NDVI and Crop Scouting with Inspire - How To?

[Soflms]

I recently looked (again) at DD and saw where the Inspire with iOS was still in beta. I take it you are using Android with it? Or are you in their beta test with iOS?

I initially wanted to go with DD as I'd done some research into it while looking at AgEagle systems for a paper. I'm currently using Mapsmadeeasy for mapping stuff. Used it last weekend with their Jan. 5 software release and it performed flawlessly. The auto takeoff was expected, but still took me by surprise. I did manually land it at mission completion from a high overhead hover over the start point.

Will be shooting 50 acres tomorrow from 350' due to the height of the pine trees.

I am really interested in getting NDVI data with my bird and will pursue it with DD when they get iOS up.
Thanks for posting the info. I like that lens conversion. Will have to look into that.
60

I use both, android on my 10" note tablet, and yes beta on my iPhone 6S+. I have more flights on android however. I'd like to get out and do more testing with iOS soon, it's just been too rainy. I flew last at 110' and the map came out awesome.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[John Alan]

Suggest you use MapsMadeEasy app (iOS only) and convert your own lenses...
The video posted up above started me down this road looking into this...

I recently tried their mapping app and the processing service... like it so far...
They also do the NDVI picture conversion... Just go check out their website...
It's not a free service... but way cheaper then Pix4D and others for my limited usage...

I am in the process now to convert my X3 cameras (have 2 now with one more incoming)...
NDVI-7, IR only, RGB 4.35mm (72* FOV) lenses on order from IRPro... (3 lenses)

Should give me about 1/2in per pixel resolution at 164ft altitude and 1in per pixel at 368ft...
(at least that is what I calculated when deciding what lens to order)
Also about matches the X5's 12mm FOV... so I can start getting used to that...

This is my current project ongoing to get a working NDVI ability going for this year...
And on a budget...

 

[csabal]

Hi John,

How is your project going?

I planning to order a modified cam for my I1 from IRpro. Just wondering that their cam's quality..is it okay? Do you have actual experience now?

thx

 

[n9ami]

Aerial Pros and others are in "business" to make money they are of course going to never agree with opposing views that wont make them money and move people away from a purchase. I will have to agree with some other points that there has been many other fixed wing solutions, for instance the Pixhawk platform that has served the ag community and does handle winds and run fully autonomous. Also don't forget fixed wings do cover much much more ground than the inspire ever could. I can see the inspire good for smaller acreage fields and some volume calculations in the mining industry but certainly there are more low cost fixed wing craft including flying wings that can and have accelerated at this.The inspire in this form is a bit late to the game. I laugh at what people are charging for some of these toys turned "real drones".(ie 60K) When you look at them you know you can build something buy just purchasing off the shelf stuff for much less. I don't have a problem with someone in business to make money but I do have a problem with people in an up coming industry taking advantage and jacking up prices.

 

[Dario Finderle]

Soflms, would you have the time to explain the conversions you did? As I understand, it's not just changing the lens, you have to remove the IR filter. So how did you remov the filter on a X3? And perhaps you could post a link to the lenses

I love my inspire and do all of our mapping/surveying with it. It's fast, maps 10 acres in about 5 minutes, and drone depot lets you land, swap batteries, and continue mission. Why wouldn't you use one bird for all lines of work? That's what I love about DJI. It's like a Mac, no bs, everything works with it, and it's easy to use. The inspire is like the ar15 of drones. You can swap cameras, and literally do any work with it so I'll agree to disagree on the post of the inspire being worthless for AG work when it's literally all we use. It's way too diverse of a tool to not use as a primary tool. That's why every third party developer designs software around the inspire, phantom, and matrice. However, I wouldn't pay 750$ for a different lens in my x3, when the lens conversion takes 15 minutes and the lenses are cheap if you know what to look for.

 

[CaptainBadge]

I love my inspire and do all of our mapping/surveying with it. It's fast, maps 10 acres in about 5 minutes, and drone depot lets you land, swap batteries, and continue mission. Why wouldn't you use one bird for all lines of work? That's what I love about DJI. It's like a Mac, no bs, everything works with it, and it's easy to use. The inspire is like the ar15 of drones. You can swap cameras, and literally do any work with it so I'll agree to disagree on the post of the inspire being worthless for AG work when it's literally all we use. It's way too diverse of a tool to not use as a primary tool. That's why every third party developer designs software around the inspire, phantom, and matrice. However, I wouldn't pay 750$ for a different lens in my x3, when the lens conversion takes 15 minutes and the lenses are cheap if you know what to look for.

Do they make a true NIR or Red Edge for the X3?

 

[AMGPilot]

You know what it take to make a stabilized gimbals? 2, 10 dollar servos and a 5x5 inch piece of balsa wood lol.

Sorry, No it's a little more than that and using a servo for stabilizing is a really bad idea, there is a reason that you use a brushless motor, but since you know better no need to tell you why

 

[SkyNetWest]

This is an image I shot this morning compressed from 1.5GB down to under a Mb so that it would load on the site. View attachment 3314

did you use the aerial media NDVI camera?

 

[ndvishop]

Suggest you use MapsMadeEasy app (iOS only) and convert your own lenses...
The video posted up above started me down this road looking into this...

I recently tried their mapping app and the processing service... like it so far...
They also do the NDVI picture conversion... Just go check out their website...
It's not a free service... but way cheaper then Pix4D and others for my limited usage...

I am in the process now to convert my X3 cameras (have 2 now with one more incoming)...
NDVI-7, IR only, RGB 4.35mm (72* FOV) lenses on order from IRPro... (3 lenses)

Should give me about 1/2in per pixel resolution at 164ft altitude and 1in per pixel at 368ft...
(at least that is what I calculated when deciding what lens to order)
Also about matches the X5's 12mm FOV... so I can start getting used to that...

This is my current project ongoing to get a working NDVI ability going for this year...
And on a budget...

 

[ndvishop]

4.35mm lens is only 10MP and FOV of 72
we have 3 lenses better in ndvi7 or ndvi red + NIR 16MP and up to 92 degree FOV
ndvishop.ca

 

[renandp]

AerialMediaPros has been working the past 6+ months to partner and build a simple NDVI Inspire 1 mapping system for farmers and agriculture professionals, and we want your feedback. We have been extremely careful in selecting what we offer in terms of NDVI because there is no end-all solution that covers every grower and every crop. You may see multiple NDVI drone platforms and camera conversions in your Google search results, however each platform and NIR filter have their own set of limitations and they need to be fully understood before the NDVI image means anything to a farmer. So first off, don't be swayed by companies offering a full NDVI experience in 1 camera.

The X3 NDVI camera is converted in house, using an internal Blue + NIR filter and modified lens. The Blue + NIR is known as the best combination for a variety of ag uses, so we have started with this filter and will be expanding our offerings for more crop specific solutions. The original sensor has purposely not been changed, so you are still getting all the power of the Sony EXMOR CMOS sensor.

NDVI is much more helpful when comparing next to a standard RGB color image/map. For this reason, AerialMediaPros chose the Inspire 1 platform because it can easily swap out the NDVI X3 camera and standard camera to fly duplicate missions with different cameras.

For an introduction into the Ag Scout Series and NDVI Mapping, check out this video:

Below is a comparison of raw and NDVI processed maps created using DroneDeploy:

So... what do you think?
More details here: http://aerialmediapros.com/store/ag-scout-pro-inspire-1-ndvi-mapping-drone/dp/829

Hello guys,

I just bought the X2 NDVI modified camera, but I need some documentation about how it's capturing RGB and NIR bacause even in Drone Deploy, QGis and any raster calculator that I tried to apply NDVI formula I'm always getting negative values for index, I've tested with all bands (RGB) (B3-B1)/(B3+B1) (B1-B3) / (B1+B3) ... ETC ETC allways negative. Any document that can help?





Thanks

AerialMediaPros has been working the past 6+ months to partner and build a simple NDVI Inspire 1 mapping system for farmers and agriculture professionals, and we want your feedback. We have been extremely careful in selecting what we offer in terms of NDVI because there is no end-all solution that covers every grower and every crop. You may see multiple NDVI drone platforms and camera conversions in your Google search results, however each platform and NIR filter have their own set of limitations and they need to be fully understood before the NDVI image means anything to a farmer. So first off, don't be swayed by companies offering a full NDVI experience in 1 camera.

The X3 NDVI camera is converted in house, using an internal Blue + NIR filter and modified lens. The Blue + NIR is known as the best combination for a variety of ag uses, so we have started with this filter and will be expanding our offerings for more crop specific solutions. The original sensor has purposely not been changed, so you are still getting all the power of the Sony EXMOR CMOS sensor.

NDVI is much more helpful when comparing next to a standard RGB color image/map. For this reason, AerialMediaPros chose the Inspire 1 platform because it can easily swap out the NDVI X3 camera and standard camera to fly duplicate missions with different cameras.

For an introduction into the Ag Scout Series and NDVI Mapping, check out this video:

Below is a comparison of raw and NDVI processed maps created using DroneDeploy:

So... what do you think?
More details here: http://aerialmediapros.com/store/ag-scout-pro-inspire-1-ndvi-mapping-drone/dp/829