The whole drone universe, in 12 branches.

Multirotor — Quad

4 rotors. Cheap, agile, most spray drones.

Multirotor — Hexa

6 rotors. Redundancy, medium payload.

Multirotor — Octo / Coaxial

8 rotors. Heavy spray, orchard, 40–100 L tanks.

Bi-copter / Tilt-rotor

2 large rotors. Hilly terrain, XAG V-series.

Single-rotor helicopter

Fuel + battery hybrid. 40–60 min endurance, sugarcane.

Fixed-wing

Long endurance, mapping only, no hover.

VTOL Fixed-wing

Vertical takeoff, cruise like a plane. 400–500 ha per flight.

Tail-sitter VTOL

senseFly eBee Ag — 1 cm PPK mapping.

Hybrid airships

Rare, ultra-long endurance research.

Scout / Mapping

RGB + multispectral, weekly health, no payload.

Spray

Herbicide, pesticide, fungicide, biologicals.

Spread

Granule urea, DAP, seed balls, cover crop.

Seeder

Direct-seeded rice, reforestation.

Cargo / Lift

Sample delivery, remote resupply.

Inspection

Powerline, solar, industrial.

Livestock

Cattle counting, night thermal patrol.

Security / Patrol

Predator alert, fence breach.

RGB 20–42 MP

Visual mapping, weed detection, lodging.

Multispectral 4–10 band

NDVI, NDRE, GNDVI, OSAVI — crop health.

Thermal 640 radiometric

CWSI water stress, cattle fever, hotspots.

LiDAR L2 / L1

5 cm DSM, canopy height, land levelling.

Hyperspectral

Research — nutrient, disease signatures.

Zoom 200× optical

Livestock count, roof inspection.

Spray boom

Rotary centrifugal or flat-fan nozzles.

Granule spreader

50–70 kg hopper, wet paddy reachable.

Nano <250 g

Mini 4 Pro modded NDVI — training.

Micro 250 g – 2 kg

Mavic 3M scout, most consumer.

Small 2–25 kg

T10, Garuda Kisan, most Indian entry.

Medium 25–150 kg

T30–T100, XAG P150, industrial.

Large >150 kg

Han H120 helicopter, research, defence.

L0 — Manual

Full stick input.

L1 — Assisted

GPS hover, altitude hold.

L2 — Waypoint

Fly a route, pilot supervises.

L3 — Autonomous mission

Take off, spray, land — one tap. Agras T-series.

L4 — Swarm / fleet

Multiple drones, one operator. XAG cloud.

L5 — Full autonomy

Research, BVLOS with detect-and-avoid.

LiPo battery

Most agri drones. 9–20 min loaded, 9–20 min charge.

Smart battery packs

DB1560, DB2000 — swap in 30 s.

Fuel + battery hybrid

40–60 min endurance, Han H120.

Pure ICE / turbine

Legacy agricultural helis.

Hydrogen fuel cell

Emerging — 2 hour flights.

Solar

Fixed-wing research.

Tether

Persistent overwatch, unlimited endurance.

VLOS <500 m

Default agri, DGCA rule for spray.

EVLOS 500 m – 2 km

With observer.

BVLOS <10 km

Special DGCA permission, corridor.

BVLOS long-haul

Delivery, mapping large estates.

2.4 / 5.8 GHz RC

Standard hobbyist and agri.

OcuSync / DJI O3+

15 km HD video.

4G / 5G cellular

XAG cloud fleet management.

Satcom

Defence, long BVLOS.

RTK / PPK GNSS

1–2 cm precision. Essential for spray + mapping.

Open field

Rice, wheat, maize, sugarcane.

Orchard canopy

Litchi, mango — radar canopy follow.

Terrain-follow radar

Undulating land, 4D imaging radar.

Night operation

EAVision binocular vision, M30T thermal.

Weather envelope

Wind <5 m/s spray, <10 m/s scout, no rain 6 hr.

Type Certificate

DGCA-approved airframe list.

Remote Pilot License

10-day course, DGCA RPTO.

Digital Sky permission

Airspace clearance per flight.

Kisan Drone subsidy

40–100% for FPOs, SC/ST, women, NE states.

Pesticide approval

CIB-RC label must permit aerial.

CapEx ₹4–38 L

Post-subsidy ₹1.2–19 L for approved models.

OpEx

Battery cycles, chemicals, insurance, pilot.

Service rate ₹300–500 / acre

Bihar market for spray.

Payback 1–2 seasons

For 300+ acres / season contractor.

Financing

NABARD, Agri Infra Fund, private NBFCs.

Flight planning

DJI Terra, XAG One, Pix4Dfields, DroneDeploy.

Photogrammetry

Ortho, DSM, DTM, canopy height.

Vegetation indices

NDVI, NDRE, OSAVI, GNDVI, EVI, CWSI, NDWI.

AI models

Weed mask, FAW, blast, fruit count, lodging.

Prescription maps

Variable rate spray + spread shapefiles.

Farm management

Cross-season, cross-plot analytics.