Harlan, Iowa, a town with a population of less than 6,000 along the West Noshnabotna River, isn’t the sort of place you might think of as a hotbed of tech innovation. Its downtown of small century-old storefronts tends to inspire more nostalgia than much else. But this is where Arlin Sorensen is changing the way people think about farming. As the founder and CEO of HTS Ag, a precision farming technology company and CompTIA Premier Member, Sorensen’s experimenting with the newest technology to reap both healthy crops and major economic rewards.
“We’re focused on helping farmers [who] are involved in production agriculture to leverage technology to drive their farming business forward,” Sorensen said.
As he was getting ready to head out to work on his own farmland, where he experiments with some of the newest GPS and drone technology, he said he ultimately wants to help fellow farmers apply technology quickly and affordably as it comes to market.
Sorensen’s long been interested in fostering professional relationships ever since opening Sorensen’s Computer Connection in 1985. It’s one of the reasons he also founded Heartland Tech Groups (HTG), an umbrella organization of IT peer-mentoring groups, in 2010. HTG currently has more than 500 member companies – many of them small businesses – from throughout North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand.
The most recent tech solutions being tested on Sorensen’s 3,000-acre farm are focused on capturing and analyzing data that can be used to revolutionize the agriculture industry. “We began with yield monitoring,” he said. “We capture what’s going on when a crop comes out of the field, and we analyze data and plan what the crop should look like next year.”
The latest monitoring means that crops can be studied at every stage of development – from when the seed is laid to its growth and even what happens to it when it’s pulled from the ground and travels to a client. The planters and row units he’s using are all outfitted with GPS. Even the seeds are being pushed into the soil with sensors that ensure they are planted at the same depth and with the same pressure.
According to the USDA, there are about 2.2 million farms in the U.S. covering more than 922 million acres. If an average farm has more than 400 acres, the potential this new technology offers is truly game-changing even and especially for the little guy.
Of course, convincing longtime farmers who are used to doing a lot of the backbreaking work the way their fathers and even grandfathers have done it isn’t always easy. With the average U.S. farmer in his 60s, change can and often takes time.
“There are a number of folks who are not interested in learning something new,” Sorensen admitted. And there’s sometimes a divide between the generations, especially since farming is still very much a family affair. Younger farmers may be a lot more eager to embrace the latest technology while the patriarchs with the checkbooks are often a harder sell.
“The main selling point is the cost savings and efficiency,” Sorensen said. “We can save a farmer 20 percent on cost of input by using new technology. Right out of the gate they’re going to put 15 to 20 percent back into their bank account.”
GPS-enabled equipment now drives virtually all agriculture. This means farming can happen well after dark without any additional staff. “Before GPS,” said Sorensen, “farming was a sun-up and sun-down operation.”
Next, he anticipates autonomous vehicles will also push the industry forward. For farmers, one of the biggest limitations has always been the cost of labor. But Sorensen said, “All of the major manufacturers are on the verge of releasing autonomous tractors that you can program and send to the field to run 24-hours a day.” He also anticipates that the size of farming equipment, which has gotten larger in size over the years, will shrink down again.
Drone technology is also playing an enormous role in this industry. “Today,” said Sorensen, “we use drones in our operations for scouting and overseeing crops. We can very accurately identify where problems are in the field.”
The drones under development are larger and they can spot and spray for insects, and manage weed control and fungus with a pinpoint accuracy. “We could have a 10-acre spot in an 100-acre field,” said Sorensen, “and we’re able to treat that spot.”
He’s looking forward to even greater advancements in tracing crops. “We have the ability to track a crop from when we put a seed in the ground until it reaches its final destination,” he said. “It allows farmers to differentiate in the marketplace.” It also gives a lot of confidence to the buyer who knows he’s getting exactly what he paid for. “We’re driving maximum value,” Sorensen said, “by knowing where a crop came from.”
How Aerial Imagery Is Telling a New Story
Up until this year, drones have gotten somewhat of a bad rap. Whether in debates about ethical military use or even the fear that neighbors could have a bird’s eye view into your home, it’s probably only been within the last year that the more positive impact of this high-flying technology is starting to be appreciated by the commercial and consumer sectors alike.
Jon Tull, president of Dronifi and a CompTIA Premier Member active in the association’s new Drone Advisory Council, predicts the drone market will increase dramatically in the next two years. “We’re fielding more inquiries than ever about the use of software and drones,” he said from his office near Los Angeles.
Tull, who oversees a platform for drone flight service providers, currently offers aerial analysis tools for a wide variety of businesses, including agriculture, real estate, golf courses and solar panel installation. Simply put, Dronifi is taking a wealth of aerial imagery and making it actionable for business. “Accountability,” Tull said, “is a big key to what we do.”
By analyzing everything from satellite imagery to thermal points, Dronifi is answering important questions about how drones can be used effectively, and ultimately what the technology can achieve when partnered with smart solutions for reading and analyzing data. In many ways, what Dronifi is doing today is shaping the next wave of drones, how they will be used and what they deliver to big and small business alike.
For example, a client in the real estate space may have a lot of data about a particular property, but Dronfi is allowing that data to be imported in a way that reveals so much more about spatial relations, even things like the quality of roofing using thermal detection.
“What we’ve learned is that data that already exists is critical to mesh with aerial data,” Tull said. “With aerial imaging, you get a picture with facts. The imagery can now be converted into a useful form. Clients are starting to get a sense that the aerial imagery is telling them a story.”
There’s an eco-friendly benefit to the technology, helping clients lessen the use of chemicals to treat swaths of land by pinpointing problems down to a few blades of grass. “The same is true for fertilization,” he said. “You can apply less fertilizer and you can save time and money.”
But for the technology to truly reach its fullest potential, policy changes are needed. “The policy for the use of drones is constrained right now,” Tull said. “As those rules become better connected to the evolution of the technology, I think we will see more autonomous machines.”
Amazon has already famously proposed using drones to deliver packages to customers. And while this isn’t likely to happen overnight, Tull predicts that there are some other advances we should count on coming to market sooner. “Everyone is expecting the arrival of autonomous cars in the next few years,” he said. “Drones will not be different.”
Photography and video is still one of the most popular uses of drones, but that’s being fast eclipsed by the real estate industry. More and more drones will become autonomous, meaning they will not require an operator to fly.
Drones are already being used to fly over areas and make detections on their own without human intervention. We saw it during the hurricane season of 2017 when drones were used to search for stranded people and to monitor floodwaters and even environmental hazards. “This technology exists,” said Tull, “but I expect it to become much more commonplace.”
It’s estimated that the market size could grow to upwards of $80 to $120 billion internationally. “In the years ahead,” he said, “we could have millions of commercial drones in the air. I think they will become a normal robotic tool in the world to gather and solve problems.”
He went on to say that a failure of large enterprise users to adopt drone technology in scale has caused the industry to hit a pause button. “But I think this will turn around abruptly in 2018,” Tull added.
The Future of Autonomous Vehicles
When AirMap was founded in 2015 in Santa Monica, California, Ben Marcus and Greg McNeal wanted to find a fresh new way to tap into aviation technology. Their interesting, if not somewhat unexpected, collaboration was built on the idea that drones represent the next wave of aviation industry growth and innovation. As such, AirMap, a CompTIA Policy Member active in our State Government Affairs programs, is working to make the technology a big part of everyday life by building a service platform that lets the innovation take off – literally.
According to Sezen Jones, who handles public policy for AirMap, the company is essentially helping to ensure safe and compliant drone flights. “Our popular app for drone operators delivers real-time, mission-critical airspace intelligence, including temporary flight restrictions, nearby manned and unmanned traffic, changes in weather and automated waivers for entering controlled airspace,” Jones said. “In addition, our airspace management platform is used by universities, airports and other drone industry stakeholders.”
What makes this young company’s work really stand out is how it’s leveraging data and services by working with some of the top drone manufacturers like DJI, Intel, senseFly and Aeryon Labs. “This is expanding the reach of our technology and solutions throughout the entire drone ecosystem,” said Jones, who anticipates that the practical use of the technology across industries will gather even more momentum in the next few years.
These days, AirMap serves a range of stakeholders, including drone manufacturers and developers, big names like Drone Deploy, KittyHawk, DroneLogbook and Hover. It’s also working closely with airports and air navigation service providers.
AirMap is taking a big step into autonomy, something the company CEO predicts will happen in the sky before we ever see self-driving cars on the road. During a recent interview, Marcus said we’ll likely see unpiloted drones proliferate in the coming years, more so than in any other industry. Marcus, who serves as co-chair of the FAA’s Industry Unmanned Aircraft Safety Team, estimates that on any given day there are about 10,000 flights happening in the U.S. Comparatively, there are about 100,000 drone flights in the air each day. As the technology becomes more autonomous, AirMap is counting on even more clients using its solutions. In fact, the company recently received $26 million in venture funding from Microsoft Ventures to build out its airspace and air traffic management platforms.
“From package delivery to flying cars,” Jones said, “we’re moving quickly towards a future where drone-enabled services are part of our daily lives. The AirMap platform enables this future by providing the necessary infrastructure to support safe, efficient, orderly, reliable and sustainable high-frequency drone operations in low-altitude airspace.” So far, AirMap is used by more than 130 U.S. airports to accept digital fight notices and to communicate with drone operators and hundreds of developers.
“AirMap’s solution has been officially approved by the FAA and is enabling drone operations for even more stakeholders,” Jones added. “With faster access to controlled airspace, more drones operations can occur, which will help drive the drone economy overall,” a market that PwC values at well over $127 billion.
“Very soon, millions of drones will fly billions of flights,” Marcus said. “This is a future that depends on safe, autonomous drone operations at scale.”
He added, “Now drone operators can use AirMap to get immediate airspace access for flights that grow their businesses and accelerate the drone economy.”
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