Guardian Agriculture is the first FAA approved startup in the aerial crop application space. They build a large multicopter for aerial crop application in high-reliability environments across America.

On-craft Vision System⌗

I had the opportunity to work on a project integrating vision and on-craft image processing into the existing aerial platform.

Problem⌗

The Guardian Agriculture SC1 craft is VLOS (visual line-of-sight) certified. While this means that the operators do not require cameras, having a vision system onboard is required for:

  • Precision landing
  • Spray deposition analysis
  • Far-end operating safety For these reasons, a vision system was required for a production-ready craft.

Action⌗

  • Evaluated a large quantity of:
    • Cameras
    • Lenses
    • Vision Coprocessors
    • Streaming Software

After finding a combination of the above items that satisfied the needs and requirements of the system, I began collaborating with mechanical and electrical engineers to integrate a “vision package” across the robotic platform.

I then developed a custom streaming solution to reliably deliver real-time video to operators in a variety of conditions. This involved real-world testing as well as network link safety and reliability analysis.

Result⌗

The vision system I developed is now standard on every unit of the robotics platform, and provides critical information to the end-user at all times. This also layed the groundwork for future development of precision-landing systems using the onboard coprocessor and downwards-facing camera.