Scout, the mapping quadcopter
Scout photographs the block so Base can send each rover to the places worth inspecting. The X500 V2 build is planned; mapping performance and endurance still need flight tests.
Design model of the landed Scout. Optional prop motion is illustrative, not flight RPM.
A small camera, flown low
The proposed build combines the Holybro X500 V2, Pixhawk 6X, a Raspberry Pi CM4, F9P positioning and a 4S 5000 mAh pack. The camera looks straight down: a Pi HQ Camera with a 16 mm lens at about 10 m gives a calculated 0.97 mm per pixel, roughly 1 mm per pixel.
The resolution target starts with getting at least four pixels across a 7 mm cotyledon. More pixels make a small weed easier to distinguish, but they do not prove detection through leaves or motion blur. Capture rate, rolling-shutter smear and actual recall remain unverified.
For a 2.5-acre strawberry block, the survey calculation is about 49 minutes airborne—several packs, not one flight. The simulation budgets four packs using an assumed 13.5 minutes per pack. Takeoff, landing, ferry travel and image processing are additional; these are planning estimates.
The map is a prior
A drone point can land tens of centimetres off after the image is turned into a map. Precise antenna positioning does not make every weed pixel a precise tool coordinate. Scout tells a rover where to look; only the rover’s own camera can authorize its tool. A missed aerial weed can also be a place the rover never inspects.
Mass against the maker’s rating
The conservative all-up mass budget is about 2,055 g, estimated. It adds propulsion separately because the scope of Holybro’s listed kit mass is ambiguous. Added equipment is 518.7 g, compared with Holybro’s 1,500 g payload rating excluding the battery at 70% throttle. That is a mass comparison, not a measured thrust margin or proof of mapping endurance.
A piloted farm flight
Flying Scout for farm work needs an FAA Part 107 remote pilot certificate. The design includes a uAvionix pingRID broadcast module for Remote ID. The dock at Base shelters and charges it; it does not make the proposed flights unattended.
Design basis: SCOUT.md, FLEET.md and sim/FLEET.md. All flight and mass figures describe the proposed build or simulation, not measured performance.