Use of UAV for support of intensive agricultural management decisions: from science to commercial applications

Even in the nascent stage of unmanned aerial vehicles, it was projected that UAV technologies would closely integrate into agriculture activities at a fast pace and become a ubiquitous and low-cost tool for farming operations. Nevertheless, several years later, it is widely recognized that available UAV technology has not yet integrated into agriculture as expected despite multiple UAV platform offerings. In this paper, we discuss several concepts related to the commercial integration of UAV technology for agriculture, along with expected or existing solutions that can further its development and acceptance, especially in the US. Examples from the AggieAir UAV Research Group, at Utah State University, are included to provide a better understanding of the presented concepts.

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