Unmanned Aerial Vehicle – A strategy for forest improvement

The use of UAVs in forestry activities is a trend in the automation process sector, optimizing operations and generating data that support activity planning. Its use enables tasks that were not performed due to access difficulties, cost and time spent. It is possible to diagnose different aspects of forest management on a centimeter scale. The biggest challenge for the forest sector to adopt UAVs has been knowing and learning the technology and adapting it for use in forests. The dissemination of technologies still follows routines and precepts that always guide the demonstration of results as a way of encouraging forestry producers to adopt innovative technologies. In forests, the main types of UAVs used are multirotor and fixed wing. Both are used for geospatial data surveys, each with its capacity according to its architecture. Multirotors have their ability to glide and take off vertically, they are useful for takeoff in tighter places and for applications in terrestrial photogrammetry. And the fixed-wing ones allow for longer flights, greater stability during flights, ideal for larger lifts. Several sensors can be embedded in them, such as: sensors in the visible range (RGB) widely used for monitoring works, agriculture and mining; infrared sensors (IR), which are able to identify, for example, water stress and some parameters involved in the calculation of biomass; multispectral sensors, which can help detect certain aspects of plants, water or land; hyperspectral sensors, which can capture hundreds of images from the visible to medium-wave infrared region; frequency spectrum monitoring sensors, which monitor and characterize signals emitted by aircraft, ships and other emitters of interest to army or spy agency; radar, capable of mapping land, forests and buildings by emitting electromagnetic waves and collecting backscattered energy (returns from the ground); and lidar, which allows the acquisition of a denser and more detailed point cloud.