Drone shots aiding crops study at Harper Adams University
Here's a view of a Shropshire university that you have never seen before.
With its reds and greens, this is how fields at Harper Adams University, near Newport, look when seen from the point-of-view of an unmanned drone aircraft.
But although the vivid colours make little sense to the man in the street, to university staff they offer vital information on the way crops are growing.
The university is conducting a study of how farm traffic affects crop yields and soil structure. And looking down from their eye-in-the-sky gives boffins a wealth of information.
Jonathan Gill, research assistant at Harper Adams, who is also a qualified drone pilot, said this type of developing technology was giving a new view of farming.
"This visual representation from the sky gives a completely different perspective on the field," he said.
The picture was taken during a training session run by a company called PrecisionHawk, which specialises in drone technology. The company has struck a deal with the university, and as a result it was able to use the campus, in Edgmond, as a training venue for people learning to use its Lancaster vehicle drones.
These drones, which look like small two-seater aircraft, are even billed as offering a degree of artificial intelligence – for example they can detect weather conditions in the air and plot out a flight plan.
The drone also continuously monitors itself, checking its battery life and carrying out other performance checks.
In return for hosting the training day, the company took a number of pictures from above to help the university's researchers.
Mr Gill said: "Having PrecisionHawk host their training session on campus has proven a fantastic opportunity to obtain high-quality aerial images of our research, which clearly show how the plots within the field have developed."
Neil Gabriel, PrecisionHawk training and operations manager for Europe, said: "We are very keen to work with leading establishments like Harper Adams University."
