Unmanned drones could play key roles in food supply

[CityFarmer]

Drones may be a disrupting technology in many sectors. I saw drones successfully be used in movie filming, high rise building maintenance. Now in agriculture...

I saw a new toy drone, similar as wireless control toy car, which can be easily controlled by layman. Are flying the real drones as easy as that? Hmm...

Unmanned drones could play key roles in food supply

WASHINGTON — Herding cattle. Counting fish. Taking an animal’s temperature. Applying pesticides.

When it comes to drones, “your imagination can go pretty wild in terms of what would be possible”, says Mr Roger Johnson, president of the National Farmers Union.

This month (Jan), the Federal Aviation Administration issued the first permit for agricultural use of unmanned aerial vehicles. Mr Steven Edgar, president and CEO of ADAVSO, says his Idaho-based business will use a lightweight, fixed-wing drone to survey fields of crops.

Drone technology, already used in other countries, can make farmers more efficient by helping them locate problem spots in vast fields or ranchlands. Increased efficiency could mean lower costs for consumers and less impact on the environment if farmers used fewer chemicals because drones showed them exactly where to spray.
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http://www.todayonline.com/tech/gadgets/...ood-supply

[egghead]

I guess the point is to have the drones controlled by computers/network rather than human. Human only needs to decide which drone goes where.

[sgd]

It looks high tech and advance and fun but my opnion is singapore should consider totally ban these things. Fly a FPV drone with live feed video that's like flying a missile put that in the hands of civilians or crazies that's a terrorist incident just waiting to happen.

You see the wars in iraq they use these high speed drones that can carry heavy payload of guided weapons - In civilian versions of course no such payload but some of these fpv can fly a distance of 40km I can already see some will eventually try to modify weight ratio put in a smaller battery for shorter distance and accomodate it to be able to carry a small payload with say illicit drugs now you have an electronic mule that can circumvent our high tech smuggling detection systems at ICA.

find a secluded location in some kampung in johore and fly it over to woodland less than 9km in a matter of minutes somebody waiting to collect. How you going to stop that? it will be a problem you all get the picture?

Already in US some of these drug dealers have been caught using modified FPV drones to smuggle meth.

[sgd]

You see, just only yesterday I spoke of the potential dangers and today this news appears.

http://www.straitstimes.com/news/world/u...e-20150128

Drone crashes into White House lawn.

[Image: USITEHOU455e.jpg]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An employee of a United States spy agency has confessed to operating a small drone that crashed on the grounds of the White House, the agency said on Tuesday, the latest in a series of incidents that raised questions about the president's security.

[CityFarmer]

The deliveries by drones, may be launched earlier in China...

Alibaba drones start one-time test deliveries in Beijing

HONG KONG — Alibaba Group Holding is making its first trial drone deliveries in China, as e-commerce rival Amazon.com struggles to start a similar programme in the United States.

Asia’s largest Internet company is partnering Shanghai YTO Express (Logistics) to deliver ginger tea packets to 450 Chinese customers who volunteered for the one-time drone tests, said Alibaba.

Remote-controlled helicopters were scheduled to distribute 50 parcels from Alibaba’s Taobao Marketplace in Beijing yesterday, before moving to Shanghai and Guangzhou.

The flights, if successful and uncontested by the authorities, would give the budding commercial drone industry a boost in China, where the military allots only a fifth of the airspace to civilian use.
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http://www.todayonline.com/tech/alibaba-...es-beijing

[CityFarmer]

At least a million dollar for 40 drones, it means at least 25K dollar per drone...

Dining group tests drones in restaurants

Fancy flying drones for a faster delivery system in a restaurant? That’s if you have at least a million dollars to spend on 40 of such robots. The Timbre Group, a popular chain of dining establishments here, said yesterday that it will be spending a ‘seven-digit sum’ on 40 drones at five of its venues, starting from the end of the year. Managing director Edward Chia said the drones are expected to improve productivity by about 25 per cent as they would replace the need for staff to shuttle between the kitchen and dining areas. Drinks and dishes are placed on trays on the drones, which are able to carry up to 700g. The drones then zip across the room to a docking station where waiters take the food and drinks and serve them to customers. Singapore-based company Infinium Robotics, which developed the robots, said there were plans to increase the drones’ load capacity to 2kg. The company took three years to develop the technology, which will be commercialised by year-end. TAN WEIZHEN, PHOTO: DON WONG
http://www.todayonline.com/singapore/din...estaurants