Document Type
Journal Article
Publisher
Elsevier
Faculty
Faculty of Health, Engineering and Science
School
School of Engineering
RAS ID
21557
Abstract
An advanced, proof-of-concept real-time plant discrimination system is presented that employs two visible (red) laser diodes (635. nm, 685. nm) and one near-infrared (NIR) laser diode (785. nm). The lasers sequentially illuminate the target ground area and a linear sensor array measures the intensities of the reflected laser beams. The spectral reflectance measurements are then processed by an embedded microcontroller running a discrimination algorithm based on dual Normalised Difference Vegetation Indices (NDVI). Pre-determined plant spectral signatures are used to define unique regions-of-classification for use by the discrimination algorithm. Measured aggregated NDVI values that fall within a region-of-classification (RoC) representing an unwanted plant generate a spray control signal that activates an external spray module, thus allowing for a targeted spraying operation. Dynamic outdoor evaluation of the advanced, proof-of-concept real-time plant discrimination system, using three different plant species and control data determined under static laboratory conditions, shows that the system can perform green-from-green plant detection and accomplish practical discrimination for a vehicle speed of 3. km/h.
DOI
10.1016/j.compag.2015.07.011
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Comments
Symonds, P., Paap, A., Alameh, K., Rowe, J., & Miller, C. (2015). A real-time plant discrimination system utilising discrete reflectance spectroscopy. Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, 117, 57-69. Available here