Best DIY Multirotor for Agricultural use?

Hi,

I have been doing a lot of reading around the use of UAV's for Agriculture, a lessons learned by 3DR staff related to the agricultural use of UAV's (http://robohub.org/ten-lessons-for-farm-drones/) basically said that multi rotors would be a more favourable option compared to fixed wings due to various reasons.

Multirotors come at the cost of endurance, i would really like to get some views on currently what would be the best DIY multirotor frame etc within the $1000 range that can carry a basic canon camera converted to gather NDVI images and use this in a third world country where there aren't many regulations around the usage of this technology.The goal would be a combination of basic capability of collecting NDVI images with a DIY camera with maximum endurance to maximize coverage.

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  • I am a horticulturist living in a 3rd World country (Zimbabwe) and have got myself a 3DR Y6 for this purpose. My interest is horticulture where I don't plan to be covering large areas and identifying precise problems (to the tree, cabbage whatever) will be likely. Also bear in mind for this purpose precision landings may be required which would not be suitable for a fixed wing.

    I have some years of model experience so am going to the effort of learning to fly the Y6 manually (more fun that way too!) but it is not necessary. I live on a research farm and watched a researcher from another organization (CIMMYT) demonstrating a fixed wing foamy. He admitted he hadn't the faintest idea how to fly it and it did not need a lot of space to land. Conditions were blustery in the lee of a line of large trees and it coped admirably.

  • Will let you know during week of components I use, sorry cutting fire wood and learning to use the new tractor, drone time is limited this weekend. As soon as i have some time will put a parts list together for you. Reading everyone's comments it's amazing what people have achieved.
    Cheers
  • For commercial purpose if money is not the problem I would go for proven systems / solutions like http://www.microdrones.com/index-de.php or http://www.mikrokopter.de/de/startseite .

    • Not looking at it from a commercial perspective....would be targeting it primarily for research purposes and application of the technology for a low cost solution.

    • You can do so many things with a plain Bixler it should be in the dual-use list lol...  You can even cut through it and change the config.

      This one is used for training (film, camera + chdk, telemetry, auto missions with precision dropping), 

      Got smacked a lot but still going strong. Hand launching only, belly landing or landing in my hand.

      bixler-mini.jpg

    • DU,

      What are you dropping?

      I'm thinking of using Glow In The Dark Paint to drop on wild hogs at a feeder to make them easier to follow through the trees.

      Deploy using a F550, biodegradable water balloons and Bomb Release

    • Drone-university.com is a school, students just learn to target and drops a paper wrapped chocolate in it. Each time the drop is on target, student can eat the chocolate. That way you learn VERY quickly ;-)

      In my area, they make a small quantity of pesticide liquid fall at the very head of a sick palmtree to cure it.

      Great stuff as getting to the top of a palmtree is very time consuming and costly while a multi rotor can do it in a few seconds.

      drone-university.com - This website is for sale! - drone university Resources and Informati…
      This website is for sale! drone-university.com is your first and best source for all of the information you’re looking for. From general topics to mo…
    • Thanks DU,

      Just checked HK...there seem to be multiple Bixlers...which optio do you recommend..and what ESC's battery etc should i get with it. This is all great information. Thanks

    • Opinions will differ here. Why don't you watch the flitetest video ?

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VecIXvf5qv8

      I have myself the Bixler 1, I cannot talk about the Bixler 2 which I don't know :-)

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