Could we develop drones for outdoor lambing?

[Y Fan Wen]

Bouncing round my high tops going round the ewes this year made me start thinking about this. My problem is that I can cover 80% of the land in one circular route. To cover the other 20 doubles the distance travelled over worse ground.
I drew up a spec of; controller with built in screen, gps and altitude lock, auto return to base, 200m range, in field replacement of battery. I found that I could get all this for an outlay of 250 odd, which seems quite reasonable for me.
I would anticipate going from place to place with the atv and then deploying the quadcopter to inspect the nearby folds in the ground which I can't see. I think that doing this about 4 times on the round would give me 100% coverage.
One of the little one's friends is a quadcopter enthusiast so we are going to invite a demo by him to see what the capabilities actually are. I believe the limit will be windspeed. I will report on my findings!

 

[Hilly]

Have 60 acre away from home, only take dry stock as surrounded with trees to many flys, thinking the other day a large telegraph pole in middle with noe of them cameras they use in sheds and bingo could check them on my phone etc ?? work or not ?

 

[Y Fan Wen]

Regarding windspeed, 10m per sec seems to be a common quote, which converts into 20mph in real money.
That's quite a brisk breeze really.

 

[JohnGalway]

Regarding windspeed, 10m per sec seems to be a common quote, which converts into 20mph in real money.
That's quite a brisk breeze really.

The problem is, the more wind, the less progress, the more battery power used, the more likely you'll have an issue, particularly if the wind is blowing against the drone on the way home. Lot of vids on YouTube showing it happen, wouldn't fancy paying over a grand to see it.

 

[exmoor dave]

So did I for a good while but eventually got over it by looking at fpv long range aircraft, that'll really mess with your head, and comparatively cheaper than a copter drone depending on what you wish to achieve. No need to thank me for your new obsession

Nah......this is what you want john...... won't be a single bracken plant on your place after a year of playing with is

https://www.heliguy.com/dji-agras-mg-1-p3943

 

[Y Fan Wen]

The problem is, the more wind, the less progress, the more battery power used, the more likely you'll have an issue, particularly if the wind is blowing against the drone on the way home. Lot of vids on YouTube showing it happen, wouldn't fancy paying over a grand to see it.

Yes I can't imagine I would have the nerve to launch into that kind of wind. It does show me tho' that they are not as delicate as I thought.

 

[Steel]

Phantom drones do 20 m/s in sports mode. On windy days it sometimes struggles to make headway, but coming back with the wind it will do 35 m/s which makes up for it.

 

[JohnGalway]

Nah......this is what you want john...... won't be a single bracken plant on your place after a year of playing with is

https://www.heliguy.com/dji-agras-mg-1-p3943

There's lots of spraying drones on YT, though I do like the dji microwave radar to follow the contours of the land, a big plus

 

[JohnGalway]

Yes I can't imagine I would have the nerve to launch into that kind of wind. It does show me tho' that they are not as delicate as I thought.

I was seriously, as in had the pointer over the buy button several times, considering a mavic pro. But, then I did some in depth sums on the area I would like to use it in. When I put the distance, drone speed, and wind speed into an online calculator, I was brought back to reality somewhat.

While I think drone technology is bloody fantastic, it's in it's infancy yet. I'd suggest anyone thinking of them visit sites like Google Maps distance calculator, get their measurements, observe the weather during the times of year you'd like to use it, check wind speed averages for that time etc, then you're in much better position to evaluate what it can or can't do. And by all means, talk to people who own them (and I would say take with a pinch of salt what people selling them say).