Drone services

Agrostis are qualified and certificated in the use in commercial operations of UAV's or drones (multi-rotor drones up to 20 kg).  This opens up a world of possibilities for sports turf  agronomy, monitoring and project management, all of which is our core business.  This capability provides extremely valuable information on all of our projects.

We use our professional drone with optical camera to:

• Obtain before and after images for mapping and quantifying surface damage caused by outdoor events
• Obtain otherwise unobtainable images of construction projects as they go ahead.  The beauty of this is that the images obtained of the actual site are directly compatible with the overhead and rendered model views of the development that we generate during the design phase.
• In association with the appropriate software, we can use the drone to obtain multiple images that can subsequently be digitally stitched together (photogrammetry) to produce a single image or map of a site.  Produced with a very high level of accuracy, such data can be extremely useful in very many ways.  

Wasps RUFC training ground - August 2021. Natural turf pitch and, beyond, AGP

Photogrammetry image of Wasps training grounds in construction

Photogrammetry image of Worcestershire County Cricket Ground

Multi-spectral imaging - 'Spectre'

Spectre is the word we use to describe our new multi-spectral imaging service .  Primarily for use in natural turf situations, this involves the use of a different kind of camera (actually 6 of them) mounted on a drone.  Multispectral technology uses green, red, red-edge and near infrared (NIR) wavebands to capture both visible and invisible imagery.  When stitched together to form a 'map' of the site, these data can provide early detection of disease, nutrient or water stress in the ground cover of football pitches, golf fairways etc.  By calibrating with appropriate soil and grass analyses carried out on the ground, this allows areas of weakness to be identified so that treatments such as irrigation, fertiliser and pesticide applications, for example, can be applied only to those places where it is most needed.  The upshot is a comprehensive assessment of the agronomic needs of the course, providing significant environmental and economic benefits, notably in reduced fertiliser, pesticide and water inputs and also, where intended, enhancements in bio-diversity and habitat quality.