Why are U.S. drones rarely used in agriculture?

Why are U.S. drones rarely used in agriculture?

Commentator Li Shechao reports from Philadelphia, USA: Compared with China's hot agricultural drones entering the crop plant protection operation market at full speed, the United States, with its developed agriculture and high level of comprehensive mechanization in agriculture, is extremely calm, except for tens of thousands of people driving plant protection. Outside the machine, there is little use in drones for crop plant protection operations. Why? Commentator Li Shechao, a researcher in the United States during his recent visit to the United States, specializes in consulting with Professor Kaimaier, a plant protection machinery expert from the Department of Agricultural Engineering at the University of Texas, and Mr. Yan Xiaozhe, vice president of business operations of the US Shifang International Corporation. The development of machine plant protection and other operational issues was exchanged. They said that there is no outstanding problem in the product technology of the US agricultural aircraft market. The reason why it is relatively flat and not widely promoted and applied is that there are regulatory obstacles in the United States.

Professor Kaimaiejs is an expert in the teaching and research of plant protection machinery at the University of Texas. He is currently chairing the research and development of the automatic mobile monitoring vehicle for corn pests and diseases commissioned by the Massachusetts Farmers Corn Association. He said that the US agricultural plant protection technology and products have been used in the market for many years and are quite mature; however, the agricultural drone plant protection technology has not been widely adopted, mainly due to legal restrictions. At present, the American agricultural engineering community has recognized the necessity of this technology. The National Agricultural Technology and Standards Advancement Organization, the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE), announced the establishment of a technical committee for drone systems at the end of last year, forming a technology. The committee came to study this emerging technology technology switch. It will address the development and application of autonomous systems for agricultural unmanned aerial systems, integrated multi-modal sensor loads, data link communication systems, etc., focusing on research, education and standards development in this rapidly expanding field of agricultural industrialization. The committee is chaired by Associate Professor Wayne Lincoln of the University of Nebraska. At the same time, it is understood that DuPont, a major US agricultural service provider, recently announced the addition of a series of C-series financing to the leading suppliers of PrecisionHawk-Aviation Data and Drones' safety platform. As a customer of PrecisionHawk for several years, DuPont will work to accelerate the use of drones as an important tool for agriculture. DuPont pioneer Neil Gatson, research and development vice president Neil Gatson, said, "At DuPont Pioneer, we develop agricultural productivity, enabling farmers to improve profitability and a new era of sustainable development through data-driven insight. "The deepening of our relationship with PrecisionHawk is an important part of the Pioneer Digital Agriculture Platform strategy and our service offering."

Mr. Yan Xiaozhe, Executive Chairman of the American Association of Illinois in the United States, and Vice President of Business Operations of the United States Shifang International, has worked as a professional employee for more than a decade in the Illinois State Government and is highly skilled in US federal law; At the same time, the ten-party company agent currently employed includes the sales promotion of many agricultural machinery such as the Great Plains Company, which has just been acquired by Kubota, and is also familiar with the regulations on the promotion of agricultural machinery products in China. He pointed out that the main obstacle to the use of drones in US agriculture is the protection of personal privacy rights. So the use involves a regulatory issue. The United States Federal Aviation Administration requires any entity that uses drones for commercial purposes to obtain a special exemption from the FAA, at least until the US Federal Aviation Administration issues its own rules for commercial use.

The US Federal Aviation Administration has proposed a line of sight to limit the operation of commercial drones in the proposed rules. This means that if you are running a drone to work on the farm, it must always be within sight of your sight. This is a serious problem affecting the use of drones in all rural industries. According to relevant parties, the US Federal Aviation Administration seems to be aware of this problem, and they have begun to work with some leading companies as part of their demonstration projects to create a better framework for drones for commercial use. They have partnered with PrecisionHawk to test UAV's Low Altitude Tracking and Collision Avoidance System (LATAS), which acts as a drone tracking system and helps them avoid hitting targets and testing over-the-horizon control issues in flight, testing various types of The framework of drones, fixed-wing aircraft and aircraft in applications in agriculture, forestry and other rural industries.

This means that the US Federal Aviation Administration is testing drones for monitoring work like pipelines and farmland. It is expected that at the end of 2016 or 2017, the new FAA regulations on the use of agricultural drones are likely to be released, which indicates that the issue of US agricultural drone supervision can be broken.

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(Original title: Looking at the US agricultural drone market is cold?)