Andrew,

                    Re spraying, you are right, but drones are a different application.  Blanket spraying with a boom is a “one size fits all” and becoming very costly.  With drones you have the crop photographed first (small drone) and then see what has to be sprayed, could be as little as 5 – 10% a massive saving in chemical.  Correcting micro nutrient deficiencies in the crop are usually and definitely not a boom job, as a blanket spray may well do more harm than good.  Tissue testing of the crop will identify what is lacking and can be corrected with a drone,  eg Boron, zinc, Moly, potassium and the host of others.  A tissue test combined with aerial analysis can detect just what needs to be sprayed.  All crops are only as good as the limiting factor nutrient wise.  This is the future of cropping as costs explode.  From experience a $1 application of Zinc can return $50. 

                The drone setup is simply an imagination at the moment, have many experts in their field to consult.  One is the retired Navy test pilot living near me who flew almost all “aerial vehicles” the navy had.  Has something like 300 planes on his licence.  Very switched on and no bullshit.

A drone is complicated and just like C of G, inertia is a real problem flying at 2 metres above the crop.  That leaves no margin for error as in gusts and wind pockets, not to mention trees and power poles.

                Enough power for a quick / instant response is required.  Here electric is brilliant but a generator and motors are still very heavy.  Mechanical is good, but how to get different speeds on the rotors??  That leaves hydraulics which are also not light.  No easy answers anywhere. 

                Again these things will not be “play things” as cost will be considerable, as everything else is in cropping.  Maintenance is a real issue with farmers and all the other joys involved.  Very early days and little to no information other than power to weight is critical and here the mazda is on its own.

Neil.

--