Prairiesky Uav

PrairieSky UAV provides professionals in numerous industries with the best commercial UAV for their business.

PrairieSky UAV is committed to providing professionals with the best possible UAV /drone for their commercial applications.

UAV’s (unmanned aerial vehicles) are providing significant advances in data collection across a number of industries and at the same time greatly improving the cost effectiveness associated with these activities.

By combining strong physical flight characteristics with the right cameras and sensors and effectively managing the information with the best software, PrairieSky UAV provides its’ customers with the best solution for their day to day operations.

PrairieSky UAV has partnered with professional service providers locally in the Camrose area to provide UAV aerial imagery and data collection services. The services are performed locally with a variety of UAV platforms in order to ensure that the UAV’s sold and distributed to end users are the “right” UAVs for the job.

SURVEYING

Within the surveying industry, the UAV has become a common tool utilized by surveying departments to obtain precise topographical information over a large area. Aerial surveying combined with a process known as photogrammetry allows surveyors with commercial grade UAV’s to be able to complete a survey of a 100-acre development in only hours while providing the customer with 2-5 cm accuracy on the entire area. The surveyor’s customer obtains a level of accuracy that prior to UAV’s was not financially viable at a cost of equal to or slightly less than a traditional survey team was able to provide.

The accuracy of the aerial survey performed with the UAV is highly dependent upon the quality of the imagery obtained. In order to ensure high quality and consistent imagery it is important that the drone’s flight is stable and done at a relatively slow speed to ensure proper coverage and overlap of the images is obtained.

INSPECTION

Aerial inspection services performed by drones provide companies with a safe, cost effective and reliable method to obtain high quality photographs or thermal imagery. The ability to place various cameras and /or sensors on UAVs enables inspection services to proactively identify potential problems or issues before they become significant. Aerial inspection with UAVs include power line transmission lines, solar power farms, windmill power fields, commercial building inspections and many more.

In order to ensure safe aerial inspection with UAVs, it is critical that the UAV flight is extremely stable and can withstand wind gusts in order to avoid the drone being pushed into obstacles. In addition, the ability to utilize a variety of sensors ensures that a wide variety of inspections can be performed – from a high quality camera with the ability to zoom in on small details to a thermal imagery camera with the ability to identify small variances in temperatures.

SURVEYING AND INSPECTION SOLUTION – SURVEYOR 630

The Surveyor 630 manufactured by Infinite Jib in Ontario, Canada provides the pilot with a UAV that is extremely stable and able to withstand high winds. In addition, the ability to carry a significant payload and an open sourced approach to sensor integration ensures that the UAV can be utilized with industry leading sensors from a variety of manufacturers without constraining the UAV to manufacturer specific sensors.

The flight characteristics and level of redundancy built into the design of the craft provide the user with a safe and reliable UAV for a wide variety of aerial imagery services. In addition, the ability to hover and fly a grid pattern over a site at a slower speed guarantees that the images provided will be the ones necessary to provide the best data possible.

SURVEYING SOLUTION – SURVEYOR 300

The Surveyor 300 manufactured by Infinite Jib in Ontario, Canada is a smaller, nimble version of the Surveyor 630. At a lower price point, this craft can provide the surveyor with a tool to obtain imagery from above.

AGRICULTURE

Scouting:

The ability to obtain detailed aerial imagery and data for a large area allows a producer /agronomist to scout fields effectively. In our opinion, the UAV does not replace the need for boots on the ground but ensures that those boots are actually trampling in the dirt where issues may exist. By utilizing the UAV, the producer can review, identify and plan their “ground-truthing” activity – minimizing the risk of missing an area in the field that could be a problem later.

In addition, as sensors evolve, scouting the crops during the year may allow the producer to identify potential diseases before they can be seen with the naked eye. Current practical applications include the ability to identify late blight within potato crops at a very early stage, take action and contain the disease. The scouting sensors continue to evolve and research and development within the area has expanded significantly in the last 2-3 years.

Yield estimations, water management, specific weed or disease identification are all areas that continue to evolve and are expected to have a substantial impact on farming practices in the future.

Application:

With significant advancements in technology over the past decade, precision agriculture has become a buzzword within the industry. As equipment manufacturers continue to make progress with respect to variable rate application of fertilizers, nutrients, herbicides and pesticides, the ability to identify the specific needs of small areas within a field has become a means to ensuring that the farming operation is generating the highest return on investment possible.

Satellite imagery has been available for a number of years and has been widely used as the main source of information for variable rate applications. In many instances, satellite imagery has been a very cost effective data set to combine with detailed soil sampling in order to prescribe variable rate fertilizer inputs in conjunction with initial seeding application.
However, in instances whereby in-crop applications are required, the satellite imagery may not be available for the date required. In addition, if current data is available, the level of detail of satellite imagery is often noted as a number of meters (generally 5 – 10m) whereas the UAV imagery can provide the producer with a level of detail noted in centimeters (generally 2-5cm). This greater detail improves the accuracy of the prescription generated and allows for the most detailed prescription maps available.

UAV Requirements:

The requirements for a UAV within the agricultural industry is no different than any other industry – it must provide a return on investment, be easy to use and durable enough to perform day after day.

The return on investment calculation will be different for each farm depending upon the crops grown, the equipment utilized, the farming practices in effect and the size of the operations. Much like many other areas of farming, there is the ability to hire a UAV operator to “test” the financial viability of the drone in your farming operation.

During the last few years, the level of automation has grown exponentially within the UAV industry. As a result, new users can designate the area to be flown, identify the landing area and never have to physically fly the UAV during the entire flight. This makes the UAV “easy” to fly for new operators. However, the ease of use of the UAV solution extends beyond the flight and must include managing the imagery and providing the output to the producer with little or no work required by the producer. This is the area that continues to develop and one of the main challenges and opportunities within the UAV industry.

Durability is critical for the UAV. Based upon current technology available, a fixed wing craft will generally be used to cover large areas. In some instances, a multi-rotor UAV can be used to assess plots and smaller areas. A fixed wing craft will glide and perform a belly landing and in some instances the belly landing may be “harder” than expected with a sudden gust of wind. Therefore, make sure that the UAV selected for use can take a beating and keep on flying.

AGRICULTURE SOLUTION – AGEAGLE RX60

In February, 2016 RAVEN and AgEagle partnered together with the vision to combine the leading edge UAV technology with the various variable rate applications offered through RAVEN including the Hawkeye Nozzle Control System. The AgEagle RX60 will be integrated with Hawkeye application solutions. This integration will allow data to go directly from the RX60 to the sprayer to provide a detailed prescription shortly after the flight. The result is an extremely efficient operating practice providing the producer with maximum return on investment based upon the time and steps required for data collection.

The AgEagle RX60 can be flown fully automated with flight control software designed specifically for the RX60 to ensure it is easy to fly. The unique design allows the craft to fly in high winds up to 30 mph and the carbon fiber wing ensures that the craft is extremely tough and durable.