If it's Drone, it's MicaSense!

Despite Hurricane Ian impacting attendance and drone demonstrations, this CAIA sponsored event, ‘If it’s Drone, it’s MicaSense’ was still a success! Tidewater AREC, with Maria Balota taking the lead, hosted this indoor presentation on September 30, given by Gary Licquia, General Manager of AgEagle for North America. The company is scattered through the USA and Switzerland. 

Gary demonstrated how their newest software is working with emphasis on fixed wing drone and mapping large landscapes, and different applications in agriculture (photo below). 

Some takeaways from this event included:

AgEagle specializes in (1) drones; they build eBee fixed wing crafts (2) Sensors; MicaSense Altum PT and Red Edge Panchromatic (3) Ground control systems; software for fly missions setting and image acquisition.

After our Virginia Tech faculty showed Ag Eagle our expertise and available resources, the potential for us to collaborate in the future grew.

We are looking forward to future discussions and a potential demonstration in Blacksburg in the spring.

Agenda

• 10:00 – 10:10          Registration (TAREC auditorium)
  
• 10:10 – 10:15          Introductions
• 10:15 – 11:00          “Increased Resolution for Agriculture Imagery with Panchromatic Drone Sensors” (Gary Licquia, General manager of AgEagle’ s operations in the North America)
• 11:00 – 11:15          Questions and answers
• 11:15 – 12:00          “Round table” discussions (auditorium) perspectives on partnering with VT/ARECS
• 12:00 – 12:30          Lunch & concluding remarks (auditorium)

Thank you to our fellow CAIA affiliate faculty and graduate students for attending this event despite the hurricane! Arash Rashed, Joseph Oakes, Matthew Chappell, Maria Balota, Karl Jones (TAREC), Carol Wilkinson, Souradeep Deb (CAIA GSA), Dhiraj Srivastava (CAIA GSA), Abhilash Chandel, Sheetal Kumari (CAIA GSA), Jitender Rathore (CAIA GSA), Fitz Cherry, Zoe Dunlow, & Faith Brantley.