MOOC Drones for Agriculture: Prepare and Design Your Drone (UAV) Mission

Why follow this course?

We are all getting familiar with the image of a drone in the sky. Although flying a drone is fun, drones are not toys. More and more UAVs or drones are used by governments and companies to gain answers and insights on nature, agricultural and metropolitan challenges among other fields. For example, small Drones/UAVs are employed in agriculture for crop observation, crop monitoring, field analysis and map generation through aerial surveys. And with the available software and 'mission planning tools' market growing, so is the demand for knowledge and understanding about their usage and limitations. 

Our top professors of the 'Information Technology Group' and the 'Laboratory of Geo-Information Science and Remote Sensing group' of Wageningen University & Research will teach you whether it makes sense to use drones for your application, challenge or question. You will learn how to plan an end-to-end mission (from image acquisition to data visualization) for your specific drone application and how to execute a drone mission safely. Afther finishing this online course you will have gained full understanding of the aerial mapping workflow and how to implement it in a programmable small drone. You will know which steps you need to take to gain the valuable insights you are looking for. 

Do I need a drone to complete this course?

No! You do not need a drone to complete this course. For all the assignments and exercises we will provide the necessary material (in case it is needed). But, we expect to pick your curiosity with this course and hopefully nudge you into buying one and joining the community ;)

Is this course for you?

Although the course was initially made for agriculture technicians, researchers or graduate students from multidisciplinary technical fields, everyone that aims to learn how to use an off-the-shelf small drone for generating a high-resolution image from a field, or has a general high interest in drones, is very welcome.

What you will learn

• Learn to decide whether it makes sense to use a drone for your application or challenge
• Design a process from acquisition to data visualization and evaluation for your specific drone application
• Learn about the available airborne technology and software
• Understand what UAV international legislation and regulations are concerning drones
• How to make an aerial surveying workflow
• How to make the required flight preparations and create- and execute a safe mission setup
• You will learn about mission planning and the available open source and commercial tools
• You will gain understanding about aerial imaging product delivery