無人機於精準農業之應用

Applications of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles to Precision Agriculture

為實踐精準農業，空中的無人機成為重要角色。無人機從軍事需求發展至商業、民生需求。固定翼、直升機與多軸機型為主軸發展，搭載多元感測器，如熱像儀、多光譜儀等精密感測器，衍伸出多面向精準農業應用。本文介紹以無人機應於精準農業之機制與案例，尤其以台灣重要糧食作物水稻為範例，基於影像處理技術發展分析技術，用以水稻植株計數供秧補秧評估、倒伏分析供災損評估、建立雲端平台彙整群眾力量，提升農業調查之效率。本文亦分享國內外多項無人機農業發展案例，包含農地管理、農噴施肥、蟲害與復育等應用。未來的精準農業中，無人機於農業資訊蒐集將佔有不可取代的重要地位。

To practice precision agriculture, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) play an important role. UAVs have been developed for various applications, such as military, business and civil demands. Fixed-wing, helicopter and multirotor are three major types of UAVs. UAVs are equipped with multi-sensors, such as thermal, multi-spectral and specific sensors, for precision agriculture applications. This paper introduces the mechanism and demonstration of UAV in precision agriculture applications, especially rice which is the most important food crops in Taiwan. The UAV analysis technology based on image processing technology has been applied to seedling counting for replanting assessment, rice lodging analysis for compensation assessment; and cloud computing platform to integrate the power of crowdsourcing to improve the efficiency of agricultural investigation. This paper also introduces many domestic and international cases using UAVs in agricultural development, including farm management, chemical spraying, fertilization, and plant rehabilitation. In future, UAVs will play an irreplaceable role in precision agriculture to collect agriculture information.