t cht lk consolidated . You may associate them with rocketlike vehicles focused on the military industry , but what would you think if I told you that the first drones had a more peaceful purpose , concentrating on fieldwork ? can help in daily tasks such as planting , maintenance and pest control , with more precise and timely methodologies and with an excellent cost-benefit ratio ,” said Sanchez .
In the late 1980s , Japan introduced a remotecontrolled helicopter concept focusing on assisting in-country work . It aimed to make the countless slopes of the country ’ s mountainous island terrain more productive , particularly rice crops .
By adding AI , drones gain autonomy and can determine , according to their programming , the right time to react to an alarm generated by a sensor . Thus , in this decade , we will see more and more autonomous drones solving problems previously challenging to manage .
Its acceptance and consequent success revolutionized agricultural production in pest control , controlled planting and harvesting , allowing an accelerated transformation and diversification of these devices to what we know today as drones .
But drones would be less effective if we take AI and connectivity out of the equation . Automation and the reduction of risky and repetitive processes have turned them into a real success . Today ’ s development of flying machines assist people in their daily tasks and new ones emerge regularly and cover defense and security activities , design and engineering , recreation and aerial reporting .
Thus , we focus on these three elements that emerge from Information Technology and telecommunications to generate essential transformations in the agricultural sector .
Drones will take their place in agriculture and other areas where their contribution will be invaluable .
Just as robots have arrived in homes and have taken over basic tasks , such as sweeping and mopping , drones will take their place in agriculture and other areas where their contribution will be invaluable .
For example , a set of sensors installed in a small plantation will tell drones whether to fumigate , spray water or even start harvesting trees and plants that are difficult for people to access .
Analytics and AI – determinants of innovation
According to the FAO , the United Nations entity for food and agriculture , humanity uses about 51 million square kilometers of land in agriculture , which must be optimized to provide food for society in constant growth . If we consider the figures from the WWF , humanity is consuming in 274 days what it should consume in a year .
That is when data analytics and the development of new solutions and more intelligent , autonomous and energy-efficient equipment become fundamental elements for agribusiness development .
Sensors and drones – allies in the Agro-Industrial Revolution
Edwin Sanchez , CEO of Virtuxplorer , an organization specialized in the workflow of drones , explains : “ Sensors , AI and analytics , work with drones improving productivity , increasing efficiency and reducing costs . The result is the Digital Transformation in agribusiness .”
This revolution will encompass large plantations and livestock herds , small crops , poultry , fish farms and even land dedicated to environmental or ecological conservation . In short , drones and sensors combined with operations software can become valuable partners for farmers in Latin America .
“ Latin American geography is varied and with extreme conditions , where small farmers find it difficult to use other industrial machinery , such as tractors . Drones
By integrating valuable information provided by sensors and drones to Big Data and analytics solutions with ML ( Machine Learning ), people can access information and knowledge that was previously invisible and prevented proper decision-making .
“ Farming with intelligence is part of the procedures demanded by the Fourth Industrial Revolution . With this purpose , humanity is committed to improving the use of soil and water , optimizing crops , and developing the necessary technologies to improve increasingly precious resources today ,” said Sanchez .
“ At Virtuxplorer , we have developed methodologies and solutions that help solve this dilemma . Many people may believe that we are drone wholesalers or something similar , but this is far from what we do . We became the consultants and collaborators that allow the agricultural sector to improve its productivity indicators .”
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