There has been a lot of hype about drones in farming.
The next generation of low cost, consumer grade drones promises a camera quality to getting close to professional mapping drones. If it’s accurate enough that software can identify features like vine posts and fences, and is increasingly capable of capturing datasets like terrain, all of these things can be imported into Platfarm affordably.
But when you talk to growers, you will hear a lot about the difficulty of getting good images, or about mishaps as their expensive tech smashed to the ground.
So a couple of weeks ago we introduced the newest member of our team: DJI Mavic 3 — it’s going to need a catchier nickname! This little drone has the ability to capture high resolution imagery and topography at a 15km transmission range, and we are using it to explore Platfarm integration, as well as opportunities to assist with farmer onboarding through map feature detection.
One thing we discovered straight out of the box: there’s a bug in the drone we brought. And the GPS isn’t working properly. So if you’re finding this technology frustrating, you’re not alone!
If we can iron out the bugs, drones could allow you to map your vineyard and draw all of your rows straight into your account. Watch this space!