Drone project aimed at helping farmers cheaply monitor crops

Drones are used for everything from shooting movies to delivering pizzas, and now, a summer research team out of Carlton University may have found a way to help farmers cheaply monitor their crops.

When Krissia Quesney Nevarez was applying for Mitacs Globalink, a program that connects international undergraduates with research partnerships across Canada, she was compelled by a project out of Ottawa.

Headed by Jeremy Laliberté, an associate professor in engineering at Carlton, the project examines how drones could use a camera that detects levels of photosynthesis in a plant. That way, the device can measure, through infrared readings, how plants are absorbing sunlight.

Growing up on a farm in Valle del Yaqui, Mexico, a region that’s recently been prone to drought, Quesney Nevarez was familiar with how weak crops could affect the local economy.

“When I saw this project I was totally interested, because I had always tried to find a way to help the people that live like me,” the 22-year-old told Yahoo Canada News.

Laliberté says this kind of technology normally would be too costly for most farmers.

“This technology isn’t new,” he says. “People have been using helicopters and UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicle] to do this but it’s extremely expensive. What we’re trying to do here is see if there’s a low cost approach that could be made available for farmers who would never be able to afford other systems.”

The camera and drone the team was working with ran about $100 each, making it a viable option.

Laliberté credits Quesney Nevarez, who’s an electronics engineering student at Instituto Tecnologico Superior de Cajeme, for integrating the camera into the project’s existing drone. She focused on safely securing the device on the UAV, stabilizing the aircraft and testing how it affected battery levels.

“She essentially put all the pieces together,” he says.

While the drone has been tested in the classroom, the team members are waiting to hear back from Transport Canada as to whether they been accepted for a permit that would allow them to use it outdoors. Once they do, they’ve received permission to fly over an Ottawa farmer’s land and test their camera out.

“The camera will tell you there’s something wrong with the plant” says Laliberté. “It won’t tell you that it’s because of water, or because of insects or stress. But it can give a famer a bit of an early warning that there’s something wrong in a particular area of the farm.”

Since the program is only 12 weeks, Quesney Nevarez says she won’t be able to take her studies as far as she’d like.

“Time hasn’t allowed me to make geo-referencing capabilities to produce mosaic maps or 2D maps,” she says. “But I’m sure professor Laliberté will be working on it after I finish.”