Strategy for the development of a smart NDVI camera system for outdoor plant detection and agricultural embedded systems

The application of (smart) cameras for process control, mapping, and advanced imaging in agriculture has become an element of precision farming that facilitates the conservation of fertilizer, pesticides, and machine time. This technique additionally reduces the amount of energy required in terms of fuel. Although research activities have increased in this field, high camera prices reflect low adaptation to applications in all fields of agriculture. Smart, low-cost cameras adapted for agricultural applications can overcome this drawback. The normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) for each image pixel is an applicable algorithm to discriminate plant information from the soil background enabled by a large difference in the reflectance between the near infrared (NIR) and the red channel optical frequency band. Two aligned charge coupled device (CCD) chips for the red and NIR channel are typically used, but they are expensive because of the precise optical alignment required. Therefore, much attention has been given to the development of alternative camera designs. In this study, the advantage of a smart one-chip camera design with NDVI image performance is demonstrated in terms of low cost and simplified design. The required assembly and pixel modifications are described, and new algorithms for establishing an enhanced NDVI image quality for data processing are discussed

Towards autonomous mapping in agriculture: A review of supportive technologies for ground robotics

This paper surveys the supportive technologies currently available for ground mobile robots used for autonomous mapping in agriculture. Unlike previous reviews, we describe state-of-the-art approaches and technologies aimed at extracting information from agricultural environments, not only for navigation purposes but especially for mapping and monitoring. The state-of-the-art platforms and sensors, the modern localization techniques, the navigation and path planning approaches, as well as the potentialities of artificial intelligence towards autonomous mapping in agriculture are analyzed. According to the findings of this review, many examples of recent mobile robots provide full navigation and autonomous mapping capability. Significant resources are currently devoted to this research area, in order to further improve mobile robot capabilities in this complex and challenging field

Sensors in agriculture and forestry

Agriculture and Forestry are two broad and promising areas demanding technological solutions with the aim of increasing production or accurate inventories for sustainability while the environmental impact is minimized by reducing the application of agro-chemicals and increasing the use of environmental friendly agronomical practices. In addition, the immediate consequence of this “trend” is the reduction of production costs. Sensors-based technologies provide appropriate tools to achieve the above mentioned goals. The explosive technological advances and development in recent years enormously facilitates the attainment of these objectives removing many barriers for their implementation, including the reservations expressed by the farmers themselves. Precision Agriculture is an emerging area where sensor-based technologies play an important role.RHEA project [42], which is funded by the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under Grant Agreement NO.245986, which has been the platform for the two international conferences on Robotics and associated High-technologies and Equipment mentioned above.Peer Reviewe

A Review of the Challenges of Using Deep Learning Algorithms to Support Decision-Making in Agricultural Activities

Deep Learning has been successfully applied to image recognition, speech recognition, and natural language processing in recent years. Therefore, there has been an incentive to apply it in other fields as well. The field of agriculture is one of the most important fields in which the application of deep learning still needs to be explored, as it has a direct impact on human well-being. In particular, there is a need to explore how deep learning models can be used as a tool for optimal planting, land use, yield improvement, production/disease/pest control, and other activities. The vast amount of data received from sensors in smart farms makes it possible to use deep learning as a model for decision-making in this field. In agriculture, no two environments are exactly alike, which makes testing, validating, and successfully implementing such technologies much more complex than in most other industries. This paper reviews some recent scientific developments in the field of deep learning that have been applied to agriculture, and highlights some challenges and potential solutions using deep learning algorithms in agriculture. The results in this paper indicate that by employing new methods from deep learning, higher performance in terms of accuracy and lower inference time can be achieved, and the models can be made useful in real-world applications. Finally, some opportunities for future research in this area are suggested.This work is supported by the R&D Project BioDAgro—Sistema operacional inteligente de informação e suporte á decisão em AgroBiodiversidade, project PD20-00011, promoted by Fundação La Caixa and Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, taking place at the C-MAST-Centre for Mechanical and Aerospace Sciences and Technology, Department of Electromechanical Engineering of the University of Beira Interior, Covilhã, Portugal.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Fuzzy Contrast Improvement for Low Altitude Aerial Images

International audiencePrecision agriculture is becoming very important in improving food security. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have higher possibilities in this way, improving real time data gathered with aerial sensors. Fuzzy techniques have proved to be highly effective in managing vagueness and ambiguity. The unmanned helicopters are highly valuable due to the level of maneuverability that they possess. We believe that many different degrees of autonomy and functionalities of UAVs will be useful in agriculture. We present a new process to extract data from aerial images that comes from low altitude UAVs. We combined NDVI algorithm output with the RSWHE-M method on grey scaled images. Primary results show that our method extracts images that are visually acceptable to human eye and have a natural appearance

Sensors Application in Agriculture

Novel technologies are playing an important role in the development of crop and livestock farming and have the potential to be the key drivers of sustainable intensification of agricultural systems. In particular, new sensors are now available with reduced dimensions, reduced costs, and increased performances, which can be implemented and integrated in production systems, providing more data and eventually an increase in information. It is of great importance to support the digital transformation, precision agriculture, and smart farming, and to eventually allow a revolution in the way food is produced. In order to exploit these results, authoritative studies from the research world are still needed to support the development and implementation of new solutions and best practices. This Special Issue is aimed at bringing together recent developments related to novel sensors and their proved or potential applications in agriculture

Ag-IoT for crop and environment monitoring: Past, present, and future

CONTEXT: Automated monitoring of the soil-plant-atmospheric continuum at a high spatiotemporal resolution is a key to transform the labor-intensive, experience-based decision making to an automatic, data-driven approach in agricultural production. Growers could make better management decisions by leveraging the real-time field data while researchers could utilize these data to answer key scientific questions. Traditionally, data collection in agricultural fields, which largely relies on human labor, can only generate limited numbers of data points with low resolution and accuracy. During the last two decades, crop monitoring has drastically evolved with the advancement of modern sensing technologies. Most importantly, the introduction of IoT (Internet of Things) into crop, soil, and microclimate sensing has transformed crop monitoring into a quantitative and data-driven work from a qualitative and experience-based task. OBJECTIVE: Ag-IoT systems enable a data pipeline for modern agriculture that includes data collection, transmission, storage, visualization, analysis, and decision-making. This review serves as a technical guide for Ag-IoT system design and development for crop, soil, and microclimate monitoring. METHODS: It highlighted Ag-IoT platforms presented in 115 academic publications between 2011 and 2021 worldwide. These publications were analyzed based on the types of sensors and actuators used, main control boards, types of farming, crops observed, communication technologies and protocols, power supplies, and energy storage used in Ag-IoT platforms

Vegetationserkennung für landwirtschaftliche Anwendungen mithilfe einer Ein-Chip-Kamera

Durch die Anwendung von Kameras bei der Prozesskontrolle in der Präzisionslandwirtschaft können Dünger, Pestizide, Maschinenzeit und Treibstoff eingespart werden. Trotz der hohen Forschungsaktivitäten auf diesem Gebiet verhindern hohe Preise für geeignete Kamerasysteme die Anwendung in allen Bereichen der Landwirtschaft. Intelligente und kostengünstige Kameras, die für landwirtschaftliche Anwendungen angepasst werden, können diesen Nachteil überwinden. Der normalisierte differenzierte Vegetationsindex (NDVI) ist ein Algorithmus in der Bildanalyse zur Trennung von Pflanze und Boden (Hintergrund) und wird in der hier vorgestellten Untersuchung bei einer kostengünstigen Ein-Chip-Kamera implementiert und angepasst.The application of (smart) cameras for process control as an element of precision farming saves fertilizer, pesticides, machine time and fuel. Although research activities have increased in this topic, high camera prices reflect low adaptation to applications in all fields of agriculture. Smart and low-cost cameras adapted to agricultural applications can overcome this drawback. The normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) is an applicable algorithm to discriminate between plant and soil information (background). In this study, the advantage of a smart one-chip camera design with an adapted algorithm for NDVI image performance is demonstrated in terms of low cost and simplified design

Agricultural Management through Wireless Sensors and Internet of Things

Agriculture plays a significant role in most countries and there is an enoromous need for this industry to become “Smart”. The Industry is now moving towards agricultural modernization by using modern smart technologies to find solutions for effective utilization of scarce resources there by meeting the ever increasing consumtion needs of global population. With the advent of Internet of Things and Digital transformation of rural areas, these technologies can be leveraged to remotely monitor soil moisture, crop growth and take preventive measures to detect crop damages and threats. Utilize artificial intelligence based analytics to quickly analyze operational data combined with 3rd party information, such as weather services, expert advises etc., to provide new insights and improved decision making there by enabling farmers to perform “Smart Agriculture”. Remote management of agricultural activities and their automation using new technologies is the area of focus for this research activity. A solar powered remote management and automation system for agricultural activities through wireless sensors and Internet of Things comprising, a hardware platform based on Raspberry Pi Micro controller configured to connect with a user device and accessed through the internet network. The data collection unit comprises a set of wireless sensors for sensing agricultural activities and collecting data related to agricultural parameters; the base station unit comprising: a data logger; a server; and a software application for processing, collecting, and sending the data to the user device. The user device ex: mobile, tablet etc. can be connected to an internet network, whereby an application platform (mobile-app) installed in the user device facilitates in displaying a list of wireless sensor collected data using Internet of Things and a set of power buttons. This paper is a study and proposal paper which discusses the factors and studies that lead towards this patent pending invention, AGRIPI