$HALB   Researchers to demo military technology adapted for ag at event

16 September 2012   By Press

Drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), are military aircraft that are now also being used to help growers be more precise in their farming. These flying robots could allow farmers to detect changes in water content, plant health and pesticide dispersal in their fields, according to researchers at Ohio State University.

Although pilot programs researching the technology are still underway, researchers from the Ohio State University Aeronautics and Astronautics Research Laboratory will showcase UAV technology and its impact on precision agriculture during the three-day Farm Science Review near London, Ohio.

“While the military was the early adopter of this technology, the civilian applications in agriculture, search and rescue, and various other tasks is fast approaching,” said Matt McCrink, a Ph.D. student in aerospace engineering at Ohio State and a research assistant to Jim Gregory, an assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Ohio State.

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