The current level of technical development and accessibility allows to consider unmanned aerial vehicles as a reliable tool for operational monitoring of agricultural territories. Drones are able to observe territories that are inaccessible to helicopters and small aircrafts. The use of drones is associated with certain risks that affect flight safety. (Research purpose) To make recommendations on the preflight preparation of unmanned aerial vehicles. (Materials and methods) The authors used scientific literature, survey materials of domestic and foreign authors, websites of UAV manufacturers. (Results and discussion) The authors examined the issues of a drone registration, key parameters that influence data collection and ensure safe monitoring: operation and storage of drone batteries, visual inspection of a drone, sensors calibration, setting the “return home” point and checking the signal GPS/GLONASS communication quality, test flight, restricted areas and weather conditions. (Conclusions) It was established that UAV pre-flight preparation was an important stage in monitoring agricultural fields, which included a number of operations that were carried out with the aim of ensuring the safety of the operator and the unmanned aerial vehicle, as well as to obtain high-quality aerial photography materials. The authors determined that an unmanned aerial vehicle weighing from 250 grams to 30 kilograms was a object to be registered. They identified the need for specialized software, compliance with the rules of operation and storage of batteries, a thorough visual inspection of the drone, calibration of the compass; checking the setting of the return point to the beginning of the route, the GPS/GLONASS signal level, conducting a test flight, monitoring the readings of the inertial measuring unit and weather conditions, checking the zone of prohibited flights.
Learning-Based Autonomous UAV System for Electrical and Mechanical (E&M) Device Inspection