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Drone demo
Desarae Catlett of Broken Bow and Cory Walters of Pennsylvania check out the prototype of an agricultural drone at left, while Carl France, above left, and Shyam Thota of HyperSight demonstrate the programmed waypoints the craft would use to automatically fly over and photograph a field. The field in this case belongs to the Nebraska College of Technical Agriculture in Curtis, where the demonstration took place Monday. HyperSight CEO and co-founder Chris Chance and mathematician Michael Rodriguez joined their colleagues in making the presentation. A production version of the drone, built of 3D printed nylon, will be able to image 1,000 acres in a one-hour flight, using near infrared and visible sensors. Costing $5,000, the drone uses many off-the-shelf parts and can be programmed in the field through the onboard controller, a modified smart phone. Catlett is an agronomy major and Walters is an ag production systems major.