaha still chose the helicopter route really boggles my mind. Ok, maybe a helicopter of that size does have a payload advantage, but the risk is high since human error in a remotely controlled helicopter is not uncommon plus the level of skill required means only Yamaha can do it, and this also means higher cost for farm owners.
Images: screengrab from YouTube video.
