Vineyards are a natural fit for UAS technology. Vintners must maintain constant vigilance over the vigor of their vines to manage for the most consistent product possible. A UAS can easily produce this type of information with minimal planning. A 30 minute flight over a vineyard with an IR and color camera can produce NDVI which essentialy produces a surface of relative vigor. This 'vigor' surface can be used immediately by a vintner as a decision making tool for determing placement and intensity of vigor management strategies.
In this case study, the AIS lab flew a Matrix multicopter with a Nex 5T color and Nex 5T IR sensitive camera to produce an NDVI mosaic of the entire vineyard. NDVI is useful for determining relative vigor and can assist the viticulturist in how the . The real advantage of this technology is primarly in the quick acquisition and turn around of small datasets. This advantage is further improved by the pairing of low cost small UAS airframes with common consumer grade sensors.