 Hi, everyone. My name is Gautam Pradhan. I am a dryland research agronomist. This is my amazing sixth year at Williston Research Extension Center. I have a PhD degree in agronomy from Kansas State University and a master's degree in agriculture from the University of Bonn, Germany. Today I would like to share with you information on the latest project that I started this year. The project is about the application of unmanned aircraft system in small plot experiments. You all might be aware of the fact that in this center under the dryland agronomy program we have been conducting 50 to 60 variety evaluation trials and 5 to 8 agronomic trials every year. Our goal is to develop ag technologies suitable for the no-till dryland condition of Mondag region. In these experiments we have been collecting data on plant growth and phenological traits such as plant stand, winter survival, plant height, heading, and flowering dates. We are using meteoristics or visual observations to collect this data. These methods are highly time-consuming and the accuracy depends upon the observer's skill and practice. Furthermore, due to resource constraint we are seldom measuring plant physiological traits such as normalized difference vegetation index and canopy temperature. Because of the same reason we are also not collecting data on yield-forming traits such as the number of spikes or flowers or pots per plot. We the researchers have been feeling that there is a need for an application of precision agriculture that allows the allocation of collection of these plant traits quickly, frequently, and accurately from thousands of small experimental plots. During the last biennium I tested and observed that an unmanned aircraft system equipped with a GPS and a thermal multispectral or RGB camera may be used in measuring growth, phenological, and physiological data from thousands of Durham and Barley experimental plots quickly within minutes, frequently six to seven times during the growing season, precisely, georeferenced, and accurately. Stepping on those findings, this project on precision agriculture is aiming to develop unmanned aircraft system-based data collection and analysis protocols specific to a crop and trait. The protocol will include but not limited to the suitable stages of a crop for data collection, the height of the drone, and a sensor to be used to measure the specific trait of around 15 different crop species. It will also explain the procedures of processing images like stitching and mosaic production and plot-wise quantification of the traits. For this purpose, I am using a drone that weighs around 21 pounds. This drone can carry up to 13 pounds of payload, which means it can comfortably carry a multispectral or thermal camera and fly for 18 to 20 minutes. I am also using a small drone that weighs only two pounds. It has an inbuilt HD RGB camera and can fly up to 30 minutes. Last but not least, I would like to inform you that this spring, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a winter wheat period could not visit our center to assess the winter survival of breeding lines. However, he could successfully and accurately estimate this parameter using the aerial images that I collected and sent to him. Before ending, let me acknowledge the North Dakota Ag Experiment Station for funding this project that has enabled me to hire and train a graduate student. Andrew Hurley, a graduate student from Mohal, Renville County, North Dakota is working in this project. Thank you so much for watching this presentation. If you have any questions, please call me at 701 774 4 3 1 5.