Drones For Agriculture

Aerial Agriculture LLC, a tech startup founded by undergraduate students in Purdue's College of Engineering, developed and piloted agricultural drones that can capture specialized images of entire crop fields.

The drones captured images can be stitched together
into maps, which are direct representations of the
crops' health. The technology ultimately reduces
input costs and increases farmers' yields.

This technology could allow farmers to reduce excess
fertilizer and input costs while simultaneously
increasing yields.

Aerial Agriculture uses specialized cameras to convert images into valuable vegetation indices that represent crop health and allow agronomists to determine the amount of nitrogen and fertilizer that needs to be applied in specific locations throughout the field.

Austin Deardorff, Aerial Agriculture co-founder and a student in Purdue's College of Engineering said, "Our technology can pinpoint crop areas that need more attention, which allows farmers to then apply more inputs and address potential crop issues immediately, as opposed to after the fact."

Other members of the startup include Justin Kinney, Tyler Landers, Justin Sutcliff, Taylor Wetli, Angelo DeFlora, Suzanne Bagnoli and Paul Pratt, all undergraduate students in the College of Engineering.

Source: https://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/