Skippy Scout Soil: Drone-based soil sampling system

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CHALLENGEThe FAO estimates that food production needs to increase 70% in order to feed a world population of 9.8 billion by 2050\.Healthy soils lay at the foundations of agricultural development, healthy and nutritious food production, and essential ecosystem services, which are crucial to our basic survival as well as our planet's sustainable future.Sustainable management of soil could produce up to 58% more food and agricultural soils are among the planet's largest reservoirs of carbon and hold potential for expanded carbon sequestration.Reliable soil data are essential in implementing sustainable soil management and more regular measurements are required for Carbon sequestration schemes. However current soil-sampling techniques are time-consuming, being either manual, or using machinery which is costly, produces carbon emissions and itself can damage the soil. SOLUTIONDrone technologies offer significant potential to tackle these challenges. They can deliver notable time and cost savings over other techniques (e.g. up to 20x faster than walking) and environmental benefits (e.g. no ground compaction or carbon emissions).Micro-SME business, Drone Ag will develop and test Skippy Scout Soil, a system that will be more cost effective, timely and environmentally friendly than other solutions currently available.This novel technology will enable Drone Ag to extend its market leading technology into the soil analysis market.R&D will address hardware and software challenges, focusing on two key innovations to develop the system and will lead to an efficient, accurate, easy to use, compact and affordable, novel solution that is disruptive to the current market.We will work closely with key industry stakeholders to ensure the solution will meet their requirements.The project will deliver economic benefits to the wider supply chain and end-users. Environmental benefits will result in particular, with more efficient analysis for carbon measurement, less soil compaction and less carbon emissions. Social impacts include high-value job creation.