UAS/Sensor Integration and Improvement

The project objective is to promote research of soil salinity and crop temperature to determine proper irrigation schedules and efficiency. The system will support the United States Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service resource data collected by NASA’s Earth Observing System, manned aircraft, and an eddy co-variance system. The team integrated a FLIR Vue Pro 336 thermal imaging sensor and a 3DR PX4 Pixhawk autopilot system into a DJI Matrice 100 unmanned aircraft to collect and georeference thermal images of agricultural fields. The system outputs a collection of georeferenced thermal images and a spreadsheet file with complete flight metadata. Georeferences are projected in the Universal Transverse Mercator coordinate system for each image. The team tested the system in an experimental agricultural field where the system will be implemented.