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28 EE|Times EUROPE — CES 2021
Data Drives Agriculture 4.0
and drone company, for US$23 million. Mica-
Sense developed a camera that uses different
wavelengths to compute normalized difference
vegetation index (NDVI) maps, which have
become the accepted way to monitor crop
growth and spot problem areas. The state-of-
the-art methodology is now to download the
NDVI maps to tractors and thereby adjust the
fertilizers delivered to the field.
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration
(FAA) recently reported that 7% of the
1.6 million registered drones in the U.S.
were for agricultural purposes. This rep- of data is increasingly the role of robots.
resents more than 100,000 active drones Whether for an automated barn, an agricul- and land-based (such as tractors and harvest-
for agriculture in the United States. While
accounting for only a small portion of the
overall commercial drone market, the agricul-
tural drone segment has become a significant
revenue-generating reality. The collection
FEBRUARY 2021 | www.eetimes.eu
two main categories: aerial (drones)
tural drone, or an autonomous tractor, data is ers). In both cases, the robots’ functionalities
no longer the new oil; it is the new crop. rely on various types of sensors. One such
functionality is the inertial system for
IMU UTILIZATION IN AGRICULTURE navigation and stabilization, which must
The robots used in smart agriculture fall into meet requirements for high performance,
reliability, and accuracy; low bias drift; low
bias instability; and stable performance over
temperature — all at an affordable price —
to justify the investment.
Drones make it possible to monitor the
health and status of crop fields (via cameras)
and are typically used for fertilization of
small to medium fields (<20 hectares) as an
alternative to more costly airplane-based
fertilization solutions. Drone navigation
and stabilization are very important when
pointing the camera at the ground, as it is
necessary to know what the camera is
capturing. At a height of 10 meters, an
error of 5° results in an 80-cm error.
While GPS could be accurate enough for
drone navigation, robust inertial measure-
ment unit (IMU) solutions are needed for
camera stabilization.
Land-based robotic vehicles for agriculture
navigate crop rows and need centimeter-level
precision to avoid damaging the plants. Most
of these machines have an accurate GPS
system, which allows the driver to know the
location of the vehicle and prevents double
fertilization or lack of fertilization. How-
ever, GPS could be limiting in cases in which
the robot drives, for example, under trees,
where the signal could be lost. That’s where
IMU or attitude-heading–reference system
(AHRS) solutions are needed. IMUs based on
microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) are
well-equipped to meet land-based application
requirements for high performance and low
size, weight, power, and cost (SWAP-C). ■
Pierre Cambou is
principal analyst in the
Photonics & Sensing Division at
Yole Développement.
Dimitrios Damianos is a IMAGE: SHUTTERSTOCK
technology and market analyst at
Yole Développement’s Photonics
& Sensing Division.