How Skippy Scout Drone App Benefits Precision Agriculture

• Skippy Scout is an innovative drone app for precision agriculture, enabling efficient, precise, and repeatable crop scouting;

• Cover 4 hectares a minute - 20x faster than traditional field walking;

• Automated drone flight collects a field overview and up-close leaf-level imagery at pre-determined points of the field for detailed inspection; 

• The high-resolution imagery is analysed by AI to offer arable farmers vital crop insight;

• Report generated within minutes - which can be accessed remotely on any device - to enable data-driven decision-making to boost yields, productivity, and ROI; 

• Stats produced by Skippy’s report are crop dependent and include items such as percentage of healthy crop, unhealthy crop, weeds cover, pest damage, estimated nitrogen rates, and flowering fraction;

• Skippy Scout can be used with DJI drones. heliguy™ has teamed up with Drone Ag to offer Skippy Scout and drone supply, support, repairs, and training. 

Skippy Scout is an innovative and automated crop-scouting app, automating off-the-shelf DJI drones to photograph and analyse crops in a matter of minutes and enabling agricultural professionals to view their fields like never before.

Conduct fully-automated, pre-programmed and targeted drone flights to obtain field overviews and high-resolution leaf-level imagery for close-up, more detailed inspections. 

Cover up to 4 hectares per minute - 20x faster than traditional field walking.

Receive detailed field reports, powered by AI analysis, for near-real-time insights on factors such as crop cover, insect damage, flowering fraction, and nitrogen levels.

Use the tool below to see how Skippy Scout provides detailed insights, including a field overview, up-close imagery, statistics, and Field Report. Move around the field or click on a Scout Point to access details for that specific location of the field. 

This faster, detailed and repeatable method of crop scouting enables trend analysis and interrogation, helping farmers respond to issues as they arise and build long-term sustainability and profitability.

Use Skippy Scout for:

• Actionable crop-specific analysis, from seed to harvest.

• High-resolution drone imagery to analyse crops, including oil seed rape.

• Analysis and measurement of unhealthy leaves and pest damage detection.

• Accurate variable rate nitrogen recommendations.

• Post-flowering ratios for an accurate report of interplaying pod development, ripening and senescence in oil seed rape.

• Trend analysis to monitor changes, improvements or issues overtime. 

Skippy Scout collects multiple crop insights from one drone flight. Depending on the crop, obtain accurate visual and AI-generated data on:

• Crop cover, uniformity, and variability

• Insect damage

• Weed cover

• Unhealthy Crop

• Crop variance

• True GAI (Green Area Index)

• Recommended levels of nitrogen 

• Flowering fraction

• Pod, ripening and senescence ratios

Use this data to increase productivity, tackle disease and other problems earlier, and enhance variable nitrogen rates.

Obtain information on a variety of crops, such as wheat, barley, oil seeds, potatoes, soy, sugar beat, cress, and lettuce.

Skippy Scout, developed by North of England-based agricultural specialists Drone Ag, is available for iOS and Android. The DJI Air 2S - with one-inch 20MP sensor and 31 minutes of flight time - is currently the leading DJI drone for Skippy Scout.

The app also integrates with the DJI Mini 2 and DJI Air 2. Compatibility with the Mavic 3 Enterprise Series (Mavic 3E and Mavic 3 Multispectral) is expected soon. 

heliguy™ has partnered with Drone Ag to offer Skippy Scout, along with drone supply, support, training, and repairs. As part of this, heliguy™ and Drone Ag will also be delivering a GVC-DJI Agras drone spraying course. 

Skippy Scout Workflow

Skippy Scout enables farmers to collect quick, detailed, and accurate insights about their fields.

The streamlined workflow follows these steps:

1. Download and activate the app. Then add your fields.

2. Import maps, satellite data or use field knowledge to mark points of interest.

3. Hit 'Fly Now' on the app and the drone will capture a Scout Sphere overview.

4. The drone automatically flies to pre-determined points of intertest to capture close-up, leaf-level imagery. Only requested images are produced, rather than masses of complex field and crop data.

5. Field report on crop health, problems and progress generated within minutes of flight. This is immediately actionable and easy to share.

6. Visit the same points again to monitor trends.

Skippy Scout Data Sets 

Skippy Scout generates reports in minutes, and provides users with clear and detailed data sets, in full field view (Sphere) and Scout Points which provide close-up, leaf-level imagery and site-specific statistics. 

Full Field Overview - Skippy Scout Sphere

The Skippy Scout Sphere provides a detailed overview of the entire field. This generates a new, user-friendly way to visualise fields and data - within minutes - and provides up-to-date information and 360° imagery.

The Spheres are interactive. They can be moved around, zoomed in for closer inspection, or flattened out to see variability throughout the whole crop.

In the above example, the flattened Sphere clearly shows how sections to the right-hand side of the field are discoloured, compared to other areas. This could be due to plant stress, weeds, or pigeon damage (in fact, this particular area has 16% weed cover and 37% crop cover in some parts, compared to other areas of the field which have 0% weed cover and 53% crop cover). Having this information enables farmers to spot and isolate anomalies easily and then target these problem areas - and track these changes over time. 

Field details (including name and size of the field, planting date, number of weeks between data set and planting) and crop average statistics (calculated by Skippy Scout's AI) are viewable at the top of the screen, while Scout Points can be clicked for specific statistics at various locations throughout the field.

The subsequent leaf-level images - captured by the close-up drone imagery at each Scout Point - can be viewed in full resolution for detailed inspection.

Users can easily switch between fields and the Spheres can be shared anywhere to be viewed on any device with an internet connection and a web browser.

Field Report PDFs

Skippy Scout generates a Field Report: Emailed after the flight, and also available via the Skippy Scout Sphere dashboard.

As well as providing information on the field's average statistics and the individual Scout Points, Field Reports also feature a heat map.

This displays Skippy's estimation of the field's status, highlighting where values are higher or lower for a specific insight, such as crop cover or flowering ratio. 

The report also provides flight trends, comparing data between the most recent and previous scout. This is useful for trend analysis, to see if specific action is working or how the field is developing over time.

For instance, the report below shows that crop cover, crop uniformity, and crop GAI have all increased since the last scout.  

For each Scout Point, the report features close-up drone imagery alongside an AI interpretation.

Skippy Scout Case Studies

The reports below show how specific insights in Skippy Scout's Field Report enable quicker, detailed, and data-driven decision-making.

Please note that the images in the reports are for illustrative purposes and are not full resolution. The high-res imagery is best on the Sphere interface, but it can also be viewed in the Skippy app or a user's device library.

Crop Coverage, Weeds, And Unhealthy Leaves

Skippy Scout can be used to analyse crop coverage, weeds, and unhealthy leaves.

This is useful for monitoring emergence rates, comparing seed rates and yield, and observing trends, while early detection of unhealthy leaves is key to effective crop management.

Skippy's Image Analysis software can detect various leaf features, such as discolouration caused by disease or nutrient defiency, or holes caused by harmful insects, such as flea beetle.

This example shows how Skippy Scout provides detailed and clear data about the condition of the field, particularly crop cover.

Utilising the heat map, and the information gathered at the individual Scout Points, it is clear where the higher and lower concentrations of crop cover are located - useful for taking action, or monitoring trends over time.

The above map shows that one of the better areas of crop cover in the field is at Scout Point 15 - and this corresponds to the information for that specific point, shown below. 

Note how the crop cover for this point is 75% and this is reflected in the close-up visuals and AI interpretation.

However, the heat map flagged Scout Point 13 as having low concentrations of vegetation cover. The field report for this specific point reflects this: With 2% crop cover and sparse levels of vegetation in the visual.   

Variable Rate Nitrogen

Skippy Scout provides an estimate on the amount of nitrogen required for a specific area, or an average throughout the field.

For example, this graphic shows that, at Scout Point 1, the required amount of nitrogen is 228kg/ha...

...while at Scout Point 8, the recommended amount is 219kg/ha.

This is a calculation based on crop GAI, born out of academic research. This calculation is crop-only, crucially discounting weeds - unlike data gathered by satellite.

This helps farmers apply the correct amount of nitrogen at each point of the field, optimising input and helping to save money by stopping over-spreading. This is particularly important given the current high price of nitrogen fertiliser.

Skippy Scout will soon be able to provide spray recommendations and insights about run-off risk and areas to spray water. The DJI Agras drone spraying course can help you become a competent drone sprayer for this part of the workflow. 

Pest Damage

Skippy Scout is a useful tool for highlighting areas of pest damage, which is useful for protecting crops and tracking the effectiveness of applying insecticide.

The report flags up that pest damage has been detected and also provides useful trend analysis: In this case stating that the pest damage has worsened since the last scout.

The report then enables the user to review specific parts of the field, providing data at each Scout Point.

Interestingly, the area at Scout Point 12 does not have insect damage - which saves farmers targeting this area...  

...but Scout Point 13 does, and the close-up imagery enables a visual inspection of the damage in this area.  

Flowering Fraction

This is an accurate tool to monitor the flowering ratio of oil-seed rape. It provides an accurate report of the percentage of oil-seed rape that is in flower.

This enables you to monitor and manage your crop, decide on key timings, and spraying regimes.

In this example, the heat map highlights areas of the field where flowering ratio is high (green), such as Scout Point 29, and areas that are low (red), such as Scout Point 1. 

Each Scout Point collaborates this, and provides a site-specific flowering ratio percentage and visual to reflect the different stages of growth.

So, Scout Point 1 has a flowering ratio of just 2.34%: This small level of flowering activity is reflected in the accompanying visual...

...while Scout Point 29 shows a mass of flowering activity, with the ratio up to 44.06%.

Post Flowering Ratios

Post Flowering Ratios are a new level of analysis for the latter growth stages of oil-seed rape, providing insights on interplaying pod development, ripening and senescence rations. 

This enables you to monitor and manage your crop, decide on key timings, and spraying regimes.

In this example, pod development is high, but ripening and senescence levels are low.

Skippy Scout Licences: What Is Available?

heliguy™ is offering various types of Skippy Scout licences.

The first is the standard licence, which covers:

• Up to 2 users

• Up to 1000 ha

• Up to 3 farms

This is available as a standalone licence, or with the DJI Air 2S Combo, or with the DJI Air 2S Combo and RC Pro.

A Skippy Scout Enterprise licence is also available, suitable for:

• More than 1000ha

• More than 2 users and/or over 3 farms

Please contact us to discuss this licence. 

Compatibility with the DJI Mavic 3 Enterprise Series (Mavic 3M and Mavic 3E) is expected shortly.

Skippy Scout: Summary

Skippy Scout is an efficient, precise, and repeatable crop scouting app, which transforms the way that agricultural professionals view their fields.

Drones for agriculture is a growing trend and Skippy Scout is part of this revolution.

Driven by drone automation, high-resolution imagery and AI-powered algorithms, it collects data quicker and easier to enable farmers to make informed decisions to increase productivity and ROI.

Contact heliguy™ to discuss Skippy Scout, the DJI Agras training course, or drones in agriculture.