2020 Fifth International Conference on Research in Computational Intelligence and Communication Networks (ICRCICN)

A Study and Analysis on Various Types of

Agricultural Drones and its Applications

Dileep M R NavaneethA V Savita Ullagaddi Ajit Danti

Department of Master of
Computer Applications,
Nitte Meenakshi Institute of
Technology,
Bengaluru, India.
dileep.kurunimakki@gmail.com
Department of Master of
Computer Applications,
Nitte Meenakshi Institute of
Technology,
Bengaluru, India.
avnavaneeth25@gmail.com
Department of Master of
Computer Applications,
Nitte Meenakshi Institute of
Technology,
Bengaluru, India.
savitaullagaddi123@gmail.com
Department of Computer Science
and Engineering,
Christ (Deemed to be University),
Bengaluru, India.
ajit.danti@christuniversity.in

Abstract— Drones are considered to be the greatest invention brief discussion about the incorporation of drones in agricultural
of mankind. Drones can be used in many areas widely. Drones field effectively in terms of best practices. There are various
can also be used in agriculture and it is called as unnamed aerial types of Agricultural Drones available, explained in the sub
vehicles (UAV). In the traditional agriculture methods land sections A through D.
vehicles are used to monitor various activities of the agriculture,
this was consuming lot of human effort and time. Using drones in A. Multi-Rotor
agriculture is more beneficial than using traditional methods for Multi-rotor drones are simplest form of drones which are
the activities. Usage of drones in agriculture provides a huge bundled with features such as framing the photography from the
benefit in terms of economy and time due to their most astonishing top view. Multirotor drones have control over the positions from
features. In recent years many surveys have proved that drones where they take photography, thereby achieving more accurate
can cover almost 10 to 15 times of the area which can be covered
results. The downside of the multi-rotor is, less endurance and
with traditional land based techniques. Drones can be controlled
speed. Because of this, these types of drones are used for only
by computers according to their capacities, that is drones can be
automated over some range of area, locating remote area, and
some agricultural activities. The below fig. 1 shows the
even can be semi-automated. Drones can be efficiently used in structure of a Multi-Rotor.
agriculture for performing certain activities such as, studying
weather conditions and variations, infection for the crops, land
fertility and many more. Because of the efficiency of the drones
they can be used in various activities of agriculture. In this paper,
a detailed study has been made on various types of agricultural
drones based on the feature, capacity, range as well as cost and the
area of agriculture where they suit the most, and a statistical
analysis about the usage of the drones in the field of agriculture.
Fig. 1. Multi-Rotor (Source: https://www.auav.com.au/articles/drone-
Keywords— Drones, Sensors, UAV, VTOL, Overflight types/)

B. Fixed-Wing
I. INTRODUCTION
Fixed-wing Rotor drones uses wing like structure for their
Agriculture is the backbone of our country. Majority of the operation. The fixed wing rotor drones uses plane like wings,
food grains are coming to cities from the village region. Now a and the method of take-off is different from the other drones.
days, it is difficult to farm agriculture using traditional methods. Initially, inertia has to be given by some external force to take
So, it is compulsory to adapt to the modern ways of agriculture off. Because of this feature these drones are again limited to
in order to reduce labour expenses, time consumption and so on, only some of the activities in agriculture.
which leads to increase in the productivity in crops. Ultimately,
the farmer will get the profit. The objective of this paper is to
provide a broad idea with respect to one of the modern form of
agriculture, i,e Agricultural Drones.
In this paper, a detailed study has been made on various
types of agricultural drones based on the features, and a
comparative analysis is made and can be concluded in the type
of drones used in the agricultural activities. Along with this, a Fig. 2. Fixed-Wing (Source: https://www.auav.com.au/articles/drone-
types/)
brief list of drone manufacturing companies is presented, and a

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C. Single-Rotor Helicopter
A single Rotor helicopter drones are having more
advantages if compared with other type of drones. For
sustaining more endurance, it is fixed with the gas
controlled system. The Aerodynamic rules stress that, if
any system is having larger rotor blades then the spin will
be less, and efficiency of the system will be more. Because
of this, the single rotor helicopters are more efficient if it is
compared with other kind of drones. Since single rotor
helicopters are having long rotor blades, it is having more
advantage in agricultural fields. The structure of single
rotor helicopter is as shown in fig. 3.
Fig. 3. Single-Rotor Helicopter (Source:
https://www.auav.com.au/articles/drone-types/)
D. Fixed-Wing
Fixed-wing hybrid VTOL (Vertical Take-off and Landing)
type of drones are a combination of the features of UAV
(Unmanned Aerial Vehicle), and the ability to remain in one
place that is hovering, and thereby retaining hybrid features.
Because of this feature, this type of drones are able to take off
from one place and are having ability to sustain over some area
vertically as shown in fig. 4.
Fig. 4. Fixed-Wing Hybrid VTOL (Source:
https://www.auav.com.au/articles/drone-types/)
Some of the information can be captured in a single eBee
flight (a category of Fixed wing drone) include:
• Indices for Vegetation viz., NDVI (Normalized
Difference Vegetation Index), CCCI (Canopy Chlorophyll
Content Index), NDRE (Normalized Difference Red Edge),
MCARI (Modified Chlorophyll Absorption in Reflectance
Index), CWSI (Crop Water Stress Index).
• Counts for Plants
• Soil water levels
• Soil Temperature
• 3D Mapping/Topography
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The rest of the paper deals with Literature Survey in
Section-2. Section-3 gives the Parametric Study and various
manufacturers of agricultural drones. Section-4 explains best
practices & applications and finally, Section-5 deals with
Conclusions and Discussions.
II. LITERATURE SURVEY
In the world of technology various inventions are
accomplished. Since research is a continuous process, the basic
idea of flying vehicles is extended over a large area and in this
context, agricultural drones are also included. Based on the
features of drones, various systems are developed as
applications of drones in various areas.
Costa F Ueyama et al [1], has demonstrated the use of UAV
and wireless sensor network in various agricultural applications
efficiently. Faical B S et al[2], made a detailed study on the use
of UAV and wireless sensor networks in agriculture for spraying
pesticides. Dr. K. Gayathri Devi et al[3], has made a review on
application of drones for crop health monitoring and spraying
pesticides and fertilizer which demonstrates various method of
spraying pesticides. Huang Y Hoffmann et al [4], has explained
the development technique for spray system for an unmanned
aerial vehicle platform. S.R. Kurkute et al[5], demonstrated the
usage of drones in smart agriculture in terms of technical report.
Kale S D et al [6], designed a system of agriculture drone for
spraying fertilizer and pesticides. Morey N S et al [7], has made
a detailed study on agriculture drone for fertilizers and pesticides
spraying. T Ryan and Kim H J [8], demonstrated a the design
of PD-tunable control system for a Quadcopter. Swapnil R
Kurkute et al [9], made a survey on automatic liquid mixing and
bottle filling. V V Klemas [10], has made an extensive research
on environmental and Coastal remote sensing from unmanned
aerial vehicles. Xue X et al [11], has demonstrated a focused
approach to develop an UAV based automatic aerial spraying
system. Zarco Tejada P J et al [12], has made a detailed study
on Fluorescence, temperature and narrow-band indices acquired
from a unmanned aerial vehicle platform for water stress
detection using a micro-hyperspectral green field imager and a
thermal camera.
III. PARAMETRIC STUDY
Each kind of drone has its own and unique features when it
comes to operation. Since drone is a small flying machine, and
agriculture will be done over vast areas, drones are best suited
in agriculture as a tool for studying, analyzing, the
environments, temperatures, humidity of the agricultural land.
Apart from the above factors, agriculture also depends on many
more factors for successful crop harvesting. In this context
various types of drowns can be used in agriculture process for
different applications depending on the features of the drones.
The below Table-I shows how drones are categorized based on
features.
 TABLE I. VARIOUS TYPES OF DRONES WITH FEATURES, • Economic Factors
PURPOSE AND PRICE
• Labor Issues
Type • Varying Climate Conditions – some times
Price
of • Lack of Knowledge
Parametric Analysis Purpose ($AU
Dron • Tight Bonding with Traditional Techniques
D)
es
Accessibility- Easily Because of Some of the reputed organizations developing
controllable over a range the feature it agricultural drones are shown in the below table-II.
Easy to use can be used
Efficient VTOL leads to in Taking
Multi overflight photograph TABLE II. DRONE MANUFACTURING ORGANIZATIONS
and $5k-
- Superior camera control. Agricultural Drones
capturing $6k Country
Rotor Can function in a Manufacturing
restricted area. videos of
particular Organizations
Multi rotors have
usually less flight time. areas. Ag Eagle United States
Little payload capability American Robotics United States
Elongated fortitude Geographical
Huge region coverage Mapping, DJI (Da-Jiang Hong Kong
Rapid flight speed. channel Innovations)
Fixed Take off and balancing Monitoring, $25k- Precision Hawk United States
- needs more space. and used in $120
Wing No VTOL. electrical k Sensefly (Parrot) Switzerland
power
Appropriate training is
inspections Sentera United States
needed for operators.
Costly.
Strong hover flight and IV. BEST PRACTICES AND APPLICATIONS
VTOL.
The usage of drones in agriculture sector is gaining
Because of Gas power
popularity day by day because of its precession and speed of
systems the endurance is
collecting the needed information. The software and Hardware
more. Can be used instruments which are used in the drones also contribute in
Singl Can able to carry heavier for data $25k- popularity of the drones. As the Software and Hardware of the
e- payloads transfer over $300 drones improved, the performance of the drones are also greatly
Rotor Appropriate training is a wide range k improved. Some of the best practices and the applications of
needed for operators of area. the drones are discussed in the below subsections.
LiDAR (Light Detection
and Ranging) Laser
scanning for Aerial view. A. Estimating soil condition
Costly. One of the major applications of the drones are checking the
VTOL and extended Used for condition of the soil. In the traditional approach of farming
endurance flight delivering In there are various steps involved in examining the soil, like
Fixed
Not ideal for balancing or items for Deve visiting the ground manually with physical equipment and
Wing
frontward flight needy in lopm examining the prototype of soil for various factors, Where the
Hybri
In development stage. specific ent drone consists of various censors and well developed
d
aerial Phase equipment’s for examining the soil accurately, and thereby
distance giving correct reports.

Agricultural Drones are manufactured by various

companies in India as well as in other countries such as U S A,
Canada, South Africa, Australia and so on. The challenge is to
adopt this kind of agriculture in India. Due to various factors,
these modern agricultural methods are implemented only to
some extent. Some of the flaws, India is facing to adopt recent
and modern techniques of agriculture are listed below.
B. Planting future crops
In agriculture, the drones are not only used for providing the
weather report or other activity reports but also physically can
capable to plant seeds in the soil. Recently some of the Drone
manufacturing companies are experimenting over this activity,
in view of providing smooth, fast and effective smart
agriculture methods.

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 Drone seed is a company which recently experimented on TABLE III. Comparative Analysis of Drones on Best Practices
planting the seeds in the soil by the method of spraying, and Drones Types
spraying even water on the seeds which are planted, and thereby
an effort is being made to reduce human intervention. Best Multi- Fixed- Single- Fixed
Practices Rotor Wing Rotor Wing
in Hybri
C. Fighting infections and pests Agricultu d
Another most important category of agriculture is the
identification of infections and pests in the farming area. re
Agricultural drones can also help in identification of infections Estimating Good Moderate Good Poor
and pests, and the amount of inflammation can also be soil
identified, and spraying suitable amount of medicine on the condition
crops which got infected, thereby reducing the human effort.
Planting Good Moderate Good Good
D. Agriculture spraying future
Since drones are the flying machines, to use these drones in crops
agriculture suitably for smart farming, spraying technique can
be adopted. The sensors in the drones will collect the Fighting Good Good Moderate Poor
information from agricultural lands, and based on the necessity infections
the fertilizers and pesticides will be sprayed on the required and pests
crops.
The drones are also capable of identifying the crops which Agriculture Bad Moderate Poor Good
got infected, the amount of infection, and based on the amount spraying
of infection, the fertilizers will be sprayed on particular crops,
and leaving the healthy crops without spraying the pesticides. Crop Good Bad Good Poor
surveillan
E. Crop surveillance ce
In the process of agriculture, monitoring the health of the Livestock Mode Moderate Moderate Good
crops is a necessary activity. In this context, in traditional monitoring rte
approach, frequent visits will be given by the farmer’s
agricultural lands and monitors the status of the crops. But if
the agricultural lands are huge, monitoring all the crops on daily V. CONCLUSIONS AND DISCUSSIONS
basis is a very tough task for the farmers, in such cases drones In this paper, a wide category about agricultural drones are
are more capable of visiting all the lands and thereby monitors discussed. Different categories of Agricultural drones are
the crops and information can be maintained periodically. discussed based on features, nature of work, cost and
F. Livestock monitoring requirement. It is found out that, many types drones are suitable
in agricultural fields for performing various activities. Along
Drones are not only used in agriculture but also helpful in with agriculture there are many associated activities such as,
harvesting animals. Animals such as cow, sheep etc, if lost, poultry, sericulture, fisheries etc. In these fields also drones
then drones can be used to detect the location of these animals play major roles for performing some important and key
by using sensors and can collect the information of the location activities. Majorly in agriculture, the drones are used in
of the pet animals. Apart from this, drones are also helpful in information gathering, providing reports, some physical
identifying wounded pet animals which are lost, and can help activities, animal surveillance, crop information, spraying
the harvester to solve the problem, and there by drones play a pesticides etc. Totally, using drones in agriculture and other
major role in surveillance of pets. related industries opens the door for smart farming. If drones
A comparative analysis of drones, which specifies, the area are utilized in all the activities of agriculture and related
where the type of drone is effective in use, based on best industries, then there is no doubt that the country will gain huge
practices is as shown in Table-III below. In Table-III the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) from agriculture. The
notations used to specify suitability of the drones are given by percentage of drone usage in agricultural sector in the different
Good, Moderate, and Poor, where Good stands for best regions of the world is as shown in fig. 5.
suitability, Moderate for average, and Poor for less suitability.

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 Fig. 5: Usage of Drones in Agriculture (Source:
https://www.visiongain.com/report/agricultural-drones-robots-market-report-
2017-2027/)

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