Our Drone Articles

Interviewer:

A bit of midnight oil and forgotten years on 14942AY, a wide crowd still pumping out here. The Henty Machinery Field Days is a lot of good people here as the jingle says and of course you can get your tickets for tomorrow at hmfd.com.au. We're still here with Nick Smith from dronesforhire.com.au. Now you've got a couple of local places where you're actually setting up some of these drones right now. 

Nick Smith:

Yeah we do. We have some customers, a lot of interest coming from the Aubrey -Rodonga area and we have customers operating in Bethanga, Tulangata, Gandharing and some of those areas surrounding those places as well. 

Interviewer:

A couple of beautiful locations. Now tell us about your setup day if we're interested in some of these amazing drones. 

Nick Smith:

Yeah sure so with every spray drone that we supply we include a full setup day with customers and that enables or ensures that they're using it confidently and so on the setup day we include preparation for spraying, helping to plot out their missions on their particular piece of land so we can understand by visiting their property we can understand their country and their terrain and help guide them about the best way to use the spray drone for each section of their property. So we include a full setup day and we also do mapping on that day as well so we can map out sections of their property and focus on the highest priority areas that the customers have for spraying weeds that are otherwise hard to reach. 

Interviewer:

Fantastic you keep talking about I guess these hard to get to areas and I mean it's why these drones are the best option instead of your quad bikes and all those sorts of things that can be quite dangerous. 

Nick Smith:

Yeah 100% so spray drones have really become famous for spraying in areas that are hard to access so very steep terrain gullies, rocky areas you know traditionally the farmers have always used things like quick sprays but they can be very hard work because you're walking up and down hills all day. Quad bikes can be quite dangerous because obviously when it gets steep they can roll over and be a hazard. and helicopter operators are good, but they have less precision and accuracy and they're often booked out because everyone wants to book them at the same time. So spray drones have very effectively resolved those problems and offered what we think is a more optimal solution for spraying difficult access areas. 

Interviewer:

Absolutely. Tell us a little bit about the spot spraying as well. 

Nick Smith:

Yeah, so if you have, say for example, Blackberry on steep terrain, you're not necessarily or quite often not using the drone in a way you would fly an RC car or an RC helicopter, so you would actually map the area first and then draw circles around where the Blackberry is and then the spray drone will go off and only spray those circled areas automatically on its own. 

Interviewer:

That's fantastic, isn't it? 

Nick Smith:

Yeah, so it's not manually flying the drone when you're doing spray drone work. 

Interviewer:

Stuff way over my head, but it might not be, of course, over some of the farmers in this region who can come out and find a little bit more about dronesforhire.com.au and grab one of these amazing sprays. In terms of inquiries or anything like that, Nick... the best place to grab you is of course at the website. 

Nick Smith:

Yeah, yeah, that's right. So it's dronesforhire.com.au. We're the largest drone site in Australia. We've been operating for 10 years and we focus on agricultural drones. And yeah, if you're at the Henty Field Days, come and have a look at our stand. Otherwise have a look at the website and I'm very happy to chat with anyone who's got country like that and has a problem spraying their weeds. 

Interviewer:

Nick Smith, thank you very much for joining us. I feel like I'm a drone expert now after the last hour or so. Thanks for joining us on 2AY and enjoy the rest of the Henty Machinery Field Days. Thanks very much, Panda. 

From a distance it looks like almost any other drone

But a larger black panel on a prototype developed by an Auckland startup makes this one a little different, in a big way.

"We're one of the few companies in the world to deliver this technology for light-based energy transmission," said Aquila CEO and co-founder William Jeremijenko.

It's light that is invisible to the eye.

But they're using it to charge the drone while it flies, opening the doors for a raft of possibilities in the future.

"You can imagine having this on agricultural sites or mining sites where you got a love moving platforms."  Jeremijenko told 1News

"They need an energy source and you can have that energy supplied continuously by beams of light"

The ultimate goal. as he puts it, is to make an "internet of energy" - a network of satellites to send power from where it's generated to where it's needed.

Eventually they hope to send power to electric planes flying internationally.

"So with this directed energy capability you can all of a sudden create these networks that can serve any imaginable application." Jeremijenko said.

And the hope is it can be done within a decade, helping along by AUD $3 million recently secured in funding.

Making it large-scale and safe

"The reason why no-one has done this yet is because it is just that hard." fellow co-founder Nelson Smith told 1News

"There are dozens of really difficult technical problems that have only recently become fundamentally soveable."

A lot of people have tried, Smith said.

their solution involves a "lighthouse" module that can direct a beam of light to a receiver, in this case on the prototype drone.

The receiver is in effect a specialised solar panel that can work with the specialised light.

It can deliver more than what solar can.

The "Lighthouse" module on the drone

"So think of autonomous aerial vehicles, or boats, or submarines just staying forever, that's the goal" Smith said.

"The biggest reasons we can't transition to renewables is electrical propulsion just isn't good enough yet"

"However if we can charge things mid-flight suddenly all those barriers just evaporate"

The team is working to make safety a key part of the whole design.

"For me to put it in front of people , it has to be safe... we have to be so confident that it's not even going to hurt a bird, let alone a person." said Smith "And it's working beautifully so far"

Potential game changer

The drone in flight

Victoria University sustainable energy professor Alan Brent told 1News a number of companies are working on the technology.

"It's definitely a potential game changer in the power", he said.

He said serving communities in difficult terrain in difficult times could be key winners.

"Definitely for communities in topography that's very difficult to install and maintain lines if we have disasters, or earthquakes, or cyclone events - they won't disrupted using this kind of technology" he said.

Cushla McGoverin from the Dodd-Walls Centre for Photonic and Quantum Technologies calls it "solar power, amped up"

"If you don't have to bring your drone down to charge it every few hours? The potential advantage of that is massive." She said.

"In events like disaster events when you're trying to find things, agriculture is starting to use drones - it's just massivem the potential applications"

DJI Mavic 3 Enterprise (M3E) on the Farm!

Hey guys, 

We had perfect weather for our Maryborough QLD demo in March 2023. And a fantastic site that has cotton, cane and pineapple plantations. We demonstrated the T40 over cane , showing that there is no yield loss when using it  – no compaction or damage to the tops of the cane that you get with boom sprayers. Guests could also see the strong penetration into the cane thanks to the T40’s large coaxial rotors pushing the droplets down and circulating them around inside the cane for creating exceptional efficiency.

We also demonstrated targeted spot spraying (for weeds such as Giant Rats Tail) and also manual and manual plus modes for spraying the edges of the nearby dam.

And we demonstrated the Mavic 3 Multispectral, Mavic 3 Thermal, and had the T10 there and discussed its suitability for spraying isolated gullies and small patches of weed.  

Guests were able to see a good run down of Terra too thanks to the large LED screen and an hdmi out from the RC and the laptop.

Thanks to all for a great day out.   

Here is a quick spec comparison between the DJI Mavic 3 Multispectral and DJI Phantom 4 Multispectral. 

For sure, it is definitely an upgrade in almost all aspects.

	DJI Mavic 3 Multispectral	DJI Phantom 4 Multispectral
Release	2022	2019
Price in AU$	$7800	$7000
Take-off Weight	951g; 1,050g (max take-off weight)	1,487g
Foldable	Yes	No
RGB Camera	4/3 CMOS; 20MP	1/2.9" CMOS; 2MP
Multispectral Camera	4 Bands: Green, Red, Red Edge, Near Infrared;  1/2.8" CMOS; Each camera, 5MP:	5 Bands: Green, Red, Red Edge, Near Infrared, Blue; 1/2.9" CMOS; Each camera, 2MP
Max Flight Time	43 mins	27 mins
Operating Temperature	-10°C to 40°C	0°C to 40°C
Transmission Distance (CE)	DJI O3 Enterprise; 8km	DJI OcuSync; 5km
Controller	DJI RC Pro Enterprise smart controller with built-in screen	P4 SDK Remote Controller. No built-in screen: Additional smart device is required.
Modular	Yes	No
Multispectral Camera Bands	Four bands: Green (G): 560 ± 16 nm; Red (R): 650 ± 16 nm; Red Edge (RE): 730 ± 16 nm; Near infrared (NIR): 860 ± 26 nm;	Five bands: Green (G): 560 nm ± 16 nm; Red (R): 650 nm ± 16 nm; Red Edge (RE): 730 nm ± 16 nm; Near-infrared (NIR): 840 nm ± 26 nm Blue (B): 450 nm ± 16 nm
Image Sensor	1/2.8" CMOS; Effective pixels: 5MP	1/2.9” CMOS; Effective pixels 2.08MP
Lens	FOV: 73.91° (61.2° x 48.10°) Equivalent focal length: 25 mm Aperture: f/2.0 Focus: Fixed Focus	FOV (Field of View): 62.7° Focal Length: 5.74 mm (35 mm format equivalent: 40 mm), autofocus set at ∞ Aperture: f/2.2
Gain Range	1x-32x	1x-8x
Shutter Speed	Electronic Shutter: 1/30~1/12800 s	Electronic Global Shutter: 1/100 - 1/10000 s
Max Image Size	2592 x 1944	1600 x 1300
Image Format	TIFF	TIFF
Video Format	MP4 (MPEG-4 AVC/H.264)	N/A
Video Resolution	H.264 FHD: 1920 x 1080@30fps Video content: NDVI/GNDVI/NDRE	N/A
Max Video Bitrate	Stream: 60 Mbps	N/A
mage Sensor	4/3 CMOS; Effective Pixels: 20MP	1/2.9" CMOS; Effective Pixels: 2.08MP
Lens	FOV: 84° Equivalent focal length: 24 mm Aperture: f/2.8 to f/11 Focus: 1 m to ∞	FOV: 62.7° Focal Length: 5.74 mm (35 mm format equivalent: 40 mm), autofocus set at ∞ Aperture: f/2.2
ISO Range	100-6400	200 - 800
Shutter Speed	Electronic shutter: 8-1/8000 s Mechanical shutter: 8-1/2000 s	Electronic Global Shutter: 1/100 - 1/20000s
Max Image Size	5280 x 3956	1600 x 1300
Image Format (Visual)	JPEG/DNG (RAW)	JPEG
Video Resolution	H.264: 4K: 3840×2160@30fps FHD: 1920×1080@30fps	N/A
Max Video Bitrate	4K: 130Mbps FHD: 70Mbps	N/A
Video Format	MP4 (MPEG-4 AVC/H.264)	N/A
Flight Time	43 minutes	27 minutes
Max Speed	33.5 mph (Normal Mode); Flying forward: 46.9 mph, flying sideways: 44.7 mph, flying backwards: 42.5 mph (Sport mode)	31 mph (P-mode); 36 mph (58 kph) (A-mode)
Ascent Speed	6 m/s (Normal Mode) 8 m/s (Sport Mode)	6 m/s (automatic flight); 5 m/s (manual control)
Descent Speed	6 m/s (Normal Mode) 6 m/s (Sport Mode)	3 m/s
Operating Temperature	-10°C to 40°C	0°C to 40°C
Transmission System	DJI O3 Enterprise	DJI OcuSync
Transmission Distance (CE)	8km	5km

This is our final T30-centric spray drone demo day. We have just started shipping T40’s and expect to be focussing more on it for future demos. We used the DJI Agras T30, Phantom 4 RTK, and RTK mobile station, and Terra Ag. software.

 

Book a demo day here.

In this demo, we show the T30 flying from point to point, simulating automated spot spraying of individual blackberry clumps. At each point, the T30 does a 360-degree yaw (pirouette), in order to saturate each blackberry clump. Using the settings in the controller, Oscar has set how many liters of liquid to spray at each point, which the T30 executes based on yaw speed and flow rate.

Another successful spray drone demo at the Murrumbateman Field Days, NSW 2582.

Oscar and Nick had a very enjoyable couple of days showcasing spray drones at Murrumbateman. Plenty of interested growers who simply can't get their spray booms across the saturated ground.  The weather on the 2 days was perfect and the turnout was amazing - this was the first year the show has been back on since covid. 

Great to meet local families and discuss where drone technology is at the moment. 

After receiving a forecast of rain and thunder, we pushed on and were very grateful to Matt and Rachael for their hospitality in hosting the day and their generosity in putting on a BBQ for everyone.

With sections of rain that was so hard we had to stop our discussion in the shed, we carried on and were able to get some good T30 flying done, including some long runs over a saturated wheat field. We had a tonne of good questions to answer from a great turn out of 30+ people.  Thank you all for a very enjoyable day out, and once again to our generous hosts Matt and Rachael.

Fitting the spreader to the T30 airframe takes about 8 mins. Note those small black boxes are weight sensors that sit on the frame of the T30 and give constant readings as to the number of material left in the hopper.

Always great to see the kids taking a keen interest in the technology

The DJI Mobile station in the foreground (back item on the tripod), is used to bring the aircraft accuracy from approx. 1-2 meters to 10 cm.  The T30 carries an onboard GNSS RTK receiver that gathers data from satellites and uses the stationary mobile station as a fixed reference point to more accurately correct its location, in real-time as it flies.

Demonstrating the spreader in action. Note the T30 will happily fly in the rain as it's designed to be hosed down (regular garden hose pressure only) after each use.

Some excellent questions and comments came from the small groups that formed later in the day.

Demonstrating a simple field mission, spraying water on this wheat field. In this scenario, the T30 is having a walk in the park - and is capable of spraying / spreading 110 ha per day. Based on an application rate of up to 14L/ ha. 

Oscar, Ben, and Nick were very glad to be exhibiting, doing T30 demo flights and local FM radio network interviews during Agquip 2022 at Gunnedah (NSW). We thoroughly enjoyed talking to local growers and farmers, many of which discussed the challenges of not being able to get their boom rigs across the saturated and muddy ground. In addition to spray drones, a fair bit of interest also in thermal camera drones for spotting animals and the Air 2S for automated waypoint missions to scout the property (saved automated flights to check troughs, fences, animals, tanks, etc). Great to be meeting plenty of good folks and to be out and about in the wide open spaces and fresh air.

The DFH exhibiters stand was inside the agri-tech pavilion. 

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Demonstrating the T30 in action (30-second video), and discussing the value of small and simple drones such as the DJI Mini 3 for getting a fast and clear aerial view of what's going on on your property at any time.  

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Custom-made spray drone trailer. With IBC, chemical tank, and mixing tank. Accommodates 2 x spray drones. Designed for efficient workflow when out in the field (trying to shorten downtime / reduce the number of minutes per day that the drone/s are not spraying/spreading). 

Drones For Hire completed yet another full day of setup and training for a new T30 spray drone customer near Braidwood NSW.  

We find it’s more stable to update the aircraft firmware via a cable from the laptop directly into the T30 instead of doing it via the RC.

Updating the firmware on the charging station

Updating the firmware on the RC

The new SpaceX system is used for low latency, broadband internet - helps speed up the firmware update processes dramatically.

The DJI Ag management platform (free with your Agras) automatically logs all your flights, the amount sprayed/spread, the locations sprayed (map overlay), and various other useful data for you and for the land owners.

Just waiting for the charging station firmware update to complete

The T30 controller (RC) has a nice large bright screen, both internal and replaceable aux battery (wb37) for redundancy. An excellent and intuitive menu for settings management and Field Mission Planning, and an RTK dongle (grey device on top) for high accuracy spray area boundary planning.

The T20’s spreader (hopper) carries a load of rye grass seed. The hopper can carry 40kg of dry particles such as seeds, fertilizer, mouse baits, or e.g. flupropanate granule herbicide.

T30 spreading rye grass seeds as a demonstration to calibrate the spreader and create a template for the customer for future rye grass application flights

Preparing for the maiden flight!

Another happy customer – feeling prepared and ready to put the T30 to work – spraying chemical and spreading seeds.