Flying cars are fast emerging from the realms of fantasy and charging towards reality with numerous manufacturers making swift progress. But while most of the work being done on eVOTLs (electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicles) is directed towards mobility, there is a clear use-case scenario for application on farmlands as well.
A US-based company called Guardian Agriculture has now started experimenting with electric aerial vehicles or EAVs on agricultural lands in the Salinas Valley region of California. The initial part of the experiment has seen the deployment of four EAVs for crop dusting.
What has traditionally been the domain of tractors, spraying of crops can be done quicker and perhaps more effectively by these EAVs, claims Guardian Agriculture. Each of these EAVs can reportedly cover a field of around 60 acres in an hour’s time while carrying a payload of 200 pounds (90 kilos). The company further claims that each of these EAVs can be recharged in just a few minutes for redeployment.
Guardian Agriculture has received approval from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for operation across the country. And while the US has seen small planes being used for crop dusting, the advantage that EAVs claim to have is that these are fully programmable and repeatable. Being entirely autonomous, the EAVs also require only very minimal human intervention.
It is reported that Guardian’s eVTOL platform has more than $100 million in customer orders. The pricing of the EAV models starts at around $120,000 or approximately ₹1 crore. And although clearly very expensive, these systems are designed for large-scale agricultural farmlands that could potentially benefit from more effective coverage.
(With inputs from IOT World Today)
First Published Date: 07 Dec 2023, 12:30 PM IST
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