scholarly journals Applications of UAV Thermal Imagery in Precision Agriculture: State of the Art and Future Research Outlook

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (9) ◽  
pp. 1491 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gaetano Messina ◽  
Giuseppe Modica

Low-altitude remote sensing (RS) using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is a powerful tool in precision agriculture (PA). In that context, thermal RS has many potential uses. The surface temperature of plants changes rapidly under stress conditions, which makes thermal RS a useful tool for real-time detection of plant stress conditions. Current applications of UAV thermal RS include monitoring plant water stress, detecting plant diseases, assessing crop yield estimation, and plant phenotyping. However, the correct use and interpretation of thermal data are based on basic knowledge of the nature of thermal radiation. Therefore, aspects that are related to calibration and ground data collection, in which the use of reference panels is highly recommended, as well as data processing, must be carefully considered. This paper aims to review the state of the art of UAV thermal RS in agriculture, outlining an overview of the latest applications and providing a future research outlook.

Sensors ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 171
Author(s):  
Thomas Fahey ◽  
Hai Pham ◽  
Alessandro Gardi ◽  
Roberto Sabatini ◽  
Dario Stefanelli ◽  
...  

In agriculture, early detection of plant stresses is advantageous in preventing crop yield losses. Remote sensors are increasingly being utilized for crop health monitoring, offering non-destructive, spatialized detection and the quantification of plant diseases at various levels of measurement. Advances in sensor technologies have promoted the development of novel techniques for precision agriculture. As in situ techniques are surpassed by multispectral imaging, refinement of hyperspectral imaging and the promising emergence of light detection and ranging (LIDAR), remote sensing will define the future of biotic and abiotic plant stress detection, crop yield estimation and product quality. The added value of LIDAR-based systems stems from their greater flexibility in capturing data, high rate of data delivery and suitability for a high level of automation while overcoming the shortcomings of passive systems limited by atmospheric conditions, changes in light, viewing angle and canopy structure. In particular, a multi-sensor systems approach and associated data fusion techniques (i.e., blending LIDAR with existing electro-optical sensors) offer increased accuracy in plant disease detection by focusing on traditional optimal estimation and the adoption of artificial intelligence techniques for spatially and temporally distributed big data. When applied across different platforms (handheld, ground-based, airborne, ground/aerial robotic vehicles or satellites), these electro-optical sensors offer new avenues to predict and react to plant stress and disease. This review examines the key sensor characteristics, platform integration options and data analysis techniques recently proposed in the field of precision agriculture and highlights the key challenges and benefits of each concept towards informing future research in this very important and rapidly growing field.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vineeth N Balasubramanian ◽  
Wei Guo ◽  
Akshay L Chandra ◽  
Sai Vikas Desai

In light of growing challenges in agriculture with ever growing food demand across the world, efficient crop management techniques are necessary to increase crop yield. Precision agriculture techniques allow the stakeholders to make effective and customized crop management decisions based on data gathered from monitoring crop environments. Plant phenotyping techniques play a major role in accurate crop monitoring. Advancements in deep learning have made previously difficult phenotyping tasks possible. This survey aims to introduce the reader to the state of the art research in deep plant phenotyping.


2018 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
pp. 535-558 ◽  
Author(s):  
A.-K. Mahlein ◽  
M.T. Kuska ◽  
J. Behmann ◽  
G. Polder ◽  
A. Walter

Plant disease detection represents a tremendous challenge for research and practical applications. Visual assessment by human raters is time-consuming, expensive, and error prone. Disease rating and plant protection need new and innovative techniques to address forthcoming challenges and trends in agricultural production that require more precision than ever before. Within this context, hyperspectral sensors and imaging techniques—intrinsically tied to efficient data analysis approaches—have shown an enormous potential to provide new insights into plant-pathogen interactions and for the detection of plant diseases. This article provides an overview of hyperspectral sensors and imaging technologies for assessing compatible and incompatible plant-pathogen interactions. Within the progress of digital technologies, the vision, which is increasingly discussed in the society and industry, includes smart and intuitive solutions for assessing plant features in plant phenotyping or for making decisions on plant protection measures in the context of precision agriculture.


Plant Disease ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 100 (2) ◽  
pp. 241-251 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne-Katrin Mahlein

Early and accurate detection and diagnosis of plant diseases are key factors in plant production and the reduction of both qualitative and quantitative losses in crop yield. Optical techniques, such as RGB imaging, multi- and hyperspectral sensors, thermography, or chlorophyll fluorescence, have proven their potential in automated, objective, and reproducible detection systems for the identification and quantification of plant diseases at early time points in epidemics. Recently, 3D scanning has also been added as an optical analysis that supplies additional information on crop plant vitality. Different platforms from proximal to remote sensing are available for multiscale monitoring of single crop organs or entire fields. Accurate and reliable detection of diseases is facilitated by highly sophisticated and innovative methods of data analysis that lead to new insights derived from sensor data for complex plant-pathogen systems. Nondestructive, sensor-based methods support and expand upon visual and/or molecular approaches to plant disease assessment. The most relevant areas of application of sensor-based analyses are precision agriculture and plant phenotyping.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu Jiang ◽  
Changying Li

Plant phenotyping has been recognized as a bottleneck for improving the efficiency of breeding programs, understanding plant-environment interactions, and managing agricultural systems. In the past five years, imaging approaches have shown great potential for high-throughput plant phenotyping, resulting in more attention paid to imaging-based plant phenotyping. With this increased amount of image data, it has become urgent to develop robust analytical tools that can extract phenotypic traits accurately and rapidly. The goal of this review is to provide a comprehensive overview of the latest studies using deep convolutional neural networks (CNNs) in plant phenotyping applications. We specifically review the use of various CNN architecture for plant stress evaluation, plant development, and postharvest quality assessment. We systematically organize the studies based on technical developments resulting from imaging classification, object detection, and image segmentation, thereby identifying state-of-the-art solutions for certain phenotyping applications. Finally, we provide several directions for future research in the use of CNN architecture for plant phenotyping purposes.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 430-446 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zongmei Gao ◽  
Zhongwei Luo ◽  
Wen Zhang ◽  
Zhenzhen Lv ◽  
Yanlei Xu

Plant stress is one of major issues that cause significant economic loss for growers. The labor-intensive conventional methods for identifying the stressed plants constrain their applications. To address this issue, rapid methods are in urgent needs. Developments of advanced sensing and machine learning techniques trigger revolutions for precision agriculture based on deep learning and big data. In this paper, we reviewed the latest deep learning approaches pertinent to the image analysis of crop stress diagnosis. We compiled the current sensor tools and deep learning principles involved in plant stress phenotyping. In addition, we reviewed a variety of deep learning applications/functions with plant stress imaging, including classification, object detection, and segmentation, of which are closely intertwined. Furthermore, we summarized and discussed the current challenges and future development avenues in plant phenotyping.


Author(s):  
Muhammad Yousaf ◽  
Petr Bris

A systematic literature review (SLR) from 1991 to 2019 is carried out about EFQM (European Foundation for Quality Management) excellence model in this paper. The aim of the paper is to present state of the art in quantitative research on the EFQM excellence model that will guide future research lines in this field. The articles were searched with the help of six strings and these six strings were executed in three popular databases i.e. Scopus, Web of Science, and Science Direct. Around 584 peer-reviewed articles examined, which are directly linked with the subject of quantitative research on the EFQM excellence model. About 108 papers were chosen finally, then the purpose, data collection, conclusion, contributions, and type of quantitative of the selected papers are discussed and analyzed briefly in this study. Thus, this study identifies the focus areas of the researchers and knowledge gaps in empirical quantitative literature on the EFQM excellence model. This article also presents the lines of future research.


2021 ◽  
Vol 54 (7) ◽  
pp. 1-39
Author(s):  
Ankur Lohachab ◽  
Saurabh Garg ◽  
Byeong Kang ◽  
Muhammad Bilal Amin ◽  
Junmin Lee ◽  
...  

Unprecedented attention towards blockchain technology is serving as a game-changer in fostering the development of blockchain-enabled distinctive frameworks. However, fragmentation unleashed by its underlying concepts hinders different stakeholders from effectively utilizing blockchain-supported services, resulting in the obstruction of its wide-scale adoption. To explore synergies among the isolated frameworks requires comprehensively studying inter-blockchain communication approaches. These approaches broadly come under the umbrella of Blockchain Interoperability (BI) notion, as it can facilitate a novel paradigm of an integrated blockchain ecosystem that connects state-of-the-art disparate blockchains. Currently, there is a lack of studies that comprehensively review BI, which works as a stumbling block in its development. Therefore, this article aims to articulate potential of BI by reviewing it from diverse perspectives. Beginning with a glance of blockchain architecture fundamentals, this article discusses its associated platforms, taxonomy, and consensus mechanisms. Subsequently, it argues about BI’s requirement by exemplifying its potential opportunities and application areas. Concerning BI, an architecture seems to be a missing link. Hence, this article introduces a layered architecture for the effective development of protocols and methods for interoperable blockchains. Furthermore, this article proposes an in-depth BI research taxonomy and provides an insight into the state-of-the-art projects. Finally, it determines possible open challenges and future research in the domain.


Materials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (15) ◽  
pp. 4171
Author(s):  
Rabia Ikram ◽  
Badrul Mohamed Jan ◽  
Akhmal Sidek ◽  
George Kenanakis

An important aspect of hydrocarbon drilling is the usage of drilling fluids, which remove drill cuttings and stabilize the wellbore to provide better filtration. To stabilize these properties, several additives are used in drilling fluids that provide satisfactory rheological and filtration properties. However, commonly used additives are environmentally hazardous; when drilling fluids are disposed after drilling operations, they are discarded with the drill cuttings and additives into water sources and causes unwanted pollution. Therefore, these additives should be substituted with additives that are environmental friendly and provide superior performance. In this regard, biodegradable additives are required for future research. This review investigates the role of various bio-wastes as potential additives to be used in water-based drilling fluids. Furthermore, utilization of these waste-derived nanomaterials is summarized for rheology and lubricity tests. Finally, sufficient rheological and filtration examinations were carried out on water-based drilling fluids to evaluate the effect of wastes as additives on the performance of drilling fluids.


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