Sky Wrangler Drones Take Flight

The Future of Agriculture Is Now: The Sky Wrangler Project

“Our goal with the drones is to provide the livestock producer with a high-value technology that saves labor and money

as it improves production.” — D R . T E R R Y G I P S O N , E X T E N S I O N L E A D E R , AMERICAN INSTITUTE FOR GOAT RESEARCH

(continues)

WHEN PEOPLE THINK OF A LIVESTOCK WRANGLER, MOST PICTURE THE COWHAND ON

HORSEBACK, RIDING THE RANGE WITH ONE EYE ON THE HERD AND THE OTHER ON THE

LANDSCAPE, LOOKING TO SEE IF THERE’S ENOUGH FORAGE FOR GRAZING. BUT THAT’S

NOT THE IMAGE DR. TERRY GIPSON SEES. HIS IDEA OF A WRANGLER IS AN UNMANNED

AERIAL VEHICLE (UAV) — OR DRONE — RIDING THE SKY SENDING UP-TO-THE-MINUTE

INFORMATION VIA TEXT MESSAGE TO THE LIVESTOCK PRODUCER AT THE REMOTEST

CORNER OF THE RANCH OR BACK HOME AT THE KITCHEN TABLE.

In modern agriculture, drones are a bold new reality. As they become more affordable, they are increasingly incorporated into farm and ranch management. And the market for agricultural drones is set to take off. A recent report from PwC (formerly PricewaterhouseCoopers) estimated the potential market at $32.4 billion.

A Langston University School of Agriculture and Applied Sciences (SAAS) research team, including Gipson and Marcio White, as well as professional Python programmer David Lechner, is developing a smart, inexpensive drone that will provide concise, actionable, real-time feedback to producers. Their project, called Sky Wrangler, is funded through the USDA’s 1890 Institution Capacity Building Grants Program and includes collaborators from Purdue University’s departments of animal sciences and agricultural and biological engineering.

The Sky Wrangler project is a new direction for Gipson. “My interest in drones grew out of a project we had on using goats to control redcedar,” he explained. “It included

SAAS students KaTerria Williams (left) and Brenda Hollins prepare a drone for flight.

a drone component, and we soon realized the potential for drones in livestock production.” The new project promises to equip technology-minded producers, large and small, with the cutting-edge tools to better monitor and manage their operations.

DRONES IN AGRICULTURE : FROM CROPS TO LIVESTOCK

These days, UAVs are used in nearly every area of crop agriculture. And as they have become more affordable, they have provided farms of all sizes with feasible options for increasing operational efficiency and economy. Plus, drone technology has evolved rapidly. No longer are drones simply a passive tool to take photos or video for later review. Many of today’s UAVs are equipped with onboard computer systems that analyze photos, video, and sensor data and make intelligent precision-agriculture decisions in real time — mapping fields; monitoring irrigation, crops, and pests; guiding precise application of fertilizer and pesticides across varied terrains; and communicating directly with devices, equipment, and people on the ground.

In the use of UAVs, however, precision livestock production has lagged behind crop farming — often far behind. “Reviewing the literature,” Gipson remarked, “I saw that there was a wide variety of drone applications for crop agriculture but almost none for precision livestock (continues)

Adjunct Professor Marcio White (pointing) and Python programmer David Lechner explain a drone assembly to students.

The new project promises to equip technology-minded producers, large and small, with the cutting-edge tools to better monitor and manage their operations.

With Sky Wrangler, Gipson and his team are confident they will bring much greater levels of precision to livestock farming.

farming, or PLF as we call it.” Most PLF has concentrated on dairy cattle, swine, or chickens in confinement, where biosensors and cameras are functional, but drones are of little or no use. To date, UAVs have been used with grazing livestock almost solely to measure land/pasture utilization. “These findings made our decision to develop drone technology for PLF an easy one,” Gipson added.

THE SKY WRANGLER PROJECT

The objectives of the Sky Wrangler project are to develop a UAV that will help improve livestock production and to test the technology to ensure there are no adverse effects on animals.

SAAS students Brenda Hollins and KaTerria Williams with Dr. Terry Gipson, who is leading the Sky Wrangler Project.

Gipson and his team are designing Sky Wrangler to employ off-the-shelf components that will send SMS messages to a producer’s mobile device providing a range of information: inventory of animals, spatial distribution in the field, pasture biomass and nutritive status, pasture conditions, and recommended actions.

The team is currently assembling a quadcopter drone that includes a camera with visible and near-infrared spectrum capabilities, a separate thermal camera, a GPS tracking system, an onboard credit-card-size computer called Raspberry Pi to provide analysis, and mobile communication capabilities. LU students are assisting in construction and testing. To count livestock on pasture, the Sky Wrangler’s thermal camera will detect heat signatures from the animals. Gipson’s team will test this functionality by conducting various machine-learning trials in both open and wooded lands with different numbers of animals.

To assess live pasture biomass, the team will use the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), which determines the amount of live, green vegetation in a specified area. Using data from the images taken by the drone’s cameras, the Raspberry Pi will calculate the index by comparing the reflectance of near-infrared light from the plants with the absorption of red light by the plants’ chlorophyll.

To maximize the precision and usability of data sent to the producer, GPS coordinates will be overlaid on maps of the pasture status. Python scripts will be developed enabling the Raspberry Pi to generate pasture assessments in real time and make recommendations regarding rotation or nutrition supplements.

One anticipated question is how livestock will react to aerial drones. Gipson and his team will test animal behavior and stress by maneuvering drones in various ways over penned animals while measuring visible reactions and heart rates. With these experiments, the team expects to determine optimal height, speed, and distance to acclimate animals to the drones and guide producers accordingly.

SAVING TIME, REDUCING COSTS

It goes without saying that technology continues to improve agriculture. With Sky Wrangler, Gipson and his team are confident that they will bring much greater levels of precision to livestock farming. After all, a drone transmitting real-time alerts about missing animals and changing forage conditions will be far faster, more effective, and more economical than the old cowpoke on horseback.

“Our goal with the PLF drones,” Gipson concluded, “is to provide the livestock producer — including small or parttime producers — with a high-value technology that saves labor and money as it improves production.”

For more information, please contact Dr. Terry Gipson, terry.gipson@ langston.edu.