Dr Reece Clothier is President of the Australian Association of Uncrewed Systems (AAUS). AAUS is Australia's peak representative body for the drone industry across land, sea, and air domains.
The Ultimate Agriculture Advantage: Interview with Australian Association for Uncrewed Systems President Dr Reece Clothier.
We recently interviewed the President of the Australian Association of Uncrewed Systems (AAUS) Dr Reece Clothier to learn about the latest developments in aerial drones and their promise and potential for Aussie farmers.
TAF: How would you describe the uncrewed systems market in Australia today?
RC: Agriculture, photography, aerial inspection, and infrastructure management are probably the largest commercial use cases for uncrewed systems, which includes aerial drones, in Australia today. A recent Deloitte study, commissioned by the Australian Government, estimated the agricultural market for aerial drones to grow to AUD1.1B by 2030, and those farming and agricultural applications would deliver further efficiency and cost savings of almost AUD3B. But it is not coming, it is already here. More and more pioneering Australian farmers consider drones as indispensable farming equipment. With so many near term applications and a relatively low risk operating environment – Australia’s farming and agriculture sector will be the one of the first industry sectors to truly capitalise off the adoption of aerial drones.
TAF: Tell us about the pay-off for aerial drones in Australian agriculture today?
RC: Most people think of aerial drones as small multi-rotor aircraft equipped with cameras or multi-spectral sensors. That is what is primarily in operation today, used largely for remote sensing and inspection in applications such as crop health management. We are starting to see the scope of applications expand quite rapidly. Aerial drones are now being deployed for precision spraying, targeting weeds and hard to access areas with spot spraying. They are also being used for planting and seed dispersal. Drones are also being used in farm maintenance for inspection of silos, fences, and large machinery. There’s a number of applications enabled by greater connectivity between devices. So you’re seeing drones that don’t just fly and collect data but also uploading that data into existing software packages and farming machinery such as spraying or fertilising delivery systems. It’s becoming increasingly less about the vehicle and the sensors and more about interconnectivity and how it feeds into the broader farming system.
TAF: What is the government doing to advance the potential of aerial drones in Australian agriculture?
RC: The Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA), the national aviation safety regulator, is continuing to work with industry to advance the safety regulations governing drones. While there is a lot of work to be done, Australia is widely seen as a world leader in this regard. Industry have been working with CASA to develop a strategic roadmap – essentially a plan for the advancement of safety regulations for this sector. Last year the Federal Government released its National Emerging Aviation Technologies policy, which took a much broader look at the key challenges that need to be addressed. This included aspects such as noise, privacy, security, spectrum, and community acceptance in addition to matters of safety. A key initiative under this policy is a funding program that aims to advance the uptake of drones – with the focus specifically on those applications that benefit rural and regional Australia. So the Government is starting to make some meaningful strides in support of the sector.
TAF: How can Australian agriculture get even more out of aerial drones today?
RC: Key to really opening up the full potential for drones in farming and agriculture is achieving beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) operation. Without it, the farmer is limited to keeping the aircraft within Visual Lines of Sight (VLOS), which would limit the size of the area a drone could be effectively deployed. If you have huge pastoral land or massive grain farms, you can’t just keep driving and stopping to launch and recover your drone. AAUS has been working collaboratively with CASA to try and forge the knowledge and understanding of what it takes to get a BVLOS approval. As a result of this work, CASA has released standard scenarios for BVLOS operations, which help streamline the requirements and process. AAUS has been delivering free webinars to help operators understand what it takes to safely operate BVLOS and how to get the necessary approvals using these standard scenarios. We are now seeing more and more BVLOS approvals being issued for operations in rural areas, but we still have work to do to broaden the scope of these approvals.
The agriculture application industry for drones will be the first to benefit from more routine BVLOS operation. Farmers are doing it now however it just takes a huge amount of effort. To open up the agriculture application, we really need to get the process moving much more smoothly.
TAF: What risks are posed by the use of aerial drones in Australian agriculture?
RC: The main challenges are in ensuring drones can be safely operated alongside other aircraft or over people and property. In particular, we need to manage the risk of a collision with another aircraft operating at low altitudes, such as helicopters or crop dusters, or a drone impacting a person or house. The relatively low utilisation of airspace and vast areas of low (or no) population mean it’s much easier to close the safety case for drone use in rural and regional areas than it does for drones operating near a city centre. This makes many farming and agricultural applications much more of a near term opportunity.
TAF: How will Australian farmers cope with so much new data sourced by aerial drones?
RC: There is a real risk of “drowning in data” and the solution really lies in connectivity and automation. Farmers don’t have time to go through hours and hours of video data or multispectral data and make sense of it. What they really need is that one image or information product that supports the decisions that need to be made. This is where data analytics and automation come in. Artificial Intelligence (AI) could aid farmers in combining, interpreting and analysing the wealth of data collected by drones and other farm sensing systems. But before all that we need to make sure the data collected by drones can be readily imported into existing farming software and automation systems. This is achieved through standardisation of interfaces and data formats.
TAF: Can you tell us more about the role of AI in aerial drones.
RC: You can liken AI to an expert consultant, available 24/7, that embodies the accumulative expertise of huge datasets. AI can be used to “see” the complex patterns and trends that lie in the data. For example, that certain areas of a crop may have an infestation or need additional water. AI can also suggest courses of action, like the particular type of insecticide and its rate of application, or the amount of water required to those identified areas. The benefit of AI lies in presenting the information relevant to good decision-making. To close the automation loop, approved courses of action could then be simply uploaded to farming spraying or irrigation systems!
Automation and AI also helps overcome issues with connectivity in rural and regional areas. Drones, and many other farm sensing systems, can collect terabytes of data. The challenge is then – how to get all this data back to where you need it? If there is automation or AI at the point of data collection (i.e., on the drone itself), the system can instead process the data in the field and just send back the one important image or piece of information needed by the farmer. So, there is a very strong case for the use of AI in farming and agricultural applications. It’s becoming increasingly less about the aircraft and more and more about the product it collects and how it connects to existing decision-making processes and farming automation systems.
TAF: What does the future look for aerial drones in Australian agriculture?
RC: Farming and agriculture is already one of the largest use cases for drones and it will continue to grow. This growth will be enabled through greater awareness amongst farmers of the applications for drones, continuing advancements in the capability of the drone platforms and associated software systems, and the streamlining of regulatory processes. Processes that enable routine and safe BVLOS operations will enable a raft of new applications, particularly in broadacre farming. Within the next decade, you could readily see large drones undertaking broad area aerial application tasks, shuttling feedstock or equipment, picking up RFID tags of livestock, and even undertaking the mustering.
Much of the technology to do this already exists. However, we still need to advance the regulatory processes to make all these great use cases a reality. AAUS is doing a lot on this front, working with CASA to advance our joint understanding of the safety case and mitigations that need to be in place. We also have a working group exploring the requirements for aerial spraying. There’s a lot of work still to be done but one thing is certain, the potential benefit is huge.
NEWS
Prodoz, a Proudly Australian and family-owned agribusiness, based in Melbourne, is strengthening its positions as national/international leader in advanced crop – science solutions through a growing portfolio of global innovation partners and a distribution footprint supported by all major distributors - includes Nutrien Ag, Elders, Lindsay Rural and Independent Rural stores.
Australia’s climate is tougher than ever. Heat spikes, dry periods, salinity, waterlogging and sudden frost events are becoming an everyday part of farmers lives.
Trace minerals are required for optimal growth, reproduction, and immunity. Optimising trace mineral status relying solely on oral supplements across a herd may fail because of variation in individual intake and reduced absorption due to antagonism of other ration components and minerals. The use of injectable trace mineral supplements has been associated with positive reproductive outcomes including improved conception rate, increased odds of pregnancy and greater final in calf rate. A study conducted on 2,168 dairy cows, administered injectable trace minerals, four weeks prior to calving and again four weeks prior to the start of mating showed treated animals had a 3.3 per cent greater final in-calf rate, and a reduced time from start of mating to conception, compared to control animals 1 . The Importance of B12 Dr Carl Eden, Technical Services Veterinarian with Boehringer Ingelheim says “Vitamin B12 is sometimes referred to as a ‘super vitamin’ because it is only required in very small amounts but vital to many essential metabolic pathways. However, demand for B12 can vary considerably during the year and we see serum levels of B12 fall at critical times, such as the first few months after calving.” Vitamin B12 contains cobalt, so deficiency in cobalt can lead to deficiency in vitamin B12 because ruminants get most of their B12 as a byproduct of ruminal fermentation where the bacteria in their rumen assemble B12 from cobalt for use by the cow. Sub-optimal trace mineral and vitamin B12 status at calving, mating, and drying off has been shown to negatively impact growth, reproduction, and immunity. Using a trace mineral injectable containing vitamin B12 can improve trace mineral and vitamin B12 status at these critical times. Marks-Min with Vitamin B12 – The Evidence In the largest trace element study to date, Marks-Min Injectable Trace Mineral with Vitamin B12 demonstrated remarkable results when compared to a reference trace mineral injection. “Given the differences between Marks-Min and other products on the market, we wanted to generate a compelling data set to demonstrate how effective it was compared to the pioneer product. We entrusted this work to a third-party research company” says Dr Eden. “We chose farms that were at the top of their game from a reproductive perspective. We made sure that the farms had no evidence of trace element or vitamin B12 deficiencies or excess.” Across all outcomes of interest, Marks-Min demonstrated clear non-inferiority when compared to the reference product. Outcomes measured included submission, pregnancy and conception rates, and six week in-calf rate. Marks-Min demonstrated it is highly suited as an alternative treatment to the reference product. Reference: 1. Hawkins, D., and B. V. S. Franklin. New Zealand Dairy Veterinarians Newsletter 24 (2007): 12-16 Company website: livestockfirst.com.au Company email address: CustomerCare.Australia@boehringer-ingelheim.com Company video: https://vimeo.com/1138807630?fl=pl&fe=cm
Find out why the first summer drench can be so important in protecting your flock’s health, plus what to look for in your summer drench of choice.
A NSW-based innovator has developed a patent-pending, front-mounted firefighting and utility system for tractors, giving farmers instant, in-cab-controlled fire suppression, water and fuel on hand, and safer solo operations.
Barko Security is bringing drone technology to agriculture while building on a decade of security and a lifetime of agricultural know-how.
