Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) utilization for mapping the health of oil palm plants (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.)

Abstract

The increasing development and expansion of oil palm plantations in Indonesia cause monitoring management to be increasingly difficult to manage a plantation and currently requires technological innovation that is faster and more accurate in providing information, one of which is using an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), often called a drone, a flying machine. Which is controlled remotely using a remote control from outside the vehicle, this is used for monitoring and calculating the number of healthy and diseased plants in a large plantation area that can be covered. The purpose of this research is to map the health of oil palm plants using drone technology. The research method is using drones and oil palm application (OPA) software to calculate the number of oil palm stands followed by plant verification with a plant census using a global positioning system (GPS) to determine the distribution of healthy and diseased oil palm plants. The result of the research is a map that displays information on plant health and the number of plants characterized by colour.