HoneyComb and OSU Work on UAS to Prevent Stressed Crops

Photo courtesy Oregon BEST

By Priya Potapragada



HoneyComb Corp. is developing an unmanned aerial system with Oregon State University, funded by Oregon BEST and the Portland Development Commission, which pinpoints where crops are stressed so that farmers can respond efficiently. 



The UAS can be used for precision agriculture and forestry applications. By determining where the stressed crops are, the device can potentially save farmers irrigations, fertilizer and labor costs so that they can respond locally and reduce input costs, decrease runoff and boost yields. For forest use, the UAS can determine tree counts, stand density and areas of pest infestation or disease, which allows growers to estimate timber value more efficiently from the air before doing labor on grounds.



A budget of $150,000 also supports collecting data and analysis by sending technicians into the field to gather data so that can be compared to the remote data collected by the aerial system through photography.



"Rather than someone walking a 1,000-acre field looking for areas of crop stress, our system can survey that acreage in an hour and analyze the data so a farmer can see where the issues are and hone in on those areas," said Ryan Jenson, CEO and one of the three cofounders of the company. "Part of the Oregon BEST funding is allowing us to correlate and validate this data, so we have third-party verification of the efficacy of our information." 



The HoneyComb system measures reflectance in the visible and near-infrared spectrum, which can be used to calculate the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), an indicator of crop stress. Healthy plants show up as green, whereas highly stressed plants are red. This allows growers, farm consultants, or service providers to respond more efficiently to problem areas.



The UAS can't determine what's wrong with the plants, just that they are under stress, which could be because of lack of water or fertilizer. However, the funding enables thermal imaging technology which specifies moisture levels in plants and shows what the plant needs to eliminate stress.



"We're pleased to be partnering with the PDC to help this Oregon startup compete in an arena where Oregon's rich history of agricultural and forestry research intersect with our strengths in high technology innovation," said David Kenney, President and Executive Director of Oregon BEST. "Precision agriculture will dramatically improve the efficiency of global food production and this partnership will help position Oregon as a leader in this emerging sector."   



Michael Wing, Assistant Professor of Geomatics in the OSU College of Forestry and Director of OSU's Aerial Information Systems Laboratory, is overseeing the OSU side of the project.

 

"The project is funding a graduate student who is very good at biometrics and geomatics and will provide the field verification to make HoneyComb's product a turn-key solution," Wing said. "Farmers won't have to worry about analyzing the data because they will get it all geo-referenced and mapped so it's immediately useful to them." 



The Federal Aviation Administration's selection of six UAS test site locations is intended to  allow UAS to be in the air more regularly, and Oregon is part of a test operation that includes Alaska and Hawaii, with three different test sites located in Oregon, near Tillamook, Pendleton, and Warm Springs.



"We're hoping to be one of the first to use the new UAS test sites, which allow us to partner with a university on the research component and to publish the results," Jenson said. "There is a lot of buzz nationally about these new sites because they should really streamline FAA approval."



The State of Oregon recently launched the Oregon Unmanned Aerial Systems Business Enterprise, a new Oregon Inc. initiative that wants to make Oregon a leader in civilian UAS development and advance economic activity with UAS in the State.