Heliguy Announces Partnership With SlantRange

Drone specialist Heliguy – one of DJI’s leading European Gold Partners – is delighted to announce that we have signed an exciting partnership with American giant SlantRange, a leading provider of remote sensing and analytics systems for agriculture.

The strategic alliance will allow Heliguy to sell SlantRange’s renowned range of calibrated multispectral sensors and in-field analytics solutions to our clients, in particular, the 4P+ sensor, which helps support precision crop measurements to enhance workflows, improve decisions and maximise results.

Heliguy, as the UK’s number one drone supplier, is the perfect partner for us and will help us expand the reach of our popular products even further.

Michael Ritter, CEO of SlantRange

The collaboration comes just a week before Heliguy and SlantRange are to talk at DJI’s flagship drone conference, AirWorks, which is being staged in Los Angeles.

Heliguy’s Business Development Manager Ruairi Hardman will give a presentation – in partnership with Terra Drone Global – entitled Global Cooperation: The Key Driver to Mainstreaming Industrial UAS Technologies. SlantRange’s CEO, Michael Ritter, will speak about The Aerial Measurement and Analytics Technologies Enabling a Future of Closed-Loop, Precision Farming.

‘SlantRange Is An Industry Leader. It Is An Exciting Partnership’

Reflecting on the collaboration, Heliguy’s Ruairi Hardman said: “We are delighted to announce our strategic partnership with SlantRange.

“SlantRange is an industry leader when it comes to precision agriculture and analytics and this exciting collaboration means that we can continue to bring the best in the world systems to our clients, to help them achieve actionable and immediate data for agriculture.

“I am honoured to be speaking at AirWorks and my presentation will focus on global collaboration within the drone industry. Fittingly, Heliguy teaming up with SlantRange is a fine example of how companies from around the world can work together to benefit the client.”

Michael Ritter, CEO of SlantRange, said: “We are delighted to launch a partnership with Heliguy.

“Heliguy, as the UK’s number one drone supplier, is the perfect partner for us and will help us expand the reach of our popular products even further.

“By partnering with Heliguy, we can build a comprehensive, complete and trusted solution for enterprise and research customers, to help meet customer need.”

Monitoring population density with SlantRange.

How SlantRange Can Help You

SlantRange systems combine powerful analytics tools with accurate and reliable aerial crop sensors to deliver actionable and immediate data for agriculture.

Monitoring nitrogen levels with SlantRange.

SlantRange sensors are available in a range of models, including the 4P and 4P+, which are flexible enough to work with most small UAVs, with DJI SkyPort integration available.

The 4P sensor delivers industry-leading spectral and spatial resolution with integrated sunlight calibration, RGB colour, and modular add-on capability.

The 4P+ is the most advanced multispectral sensor in its class with 2x the spatial resolution of the 4P and comes with all the features of the 4P.

These powerful tools – which provide immediate, on-site analytics with no network connection required – are designed with modular capability and can be integrated with the new Precision Navigation Module. This module allows you to get more precise measurements for advanced data solutions.

The SlantRange 4P+ can measure individual plant size and shape to enable new classes of intelligent analytics.

These sensors can help in the following ways:

• Counting and sizing individual plants for improved yield forecasting;

• Detecting weed growth for more precise herbicide applications;

• Measuring plant health conditions for more efficient nutrient use;

• Enabling users to train the 4P Series to find features and signatures of interest to their own operations with proprietary SmartDetection algorithms.

SlantRange Case Studies

SlantRange products provide efficient and accurate data collection, helping to reduce time, save costs and maximise outputs and key decision-making.

Using SlantRange to detect areas of heavy weed infestation.

Benefits include:

• 20% image overlap requirement increases your area coverage by up to 4x per flight;

• Radically more efficient processing algorithms enable on-site data delivery in minutes, no internet or cloud required;

• Innovative new methods to improve measurement accuracy over satellite and manned aircraft systems;

• New classes of data types that are only possible from low-altitude drones to address specific agronomic questions across multiple crop types.

These advantages are demonstrated in the following SlantRange case studies.

Example One: Quantified Plant Population and Size Distributions Shortly After Emergence

Market Need: Accurate measures of plant population statistics at emergence are valuable for:

• Growers to locate nutrient or planting problems and to support replant decisions;

• Researcher to support trials;

• Insurers to baseline policies;

• Forecasters to baseline models.

Traditional Method: Scouts count plants manually in multiple, yet sparse, locations at great labour expense.

SlantRange Solution: SlantRange systems classify, count, and measure plant size for both crop and weeds using a combination of spectral imaging, computer vision, and machine learning techniques.

SlantRange Result: SlantRange delivers information which was previously unavailable, ie 100% field coverage map of plant density delivered on-site in under one hour. This eliminated the need for manual plant counting.

Measuring population density.

Example Two: Using Signals & Pattern Classification to Detect Failing Irrigation Systems

Market Need: The ability to remotely classify adverse conditions in agricultural crops enables more accurate, timely, and effective treatment than simple stress detection.

Traditional Method: Simple spectral ratios like NDVI can detect where stress occurs but are relatively incapable of classifying condition type, which is necessary for treatment. Hyperspectral systems have been used effectively in some cases but are prohibitively expensive for broad-based adoption.

SlantRange Solution: SlantRange-developed algorithms segregate crop conditions into classes using a novel combination of spectral and spatial pattern classification. In this case, the search is for stress due to saturated soils.

SlantRange Result: Affected areas are classified so irrigation repairs may be targeted. Two days of labour saved over method of manual inspection.

Example Three: Mapping Crop Health Conditions for Precision Treatment

Market Need: Early detection and treatment of deteriorating health conditions can save input costs and boost yields.

Traditional Method: Manual crop scouting. Existing airborne and spaceborne surveys are relatively insensitive to critical early health symptoms.

SlantRange Solution: SlantRange systems utilise innovative spatio-spectral filtering techniques to isolate pigment and hydration signals for earlier detection.

SlantRange Result: Key issues detected and precision-treated with urea. Results include 80% input application cost saved, and a boosted yield of 10%.

About SlantRange

SlantRange is an agricultural intelligence company that develops and markets sensors and analytics systems designed specifically for the needs of agricultural users.

SlantRange gives growers, agronomists, and researchers more control over agricultural land, helping to reduce operational costs and improve decision making. To learn more, visit www.slantrange.com.

About Heliguy

Heliguy’s Business Development Manager Ruairi Hardman with the DJI Enterprise Award.

Balfour Beatty is one of Heliguy’s esteemed clients. To read how the major infrastructure firm is benefiting from drones, click here.

Heliguy’s Ben Shirley delivering specialist training to UK police officers.

To find out more about how Heliguy can equip you with SlantRange products, or how we can support, scale or start your commercial drone programme, send us an email or give us a call.