Unamnned Aircraft Fleet Management for Automated Date Pollinator System

Date trees can grow to over 80 feet tall and, in their natural habitat, have only the wind to depend on for pollination. Traditionally, agricultural workers pollinate date trees using large, hose-like machines, sometimes in conjunction with a lift table or similar machine to get closer to the date flowers.The team developed an unmanned aircraft pollination approach to increase the efficiency of this process. Teams 18054 and 18055 developed the dispenser and ground control systems. This project focuses on the communication between the unmanned aircraft and the operator, using a new “internet of things” product, the Hologram Nova, to give the unmanned aircraft LTE, or long-term evolution, capabilities virtually anywhere in the United States. The team developed a web application to autonomously create paths for each unmanned aircraft, while giving users the ability to control the unmanned aircraft and view common analytics during and after the pollination process. The team added weather analysis to the system using a portable ambient weather station to calculate live wind offsets for the unmanned aircraft during pollination.