Automated spotting is a bit of a bandaid, but might prove more useful as this situation drags on. I've thought about those raspberry pi flight trackers, but I don't think you can get the data I'm looking for from from Mode C Transponders, which is what I assume the small guys use. I haven't looked into it too deeply. The optics needed for a visual system are daunting, (the area I need to watch is large, and planes are small and fast!) but might be possible. A radar solution might be possible as well. Based on my understanding of the technology I don't think this is the right application for an LLM, but perhaps more traditional algorithm coupled with a modification of the right-of-way rules would do the trick.

The drones I fly for scouting are on various premade flight plans. DroneDeploy.com offers a good application for mapping fields from 300' high, and FlyLitchi.com works well for custom paths (flying to one spot in the field, dropping down low to take a high resolution picture of the crop, then zipping back up and repeating several times.) I can't see much benefit to full AI control of the aircraft. The current mode of operation has them on preset "rails" with room for adapting to obstacles using ultrasonic sensors. I'd like some visual adaption capabilities, perhaps something to do with lidar and SLAM (Simultaneous localization and mapping), but my drones don't have these sensors, and the last time I looked into this a DIY solution was out of my wheelhouse.

I've only seen water trials of spray drones, but my understanding is the lower the better, within reason. depending on the vortices the aircraft generates the spray booms need to be about 4-6' off the canopy top, so ~15' total flight height. You can find a little bit of an overview here: https://sprayers101.com/drone-sprayers-are-we-ready/