The biggest challenge is riding the wave of a new industry.
The term drone tends to have a negative connotation, often associated with military action or invasions of privacy. Grand Forks, N.D.-based Field of View is helping change those connotations through their work with aerial mapping and imaging. The small business engineers and sells hardware and software, and provides expertise to help people perform aerial mapping, primarily focusing on precision agriculture, an increasingly hot topic in the farming industry. Through the use of aerial imaging and mapping, farmers can identify stressed spots and fine-tune their application of fertilizer and chemicals – therefore increasing yields, lowering costs and reducing environmental impact.
Field of View’s founder, David Dvorak, was an engineering student at the University of North Dakota (UND) when he started his company part-time. Grand Forks happens to be a hub of activity in the field of Unmanned Aircraft Systems and precision agriculture, and Dvorak got an early start in an industry that is now gaining speed. Today, Field of View is a small company, consisting of Dvorak and Kaci Lemler, a fellow engineer and former UND classmate. Co-owner, Danny Hajicek, also a former UND engineering classmate, is based in California and does Field of View’s circuit and software design.
For Dvorak, the biggest challenge is the ever-changing nature of this new industry, due to regular advancements in technology. “I had visions of how the industry would evolve back in 2010, and it seems like every three to six months I have to revise that vision.” Dvorak has evolved his company with the industry and now focuses on helping others avoid making the same mistakes he did, sharing insights and learnings in what he sees as more of a collaborative environment.
As for Field of View, Dvorak hopes to ramp up operations and advance their product line. “There are more and more articles coming out that highlight the positive uses of drones, such as agricultural mapping, and I think it’s becoming less of a dirty word.”
Photos by Shaul Schwarz
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David Dvorak and Kaci Lemler at Field of View’s Grand Forks, N.D. office. Owner Dvorak hopes to ramp up operations at the small business and hire more employees in the near future.
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David Dvorak tests a Field of View camera system on a drone. While some prefer not to use the term drone due to negative connotations, Dvorak says he has embraced it, and thinks that more people are starting to understand the positive uses of drones.
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Kaci Lemler and David Dvorak test their camera systems by attaching them to a drone. They run test flights to ensure the camera systems are working properly, and analyze how well they are able to detect plant stress.
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David Dvorak and Kaci Lemler work with an Unmanned Aircraft System, also referred to as a drone.
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David Dvorak, owner of Field of View, says he always wanted to design airplanes and work on aerospace projects. His father was a photo interpreter in the Air Force and then a land surveyor, and Dvorak says, “I guess mapping and looking at aerial photos is in the blood.”
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David Dvorak founded Field of View in 2010. The small business originally began with the intent to perform aerial mapping services for farmers, but over time began to develop their own technology. Their flagship product, the GeoSnap system, is a camera add-on that triggers cameras and correlates GPS position and attitude information with the images to streamline the mapping process.
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Engineer Kaci Lemler is David Dvorak’s only employee, and he credits her with being the “Jill-of-all-trades”, who keeps things running while he focuses on business development.
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Through the use of aerial mapping, farmers can capture images of crops and identify areas of plant stress, allowing them to target specific areas for fertilization and chemical application. Not only does it help the farmers increase their yield, but it decreases the amount of chemicals they use by fine-tuning their application.
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The University of North Dakota, where Field of View founder David Dvorak studied engineering, is a hub of activity for Unmanned Aircraft Systems and precision agriculture, which is becoming a hot topic in the farming industry.
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Kaci Lemler and David Dvorak test one of their unmanned aircraft systems. Field of View provides hardware, software and expertise for people who need help with agricultural aerial mapping.
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David Dvorak, founder of Field of View, and Kaci Lemler. The two engineers met in college and are the sole full-time employees at the Grand Forks, N.D. small business.
