An industrial UAS developer called American Robotics has unveiled its flagship product, Scout, which is a self-charging, self-managing UAS platform capable of autonomously conducting daily scouting missions in the field of precision farming. Specializing in agricultural automation, American Robotics says that traditional scouting techniques are “inadequate at detecting plant stress early enough to offset the billions of dollars of lost yields.” A lot of the times, these methods, which can include first-generation and consumer UAS, are time-consuming, complicated, and not financially prudent. American Robotics says that “automation must be delivered in a reliable industrial solution” in order to improve agricultural decision-making, optimize inputs, and maximize yields, and Scout provides this automation. Once Scout is installed within a farmer's field, manual intervention to plan, fly and manage the UAS operations is not needed, and, farmers also receive health reports and analysis. “The technology behind Scout was developed after working with farmers and ag professionals to understand the unique logistical and economic challenges they face. As a result, Scout is the first practical, industrial drone system that truly addresses the needs of this industry,” says Reese Mozer, Co-Founder and CEO of American Robotics. “Full-automation is a key ingredient in the future of precision farming, and we’re eager and excited to finally deliver this capability to our customers.” Gary V. McMurray, Associate Director, Collaborative Robotics, Georgia Tech Research Institute, says, “the rapid expansion of drones in farming has been impressive, but I’ve also been concerned with their inability to address the amount of time and cost required by the grower to use these tools.” McMurray continues, “American Robotics’ Scout is the only practical solution that addresses this issue. Farmers need a tool that works for them, not another piece of technology that consumes their day. I believe fully-automated drone operation is a revolutionary approach that solves many of the real-world problems facing growers today, and I am confident Scout will scale to meet the needs of growers around the world.”
Boston company American Robotics has launched Scout, an unmanned aerial vehicle aimed at addressing the needs of the farming industry by autonomously monitoring crops. Once installed the system runs daily missions to establish the state of plants, sending analysis reports and crop health updates to farmers with no human intervention required. CEO Reese Mozer said full automation was a "revolutionary approach" and a "key ingredient in the future of precision farming".