Proceedings of the Workshop on Remote Sensing for Agriculture in the 21st Century October 23-25th, 1996    Mike MacDonald TRW	| Ag 21 Agenda |
Remote Sensing in the 21st Century

ARM - A TRW Commercial Venture in Airborne Remote Sensing Services
 

• In 1993 TRW made the decision to diversify from its traditional DOD lines of business, and move into the commercial marketplace.
• Commercial agricultural remote sensing was selected as a candidate area
• General system/business development approach

Literature Survey for Ag Remote Sensing Applications
 Remote Sensing Phenomenology Study

• Find All Pubs on Viable Commercial Remote Sensing Applications
• All Wavelengths, All Crops, All Sources
• Tirelessly Separated the Wheat From the Chaff Academics, Marketing Fluff, Optimism, Propaganda
• Real Results
• Applications Generally Not Fully Demonstrated
• However, Approach Remains Promising

• Done by proven ag market research firm as directed by TRW
• Covered all 50 states, direct interviews with comm ag leaders
• Remote sensing questionnaires sent to leading companies
• Joint TRW interviews with major ag players in major ag states
• Results - A summary of market potential
 Existing market, potential market
 Product concepts - risks, money estimates
 Marketing approach
 Data dissemination approach
  Penetration timelines
 Partners & cooperators

• NASA, USDA, CROPIX, NASA Stennis, small commercial, etc.
• None (satellite or airborne) had any significant market penetration

• Geonix Verde, Ag-Recon, Compliance Services, etc.
• Evaluated product offerings, why not successful?
• Talked with their customers, learned lessons
• Most missing total capability required

• Poor understanding crop phenomenology and cropping methods
• Poor understanding of major grower concerns and real economic problems
• Incorrect and/or overestimation of the true achievable market
• short term, long term versus their schedule
• "poison pill" to VC and Mgmt.
• Lack of a viable product distribution plan
• Lack of cooperative product development research
• Poor understanding of remote sensing applications science
• Lack of appropriate sensors (or technology to use them correctly)
• Lack of sophisticated systems integration capability (computer, sensor, software, aircraft)
• Lack of practical air survey knowledge expertise
• Slow timelines in processing to final deliverable product
• No understanding of hard copy output color mgmt. requirements
• Market timing premature for this business area
• Education, exposure, fundamental research, sensors, etc.

• Airborne digital map workstation
• 3-D GPS
• Multi-sensor (5 sensors)
• Boresighted, equiv. FOV's
• Multispectral, IR, video, photo
• Digital data capture
• Auto-georegistration
• Near Real time airborne mosaicing
• Ground analysis workstation
• Custom SW for rapid analysis
• Image precision georegistration
• Image process, ag interp, data fusion
• Large image archive & DB
• Data hard copy output
• Color correct hard copy output
• Integrated business support system
• Orders, records, tracking, billing

• Operated 2+ mapping flights daily for entire 1993 growing season (maybe 250 flights total)
• 100+ mile radius of operation
• 10 beta customers (totaling multiple hundreds of fields)
• Pilot and 1 workstation operator req'd
• Flew center pivot quarter section fields as well as orchards, etc.
• Crops - potatoes, corn, alfalfa, mint, sugar beets, etc.

• Data delivered personally to customer
• Field problems discussed directly with growers/managers
• GPS used to take field men directly to problem sites
• TRW Ag cooperators worked directly in field to provide diagnostic and remediation services
• Follow-up with monitoring overflights & visits
• Record results and phenomenology for Interp guide

• The system (ground and air segments) was successfully developed and integrated over a period of five months.
• The system flew nearly two flights daily (weekdays) for the entire growing season in 1993 (weather restricted many flight opportunities).
• Five basic remote sensing based agricultural data products were successfully developed, implemented and delivered to customers. These included pre-season field analysis as well as late season crop monitoring products.
• The onboard sensor and processing systems performed reliably during the entire period.
• Both air and ground station operators were trained in the use of the system within 2 weeks of initial exposure.
• The ground station processed a maximum of over 100 output products a day (one processing shift) during peak requirements.
• The business management system successfully handled and tracked the requests, acquisitions, and deliveries of all products.
• In general, once we got the bugs out, delivery timelines were from 18 -31 hours for all products (basically next day service).
• The data products provided by the TRW remote sensing system assisted the growers in monitoring their irrigation and crop management practices.
• In many cases, the crop monitoring data provided valuable information about the status of the crop that was unknown to the growers using their traditional practices.
• TRW remote sensing interpretations were combined with crop consultant services to provide the complete problem detection and solution to the contracted growers.

• Unprocessed imagery (photos) are available but not widely used
• Many growers will buy for novelty if price is right (early adopters)

This keep startups, NASA researchers, and small firms alive.
• Some growers hesitated in paying a lot for unprocessed/digital imagery

"But it is in GIS." "Who cares."
"But it is DIGITAL!" "Who cares."
"But it has 250 spectral bands!" "Who cares."
"What does that do for me more than the $40 photo?"
• Growers are problem oriented

"Can it do this for me?"
"Can it help me avoid this?"
"Can it make my life easier?"
If it doesn't solve or at least address a real imminent problem its value is suspect
They will want it to solve their problems and will suggest uses to you that you never imagined.
• Orchard crops are a longer term investment than field crops and because of this are more motivated for long term optimal management
• Many users (growers) want and are willing to pay highly for a total solution to a problem, not just another data source that they have to interpret.

"Don't give me another thing that I have to be a rocket scientist to figure out."
Previous data stayed on shelves and was never used
No connection to utility was shown, so service not re-purchased

This implies that a "full service" approach might succeed.

A service which provides the growers with interpreted data along with an action plan to be implemented by Ag consultant partners.

User culture needs to change to include remote sensing.