A consortium to promote sustainable land use practices that are environmentally friendly, socially beneficial, and economically viable by using drones to survey, then precision spraying with Paludiculture.
Project Overview
Drone RePeat explored how heavy-lift drones operating Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) can support peatland restoration and paludiculture — farming on rewetted peat by enabling sowing, monitoring, and management across waterlogged or sensitive terrain. The project showed how autonomous aerial systems can achieve outcomes otherwise impossible, while also serving as a technical testbed and systems-learning platform for future large-scale environmental operations.
Starting Point and Aims
Traditionally, UK Paludiculture activity relied on manual seed broadcasting with vehicles, constrained to a few accessible hectares. Drone RePeat provides:
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Agronomic viability — species such as Typha latifolia can be sown and established by air
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Operational credibility — low-altitude BVLOS flight can be made demonstrably safe; and
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Economic realism — automated delivery can cut costs and carbon while widening participation for landowners.
Field Trials and Technical Learning
Two test sites in Greater Manchester (M44 5LR and M30 7RW) provided realistic rewetted peat conditions for drone-based sowing trials. The XAG P100 drone delivered up to 40 kg of seed or liquid (hydrogel or clay pellets), covering five hectares per hour.
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Year one results showed hydrogel worked best in shallow water, while pellets performed better in deeper water.
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Improved formulations in Year two boosted success rates, with water depth and temperature emerging as key factors—leading to a new sowing-window model which is currently being tested.
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These trials demonstrate that paludiculture can be efficient, safe, and economically viable, making it a practical option for landowners.
Aviation and regulatory milestone
One of Drone RePeat’s achievements was securing a CAA Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) Operational Authorisation in March 2025. It is the first of its kind for agricultural work in the UK within an Atypical Air Environment (AAE).
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The approval covered low-level operations (< 20 m AGL) using the 120 kg XAG platform at Little Woolden Moss. This authorisation moves the programme from isolated trials to a position of repeatable, insurable flight operations.
Between 2023 and 2025, the project seeded or re-seeded around 7–8 hectares of UK wetland—over half of all drone-sown plots under active PEF monitoring. Based on Natural England baselines, each restored hectare is estimated to prevent about 0.6 tonnes of COâ‚‚e annually, totalling nearly five tonnes over a decade, while also avoiding emissions from conventional machinery.
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These tangible environmental and operational benefits have sparked interest among farmers and partners, reflecting growing confidence in drone-enabled paludiculture.
Phase 2: Extension Project – 2025/26
Scatter pattern of pellets hitting the water
Environmental and Socio-Economic Impact
The PEF+ extension marks a shift from demonstration to quantification. Work now concentrates on:
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Statistical validation of establishment rates using multispectral imagery and AI classification.
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Developing understanding of the optimum sowing conditions and formulation for a range of Paludiculture crops.
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Hyperspectral detection of vegetation health and early-stage biodiversity signals.
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AAE sandbox participation, providing CAA with real-world data for risk-model calibration.
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A public BVLOS Demonstration Day attended by representatives from the CAA and ARPAS-UK
— providing live evidence of safe extended-range operations and acted as a handover point to other PEF-funded teams preparing their own air-integration pathways.
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Conclusions and Recommendations​
Drone RePeat has demonstrated that Paludiculture can scale if the approach includes ecosystem restoration and aviation-safety engineering. The key lessons are:
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Integration over invention: Adapting existing agri-drone platforms delivered faster progress than bespoke builds.
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Early regulator engagement: Continuous dialogue with the CAA helped expedite approval and reduce overall processing time.
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Evidence before expansion: Quantifying germination, establishment, and ROI is essential before committing to national rollout.
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Data governance matters: Project data is within the consortium’s secure storage systems, ensuring research integrity and compliance with UK data-management requirements
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Social licence is earned: Local engagement and visible environmental benefit outweighed any initial scepticism.
The coming year will focus on embedding these insights within the Paludiculture Exploration Fund (PEF+) legacy programme and sharing practical guidance with Natural England and DEFRA to inform future land-management and restoration policy. The consortium’s methods and datasets will remain available to other PEF partners and research teams to support wider national adoption of drone-enabled restoration.
Location
Southwest based lowland peat. Strategic landowners will cover Cornwall, Devon, Somerset and Gloucestershire through farm and landowner partnerships using the DronePrep Platform and insights from UKRI Future of Flight - Open Skies Cornwall.
However we are an unusual project in that we are location agnostic and can support other PEF projects and actively look forward to doing so.
Project partners
AutoSpray Systems -
They are currently the only UK company permitted to use drones for spraying and spreading purposes, achieving the technological and legislative requirements for Agricultural / Forestry and Horticultural uses.
AutoSpray Systems are experts in uncrewed aviation and their use in traditional agriculture. Bringing together this expertise into Paludiculture not only allows the aerial application of seeds / spores / fertilisers / nutrients but also works towards the UK wide scalability of this farming technique.
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Project Manager(s): Aleks Kowalski
Mobile: +44 7971 447407
Project Manager(s): Andy Sproson
Mobile: +44 7725 002795
Email: Dronerepeat@autospraysystems.com
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DronePrep -
Architects of the first real world drone deliveries in England and Scotland for the NHS and Royal Mail and securing the associated safety cases, land ownership and airspace approvals. DronePrep current lead the Future Flight Challenge Open Skies Cornwall project in Cornwall in 2023/4. Their founder has previously been engaged in Agricultural projects around Hartpury and will be focussing on the landowner management and marketing this unique value proposition.
Aerofirm -
World-leading safety case expert around drone operations and BVLOS. Development of scalable extensible sensor-based components for remote sensor data collection – providing a quantitative data output. Supported by Skypointe with Project Management and the Business case.