Aerobotics launches new mobile crop scouting app

Image via ITNews Africa

Aeroview InField is Aerobotics’ newest all-in-one data capturing solution for improved, all-round pest and disease management for farmers. "Aeroview InField is the latest AgriTech development that will literally save farmers and teams in the field hundreds of hours, increasing productivity with its time-saving technology to detect and document problems in the field," says James Paterson, Aerobotics’ CEO.

Purposed to relieve farmers of time-consuming, manual on-foot scouting, the new app underlines a more intuitive, guided experience. Enabling easier farm and task management, the app benchmarks advanced crop monitoring with clear visuals that are often overlooked when scouting with the naked eye. Its problem-tree-detection algorithm leads you straight to the stressed trees in the orchard.

Once the data has been collected, features such as scout missions allow you to assign further on-the-ground assessments and crop treatment to anyone else on your team. Once the farmer has received his high-resolution drone data, a new feature allows him to create a scout route and assign it to anyone on his team, to do ground assessments and perform crop treatment. This again ensures accountability through impactful data-driven decisions using aerial imagery, as well as accountability, since all data is GPS-referenced.

World Agritech Innovation Summit 2019 names Aerobotics as one of 13 startups to watch out for

21 Jan 2019

Aeroview Infield has been designed on the backbone of an existing app, Aeroview Scout. The biggest change from the initial app, Aeroview Scout, is that you can add more than one marker per tree. This allows for multiple data points and, therefore, more precise data capturing. Markers can be accompanied by custom notes, photos taken on your smartphone and qualifying data of in-field problems.

Additionally, improved reporting structures with custom thresholds for pests can easily be shared with others. Weekly reports can be downloaded in various formats. "As an industry first, Aeroview InField enables us to create a more user-friendly interface where fieldworkers can easily access advanced, high-end agricultural data-capturing technology like never before," says Stuart Gordon Reid, Aerobotics’ head of data science.

Showing its potential for adaptation, the new app can facilitate upcoming software developments such as drone scouting. Drone scouting allows farmers who own and fly drones to collect data when needed. The tool is used to control the drone and position it within a five-meter range of stressed trees to capture a 360-degree visual of each tree. Thereafter, the data is interpreted to identify problems without farmers having to walk into the orchard.

Another development to soon follow is yield management. It helps farmers make informed decisions on how much fruit to thin during the early stages of the season and optimise their yield when it is time to harvest.