Any business owner knows that linking the collection of accurate real-time inventory information with sales is critical to their success. In many cases, because nurseries know that collection of real-time inventory data is expensive, time consuming, and often imprecise, they simply use estimates for their current availability. Enter remote sensing techniques — such as RFID, ground and aerial sensors — as a future solution to inventory processes in the nursery industry.
For the past two years a collaborative team from academia and industry has been pursuing a range of cost-effective sensors to obtain inventory data for both field and container nurseries. In June 2010, the team identified an exciting, low-altitude multi-rotor system (MRS) that can be used as a low-cost platform to collect images. In early September, the team demonstrated some of the exciting potential of this low-altitude MRS to members of the nursery industry in Oregon. The initial demonstration flights over both container and field-grown ornamentals validated to growers and researchers alike that this aerial system shows great promise for the nursery industry. Although not yet fully tested under nursery conditions, this aerial system may provide a low-cost method to check inventory, monitor for weed or pest pressure, or monitor plant stress on an as-needed basis.
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