Application of Agricultural UAV: development Prospect of Agricultural UAV, Agricultural Aviation UAV carries out aerial photography mission

Guan Lihao said that at this stage, he hopes to postpone the retirement of manned aircraft, and he also hopes to buy new manned aircraft as soon as possible, so as to make up for the lack of flight energy in the future, and continue to record Taiwan's geomorphological changes.

The Agriculture and Forestry Aviation Survey Institute of the Council of Agriculture and Forestry held a press conference on the 7th for the handover ceremony of domestic fixed-wing UAV, which was named "Bear Eagle". Guan Lihao, director of the Institute of Agricultural Aviation, pointed out that in the future, drones will carry out emergency tasks such as mid-and low-altitude aerial photography missions, support for natural disasters, and investigation of collapse sites, and are expected to use the small-scale shooting capability of drones to plan conservation areas of animal and plant habitats such as Shihu.

Bear Eagle drone will join the aerial photography team

The Agricultural Aviation Institute is the only professional aerial photography unit in Taiwan that records the landscape changes in Taiwan over the past 60 years. Lin Huaqing, director of forestry, points out that the annual map funds provided by the Agricultural Aviation Institute to private and government units are worth more than NT $200 million. And the supply units are beyond imagination. In addition to the use of agricultural land, it is also used by the courts, the Ministry of the Interior, and the Ministry of Finance.

The "Bear Eagle" domestic fixed-wing UAV, which was released at the press conference, can fly at an altitude of 4000 meters, a lag time of up to 4 hours, and a maximum range of 350km. It is developed by Jingwei Aerospace and equipped with a flight control computer. It is a homemade UAV and can carry out out-of-line-of-sight automatic navigation missions.

The plane is equipped with a four-band image amplitude measurement digital camera with a resolution of 100 million pixels for a single photo. The integration of other software and hardware equipment can collect large area image data in local areas.

Guan Lihao revealed that the domestic fixed-wing UAV is named "Bear Eagle".

The Agricultural Aviation Institute said that the reason for naming the drone "Bear Eagle" is because Bear Eagle is one of the largest raptors in Taiwan and lives in the evergreen forest at an altitude of 1000 to 3000 meters, which happens to be the operating height of the "Bear Eagle" fixed-wing UAV. In order to emphasize the superior performance of drones, we will join the aerial photography team from today.

Full-time small-scale and fine images

Domestic aerial images can be divided into large-scale, mesoscale and small-scale, and the use of aerial photography tools is very different. For example, satellites are responsible for large-scale image information, while drones are responsible for small-scale images. Guan Lihao pointed out that in the past, the Agricultural Aviation Institute mainly used manned aircraft to capture mesoscale images, but using drones for emergency aerial photography and small tasks can replace some manned aircraft tasks regardless of time efficiency and fineness. To make up for the shortage of manned aircraft.

UAV aerial images will be incorporated into the construction of land conservation ecological network system, and can also be widely used in forestry management, such as fire site, forest land, collapse land exploration, and forest resources investigation and application. Guan Lihao points out that after natural disasters, drones can also quickly obtain information such as crop damage and carry out emergency tasks. in addition, when drones fly 1000 meters, the flat resolution can reach 8 centimeters, which can be used in Miaoli stone tiger habitat planning. it contributes to the conservation of animal and plant habitats.

Aerial photo verification area ─ Yan Nao Badland Geopark (ground resolution 8 cm). (photo courtesy of / Agricultural Aviation Institute)

"Bear Eagle will initially focus on low-and middle-altitude missions," Guan Lihao explained. Although Bear Eagle fixed-wing UAV can fly more than 3000 meters, the UAV body is lighter, and remote control signals may also be affected by electromagnetic waves and climate. They will worry about outage, plane crash and other problems, so first carry out the mission conservatively, limit the altitude to low and medium altitude, and the remote control distance is about from Pingdong to Chiayi. Two more drones are expected to be purchased to join the fleet of the Agricultural Aviation Institute this year.

Li Tuizhi, vice chairman of the Council of Agriculture, points out that the collection of aerial data is related to domestic agricultural production and land surveying and mapping, and drones can also assist forest patrol personnel in their work, and can be equipped with infrared sensing instruments on the plane. if abnormal activities are found on the ground during the patrol process, they can be dispatched and checked in time to accurately grasp the land situation.

Manned aircraft will be decommissioned, and Agricultural Airlines is looking forward to buying new aircraft.

In the past, the Agricultural Aviation Institute used manned aircraft as the main tool for aerial photography, with the co-pilot and two aerial photographers performing the shooting mission at an altitude of 12000 feet (about 3600 meters). Guan Lihao said that full-time aerial aircraft would install cameras in the belly of the plane to take images from high altitude to the ground, but the domestic weather changes rapidly, and when it is obscured by clouds, it has to be transferred to other locations for shooting tasks.

Aerial photo verification area ─ Yunlin rack (ground resolution 8 cm). (photo courtesy of / Agricultural Aviation Institute)

Originally, all two manned aircraft of Agricultural Airlines were on duty, but there was only one aircraft that had been on duty for 40 years because of a flight accident two years ago, and the aircraft will be retired by the end of next year.

Guan Lihao pointed out that a manned aircraft costs more than 200 million yuan and can be used for more than 20 or 30 years, while a UAV costs about 3 million yuan, and its service life will be affected by manipulation and flight conditions.At present, there is no accurate data on the service life of the bear eagle just took off, but the risk of drones crashing is high.