New technical and operative solutions for the use of drones in Agriculture 4.0

As addressed by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) could represent a favorable alternative to conventional farming machines, whenever clear advantages with respect to traditional methods are provided, in terms of higher efficiency in operations, reduced environmental impact or enhanced human health and safety. Within this framework, the AgriDrones 4.0 project has been funded to develop novel technologies and tools for fostering the introduction of new agricultural operations conducted by unmanned vehicles (UVs), both aerial and ground (UAVs and UGVs), driven by Farming 4.0 principles. In particular, the project will investigate scenarios where UVs may represent a favorable alternative to conventional machines, e.g. sloped areas, and whenever clear advantages with respect to traditional methods, in terms of higher efficiency in operations, reduced environmental impact or enhanced human health and safety, may be envisaged. The ISE group is in charge of the development of methods and algorithms for mission planning and Guidance, Navigation and Control (GNC) tasks, together with the design of tools and practices for the operations to be performed by means of UAVs. Moreover, the ISE group provides support to the other partners during the design phase of the prototypes.