On a farm in South Glastonbury, a tractor idles. It鈥檚 one of the most iconic farming inventions of the late 19th century, a tool that was invented shortly before Donald Preli鈥檚 grandfather came from Italy and started Belltown Hill Orchards.
Now, more than 100 years later, Preli said a much newer invention could revolutionize farming here: unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones.
鈥淲e only can see as we鈥檙e looking down a row,鈥� Preli said. 鈥淭his is flying over top ...鈥淚t鈥檚 going to see trouble areas a lot quicker than we will.鈥�
Drone technology could be a new frontier for farmers looking to keep a watchful eye on their crops by providing updates on plant health and saving farmers valuable time.
鈥淲ith the drone technology, we鈥檙e hoping that they can fly pretty much the whole farm in a couple hours,鈥� Preli said. 鈥淩eport back on my cellphone, I鈥檒l look at it in the evening, and make adjustments the following day.鈥�
And while a ping on a farmer鈥檚 cellphone is the end goal, drone technology still isn鈥檛 quite there yet.
By a field of Honeycrisp apples, Nancy Marek, a Ph.D. student at the University of 海角换妻, tinkered with a drone before getting it ready to launch.
鈥淥ops. See? There鈥檚 a mission error,鈥� Marek said while gesturing to what she described with a laugh as a 鈥渇inicky鈥� device. 鈥淲e鈥檙e just gonna turn it off and turn it back on again.鈥�
With the drone rebooted and ready, Marek punched in a few inputs and the machine soared skyward.
It flew at about 160 feet, preloaded with a flight path by the UConn team. We looked up as the drone passed above the apples, and us, all the while, snapping hundreds of pictures of the crops.
But these aren鈥檛 your typical photos.
Chandi Witharana, an assistant professor-in-residence at UConn, said the drone is equipped with a special sensor that peers into parts of the spectrum our eyes can see and parts of the spectrum that they can鈥檛.
鈥淚ncluding blue, green, red, near infrared and other bands,鈥� Witharana said. 鈥淭hose channels tell us, or probe into, the biophysical characteristics of the crop.鈥�
But the trick is making sense of it.
鈥淎nyone can deploy a drone. Acquire data. The real challenge is creating insights from the data,鈥� Witharana said.
To get those insights, researchers today are taking samples from the plants.
As he walked down a row of grapes, Evan Lentz, a second-year master鈥檚 degree student at UConn, picked leaves and stuffed them into a baggie.
鈥淵ou wanna take, roughly, a hundred leaves,鈥� Lentz said.
He鈥檒l send the leaves to a lab, which will look for nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, to name just a few.
鈥淏asically, we鈥檙e getting this massive amount of data about what鈥檚 going on in the plant, and then eventually we try to tie that to the images from the drone,鈥� Lentz said.
And that鈥檚 the big hurdle right now.
鈥淭he drone鈥檚 not really telling us anything other than it鈥檚 this color or I am capturing this wavelength,鈥� Lentz said. 鈥淭hen it鈥檚 up to me to sort through the field data from the tissue sample results and look for a relationship.鈥�
Lentz said there鈥檚 still a lot he needs to learn about that relationship. But if the idea pays off and researchers develop a model to spot plant problems from the sky, he said it could reduce a lot of risks for farmers when it comes to 鈥渢he cost of testing, crop loss, decreased yield, disease,鈥� Lentz said. 鈥淭here鈥檚 some pretty large possible impacts if we do get this up and running for farmers.鈥�
Donald Preli, who let UConn use his South Glastonbury farm to test out the drone idea, said he鈥檚 excited by what the future holds for drones keeping a watchful eye on his crops.
鈥淲e鈥檇 love to own a drone that could do multiple tasks,鈥� Preli said. 鈥淲here we don鈥檛 have to go out personally and do it. We can just send a drone, program it to do a certain row or a certain block. And when it comes back home, we know it鈥檚 been done.鈥�
Because on a 200-acre farm, Preli said, it all comes down to humans and using their time most efficiently, possibly, with the help of a drone.
