US farms have had to deal with a range of concerns including labor shortages, trade wars, climate change, water shortages and COVID-19. Despite these challenges, crop yields have increased and GHG emissions have decreased as a result of more efficient field management practices, new plant strains, environmentally friendly cultivation techniques and increased use of internet/broadband, where available. Precision Agriculture (PA) uses sensors, robots, and UAV to compile real-time data on crop, livestock, and equipment status. In the absence of cell towers/Wi-Fi farmers deploy their own power network for PA use. Though UAV have a proven operational track record, particularly with the military, their use in PA are hampered by government UAV pilot licensing requirements, limited range/payload capabilities, and operational issues (battery life, computing requirements, environmental effects).
Investigators have developed a collaborative approach for using multiple (e.g., swarm) UAV where airborne computational requirements are shared between individual vehicles and transmitted to a ground-based control station for assigning field tasks (plowing, seeding, weeding, watering, pruning, harvesting) to robots for more efficient, cost effective field management practices.
Competitive Advantages
Opportunity
The global PA sector was valued at $5.3 billion in 2019 and is expected to reach $14.1 billion at a CAGR of 12.7% by 2026. The global UAV market including use of this technology in PA was valued at $45 billion in 2018.
Rowan University is looking for a partner for further development and commercialization of this technology through a license. The inventor is available to collaborate with interested companies.