RGB Camera

[bstanton89]

In what ways could a farmer with a phantom use his drone with only an RGB camera? I understand the benefits of NDVI, just not sure I can afford to jump right into that right away. Anybody have agronomy experience using only RGB camera on a UAV?

 

[Meta4]

In what ways could a farmer with a phantom use his drone with only an RGB camera? I understand the benefits of NDVI, just not sure I can afford to jump right into that right away. Anybody have agronomy experience using only RGB camera on a UAV?

Have a look at these: PrecisionMapper
Some functions only require RGB input

 

[bstanton89]

Have a look at these: PrecisionMapper
Some functions only require RGB input

Very interesting, do you use any of these?

 

[Meta4]

Very interesting, do you use any of these?

I haven't yet .. just looking for the right opportunity

 

[ExcObs1]

Drone deploy has a specific algorithm for RGB pictures.

Think it's "vari"

I've compared to IR pics and it's not bad at all.

 

[bstanton89]

I've read about VARI. Do you have any experiences using it?

 

[James Rennie]

I have done a test flight using VARI, it's able to pick up a lot of information. Drone Deploy recently posted their internal information about it in a webinar. The results between multiple drones and NDVI and VARI were very similar. One thing worth noting though is using NDVI with NIR does allow some issues to appear a few days before they can be seen with RGB.

 

[Peterthedroneguy]

In what ways could a farmer with a phantom use his drone with only an RGB camera? I understand the benefits of NDVI, just not sure I can afford to jump right into that right away. Anybody have agronomy experience using only RGB camera on a UAV?

Check out Sentera, They have dropped the price of NDVI so low that its almost a non-issue when you factor in the free mobil app and desktop app that seamlessly work together.

 

[Peterthedroneguy]

Drone deploy has a specific algorithm for RGB pictures.

Think it's "vari"

I've compared to IR pics and it's not bad at all.

check out this quick paper, Might lower your confidence in RGB to NDVI
NDVI Crop Health | Sensors | Best Practices

 

[bstanton89]

Sentera looks like exactly what I was looking for, but I'm not willing to invest that much without knowing exactly what I'm doing. Have you used the sentera sensor?

 

[Peterthedroneguy]

Sentera looks like exactly what I was looking for, but I'm not willing to invest that much without knowing exactly what I'm doing. Have you used the sentera sensor?

Yes I have. From a price point it is high but compared to the others out there it's cheep. Plus they are super light unlike a lot of nir sensors so you see no drop in fight time. I could send you some fields I've stiched using their sensor if you want.

 

[bstanton89]

Yes I have. From a price point it is high but compared to the others out there it's cheep. Plus they are super light unlike a lot of nir sensors so you see no drop in fight time. I could send you some fields I've stiched using their sensor if you want.

That would be great if you dont mind. Did you have an agriculture background before this? Do you have your own farm or do you just do this for clients?

 

[Peterthedroneguy]

Here is an example of an RGB quicktile I made. Quicktile is a fast way to stitch without using a huge computer. This was done on a crappy little laptop in the field minutes after landing. The idea is to get the info fast into the farmer's/agronomist's hands. The ap AgVault also exports nicely to Pix4D for full mosaic if that's something you really want and can also import mosaics.I'll grab an NDVI quicktile just gotta find them quick

 

[Peterthedroneguy]

Here is one from last year. Soy beans on the left of the road and corn on the right. Nice view of the water ways and this farmer was able to quantify how much these waterways were helping his fields. Not only that but we were able to see some problem areas in the soy beans earlier than was visible to RGB.