Headwall & Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) Awarded Contract for High-Endurance Fixed-Wing Hyperspectral Imaging UAV for Wide Area Precision Agriculture
Project funded in part by the BIRD (Binational Industrial Research and Development) Foundation
Bolton, MA – August 1, 2019 –Headwall, the industry leader in turnkey hyperspectral imaging solutions for remote sensing and precision agriculture, and Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), a leader in UAV technology, announced that a project valued at approximately $1 million USD for large-scale precision agriculture has been awarded by the Binational Industrial Research and Development (BIRD) Foundation to develop a high endurance UAV and hyperspectral imaging solution for agricultural customers with thousands of hectares of crops.
Development of the Precision Agriculture Decision Support System will utilise a custom-designed and manufactured wide-area hyperspectral imaging payload and a fixed-wing UAV designed for beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) missions, as well as analytics that allow accurate assessment of crop and soil conditions as well as crop disease over a wide area with high resolution and positional accuracy.
“Headwall has always strived for commercialisation of advanced spectral imaging technology for the benefit of customers worldwide,” David Bannon, CEO of Headwall commented. “IAI combines rugged and reliable military technology with commercial know-how for this project to assist farmers with decisions based on comprehensive yet rapid reports made possible by our sensor systems. Deployment of high endurance solutions for wide area data acquisition integrated with advanced hyperspectral and multispectral sensors is a game changer for the agriculture industry”.
Projects submitted to the BIRD Foundation are reviewed by evaluators appointed by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Israel Innovation Authority.
Dr. Amiram Appelbaum, Chief Scientist at the Ministry of Economy and Industry, Chairman of the Israel Innovation Authority and co-Chairman of BIRD’s Board of Governors said, “The U.S. is one of Israel’s major partners for innovation. We are proud of our long-standing collaboration with the BIRD Foundation that has resulted in such spectacular successes over the decades and numerous groundbreaking technological innovations offered by both Israeli and U.S recipients of the grant. We are confident that this year’s grant recipients in the various fields and the new projects approved will prove vital for the population worldwide.”
About Headwall
Headwall Photonics is a leading designer and manufacturer of spectral instrumentation for remote sensing, advanced machine vision, and government/defense markets. With a worldwide base of end-user and OEM customers, Headwall enjoys a market leadership position through the design and manufacture of spectral solutions that are customised for application-specific performance. The Company is based in Massachusetts where it has two locations (Bolton and Fitchburg). European operations (Headwall BVBA) are located near Brussels, Belgium.
About IAI
Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) is a leader in both the defense and commercial markets, delivering state-of-the-art technologies and systems in all domains – providing customers with tailored, cutting-edge solutions in the unique challenges that they face. IAI provides a wide range of solutions and services from special mission aircraft to advanced unmanned aerial systems (UAS).
About the BIRD Foundation
The BIRD (Binational Industrial Research and Development) Foundation works to encourage and facilitate cooperation between U.S. and Israeli companies in a wide range of technology sectors and offers funding to selected projects.