Autonomous drone spraying · Row crops
Spray the weeds.
Not the field.
We fly your field with a mapping camera, find the problem spots, then send a crew of spray drones to treat just those spots. You use less chemical, nothing drives over your crop, and you're not waiting for the ground to dry out.
Herbicide · Fungicide · Insecticide
less chemical when you only treat the spots that need it
wheel tracks through your crop. No compaction, no run-down rows
acres an hour from a five-drone crew with one pilot
Day or night, and right after a rain when the field's too wet to drive
01 · How it works
Map it. Plan it. Spray it.
You tell us the field and the problem. You supply the product, and we handle the flying.
Map the field
A drone with a multispectral camera flies the whole field. The imagery shows where weeds, pests or disease are actually showing up, down to the patch.
Multispectral imaging · Pix4DBuild the plan
We turn the map into a spray plan: which zones get treated, at what rate, and which get left alone. You see the plan before anything flies.
Prescription map · Your chemicalSpray the spots
Up to five DJI Agras spray drones fly the plan on their own while an FAA-certified pilot watches over them. You get an as-applied map when they're done.
Autonomous swarm · One pilot02 · Savings
What it costs you per acre
The per-acre price looks higher than a ground rig. Then count the crop you lose to wheel tracks and the chemical you don't have to put down.
—
| Per acre | Ground | Avianic |
|---|---|---|
| Application | ||
| Chemical | ||
| Crop run down by wheels | ||
| Total |
Estimate only. Avianic application is figured at $13/acre, and wheel-track crop loss at $4.37/acre, from Avianic's own field estimate. Your actual quote depends on the crop, field shape, product and how much of the field needs treatment.
03 · Why drones
What a ground rig can't do
Fly after the rain
Muddy ground stops a sprayer. It doesn't stop a drone. When a storm pushes your spray window, we can go as soon as the wind's right, so your schedule doesn't slip.
No tracks, no compaction
Every ground pass runs down rows and packs the soil. That loss runs about $4.37 an acre in our estimate, and it's gone when nothing touches the ground.
Less product, less runoff
Treating the patch instead of the whole field means less chemical bought, less on the crop you're selling, and less washing off into ditches and creeks.
No $600K sprayer, no diesel bill
The new camera-guided spot sprayers run $540,000 to $900,000, and with diesel at record highs, every pass costs more. We do the same thing, spraying only the weeds, by the acre, and our drones run on batteries. Keep that capital in the operation.
04 · Who it's for
Built for small and mid-size farms
For farmers who want to be on the cutting edge of technology, but don't want a $600,000 sprayer to get there.
- Up to about 1,000 acresBig enough that spraying eats real time and money, too small to justify a spot-spray rig or your own drone fleet.
- Already running autosteerIf you trust GPS to drive your tractor, you'll be comfortable with GPS-guided drones.
- You hire some spraying out todayGround custom work, or planes and helicopters for fungicide and insecticide.
- You supply the chemicalWe don't sell product, so we have no reason to put down more than you need.
05 · Team
Pilots, engineers and farmers
Putting product exactly where it belongs takes people who know aircraft and people who know crops. Our founding team has both.
VTOL pilots
Military tiltrotor experience, so we've flown vertical-lift aircraft for a living. Commercially licensed by the FAA to fly drones, and we know how rotors behave over a field in real wind.
Engineers
Aerospace and software engineering, including building autonomous drones. We handle the mapping, the flight plans and the data, so the spray goes where the map says.
Farmers
Five generations on the farm. We know spray windows, field access, and what it costs when an application runs late, and we treat your field the way we'd treat our own.
06 · Questions
Straight answers
Who supplies the chemical?
You do. We don't resell product, so you buy what you'd normally buy from your usual dealer, and we apply it. Spot spraying usually means you need less of it.
A ground rig covers 100 acres an hour. Isn't a drone slower?
One drone covers about 25 acres an hour. We fly them in crews of up to five with a single pilot, which gets you to about 125 acres an hour. Since we're only spraying the spots that need it, a lot of the field doesn't need a pass at all.
Can you spray at night?
Yes. The drones fly a GPS plan, so they don't need daylight. Night and early morning are often calmer, which means less drift.
What drones do you fly?
Commercial DJI Agras spray drones, paired with multispectral mapping drones. They're proven, off-the-shelf equipment built specifically for agricultural spraying.
Why not just buy my own drone?
You can buy the drone. The FAA certification, insurance, training, and the time it takes to fly it are the hard part. For most small and mid-size farms, hiring it out by the acre costs less than owning and staffing it.
07 · Get a quote
Tell us about your field
A few details and we'll get back to you with a price and a date.
Got it. Thanks.
Your request is in. We'll call or email you, usually within a day or two.