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Abstract
Developing an autonomous early warning system for detecting pest resurgence is an essential task to reduce the probabilities of massive Oriental fruit fly (Bactrocera dorsalis (Hendel)) outbreaks. By preventing pest outbreaks, farmers would be able to reduce their dependence on chemical pesticides. Chemical pesticide abuse often brings harmful consequences to human health and natural environments. Since an agroecological system can change at a fast rate due to the soil degradation and the environmental factors changes, the rise of pest density cannot ...
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| |
Abstract
This paper describes the design and testing of an airborne multispectral digital imaging system for remote sensing applications. The system consists of four high resolution charge coupled device (CCD) digital cameras and a ruggedized PC equipped with a frame grabber and image acquisition software. The cameras are sensitive in the 400 to 1000 nm spectral range and provide 2048 × 2048 active pixels with 12-bit data depth. A 24 mm lens is attached to each camera via an F to C mount adapter, resulting in ...
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Abstract
Southern highbush blueberries (Vaccinium corymbosum interspecific hybrids) are predominantly for the fresh market and, with a few exceptions, are hand harvested. Though mechanical harvesting systems are available for processed blueberries, low harvest efficiency and high fruit damage have limited their use for picking blueberries for fresh market. To improve the current machine harvester design, it is apparent that the interaction between the machine harvester and fruit should be well understood. The goal of this study was, therefore, to provide such an ...
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Abstract
A feedforward artificial neural network (ANN) was applied to predict the exergetic performance of a microencapsulation process via spray drying. The exergetic data was obtained from drying experiments conducted at different inlet drying air temperatures, aspirator rates (drying air flow rates), peristaltic pump rates (mass flow rates), and spraying air flow rates as inputs for ANN. A multilayer perceptron (MLP) ANN was utilized to correlate the output parameters (inlet exergy, outlet exergy, lost exergy, destructed exergy, entropy generation, exergy efficiency, and ...
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| |
Abstract
In order to adequately control water requirements for plants, it is necessary to perform continuous standardized meteorological conditions measurements from the largest possible number of points. This is possible by automated measurements which lead to an increase in the number of records and their immediate accessibility. Automatic stations provide a large amount of data; however, in comparison to standard stations, they do not obey the existing standard procedures. This particularly applies to the comparability of instruments and, to some extent, the ...
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Abstract
This paper presents a real-time, on-farm irrigation scheduling software (RIDECO). The software was been designed for stone fruit orchards in the semiarid conditions of Spain. The characterization of stone fruit crop water requirements for the local conditions and under different irrigation strategies is presented. Meteorological data in the study area is collected daily from the SIAR public network of weather stations in an automated fashion. Subsequently, values of cumulative degree-days are computed to identify the stages of fruit growth and crop ...
|
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Abstract
Complex simulation models are available to predict the level of exposure to bystanders and residents after a crop spraying event. In this paper we consider a particle-tracking spray drift model whose input parameters define particular scenarios of interest. Model outputs based on fixed values for these inputs ignore natural random variation and therefore give no indication of realistic variation in exposures, nor do they quantify the probability of rare extreme exposures. We describe a probabilistic modelling framework that allows the effect ...
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Abstract
The quantification of the plant phenotype via image analysis has the potential to objectively evaluate its growth and quality, and is compatible with databases which aim to combine phenotypic and genotypic data. The muskmelon epidermis netting is one of the most important phenotype traits, because it directly reflects fruit’s growth condition and directly relates to the commercial value of the product. Classical measures of muskmelon netting, including netting coverage rate, netting (non-netted, sparsely netted, partially netted and completely netted), and wrinkled ...
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Abstract
This paper introduces a real-time labor monitoring system (LMS) with the ability to track and record individual picker efficiency during manual harvest of specialty crops. This system utilizes existing commercial harvest equipment and integrates a digital weighing scale, RFID reader, computational unit, and a portable datalogger carried by pickers. The RFID reader, digital scale and computational unit are assembled on a common portable chassis. As pickers transfer fruit into a standard collection bin, the system reads the picker’s ID (RFID tag) ...
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Abstract
Avena fatua is an invasive weed of the semiarid region of Argentina. Seedling emergence patterns are very irregular along the season showing a great year-to-year variability mainly due to a highly unpredictable precipitation regime. Non-linear regression techniques are usually unable to accurately predict field emergence under such environmental conditions. Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) are known for their capacity to describe highly non-linear relationships among variables thus showing a high potential applicability in ecological systems. The objectives of the present work were ...
|
| |
Abstract
Meeting the demand for more food in the next 20–30 years requires intensifying cereal cropping systems and increasing current yields to about 70–80% of the genetic yield potential. A dynamic and robust nutrient management approach such as site-specific nutrient management (SSNM) will be essential to increase yields and optimize profits while maintaining the productivity of these intensive cropping systems. SSNM has increased yield and profit in rice, maize, and wheat in major cropping systems in Asia; but, crop advisors have found it ...
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Abstract
In this work, a numerical study of the gas–solid flow in an air-and-screen cleaning shoe is carried out by use of the combined Discrete Element Method (DEM) and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model where the motion of discrete particles phase is obtained by DEM which applies EDEM software and the flow of continuum fluid by the traditional CFD which solves the Navier–Stokes equations at a computational cell scale. The effect of inlet airflow velocity is studied and analyzed in terms of ...
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Abstract
Throughout 2009 and 2010, FutureDairy (Camden, NSW, Australia) was involved in testing a novel prototype robotic rotary (RR). The commercial version RR is expected to be capable of carrying out 90 milkings per hour. To achieve the high throughput the rotary rotates the cow to the cup attachment robot and then around the platform in a stop–start fashion. The robot does not remain with the cow during the entire milking process. When not all teat cups are attached during a milking ...
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Abstract
Computer vision technology is a sophisticated inspection technology that is in common use in various industries. However, it is not as widely used in aquaculture. Application of computer vision technologies in aquaculture, the scope of the present review, is very challenging. The inspected subjects are sensitive, easily stressed and free to move in an environment in which lighting, visibility and stability are generally not controllable, and the sensors must operate underwater or in a wet environment. The review describes the state ...
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Abstract
Remote diagnose of fish diseases for farmers is unrealized in China, but use of mobile phones and remote analysis based on image processing can be feasible due to the widespread use of mobile phones with camera features in rural areas. This paper presents a novel method of classifying species of fish based on color and texture features and using a multi-class support vector machine (MSVM). Fish images were acquired and sent by smartphone, and the method utilized was comprised of the ...
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Abstract
The usefulness of classifying the Alpaca wool samples according to their color, sex and location is associated with their economic value in the market, hence adequate methods for rapid classification are needed to assess the of wool value. This study evaluated the potential of the visible and near infrared (vis–NIR) spectroscopy combined with multivariate statistical analysis to classify Alpaca (Lama Pacos) fiber samples according to age (1 and 2–3-year-old), sex (Male and Female) and color (Black, Brown, LF and White). Samples ...
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Abstract
Using the correlation characteristic between the reference image may reduce transmission energy in wireless sensor networks. However, as crop images are usually captured periodically and the images are easily influenced by the peripheral environment during capture, transmitting the subtraction information of crop images may consume large amounts of energy. Moreover, sensor nodes should provide sufficiently accurate images for evaluating crop status according to the crop conditions. A compression scheme should be designed to compress the subtraction information and to ensure reconstruction ...
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Abstract
In this paper a low-level sensor fusion approach inspired by distributed decision making in swarms of social insects is proposed for application in agricultural machinery. In contrast to the state-of-the-art this approach is not dependent on a system or sensor model. Instead it rather employs a majority voting heuristic-based on the relative sensor distances. The ability to deal with very sparse system information and computational resources makes it ideally suited for on-board use in the agricultural domain. This is because it ...
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Abstract
Herbs have been widely used in food preparation, medicine and cosmetic industry. Knowing which herbs to be used would be very critical in these applications. Nevertheless, the current way of identification and determination of the types of herbs is still being done manually and prone to human error. Designing a convenient and automatic recognition system of herbs species is essential since this will improve herb species classification efficiency. This research focus on recognition approach to the shape and texture features of ...
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Abstract
Spatially explicit multi-year crop information is required for many environmental applications. The study presented here proposes a hierarchical classification approach for per-plot crop type identification that is based on spectral–temporal profiles and accounts for deviations from the average growth stage timings by incorporating agro-meteorological information in the classification process. It is based on the fact that each crop type has a distinct seasonal spectral behavior and that the weather may accelerate or delay crop development. The classification approach was applied to ...
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Abstract
Cabbage caterpillar infestation of oilseed rape will leave wormholes on leaves. The percentage of wormholes’ area on leaf is an effective index to evaluate infestation seriousness. Hyperspectral imaging technology can be used to extract leaf from non-vegetation objects efficiently. Wormhole reconstruction can then be carried out for counting the wormholes’ area. The reconstruction of wormholes that are entirely within the leaf contour can be easily processed by holes filling function. However, it is difficult to process wormholes at the edge of ...
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Abstract
Crop models are used to predict yield and resource requirements as well as to evaluate different climate or management scenarios at a specific site. However, problems involving land use or global climate change encompass larger, more diverse, spatial scales and would benefit from simulating over broader areas using high-resolution, spatially-distributed data. A geospatial interface was developed to combine the explanatory potato crop model SPUDSIM with the geographic information system (GIS) software ArcGIS using the scripting language Python. Multiple geospatial input data ...
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Abstract
A modified version of the widely used CERES-Wheat phenology model (CWm) was developed introducing variable thermal time from double ridge stage to flag leaf emergence and compared with the original model (CW V3.x). Both model versions were newly implemented and calibrated using routinely collected field ratings of phenological stages of winter wheat crops. Calibration for all parameters of both model versions was done using a step by step procedure thereby using different methods for parameter identification. For calibration and validation of ...
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Abstract
Lodging is one of the major factors contributing to crop yield and quality reduction. However, the current method for lodging rate evaluation (visual rating) lacks quantitativeness, objectivity, and precision. We have designed a low-cost, simple photogrammetric method to circumvent this problem. The efficiency of the method was evaluated in a field cultivated with a lodging-resistant variety and a standard variety of buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum Moench). Aerial images of the plant were acquired with a compact digital camera hung under a small ...
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Abstract
Wheat flour undergoes several processing steps in its transformation from raw wheat in the mill, which differentiates wheat flour from other farm products. At each step, various wheat sources are combined into one batch of wheat flour. This study primarily aimed to develop a Wheat Flour Milling Traceability System (WFMTS), incorporating 2D barcode and radio frequency identification (RFID) technology, and to validate the system in a wheat flour mill in China. We designed the encoding rules for the raw material, processing ...
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Abstract
This study evaluates the potential of terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) to assess the solid wood volume (i.e., stem and branch diameters of more than 7 cm) of adult standing trees in the forest environment. The solid wood volume of 42 trees of different species and size classes was investigated under leafless conditions, both by manual destructive field measurements and by TLS. The trees were first digitised by TLS using a protocol developed to provide fine-scale sampling of trees within acceptable scanning time. ...
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Abstract
Spatial–temporal modelling of environmental systems such as agriculture, forestry, and water resources requires high resolution input data. Assembling and summarizing this data in the appropriate format for model input often requires a series of spatial analyses which can be extremely time-consuming, especially when many large data sets are involved. In this paper we investigated the ability of high-performance computing techniques to improve the efficiency of spatial analysis for model data assembly. We implemented an array-based algorithm to calculate summary statistics for ...
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Abstract
This study aimed to develop an imaging system for monitoring and analyzing the in-and-out activity of honey bees as they pass through the entrance of a beehive. As such, the daily in-and-out activity of a beehive could be automatically recorded with minimum interference with the regular behavior of the bees. The components of the imaging system include: (1) an infrared LED light source; (2) an infrared CCD camera and a personal computer for image acquisition and processing; and (3) an acrylic ...
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Abstract
Insect identification and classification is time-consuming work requiring expert knowledge for integrated pest management in orchards. An image-based automated insect identification and classification method is described in the paper. The complete method includes three models. An invariant local feature model was built for insect identification and classification using affine invariant local features; a global feature model was built for insect identification and classification using 54 global features; and a hierarchical combination model was proposed based on local feature and global feature ...
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Abstract
It is critical to detect and identify obstacles for safe operation of robot tractors. This study focused on human detection using an omni-directional stereo vision (OSV). The Lucas–Kanade optical flow detection method was used to detect human in a panoramic image. A 3D panoramic image that was reconstructed from stereo rectified images using the sum of squared differences (SSDs) method was used to locate the position of a human. To evaluate the performance of the developed human detection method, two RTK-GPSs ...
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Abstract
We describe an improved ‘evaporation dome’ for measuring ground evaporation in forests. We reduced the size of the dome to ease transport through rugged terrain and replaced the data-logger, notebook computer and lead-acid battery with the hand-held data acquisition and analysis tool, the Vernier LabQuest. This evaporation dome is a significant improvement on previous instruments because of its light-weight, ease of transport and deployment and low power consumption. The Vernier LabQuest enables graphing of data in real time and allows the ...
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by Alexandros Kaloxylos, Robert Eigenmann, Frederick Teye, et al.Zoi Politopoulou, Sjaak Wolfert, Claudia Shrank, Markus Dillinger, Ioanna Lampropoulou, Eleni Antoniou, Liisa Pesonen, Huether Nicole, Floerchinger Thomas, Nancy Alonistioti, George Kormentzas
Abstract
Smart/precision farming systems are expected to play an important role in improving farming activities. During the past years, sophisticated farm management systems have emerged to replace outdated complex and monolithic farm systems and software tools. The latest trend is to enable these management systems to operate over the Internet. However, the Internet, in its current operation form, faces a number of shortcomings especially in handling vast numbers of networked devices (i.e., Internet of Things) or allowing a simplified integration of systems ...
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Abstract
Glyphosate is a non-selective, systemic herbicide highly toxic to sensitive plant species. Its use has seen a significant increase due to the increased adoption of genetically modified glyphosate-resistant crops since the mid-1990s. Glyphosate application for weed control in glyphosate-resistant crops can drift onto an off-target area, causing unwanted injury to non-glyphosate resistant plants. Thus, early detection of crop injury from off-target drift of herbicide is critical in crop production. In non-glyphosate-resistant plants, glyphosate causes a reduction in chlorophyll content and metabolic ...
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Abstract
The food sector is one of the most important sectors of the economy, encompassing agriculture, the food industry, retail, and eventually, all members of society as consumers. With its responsibility of serving consumers with food that is safe, readily available, affordable and of the quality and diversity consumers expect, the food sector needs to be efficient, to build on an appropriate organization and control of processes, and to provide assurance on the safety and quality of its products which consumers could ...
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Abstract
Hyperspectral scattering images between 600 nm and 1000 nm were acquired for 580 ‘Delicious’ apples for mealiness classification. A locally linear embedding (LLE) algorithm was developed to extract features directly from the hyperspectral scattering image data. Partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLSDA) and support vector machine (SVM) were applied to develop classification models based on the LLE, mean-LLE and mean spectra algorithms. The model based on the LLE algorithm achieved an overall classification accuracy of 80.4%, compared with 76.2% by the mean-LLE algorithm ...
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Abstract
Developing an autonomous early warning system for detecting pest resurgence is an essential task to reduce the probabilities of massive Oriental fruit fly (Bactrocera dorsalis (Hendel)) outbreaks. By preventing pest outbreaks, farmers would be able to reduce their dependence on chemical pesticides. Chemical pesticide abuse often brings harmful consequences to human health and natural environments. Since an agroecological system can change at a fast rate due to the soil degradation and the environmental factors changes, the rise of pest density cannot ...
|
| |
Abstract
This paper describes the design and testing of an airborne multispectral digital imaging system for remote sensing applications. The system consists of four high resolution charge coupled device (CCD) digital cameras and a ruggedized PC equipped with a frame grabber and image acquisition software. The cameras are sensitive in the 400 to 1000 nm spectral range and provide 2048 × 2048 active pixels with 12-bit data depth. A 24 mm lens is attached to each camera via an F to C mount adapter, resulting in ...
|
| |
Abstract
Southern highbush blueberries (Vaccinium corymbosum interspecific hybrids) are predominantly for the fresh market and, with a few exceptions, are hand harvested. Though mechanical harvesting systems are available for processed blueberries, low harvest efficiency and high fruit damage have limited their use for picking blueberries for fresh market. To improve the current machine harvester design, it is apparent that the interaction between the machine harvester and fruit should be well understood. The goal of this study was, therefore, to provide such an ...
|
| |
Abstract
A feedforward artificial neural network (ANN) was applied to predict the exergetic performance of a microencapsulation process via spray drying. The exergetic data was obtained from drying experiments conducted at different inlet drying air temperatures, aspirator rates (drying air flow rates), peristaltic pump rates (mass flow rates), and spraying air flow rates as inputs for ANN. A multilayer perceptron (MLP) ANN was utilized to correlate the output parameters (inlet exergy, outlet exergy, lost exergy, destructed exergy, entropy generation, exergy efficiency, and ...
|
| |
Abstract
In order to adequately control water requirements for plants, it is necessary to perform continuous standardized meteorological conditions measurements from the largest possible number of points. This is possible by automated measurements which lead to an increase in the number of records and their immediate accessibility. Automatic stations provide a large amount of data; however, in comparison to standard stations, they do not obey the existing standard procedures. This particularly applies to the comparability of instruments and, to some extent, the ...
|
| |
Abstract
This paper presents a real-time, on-farm irrigation scheduling software (RIDECO). The software was been designed for stone fruit orchards in the semiarid conditions of Spain. The characterization of stone fruit crop water requirements for the local conditions and under different irrigation strategies is presented. Meteorological data in the study area is collected daily from the SIAR public network of weather stations in an automated fashion. Subsequently, values of cumulative degree-days are computed to identify the stages of fruit growth and crop ...
|
| |
Abstract
Complex simulation models are available to predict the level of exposure to bystanders and residents after a crop spraying event. In this paper we consider a particle-tracking spray drift model whose input parameters define particular scenarios of interest. Model outputs based on fixed values for these inputs ignore natural random variation and therefore give no indication of realistic variation in exposures, nor do they quantify the probability of rare extreme exposures. We describe a probabilistic modelling framework that allows the effect ...
|
| |
Abstract
The quantification of the plant phenotype via image analysis has the potential to objectively evaluate its growth and quality, and is compatible with databases which aim to combine phenotypic and genotypic data. The muskmelon epidermis netting is one of the most important phenotype traits, because it directly reflects fruit’s growth condition and directly relates to the commercial value of the product. Classical measures of muskmelon netting, including netting coverage rate, netting (non-netted, sparsely netted, partially netted and completely netted), and wrinkled ...
|
| |
Abstract
This paper introduces a real-time labor monitoring system (LMS) with the ability to track and record individual picker efficiency during manual harvest of specialty crops. This system utilizes existing commercial harvest equipment and integrates a digital weighing scale, RFID reader, computational unit, and a portable datalogger carried by pickers. The RFID reader, digital scale and computational unit are assembled on a common portable chassis. As pickers transfer fruit into a standard collection bin, the system reads the picker’s ID (RFID tag) ...
|
| |
Abstract
Avena fatua is an invasive weed of the semiarid region of Argentina. Seedling emergence patterns are very irregular along the season showing a great year-to-year variability mainly due to a highly unpredictable precipitation regime. Non-linear regression techniques are usually unable to accurately predict field emergence under such environmental conditions. Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) are known for their capacity to describe highly non-linear relationships among variables thus showing a high potential applicability in ecological systems. The objectives of the present work were ...
|
| |
Abstract
Meeting the demand for more food in the next 20–30 years requires intensifying cereal cropping systems and increasing current yields to about 70–80% of the genetic yield potential. A dynamic and robust nutrient management approach such as site-specific nutrient management (SSNM) will be essential to increase yields and optimize profits while maintaining the productivity of these intensive cropping systems. SSNM has increased yield and profit in rice, maize, and wheat in major cropping systems in Asia; but, crop advisors have found it ...
|
| |
Abstract
In this work, a numerical study of the gas–solid flow in an air-and-screen cleaning shoe is carried out by use of the combined Discrete Element Method (DEM) and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model where the motion of discrete particles phase is obtained by DEM which applies EDEM software and the flow of continuum fluid by the traditional CFD which solves the Navier–Stokes equations at a computational cell scale. The effect of inlet airflow velocity is studied and analyzed in terms of ...
|
| |
Abstract
Throughout 2009 and 2010, FutureDairy (Camden, NSW, Australia) was involved in testing a novel prototype robotic rotary (RR). The commercial version RR is expected to be capable of carrying out 90 milkings per hour. To achieve the high throughput the rotary rotates the cow to the cup attachment robot and then around the platform in a stop–start fashion. The robot does not remain with the cow during the entire milking process. When not all teat cups are attached during a milking ...
|
| |
Abstract
Computer vision technology is a sophisticated inspection technology that is in common use in various industries. However, it is not as widely used in aquaculture. Application of computer vision technologies in aquaculture, the scope of the present review, is very challenging. The inspected subjects are sensitive, easily stressed and free to move in an environment in which lighting, visibility and stability are generally not controllable, and the sensors must operate underwater or in a wet environment. The review describes the state ...
|
| |
Abstract
Remote diagnose of fish diseases for farmers is unrealized in China, but use of mobile phones and remote analysis based on image processing can be feasible due to the widespread use of mobile phones with camera features in rural areas. This paper presents a novel method of classifying species of fish based on color and texture features and using a multi-class support vector machine (MSVM). Fish images were acquired and sent by smartphone, and the method utilized was comprised of the ...
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