The North Dakota Agricultural Products Utilization Commission (APUC) has awarded four projects totaling $700,000. Vertipads Inc. was awarded $150,000 to develop a dedicated UAS (Unmanned Aerial Systems) ground infrastructure to service drones used in and for agriculture. The North Dakota grants can be used for basic and applied research, marketing and utilization, farm diversification, nature-based agritourism, prototype and technology, and technical assistance.
The UAS Trend Builds Up
Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) are made up of three parts: an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), a command and control (C2) system to connect the two, and an autonomous or human-operated control system that is often on the ground or a ship but may be on another airborne platform. UAVs can range in size from hand-launchable models to specially designed or modified aircraft with fixed or rotary wing configurations. Since the early 1990s, the usage of UAS for military and other State purposes has increased. It has operated UAVs far from their controllers using satellite communications and GNSS navigation. In recent years, growing numbers of rotary and multi-rotor UAVs have joined fixed-wing UAVs.
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