A small autonomous UAV for detection and action in precision agriculture

This thesis develops a framework for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) with on-board computer for the purpose of detection and action in agriculture and other Remote Sensing tasks. This system has potential applications in the field of precision agriculture such as, invasive weed detection and eradication. The method is based on vision-based-detection and navigation that autonomously detects a target (e.g. weed) and takes action, such as spraying herbicide. The system was tested in simulation and in outdoors experiments at a farm in south-east Queensland, Australia. The results of this system have shown that the on-board system is capable of detecting targets of interest and taking autonomous actions accurately and efficiently which makes it’s a good addition to precision agriculture.