Ohio and Indiana Joint Venture to Fly Drones to Aid Farmers

A joint venture between Ohio and Indiana is teaming up with an Ohio college to fly drone missions aimed at helping farmers boost crop yields.

The Ohio/Indiana Unmanned Aircraft Systems Center in Springfield, Ohio, and Ohio State University are teaming up to fly a small drone that will gather sensor data for the agricultural research.

The Ohio/Indiana UAS center in western Ohio says the Federal Aviation Administration granted authorization for the flight operations supporting research at OSU’s Molley Caren Agricultural Center in London, Ohio.

Scott Shearer heads the university’s Department of Food, Agricultural and Biological Engineering.

He says data gathered with the small unmanned aerial system will be analyzed to assess various things such as environmental factors affecting crop growth.