High school student building drone to help farmers

KEARNEY, Neb. — Evan Palmer has sky high ambitions. A sophomore at Amherst High School, Palmer is building a fixed-wing drone to help farmers improve crop production.

The project began after Palmer applied for and received a $1,000 grant from Nebraska Farm Bureau to build the unmanned aerial vehicle. He also attracted other sponsors who have contributed to the cost of designing and building his drone.

Palmer then began looking at online forums to understand how to build the drone and to determine parts he would need. "I started to get a basic idea of what I needed for the drone. From there, I started building a components list," he said.

Along the way, Palmer also learned how to use the 3D printer at Amherst High School to fashion some of the parts needed for his project.

He looked into flight systems, cameras and 3D mapping software for his project. He also researched fixed-wing and quadcopter style drones, settling on the fixed wing.

"I chose the fixed wing because it will be able to cover a larger area in less time," Palmer explained.

He chose a normalized difference vegetation index imaging system, which relies on infrared photos of crops to show their health.

Photos taken by a drone, using that NDVI system, can be stitched together into a 3D model using software called DroneDeploy. The software was donated to Palmer by the manufacturer.

The 3D model, mapped from drone photos, will show farmers issues with their crops such as water runoff and plant health.

"On the ground they aren't able to see all of these different spots. So when they have this map of the field, they can view firsthand what the issues are in their fields," Palmer said.

He envisions his drone being used by farmers to check crop health and make decisions accordingly. "This will help them save money, because they can make the decision through precision agriculture," Palmer explained.

Although drones are commonly used by the military and in other industries such as construction and entertainment, Palmer sees a lot of potential for drones in agriculture.

"I think that as the drone business develops more, you'll begin to see that agriculture is the primary use for it," he said. "With the new software that we're using, it's really providing large benefits to farmers."

With his project nearing completion, Palmer said that he plans to make a maiden flight of his drone in late March.

The high school sophomore already has a goal to create a business from his handiwork by flying the drone over fields and providing crop imaging data to farmers.

Palmer plans to continue his interest in drones after high school. He's interested in the unmanned aerial system program offered at Kansas State University.

He added that he would be interested in becoming a drone pilot or entering aerospace engineering.

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Information from: Kearney Hub, http://www.kearneyhub.com/

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