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Which Way To Go

Newton Ware

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Jan 9, 2018
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Location
Rome, Georgia
I’ve been employed in the ag field for 16 years. I sell chemicals and fertilizers to golf courses and lawn care operators.

And I am FAA Certified Pilot.

I am trying to find out the best options for services for golf courses primarily and other crops. We have a lot of corn, soy, cotton and pine tree farms in my area.

What does NDVI, multi spectral, RGB ran through algorithms and such have to offer?

It is a bit confusing, and I am also an electronics technician that spent 13 years in the office equipment field.

Turfgrass is different. Fairways are mown to 1/2 inch on average. Greens can be as low as 1/10 inch. Or lower. The majority of my customers have a four year degree in Ag or a related field. Continuing education is pretty much mandatory. They want something more than identifying a hot spot or a weak area.

Shade analysis is one area that would be marketable. Post fertility application by a few days to show plant response as a means of identifying under and/or over fertilized areas might be viable.

I’ve spoken with several reps, looked at several options. But I still don’t have a great feel for exactly what I can offer my current clients from the options available.

I’d love to have LIDAR, but I’m not ready to bite off that entry price until I know more about the market.

So what exactly do the current array of sensors and algorithms evaluate and report on?

Canopy temp?
Chlorophyll content?
Weed identification
Turf vigor

What does it do, how does it do it? That is what I am trying to determine.

As an old friend who spent his career with BASF says
What it is, what it ain’t, what it can, and what it can’t. That’s what I want to know.

Any information would be greatly appreciated.
 
Newt...there primary goal is to understand the mission, select the best algorithm for the solution, then pair with the most appropriate sensor, then massage the data to provide actionable data which growers/superintendents can make decisions.
Golf course turf is a modified precision agriculture solution; however, one needs to understand what is a baseline for the course and then identify anomalies before the humane eye detects it.
In our opinion, the most useful sensor is a true multi-spectral sensor, we found NDVI reports from an RGB sensor does not provide accurate enough information to make proactive decisions.
Additionally, there are some cool applications which allow you to use a 3D model of your course and then use a "shading" algorithm to identify not only where the shade exists, but also for how long.

P.S. You will receive the additional information we discussed tomorrow morning. :)
 
That seems to be my findings. NDVI is old and proven, but limited.

Very impressed that your products can be retrofitted onto P4s. I have a P4 Std I hardly use. My Pro is my go to bird. The standard might be a good candidate.

Looking forward to more info soon. I’ve visited web sites and viewed YT info.

Thanks
 
Newton have you checked out any of sentera's products. I'd love to help answer any questions you have about our NDVI or multi-spectral capabilities. I work for sentera and we make the hardware and software to get you real NDVI and make it easy to make that date actionable.
 
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Parrot BlueGrass (NDVI Parrot Sequoia for arround $6000 with one-year free for PIX4D Field and Airinov First + - then $160/month for Pix4d Field) ?
This seems to be a fully optimized Ag solution from Parrot.
And almost the same Parrot "package" with fixed wing Parrot Disco
 
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Newton have you checked out any of sentera's products. I'd love to help answer any questions you have about our NDVI or multi-spectral capabilities. I work for sentera and we make the hardware and software to get you real NDVI and make it easy to make that date actionable.
Yes sir I have. And I liked what I saw. Originally I was looking at a retrofit to one of my Phantom 4s. But I am currently evaluating options for a serious investment in enterprise level equipment. Something along the lines of a Matrice 210. I work in the ag field, (golf and sports field). But I want to have options for a variety of applications. Tower inspection, etc.

I had to take a few weeks off to have a new knee put in, but hope to be back on track soon.

Thanks for the reply.
 
Well hope the new knew goes well! My father got a new knee recently and things have been great.

We also have an m210 payload called the AGX. Fully integrated with DJI and very customizable.
 
Well hope the new knew goes well! My father got a new knee recently and things have been great.

We also have an m210 payload called the AGX. Fully integrated with DJI and very customizable.
We are flying the AGX710 on the Matrice 200/210 and built a fully custom turf analysis solution around it. Nothing like any of the other solutions we have ever seen (which is why we had to build one). We use your product and the process to extract all 5 individual bands before stitching and loading it into our system for analysis. We had some hiccups in the beginning with it, but have everything all ironed out now. Thanks!
 
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