Aerial agriculture launches drone to help reduce farming cost.

Aerial Agriculture LLC, a startup company launched by Purdue University students, aims to revolutionize the agricultural industry by building drones in-house to capture multi-spectral images of entire crop fields. This technology could allow farmers to reduce excess fertilizer and input costs while simultaneously increasing yields. Aerial Agriculture uses specialized cameras to convert images into valuable vegetation indices that represent crop health and allow agronomists to determine the amount of nitrogen and fertilizer that needs to be applied in specific locations throughout the field. "Our technology can pinpoint crop areas that need more attention, which allows farmers to then apply more inputs and address potential crop issues immediately, as opposed to after the fact," said Austin Deardorff, Aerial Agriculture co-founder and a student in Purdue's College of Engineering. The drones make it easy so we are able to stitch images together in maps to show the crops' health in a precise and easy-to-read manner. Our products and services also increase environmental sustainability because we are implementing autonomous technology and use less harmful inputs," Deardorff said. "We want to become the only agriculture drone service company in Indiana and begin expanding to multiple states with longer growing seasons." See