Perspectives for Remote Sensing with Unmanned Aerial Vehicles in Precision Agriculture.

The use of remote imagery captured by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) has tremendous potential for designing detailed site-specific weed control treatments in early post-emergence, which have not possible previously with conventional airborne or satellite images. A robust and entirely automatic object-based image analysis (OBIA) procedure was developed on a series of UAV images using a six-band multispectral camera (visible and near-infrared range) with the ultimate objective of generating a weed map in an experimental maize field in Spain. The OBIA procedure combines several contextual, hierarchical and object-based features and consists of three consecutive phases: 1) classification of crop rows by application of a dynamic and auto-adaptive classification approach, 2) discrimination of crops and weeds on the basis of their relative positions with reference to the crop rows, and 3) generation of a weed infestation map in a grid structure. The estimation of weed coverage from the image analysis yielded satisfactory results. The relationship of estimated versus observed weed densities had a coefficient of determination of r2=0.89 and a root mean square error of 0.02. A map of three categories of weed coverage was produced with 86% of overall accuracy. In the experimental field, the area free of weeds was 23%, and the area with low weed coverage (<5% weeds) was 47%, which indicated a high potential for reducing herbicide application or other weed operations. The OBIA procedure computes multiple data and statistics derived from the classification outputs, which permits calculation of herbicide requirements and estimation of the overall cost of weed management operations in advance.

Weed Mapping in Early-Season Maize Fields Using Object-Based Analysis of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Images - eScholarship

Accurate and timely detection of weeds between and within crop rows in the early growth stage is considered one of the main challenges in site-specific weed management (SSWM). In this context, a robust and innovative automatic object-based image analysis (OBIA) algorithm was developed on Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) images to design early post-emergence prescription maps. This novel algorithm makes the major contribution. The OBIA algorithm combined Digital Surface Models (DSMs), orthomosaics and machine learning techniques (Random Forest, RF). OBIA-based plant heights were accurately estimated and used as a feature in the automatic sample selection by the RF classifier; this was the second research contribution. RF randomly selected a class balanced training set, obtained the optimum features values and classified the image, requiring no manual training, making this procedure time-efficient and more accurate, since it removes errors due to a subjective manual task. The ability to discriminate weeds was significantly affected by the imagery spatial resolution and weed density, making the use of higher spatial resolution images more suitable. Finally, prescription maps for in-season post-emergence SSWM were created based on the weed maps—the third research contribution—which could help farmers in decision-making to optimize crop management by rationalization of the herbicide application. The short time involved in the process (image capture and analysis) would allow timely weed control during critical periods, crucial for preventing yield loss.

An Automatic Random Forest-OBIA Algorithm for Early Weed Mapping between and within Crop Rows Using UAV Imagery

Remote sensing from unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) was expected to be an important new technology to assist farmers with precision agriculture, especially crop nutrient management. There a...

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/01431161.2017.1410300

What good are unmanned aircraft systems for agricultural remote sensing and precision agriculture

Feeding the growing global population requires an annual increase in food production. This requirement suggests an increase in the use of pesticides, which represents an unsustainable chemical load for the environment. To reduce pesticide input and preserve the environment while maintaining the necessary level of food production, the efficiency of relevant processes must be drastically improved. Within this context, this research strived to design, develop, test and assess a new generation of automatic and robotic systems for effective weed and pest control aimed at diminishing the use of agricultural chemical inputs, increasing crop quality and improving the health and safety of production operators. To achieve this overall objective, a fleet of heterogeneous ground and aerial robots was developed and equipped with innovative sensors, enhanced end-effectors and improved decision control algorithms to cover a large variety of agricultural situations. This article describes the scientific and technical objectives, challenges and outcomes achieved in three common crops.

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Fleets of robots for environmentally-safe pest control in agriculture

Site-specific weed management is defined as the application of customised control treatments only where weeds are located within the crop-field by using adequate herbicide according to weed emergence. The aim of the study was to generate georeferenced weed seedling infestation maps in two sunflower fields by analysing overlapping aerial images of the visible and near-infrared spectrum (using visible or multi-spectral cameras) collected by an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) flying at 30 and 60 m altitudes. The main tasks focused on the configuration and evaluation of the UAV and its sensors for image acquisition and ortho-mosaicking, as well as the development of an automatic and robust image analysis procedure for weed seedling mapping used to design a site-specific weed management program. The control strategy was based on seven weed thresholds with 2.5 steps of increasing ratio from 0 % (herbicide must be applied just when there is presence or absence of weed) to 15 % (herbicide applied when weed coverage >15 %). As a first step of the imagery analysis, sunflower rows were correctly matched to the ortho-mosaicked imagery, which allowed accurate image analysis using object-based image analysis [object-based-image-analysis (OBIA) methods]. The OBIA algorithm developed for weed seedling mapping with ortho-mosaicked imagery successfully classified the sunflower-rows with 100 % accuracy in both fields for all flight altitudes and camera types, indicating the computational and analytical robustness of OBIA. Regarding weed discrimination, high accuracies were observed using the multi-spectral camera at any flight altitude, with the highest (approximately 100 %) being those recorded for the 15 % weed threshold, although satisfactory results from 2.5 to 5 % thresholds were also observed, with accuracies higher than 85 % for both field 1 and field 2. The lowest accuracies (ranging from 50 to 60 %) were achieved with the visible camera at all flight altitudes and 0 % weed threshold. Herbicide savings were relevant in both fields, although they were higher in field 2 due to less weed infestation. These herbicide savings varied according to the different scenarios studied. For example, in field 2 and at 30 m flight altitude and using the multi-spectral camera, a range of 23–3 % of the field (i.e., 77 and 97 % of area) could be treated for 0–15 % weed thresholds. The OBIA procedure computed multiple data which permitted calculation of herbicide requirements for timely and site-specific post-emergence weed seedling management.

Fco.-Javier Mesas-Carrascosa

Papers

Early season weed mapping in sunflower using UAV technology: variability of herbicide treatment maps against weed thresholds