MERRILLVILLE, Ind. — Hobbyists have flown remote-control model planes for decades, and some have even thought to attach a camera to get a bird’s-eye view of the landscape around them. But tying in software and GPS could someday turn this kind of pastime into semi-normal farm work – in the same way precision ag technology has infiltrated row crops.

As a farm business advisor for Beck’s Hybrids, in 26 years Jim Love has seen GPS-aided precision steering and planting equipment usher in the 21st century and enthrall farmers and consumers alike. Since then, though, he said nothing has drawn crowds quite like demonstrations of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) vehicles (UAVs).

“It’s endless,” he said of the potential uses for UAVs – or, as most Americans likely call them, drones. He prefers the term UAVs since he feels too many people have a negative view of “drones” as tools of military warfare or domestic spying.

But, he explains to groups he visits – like the Purdue University Midwest Women in Agriculture (WIA) annual conference last week, or schools – the useful possibilities of UAVs are multiple. Basically, they can go “anyplace where it’s not safe to send people.”

There’s search-and-rescue, mining applications, re-entry into fires, filmmaking, pipeline surveillance, delivery and, of course, agriculture. For example, Beck’s is testing various small UAV units and camera software in its practical farm research plots by using them to map and photograph fields from above. The software “stitches” together lots of photos into a big picture of a field, which can show crop development and disease faster than ground scouting.

And, the UAV can be programmed to only survey a limited area while in flight, conserving battery time – which is important, given the models Love and fellow Beck’s employee Corbin Hellwarth were displaying are not meant for long flights. The senseFly eBee fixed-wing UAV, for example, can stay in the air for upwards of 40 minutes.

In that time, it can cover about 300 acres and, Hellwarth explained, is good for mapping. Love said he was able to fly one five miles away, and it came back and landed in the same spot where it took off.

Right now its cost is a whopping $25,000, which Love admitted sounds like a lot for what the eBee looks like – a large foam boomerang glider – but in addition to mapping, it can survey fields and the images can be matched with data showing plant height and volume, as well as infrared capability.

Perhaps more familiar to anyone who follows the news, especially recently, is the small white-and-red Phantom quadcopter manufactured by DJI. It was one of these that cleared a fence at the White House and crashed on the lawn last month. While the news raised concerns about the capabilities and legal limits of drone use, Love told those at WIA he has heard from industry insiders it was likely a federal employee playing with the little copter, with no ill intent.

At any rate, he also said the manufacturer scrambled to program limits into Phantom software updates shortly after the incident so it can’t happen again, nor can it be made to fly into airport space. Basically, this means its GPS system will make it “hit” an invisible barrier and refuse to cross it if the operator tries to fly it into these kinds of areas.

The Phantom can fly for 20 minutes and is good for scouting; it costs around $1,000. Love and Hellwarth also displayed a circular Precision Drone hexacopter (six rotors) that can stay in the air for 13 minutes and cover about 80 acres. The more rotors a UAV copter has, the more stable its flight; there’s even an octocopter with eight.

Love pointed out these are good for filmmaking, since they can hover relatively still and bank for various camera angles.

Flying a UAV is simpler than one might think. He briefly demonstrated with a small orange Parrot quadcopter, which lifted from the floor in a corner of the room across from him and hovered still, whirring loudly, for about two minutes until he set it down.

Hellwarth showed on his laptop how to program a UAV for flight and filming, explaining much of how he learned to pilot the little fliers came from YouTube videos posted by their manufacturers. “It takes a little practice, but within a day or so, you can have the basics down,” he said.

These UAVs are only a few pounds each and can easily be picked up and held by one or two hands. Love said there are larger ones, like small helicopters which can fit in the back of a van with the rotors folded in, being tested elsewhere in the world for more active field uses.

For example, he showed a video of one spraying Asian rice paddies, which are much smaller than U.S. row crop fields and difficult to get ground equipment into. He said these drones might also benefit vineyard owners, who often plant in rocky areas, for grape surveillance or spraying.

Besides DJI, Precision Drone and senseFly, Love said other manufacturers working in UAVs are AgEagle, 3D Robotics, GoPro and RoboFlight; software players include Pix4D and Agisoft.