Development of an Integration Sensor and Instrumentation System for Measuring Crop Conditions

Abstract

Precision agriculture requires reliable technology to acquire accurate information on crop conditions. Based on this information, the amount of fertilizers and pesticides for the site-specific crop management can be optimized. A ground-based integrated sensor and instrumentation system was developed to measure real-time crop conditions including Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), biomass, crop canopy structure, and crop height. Individual sensor components has been calibrated and tested under laboratory and field conditions prior to system integration. The integration system included crop height sensor, crop canopy analyzer for leaf area index, NDVI sensor, multispectral camera, and hyperspectroradiometer. The system was interfaced with a DGPS receiver to provide spatial coordinates for sensor readings. The results show that the integration sensor and instrumentation system supports multi-source information acquisition and management in the farming field.