The Future of Farming: Guided Systems Technologies

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQX-L7vbbTs
The commercial unmanned aerial vehicle market is expected to reach $2.2 billion in Georgia by 2025. At the forefront of this emerging market is the Georgia Center of Innovation for Aerospace who has identified three distinct industry clusters for success with this technology: military, public safety, and agriculture.

When the opportunity arose to test an unmanned aerial vehicle designed for crop imaging by Stockbridge, Georgia based Guided Systems Technologies, the Center of Innovation for Aerospace joined with the Center of Innovation for Agribusiness on a research project to test the potential of the technology. Joined by University of Georgia agronomists, aviation specialists from Middle Georgia State College's School of Aviation and funding support from the Georgia Peanut and Cotton Commissions, the group began surveying test cotton and peanut fields at the Sunbelt Ag Expo during the 2013 growing season.

The results far exceeded everyone's expectations and the agronomists indicated the type of high quality imagery collected by these unmanned vehicles will help producers and agricultural consultants in identifying the health of crops on a weekly and even daily basis. This technology gives producers the ability to identify areas of pest damage, and water and nutrient deficiencies in a field so that they could spot treat with water, herbicide or fungicide whenever necessary providing a number of cost-saving benefits.

Learn more about this project by watching the video above.

For more information on the Centers of Innovation visit GeorgiaInnovation.org.