Featured News

Trending News

16 September 2024
<a href="https://rotor.ai/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Rotor Technologies, Inc.</a>, enters the agricultural market with the <a href="https://rotor.ai/r550-sprayhawk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sprayhawk</a>, an automated crop dusting unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).
The Sprayhawk is an unmanned aircraft based on the Robinson R44 full-scale helicopter; it can carry 110 gallons and spray over 240 acres per hour.
The Sprayhawk is said to be the largest agricultural drone available in the world. It can take off and land vertically and can be operated by a ground crew of just two people.
It features a 120-gallon spray tank with 33-foot spray booms, autonomous spray path and terrain following algorithms, and camera and LIDAR sensors for detecting wires and avoiding obstacles.
The Sprayhawk is powered by a Lycoming six-cylinder aviation engine and can spray at over 80 miles per hour with a flight time of 50 minutes between refueling.
The Sprayhawk matches the spray speed and capacity of manned aircraft, while offering significantly lower operating costs and improved safety.
&ldquo;The Sprayhawk represents a significant leap forward in agricultural aviation,&rdquo; said Rotor CEO Hector Xu. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve combined the capabilities of a full-scale helicopter with the cost-effectiveness and safety of a drone. There&rsquo;s nothing else on the market that&rsquo;s as productive, reliable, and future-proof as this.&rdquo;
The first Sprayhawk production aircraft has been completed and is undergoing ground testing ahead of delivery to an agricultural partner in the U.S. Midwest later this year.
The first batch of production Sprayhawks will be delivered to early-access partners throughout spring 2025 and are expected to begin commercial spraying operations in the 2025 corn run.
Rotor is opening up orders to customers in the US and Brazil for 2025 Model Year Sprayhawks, with delivery slots still available for late 2025 and early 2026. The first 2025 production run will be limited to 15 aircraft.
The introductory price for the Sprayhawk is $990,000 for orders placed before December 15, 2024. The system comes in a &ldquo;ready-to-spray&rdquo; configuration and includes the Sprayhawk UAV, a 120-gallon tank and 33-foot spray boom system, a helicopter transport trailer, and a ground control station.
Rotor chief commercial officer Ben Frank emphasized the market impact of the Sprayhawk in response to the rise of smaller agricultural UAVs.
&ldquo;We think that the Sprayhawk is the right path forward for US farmers and aerial applicators,&rdquo; said Frank. &ldquo;Many of the agricultural drones on the market today are unlikely to stand the test of time. The need for larger and more reliable aircraft is clear and our aggressive introductory pricing for the 2025 model year is designed to speed up adoption.&rdquo;
The Sprayhawk is designed to maximize operator efficiency and profitability. Its economic performance exceeds that of other comparable agricultural spraying solutions.&nbsp;
<img src="https://media.thedroningcompany.com/images/tincy/V5eTReudKfY4JTg9QnVmmpt2QQFKSUEpBRpUoJO7.png" alt="" width="683" height="211" />
Rotor offers training, maintenance plans, and regulatory support to Sprayhawk customers to ensure seamless deployment in any agricultural setting.
Note to readers: The above content is from a Rotor Technologies press release.

Flying Helicopters to Oust Drones for Agricultural Use?

[Photo Courtesy Hylio]
22 April 2024
The Federal Aviation Administration has allowed the first exemption of its kind that lets farmers deploy drones of 55 lbs to seed and spray crops. The increased payload now makes "drone swarm" farming methods competitive with conventional tractors, and at a significant cost savings to the farmer.
Before the FAA exemption, each drone required a pilot and a spotter, and weight limitations while in flight caused drones significant extra time to work large fields.
Texas-based drone company <a href="https://www.hyl.io/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Hylio</a> applied for the FAA exemption&mdash;a move that could resonate across the droning and farming industries.
"On average, you're spending a quarter both up front in capital cost to buy the machinery," reported Hylio CEO Arthur Erickson.&nbsp;"Operating cost is about a quarter, or maybe a third, of what you'd spend for the traditional stuff."
There are other benefits.
<div class="inline image-ct">
<div class="caption">
A three-drone fleet, for example, is less expensive than one tractor, and also uses less water for chemical distribution, doesn't compact or otherwise compromise soil, and limits generator costs as it requires minimal fuel to recharge drone batteries in the field. Hylio helps with the cost faction, as well, because it doesn't charge software subscription fees.&nbsp;
</div>
</div>
In addition, a two-person team can now operate the three-drone "swarm," tripling the pre-exemption coverage area, and get the job done as quickly as using a land-based tractor.
Here's the math part:
&bull; According to Hylio, its fully loaded agricultural drones cost approximately $80,000 each (basic models are as low as $50,000).
&bull; A basic tractor can cost $300,000 or more, and high-end tractors routinely go for more than $700,00.
&bull; A farmer's three-drone fleet can therefore cost around $240,000, and also offer multiple use cases beyond seeding and spraying.
&bull; Three high-end tractors&mdash;well, that would cost a mind-numbing $2,100,000.
Looks like drone-swarm farming could be a welcome "disruption" to farmers looking to manage profits and production.

Agricultural "Drone Swarms" Lifting Off

Product News

24 April 2023
<a href="https://www.guardian.ag/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Guardian Agriculture </a>&mdash;a U.S. company formed in 2017 by former Apple, BAE, Tesla, and Uber executives&mdash;is the first drone maker to receive approval from the FAA to operate eVTOLs across America. 
Guardian Agriculture says it's initial electric, autonomous drones will be deployed to spray crops&mdash;part of a larger plan to enhance sustainable farming in the United States. The company's name represents its mission to "guard" farms while producing less harmful emissions and less waste.
<img src="https://media.thedroningcompany.com/images/tincy/CAdSGTU39BnPgpBdn9kppPTjKQGEUXTeszBhFKa4.png" alt="" width="537" height="394" />

Drones have already aided the farming community, but a significant mumber of farmers have been moving away from gas-powered aircraft, and seeking other, more environmental methods to tend to their crops. Unfortunately, alternative systems were often deemed too small, or too limited in range.
While the FAA approval is a first, giving Guardian Agriculture the ability to operate a commercial electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) system, it also clears the airways for what Guardian sees as a viable solution, as its eVTOL actually offers the same coverage as aerial crop dusting and ground spraying&mdash;and all with digital accuracy at lower or equal cost.
Guardian Agriculture CEO and past BattleBots champion, Adam Bercu, says they designed the electric drone to meet the needs of commercial agriculture, explaining:
<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
"eVTOL powered crop protection is better for crops, better for the environment, and better for growers&rsquo; bottom line," says Guardian Agriculture CEO, Adam Bercu.
<img src="https://media.thedroningcompany.com/images/tincy/W3xKCBC6n87mLHYMFFChFOrC71zOhukJp7T3Os0e.png" alt="" width="582" height="438" />
The Guardian SC1 eVTOL is designed to cover 40 acres per hour of crop protection&mdash;offering a 9.1 kWh battery capacity, four six-foot propellers powered by a 40hp drivetrain, fully autonomous capabilities, a supercharger ground station, and software to store data.
</blockquote>
Guardian expects to be the first eVTOL manufacturer operating at scale after the authorization, as&nbsp; explains:
<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
"This is just the start," says Guardian COO, Jeff Sparks. "The real-world experience we&rsquo;ll accumulate allows us to demonstrate our system&rsquo;s safety and reliability, which we can leverage across other use cases and products outside of agriculture.
</blockquote>
Systems start at $119,000. Deliveries are slated to begin later this year, and Guardian reports it has already received more than $100 million in customer orders for its electric drone.&nbsp;
<h5>Learn More</h5>
<iframe style="width: 668px; height: 376px;" title="YouTube video player" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/vPaUwJa_xsw" width="668" height="376" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>

Guardian Agriculture enhances environmental farming with its SC1 eVTOL

16 February 2023
According to a recent <a href="http://www.factmr.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Fact.MR</a> survey, the world-wide market for agricultural drones is expected to grow from $3.8 million to $14.2 million between 2023 and 2033.&nbsp;
It sounds like a good time for pilots interested in agriculture to sell their skills, tech, and knowledge to farmers, who more and more need drones to monitor livestock, spray crops, deal with irrigation management, plan seed mapping and planting, and more. Sales opportunities for appropriate drones that can help farming concerns will also expand.
<h5>Key Points from the Fact.MR Study</h5>
<ul>
<li>The global agriculture drone market is projected to expand at an impressive CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) of 14.1 percent, reaching a value of $14.2 million by 2033.</li>
<li>The market witnessed 7.2 percent CAGR during the period of 2018-2022.</li>
<li>Fixed-wing agriculture drones dominate the market and are valued at $796 million for 2023.</li>
<li>North America and Europe will dominate the market with a 32.1 percent&nbsp;and a 36.1 percent&nbsp;market share in 2023.</li>
</ul>
<h5>More Insights: Quadcopter Market to hit $94.3 Million by 2033</h5>
<img src="https://media.thedroningcompany.com/images/tincy/kWB2osTzlf2gOW7L8Iqnw4VMHvW5bIeSxmFjmnAc.jpg" alt="" width="459" height="306" />
Fact.MR also reported that the global quadcopter market&mdash;which is estimated at $24.1 million this year&mdash;will expand to $94.3 million within a decade. At present, military quadcopters dominate the market with a 68 percent share.
&ldquo;Increased use for surveillance and monitoring is boosting the sales of quadcopters,&rdquo; reported a Fact.MR analyst.
The other side of the market-growth equation&mdash;and the resulting competition&mdash;is that manufacturers may need to differentiate their products with advanced tech and other unique features to survive and thrive

Fact.MR: Growing Drone Markets Increase Opportunities & Competition

<table width="100%">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td width="59%">
19 September 2022
By Luis Escobedo
I was asked by The Droning Company CEO Stuart Smith to write an article about drones and my role in the drone industry. I thought for some time&mdash;maybe too long&mdash;what I should write about it, and after talking to some people, I realized my added value in the drone industry relies on my background and how I have learnt to integrate my knowledge in one specific field: Farming.
I grew up in Mexico City. I have a bachelor&rsquo;s degree in International Relations, however, since 2008, I have been focused on renewable energies. I started working for a German company developing wind farms. Later, I moved to a French company, where my role was to develop solar farms, and, later, in 2016, I ended up working for a Spanish company developing wind and energy farms.
Part of my role in these companies was to scout potential sites where these kinds of renewable projects could to be built. I had to visit remote areas and talk to the farmers about the possibility of renting their land for an energy project. I started learning more about the value of the land, and how farmers work and make money. During the years 2008 to 2018, I was able to visit the 32 States of Mexico and get insights of dozens of farmers.&nbsp;
In 2018, I attended a solar-energy conference in San Francisco where I met Aerospec&rsquo;s CEO. Aerospec was a technology company focused on aerial thermography over solar farms. After some negotiations, I partnered with him to open the Mexican market. I quit my job and decided to sell this technology. Beneath our projects, we did the drone inspection of one of the largest solar farms in the world: Villanueva (848 megawatts) in Coahuila, Mexico.
<h5>WATCH!</h5>
<iframe style="width: 660px; height: 371px;" title="YouTube video player" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1Yp9JYQ-Chk" width="660" height="371" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
With the use of three drones and thermal cameras, we were able to scan 2.4 million solar panels in just seven days. By then, I was just in charge of coordinating my team. I didn&rsquo;t know how to fly a drone, however, the UAV industry seemed very exciting to me.&nbsp;
I decided to look online for drone training, and I found NJ Drone Academy. I called the manager and signed up for some training. I flew from Mexico and took as many drone courses as I could. I presented my FAA Part 107 exam (which I failed) and got back to Mexico with a wide understanding about the industry.
Later that year, I went back to California&mdash;but, this time, to Monterey, where I attended a PMA conference about technology and innovation in agriculture. There, I met Aerobotics and I was impressed by the idea of digital farming. I went back to Mexico and started reading and learning more about drones in farming.
By the end of 2019, I founded <a href="https://agro-byte.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">AgroByte</a>.
I realized that if the world keeps farming the way it has done for the last few years, there is not going to be enough food to nourish ten-billion people in 2050. I decided to take the challenge and start doing something about it.
AgroByte is a company focused on helping farmers increase the yield of their crops by using drones, sensors, satellites, and specialized software. My idea has been to manage a farm as it has been done in solar and wind farms, focusing more on the preventive maintenance than in the corrective one.&nbsp;
<img src="https://media.thedroningcompany.com/images/tincy/gZavzsgJMLV5eMf67AgxV5kHNOtZOV7i9kaU2iyh.jpg" alt="" width="626" height="352" />
In June 2020, in the middle of the pandemic, NJ Drone Academy&rsquo;s owner sold me his business. I rebranded the Academy to Byte Drone Center, and besides giving drone training, I also started providing different drone services. In 2020, I decided to have a major focus in agriculture.
<h5>WATCH!</h5>
<iframe style="width: 668px; height: 376px;" title="YouTube video player" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Oqchhlzdv2M" width="668" height="376" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
Today, we have signed alliances with software companies, drone resellers, and insurance companies to become a one-stop shop for the farmer who wants to digitize and automate their farm.
After trying several drones, sensors, and software, I decided to work with DJI products for now, as it allows me to have a smoother workflow. We use a Phantom 4 Pro, a Phantom 4 RTK multispectral, a D-RTK 2 GNSS station, and a spraying drone, Agras T10. We use this hardware to collect imagery and execute missions, and we use software such as Pix4D Mapper, Pix4D Fields, Solvi, and Drone Deploy. The integration of this hardware and software helps us guide the farmer to make the best decisions. We can assess the crops' health, count plants, inspect and report disasters to crop insurance companies, and we can also provide some spraying services in certain fields&mdash;thanks to our collaboration with Part 137 certified company, Hawk Eye Spray Drone.&nbsp;
At this moment, we are working on getting our own Part 137 and the waiver to fly over 55 pounds, which would increase our efficiency.&nbsp;
I think farming has to change, and it will do so in the next five years. The United States has been a little bit slow in adopting this technology, because there are many regulations (as there should be). However, I don&rsquo;t think we are far away from having digital farming as a mainstream way of producing food.&nbsp;
<h5>Discover More...</h5>
<img src="https://media.thedroningcompany.com/images/tincy/vLfLgwqASl95m1VRYCoL3MIVzjCvTHjB9TJai3AS.jpg" alt="" width="314" height="314" />
<a href="https://agro-byte.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Click to visit website.</a>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
&nbsp;

A Pilot's Story: Drones in Agriculture

According to the 2022 Agriculture Drones: Global Market Trajectory &amp; Analytics report, the global market for Agricultural drones is expected to hit $4.4 billion (USD) by 2024.
Agricultural drones monitor crop growth via digital imaging and advanced sensors to help farmers improve efficiency and increase crop yields. Aerial views provide farmers critical data on fungal/pest infestations, irrigation problems, soil variation, and unhealthy and healthy plants. Hourly, daily, or weekly images can target trouble spots and other changes to allow better crop management.
Although China is expected to forge growth in the sector with a Compound Annual Growth Rate of 36.9 percent over the analysis period, the U.S. represents the largest regional market for agriculture drones with a 31.1-percent share of the global total. The report maintains that America's agriculture drone market is projected to hit $1.9 billion by 2024.
The massive data-collecting potential of agricultural drones is on track to disrupt the entire agriculture industry, as the technology can make farming more productive, precise, and efficient&mdash;especially considering that agriculture must quickly adapt to climate change and other environmental issues.
This is a massive benefit to the worldwide agriculture industry, as many farmers and farm workers in the United States and Europe have abandoned the sector due to falling or inconsistent financial returns and other risk factors. Tracking the last century, the total number of farm workers in the United States has fallen from 3.4 million to less than one million. The many advantageous of agricultural drones can reverse this trend by making farming a less risky and&nbsp;more efficient and productive venture.
MORE INFO!
TOP 10 USES FOR DRONES ON THE FARM FOR 2022
<iframe style="width: 702px; height: 395px;" title="YouTube video player" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/u9KtYjyD5YM" width="702" height="395" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
TOP FIVE BENEFITS OF DRONES IN AGRICULTURE
<iframe style="width: 699px; height: 393px;" title="YouTube video player" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ubANrz13Ysg" width="699" height="393" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
WANT TO JOIN THIS EXPLODING MARKET FOR DRONE PILOTS? HERE ARE SOME LEARNING RESOURCES
<a href="https://www.thedroningcompany.com/blog/how-to-find-a-drone-job" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://www.thedroningcompany.com/blog/how-to-find-a-drone-job</a>
<a href="https://www.thedroningcompany.com/blog/7-steps-to-become-a-certified-drone-pilot" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://www.thedroningcompany.com/blog/7-steps-to-become-a-certified-drone-pilot</a>
<a href="https://www.thedroningcompany.com/blog/how-to-become-a-commercial-drone-pilot-step-by-step" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://www.thedroningcompany.com/blog/how-to-become-a-commercial-drone-pilot-step-by-step</a>

Featured News Trending NewsFlying Helicopters to Oust Drones for Agricultural Use?

Featured News Trending NewsAgricultural "Drone Swarms" Lifting Off

Featured News Product NewsGuardian Agriculture enhances environmental farming with its SC1 eVTOL

Featured News Trending NewsFact.MR: Growing Drone Markets Increase Opportunities & Competition

Featured News Trending NewsA Pilot's Story: Drones in Agriculture

Featured News Trending NewsAgriculture Drone Market Projected to Reach $4.4 Billion Worldwide By 2024