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China Drone Attack on Crop-Eating ‘Monster’ Shows 98% Kill Rate

bloomberg.com

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Re: China Drone Attack on Crop-Eating ‘Monster’ Shows 98% Kill Rate

#61

Post by elbrian »

RealityVoid wrote: post #56
yowlingcat wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably more reliable to maintain, too. A single drone or even a substantial minority failing only lowers swarm throughput rather than completely taking the whole thing out of commission.

I honestly doubt it. Flight life expectancy for drones must not be great and fixing a drone can use quite a bit of time, depending on what is wrong with it. I say that as someone who worked with drones. They are, honestly, a pain.

Do you think they'd send the inoperable drones to someone who thinks "they are a pain," or do you think they'd send the drones to a vendor who is experienced with their specific model and can quickly address any issues they find?

Re: China Drone Attack on Crop-Eating ‘Monster’ Shows 98% Kill Rate

#64

Post by acadien »

febeling wrote: post #45
TheRealPomax wrote: post #16

Ah yes, Bayer Crop Science. The science division of a company that likes Monsanto's business model so much, they bought Monsanto. Good to see they found a fresh market for releasing "low-toxicity insecticide" into the food chain.

Understand the sentiment. But applying it selectively seems to be desirable, no matter how euphemistic the low-toxicity part is.

The article said nothing about selective dispersal. For all we know these drones are just fancy crop dusters.

Re: China Drone Attack on Crop-Eating ‘Monster’ Shows 98% Kill Rate

#65

Post by zupzupper »

bthecohen wrote: post #53
zupzupper wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> phylloxera-resistant but unpalatable American vines Hey now. You send me a palatable French wine and I'll send you a palatable American one =)

This is actually referring to different species of grapes, and has nothing to do with winemaking technique or prowess. Virtually every type of "quality wine" that is consumed in the world comes from the old world species vitis vinifera. This includes basically every variety you've heard of: Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, Syrah, Merlot, just to name a few French varieties (but the same applies to Italian,…

I did not know this.

However I would still like to exchange bottles with other fellow =)

Re: China Drone Attack on Crop-Eating ‘Monster’ Shows 98% Kill Rate

#66

Post by unnouinceput »

sjg007 wrote: post #57
unnouinceput wrote: post #42

So how this compares with having a very low tech solution instead, like the one using pipes in the field that can spray the insecticide in the same amount as a drone does?

Pipe in the field can be damaged during farm operations like field prep, planting and harvesting etc... they also get clogged by dirt and in many jurisdictions you can't send pesticide down a water irrigation pipe for example. For some farms that would also be a lot of pipe to lay. So overall just a really bad idea.

Think plastic pipes that can be laid out/taken out at beginning/end of season. Low tech/cheap being the key element here, same as targeted irrigation, where only a sliver of water goes directly to the roots, only in this case it will be pesticide targeting directly the crop. Drones sounds for me way too expensive.

Re: China Drone Attack on Crop-Eating ‘Monster’ Shows 98% Kill Rate

#67

Post by on_and_off »

Fascinating read.

I wonder if we could eliminate invasive species that way in a more general way.

They tend to wreck havoc on local ecosystems and are unmanageable.

I wonder if they would not just evolve to evade ML detection or if that's too high of a wall to jump.

Re: China Drone Attack on Crop-Eating ‘Monster’ Shows 98% Kill Rate

#68

Post by Infinitesimus »

on_and_off wrote: post #67

Fascinating read. I wonder if we could eliminate invasive species that way in a more general way. They tend to wreck havoc on local ecosystems and are unmanageable. I wonder if they would not just evolve to evade ML detection or if that's too high of a wall to jump.

There would still be a market for human-driven eradication though (ahem https://www.helibacon.com )

Re: China Drone Attack on Crop-Eating ‘Monster’ Shows 98% Kill Rate

#69

Post by ijpoijpoihpiuoh »

acadien wrote: post #64
febeling wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Understand the sentiment. But applying it selectively seems to be desirable, no matter how euphemistic the low-toxicity part is.

The article said nothing about selective dispersal. For all we know these drones are just fancy crop dusters.

From what I can read of the press release, they are claiming a reduction of 30% in the amount of pesticide used. So, a significant incremental improvement, but certainly not something truly smart like using a camera to identify individual pests and targeting those pests with directed blasts of insecticide. Still a few years from that version of this tech.
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