The Potential of UAV-based Remote Sensing for Supporting Precision Agriculture in Indonesia

This paper shows some practical experiences of using Unmanned Aerial Vehicle-(UAV) based platform for remote sensing in supporting precision agriculture mapping. Some of the information for land preparation, cadaster boundary, vegetation monitoring, plant healthy, and stock valuation are required periodically. So, the UAV-Based remote sensing system should have characteristics such as cost-effective, fast in producing, easy in operation by local staff, and good geometry accuracy (sub-meter). The system consists of aerial platforms from R/C plane, point and shoots digital cameras, data processing with digital photogrammetric: structure from motion algorithms, and free open source-GIS for visualizing. This system has the ability to produce imagery with spatial resolution <10 cm, measuring parcel area, assess the individual trees or plants stock, and topography. The basic products of the system are Orthophoto Image and Digital Elevation Model (DEM). The Average geometric accuracy can be obtained up to 3 pixels or equivalent to sub-meter accuracy, while the production time can be reached more than 500Ha a day. The Orthophoto image could provide visual interpretation such as the individual trees structure, plant density, and parcel boundary area, while DEM could asses tree's height information and terrain topography with accuracy 3-6 pixel or 0.5-2.5 m.