In California, AeroVironment, Inc. began a year-long study with California State University, Fresno to research how unmanned aerial vehicle imagery and analytics could potentially detect varying levels of water stress in almond trees. Almonds represent California’s second largest agricultural commodity, valued at $5.33 billion in 2015 and account for approximately 14 percent of California’s total irrigated farmland.
A UAV configured with a 24-megapixel photogrammetric camera and a 6-channel multispectral sensor will capture data and aerial imagery of the Fresno State University Agricultural Laboratory orchards. Using a cloud-based analytics platform, researchers will process and analyze the aerial sensor data for correlation with ground measurements of almond tree hydration levels gathered using a variety of soil and plant sensors.
With results in September 2017, the study expects a greater understanding of the types of imagery and data that will allow almond producers to make better water management decisions while obtaining optimal yield.