Unmanned aerial vehicle used for remote sensing on an apulian farm in southern Italy

Remote sensing applications within precision agriculture are mainly based on spectroscopy techniques, with the employment of optical sensors for the measurement of electromagnetic radiation at different wavelengths. Experimental evaluations of the physiological status of maize crops witha land area of about 4 ha on a farm located near the city of Lucera (Foggia province, Southern Italy) were carried out using an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) equipped with sensors able to acquire thermal, multispectral and RGB images. The UAV was programmed to follow a path specified by several waypoints and the images were acquired from a constant altitude of 70 m with a 70 % overlap at a speed of 10 m·s-1. PixelWrench2 software was used to reconstruct the acquired images and to assess the NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index). The analysis of the reflectance and emissivity did not highlight anomalies linked to likely incipient diseases, parasitic attacks or stress from nutritional deficiencies. The study of the images, however, pointed out a non-homogenous development of the plants in some zones most probably produced by a malfunction of the irrigation system. The thermal analysis confirmed this hypothesis. Further investigations carried out using UAV flights would be very useful to obtain a more detailed analysis of the state of the vegetation with a study of the temporal variability.