NASA Use of Remotely Controlled Aircraft Aids Coffee Growers

Wednesday, October 16, 2002

A solar-powered uninhabited aerial vehicle (UAV) successfully completed a NASA remote-sensing applications demonstration. The Pathfinder-Plus airplane loitered more than four hours, over Hawaii's largest coffee plantation on the island of Kauai, taking digital images to make a "clear-sky" mosaic.

The NASA team combined pre-planned, fixed flight lines with spontaneous, remotely controlled maneuvers to guide the UAV into cloud-free areas over the coffee fields. Despite an often 80 percent cloud cover, the project demonstrated how a solar-powered UAV, equipped with a ground-controlled aerial-imaging system, could aid coffee growers by informing them of the ripest fields for daily harvest. This type of technology may eventually aid farmers and ranchers and lead to more effective and efficient harvesting methods.

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