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Table of Contents
Realizing profitability with drone precision agriculture
As an alternative to expensive manned aviation or limited ground-based observation, drones have the potential of realizing profitability with BVLOS UAV precision agriculture. Unmanned aerial surveying allows farmers to improve productivity as well as maximize the quality and yield of their crops.
In addition to data capture, drones can be used to plant seeds, apply pesticides, and perform a variety of other tasks with much greater speed and precision than manual methods can achieve.
With the ability to deliver imagery and sensor data that beats dated and low-resolution and/or non-cost-effective methods, the demand for drone-based precision agriculture is on the rise. This demand is driven by the advancement and increased accessibility of drones for agricultural use.
Owners of large farms spanning hundreds or thousands of acres can especially stand to benefit from drone technology. It will allow them to cover their entire holdings in days instead of taking weeks or possibly months. Moreover, Gathering real-time data will assist with decision-making and action-taking almost immediately. In fact, these are vital elements given the seasonal nature of farming and the need to quickly take advantage of fleeting weather conditions.
The bottlenecks in scaling up for economic viability
Currently, regulatory landscapes around the world are making it difficult to turn this dream into reality. In most countries, operating a drone is largely limited to visual line-of-sight (VLOS), even in rural areas. That means that drones can fly at most around 500 meters away from their operators. For an agricultural professional with a lot of land to cover, this means hard labor. Driving from field to field, setting up and repacking the drone each time, and painstakingly trudging through the work in a piecemeal fashion. This excessive drain on time and resources will quickly destroy any perceived efficiency boost from using This excessive drain on time and resources will quickly destroy any perceived efficiency boost from using unmanned aircraft technologies.
In order to realize the advantages of economies of scale, and to enable autonomous operations with fleets of drones, BVLOS (beyond visual line of sight) flights will be required. As anyone following the ever-changing drone industry knows, the United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and other aviation regulatory bodies keep a tight leash on BVLOS operations. They approve only a small proportion of the requests for authorization that they receive.
The good news is that the game is slowly changing.
If you can prove that your BVLOS drone platform is safe, ultra-reliable, and up to spec, your chances of getting on the road to certification increase significantly.
A foolproof solution for long-range drone precision agriculture
The Halo platform, powered by Elsight’s 6th sense technology, provides an unprecedented solution for BVLOS operations. Halo is the key to overcoming barriers to BVLOS drone certification – connectivity and safety. Agricultural holdings that span vast areas may vary dramatically in the availability of drone communication options. Moreover, regulators require assurance that your long-range drone platforms can continue to operate seamlessly. In addition, regulators seek safety factors with foolproof failover protection, no matter the network conditions.
The versatile, highly reliable 6th sense technology powering Halo aggregates any available network in any given location. That creates a secure communications tunnel that automatically selects the most suitable options in any environment. The system allows you to stay connected with an always-on solution for both data and command & control that can be easily established from anywhere to anywhere. Halo delivers the promise of failover protection while maintaining a steady connectivity stream at all times.
Halo allows your BVLOS agricultural solutions to work at an unlimited range with unlimited scalability. This provides drones with the ability to safely integrate into farm environments. Now is the time to take advantage of large-scale operations. Making precision agriculture both efficient and economically viable for everyone is now a no-brainer.
FAQs
1. What is BVLOS, and why is it important for precision agriculture?
BVLOS (Beyond Visual Line of Sight) allows drones to operate beyond the pilot’s direct visual range using reliable communication and control systems. In precision agriculture, BVLOS enables operators to cover large farms more efficiently, automate data collection, reduce labor requirements, and perform long-range missions, such as crop monitoring, spraying, irrigation analysis, and livestock management.
2. How does Halo’s technology ensure reliable connectivity and automatic failover across large or remote farms?
Halo aggregates multiple communication links into a single resilient communication layer. The platform continuously monitors link quality and dynamically reroutes traffic through the best available networks to maintain uninterrupted command and control, telemetry, and video transmission across remote or low-coverage agricultural environments.
3. What regulatory approvals are typically required for agricultural BVLOS operations?
Agricultural BVLOS operations typically require aviation authority approval from the relevant regulator, such as the FAA, EASA, or CASA. Operators usually need to submit an operational risk assessment, CONOPS documentation, communications, evidence of command-and-control reliability, pilot procedures, and safety mitigation plans. If the mission includes agricultural spraying or chemical application, additional approvals, labeling rules, environmental restrictions, and handling requirements may also apply, depending on the jurisdiction.
4. What communication technologies can Halo aggregate for agricultural drone missions?
Halo aggregates multiple communication technologies, including LTE, 5G, mesh, Wi-Fi, and satellite links into a single, resilient communication layer. This multilink approach improves operational continuity across large farms and remote rural areas where network coverage may vary during BVLOS agricultural missions.
5. What maintenance and operational costs should agricultural drone operators expect?
Operators should budget for routine drone maintenance, battery or fuel replacement, sensor calibration, connectivity and data plans, software subscriptions, insurance, spare parts, and periodic system inspections. Additional costs may include regulatory compliance, pilot training, fleet management systems, and seasonal operational scaling during peak agricultural periods.
