Preluded by the drone technology introductory seminar on
November 2014, the FutureRice Program in partnership with Project IPaD,
conducted a planning workshop on the implementation of drone technology in rice
research and development last February 26-27 at PhilRice CES, IPR Room. Several
interested PhilRice researches participated and submitted proposals during the
event.
The workshop tackled the basics of drone technology or
Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) as an introductory training for the participants.
The resource speakers from UAS Unmanned Systems Consulting, SKyEye Inc. of
Ateneo Innovation Center and University of Southern Mindanao also provided the
participants with in-depth information on the possible applications of drone
technology to rice research and development particularly in crop protection and
farm mapping and monitoring.
This
workshop has given the experts and participants a chance to interact and refine
their proposals. The resource speakers were also able to gain more precise
information on the designing and refining of UAV specifications that will be
developed for PhilRice.
On the first day of the workshop, Mr. Julian
Teodoro of UAS Unmanned Systems Consulting conducted a consultative seminar on
the basics of UAV’s and imagery processing. During his discussion, the
participants were given time to ask about the possible drone designs
and payloads for their concept implementation. The researchers also presented
their concept proposals to the group for comments and concept proofing with Mr.
Teodoro.
After the
lecture and discussion, the participants went to the FutureRice farm for the UAV
flight and navigation demonstration. The drone flight test captured images of
the experiment field. Later on, the images were processed using AgiSoft
PhotoScan. The output was an orthomosaic of
the field. Another flight demonstration was conducted in the afternoon at the
PhilRice Airstrip, capturing images of the experiment field which also created
an orthomosaic.
On the second day of the
workshop, the focus of SkyEye, Inc., was to present their drone applications in
agriculture projects. They presented their project collaborations with DOST,
local government units and other agencies. After a short lecture and discussion
on drone rice research and development applications, they have also conducted a
flight demonstration and navigation which captured almost half of PhilRice
experiment field. The photos were also processed into an orthomosaic.
In the
afternoon, the components of UAVs that will be developed was finalized
including the payloads, sensors and other accessories. Also, the image
processing and hardware requirements
was itemized as well as the materials for the UAV mobile laboratory.
FutureRice
partners from University of Southern Mindanao – College of Engineering and Computing
also joined the event providing inputs on the design and structure of the system to be developed. They have also discussed and demonstrated drone flight and navigation
with the participants.
Moreover,
listed are the initial list of studies or activities that will be implemented in PhilRice using drone technology.1. Rice area mapping
2. Monitoring and evaluation of RCM deployment
3. Biotic and abiotic stress assessment of rice paddy
4. Agronomic data collection
