Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

S1069 Research and Extension for Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Applications in U.S. Agriculture and Natural Resources

Meeting: Virtual

Date: February 27, 2021

Agenda

Attendees:
A.-Brice Cazenave

Abhilash Chandel

Aditya Singh

Ajay Sharma

Alex Thomasson

John P Fulton

Dharmendra Saraswat

Gary Allen Thompson

Girish Chowdhary

Glen C Rains

Jim Robbins

Joby Czarnecki

Joshua Jackson

Lav R. Khot

Lee Tarpley

Louis Wasson

Maria Balota

Randy Raper

Robert Austin

Saurav Kumar
Seth C Murray

Scott Powell

Sierra Young

Steven G Hall

Meeting Notes

• Meeting started with brief member introductions
• Randy Raper and Dr. Gary Thompson then provided brief summary on S1069 group relevance and procedures on renewal, discussed was:
  • Process to request (re) new multistate project
  • Write and review by June 20, 2021 (?); typically takes 6 to 9 months for entire process
  • Review process: draft project (3 to 15 pages), have it peer reviewed, reviewed by the external research committee, two phase process. We can suggest reviewers to the committee for quick process.
  • Writing tips: don’t feel constrained by regional aspect, think about what needs to be accomplished by the group, interactions of the group, think where the projects from different people overlap. Don’t feel that everyone has to contribute to every objective. Broad objectives to take advantage of large group coming together to solve the big picture.
• Alex Thomasson provided comments that highlighted difficulty in coordinating multistate project like this and administration of those activities. Stressed need to streamline the objectives and focused achievable activities.
• NIFA NPLs (Drs. Steven Thomson & Ganesh Bora) then provided updates; few take away from the updates were
  • Continued focus on Rural broadband, Urban and indoor farming revitalization, Robotic application in agriculture, Farms of the future
  • Few relevant grant opportunities to think of:
    • A1521: Eng. for Ag production syetems
    • A1541: Data science for ag systems
    • NIFA/NSF: National robotics initiative
    • NIFA/NSF: Cyber physical system: real time data analytics
    • NIFA/NSF: signals in the soil
    • AFRI SAS
  • UAS grants in 2020: UGV and UAV collaboration for automated seed refilling in row crops
  • Precision livestock applications with UAS is coming up so do explore this
  • Upcoming solicitations may focus on climate change related calls
  • USDA is seeking collaboration with google, Microsoft, IBM for formulating AG innovation strategy that aligns for new innovation clusters
• University updates

• Discussion/ brainstorming on relevance of this group (Lead by Dr. Alex Thomasson)

Lav Khot reported on survey of “List your stakeholder, research community needs that S1069 group should focus on” with members adding specific comments that’s reflect as below

UAS platform/sensor specific needs

• In-flight sensor calibration
• Calibration of data
• Field-edge solutions
• Data product transferability/integration with commercial farm management solutions
• Spray drones
• Training on use of technology

Stakeholders

• Plant breeders
• Phenomics researchers (plant biology), Data Scientists
• UAV-based phenotyping
• Cranberry, Blueberry, Tree fruit growers
• Farmers, consultants and other practitioners
• Forest landowners, professional foresters
• Manage vector borne diseases (e.g. Malaria)
• Marine, Animal health

Alex Thomasson stressed the need to have meaningful objectives of the renewed project and with members input following were the drafted objectives

1.   Research and develop UAS-based systems and methods for precise economic and environmental management of inputs and resources in production of crops, livestock, forests and marine sciences.
2. Research and develop UAS-based remote sensing systems and methods for field phenotyping & characterization in crops, livestock, forests and marine sciences.
3. Develop understanding on stakeholder [academic, industry, growers] needs? and extension education and training resources on UAS-based monitoring and management technologies. 

Members also deliberated writing the renewal project draft and Joby Czarnecki graciously agreed to lead these efforts with help of the members. Below are draft sections to write and assigned folks. Since then Glen C. Reins and Jim Robbins have communicated to help with draft edits.

• Seth Murray, John Fulton et al., also highlighted need to better assess stakeholder needs and members thought that it would be one of the outcomes of this project; Need to work with sociologist was highlighted during these discussions.

• Business meeting

2019-2020 officers

Past Chair: Joby Czarnecki

Chair: Alex Thomasson

Vice Chair: Lav Khot

Secretory: Ganesh Bora (moved to NIFA)

Administrative Advisors: Eric Young/ Randy Raper

NIFA Rep: Steven Thomson

Election of 2021-2022 officers

Past Chair: Alex Thomasson

Chair: Lav Khot

Vice Chair: TBD? (Joby to reach out to John Fulton)

Secretory: Bagavathiannan, Muthukumar (Alex Thomasson to reach out & confirm)

Administrative Advisors:  Randy Raper

NIFA Rep: Ganesh Bora

• 2022 meeting: Potentially in person during June-July 2022; hosted by Washington State University (Lav Khot)