Integration of a low-cost camera system for smart agriculture aboard tethered balloons and drones

The impacts of climate change on crops are intensifying and notably severe. This considering both natural disasters and the unpredictability of seasonal patterns, which lead to dwindling resources. Therefore, innovative methods are being sought to investigate plant health to reduce waste, intensify productivity, and ensure production continuity. This to date is feasible using satellite and Earth observation technologies in general; however, these pose some challenges for both individual farmers and local organizations. In fact, the cost of high-definition satellite images for surveys of individual crop fields can have very high costs that would not guarantee frequent analysis. On the other hand, other satellite observation strategies, which are cheaper, do not guarantee high ground resolutions and compromise, again, the success of the analysis. For the reasons just listed, a variety of alternative technologies have emerged that, integrated aboard Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAVs), guarantee high-resolution imaging for costs two orders of magnitude lower than satellite imaging. In this essay its described the potential of these devices and provide a brief description of the analysis conducted on crop fields considering their integration on board three different UAVs.