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Professor Andrew Robson highlighted the challenges of poor connectivity in rural areas, which hinders the use of agricultural technology for farming
SANTA BARBARA, CA, Feb. 21, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Digital Locations, Inc. (OTCMKTS:DLOC), the developer of SatennaTM, a breakthrough technology that will deliver high-speed Internet from satellites directly to smartphones all over the world, today announced that in a recent podcast, its CEO, Rich Berliner, spoke with Dr. Andrew Robson, a professor at the University of New England in Australia, about his work in remote sensing and how it aims to address agricultural challenges such as crop health monitoring and yield predictions.
During the conversation, Professor Robson highlighted the significance of real-time data access to a host of scenarios, including crop applications, firefighting, and even the prevention of theft in oyster farming. He said, “There is good mobile coverage and good data coverage in the centers of the main cities. Outside of those centers, the reception is very poor for telecommunication, let alone data transfer. It gets worse if you are in an agricultural setting or amongst trees within an orchard or things like that. It’s a really big limiter of the adoption or accessibility into useful technologies. To be able to walk into your field and have data access is the missing link. We need real time data.”
Professor Robson continued, "When you talk about how data accessibility can help, there’s a lot of commercial satellites available now. There’s been a lot of work over the decades by many people on using these satellites for a range of agricultural purposes. So, looking at crop health, identifying pest or disease hotspots, seeing if your irrigation is working correctly, predicting yield and quality—all these sorts of applications can benefit from using satellite and ground-based data sensing.
“The benefit this would provide, having faster data in remote locations and access to agricultural technology is a missing piece of the jigsaw puzzle,” Professor Robson concluded. “It is great to hear what you are trying to achieve. You’ve nailed one that is really beneficial for a wide range of reasons.”
Dr. Andrew Robson is a Professor at the University of New England in Armidale, Australia; Director of the Applied Agricultural Sensing Center; and President of the Queensland Oyster Growers Association. He earned his AS in Environmental Science at Canberra Institute of Technology in 1997 and a BS in Environmental Science from Charles Sturt University in 2002, majoring in GIS/remote sensing at both institutions. He went on to complete his PhD in this field of study at the University of Queensland in 2007. He has been involved in agricultural research since 1996, with much of that time spent developing remote sensing/GIS spatial applications for various agricultural and horticultural farming systems around the globe. He is listed as a Google Scholar at: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=hOWIbmwAAAAJ.