Farmers and insurance companies may soon get more accurate estimates of weather-related crop damage thanks to a University of Alberta researcher working with existing drone technology.
Farmers and insurance companies may soon get more accurate estimates of weather-related crop damage thanks to a University of Alberta researcher working with existing drone technology.
Post-doctoral fellow Virginia Garcia Millan is testing whether algorithms used in drones for existing applications, such as hydrology and forestry, will also work for crop damage estimates. The idea is to better quantify crop damages and improve an online app called SkyClaim, developed by Skymatics, a startup offering remote sensing solutions and drone services, co-founded by U of A science alumnus Cassidy Rankine.
The results so far are encouraging.
“(The agricultural and insurance sectors are) telling us they find it very useful for their daily work,” she said. “Particularly, we’ve had high interest from agronomists and adjusters who would like to use this tool.
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Image via University of Alberta.
