The Navy is hoping to run its fleets on biofuels and has invested millions into cultivating suitable crops and technologies in Hawaii. 

But it’s been a bumpy road for the local biofuel industry, which has yet to achieve commercial success.

A robotic helicopter may help — the Navy is using it to track crops in Maui, according to Wired.

The experiment is taking place over 35,000 acres of Maui soil, on the fields of Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar, the state’s largest commercial sugar plantation. That’s the site of a $10 million, five-year gamble to test which of plantation’s crops might work as grow-your-jetfuel. The drone helicopter will track every temperature fluctuation and sprouting bud emerging into the Hawaiian sun.

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