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Posted March 2, 2017 by Fintan Corrigan
Multispectral imaging sensors on agricultural drones will allow the farmer manage crops
and soil more effectively. This multispectral imaging agriculture remote sensing
technology use Green, Red, Red-Edge and Near Infrared wavebands to capture both
visible and invisible images of crops and vegetation.
The multispectral images integrate with specialized software applications which output
the information into meaningful data. This land telemetry, soil and crop data allow the
farmer to monitor, plan and manage the farm more effectively saving time and money
along with reducing the use of pesticides.
In this article, we look at the basics of multispectral imaging technology, reflectance,
wavebands and vegetation indices along with how all this knowledge put together, gives
the farmer a full picture of the health of the soil and plants.
We also take a list and give information on the latest multispectral sensors and drones
for farming with a few videos along the way.
Identify pests, disease and weeds. Optimize pesticide usage and crop sprays
through early detection.
Provide data on soil fertility and refine fertilization by detecting nutrient
deficiencies. Help with land management and whether to take ground in or out of
production or rotate crops etc.
Count plants and determine population or spacing issues. Estimate crop yield.
Measure irrigation. Control crop irrigation by identifying areas where water stress
is suspected. Make land improvements such as install drainage systems and
waterways based on multispectral data.
View damage to crops from farm machinery and make necessary repairs or
replace problematic machinery.
Survey fencing and farm buildings.
Monitor livestock.
The DJI Phantom 4, Inspire 1 and 3DR Solo can also be adapted for the FLIR Vue
thermal sensor which can output terrific data used in precision farming.
The above drones are reviewed in the article on the latest top drones.
Vegetation Indices
Vegetation reflectance properties are used to derive vegetation indices (VIs). The
indices are used to analyze various ecologies. Vegetation Indices are constructed from
reflectance measurements in two or more wavelengths to analyze specific
characteristics of vegetation, such as total leaf area and water content.
Vegetation interacts with solar radiation differently from other natural materials, such as
soils and water bodies. The absorption and reflection of solar radiation is the result of
many interactions with different plant materials, which varies considerably by
wavelength.
Water, pigments, nutrients, and carbon are each expressed in the reflected optical
spectrum from 400 nm to 2500 nm, with often overlapping, but spectrally distinct,
reflectance behaviors. These known signatures allow scientists to combine reflectance
measurements at different wavelengths to enhance specific vegetation characteristics by
defining VIs.
More than 150 vegetation indexes have been published in scientific literature, but only a
small subset have substantial biophysical basis or have been systematically tested. Here
is a list of the
Multispectral Software Applications
Many precision farming and agricultural crop stress tools and applications are built
around VIs to give a complete solution which include processing, storage, presentation,
and analysis of multispectral data. More on the multispectral software applications
below.
Vegetation Spectrum
The reflectance properties of an object depend on the particular material and its physical
and chemical state (e.g. moisture), the surface roughness as well as the geometric
circumstances (e.g. incidence angle of the sunlight). The most important surface
features are color, structure and surface texture. The perceived color of an object
corresponds to the wavelength of the visible spectrum with the greatest reflectance.
These differences make it possible to identify different earth surface features or
materials by analyzing their spectral reflectance patterns or spectral signatures. These
signatures can be visualized in so called spectral reflectance curves as a function of
wavelengths.
The below diagram show typical spectral reflectance curves of three basic types of Earth
features: green vegetation, dry bare soil and clear water. Green, Red, and Infrared are
the main ones used in agriculture. The Red Edge (short band corresponding to the Near
Infrared entry point) is also sometimes used for obtaining additional indices.
The vegetation spectrum image is from Markelowitz with further details and explanations
regarding the reflectance and vegetation wavebands below.
Vegetation Curve
The spectral reflectance curve of healthy green vegetation has a significant minimum of
reflectance in the visible portion of the electromagnetic spectrum resulting from the
pigments in plant leaves. Healthy vegetation will absorb in both the blue and red bands,
giving rise to what is called the green bump of healthy vegetation.
Reflectance increases dramatically in the near infrared. Stressed vegetation can also be
detected because stressed vegetation has a significantly lower reflectance in the
infrared.
Soil Curve
The spectral reflectance curve of bare soil is considerably less variable. The reflectance
curve is affected by moisture content, soil texture, surface roughness, presence of iron
oxide and organic matter. These factors are less dominant than the absorbance features
observed in vegetation reflectance spectra.
Water Curve
The water curve is characterized by a high absorption at near infrared wavelengths
range and beyond. Because of this absorption property, water bodies as well as features
containing water can easily be detected, located and delineated with remote sensing
data. Turbid water has a higher reflectance in the visible region than clear water. This is
also true for waters containing high chlorophyll concentrations. These reflectance
patterns are used to detect algae colonies.
Red
Corresponds to the reflected energy in the 600700 nm spectral band. The strong
chlorophyll absorption in this band results in a low reflectance. Reflectance varies
significantly in relation to factors such as biomass, LAI, soil history, crop type, humidity
and plant stress. For most crops this band gives an excellent contrast between the
plants and the soil and it is extensively used for compiling most of the vegetation indices
in agriculture.
Red Edge
This a very narrow band (700730 nm) that corresponds to the entry point of Near
Infrared. It is the point of sudden change in reflectance, from strong absorption of Red to
substantial reflection of Near Infrared. This band is very sensitive to plant stress and
provides information on the chlorophy.
NIR (Near-Infrared)
Corresponds to the wavelengths in the 700 nm to 1.3 m range, has the strongest
reflectance of the bands studied. There is a very strong correlation between this
reflectance and the level of chlorophyll in the plant. A highly significant variation of the
reflectance in this band is produced when a plant is under stress. Along with the Red
spectral band, infrared is extensively used for compiling most of the vegetation indices in
agriculture
NIR is sensitive to the leaf cellular structure and provides critical data to monitor
changes in crop health.
Healthy vegetation absorbs blue and red-light energy to fuel photosynthesis and create
chlorophyll. A plant with more chlorophyll will reflect more near-infrared energy than an
unhealthy plant. Thus, analyzing a plants spectrum of both absorption and reflection in
visible and in infrared wavelengths can provide information about the plants health and
productivity.
Thermal Infrared
Thermal infrared radiation is the part of electromagnetic spectrum which has a
wavelength of between 3.0 and 20 micrometers. Most remote sensing applications make
use of the 8 to 13 micrometer range. The main difference between thermal infrared and
the infrared (color infrared CIR) is that thermal infrared is emitted energy that is sensed
digitally, whereas the near infrared (also called the photographic infrared) is reflected
energy.
Thermal imaging has been growing fast and playing an important role in various fields of
agriculture such as;
Nursery monitoring
Plant physiology analysis
Irrigation scheduling,
Soil salinity stress detection
Plant disease detection
Maturity evaluation
Bruise detection of fruits
Yield forecasting
ToF camera sensors can be used as a high precision reactive altimeters giving
extra flight stability to the drone while capturing Multispectral images
ToF 3D depth technology is excellent for measuring volumes. These camera
sensors can be used to measure stockpiles of manure and mulch for example
RGB (Red/Green/Blue)
Visible light is defined as having wavelengths in the range of 400 to 700 nm. In
agriculture, a quality drone with with an excellent gimbal and camera can be used
for visual farm inspections, elevation modeling and even plant counting.
This video gives further detail on multispectral mapping.
Easily integrates into virtually any system, including several DJI drone platforms
Low-distortion optics + global shutter technology ensure crisp, clear crop imagery
Captures data to create precise NDVI maps, providing users with a complete
crop health report card
Seamless data flow into AgVault allows imagery to be viewed at the field edge
and immediate action to be taken
Sentera Quad: This is the lightest in weight,
most compact and highest performance multispectral sensor available for drones today.
This advanced sensor has the capacity to recognize six specific bands of light, as well
as measure full-spectrum RGB to generate true color imagery. The Quad Sensor
provides deeper insights about crop health and vigor to the agriculture industry.
Sentera Double 4k Sensor: This agriculture Sensor is the smallest and lightest dual
sensor available today. It is also compatible with any drone. The Double 4K captures 12
megapixel high resolution images and features an enhanced processor which expedites
delivery of precise crop health images to popular stitching tools, including Pix4D
and Agisoft.
With increased image resolution and augmented processor speed, users will completely
satisfied with the crisp crop maps, with improved shapefiles and stitching.
Identify problem areas in a field that need attention and further scouting
Refine fertilization by detecting nutrient deficiencies symptoms
Optimize pesticide input through early detection of biotic stress
Control crop irrigation by identifying areas where water stress is suspected
Estimate crop yield by processing and exploiting agronomic indices
SenseFly ebee Ag
3DR Solo
DJI Phantom 3 / 4
DJI Inspire 1
Yuneec Typhoon H
RedEdge Drones
RedEdge is ready for integration with any drone. It comes with flexible interfaces
including Ethernet, serial, and PWM/GPIO trigger,
MicraSense is the best software solution to analyse data from the RedEdge multispectral
sensor. See below for more detail on MicraSense.