Agriculture is no longer reliant solely on human labor and experience, as technology is increasingly taking over key tasks. Innovations such as autonomous drones enable precise crop monitoring, quicker responses to problems, and more efficient resource management. This approach modernizes everyday work in the fields, eases the burden on farmers, and contributes to higher yields with lower costs.
Such an innovation has been developed by students of the University of Mostar, who launched a technological project set to change the way farmland is protected. It is an autonomous drone that independently monitors crops, with the aim of offering a practical and innovative solution to the problems faced by farmers.
The drone is accompanied by a functional application that allows farmers to easily enter and define the monitoring area on their land. The application then connects this data with the drone, which automatically monitors the designated sectors, detects threats such as diseases or intruders, and reports to the user in real time.
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Behind the name SkyGuard stands a team of young individuals (Vinko Jakeljić, Vedran Marić, Petar Vladić, Oliver Vujica, Nikola Šimunović, Mijo Galić, Mija Sabljić, Magladela Primorac, Antonija Kožul, Juraj Previšić, Ivan Galić, Mate Marić, and Blaž Perić), students of computer science, law, and other fields. This multidisciplinarity enables them to build SkyGuard not only as a technically advanced solution but also as one that is legally and commercially relevant, tailored to the real needs of farmers in the region. Explaining the project for Energy Portal Magazine was project leader Blaž Perić.
– SkyGuard is an innovative system that uses autonomous drones to protect farmland from theft and unauthorized access. The system consists of a drone, a base station, and a web platform that allows users simple management and real-time monitoring. The drones patrol defined routes, utilize advanced AI analytics to detect intruders (people, vehicles, animals), and automatically notify the user of any threat via the application, SMS, or email, according to Perić.
Their goal, as he points out, is for SkyGuard to become more than just a security system.
– The drone is equipped with a standard camera, a night-vision camera, and a thermal camera. Around the farmland, sensors are installed that, upon detecting an intruder, activate the drone, which then automatically takes off from the base, flies to the location, records the area, and sends the footage to the database. If it is an animal, a siren is activated to drive it away, explain the SkyGuard team.
Prepared by Jasna Dragojević
The story was published in Energy portal Magazine CLIMATE CHANGE
