Development and Applications of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles: Challenges and Opportunities

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1 Development and Applications of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles: Challenges and Opportunities Yanbo Huang Research Ag Engineer, Lead Scientist, USDA-ARS Adjunct Professor, Texas A&M University, Mississippi State University, Delta State University

2 The operation of the systems is controlled either under a human operator through electronic control or autonomously by onboard computers Space-borne Satellite control and operation Airborne airplane and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) flight control Ground-based Unmanned ground vehicle (UGA) control and operation Unmanned Systems

3 Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) Science/Engineering Unmanned aerial system (UAS) - Industry Drone Media/Military Any aircraft without a human pilot aboard Autonomous (Automated) Remotely piloted (Manual) UAV-UAS-Drone

4 Began in the early 1900s Used in military in World War I (USA) and advanced in World War II (UK, USA) Civil use of UAVs follows up after the Cold War UAV History

5 USD 67.3 billion in 2024 (based on 2014) USD 52.3 billion in 2025 (based on 2017) UAV Market in the World

6 770,000 FAA drone registrations in March 2017 Over 1 million in January 2018 UAVs in USA

7 USD 0.3 billion projected commercial drone revenue in 2025 (based on 2015) UAVs in Europe

8 Air robots First country to use and commercialize UAV technology for plant protection UAVs in Japan

9 Military First successful unmanned flight in1959 Established the first university UAV research department in 1962 In 1964 and 1979 approved for research institute of UAV technology Institute of Remote Sensing Applications, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2000s Space missions Disaster monitoring Now 10% world market share and 75 billion RMB in 2025 (based on 2018) In China

10 Flight control (brain of UAV) GPS Data acquisition (IMU to maneuver) Autopilot (automated/autonomous) RC control (remotely piloted) UAV Components

11 Weight (include battery or fuel) Payload Duration Ceiling Size/dimension Speed Operating temperature $$ UAV Characteristic Parameters

12 Fixed wing Helicopter Multirotor, popularized in early 2010s Wide variety of shapes, sizes, configurations, and characteristics. UAV Variety

13 Commercial and consumer (4:6) Photogrammetry and remote sensing Precision agriculture Low-altitude remote sensing Chemical application Forest and ecosystem Urbanization surveying and mapping Media coverage and film production Homeland security Hobbyist/DIY Others your imagination and creativity Applications of UAVs

14 Mission Planning UAV Flight Mission Flight Mission Complete? Yes No No Stop Mission? Yes Back to Origin Upload Data to Cloud? Yes Upload and Data Processing No Download Data from Memory Card

15 Consumer grade Industrial grade UAV Products

16 Multispectral RGB Thermal Hyperspectral Also portable LIDAR and SAR systems and the system for Oblique Photography Sensors Used on UAVs

17 Infrared temperature (IRT) sensors for temperature of Ambient air Soil Canopy Infrared and time of flight (ToF) distance sensors (Ultrasonic, LIDAR) for: Plant height Biomass Optical sensors Ultraviolet, RGB, Infrared Open Source Sensors on UAVs

18 UAV Data Processing

19 Orthomosaic images Spectral images: RGB, multispectral, thermal, hyperspectral Point clouds Digital Surface Model (DSM) Digital Terrain Model (DTM) 3D modeling Urban model, crop plant height, biomass Multitude of visualization, animation, rendering and mass customization UAV Data Products

20 Can fly at very low altitude for target-specific operation with very high resolution image data (cm mm/pixel) Airborne remote sensing 0.5-1m/pixel Satellite High 1-15m/pixel Medium 30-50m/pixel Low 250-1,000m/pixel Negligible atmospheric interference but cloud shadows still a problem Can flexibly fly into hilly, mountainous and valley areas 3D point cloud data processing from stereo vision with SfM Near-ground truth data measuring without restriction of field conditions Advantages of UAV Remote Sensing

21 Remote sensing Pesticide application Japan and China Australia and New Zealand South America United States Europe Others UAV-Based Systems for Precision Agriculture

22 Pre-Remote Sensing Meteorological Observation Zonal Analysis Prescription Map Spray Application Post-Remote Sensing Application Technology No Satisfactory? Yes Engineering Experiments Spray Models Complete

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24 Dual Camera Systems Plant height estimation Crop yield estimation Crop stress Pest management Crop herbicide injury Herbicide-resistant weeds Nutrient management Irrigation management Crop breeding and phenotyping Crop harvest management Research, Development and Agricultural Applications of UAV- Based Systems

25 Estimated Height (m) y = 1.2x R² = Field Measured Height (m)

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27 Lint Yield (kg/ha) Yield (kg/ha) Plant Height (m) y = 0.61x x R² = 0.97 y = 0.39x x R² = 0.94 Field Measured PC Estimated y = -0.12x x R² = 0.42 y = -0.23x x R² = Plant Height (cm) Estimated Field Ruler-Measured

28 Lint Yield (kg/ha) y = 7139x 139 R² = CUC

29 Glyphosate Dicamba

30 varieties 102 plots 3 reps

31 Compared with military UAVs commercial/customer UAVs are much lower grade in product life, quality and reliability. So take a good care and be careful in flight operation. Don t expect too high Payload 10-50kg? Power - Electric UAVs dominate the market. Presently battery can only power the UAV flight duration minutes for multirotors depending on payload and weather conditions. Fixed-wing may last longer (45-60 min) Limits of UAVs

32 Bandwidth - Image cloud uploading, computing, downloading and visualization are still slow with practical requirements Image processing (mosaicking) may have system artifacts and smooth out the original information Limits of UAV Data Processing

33 Technical Restrictions Batteries GPS/GNSS Law and Rules Visible range Speed limit Ceiling requirement Weight and size UAV Law and Rules Fly farther, faster, higher (Lower) with more power?

34 Safety, privacy and social management Safety Technical: Sense and avoid Laws and rules US FAA Hobby or commercial? Register any aircraft if over 0.55 lbs (0.25 kg). Operators must pass FAA pilot examination and get FAA certified If less than 55 lbs (25 kg), certified operator can fly UAV under 400 ft (120 m) in the visible distance Certificate of Waiver or Authorization (COA) Other countries and regions? UAV Law and Rules

35 International Organization for Standardization (ISO) working group (ISO/TC 023/SC 06/WG 25) Unmanned aircraft systems General specification Product systems Operation and procedures UAS Traffic Management Standards regarding UAV spraying systems American National Standards Institute (ANSI) Unmanned Aircraft Systems Standardization Collaborative (UASSC) UAV Standards

36 8,800 lb (4,000 kg)

37 UAV Indoor Operation

38 Farm-Scale Remote Sensing Big Data Service

39 Layer Level Block Size ( o ) Sphere Dimension (km) Pixel Size (m) Scale :50, :25, :10, :5, :2, :1, : : :100

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41 Artificial Intelligence and UAVs Smart flight control and navigation Automated to autonomous Fly itself with AI by sensing environment and navigating without human input (DroNet, a lightweight residual convolutional neural network (CNN) architecture)

42 Remote Sensing Pattern Recognition Machine Learning/Soft Computing Deep Learning Generative adversarial networks (GANs) Learn and create

43 Technologies for next-generation industry/agriculture Innovated methods, optimized algorithms, massive data, and super computing power for smart/intelligent industry/agriculture in cyberphysical structure IoT (Internet of Things) Automation Advanced materials, mechanical and electronics science and technology Ubiquitous collaborative robots AI/DL to advance the perception of the robotic systems Real-time process data processing, analysis, control and adaptation

44 UAV Education University, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) and K12 curriculum Robotics competitions

45 UAVs (Drones) are getting More Capable and Smarter More user-friendly operational (for dummy) Intelligent navigation (autonomous) Safer Environmentally adaptive Standardized design, manufacturing, configuration, operation and service with enhanced law and rules through social and educational management amphibious

46 THANK YOU!