By harnessing the power of high-resolution imagery, AI, advanced data science, and state-of-the-art hardware, we provide managers with precise, plant-level insights. These insights arrive just in time to inform crucial decisions, significantly boosting efficiency.
Discover how Precision Drone Technology’s cutting-edge applications can revolutionize your turf management practices.

Differences between drone and satellite data. Satellite data is very useful because back historically, about 3 to 5 years. The main benefit of satellite collection that it's all done automatically. There is no user involvement at all. A negative however is the frequency and quality of data served with frequency of satellite images. You may give one to two images a week and that is weather dependent. So, if the satellite happens to be going over your property and it is a cloudy day, you will not get any images unfortunately. As related to the quality of the data satellite were looking at 15 to 10 to maybe 3 m per pixel with a satellite however with drones, we can get down to about 2 inches per pixel. So you're gaining a lot more detail able to see a lot more information pick up lots of different things with drones over satellite. The historical side of the satellite is definitely a huge facet.

Sometimes a bird’s eye view of the property can be beneficial to help notice certain patterns better evolving over time

Cart traffic, you can throw out some ropes before turf starts to turn yellow or be too compacted and then you know next time you need to move the ropes to get a little bit sooner.

A lot of you probably heard the term NDVI over the last few years. It's becoming pretty popular term. But what is it? NDVI stands for normalized difference vegetative index and in layman's terms it is a visual representation of photosynthesis. What does that mean for golf courses, light reflects off the surface of the earth from the sun, and is collected by sensors, satellites and drones. In this data is then associated with a number, which is the measurement and it's given color when you plug it into a software system such as you see below.

The more photosynthesis that is taking place within the plant, higher the measurement is likely to be. There are some variables that go into that as well. By height of cut can be a factor if there is more surface area for light to reflect off of the vegetation, you're likely going to get a higher measurement as long as the plant is healthy. One of the main points, NDVI is that is able to detect stress before it is visible to the naked eye. However, it does not indicate what is the stress. It just shows you where to look for stress. NDVI can be a lot of different things, from compaction to fertility issues, water issues, etc.

At the beginning of the season, you can look at spring green-up areas. Other areas that are not greening up as fast. Such as winter kill, some old damaged areas that need seed, areas where you need to put down some pre-emerg and go back and check on the things later on, a couple weeks later to see if what you have done to improve these areas has actually done its job. The midseason, you've got some issues with localized dry spot events and irrigation problems, disease pressure and cart traffic. You can use the drone to fly in the middle of the season and check for these issues and then make adjustments based on what you’re seeing. Cart traffic, you can throw out some ropes before turf starts to turn yellow or be too compacted and then you know next time you need to move the ropes to get a little bit sooner. At the end of the season, you can look into some aeration recovery. Also, based on the images that have been taken throughout the season, you can start to come up with some renovation ideas as well as be able to justify chemical and cultural practices that you used throughout the season and maybe even come up with reasons why you need increasing budget because of some changes that you made based on the drone images.
