HARTFORD, CONN. – Oct. 18, 2021 – American farms increasingly rely on technology to manage the unpredictable aspects of crop and herd operations. However, many farming tasks are still done manually, wasting valuable time and money. Aquiline Drones (AD), a drone and cloud solutions company, has an immediate solution – Smart Farming with Drones, an online training course.  For an introductory price of $99, any drone operator or farmer can now learn how to better manage agricultural business operations through data using drones and artificial intelligence (AI) for immense analysis and revenue-maximizing forecasting.

A synopsis of the new, innovative instruction module can be viewed here. 

AD now offers this insightful and industry-specific course as part of its Flight-to-the-Future (F2F) series of online drone pilot training with more training modules currently being developed. The Smart Farming module sits amongst a collection of advanced ground training courses, tailored for different industries and available to all students after they have completed the basic F2F program and received their FAA Part 107 drone pilot certification. It can also be purchased a-la-carte directly by anyone who has already obtained their Part 107 license.

“The educational journey offered here takes the user through the ever-expanding world of drone-based smart farming solutions covering crop, orchard and livestock operations. The course provides a thorough treatment, covering all key topics that one needs to know before becoming a specialized drone service provider within the agricultural industry,” says Barry Alexander, founder and CEO of AD. “Thought leadership in our industry carries the responsibility of creating vibrant marketplaces where technology can be applied to benefit society, and AD takes this very seriously.”

With approximately 215,000 Part 107 commercial drone pilots in the U.S. and the growing trend of integrating artificial intelligence into commercial drone operations, AD has recognized that there exists a market of professionals that are looking for ways to monetize their licenses. Priced at $99, Smart Farming with Drones presents a short runway for gaining powerful skills to address an industry segment that’s growing at 13% annually, according to Grand View Research.

Formally designated as “402 Agriculture: Smart Farming with Drones”, highlights of the course include:

• Defining smart farming and explaining how people, drones and specialized sensors are used to enhance the efficiency of farming activities.
• Describing how AI capabilities are effectively used to analyze farming data and further optimize outcomes.
• Exploring the wide range of drone-based solutions for farm surveying purposes and learning how RGB, LiDAR and multispectral sensors are used as drone payloads to scan large expanses of agricultural land in extreme detail.
• Understanding how these capabilities come together to constitute specialized drone solutions that can provide key outcomes. Examples include accurate fruit counts for orchard operations, large scale scans to obtain yield estimates, identifying replanting opportunities and ultimately making accurate revenue predictions.
• Studying crop health applications - how spectral reflectance properties of vegetation are leveraged to help farmers early-detect crop stress factors and mitigate losses. Immersion in livestock operations, like cattle counting, animal health and herd management and how drones are being used to support animal farming activities, reduce costs and significantly improve results.
• Delving into the benefits of drone-based crop spraying - how fertilizers and pesticides are applied strategically and safely, and how AI determines the exact areas that need to be watered, sprayed for insects or thinned, thus saving time and money.
• Investigating how advanced drone solutions can create smart irrigation systems, essentially a multivariate exercise in data-driven optimization.
• Learning how drone-based sowing and damage assessments can become powerful operational enhancements, empowering farmers to leverage increasing value from smart farming operations.

Alexander notes that many agricultural businesses already understand the importance of using technology to improve revenue as some have already incorporated sensing systems into their land-based farming equipment. This has generated substantial amounts of data that now require analysis so that farmers can project critical yield. In other words, the world of big data is coming to farms with the use of increasingly sophisticated sensors and drones. As a U.S.-based drone manufacturer and provider of industry-specific cloud support, AD provides a complete ecosystem of customizable drone and cloud solutions for multiple industries including farming, oil and gas, energy and utilities, border security, asset inspections, and others.

“Due to the depletion of finite natural resources, the need to enhance farm yield has become critical. Drones infused with AI capabilities become exceptional equipment that can perform many necessary tasks from the air,” adds Alexander. “Drones are leading the next revolutionary phase of smart farming by providing remote surveillance, extensive data collection, analysis and modeling to reduce the costs of resources and labor, while ensuring higher crop yield. We are convinced that cloud-connected drones - connected to The AD Cloud - will transform the farming industry in the 21st century.”

402 Agriculture: Smart Farming with Drones is now available as part of the F2F program. Anyone can register for the course at shop.aquilinedrones.com/product/f2f-smart-farming/. Within 48 hours of purchasing the module, students will be provided with login credentials to begin their training and may access the course at portal.aquiline.io/smart-farming/.

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