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In the face of climate change, crop insurers are faced with a whole new range of problems. A lack of data to assess cultivable land and yield has always been an issue, but accurately estimating crop damage has also proven to be almost an impossible task.
To compound this even further, the remote location of crops can prevent insurers from finding specialists to carry out inspections and risk assessments. These all have implications on cost and time to insurers.
But the capabilities of drones are fast being recognized as the solution to these problems.
A Launchpad App demonstrated how this could be achieved by creating an interconnected drone system that uses Redis to transmit data between components. Redis pulled each component closer together, enabling reams of data to be transmitted in real time.
With this asset, drones were able to fly over fields, take images of crops, then send them back to an online portal for assessment. A demo was created to illustrate how this was achieved.
Let’s investigate how the team managed to achieve this. But before we go any further, we also have a great variety of different apps for you to explore, so make sure to check them out on the Launchpad.
You’ll build a drone system which uses Redis and cloud technologies that captures accurate data of crops in rural areas at speed. Crop insurers can leverage this asset to create more secure insurance policies whilst maximizing transparency during the claims process.
We’ll explore how they managed to tie in all of these different components to work harmoniously with one another.
Development
Cloud and services
Now let’s have a look at the architecture. To simplify things we’ve broken it down into 4 sections.
Thanks to this product, the insurer can carry out crop inspections in real time and create an insurance policy from his/her office.
Step 1. Clone the project repository:
git clone https://github.com/redis-developer/CropInsurRedis
If you look at the source code repository, the whole project is divided into 3 major sections:
Step 2. Examine the Airsim Simulator
Redis modules, RedisGears, RediStreams, and RedisAI were each deployed in this project. They were all used to analyze images of the land that were captured by the drone in real-time as well as calculating the percentage of different categories in those images using Tensorflow, Microsoft Custom Vision, and RedisAI.
To connect to the AirSim simulator, simply use the Python-based code below. This also allows you to set the coordinates that will determine the path your drone will follow during its flight.
import airsimimport argparsefrom flyDroneService import FlyDroneServiceimport time
if __name__ == '__main__':
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser() parser.add_argument('-u', '--level', help='Game Level', type=int, default=1) args = parser.parse_args() # connect to the AirSim simulator client = airsim.MultirotorClient() FlyDroneService.initializeAirSimClient(client)
gameLevel = args.level print(gameLevel) # set the coordinates to set up the path for drone to travel if gameLevel == 3: print('Level 3') client.simEnableWeather(True) FlyDroneService.setFlyingCoordsForDroneAtThirdLevel(client) elif gameLevel == 2: print('Level 2') client.simEnableWeather(True) FlyDroneService.setFlyingCoordsForDroneAtSecondLevel(client) else: print('Level 1') client.simEnableWeather(True) client.simSetWeatherParameter(airsim.WeatherParameter.Rain, 1) FlyDroneService.setFlyingCoordsForDroneAtFirstLevel(client) #stop and return the simulator to initial state FlyDroneService.resetAirSimClient(client)
Step 3. Installing the required software
Before executing the Python script, you should install the prerequisite software discussed below.
You can install Docker in your environment by using this link. Also, make sure that you have Docker compose installed in your system.
Step 4. Setting up Unreal Engine
Unreal Engine is the world’s most open and advanced real-time 3D creation tool. At this point, it’s required that you set up the Unreal Engine on your local machine to simulate the flying of drones on virtual fields.
Here are the hardware requirements to set up the Unreal Engine:
Once the Unreal Engine is set up on your local environment, you need to download the folder from Google drive. It includes the maps of the different landscapes that the drones will fly over. We’ve placed the folder inside Google Drive due to its large size.
Once the folder is downloaded, you’ll need to double click the ‘FinalProjDroneSquad’ file as shown below:
This will launch the landscape on Unreal Editor as shown below:
Click on the ‘Play’ button as highlighted below to start level 1.
To change the level of the game, first navigate to the Content -> Maps folder. Double click on the Level 2/Level 3 files as shown below and click on the play button.
Thereafter you can proceed to the installation section to set up other prerequisites.
cd airsim
pip install -r requirements.txt
From the root folder of this project, run the below docker command:
docker-compose up
As you can see from the docker-compose file above, this project combines several Redis modules, such as RedisGears, RediStreams, and RedisAI. These are all used to analyze the images of the land captured by the drone in real-time as well as calculating the percentage of different categories in those images using Tensorflow, Microsoft Custom Vision and RedisAI.
Essentially, this will create two containers that are used in this project on your machine:
Finally, we need to create the blob storage account to store the analyzed images that are generated using RedisAI. To achieve this, create the container inside the blob storage with the name ‘droneimages.’
cd redisedge\secrets
Copy the connection string from the azure blob storage account and paste it on the ‘azureblobsecret’ file inside the folder.
Open your favorite terminal and run the following commands.
On the first tab run the command below and change the level arguments as 1, 2 and 3 to be able to initiate different levels of the game.
python flyDrone.py –level=1
This will initialize the drone and place it into ‘waiting to take off’ mode.
On the second tab run the command below. This will listen to the inspection carried out by Redis Streams. Data is entered from the front end whenever the inspection is triggered.
python captureImagesFromDrone.py –level=1
Once the data arrives on Redis Streams, the drone will take off and start to capture images. These are then processed and analyzed by RedisAI using Tensorflow.
Note: After changing the level of the game on the Unreal Editor as mentioned, run the above two scripts on a different terminal once again and close the existing ones.
Below are the output images generated by RedisAI.
| Cultivated land with others category | High quality with low quality category |
 |  |
Infertile land category | Others category |
 |  |
6. How to set up the Backend
The backend system is built using microservices that are divided into different entities such as :
These microservices are built using the Java Spring Boot framework, which, in-turn, uses Redis, RedisJSON, and RediSearch. The backend API will perform all the inspection of data. Based on this data, sum assured and premium gets calculated and passed to the frontend app.
7. How to set up the Frontend
Let’s examine the code which will help you create a public app that can be accessed by a crop insurer.
Note: Need Node Version 14+
git clone https://github.com/redis-developer/CropInsurer
npm i -g yarn
yarn install
yarn start
Username: admin@gmail.com
Password: admin
Below are screenshots of the application.
Conclusion: Removing barriers with real-time data
Through the advanced capabilities of Redis, this Launchpad App created a powerful drone system which enables crop insurers to scan, monitor, and assess the quality of farm yields from their office. Yet the real asset that brought the project’s ambitions to life was Redis’ ability to provide real-time data.
Transmitting data from A to B at such speed enables the components to work seamlessly with each other in a system that has a complex architecture. Crop insurers can now carry out accurate crop-quality assessments whilst ensuring a more transparent claims process.
To discover more about this innovative project, check out the full app on the Launchpad.
Also, make sure to have a browse around the exciting range of applications that we have there.
Piyush Jain
Piyush has over 16 years worth of experience in software development and currently works as a solution architect at Publicis Sapient. Make sure to check out his GitHub profile to see all of his exciting work.
