Rovers & Unmanned Aerial Systems for Precision Agriculture Data Collection and Analysis

一个农民无法控制的因素是天气。在有害事件发生前一两天，对小到农田的区域做出准确预测的能力，对农作物来说可能是生死攸关的。对灾难性的致命霜冻、大风、持续干旱或其他可能袭击农场的条件进行可靠的预测（2至3天），为农民提供了采取最佳缓解策略所需的知识。尼亚加拉学院（NC）农业与环境技术创新中心（AETIC）正在申请资金，以购买一种先进的重型易于使用的坚固型驱动程序、漫游车原型硬件、无人机系统（UAS）和传感器以及高性能计算机。漫游者、无人驾驶飞机（也被称为无人机）和现代高性能计算可以提供数字天气预报、决策支持、农场管理帮助和可操作数据——所有这些都使用精确农业技术。精准农业涉及使用现代硬件、工具和数据来支持农场管理实践和行动，以提高盈利能力和促进环境管理。迈克·邓肯，NSERC大学工业研究主席（IRCC）负责精准农业和环境技术，领导AETIC团队。他们将与行业合作伙伴共同支持和开发漫游车智能数据收集、自动化和传感器包，以及无人机系统数据收集和分析，以识别作物病害和缺陷；加强数值天气预报。NC团队训练有素，经验丰富的无人机操作员，并拥有一个40英亩的校园葡萄园和多个合作农场站点来测试原型。最初受益的农民是葡萄园、苹果种植者、谷物种植者和榛子种植者，他们都是中小企业。这四个生产者团体代表安大略省超过29,200家中小企业的农业经营，以及加拿大超过177,000家中小企业的农业经营。该设备将使目前的合作伙伴关系得到显著推进，并将为与农业、作物和科技型中小企业建立新的合作伙伴关系创造机会。

The one factor that a farmer cannot control is the weather. The ability to generate accurate forecasts for regionsas small as a farm field, a day or two in advance of harmful events, can be the difference between life and deathfor the crops. Reliable forecasting (2 to 3 days) of damaging conditions such as catastrophic killer frosts, highwinds, continued drought, or other conditions that might hit the farm gives the farmer the knowledge needed toengage the best mitigation strategy. Niagara College (NC) Agriculture & Environmental TechnologiesInnovation Centre (AETIC) is requesting funding to purchase an advanced heavy-duty easy-to-use ruggedrover, rover prototyping hardware, Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) and sensors, and a high-performancecomputer. Rovers, UAS (also known as drones), and modern high-performance computing can providenumerical weather forecasting, decision support, farm management help, and actionable data - all withprecision agriculture techniques. Precision agriculture involves the use of modern hardware, tools, and data tosupport farm management practices and actions, to increase profitability and foster environmental stewardship.Dr. Mike Duncan, the NSERC Industrial Research Chair for Colleges (IRCC) in Precision Agriculture &Environmental Technologies, leads the AETIC team. Together they will collaborate with industry partners tosupport and develop rover smart data collection, automation, and sensor packages, as well as UAS datacollection and analysis to identify crop disease and deficiencies; and enhanced numerical weather prediction.The NC team has trained and experienced UAS operators, and has a 40-acre campus vineyard and multiplepartner farm sites to test the prototypes. The initial farmers that will benefit are vineyards, apple growers, grainfarmers, and hazelnut producers, who are all SMEs. These four producer groups represent more than 29,200SME farming operations in Ontario, and more than 177,000 SME farming operations in Canada. Theequipment will enable current partnerships to advance significantly, and it will create opportunities for newpartnerships with farm, crop, and technology SMEs.