A friend asked me about the use of drones in Agriculture and audit. I love taking my Phantom out to snap some field pics (Crop fields are full of fascinating geometric patterns!), however I have no idea about agriculture.

My random thoughts on the topic:

Drones on farm's is an ideal starting place for commercial drone use. Nearly zero uncontrolled traffic (tractors and crop dusters belong to the farm). Minimal risk of collisions. Low population density. Much better starting point than attempting to deliver drone parcels to the middle of London :)
Easily navigated ground. Generally flat.
Constrained area, an autonomous drone can accurately determine when it needs to return home for battery replacement
Drones can fit a variety of cameras. Thermal imaging would be pretty relevant for determining crop health I imagine
Consumers generally think multi rotor drones when they think drones. But based on the flat large wide spaces. I imagine fixed wing drones are more likely to be used for high level visual analysis.
Field surveys via drone could be done at a high frequency (daily?) so it would be pretty easy to perform historical analysis of fields, look at crop reaction to weather pattern changes, pesticide treatment etc, quickly determine if there were health issues in an area of the field.
Bonus random thought: Can we use drones to herd sheep? Do people even still herd sheep? Probably a costly exercise right now given battery life. But it would make for an interesting AI experiment. Dressing a drone/bot up as a sheep dog and mimicking it's behavior. In 100 years will sheep/cattle evolved to have learnt to obey instructions from drones rather than dogs, or will we be eating meat which has been grown sans animal, grown in a lab?

I do remember a couple of interesting links from podcasts I've listened to though referencing drone use in the wild.

Levels of Data Collection

Agriculture is pretty broad, and it looks like we will have a broad range of tech to cover different levels of detail. From what I see:

On the ground, machines moving through fields
Multi-propeller drone level, can get very close to ground, moving at a slow speed, stationary/slow moving analysis
Fixed wing drone - Higher altitude
Micro-satellite - Static daily/weekly shots

Relevant Technologies for Audit

Vehicle: One of the above
Camera: High res cameras, 360 cameras, looking at data in IR and other wavelengths
Computer Vision: Processing the incoming images. Recognize appropriate features, tag them
Data Analysis: Machine learning to look at the tags created in the above step to produce some actionable information for audit/farmers/construction managers etc.

Random Links

An article about a group which has been conducting research above Hertfordshire in the UK. http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk/news/research-technologies/2015/150929-f-octocopter-experimental-drone-agricultural-research/
A relevant European startup: http://gamaya.com/ Just raised $3.2M Swiss Franks.
http://agribotix.com/
Noukatech http://www.noukatech.com/
These guys use computer vision in traditional farming machinery http://www.bluerivert.com/
PlanetLabs (https://www.planet.com/) - A different take on the drone line. But to do with analysis of satellite imagery. These guys are launching heaps (100+) of cheap low orbit satellites into orbit around the earth. The idea is that they could be positioned to take high level photos of terrain (such as crops) for daily analysis. First half of below podcast is the founder talking about these satellites.

Filmed on the LAUNCH Stage at the 2016 LAUNCH Festival, Joe DeSimone of Carbon3D and Will Marshall of Planet Labs demonstrate why their companies go beyond the cutting edge in their respective industries. First, Will Marshall brings in one of Planet Labs’ ultra compact satellites, which, having deployed over 150 into orbit, are creating a hyper-efficient Earth imaging system with virtually endless application possibilities. Then, Jason sits down with Joe DeSimone to find out what Carbon3D brings to the market, and how their innovative new approach to 3D printing is creating stronger, more sustainable products from higher quality materials. Five Key Takeaways: Ultra compact satellites By offering satellites that are literally 1/1000th the mass of a typical satellite, Planet Labs has reduced the cost of deploying their machines by exponential figures. This has allowed the company to create a system of 150 satellites that will take real time images of every single point on Earth every day. They do this through a process they call a “line scanner for the planet.” Will Planet Labs open up their API? Jason asks about the possibility of opening up the platform for developers to play with the imaging and data. Will confirms that Planet Labs has already made their platform available at planet.com. There is virtually no limit to the applications that could be created through these satellites, so Planet Labs strongly encourages developers to manage new and innovative ways to utilize the data. Search and Rescue Tracking deforestation and aiding in disaster relief efforts are only two of the many ways in which Planet Labs’ project will be of the utmost importance in the coming years. Missing planes, such as the MH370, will be a thing of the past. In Haiti’s situation, post-disaster imaging was prevalent, but there were not updated images prior to the earthquake, so it was extremely difficult to figure out what had happened… this will not be a problem anymore as Planet Labs is expected to capture daily imaging of the entire Earth by the end of the year. The “chasm” between 3D printing and 3D manufacturing Joe DeSimone recognizes that the 3D printing’s only applicable purpose at the moment is for prototyping. Carbon3D seeks to close the bridge between prototyping and manufacturing to create real, industrial grade products that can go directly from the printer to the consumer. Through a new, faster process called CLIP (continuous liquid interface production), Carbon3D can now utilize stronger, more durable materials such as elastomer, cyanate ester, and polyurethane to make quality products ready for immediate use. Focus on building the parts Jason asks about the future of 3D printing, “Are we going to eventually have cars 3D printed?” Joe believes that it is going to start with printing the components of the car. “The biggest opportunity for 3D is that complexity becomes free.” At Carbon3D, they are able to build extremely complex car parts with maximum efficiency, perfect replication, and consistent repetition. The conversation turns to 3D applications in the medical field and the future of “bioprinting.”

Rowbot, (http://rowbot.com/) This Week In Startups E621. These aren't drones. But Robots which operate in crop fields.

E621: Science rules! Rowbots transforms agriculture with robotic farming & Experiment.com crowdfunds cutting-edge research.

Other Audit uses

I didn't look at any other uses in audit. But the most obvious is in construction. I know there are now companies doing daily audit of construction sites using drones. The "Use a drone to take surveys of a construction site" problems is basically solved. Challenges involve automating this to a high degree, automated flying, and automated charging stations so that drones can land, re-charge, and fly again, with zero human intervention. The other challenge with the construction case is that it's more of a 3D rather than 2D scan space. So the challenges in navigation are much higher. (Also a far higher danger risk of a drone flies into a construction worker who's rappelling off the side of a building)