Development and Applications of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles: Challenges and Opportunities
Yanbo Huang
Research Ag Engineer, Lead Scientist, USDA-ARS
Adjunct Professor, Texas A&M University, Mississippi State University, Delta State University
Unmanned Systems
• The operation of the systems is controlled either under a human operator through electronic control or autonomously by onboard computers
• Space-borne – Satellite control and operation
• Airborne – airplane and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) flight control
• Ground-based – Unmanned ground vehicle (UGA) control and operation
UAV-UAS-Drone
• Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) – Science/Engineering
• Unmanned aerial system (UAS) - Industry
• Drone – Media/Military
Any aircraft without a human pilot aboard
• Autonomous (Automated)
• Remotely piloted (Manual)
UAV History
• Began in the early 1900s
• Used in military in World War I (USA) and advanced in World War II (UK, USA)
• Civil use of UAVs follows up after the Cold War
UAV Market in the World
• USD 52.3 billion in 2025 (based on 2017)
• USD 67.3 billion in 2024 (based on 2014)
UAVs in USA
• 770,000 FAA drone registrations in March 2017
• Over 1 million in January 2018
UAVs in Europe
• USD 0.3 billion projected commercial drone revenue in 2025 (based on 2015)
UAVs in Japan
• Air robots
• First country to use and commercialize UAV technology for plant protection
In China
• Military• First successful unmanned flight in1959
• Established the first university UAV research department in 1962
• In 1964 and 1979 approved for research institute of UAV technology
• Institute of Remote Sensing Applications, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2000s• Space missions
• Disaster monitoring
• Now – 10% world market share and 75 billion RMB in 2025 (based on 2018)
UAV Components
• Flight control (brain of UAV)
• GPS
• Data acquisition (IMU to maneuver)
• Autopilot (automated/autonomous)
• RC control (remotely piloted)
UAV Characteristic Parameters
• Weight (include battery or fuel)
• Payload
• Duration
• Ceiling
• Size/dimension
• Speed
• Operating temperature
• $$
UAV Variety
• Fixed wing
• Helicopter
• Multirotor, popularized in early 2010s
Wide variety of shapes, sizes, configurations, and characteristics.
Applications of UAVs
Commercial and consumer (4:6)
• Photogrammetry and remote sensing
• Precision agriculture• Low-altitude remote sensing
• Chemical application
• Forest and ecosystem
• Urbanization surveying and mapping
• Media coverage and film production
• Homeland security
• Hobbyist/DIY
• Others – your imagination and creativity
UAV Flight MissionMission
Planning
Flight
Mission
Complete?
Back to Origin
Stop
Mission?
Upload Data
to Cloud?
Upload and
Data
Processing
Download Data
from Memory
Card
No
Yes
No
Yes
Yes No
UAV Products
Consumer grade
Industrial grade
Sensors Used on UAVs
Multispectral
RGB Thermal Hyperspectral
Also portable LIDAR and SAR systems and the system for
Oblique Photography
Open Source Sensors on UAVs
Infrared temperature (IRT) sensors for temperature of
• Ambient air
• Soil
• Canopy
Infrared and time of flight (ToF) distance sensors
(Ultrasonic, LIDAR) for:
• Plant height
• Biomass
Optical sensors – Ultraviolet, RGB, Infrared
…
UAV Data Processing
• Orthomosaic images• Spectral images: RGB, multispectral, thermal,
hyperspectral
• Point clouds• Digital Surface Model (DSM)• Digital Terrain Model (DTM)• 3D modeling – Urban model, crop plant
height, biomass• Multitude of visualization, animation,
rendering and mass customization
UAV Data Products
• Can fly at very low altitude for target-specific operation with very high resolution image data (cm – mm/pixel)• Airborne remote sensing – 0.5-1m/pixel• Satellite
• High – 1-15m/pixel• Medium – 30-50m/pixel• Low – 250-1,000m/pixel
• Negligible atmospheric interference but cloud shadows still a problem
• Can flexibly fly into hilly, mountainous and valley areas
• 3D point cloud data processing from stereo vision with SfM
• Near-ground truth data measuring without restriction of field conditions
Advantages of UAV Remote Sensing
• Remote sensing
• Pesticide application
• Japan and China
• Australia and New Zealand
• South America
• United States
• Europe
• Others
UAV-Based Systems for Precision Agriculture
Zonal
Analysis
Pre-Remote
Sensing
Prescription
Map
Spray
ApplicationPost-Remote
Sensing
Satisfactory?
Meteorological
Observation
Application
Technology
Spray
Models
Engineering
ExperimentsComplete
Yes
No
• Dual Camera Systems
• Plant height estimation
• Crop yield estimation
• Crop stress
• Pest management
• Crop herbicide injury
• Herbicide-resistant weeds
• Nutrient management
• Irrigation management
• Crop breeding and phenotyping
• Crop harvest management
Research, Development and Agricultural Applications of UAV-Based Systems
y = 1.2x - 24.7R² = 0.92
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
15 65 115
Es
tim
ate
d H
eig
ht
(m)
Field Measured Height (m)
y = 0.61x2 -13.86x + 39.09
R² = 0.97
y = 0.39x2 + 6.18x + 80.66
R² = 0.94
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
3500
4000
4500
5000
0 100 200
Yie
ld (
kg
/ha
)
Plant Height (m)
FieldMeasured
PC Estimated
y = -0.23x2 + 57.95x - 3005R² = 0.43
y = -0.12x2 + 30.94x - 1276.6R² = 0.42
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
900
90.00 110.00 130.00 150.00
Lin
t Y
ield
(k
g/h
a)
Plant Height (cm)
Estimated Field Ruler-Measured
y = 7139x – 139R² = 0.74
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
900
0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14
Lin
t Y
ield
(kg
/ha)
CUC
• Glyphosate
• Dicamba
2018
2017
• 34 varieties
• 102 plots
• 3 reps
• Compared with military UAVs commercial/customer UAVs are much lower grade in product life, quality and reliability. So take a good care and be careful in flight operation. Don’t expect too high
• Payload – 10 - 50kg?
• Power - Electric UAVs dominate the market. Presently battery can only power the UAV flight duration 20-30 minutes for multirotors depending on payload and weather conditions. Fixed-wing may last longer (45-60 min) …
Limits of UAVs
• Bandwidth - Image cloud uploading, computing, downloading and visualization are still slow with practical requirements
• Image processing (mosaicking) may have system artifacts and smooth out the original information
• …
Limits of UAV Data Processing
• Technical Restrictions
• Batteries
•GPS/GNSS
• Law and Rules
• Visible range
• Speed limit
• Ceiling requirement
• Weight and size
UAV Law and RulesFly farther, faster, higher (Lower)
with more power?
• Safety, privacy and social management
• Safety
• Technical: Sense and avoid
• Laws and rules
US FAA
• Hobby or commercial?
• Register any aircraft if over 0.55 lbs (0.25 kg).
• Operators must pass FAA pilot examination and get FAA certified
• If less than 55 lbs (25 kg), certified operator can fly UAV under 400 ft (120 m) in the visible distance
• Certificate of Waiver or Authorization (COA)
Other countries and regions?
UAV Law and Rules
• International Organization for Standardization (ISO) working group (ISO/TC 023/SC 06/WG 25)
• Unmanned aircraft systems
• General specification
• Product systems
• Operation and procedures
…
• UAS Traffic Management
• Standards regarding UAV spraying systems
• American National Standards Institute (ANSI) Unmanned Aircraft Systems Standardization Collaborative (UASSC)
UAV Standards
8,800 lb (4,000 kg)
UAV Indoor Operation
Farm-Scale Remote Sensing Big Data
Service
Layer Level Block Size (o) Sphere
Dimension
(km)
Pixel Size (m) Scale
1 1 0.05 5.57 5.57 1:50,000
2 0.025 2.78 2.78 1:25,000
3 0.01 1.11 1.11 1:10,000
2 4 0.005 0.56 0.56 1:5,000
5 0.0025 0.28 0.28 1:2,500
6 0.001 0.11 0.11 1:1,000
3 7 0.0005 0.06 0.06 1:500
8 0.00025 0.03 0.03 1:250
9 0.0001 0.01 0.01 1:100
Artificial Intelligence and UAVs
• Smart flight control and navigation
• Automated to autonomous
Fly itself with AI by sensing environment and navigating without human input (DroNet, a lightweight residual convolutional neural network (CNN) architecture)
Remote Sensing Pattern Recognition
• Machine Learning/Soft Computing
• Deep Learning
• Generative adversarial networks (GANs) – Learn and create
Technologies for next-generation industry/agriculture
• Innovated methods, optimized algorithms,
massive data, and super computing power for
smart/intelligent industry/agriculture in cyber-
physical structure
• IoT (Internet of Things) • Automation
• Advanced materials, mechanical and
electronics science and technology
• Ubiquitous collaborative robots
• AI/DL to advance the perception of the
robotic systems
• Real-time process data processing, analysis, control and adaptation
UAV Education
• University, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) and K12 curriculum
• Robotics competitions
UAVs (Drones) are getting More Capable and Smarter
amphibious
More user-friendly operational (for dummy)
Intelligent navigation (autonomous)
Safer
Environmentally adaptive
Standardized design,
manufacturing, configuration,
operation and service with
enhanced law and rules
through social and educational
management
THANK YOU!