As the co-owner and sales manager of Crop Copter, Brett Haas has worked with UAV users nationwide to capture accurate data that is timely.
“In the past, we have struggled to cover the acres in a day needed to use UAV imagery in a scalable way,” says Haas, who is also a central Illinois farmer. “We knew we needed to cover more ground and fly more hours in a day, but the quality of the data and accuracy couldn’t be compromised.”
Rather than build a longer-flying UAV, the latest version of Crop Copter’s EZ Health 4.0 can now capture images at speeds in excess of 70 mph while still maintaining image quality and spatial accuracy. The company has integrated this NDVI camera onto the DJI Inspire 2, which can travel up to 58 mph. By combining EZ Health with an Incident Light Sensor, it can use more of the daylight hours to gather data than the typical 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. recommended window for NDVI flights.
“This idea of speed vs. size has been extremely successful in planter technology during the last couple of years, and we knew it would work,” says Haas. “We can essentially cover twice the acres with the same accuracy and image quality and fly earlier and later in the day.”
EZ Health will continue to use its own software, allowing for immediate on-site processing of data.
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