Aerial to Terrestrial Edge Communication Using LoRa in Drone-Aided Precision Agriculture

Drones have been used in agriculture for various purposes. Thermal imaging capable drones can effectively identify the dry patches in agricultural land for precise irrigation. We have developed a system that can capture and transfer the thermal data to a terrestrial edge intelligence for irrigating the dry patches. The aerial edge intelligence uses flight data to georeference the dry patches from the captured Thermal Infrared (TIR) images. This data is transmitted to the terrestrial edge intelligence through the integrated LoRa. The LoRa transceiver in the aerial edge intelligence can effectively transfer data to the terrestrial edge intelligence through pear-to-pear communication, which avoids the usage of secondary repeaters, and hence helps to create a low latency in long-range edge computing systems. This long-range communication between the aerial and terrestrial edge intelligence helps to reduce the number of TIR-capable drones for identifying the dry patches in vast farmland.