Remote Control Chopper Monitors Crops From Above

Remote Control Chopper Monitors Crops From Above

The knee-high contraption resting on a patch of dirt near an orange grove looked like a cross between a tiny helicopter and a spider.

But this toy isn't for kids; the helicopter made for hobbyists is actually the latest technology in crop monitoring.

Standing nearby with a shiny silver control panel that looks like something out of a Star Trek episode, University of Florida researcher Reza Ehsani is the pilot of the remote-controlled chopper. He flipped a few switches and the miniature aircraft lifted gently into the air and whizzed over the green trees. Ehsani fiddled with a toggle and the helicopter hovered some 30 feet in the air over an orange tree.

"I call it the whirlybird," he said.

Although the idea is still in the research stage, Ehsani and other Florida researchers said it's a promising and inexpensive way to view crops from above, giving farmers much-needed clues about what's really happening between the leaves and branches. They've attached a GPS device under its domed top and expensive camera equipment to its belly. Using those GPS coordinates, researchers can visit an area more than once, snapping high-resolution images from above. The photos help researchers and farmers do everything from count individual trees and detect problems with watering to monitor the deadly citrus greening disease, a vital task in Florida.

The Florida researchers' technology has also been used for crops in Oregon, Nebraska and Arkansas and even Malaysia. It costs between $3,000 and $20,000, depending on the size of the model chopper and sophistication of the camera. The images are then downloaded and scrutinized with computer programs.He and other researchers have looked into aerial crop monitoring for years with limited success. Full-sized helicopters and fixed-wing airplanes flown by a human pilot were too costly for most farmers to use regularly. Scheduling flight time and weather also hampered repeat monitoring. And photos weren't great because the planes and helicopters couldn't get close to the crops.