| Metric | Treatment | Control | % Change | |------------|---------------|------------|--------------| | Yield (kg ha⁻¹) – Corn | 13 450 | 12 000 | +12 % | | Yield (kg ha⁻¹) – Soy | 3 200 | 2 850 | +12 % | | Water Use (mm) | 480 | 655 | ‑27 % | | Nitrogen Use (kg ha⁻¹) | 115 | 135 | ‑15 % | | Pesticide Applications | 2 × /season | 4 × /season | ‑50 % |
Statistical significance: All differences are p < 0.01 (paired t‑test, n = 8 farms). JJDA-042
| Component | Description | Stakeholders | |---------------|----------------|-----------------| | UAV Fleet | 12 modular, VTOL drones (5 kg payload, 30 min endurance). Equipped with multispectral, LiDAR, and thermal sensors. | AeroDynamics Inc., DroneOps Ltd. | | Ground Station & Edge Computing | Ruggedized 2U rack units with NVIDIA Jetson AGX, running the AgriSense™ inference stack. | AgriTech Labs | | Data Platform | Cloud‑native, serverless architecture (AWS Aurora + S3 + SageMaker). Provides APIs for farm‑MGR software. | CloudServe Corp. | | Analytics & Decision Engine | Deep‑learning models for (a) canopy health, (b) evapotranspiration, (c) disease‑early‑warning. Trained on 2 M historic flight passes. | University of Illinois – Agri‑AI Lab | | Field Trials | 8 farms across Illinois, Indiana, and Iowa. Diverse soil types, irrigation regimes, and crop rotations. | FarmCo Partners (list in Appendix A) | | Metric | Treatment | Control | %
Geographic footprint: 1 200 ha total (≈ 150 ha per farm). 200 mAh 6S LiPo
Timeline: 1 Oct 2023 – 30 Sep 2025 (pilot); Phase II planning begins Q4 2025.
| Specification | Detail | |-------------------|------------| | Airframe | Carbon‑fiber composite, 650 mm diagonal wheelbase | | Weight (empty) | 1.8 kg | | Maximum Take‑off Weight | 6.0 kg | | Battery | 7,200 mAh 6S LiPo, 45 min flight (no payload) | | Payload Capacity | Up to 4 kg (modular bays) | | Max Speed | 65 km/h | | Endurance (full payload) | 30 min | | Operating Temp | –20 °C → +45 °C | | Navigation | Dual‑frequency RTK GNSS, visual‑inertial SLAM | | Obstacle Sensors | 360° LiDAR + 6× forward‑facing stereo cameras | | Communication | 5G/4G LTE (dual‑band), optional SAT‑COM | | Data Storage | 256 GB SSD (hot‑swap) | | Software | Open‑source SDK (Python, C++, ROS2), Cloud analytics API | | Regulatory | FAA Part 107, EASA CAA, ICAO Annex 6 compliant |