Customer led design thinking aerial drone strategy

Summary

​MLA is developing a land and aerial drone strategy as part of MLA's red meat digital agriculture strategy. Ruralco was approached to partner with MLA in this space to work directly with Australian red meat producers, through demonstration and evaluation activities. The overall purpose of the project was to assist MLA in the development of an aerial drone strategy, identify current aerial drone deployment, new uses as well as future development needs.

A customer led design thinking approach was used to ensure consistent producer feedback was provided and considered throught the duration.

The overall project objectives for MLA and Ruralco were:

• Input into the development of an MLA aerial drone Research and Development (R&D) strategy
• Demonstration to red meat producers for existing drone capability, across Australia
• Identification of new development needs for aerial drone R&DSubmissions by Ruralco to undertake any developments identified that add value to the Ruralco and PrecisionHawk business
• Submissions to MLA with producer support on aerial drone R&DSummary of indicative aerial drone adoption numbers by Australian red meat producers during the duration of this project

The project methodology was a design led approach and included two key elements:

• Live demonstrations
• Survey distribution, completion and collection

Ruralco successfully presented to and/or demonstrated the current capabilities of aerial drones to thousands of producers across 13 events. 750+ surveys were offered/ distributed with a completion rate of approximately 30 percent. In order to increase survey completion Ruralco offered producers the chance to win a drone if the survey was filled out in its entirety.

Generally speaking it was found that producers currently use drones for the following 4 key  use cases:Locating/ checking livestockMustering livestock/ assistance with musteringChecking water pointsRecreationally  
Throughout the course of the project Ruralco found that some of the potential use cases identified by producers for drones may have other, more efficient solutions, which have increased in use over the last 12 months. For example checking water points can be conducted autonomously and automatically by sensors.

Ruralco believes the greatest opportunity for drones in the Australian red meat industry, in terms of long term return on investment (ROI) for the producer is location, identification and quantification of livestock. This prosposed use case cannot yet be realised due to current hardware and software capabilities (not yet market ready), Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) regulations as well as limited connectivity/ telecommunications coverage in the rural and remote areas that would benefit most from these solutions. It will take strong industry advocacy and further advancement in technology in order to meet Australian industry needs.