AUTOFARM: Automating UAV Technology for Orchards to Focus Agricultural Resource Management

全球粮食系统正面临越来越大的压力。日益增长的人口对高营养食品的需求日益增加，但受到粮食贫困、资源短缺、气候风险和环境问题的限制。联合国粮农组织最近发布的《世界粮食安全和营养状况》报告强调，迫切需要在宏观和微观层面进行数据驱动的决策，以提高整个粮食生产生态系统的效率。只有这样，人类才能在粮食生产的经济和环境成本与国家和国际层面日益增长的粮食不安全风险之间取得平衡。Outfield已经为国际水果种植者提供了这种数据解决方案的第一部分，使他们能够了解果园/葡萄园的状态，从而提高产量并减少资源需求。我们世界领先的系统允许种植者发射现成的无人机来调查他们的作物并进行精确的干预，提高效率和生产力，同时减轻不断变化的天气的影响。无人机技术最近取得了令人兴奋的进展，加上英国无人机法规即将发生变化，这意味着首次有可能通过无人机在一个盒子（DIAB）系统收集这些数据——从永久驻扎在农场的无人机码头自动发射的自动飞行无人机。这不仅大大减少了种植者调查和评估作物所需的劳动力，而且还可以在整个季节对作物进行持续监测，提高采样分辨率，并有可能在未来的项目中实现智能定制采样。在这个项目中，Outfield将在英格兰东部的一个商业苹果农场部署DIAB系统，这是英国第一次这样做。我们将建立操作程序来安全安装和操作这个新系统，并为在英国农场部署这些系统建立一个商业案例。虽然该项目的所有无人机飞行都将受到严格监督，但该项目将为未来的完全远程操作做准备。Outfield现有的作物测量系统表明，高时间频率数据可以改变农场的有效管理，该项目将使英国水果种植者更好地获取这些数据。Outfield将与总部位于英国的硬件开发商Idroneimages合作，准备在2025年在国际上部署AUTOFARM。这有可能使任何果园或葡萄园的水果产量立即增加10%，同时减少供应链中的化学品使用和浪费。随着该技术的未来潜力，该项目可以对我们所依赖的全球粮食系统产生巨大影响。

Global food systems are facing ever increasing pressures. A growing population with increasing demand for high nutrition food is being limited by food poverty, resource scarcity, climate risk and environmental concerns. The recent report "The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World" from the UNFAO highlighted the urgent need for data-driven decision making on both a macro- and micro-scale to drive efficiency throughout the food production ecosystem. This is the only way that humanity can balance the economic and environmental costs of food production with the growing risk of food insecurity on both a national and international level. Outfield is already providing the first piece of this data solution to fruit growers internationally, allowing them to understand the state of their orchards/vineyards to increase yields and reduce resource demands. Our world-leading system allows growers to launch off-the-shelf drones to survey their crops and make precise interventions, increasing efficiency and productivity whilst mitigating the effects of ever variable weather. Exciting recent advances in drone technology, combined with upcoming changes in UK drone regulations, mean that for the first time it will be possible for this data to be gathered by Drone In A Box (DIAB) systems - self-flying drones launched automatically from a drone dock stationed permanently on the farm. This not only drastically reduces the labour effort required from growers to survey and assess their crops, but also enables continuous monitoring of the crops throughout the season, increases the sampling resolution, and has the potential to enable intelligent custom sampling in future projects. In this project, Outfield will deploy a DIAB system onto a commercial apple farm in the East of England, the first time this has been done in the UK. We will establish the operational procedures to install and operate this novel system safely, and build a business case for deploying these systems on UK farms. While all drone flights in the project will be strictly supervised, the project will prepare for fully remote operations in the future. Outfield’s existing crop surveying system has shown that high temporal frequency data can be game changing for efficient management of farms, and this project will give UK fruit growers better access to that data. Outfield will be ready to deploy AUTOFARM internationally in 2025 in collaboration with UK-based hardware developer Idroneimages. This has the potential to increase the fruit production of any orchard or vineyard by 10% immediately whilst slashing chemical use and waste in the supply chain. Along with the future potential for the technology, this project can make a huge impact on the global food systems we all rely on.