Development of an Aircraft Type Portable Autonomous Drone for Agricultural Applications

In this paper, we demonstrate the design and development of an aircraft type portable autonomous drone suitable for agricultural applications. The portable drone consists of six separate parts that are easily installable within just ten minutes. Moreover, these parts can be fit inside a portable box allowing easy portability. We have integrated a high definition camera with the drone to transmit real-time video of any desired crop’s field to the ground control station. To scare the birds and to announce emergency to the farmers, we have installed a loud speaker with the bird-shaped drone. The drone can fly under different altitude varying from 10 to 200 meters. The maximum cruise speed of the drone is 60 kilometers/hour, whereas the maximum endurance time is ~ 30 minutes. The drone can carry ~ 1.4 kilograms of payload (e.g. seeds) and deliver to the farmers when required. The agricultural drone has Return Home feature for autonomous return to the ground control station when its battery voltage reduces down to a certain level or any communication failure is detected. The drone will not only monitor the possible threats of the agricultural fields including diseases and harms caused by birds or other animals but also supply light weight emergency goods to the farmers.