I’m often accused of being on another planet. This week you
could say I have been in another dimension.
My lad got himself one of those virtual reality headsets to
play with and I have spent a bit of time with it over my head. All in the name of research of course. There’s
a comfortable headset, motion controllers, and external sensors for setting up
a virtual room. These allow full 360 degree viewing which makes for a most
realistic experience. I am able to move around the room without going out of
range and hitting anything solid. You do really feel part of the VR world and
so far I have sliced hundreds of watermelon and cabbages and built a few brick
walls with an all-enveloping game of Minecraft.
Virtual reality headsets have been used effectively for high
end property developments both for the investors and the end purchasers to use
before parting with cash. It’s not going to be too long until these systems are
used on landscape design. The system is already here for us to fly drones over
gardens taking in all of the dimensions and terrain, there’s actually an app
that could do that for us. This information can be fed into a design program
where the landscaping ideas for the customer can be fed into and then this
information can be digitally enhanced for 3D headsets. Customers can actually feel what it will be
like to be in their new garden and if my lad has anything to do with the
programming it’ll also include a sword for you to be able to chop off all of
the daffodils and gain points as you walk along.
Drones
Drones are becoming increasingly popular. The ability to
have an HD camera on it has revolutionized filming (every TV programme has that
cinematic feel to it now) There was a time when estate agents had to hire
someone at great cost with a camera strapped to a helium balloon on a still
windless day to float over a property to get an aerial view. Now this can be
done any time for under €40 and you get to keep the camera and drone.
Drones can do more than spy on the neighbours, film local
landmarks and scare dogs on beaches though. They are starting to be used in a
lot of horticultural and agricultural related ways. Aerial vehicles without
pilots (UAV’s) have been used since the 1980’s and newer data gathering
software is claiming to revolutionise the industry. Some agricultural producers
are embracing strategies for producing food, increasing productivity, and
making sustainability a priority. Drones, it is said, are seen to be a part of
the solution, along with closer collaboration between governments, technology
leaders, and industry.
Ways aerial and
ground-based drones could be used in agriculture and horticulture:
Soil and field analysis:
Drones can be instrumental at the start of the crop cycle. They produce precise
3-D maps for early soil analysis, useful in planning seed planting patterns.
Planting:
Startups have created drone-planting systems that achieve an uptake rate of 75
percent and decrease planting costs by 85 percent. These systems shoot pods
with seeds and plant nutrients into the soil, providing the plant all the
nutrients necessary.
Crop spraying:
Distance-measuring equipment—ultrasonic echoing and lasers enables a drone to
adjust altitude as the topography and geography vary, and thus avoid
collisions. Consequently, drones can scan the ground and spray the correct
amount of liquid, modulating distance from the ground and spraying in real time
for even coverage. The result: increased efficiency with a reduction of in the
amount of chemicals penetrating into groundwater.
Irrigation:
Drones with hyperspectral, multispectral, or thermal sensors can identify which
parts of a field are dry or need improvements. Additionally, once the crop is
growing, drones allow the calculation of the vegetation index, which describes
the relative density and health of the crop, and show the heat signature, the
amount of energy or heat the crop emits.
Health assessment:
By scanning a crop using both visible and near-infrared light, drone-carried
devices can identify which plants reflect different amounts of green light and
NIR light. This information can produce multispectral images that track changes
in plants and indicate their health.
Within Greenhouses:
It can be difficult for a grower to check the health of thousands of plants.
Currently, 5 to 25% of plants go to waste because of diseases, bacteria, fungi,
damage, and other causes. Work is underway on a drone that can fly inside
greenhouses and analyse the plants. With the naked eye, you can only see the
effects of plant diseases after three days, but by then it’s too late. Drones
can carry sensors that immediately measure the climate around the plant:
humidity, brightness, temperature, and CO2-levels.
Greenhouse cover
damage detection: In practice, damage to the cover of a greenhouse due to a
storm or whirlwind is not easy to detect. It is hard to count the broken
windows, especially when a greenhouse is filled with crops. Soon, this will all
become easier. Insurance company Achmea and damage specialist PinC Agro are
researching the possibility of detecting damage from the air. The first tests
using a drone have been promising. They are now working on a camera that will
not only spot broken windows but will also be able to detect cracked panes.
Crop growth from the
air: It is quite possible to monitor plant growth from the air. A thermal
camera can detect drought stress, diseases, viruses, and fungi.
