Pa 09

Precision agriculture 09
Precision
agriculture
09
edited by:
E.J. van Henten, D. Goense and C. Lokhorst
Papers presented at the 7
th
European Conference on Precision Agriculture
Wageningen, the Netherlands
6-8 July 2009
Wageni ngen Academi c Wageni ngen Academi c
P u b l i s h e r s ss ee ss b P u b l i s h e r s P u b l i s h e r s P u b l i s h e r s
ISBN: 978-90-8686-113-2
e-ISBN: 978-90-8686-664-9
DOI: 10.3920/978-90-8686-664-9
Photo cover: Animal Sciences Group
WUR, the Netherlands
First published, 2009
Wageningen Academic Publishers
The Netherlands, 2009
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Precision agriculture 09 7
International Scientifc Committee for paper selection
Local Organizing Committee
Kees Lokhorst (chair)
Jan Huijsmans
Ramon de Louw
Yvonne van Hezik
Ingrid Luitse
Niek Botden
Mike Jacobs
Erwin van der Waal
Eldert van Henten
Daan Goense
Peter Groot Koerkamp
Arnold Bregt
Sjaak Wolfert
Jan-Erik Wien
Students Heeren XVII
European Program Committee for ECPA
Andras Fekete Hungary
Audun Korsaeth Norway
Daan Goense the Netherlands
Fanis Gemtos Greece
Gilbert Grenier France
Giles Rabatel France
Hannu Haapaala Finland
Henning Sogaard Denmark
John Stafford (chair) United Kingdom
Josse de Baerdemaeker Belgium
Luis Garcia Torres Spain
Margaret Oliver United Kingdom
Peter Juerschik Germany
(vacancy) Sweden
Raffeale Casa Italy
Prof. E.J. van Henten (chair) the Netherlands
Prof. J. de Baerdemaker Belgium
Dr. B. Basso Italy
Prof. S. Blackmore Greece
Dr. R. Casa Italy
Dr. A. Fekete Hungary
Prof. F. Gemtos Greece
Dr. D. Goense the Netherlands
Dr. G. Grenier France
Dr. H.-W. Griepentrog Denmark
Dr. H. Haapala Finland
Dr. J.W. Hofstee the Netherlands
Dr. W. Hoogmoed the Netherlands
Dr. P. Juerschik Germany
Dr. I. Karpinski Germany
Dr. A. Korsaeth Norway
Prof. A. McBratney Australia
Dr. W. Mulla USA
Ir. A. Nieuwenhuizen the Netherlands
Dr. M. Norremark Denmark
Dr. M. Oliver United Kingdom
Dr. G. Rabatel France
Dr. J. Stafford United Kingdom
Dr. L.G. Torres Spain
Dr. G.D. Vermeulen the Netherlands
Dr. B. Whelan Australia
Table of contents
Editorial 19
Section 1 - Remote sensing 21
Active sensing of the N status of wheat using optimized wavelength combination: impact
of seed rate, variety and growth stage 23
J. Jasper, S. Reusch and A. Link
Development and frst tests of a mobile lab combining optical and analogical sensors for
crop monitoring in precision viticulture 31
F. Mazzetto, A. Calcante, A. Mena and A. Vercesi
Sensitivity of narrow and broad-band vegetation indices to leaf chlorophyll concentration
in planophile crops canopies 39
M. Vincini and E. Frazzi
Comparison of methods to estimate LAI from remote sensing in maize canopies by
inversion of 1-D and 3-D models 47
R. Casa, S. Pascucci, A. Palombo, G. DUrso, A. Maltese, G. Ciraolo, L. Giordano, R.
Lopez-Lozano, F. Baret and H.G. Jones
Using GreenSeeker
to drive variable rate application of plant growth regulators and

defoliants on cotton 55
G. Vellidis, B. Ortiz, G. Ritchie, A. Peristeropoulos, C. Perry and K. Rucker
Canopy temperature interpretation of thermal imagery for crop water stress determination 63
M. Meron, J. Tsipris, V. Alchanatis and Y. Cohen
Using an active sensor to make in-season nitrogen recommendations for corn 71
J. Schmidt, R. Sripada, D. Beegle and A. Dellinger
Optical signals of oxidative stress in crops physiological state diagnostics 81
E.V. Kanash and Y.A. Osipov
Spatial patterns of wilting in sugar beet as an indicator for precision irrigation 89
L. Zhang, M.D. Steven, M.L. Clarke and K.W. Jaggard
Development of an instrument to monitor crop growth status 97
M. Li, D. Cui, X. Li and W. Yang
Field hyperspectral imagery: a new tool for crop monitoring at plant scale 105
N. Vigneau, G. Rabatel and P. Roumet
Determination of canopy properties of winter oilseed rape using remote sensing
techniques in feld experiments 113
L. Engstrm, B. Lindn, M. Sderstrm, T. Brjesson, K. Nissen, N. Lorn, I. Gruvaeus
and O. Hagner
10 Precision agriculture 09
Within-feld and regional prediction of malting barley protein content using canopy
refectance 119
M. Sderstrm, T. Brjesson, C.G. Pettersson, K. Nissen and O. Hagner
Development and improvement of air-assisted seeding for paddy feld following map
information 127
T. Chosa, M. Furuhata, M. Omine and R. Sugiura
Improved modeling of maize growth by combining a biophysical model of
photosynthesis with hyperspectral remote sensing 133
N. Oppelt and T. Hank
Comparing hyperspectral vegetation indices for estimating nitrogen concentration of
winter wheat 141
F. Li, Y. Miao, S.D. Hennig, M.L. Gnyp, X. Chen, L. Jia and G. Bareth
Possibilities of cereal canopy assessment by using the NDVI 151
J. Ken, V. Lukas, I. Svobodov, T. Drylov, P. Ma and L. Neudert
Evaluation of palm trees water availability using remote thermal imaging 159
Y. Cohen, V. Alchanatis, A. Levi, V. Soroker, A. Prigojin and Y. Cohen
Section 2 - Biomass other than remote sensing 167
Use of ultrasonic transducers for on-line biomass estimation in winter wheat 169
S. Reusch
Use of a ground-based LIDAR scanner to measure leaf area and canopy structure
variability of grapevines 177
J. Arn, A. Escol, J.M. Valls, R. Sanz, J. Masip, J. Palacn and J.R. Rosell
Sensing tree canopy parameters in real time for precision fructiculture/horticulture
applications: methodology set-up and frst results 185
A. Escol, J. Arn, R. Sanz, F. Camp, J. Masip, F. Solanelles, J.R. Rosell and S. Planas
Test of a high-end laser rangefnder scanner in agriculture 193
D. Ehlert, M. Heisig and R. Adamek
Section 3 - Plant disease 201
Determination of head blight on ears of winter wheat by means of hyperspectral and
chlorophyll fuorescence image analysis 203
E. Bauriegel, H. Beuche, K.-H. Dammer, A. Giebel, W.B. Herppich, J. Intre and B. Rodemann
Early detection of Puccinia triticina infection in susceptible and resistant wheat cultivars
by chlorophyll fuorescence imaging technique 211
K. Brling, M. Hunsche and G. Noga
Detection of the Tulip Breaking Virus (TBV) in tulip using spectral and vision sensors 219
G. Polder, G.W.A.M. van der Heijden, J. van Doorn, R. van der Schoor and A.H.M.C. Baltissen
Investigation into the classifcation of diseases of sugar beet leaves using multispectral
images 229
S.D. Bauer, F. Kor and W. Frstner
Spectral signatures of diseased sugar beet leaves 239
A.-K. Mahlein, U. Steiner, H.-W. Dehne and E.-C. Oerke
Section 4 - Sensing plant characteristics 247
Plant leaf roughness analysis by texture classifcation with generalized fourier descriptors
in a dimensionality reduction context 249
L. Journaux, M.F. Destain, F. Cointault, J. Miteran and A. Piron
Evaluation of cost-effective real-time slope sensing system for wild blueberry 257
Q.U. Zaman, A.W. Schumann, K.C. Swain, D.C. Percival, M. Arshad and T.J. Esau
Intelligent autonomous system for the detection and treatment of fungal diseases in
arable crops 265
D. Moshou, C. Bravo, R. Oberti, L. Bodria, S. Vougioukas and H. Ramon
On-the-go yield and sugar sensing in grape harvester 273
E.M. Bguena, P. Barreiro, C. Valero, X. Sort, M. Torres and J.M. Ubalde
MARVIN: high speed 3D imaging for seedling classifcation 279
N.J.J.P. Koenderink, M. Wigham, F. Golbach, G. Otten, R. Gerlich and H.J. van de Zedde
Flower spatial variability in an apple orchard 287
A.D. Aggelopoulou, D. Bochtis, A. Koutsostathis, S. Fountas, T.A. Gemtos and G.D. Nanos
Apple detection in natural tree canopies from multimodal images 293
J.P. Wachs, H.I. Stern, T. Burks and V. Alchanatis
Effects of seed rate and nitrogen fertilisation on cereal canopy characteristics 303
J. Ken, I. Svobodov, T. Drylov, P. Ma and L. Neudert
Section 5 - Sensing weeds 311
Classifcation of sugar beet and volunteer potato refection spectra using a neural network
to select discriminative wavelengths 313
A.T. Nieuwenhuizen, J.W. Hofstee, J.C. van de Zande, J. Meuleman and E.J. van Henten
Automated weed detection in winter wheat by using artifcial neural networks 321
A. Kluge and H. Nordmeyer
Development of an integrated approach for weed detection in cotton, for site specifc
weed management. 329
R. Efron, V. Alchanatis, Y. Cohen, A. Levi, H. Eizenberg and U. Shani
Selectivity of weed harrowing with sensor technology in cereals in Germany 339
V. Rueda-Ayala and R. Gerhards
Automatic derivation of weed densities from images for site-specifc weed management 349
M. Weis and R. Gerhards
Assessment of a ground-based weed mapping system in maize 355
D. Andujar, A. Ribeiro, C. Fernandez-Quintanilla and J. Dorado
Evolution of agricultural machinery: the third way 363
M. Berducat, C. Debain, R. Lenain and C. Cariou
Section 6 - Yield monitoring and ICT 371
Mass fow sensor for combines with bucket conveyors 373
R.S. Zandonadi, T.S. Stombaugh, D.M. Queiroz and S.A. Shearer
Automated, low-cost yield mapping of wild blueberry fruit 381
K.C. Swain, Q.U. Zaman, A.W. Schumann, D.C. Percival, D. Nams and T.J. Esau
Development and frst tests of a farm monitoring system based on a client-server technology 389
F. Mazzetto, A. Calcante and F. Salomoni
Agri yield management: practical solutions for proftable and sustainable agriculture
based on advanced technology 397
J. Hadders, J.W.M. Hadders and P. Raatjes
Flow behaviour analysis of a RFID-Tracer for traceability of grain 403
U. Steinmeier, D. von Hoersten and W. Luecke
Section 7 - Soil sensing and interpretation of variability 413
On-the-go measurement of soil gamma radiation 415
E.H. Loonstra and F.M. van Egmond
Combined sensor system for mapping soil properties 423
H.S. Mahmood, W.B. Hoogmoed and E.J. Van Henten
Reproducibility of different composite sampling schemes for soil phosphorus 431
M. Schirrmann, H. Domsch, U. von Wulffen, J. Nieter and O. Zauer
The capability of non-destructive geophysical methods in precision agriculture to capture
subsoil mechanical strength 439
G. Hoefer, E. Lck, V. Gundelach, J. Rhlmann and J. Bachmann
Comparison of different EC-mapping sensors 445
E. Lueck, U. Spangenberg and J. Ruehlmann
Comparison of directional semi-variograms for mouldboard plough and feld cultivator
draught 453
N.B. McLaughlin, S.D. Burtt and D.R. Lapen
Mapping traffc patterns for soil compaction studies using GIS 461
A.D. Meijer, R.W. Heiniger and C.R. Crozier
Searching for the cause of variability 469
J.N. Jukema, K.H. Wijnholds and W. van den Berg
Delineation of site-specifc management zones using geostatistics and fuzzy clustering
analysis 477
A. Castrignan, F. Guastaferro, D. De Benedetto, A. Moneta, B. Basso, A. Troccoli and
M. Pisante
Mapping spatial variation in growing willow using small UAS 485
A. Rydberg, O. Hagner, P. Aronsson and M. Sderstrm
iSOIL: exploring the soil as the basis for sustainable crop production and precision farming 493
F.M. van Egmond, A.-K. Nsch, U. Werban, U. Sauer and P. Dietrich
The economic potential of precision farming: an interim report with regard to nitrogen
fertilization 501
P. Wagner
Section 8 - Geo statistics and path planning 509
Optimal path planning for feld operations 511
J.W. Hofstee, L.E.E.M. Sptjens and H. IJken
Combined coverage and path planning for feld operations 521
D.D. Bochtis and T. Oksanen
From sensor values to a map: accuracy of spatial modelling methods in agricultural
machinery works 529
J. Kaivosoja
Field-scale model of the spatio-temporal vine water status in a viticulture system 537
J.A. Taylor, B. Tisseyre C. Acevedo-Opazo and. P. Lagacherie
Hydropedology and pedotransfer functions 545
S. Zacharias, D. Altdorff, L. Samaniego-Eguiguren and P. Dietrich
Section 9 - Precision agriculture in regional modelling 551
A multi agent simulation approach to assess agronomic income sources in the North
China Plain: case study for Quzhou County 553
A. Roth and R. Doluschitz
Sensitivity to climate change with respect to agriculture production in Hungary 559
. Erdlyi
Rotation and the temporal stability of landscape defned management zones: a time series
analysis 567
E.M. Pena-Yewtukhiw and J.H. Grove
Bioclimatic modelling of the future ranges of crop species: an analysis of propagated
uncertainty 575
R.J.Corner and M.A. Marinelli
Section 10 - Cooperation of robots 583
A framework for motion coordination of small teams of agricultural robots 585
S.G. Vougioukas
Model-based loading of agricultural trailers 595
G. Happich, H.-H. Harms and T. Lang
Procedures of soil farming allowing to reduce compaction 603
M. Kroulk, T. Loch, Z. Kvz and V. Proek
Section 11 - Guidance and machine performance 613
Parallel guidance system for tractor-trailer system with active joint 615
J. Backman, T. Oksanen and A. Visala
A vision-guided mobile robot for precision agriculture 623
S. Ericson and B. strand
An imaging system to characterise the mechanical behaviour of fertilisers in the context
of centrifugal spreading 631
S. Villette, E. Piron, R. Martin and C. Ge
New high speed image acquisition system and image processing techniques for fertiliser
granule trajectory determination 639
B. Hijazi, F. Cointault, J. Dubois, S. Villette, J. Vangeyte, F. Yang and M. Paindavoine
Section 12 - Crop modelling 649
Simulating the physiological dynamics of winter wheat after grazing 651
M.T. Harrison, J.R. Evans and A.D. Moore
Modelling competition for below-ground resources and light within a winter pea (Pisum
sativum L.) wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) intercrop (Azodyn-InterCrop): towards a
decision making oriented-tool 659
P. Malagoli, C. Naudin, G. Goulevant, M. Sester, G. Corre-Hellou, M.-H. Jeuffroy
Predicting yields and protein content of lupin/cereal forage crops in organic farming 667
W.M. Azo, G.P.F. Lane, W.P. Davies. and N.D. Cannon
Crop modelling based on the principle of maximum plant productivity 675
J. Kadaja, T. Saue and P. Viil
Automatic working depth control for seed drill using ISO 11783 compatible tractor 683
P. Suomi, T. Oksanen, A. Ojanne, J. Kalmari, R. Linkolehto and F. Teye
A supply/demand, single-organ crop growth model 691
I. Seginer and M. Gent
Prediction of within feld cotton yield losses caused by the southern root-knot nematode
with the cropping system model-CROPGRO-cotton 699
B. Ortiz, G. Hoogenboom, G. Vellidis, K. Boote and C. Perry
Use of geographic information systems (GIS) in crop protection warning service 707
T. Zeuner and B. Kleinhenz
Plant-specifc and canopy density spraying to control fungal diseases in bed-grown crops 715
J.C. van de Zande, V.T.J.M. Achten, H.T.A.M. Schepers, A. van der Lans, J.M.G.P.
Michielsen, H. Stallinga and P. van Velde
Section 13 - Precision application 723
Robotic control of broad-leaved dock 725
F.K. van Evert, J. Samsom, G. Polder, M. Vijn, H.-J. van Dooren, E.J.J. Lamaker,
G.W.A.M. van der Heijden, C. Kempenaar, A.J.A. van der Zalm and L.A.P. Lotz
First prototype of an automated rotary hoe for mechanical weeding of the intra-row area
in row crops and vegetables 733
Z. Gobor, P. Schulze Lammers and G. Wendl
Auto-boom control to avoid spraying pre-defned areas 741
J. Mickelker and S.A. Svensson
Image processing algorithms for a selective vineyard robotic sprayer 749
R. Berenstein, O. Ben Shahar, A. Shapiro, A. Bechar and Y. Edan
Assessing the potential of automatic section control 759
T.S. Stombaugh, R.S. Zandonadi and C.R. Dillon
Performance of auto-boom control for agricultural sprayers 767
J.P. Molin, E.F. Reynaldo, F.P. Povh and J.V. Salvi
The development of a computer vision based and real-time plant tracking system for dot
spraying 777
M. Nrremark, H.J. Olsen, N.W. Andreassen and I. Lund
SensiSpray: site-specifc precise dosing of pesticides by on-line sensing 785
J.C. van de Zande, V.T.J.M. Achten, C. Kempenaar, J.M.G.P. Michielsen, D. van der
Schans, J. de Boer, H. Stallinga, P. van Velde and B. Verwijs
Section 14 - ICT in precision agriculture 793
Data collection and two-way communication to support decision making by pest scouts 795
A. Hetzroni, M. Meron, I. Fraier, Y. Magrisso and O. Mendelsohn
Prototype system of monitoring farm operation with a wearable device and feld server 801
T. Fukatsu, K. Sugahara, T. Nanseki and S. Ninomiya
Information requirements and data sources for automated irrigation control in tree crops 809
J. Casadess
Geo-enabled hands free registration of tillage activities in arable farming 817
H. Janssen, T. van der Wal, A. Beek, J.A. van Rossum and M. Uyterlinde
A multi-level modelling approach for food supply chains using the unifed modeling
language (UML) 823
R. Lehmann, M. Fritz and G. Schiefer
Section 15 - Robots 831
WURking: a small sized autonomous robot for the Farm of the Future 833
E.J. van Henten, C.J. van Asselt, T. Bakker, S.K. Blaauw, M.H.A.M. Govers, J.W. Hofstee,
R.M.C. Jansen, A.T. Nieuwenhuizen, S.L. Speetjens, J.D. Stigter, G. van Straten and L.G.
Van Willigenburg
BoniRob: an autonomous feld robot platform for individual plant phenotyping 841
A. Ruckelshausen, P. Biber, M. Dorna, H. Gremmes, R. Klose, A. Linz, R. Rahe, R. Resch,
M. Thiel, D. Trautz and U. Weiss
Preparing a team to Field Robot Event: educational and technological aspects 849
T. Oksanen, J. Tiusanen and J. Kostamo
Safe and reliable: further development of a feld robot 857
H.W. Griepentrog, N.A. Andersen, J.C. Andersen, M. Blanke, O. Heinemann, T.E.
Madsen, J. Nielsen, S.M. Pedersen, O. Ravn and D. Wulfsohn
Simple tunable control for automatic guidance of four-wheel steered vehicles 867
T. Bakker, C.J. van Asselt, J. Bontsema, J. Mller and G. van Straten
Development of a small agricultural feld inspection vehicle 877
R. Gottschalk, X.P. Burgos-Artizzu and A. Ribeiro
Section 16 - Future farming 885
Futurefarm: the European farm of tomorrow 887
B.S. Blackmore
Management strategies and practices for precision agriculture operations 893
S. Fountas, S. Pedersen, C. Sorensen, A. Chatzinikos, L. Pesonen, B. Basso, S.
Vougioukas, E. Nash, T. Gemtos and S. Blackmore
Can compliance to crop production standards be automatically assessed? 899
E. Nash, A. Vatsanidou and S. Fountas
Typology of precision farming technologies suitable for EU-farms 907
J. Schwarz, A. Werner and F. Dreger
Analysis of external drivers for farm management and their infuences on farm
management information systems 915
K. Charvat and P. Gnip
Potential savings and economic benefts in arable farming from better precision farming
and information management 919
S.M. Pedersen, J.E. rum, C.G. Srensen, S. Fountas, L. Pesonen, B.S. Blackmore and B. Basso
Farmers risk in decision making: the case of nitrogen application rates 927
B. Basso, S. Fountas, L. Sartori, G. Cafero, S.M. Pedersen, C. Sorensen, L. Pesonen, A.
Werner and S. Blackmore
Technology requirements for a standard information infrastructure to assist compliance
with crop production standards 935
E. Nash, R. Nikkil, L. Pesonen and C.G. Srensen
System analysis of management information systems for the future 943
C.G. Srensen, S. Fountas, B. Basso, L. Pesonen, S.M. Pedersen and E. Nash
Section 17 - European relevance for precision agriculture 951
Future GNSS - Farmers navigate towards trusted farming 953
R.M. Lokers, A. Krause and T. van der Wal
New GPS based methods accredited by the EC for area measurement 961
M. Grzebellus
URM as tool for Shared Environmental Information System (SEIS) 967
K. Charvat, P. Horak, M. Vlk, S. Kafka and J. Cepicky
Common Agricultural Policy and Spatial Data Infrastructures 973
T. van der Wal, W. Devos and S. Kay
Keword Index 983
Author index 988
Editorial
This is the 7
th
ECPA conference which is co-organised together with the 4
th
ECPLF, the 7
th
EFITA
conference and the Field Robot Event. There is a tradition of bringing ECPA and ECPLF together.
This time we have again the opportunity to bring the world of ICT specialists in agriculture, food
and the environment (EFITA) together with the precision farming world, as we had in Montpellier
in 2001. Additionally, the Field Robot Event will act as source of inspiration and discussion in a
real living lab environment.
The ambitions of the organizers are (1) learning from colleagues by papers of a good scientifc
level, (2) bringing different groups (sub-conferences) together in creative workshops: doing things
together and use the power of the delegates, (3) to let industry, practice and science learn from each
other and let them think about possibilities in market and innovation progress, and (4) to have an
inspiring stay in the Netherlands.
To share the knowledge of the delegates, there will be only one conference, and all participants will
receive a DVD with all papers in full. However, we also wanted to keep the tradition of the hard
covered proceedings of the ECPA. In this proceedings you will fnd the oral papers that we felt most
ft to coincide with the ECPA tradition. However, the review process was this time slightly different
from previous conferences. Papers were selected on the basis of abstracts only. The selected full
papers were reviewed by two other authors also participating in this conference. This means we did
not implement a blind peer reviewed process, but we implemented a collegial quality improvement
of the papers. We hope you enjoy the papers and we wish to encourage authors to upgrade their
papers and submit them to peer reviewed journals.
This is also where we would like to thank John Stafford for his excellent editorial work in the
previous conferences.
The work of Precision Agriculture, Precision Livestock Farming and ICT in agriculture is entering
a new phase. We see a lot of European activities which show that it is now on the EU-agenda. The
harvest of running EU projects has begun, and also new interesting EU projects will be introduced
during the conference. This will be the challenge for the coming years. To stimulate new activities,
several cross themes and project meetings are organised during the conference.
First we want to thank all authors for their interest in this conference and for writing and reviewing
the papers. Secondly, we want to thank the sponsors (gold: Animal Science Group, Plant Research
International, The Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality of the Netherlands, Challenger,
Groene Kenniscooperatie, Alterra, Claas, European GNSS Supervisory Authority (GSA) silver:
Vellekoop & Meesters, Hewlett-Packard, Fancom, Lely Industries, VanDrie Group, John Deere,
bronze: Trimble, Mueller, eCow, Probotiq, Springer and Wiley Blackwell) for their support. Thirdly,
the Animal Science Group, Plant Research International and VIAS were so kind as to bear the
organisational risks. Fourthly, the editors want to thank the local organisers for their work to make
this conference such an ideal place for networking and exchange of stimulating ideas.
The editors
Section 1
Remote sensing
Active sensing of the N status of wheat using optimized
wavelength combination: impact of seed rate, variety and
growth stage
J. Jasper, S. Reusch and A. Link
Research Centre Hanninghof, Yara International ASA, 48249 Duelmen, Germany;
joerg.jasper@yara.com
Abstract
Variable rate nitrogen fertilizer application needs effcient determination of the nitrogen nutrition
status of crops with high spatial and temporal resolution. A suitable approach to get this information
fast and at low cost is proximal sensing of the light that is refected from the crop canopy, either
using the sunlight (passive sensors) or artifcial light sources (active sensors). Previous research has
indicated that an optimized spectral index based on one waveband in the NIR and the other close
to the infrared shoulder of canopy refectance might be superior to standard NDVI indices for both
passive and active sensors. Since only little is known about the effect of agricultural practices on
active measurements using different spectral indices, the accuracy of N uptake estimations by active
remote sensing was investigated in two winter wheat feld trials with varying N-rates, contrasting
varieties and different seed densities in 2005 and 2007. As for passive canopy sensors, the sensitivity
of active N uptake measurements depends on the choice of appropriate wavelength combinations.
The optimized spectral index VI
opt
(R760/R730) turned out to be superior to indices that combine
wavelengths taken from the near infrared and the visible spectral range. It was found to be largely
unaffected by variety properties and seed rates and showed less saturation at high N uptake levels
later in the season, compared to the NDVI. The results furthermore indicate that the relationship
between active refectance measurement and N uptake depends on the physiological growth stage
of the crop, regardless of the spectral indices used. Thus, algorithms to derive nitrogen fertilizer
recommendations from the measurements need to be developed for N top dressings at respective
specifc growth stages separately.
Keywords: N-Sensor, canopy refectance, NDVI, N uptake, wheat varieties
Introduction
Variable rate nitrogen fertilizer application needs effcient determination of the nitrogen nutrition
status of crops with high spatial and temporal resolution (Dampney and Goodlass, 1997; Hoskinson
et al., 1999). Especially, knowledge of the in-feld variability of nitrogen uptake is seen as important
information in order to derive site-specifc N fertilizer recommendations (Link et al., 2005). A
suitable approach to get this information fast and at low cost is proximal sensing of the crop canopy.
Consequently, various crop canopy sensors have been developed in recent years (e.g. Lammel et
al., 2001, Solie et al., 2002, Holland et al., 2004), most of them measuring the canopy refectance
at two or more wavebands in the visible and near infrared range of the electromagnetic spectrum.
Investigations on optimal wavebands and spectral indices with utmost sensitivity to the N status
of the crop have shown that the appropriate choice of a vegetation index is essential for good N
uptake prediction (e.g. Reusch, 2003, Schmidhalter et al., 2003, Mistele et al., 2004). Vegetation
indices combining refectance values at wavelengths in the infrared and the red edge have proven to
be superior to those that combine an infrared wavelength with wavelengths taken from the visible
range (Reusch, 2003 and 2005). The latter are characterized by a distinct saturation effect in vigorous
crops with high biomass, as repeatedly shown for the NDVI (e.g. Mistele et al., 2004), and seem
to be susceptible to be infuenced by variety effects (Liebler et al., 2001, Sticksel et al., 2004).
Since the comparison of various spectral indices requires multi-spectral refectance data to be
collected, most investigations have been conducted using passive feld-spectrometer systems, either
hand-held or tractor mounted, that use natural illumination as light source. Whether the fndings in
those experiments are applicable to active remote sensing is at least questionable. This is because
artifcial light sources produce a divergent beam that penetrates crop canopies less deep compared
to the parallel beam of the sun. The impact of canopy structure on light refectance might therefore
be different for active and passive crop sensors and may affect the suitability of spectral indices for
N uptake estimation and their susceptibility to agronomic factors like crop variety and seeding rate.
Material and methods
Trial layout
Field trials with winter wheat were conducted on a sandy soil in the northwest of Germany in 2005
(515010 N; 71449 E) and 2007 (515021 N; 71518 E).
In 2005 a two-factorial trial was set up as a split-plot design with 4 contrasting wheat varieties as
main plots and different N levels (N supply 0-230 kg N/ha, including soil mineral N in 0-90 cm
soil depth) as split-plots. The main plots were randomised in a block design with 4 replications.
The fertilizer treatments (Table 1) were randomised to the main plots, with each fertilizer level
occurring once in each variety plot.
In 2007 a strip trial without replication was set up with four contrasting wheat varieties sown at
three seed densities (90, 160 and 330 seeds/m
2
). The strips were fertilized with increasing N rates
from 0 to 225 kg N/ha (10 different N rates) applied in three dressings at growth stages BBCH 20
(Lancashire et al., 1991), BBCH 31 and BBCH 37 (Figure 1).
The wheat varieties used in the trials were chosen from a list of varieties commonly grown in farm
practice. They are characterized by differences in phenological properties like stem length, leaf
colour and leaf orientation (Table 2) that result in contrasting canopy architectures that may cause
modifed refectance properties.
At the time of the second and third nitrogen fertilizer application, i.e. at growth stages BBCH 31
and BBCH 37/39, canopy refectance was measured and plant samples were taken by cutting a
subplot (1.25 m
2
in 2005, 0.96 m
2
in 2007). The samples were weighed and dried, aboveground
dry matter production was determined, its N content analyzed, and the N uptake calculated.
Refectance measurements
Active canopy refectance measurements have been made with the N-Sensor
ALS (developed
and manufactured by Yara International, ASA) in 2005 and 2007 and the Crop Circle
TM
ACS-210
(developed and manufactured by Holland Scientifc, Inc.) in 2005.
Table 1. Nitrogen treatments of the winter wheat feld trial in 2005.
Treatment N supply including soil mineral N (SMN) (kg N/ha)
1
st
N rate 2
nd
N rate 3
rd
N rate total N
N1 0 0 0 SMN
N2 60 70 30 160
N3 90 100 40 230
N-Sensor ALS measurements
The N-Sensor ALS comprises a transmitter with a xenon fashlight, providing multi-spectral light
(650-1,100 nm) of high intensity, and a receiver with at least 2 photodiodes and interference flters
in front of them. This technique allows a free selection of wavebands by inserting bandpass flters
with the desired centre wavelength. Filters with 730 and 760 nm centre wavelength and a half band
width of 10 nm were used in order to retrieve the optimized spectral index (VI
opt
). VI
opt
has been
calculated according to Equations 1 and 2 in 2005 and 2007, respectively:
VI
opt
= 100 * (ln R
760
ln R
730
) (1)
(2)
with R
730
and R
760
being the relative refectance at 730 and 760 nm, respectively.
In 2007 a third channel of the N-Sensor ALS was used to collect refectance values at a centre
wavelength of 670 nm in order to enable measurements of the VI
opt
and the NDVI with the same
system. The red normalized difference vegetation index (rNDVI) was calculated as follows:

Figure 1. Trial layout in 2007: 4 varieties, 3 seed densities (S1-S3) and 10 N rates (N0-N9)

VI
opt
= 100
*
(ln R
760
ln R
730
) (1)

730
760
R
R
VIopt = (2)

670 760
670 760
R R
R R
rNDVI
+
= (3)

590 880
590 880
R R
R R
yNDVI
+
= (4)
39 38 37 36 35 34 33 32 31 30
N9 N8 N7 N6 N5 N4 N3 N2 N1 N0
19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10
29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20
Ludwig
39 38 37 36 35 34 33 32 31 30
19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10
29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20
Drifter
39 38 37 36 35 34 33 32 31 30
19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10
29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20
Batis
39 38 37 36 35 34 33 32 31 30
19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10
29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20
Hattrick
39 38 37 36 35 34 33 32 31 30
N9 N8 N7 N6 N5 N4 N3 N2 N1 N0
19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10
29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20
Ludwig
39 38 37 36 35 34 33 32 31 30
19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10
29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20
Drifter
39 38 37 36 35 34 33 32 31 30
19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10
29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20
Batis
39 38 37 36 35 34 33 32 31 30
19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10
29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20
Hattrick
S1
S2
S3
S1
S2
S3
S1
S2
S3
S1
S2
S3
S1
S2
S3
S1
S2
S3
S1
S2
S3
S1
S2
S3


VI
opt
= 100
*
(ln R
760
ln R
730
) (1)

730
760
R
R
VIopt = (2)

670 760
670 760
R R
R R
rNDVI
+
= (3)

590 880
590 880
R R
R R
yNDVI
+
= (4)
39 38 37 36 35 34 33 32 31 30
N9 N8 N7 N6 N5 N4 N3 N2 N1 N0
19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10
29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20
Ludwig
39 38 37 36 35 34 33 32 31 30
19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10
29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20
Drifter
39 38 37 36 35 34 33 32 31 30
19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10
29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20
Batis
39 38 37 36 35 34 33 32 31 30
19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10
29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20
Hattrick
39 38 37 36 35 34 33 32 31 30
N9 N8 N7 N6 N5 N4 N3 N2 N1 N0
19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10
29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20
Ludwig
39 38 37 36 35 34 33 32 31 30
19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10
29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20
Drifter
39 38 37 36 35 34 33 32 31 30
19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10
29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20
Batis
39 38 37 36 35 34 33 32 31 30
19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10
29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20
Hattrick
S1
S2
S3
S1
S2
S3
S1
S2
S3
S1
S2
S3
S1
S2
S3
S1
S2
S3
S1
S2
S3
S1
S2
S3
Figure 1. Trial layout in 2007: 4 varieties, 3 seed densities (S1-S3) and 10 N rates (N0-N9).
Table 2. Varieties grown in the winter wheat feld trials in 2005 and 2007.
Year Phenological properties
Variety Stem length Leaf color Leaf orientation
2005 Bussard long light-green planophile
2005 Ritmo short green erectophile
2005 + 2007 Drifter medium blue-green erectophile
2005 + 2007 Ludwig long green planophile
2007 Hattrick short green erectophile
2007 Batis medium/long light-green planophile
(3)
The system was pointed at the crop at an oblique view angle of 58 and a sensor-to-crop distance
of approximately 6 m.
Crop Circle ACS-210 measurements
Active measurements of the yellow normalized difference vegetation index (yNDVI) in 2005 were
carried out with the Crop Circle ACS-210. The sensor utilizes a modulated light source, composed
of an array of polychromatic LEDs that emit yellow and infrared wavebands at 590 and 880 nm
(Holland et al., 2004). The yNDVI is calculated from the relative refectance at 880 and 590 nm
(R
880
and R
590
) as follows:
(4)
Measurements were made from an oblique view angle of 30 with a sensor-to-crop distance of
approximately 2 m.
The technical set-up for the active canopy refectance measurements is shown in Figure 2.
Results and discussion
The results of the destructive N uptake measurements at BBCH 31 and BBCH 39 in 2005 are shown
in Figure 3. Increasing N fertilizer rates resulted in increasing N uptake at both growth stages. With
the exception of the N1-treatment without additional nitrogen fertilizer supply, intensive growth
and nutrient uptake during the period of stem elongation increased N uptake at BBCH 39 compared
to BBCH 31 by approximately 70 kg N/ha. There have been no signifcant differences in N uptake
between the wheat varieties.
Active canopy refectance measurements are strongly correlated with N uptake of the crop.
Figure 4 shows the regression functions calculated over all varieties. The functions for yNDVI
measurements are characterized by a steeper slope at higher N uptake levels, especially at BBCH
39, when compared to measurements using VIopt (100 * (ln R760 ln R730)). The susceptibility
of the NDVI to saturate in dense canopies with high pigment concentration is a well-known effect
that had been described by various authors (e.g. Reusch, 2003, Mistele et al., 2004). Figure 4 also


VI
opt
= 100
*
(ln R
760
ln R
730
) (1)

730
760
R
R
VIopt = (2)

670 760
670 760
R R
R R
rNDVI
+
= (3)

590 880
590 880
R R
R R
yNDVI
+
= (4)
39 38 37 36 35 34 33 32 31 30
N9 N8 N7 N6 N5 N4 N3 N2 N1 N0
19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10
29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20
Ludwig
39 38 37 36 35 34 33 32 31 30
19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10
29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20
Drifter
39 38 37 36 35 34 33 32 31 30
19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10
29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20
Batis
39 38 37 36 35 34 33 32 31 30
19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10
29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20
Hattrick
39 38 37 36 35 34 33 32 31 30
N9 N8 N7 N6 N5 N4 N3 N2 N1 N0
19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10
29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20
Ludwig
39 38 37 36 35 34 33 32 31 30
19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10
29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20
Drifter
39 38 37 36 35 34 33 32 31 30
19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10
29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20
Batis
39 38 37 36 35 34 33 32 31 30
19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10
29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20
Hattrick
S1
S2
S3
S1
S2
S3
S1
S2
S3
S1
S2
S3
S1
S2
S3
S1
S2
S3
S1
S2
S3
S1
S2
S3


VI
opt
= 100
*
(ln R
760
ln R
730
) (1)

730
760
R
R
VIopt = (2)

670 760
670 760
R R
R R
rNDVI
+
= (3)

590 880
590 880
R R
R R
yNDVI
+
= (4)
39 38 37 36 35 34 33 32 31 30
N9 N8 N7 N6 N5 N4 N3 N2 N1 N0
19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10
29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20
Ludwig
39 38 37 36 35 34 33 32 31 30
19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10
29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20
Drifter
39 38 37 36 35 34 33 32 31 30
19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10
29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20
Batis
39 38 37 36 35 34 33 32 31 30
19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10
29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20
Hattrick
39 38 37 36 35 34 33 32 31 30
N9 N8 N7 N6 N5 N4 N3 N2 N1 N0
19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10
29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20
Ludwig
39 38 37 36 35 34 33 32 31 30
19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10
29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20
Drifter
39 38 37 36 35 34 33 32 31 30
19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10
29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20
Batis
39 38 37 36 35 34 33 32 31 30
19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10
29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20
Hattrick
S1
S2
S3
S1
S2
S3
S1
S2
S3
S1
S2
S3
S1
S2
S3
S1
S2
S3
S1
S2
S3
S1
S2
S3

Figure 2. Active sensing with N-Sensor
ALS and Crop Circle

TM
ACS-210

Figure 2. Active sensing with N-Sensor
ALS and Crop Circle

TM
ACS-210.
shows that, independent of the spectral index used, the relationship between measurement and N
uptake depends on the growth stage. Thus, algorithms to derive nitrogen fertilizer recommendations
from active canopy refectance measurements need to be developed for N top dressings at respective
specifc growth stages separately.
Compared to the growth stage, the impact of wheat varieties on sensor based N uptake measurements
turned out to be of minor relevance. Figure 5 shows the residuals of N uptake estimation as affected
by the tested varieties, i.e. the difference between real N uptake and calculated N uptake based on
the regression functions of the 2005 trial shown in Figure 4.
At BBCH 31 residuals are small and there are no relevant differences between spectral indices. At
BBCH 39 residuals for measurements using the optimized wavelength combination remain small,
whereas the residuals for the active yNDVI measurement indicate differences of estimated N
uptake between varieties that can exceed 20 kg N/ha. This would suggest that, when using NDVI,
variety specifc calibration functions for the derivation of fertilizer recommendations should be
taken into consideration.
In 2007, with a different set of wheat varieties, differences between the two spectral indices under
investigation were not that pronounced. Regression functions calculated for the comparison of
measured N uptake and N uptake predictions based on sensor readings (Figure 6) showed a slightly
better ft for sensor measurements using the VI
opt
compared to those based on rNDVI.
Noticeable differences between varieties were found by Liebler et al. (2001) and Sticksel et al.
(2004) for passive measurements of the REIP (red edge infection point), the NDVI and other
spectral indices and were attributed to differences between the varieties with regard to their growth

Figure 3. N uptake of wheat varieties at different growth stages and N rates; 2005.

0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
N1 N2 N3
Nitrogen treatment
N

u
p
t
a
k
e

(
k
g

N
/
h
a
)
Bussard
Drifter
Ludwig
Ritmo
BBCH 31
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
N1 N2 N3
Nitrogen treatment
Bussard
Drifter
Ludwig
Ritmo
BBCH 39
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
N1 N2 N3
Nitrogen treatment
N

u
p
t
a
k
e

(
k
g

N
/
h
a
)
Bussard
Drifter
Ludwig
Ritmo
BBCH 31
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
N1 N2 N3
Nitrogen treatment
Bussard
Drifter
Ludwig
Ritmo
BBCH 39
Figure 3. N uptake of wheat varieties at different growth stages and N rates; 2005.
y = 0.393x
1.453
R
2
= 0.968
y = 0.065x
1.760
R
2
= 0.972
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
200
10 20 30 40 50 60
100 * (ln R760 - ln R730)
N

u
p
t
a
k
e

(
k
g

N
/
h
a
)
BBCH 31
BBCH 39
VIopt (100 * (ln R760 ln R730))
y = 310.390x
3.289
R
2
= 0.955
y = 154.582x
3.343
R
2
= 0.973
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
200
0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9
yNDVI
BBCH 31
BBCH 39

Figure 4. Relationship between active sensor measurements and N uptake; 2005.

Figure 4. Relationship between active sensor measurements and N uptake; 2005.
habit and chlorophyll content. Correlations between N uptake and sensor readings independent of
variety effects were reported by Reusch (2003) for passive measurements in winter wheat using
wavelength combinations with both wavebands in the upper part of the near-infrared shoulder of
canopy refectance, and by Osborne and Raun (2004) for active NDVI measurements in spring wheat.
Contradictory results might be explicable by the fact that researchers always have to choose a few
varieties from the great number of crop cultivars grown in farm practice. Since the development
of variety specifc calibration algorithms for the derivation of absolute fertilizer recommendations
would mean a huge amount of work, further investigations on variety effects, their causes and how
to avoid them are needed.
The different seed densities tested in the 2007 trial had no effect on sensor based N uptake predictions
at later growth stages (data not shown). At early growth stages, until BBCH 31, rNDVI measurements
overestimated the N uptake of crops sown with high seed density and underestimated crop N uptake
at low seed rates (Figure 7). VI
opt
measurements were not affected by varied seed densities.
Conclusion
Active refectance sensors make use of artifcial light sources that provide a divergent beam of
electromagnetic radiation compared to the parallel beam of the sun. Even though they, therefore,
can be expected to penetrate crop canopies less deep than passive sensors, this does not seem to

-15
-10
-5
0
5
10
15
100 * (ln R760
- ln R730)
yNDVI 100 * (ln R760
- lnR730)
yNDVI
R
e
s
i
d
u
a
l

N

u
p
t
a
k
e
*

(
k
g

N
/
h
a
)
Bussard
Drifter
Ludwig
Ritmo
BBCH 31 BBCH 39
VIopt VIopt
Vegetation index

Figure 5. Accuracy of N uptake estimation by different spectral indices at BBCH 31 and
BBCH 39 (* measured N uptake minus N uptake predicted by general regression
functions shown in Figure 4) as affected by wheat variety; 2005.

Figure 5. Accuracy of N uptake estimation by different spectral indices at BBCH 31 and BBCH
39 (* measured N uptake minus N uptake predicted by general regression functions shown in
Figure 4) as affected by wheat variety; 2005.

y = 0.975x + 2.284
R
2
= 0.910
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160
N uptake (kg N/ha)
p
r
e
d
i
c
t
e
d

N

u
p
t
a
k
e

(
k
g

N
/
h
a
)

V
I
o
p
t

(
R
7
6
0
/
R
7
3
0
)
Hattrick
Batis
Drifter
Ludwig
y = 0.833x + 13.074
R
2
= 0.846
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160
N uptake (kg N/ha)
p
r
e
d
i
c
t
e
d

N

u
p
t
a
k
e

(
k
g

N
/
h
a
)

r
N
D
V
I
Hattrick
Batis
Drifter
Ludwig

Figure 6. Accuracy of N uptake estimation by different spectral indices at BBCH 37/39
(N uptake versus predicted N uptake) as affected by wheat variety; high seed
density, 2007.

Figure 6. Accuracy of N uptake estimation by different spectral indices at BBCH 37/39 (N uptake
versus predicted N uptake) as affected by wheat variety; high seed density, 2007.
make a big difference with regard to N uptake estimations. As for passive canopy sensors, the
sensitivity and stability of active N uptake measurements depends to a large extent on the choice
of appropriate wavelength combinations. The refectance ratio with one waveband located in the
near infrared and one waveband in the red edge shoulder (R760/R730) turned out to be superior
to ratios that combine wavelengths taken from the near infrared and the visible spectral range
(NDVI). The optimized wavelength combination VI
opt
was found to be unaffected by variety
properties and seed density and showed less saturation at high N uptake levels later in the season,
compared to the NDVI.
References
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arable felds growing combinable crops. In: Stafford, J.V. (ed.), Precision Agriculture 97, Proceedings of
the 1
st
European Conference on Precision Agriculture. September 7-10, Warwick, UK. BIOS Scientifc
Publishers Ltd, Oxford, UK. pp. 219-226.
Holland, K.H., Schepers, J.S., Shanahan, J.F. and Horst, G.L. 2004. Plant canopy sensor with modulated
polychromatic light source. In: Proceedings of the 7
th
International Conference on Precision Agriculture.
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nd
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rd
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th
European Conference on Precision Agriculture. June 9-12, Uppsala, Sweden. Wageningen Academic
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y = 1.054x - 0.525
R
2
= 0.777
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
N uptake (kg N/ha)
p
r
e
d
i
c
t
e
d

N

u
p
t
a
k
e

(
k
g

N
/
h
a
)

r
N
D
V
I
low (S1)
medium (S2)
high (S3)
y = 1.041x + 0.040
R
2
= 0.958
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
N uptake (kg N/ha)
p
r
e
d
i
c
t
e
d

N

u
p
t
a
k
e

(
k
g

N
/
h
a
)

V
I
o
p
t

(
R
7
6
0
/
R
7
3
0
)
low (S1)
medium (S2)
high (S3)

Figure 7. Accuracy of N uptake estimation by different spectral indices at BBCH 31
(N uptake versus predicted N uptake) as affected by seed density; cv. Hattrick,
2007.

Figure 7. Accuracy of N uptake estimation by different spectral indices at BBCH 31 (N uptake
versus predicted N uptake) as affected by seed density; cv. Hattrick, 2007.
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th
International Conference on Precision Agriculture.
July 25-28, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
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Development and frst tests of a mobile lab combining
optical and analogical sensors for crop monitoring in
precision viticulture
F. Mazzetto
1
, A. Calcante
1
, A. Mena
1
and A. Vercesi
2
1
University of Milan, Department of Agricultural Engineering via Celoria, 2 20133 Milan, Italy;
aira.mena@unimi.it
2
University of Milan, DIPROVE Section of Plant Pathology via Celoria, 2 20133 Milan, Italy
Abstract
Actually Remote-Sensing (RS) is the most widely adopted technique used to realize crop monitoring
in Precision Viticulture systems. This paper considers the possibility to integrate RS information
obtained by different proximal sensing technologies employed directly in vineyards in order to
enable a simultaneous evaluation of canopy health and vigour status. To this aim a mobile lab has
been developed; it consists of: (a) a couple of GreenSeeker RT100, a commercial optical device
calculating NDVI and Red/NIR indices in real time, (b) three couples of ultrasonic sensors for
canopy thickness estimation, (c) a DGPS receiver to geo-reference data collected while travelling
in vineyard. During the 2007-2008 campaign, tests were carried out in a commercial vineyard in
order to evaluate the monitoring system performance regarding disease appearance and diffusion,
and vegetative development variations due to the normal growing process of vine. Surveys with
the mobile lab were conducted in two groups of rows, treated and non-treated with agrochemicals
and compared to manual morphological and physiological observations that characterized the
phytosanitary status of the canopy. Measurements repeatability has been verifed; both NDVI values
and ultrasonic data showed a high repeatability (with r=0.88 and r=0.85, respectively). Optical
data have been processed in order to obtain NDVI maps, which clearly showed differences in
canopy vigour evolution in the two examined groups, with low vegetative vigour in areas infected
by Plasmopara viticola, as confrmed by manual assessment. Maps of Percentage Infection Index
(PII) have been produced according to pathological manual survey results. The comparison between
PII and NDVI maps confrmed qualitatively the real vine phytosanitary status. Ultrasonically
measured Canopy Thickness (UCT) has been calculated and compared to Manually measured
Canopy Thickness (MCT) (r=0.78). UCT and NDVI values have been compared in order to allow
the identifcation of areas infested by disease among zones presenting critical vegetation conditions.
Keywords: ground sensing, NDVI, canopy thickness, vegetative vigour
Introduction
Precision Viticulture (PV) may be defned as the methodologies that allow site-specifc vineyard
monitoring and management. It considers aspects of the monitoring and management of the
spatial variations in productivity, in terms of quantity and quality, within the single vineyards. In
a PV system the use of data gathering and automated recording, as requested by a suitable Farm
Information System (FIS), is essential. In particular, PV gives great importance to crop monitoring
which concern the gathering of information obtained through crop observations, such as phenological
phases, nutritional state, plant health, production expectations, production maps, etc. (Mazzetto,
2006). Actually, RS is the most widely adopted technique in PV systems. It includes the use of
refectance data collected by multispectral optical sensors in order to obtain virtual images of
vegetation indices correlated to phytosanitary plant status. Generally, multispectral sensor systems
collect images in visible wavebands (green: 555-580 nm, red: 665-700 nm) and the Near Infrared
(NIR: 740-900 nm) that are signifcant to measure crop growth.
NDVI (Normalised Difference Vegetation Index) is one of the most known vegetation index and it
is often obtained by aerial RS data. It is used to identify different vegetative vigour levels of crop
canopies, on which production depends (Lamb et al., 2001).
Johnson et al. (2001) have shown a signifcant correlation (R
2
=0.74) between NDVI and LAI
(Leaf Area Index) values in vine. Studies investigating possible relation between some spectral
indices and plant biophysical parameters (LAI, SPAD, humidity) have been carried out; they
aimed to monitor different plant status (Lebourgeois et al., 2008) or to analyze plant phenological
development (Palacios-Orueta et al., 2008).
RS data gathering, when air- or satellite-borne, strongly depends on climatic conditions and their
use is a complex matter. This applies particularly to viticulture because of: (a) canopy architecture,
(b) grass or soil presence in the inter-row space, (c) shadowing among the rows (Stamatiadis et al.,
2007). In order to overcome RS limits, research has been carried out to develop so called ground
sensing technologies (Bausch and Delgado, 2003). NIR passive illuminated optical sensors have
been studied to monitor and diagnose in real time plant vegetative status to allow herbicide and
fertilizer variable rate application (VRA) (Shearer et al., 1996). Moshou et al. (2006) investigated
proximal optical sensing to diagnose disease infestations on wheat, and to discriminate between
pathological and nutritional stresses. Currently, there are several commercial active optical
ground sensing devices available that determine vegetative indices in real-time normally used in
nitrogen fertilization management, such as the GreenSeeker RT100 (Ntech Industries Inc., Ukiah,
USA) (Shaver et al., 2007). Recently, GreenSeeker application in viticulture has been studied to
characterize the spatial distribution of vine vegetation (Goutouly et al., 2006). The GreenSeeker
RT100 is a mobile system with an active optical sensor made up of an electroluminescent diode,
LED, emitting a high intensity light at 66010 nm (Red) and 77015 nm (NIR) wavebands. LED
pulses at 100 Hz frequency with an average reading of 10 Hz. The light that is refected by the
canopy is captured by a silicon photodiode positioned in front of the device. Electronic flters remove
all background illumination. GreenSeeker computes NDVI and Red/NIR values in real time. Its
validity in monitoring vine was confrmed by results obtained in a preliminary study reported in
Mazzetto et al., 2007.
All considered, this work aims to evaluate the performance of the proposed system with regard to: (a)
the canopy volumes derived from a set of analogical (ultrasonic) sensors, when compared with the
actual values provided by direct hand-made measures;(b) its capability of representing the volume
dynamic evolutions all along the productive season, and (c) its effciency in detecting dynamic
diffusion of eventual disease incidence (though this task will require more detailed research).
Materials and method
In order to evaluate the simultaneous detection of canopy health and vigour status, tests were
carried out from May to August during the 2007-2008 campaign, using a specifc on board-tractor
instrumentation (Mobile lab).
Tests involved two groups of rows of a Pinot Grigio commercial vineyard located in Oltrep
Pavese (Italy):
Group A (non-treated): plants which have never been treated with agrochemicals during the
entire productive season (3 rows).
Group B (treated): plants treated with usual defence strategy versus the main important vine
pests and diseases at regular time (4 rows).
A multi-wire vertical trellis system was used. Inter-row distance was 2.3 m and within-row vine
spacing was 1.2 m. There was presence of grass in the inter-row space, whereas undergrowth
vegetation corresponding to each rows was removed.
Mobile lab surveys
Mobile surveys were carried out with a mobile laboratory equipped with a monitoring system. It
consists of two coupled GreenSeeker sensors (mounted at 1.16 m height from ground level), three
couples of ultrasonic sensors (Jameco Part n. 134105, Senix Corp., USA) and a DGPS receiver to
georefer data collected while travelling in the vineyard (Figure 1). By mounting ultrasonic sensors
at different heights (H(1) = 0.9 m, H(2) = 1.3 m and H(3) = 1.7 m in height from ground level) the
site specifc canopy volume can be derived from the horizontal distance to the foliage measured
while travelling in the vineyard (Schumann et al., 2005). Ultrasonic sensors and optical tools of
each couple were oriented in opposite directions in order to measure the horizontal distance to the
foliage and the canopy spectral refectance on both of the tractor passing the inter-row track. The
sensor outputs were stored by a data logger, which also recorded the GPS coordinates associated
to each data acquisition.
During the same day, three passages were performed per inter-row track, two with the same driving
directions and one with reverse driving direction. This, in order to evaluate the repeatability of
optical and analogical measurements, referred to the same vegetation wall, either using the same
sensor in different passages, or using different sensors with regard to the same target.
Manual surveys
Parcels have been identifed on the same rows; manual morphological and physiological observation
have been conducted on each parcel for vegetation phytosanitary status characterization. Percentage
Infection Index (PII) of Plasmopara viticola has been manually estimated on four 10 m long
parcels (50 sampling points per parcel) located on non-treated rows. An infestation class has been
attributed to each sampling point according to a 8 classes scale of infected leaf area percentage.
MCT (Manually measured Canopy Thickness) has been measured on four selected parcels (4.5 m
long) located on non-treated rows; measurements have been conducted according to a sample grid
at the three heights investigated by ultrasonic sensors.
1

Figure 1. Schematic layout of the mobile lab employed for tests in vineyard. A and B:
GreenSeeker; 1, 2, 3: couples of ultrasonic sensors.

Figure 1. Schematic layout of the mobile lab employed for tests in vineyard. A and B: GreenSeeker;
1, 2, 3: couples of ultrasonic sensors.
Data analysis
Optical measurements have been processed through spatial interpolation procedures (using 3D-Field
software) with the Inverse Distance Weighting method (IDW) in order to obtain NDVI maps
(Milics et al., 2008), which immediately show differences in vegetative development among plant
groups. At this processing stage, data gathered by ultrasonic sensors have been used to identify
each monitored row and to leave out turning manoeuvre data points. The beginning and the end of
each row has been identifed through ultrasonic sensors voltage measurement charts analysis which
highlight constant values in correspondence of data collected outside the rows. These preliminary
operations have a basic importance because NDVI values associated with turning manoeuvre
negatively affect results coming from spatial interpolation method application, and consequently
they reduce map representativeness.
Starting from ultrasonic data, for a point r of the vineyard, UCT(r) at each measurement height
can be calculated as:
UCT(r) = RS - d
A
(r) - d
B
(r) (1)
RS = row spacing;
d
A
(r) and d
B
(r) = foliage-sensor distances at the point r, measured from the opposite sides of the
canopy during two contiguous tractor passings.
Since ultrasonic sensors directly provide distance measurements, an evident but remarkable property
of Equation 1 is that it doesnt need any species- or cultivar-specifc calibration. Nevertheless,
it has to be underlined that results of Equation 1 are valid under the assumption that during the
measurements the tractor deviations from the inter-row axis are negligible.
Concerning data coming from manual measurements, MCT values have been compared to UCT
values in order to verify UCT values correspondence to the real vine vigour status, whereas
pathological data have processed in order to produce infestation maps through spatial interpolation
according to IDW method.
Optical data
The repeatability of measurements provided by the monitoring system has been verifed through
Pearson linear correlation coeffcient computation (r=0.88, data not shown). Then NDVI maps have
been produced. Figure 2 refers to three monitoring surveys carried out at three different growing
season stages: June, 21 (T(1)), July, 9 (T(2)), July 31 (T(3)). NDVI representation scale is within
a minimum of 0 and a maximum of 1, divided into classes of size 0.02. When used in agriculture,
NDVI values ranges from a minimum of 0.1-0.3 for a bare soil or with little grass, reaching an
asymptotic value around 0.8-0.9 for vegetation with LAI superior to 5. Therefore, NDVI values
superior to 0.3 are classifed as vegetation tissue, whereas NDVI values lower than 0.3 are classifed
as background. In the present work, NDVI values used to produce NDVI maps referred only
to vegetation wall, so a threshold value of 0.60 is chosen for the representation scale, in order to
emphasize small differences in vegetative development within the vineyard. This value has been
identifed through the examination of value proposed in literature and the frequency analysis of data
collected during preliminary tests carried out in a greenhouse (Mazzetto et al., 2007). NDVI maps
clearly show differences of vegetation conditions evolution in the two considered groups. Their
comparison highlights that non-treated rows (1 to 3) show zones characterized by low vegetation
vigour corresponding to areas interested by P. viticola development, confrmed by manual survey.
In the treated rows (rows 4 to 7) there was a high vigour level due to side shoot development until
July 9, then vigour level decreased because of the late growing season.
Ultrasonic data
Measurements repeatability has been verifed according to same procedures used for NDVI values
analysis. A good repeatability is observed also in this case (r = 0.85 for data collected when driving
in the same direction; r = 0.88 for data collected when driving in reverse directions, Figure 3).
UCT has been compared to MCT through Pearson linear correlation coeffcient and Students t-test at
a 5% level of signifcance for two-sample assuming equal variance (test on variance ratio confrmed
that variances do not differ signifcantly). Data analysis has been carried out on data distinguished
by monitoring day (T(1), T(2), T(3)) and then by the investigated height (H(1), H(2), H(3)) (Figure
4). At H(3), UCT showed some negative values because of the electronic noise that sometimes
occurred in case of canopy absence. Results confrm that the UCTs were not signifcantly different
from MCTs (Table 1 and Table 2).
2

Figure 2. NDVI map obtained from data collected by Greenseeker during T(1), T(2) and T(3)
tests.

Figure 2. NDVI map obtained from data collected by Greenseeker during T(1), T(2) and T(3) tests.
3

Figure 3. Correlation between canopy thickness measured during two subsequent passages
performed in the same direction (A) and in the reverse one (B).

Figure 3. Correlation between canopy thickness measured during two subsequent passages
performed in the same direction (A) and in the reverse one (B).
Infected areas identifcation
PII maps of P. viticola have been produced according to the results of pathological manual surveys
for each monitored parcel. A visual analysis for the comparison between PII and NDVI map has been
conducted. It showed a good correspondence between NDVI values and the real vine phytosanitary
status, even if at a qualitative level (Figure 5).
Then NDVI values and UCTs calculated on parcels have been compared through a visual analysis
of signals. Firsts results show lack of vegetation correspondence to areas presenting low NDVI
Table 1. Summary statistics for manual and ultrasonic canopy thickness in different monitoring
days.
Monitoring day
1
n
2
Method
3
Minimum (m) Maximum (m) Mean (m) t
4
DF r
5
T(1) 267 M 0 0.70 0.25 -0.05 532 0.77
267 U 0 0.74 0.25
T(2) 270 M 0 0.74 0.29 0.08 538 0.75
270 U 0 0.80 0.29
T(3) 277 M 0 0.81 0.28 -1.78 552 0.83
277 U 0 0.68 0.26
Total 814 M 0 0.81 0.27 -0.94 1626 0.78
814 U 0 0.80 0.27
1
T(1) = test of June, 21 2007; T(2) = test of July, 9 2007; T(3) = test of July, 31 2007.
2
n = number of sample points.
3
M = manually measured canopy thickness; U = ultrasonically measured canopy thickness.
4
Two-tailed Student t-test for two sample assuming equal variance.
5
r = Pearson linear correlation coeffcient.
Table 2. Summary statistics for manual and ultrasonic canopy thickness at different investigated
heights.
Investigated
height
1
n
2
Method
3
Minimum (m) Maximum (m) Mean (m) t
4
DF r
5
H(1) 284 M 0 0.71 0.31 -0.69 566 0.84
284 U 0 0.80 0.31
H(2) 294 M 0 0.81 0.29 -1.00 586 0.71
294 U 0 0.75 0.28
H(3) 236 M 0 0.74 0.20 -0.04 470 0.69
236 U 0 0.60 0.20
Total 814 M 0 0.81 0.27 -0.94 1626 0.78
814 U 0 0.80 0.27
1
H(1) = 0.9 m; H(2) = 1.3 m; H(3) = 1.7 m.
2
n = number of sample points.
3
M = manually measured canopy thickness; U = ultrasonically measured canopy thickness.
4
Two-tailed Student t-test for two sample assuming equal variance.
5
r = Pearson linear correlation coeffcient.
values along the rows. In these areas, in fact, NDVI indicates critical vegetation conditions, but
no grapevine downy mildew symptoms have been detected by the disease visual assessment.
Therefore, the contextual use of UCT and NDVI measurements seems to allow the identifcation
of downy mildew affected areas. Anyhow, further elaboration are still in progress to verify and
improve the approach described.
Conclusions
The goal of this work was testing a monitoring system which comprises optical devices
GreenSeeker sensors and ultrasonic sensors for the canopy thickness estimation. Tests aimed to
evaluate the monitoring system use for ground sensing surveys in viticulture.
A high repeatability of optical measurements with the GreenSeeker has been verifed (r=0.88),
and NDVI map analysis demonstrates correspondence between GreenSeeker observations and the
real vines phytosanitary status, even if at a qualitative level. At vineyard scale, these maps are an
effective management tool showing vineyard areas characterised by different vigour levels, and
they can address scouting operations to these critical areas.
4

Figure 4. Correlation between UCT and MCT at investigated heights H(1) (A), H(2) (B), H(3)
(C).
Figure 4. Correlation between UCT and MCT at investigated heights H(1) (A), H(2) (B), H(3) (C).
5

Figure 5. NDVI and PII maps of parcel A obtained from spatial interpolation of T(1) and
T(3) data.

Figure 5. NDVI and PII maps of parcel A obtained from spatial interpolation of T(1) and T(3) data.
Results confrmed high measurement repeatability for ultrasonic data, too (r=0.85). The comparison
between UCTs and MCTs values indicates that there is no signifcant difference between the two
measurements. This fact highlights that an automated ultrasonic system can measure canopy
thickness rapidly and reliably in vineyards.
First qualitative analysis considering simultaneously measured NDVI and UCT values are promising.
In fact, it seems to allow the identifcation of areas infested by disease.
References
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Sensitivity of narrow and broad-band vegetation indices to
leaf chlorophyll concentration in planophile crops canopies
M. Vincini and E. Frazzi
Universit Cattolica del Sacro Cuore Centro Ricerca Analisi Spaziale e Telerilevamento, via
Emilia Parmense 84, 29100 Piacenza, Italy; massimo.vincini@unicatt.it
Abstract
A comparison of the sensitivity to leaf chlorophyll concentration in planophile crops canopies
is addressed by the analysis of a large synthetic dataset for the newly proposed broad-band CVI
(Chlorophyll Vegetation Index) and for several narrow-band vegetation indices (VI) specifcally
proposed as leaf chlorophyll estimators (i.e. MCARI Modifed Chlorophyll Absorption in
Refectance Index, TCARI Transformed CARI, TCARI/OSAVI ratio TCARI/Optimized Soil
Adjusted VI and REIP, Red Edge Infection Position). Synthetic data are obtained by using in
the direct mode the coupled PROSPECT+SAILH leaf and canopy refectance models. In addition
to traditional regression-based statistics (coeffcient of determination and root mean square error
RMSE) changes in sensitivity of a VI over the range of chlorophyll concentration are analyzed by
using a sensitivity function obtained according to the method proposed by Ji and Peters (2007). The
broad-band Chlorophyll Vegetation Index outperformed as a leaf chlorophyll estimator at the canopy
scale narrow-band VI, with the exception of the TCARI/OSAVI ratio for some soil conditions.
Keywords: remote sensing, variable rate fertilization
Introduction
Both narrow-band and broad-band vegetation indices (VI) can be effectively used, due to their
sensitivity to leaf area index (LAI) and, secondarily, to leaf chlorophyll concentration (Baret
and Guyot, 1991; Broge and Leblanc, 2000), to estimate the overall photosynthetic capacity of a
canopy as expressed by canopy chlorophyll density (CCD). For the application of VI to variable
rate fertilization prescriptions the specifc sensitivity to leaf chlorophyll concentration, an effective
indicator of nutritional stress, is valuable.
Only narrow-band VI, requiring high-spectral resolution refectance data, have been reported
to be specifcally sensitivity to leaf chlorophyll concentration at the canopy scale (Baret et al.,
1992; Daughtry et al., 2000; Haboudane et al., 2002; Horler et al., 1983;). Presently, however, the
operational use of airborne hyper-spectral sensors for gathering the information basis for variable
fertilization is expensive and the current availability of high spatial resolution space-borne hyper-
spectral sensors is limited. Broad-band VI obtained from the acquisitions of space-borne multi-
spectral sensors are being used for such applications.
We developed from a feld spectrometric experiment conducted on sugar beet canopies the
Chlorophyll Vegetation Index (CVI), a broad-band vegetation index specifcally sensitive, in the
original experimental conditions, to leaf chlorophyll concentration at the canopy scale (Vincini
et al., 2007). Lately, we have proposed an optimized version (OCVI) of the CVI by using a large
synthetic dataset (Vincini et al., 2008). The OCVI can take into account the different spectral
behaviours due to crop and soil types, sensor spectral resolution and scene sun zenith angle. In the
same work, the results of the analysis of the synthetic dataset indicated that the broad-band CVI
index could be used as a leaf chlorophyll estimator for planophile (i.e. with low average leaf angle)
crops in most soil conditions (Vincini et al., 2008).
The present work addresses a comparison between the sensitivity of the broad-band CVI and of
different narrow-band VI, specifcally proposed as leaf chlorophyll estimators, to leaf chlorophyll
concentration in planophile crops canopies. The sensitivity analysis is conducted on a large synthetic
dataset obtained by using the coupled PROSPECT+SAILH leaf and canopy refectance model in
the direct mode.
Methods
The PROSPECT+SAILH leaf and canopy coupled refectance model (Jacquemoud, 1993;
Jacquemoud et al., 1995, 2000) was used in the direct mode to obtain a large synthetic dataset.
The synthetic dataset was then used to compare the sensitivity of the different VI to leaf chlorophyll
concentration in planophile crops canopies for different soil conditions and two sun zenith angles.
The soil refectance database (Daughtry et al., 1997) used as models input included the spectral
signatures of six different soils (Table 1) representing the large majority of mid-latitude cropland
topsoils spectral variability. For each soil characterized by a large refectance variability between
wet and dry conditions (Othello, Cecil, Portneuf and Cordorus in Table 1) two spectral signatures
were used, representing wet and dry soil conditions (i.e. wetted and allowed to drain and air-dried,
Daughtry et al., 1997), whereas for soils with little variability in soil refectance related to soil
moisture (Barnes, Houston Black Clay) a single spectral signature, representing intermediate soil
moisture condition, was used.
An Average Leaf Angle (ALA) values of 30 and a hot-spot size parameter value of 0.5 were used
as models inputs in order to represent planophile canopies. The hot-spot size parameter, depending
on the mean size and shape of leaves and on canopy height, has been introduced in the SAILH
model to reproduce the canopy spectral behaviour in the hot-spot, the cone where the solar and
viewing directions are close together. The acquisition geometries considered in the synthetic database
included only nadir observation (i.e. with zero view zenith angle) and two solar zenith angles (30
and 60). Leaf chlorophyll (a+b) concentration was varied from 20 (i.e. leaf clorosis) to 50 g/cm
2

with 2.5 g/cm
2
increments, whereas thirty-fve LAI values, from 0.2 to 7.0 with 0.2 increments,
were used. Suggested typical values were used for the other models input parameters, less relevant
for canopies spectral behaviour in the visible-NIR (Near Infra-Red) range (i.e. water content: 0.012
g/cm
2
; dry matter content: 0.005 g/cm
2
; brown pigment content: 0; leaf surface roughness angle:
59; mesophyll structure index value: 1.5). The resulting database included simulated soil-canopy
spectral refectance data for 9,100 different soil-canopy-acquisition conditions (10 soil spectral
signatures of different soil types and soil wetness, 35 LAI values, 13 leaf chlorophyll concentrations
and 2 sun zenith angles).
Table 1. Soil Taxonomy classifcation (Soil Survey Staff, 1975) of the six soils (Daughtry
1997) used for the soil refectance database.
Soil series Classifcation
Othello Fine-silty, mixed mesic Typic Ochraquult
Barnes Coarse-loamy, mixed Udic Haploboroll
Cecil Clayey, kaolinitic, thermic Typic Hapludult
Houston Black Clay Fine, montmorillonitic, thermic Udic Pellustert
Portneuf Coarse-silty, mixed, mesic Durixerollic Calciorthid
Cordorus Fine-loamy, mixed, mesic Fluvaquentic Dystrochrept
Vegetation indices, described below, that were considered in the present work included, beside the
broad-band CVI, several narrow-band vegetation indices specifcally proposed as leaf chlorophyll
estimators. The broad-band CVI was obtained from the synthetic spectra using the average
refectance in the 500-590 nm (green), 610-680 nm (red) and 780-890 nm (NIR) spectral ranges,
corresponding to the SPOT sensors multi-spectral bands, whereas narrow-band VI were obtained
using the models spectral resolution of 1 nm.
The Chlorophyll Vegetation Index (CVI) is probably the only broad-band vegetation index reported
to be specifcally sensitive to leaf chlorophyll concentration at the canopy scale (Vincini et al., 2008):
(1)
The CVI index is obtained from the green simple ratio, the ratio of the refectances in the NIR
and green parts of the spectrum, by introducing the red/green ratio to minimize the sensitivity to
differences in the canopy LAI before canopy closure.
The Chlorophyll Absorption Refectance Index (CARI) has been proposed as a measure of the depth
of the chlorophyll absorption at 670 nm relative to the green refectance peak at 550 nm (Kim et
al., 1994). The Modifed CARI (MCARI), developed to be responsive to chlorophyll variation, is
sensitive also to LAI variations even though no NIR band is considered (Daughtry et al., 2000):
(2)
700 nm matches the boundary between the region where vegetation refectance is dominated by
pigments and the beginning of red edge portion where vegetation structural characteristics dominate.
The ratio
700
/
670
was introduced to minimize the effect of the underlying soil refectance. Another
modifcation, the Transformed CARI (TCARI) has been proposed by Haboudane et al. (2002) for
chlorophyll estimation:
(3)
To decouple LAI and Chlorophyll sensitivity Haboudane et al. (2002) proposed the combined
TCARI/OSAVI ratio, where the Optimized Soil Adjusted Vegetation Index (OSAVI) is introduced
to minimize the sensitivity to differences in the canopy LAI:
(4)
The spectral position of the infection point in the red edge (REIP) is sensitive to leaf chlorophyll
(Baret et al., 1992; Horler et al., 1983) and different methods have been proposed for its calculation.
In the present study two simplifed methods were used, both based on a linear interpolation procedure
between NIR and red refectances (Clevers, 1994; Guyot and Baret 1988):
(5)
(6)

Green
d
Green
NIR
CVI
Re
= (1)

[ ]
670
700
550 700 670 700
) ( 2 . 0 ) (
= MCARI
(2)

=
670
700
550 700 670 700
) ( 2 . 0 ) ( 3
TCARI (3)

16 . 0
) ( 2 . 0 ) ( 3
670 700
670 800
670
700
550 700 670 700
+

OSAVI
TCARI
(4)

( )
+
+ =
710 760
710 660 810
1
2
1
50 710

REIP
(5)

( )
+
+ =
700 740
700 670 780
2
2
1
40 700

REIP
(6)

c Chl a VI
b
+ =

y
dx y d
s
=
(8)

Green
d
Green
NIR
CVI
Re
= (1)

[ ]
670
700
550 700 670 700
) ( 2 . 0 ) (
= MCARI
(2)

=
670
700
550 700 670 700
) ( 2 . 0 ) ( 3
TCARI (3)

16 . 0
) ( 2 . 0 ) ( 3
670 700
670 800
670
700
550 700 670 700
+

OSAVI
TCARI
(4)

( )
+
+ =
710 760
710 660 810
1
2
1
50 710

REIP
(5)

( )
+
+ =
700 740
700 670 780
2
2
1
40 700

REIP
(6)

c Chl a VI
b
+ =

y
dx y d
s
=
(8)

Green
d
Green
NIR
CVI
Re
= (1)

[ ]
670
700
550 700 670 700
) ( 2 . 0 ) (
= MCARI
(2)

=
670
700
550 700 670 700
) ( 2 . 0 ) ( 3
TCARI (3)

16 . 0
) ( 2 . 0 ) ( 3
670 700
670 800
670
700
550 700 670 700
+

OSAVI
TCARI
(4)

( )
+
+ =
710 760
710 660 810
1
2
1
50 710

REIP
(5)

( )
+
+ =
700 740
700 670 780
2
2
1
40 700

REIP
(6)

c Chl a VI
b
+ =

y
dx y d
s
=
(8)

Green
d
Green
NIR
CVI
Re
= (1)

[ ]
670
700
550 700 670 700
) ( 2 . 0 ) (
= MCARI
(2)

=
670
700
550 700 670 700
) ( 2 . 0 ) ( 3
TCARI (3)

16 . 0
) ( 2 . 0 ) ( 3
670 700
670 800
670
700
550 700 670 700
+

OSAVI
TCARI
(4)

( )
+
+ =
710 760
710 660 810
1
2
1
50 710

REIP
(5)

( )
+
+ =
700 740
700 670 780
2
2
1
40 700

REIP
(6)

c Chl a VI
b
+ =

y
dx y d
s
=
(8)

Green
d
Green
NIR
CVI
Re
= (1)

[ ]
670
700
550 700 670 700
) ( 2 . 0 ) (
= MCARI
(2)

=
670
700
550 700 670 700
) ( 2 . 0 ) ( 3
TCARI (3)

16 . 0
) ( 2 . 0 ) ( 3
670 700
670 800
670
700
550 700 670 700
+

OSAVI
TCARI
(4)

( )
+
+ =
710 760
710 660 810
1
2
1
50 710

REIP
(5)

( )
+
+ =
700 740
700 670 780
2
2
1
40 700

REIP
(6)

c Chl a VI
b
+ =

y
dx y d
s
=
(8)

Green
d
Green
NIR
CVI
Re
= (1)

[ ]
670
700
550 700 670 700
) ( 2 . 0 ) (
= MCARI
(2)

=
670
700
550 700 670 700
) ( 2 . 0 ) ( 3
TCARI (3)

16 . 0
) ( 2 . 0 ) ( 3
670 700
670 800
670
700
550 700 670 700
+

OSAVI
TCARI
(4)

( )
+
+ =
710 760
710 660 810
1
2
1
50 710

REIP
(5)

( )
+
+ =
700 740
700 670 780
2
2
1
40 700

REIP
(6)

c Chl a VI
b
+ =

y
dx y d
s
=
(8)

A power regression function was used in the present work to describe the relationship between
VI and leaf chlorophyll (a+b) concentration (Chl) values obtained from the synthetic dataset for
different soils, soil water content and sun zenith angles:
(7)
In addition to traditional regression-based statistics (r
2
coeffcient of determination, and Root Mean
Square Error RMSE) changes in sensitivity of a VI over the range of leaf chlorophyll concentration
are analyzed by using a sensitivity function obtained according to the method proposed by Ji and
Peters (2007). The sensitivity function (Equation 8) is calculated as the ratio of the frst derivative
of the regression function (Equation 7) using leaf chlorophyll concentration as the independent
variable (x) and the VI values as the dependent variable (y) and the standard error

of the
predicted value ():
(8)
The sensitivity function, rather than providing a single goodness-of-ft value, can describe the
changes in VI sensitivity over the range of biophysical variables, and, being independent on the
unit or magnitude of VI, can be used for a direct comparison of the performance of the various VI.
The absolute value of s was considered in the present work in order to compare VI characterized
by direct (CVI, REIP) and inverse (MCARI, TCARI, TCARI/OSAVI) relationships with leaf
chlorophyll concentration.
Table 2 shows the power function (Equation 7) regression statistics (r
2
determination coeffcient and
Root Mean Square Error, RMSE) of VI values vs. leaf chlorophyll concentration from the synthetic
dataset for different soil types, soil wetness conditions and two sun zenith angles.
For all considered soil and sun zenith conditions the highest correlation levels (r
2
values in bold
characters in Table 2) between VI and leaf chlorophyll concentration were obtained by the broad-
band CVI or the narrow-band TCARI/OSAVI ratio. The r
2
values confrm that leaf chlorophyll
concentration in planophile crops can be effectively estimated using the broad-band CVI. Results
seem to indicate as well that narrow-band VI (i.e. the TCARI/OSAVI ratio), requiring high spectral
resolution data, can achieve an appreciably higher sensitivity in a limited number of soil conditions
(e.g. Cecil soil characterized by a higher red/green refectance ratio, data not reported). The other
considered narrow-band VI were outperformed by the broad-band CVI. Among these narrow-band
VI, REIP showed an appreciable sensitivity to leaf pigment especially when calculated according
to Equation 6, whereas MCARI and TCARI showed low correlation levels.
In Figure 1 the CVI and TCARI/OSAVI sensitivity functions vs. leaf chlorophyll concentration are
reported for some soil and sun zenith conditions. As shown by the sensitivity functions in Figure 1
the broad-band CVI, in comparison with the narrow-band TCARI/OSAVI ratio, tended to be more
sensitive for higher leaf chlorophyll concentration ranges, more realistic for usual crops nutritional
status. The two VI, for instance, showed similar r
2
values for dry Portneuf soil and a sun zenith
angle of 60 (Table 2), but the sensitivity functions (Figure 1, bottom-left) indicated that for such
conditions TCARI/OSAVI was a more effective leaf chlorophyll estimator in the 20-30 g/cm
2

range whereas CVI was progressively more sensitive in the 30-50 g/cm
2
range. These results
confrm previous indications of the existence of a linear relationship, not saturated for high pigment
contents, between CVI and leaf chlorophyll concentrations (Vincini et al., 2008).

Green
d
Green
NIR
CVI
Re
= (1)

[ ]
670
700
550 700 670 700
) ( 2 . 0 ) (
= MCARI
(2)

=
670
700
550 700 670 700
) ( 2 . 0 ) ( 3
TCARI (3)

16 . 0
) ( 2 . 0 ) ( 3
670 700
670 800
670
700
550 700 670 700
+

OSAVI
TCARI
(4)

( )
+
+ =
710 760
710 660 810
1
2
1
50 710

REIP
(5)

( )
+
+ =
700 740
700 670 780
2
2
1
40 700

REIP
(6)

c Chl a VI
b
+ =

y
dx y d
s
=
(8)

Green
d
Green
NIR
CVI
Re
= (1)

[ ]
670
700
550 700 670 700
) ( 2 . 0 ) (
= MCARI
(2)

=
670
700
550 700 670 700
) ( 2 . 0 ) ( 3
TCARI (3)

16 . 0
) ( 2 . 0 ) ( 3
670 700
670 800
670
700
550 700 670 700
+

OSAVI
TCARI
(4)

( )
+
+ =
710 760
710 660 810
1
2
1
50 710

REIP
(5)

( )
+
+ =
700 740
700 670 780
2
2
1
40 700

REIP
(6)

c Chl a VI
b
+ =

y
dx y d
s
=
(8)

Conclusions
The results of the analysis of a synthetic dataset, obtained by using the coupled PROSPECT+SAILH
leaf and canopy refectance model in the direct mode, confrm that the broad-band CVI can be used
as a leaf chlorophyll estimator at the canopy scale for planophile crops. Results seem to indicate
that, in comparison with the broad-band CVI, the empirical use (i.e. the use of relationships
between VI and vegetation biophysical variables) of high spectral resolution refectance data can
only marginally improve leaf chlorophyll concentration estimates at the canopy level. In particular,
the narrow-band TCARI/OSAVI ratio seems to be more sensitive than CVI in a limited number of
soil conditions for planophile canopies.
Table 2. VI regression statistics (r
2
, RMSE)* vs. leaf chlorophyll concentration for different soil
types, soil wetness conditions (dry, wet, intermediate) and two sun zenith angles.
Othello Barnes Cecil H.B.C. Portneuf Cordorus
dry wet int. dry wet int. dry wet dry wet
Sun Zenith 30
CVI r
2
RMSE
0.872
0.167
0.935
0.113
0.878
0.157
0.679
0.342
0.604
0.394
0.747
0.238
0.954
0.098
0.938
0.114
0.915
0.142
0.874
0.175
MCARI r
2
RMSE
0.301
0.078
0.297
0.078
0.302
0.008
0.280
0.082
0.284
0.081
0.298
0.077
0.323
0.071
0.291
0.079
0.301
0.079
0.292
0.079
TCARI r
2
RMSE
0.439
0.068
0.358
0.078
0.345
0.080
0.359
0.080
0.337
0.082
0.346
0.080
0.391
0.075
0.352
0.079
0.433
0.698
0.367
0.077
TCARI
OSAVI
r
2
RMSE
0.971
0.019
0.756
0.060
0.710
0.084
0.795
0.056
0.725
0.066
0.723
0.065
0.905
0.036
0.764
0.059
0.962
0.022
0.812
0.052
REIP1 r
2
RMSE
0.712
20.02
0.642
20.58
0.629
20.71
0.503
30.25
0.508
30.39
0.627
20.75
0.606
20.66
0.575
30.00
0.583
20.70
0.588
20.82
REIP2 r
2
RMSE
0.699
10.32
0.660
10.47
0.621
10.62
0.575
10.75
0.575
10.76
0.633
10.57
0.657
10.47
0.615
10.63
0.611
10.61
0.633
10.55
Sun Zenith 60
CVI r
2
RMSE
0.866
0.182
0.905
0.145
0.837
0.197
0.747
0.300
0.673
0.349
0.714
0.275
0.950
0.108
0.927
0.130
0.937
0.126
0.910
0.151
MCARI r
2
RMSE
0.338
0.069
0.328
0.070
0.332
0.069
0.317
0.073
0.317
0.072
0.328
0.069
0.323
0.071
0.322
0.071
0.340
0.070
0.325
0.071
TCARI r
2
RMSE
0.493
0.057
0.399
0.067
0.385
0.069
0.407
0.068
0.378
0.070
0.385
0.069
0.440
0.063
0.393
0.068
0.489
0.585
0.411
0.066
TCARI
OSAVI
r
2
RMSE
0.983
0.014
0.807
0.048
0.765
0.054
0.849
0.043
0.777
0.053
0.778
0.052
0.938
0.026
0.814
0.047
0.976
0.016
0.857
0.041
REIP1 r
2
RMSE
0.700
20.20
0.609
20.71
0.596
20.84
0.481
30.33
0.488
30.45
0.593
20.89
0.573
20.79
0.547
30.10
0.553
20.82
0.559
20.93
REIP2 r
2
RMSE
0.668
10.42
0.633
10.55
0.597
10.69
0.557
10.81
0.558
10.81
0.607
10.66
0.629
10.56
0.592
10.70
0.589
10.68
0.610
10.62
* maximum r
2
values in bold characters
The broad-band CVI, specifcally sensitive to leaf chlorophyll concentration in planophile crops
canopies, could allow an effective use for variable fertilization N prescription of refectance data
collected by space-borne high-spatial resolution multi-spectral sensors.
References
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2

Figure 1. CVI and TCARI/OSAVI s sensitivity functions vs. leaf chlorophyll (a+b)
concentration (g cm
-2
) for some soil and sun zenith conditions.

Figure 1. CVI and TCARI/OSAVI sensitivity functions vs. leaf chlorophyll (a+b) concentration
(g/cm
2
) for some soil and sun zenith conditions.
Daughtry, C.S.T., McMurtrey, J.E. III, Kim, M.S. and Chappelle, E.W., 1997. Estimating crop residue cover
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(Use of the high spectral resolution for monitoring the status of vegetation covers). In: Proceedings 4th
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Haboudane, D., Miller, J., Tremblay, N., Zarco-Tejada, P.J. and Dextraze, L., 2002. Integration of narrow-band
VIs for Prediction of Crop Chlorophyll Content for Application to Precision Agriculture. Remote Sensing
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Jacquemoud, S., Baret, F., Andrieu, B., Danson, M. and Jaggard, K., 1995. Extraction of vegetation biophysical
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scale. Precision Agriculture 9: 303-319.
Comparison of methods to estimate LAI from remote
sensing in maize canopies by inversion of 1-D and 3-D
models
R. Casa
1
, S. Pascucci
2
, A. Palombo
2
, G. DUrso
3
, A. Maltese
4
, G. Ciraolo
4
, L. Giordano
5
, R.
Lopez-Lozano
6
, F. Baret
6
and H.G. Jones
7
1
Dipartimento di Produzione Vegetale, Universit degli Studi della Tuscia (DPV), Via San Camillo
de Lellis, 01100 Viterbo, Italy, rcasa@unitus.it
2
C.N.R. -LARA, Via del Fosso del Cavaliere, 100, 00133 Roma, Italy
3
3Universit di Napoli, Ingegneria Agraria e Agronomia del Territorio, Via Universit 100, 80055
Portici, Napoli, Italy
4
4Universit di Palermo, Ingegneria Idraulica ed Applicazioni Ambientali, Viale delle Scienze,
90128 Palermo, Italy
5
5ENEA, Biotec-Des, Via Anguillarese, 301, 00123 S.Maria di Galeria, Roma, Italy
6
INRA-UMR EMMAH, Domaine Saint Paul - Site Agroparc, 84914 Avignon, France
7
University of Dundee, Division of Plant Science, Invergowrie, Dundee DD2 5DA, United Kingdom
Abstract
The inversion of canopy refectance models is a procedure widely employed for the retrieval of
LAI from remote sensing. However the accuracy of the estimates depends on a range of factors,
most notably the realism of the canopy representation of the models employed and the a priori
knowledge of some vegetation characteristics. The objective of the present work was to compare the
performances and the operational limitations of the use of two contrasting type of radiative transfer
models: a classical one-dimensional canopy refectance model, PROSPECT+SAIL (PROSAIL) and
a three-dimensional dynamic maize model (Lopez-Lozano et al., 2007) having greater realism in
the description of the canopy structure. The assessment was based on data gathered in dedicated
feld experiments. The inversion of the two models was carried out by using the same technique,
the simplex numerical optimisation algorithm. The results revealed that although the 3-D model
inversion was slower as compared to that of PROSAIL, it provided slightly better estimates of LAI,
because of the direct use of gap fraction data and possibly the implicit injection into the inversion
process of a priori information embedded into the 3-D maize model.
Keywords: multiple-look-angle, PROSPECT, SAIL, 4-D model
Introduction
Leaf area index (LAI) is a key crop variable needed for monitoring the status of crops and diagnosing
possible stress conditions, as well as for the estimation of yield and other agro-environmental
variables, e.g. through assimilation into crop growth models. Estimation of LAI by remote sensing is
a cost-effective way for obtaining rapidly information on LAI and its spatial and temporal variation.
Canopy refectance is anisotropic and varies as a function of both the angle of illumination (solar
angle) and the angle of view. This variation, described by the Bi-directional Refectance Distribution
Function (BRDF), has been shown to be, at least in principle, characteristic for a given LAI and
leaf angle distribution, thus explaining the advantage of multi-angular measurements (Casa and
Jones, 2005).
The inversion of canopy refectance models is a widely employed procedure for the retrieval of LAI
from remote sensing. Such method is considered to be less subject to empiricism as compared to
the use of vegetation indices. Its application was made possible by the existence of fast inversion
procedures such as numerical optimisation algorithms. They consist in iterative processes aiming
at the minimisation of a cost function, expressing the agreement between measured and modelled
data, used to estimate model parameters. These techniques lend themselves very well to models
which are fast to run and have not many input parameters such as SAIL (Verhoef and Bach, 2007).
Many applications at a range of scales, from feld to region and globe, have shown the advantages
of such an approach which opens up the possibility of estimating not only canopy structural
parameters such as LAI and LAD (Leaf Angle Distribution), but also biochemical components
such as chlorophyll and nitrogen content.
However, because different parameter combinations may yield the same model ouput, the inversion
problem is said to be ill-posed in mathematical terms (Combal et al., 2002), requiring the injection
of a-priori information on parameter values, for example by including it in the cost function (Baret
and Buis, 2007). The accuracy of the parameter estimation depends as well on the validity of
model employed for simulating plant canopy refectance. In general, it can be assumed that 1-D
models are most suitable for the description of homogeneous canopies such as feld crops at a LAI
higher than 3. Row crops such as maize, especially at early growth stages, remarkably violate the
assumption of leaf random distribution on which most of these models are based. Models taking
into account more explicitly the 3-D architecture of plant canopies should thus be better suited.
However, 3-D models are generally very complex, with a large number of parameters and require
high computing power and run times. For these reasons although several very good 3-D models
have been proposed (Widlowski et al., 2007), they are not generally employed in the inverse
mode. Possible solutions for making available 3-D models to inversion operations include the use
of image fraction components (e.g. gap fraction) in place of canopy refectance as a model output
(Casa and Jones, 2005), hence taking into account only frst order light-canopy interactions, and/
or the use of alternative inversion approaches such as look-up-tables or neural networks which rely
on pre-computed databases and avoid repeated model runs during the optimisation process (Baret
and Buis, 2007). But frst of all a compromise has to be reached between the realism of the 3-D
canopy description and the simplicity of the model which should still be ideally parsimonious in
parameters and computing time.
The objective of the present work was to compare the performances and the operational limitations
of two contrasting type of models: a classical one-dimensional turbid medium canopy refectance
model, the PROSAIL (PROSPECT+SAIL) model (Jacquemoud et al., 2006; Verhoef and Bach,
2007) and a simple three-dimensional dynamic (4-D) maize model (Lopez-Lozano et al., 2007),
which allows a greater realism in the description of the canopy. This assessment was based on the
use of a specifcally gathered data set of multi-angular feld data obtained on maize canopies in
Italy in 2007 and 2008.
Materials and methods
Field data
Measurement campaigns were carried out in maize crops at different growth stages in 2007 and
2008. In July 2007 the measurements were carried out in the Sele Plain at the Improsta Experimental
Farm (Naples, Italy) at a maize growth stage V6 (Iowa State University, 1993). In 2008 the data
were collected at the Maccarese Farm (Fiumicino, Rome, Italy) for maize growth stages V5 and V8.
Multiple-look-angle remote sensing data were acquired from a height of 3 m (at nadir) over the
canopy, by using a feld sensor positioning system based on a extending bipod arm with levelling
head hinged on a goniometer to measure angles to the vertical (view zenith angles), having the
possibility of holding simultaneously 2-3 collimated sensors (Figure 1). Spectral radiance data were
acquired using an Analytical Spectral Devices (ASD) Field Spec Fr Pro spectroradiometer in the
spectral range of 350-2500 nm and converted into absolute refectance spectra using a calibrated
Spectralon panel. Simultaneously, collimated red-NIR images were acquired by employing the
Dycam ADC camera (Dycam Inc., Chatsthereworth, CA, USA). Maize canopy data were acquired
at view zenith angles (VZA) ranging from -60 to +60 with a step of 10, in most occasions along
the sun principal plane, but for some data sets along or across maize row direction (irrespective
of sun azimuth angle). Separately, soil spectral refectance data were also acquired at close range
(nadir) for both felds.
Spectroradiometer data were smoothed using Savitzky-Golay fltering with polynomial of order
3 and frame size 41, since this removes noise without affecting spectral characteristics (Leone et
al., 2007).
Dycam ADC images were classifed using a supervised classifcation procedure (minimum distance
to means) in order to obtain the fractions of image components (leaves and soil), used to calculate
the gap fraction, i.e. the fraction of soil visible at different view angles, subsequently used for the
inversion of the 3-D maize model.
In the same days as the remote sensing data acquisitions, biophysical characteristics of the maize
plants were obtained. These included direct measurement of single leaves lengths, widths and areas
(by using a Li-Cor Li-3100 area meter), and allowed the calculation of direct LAI.
Models and inversion techniques
The PROSAIL model was chosen as it has been widely tested and validated in the last 16 years in
a great number of studies both in the direct and the inverse mode (Jaquemoud et al., 2006). The
version used here included the hotspot treatment and assumed that the soil acted as a lambertian
diffuser, accepting as an input measured soil spectra, i.e. SAILH (Verhoef and Bach, 2007). The
inversion of the model against measured multiangular refectance spectra was carried out by
using an optimisation algorithm based on the simplex search method (Lagarias et al., 1998), in
a version allowing the possibility of constraining estimated parameters into realistic ranges by
providing bounds. Iterative optimization algorithms are known to be sensitive to the initial set
of parameter values chosen, and may also fall into local minima of the cost function. For these
reasons, a procedure was used in which initial parameter values were randomly drawn within the
specifed bounds and the algorithm was re-executed several times (replicates) for each estimation.

Figure 1. The measurement set-up used for acquiring
multi-angular canopy reflectance and gap fraction
data.

Figure 1. The measurement set-up used for acquiring multi-angular canopy refectance and gap
fraction data.
The parameters LAI and ALA (average leaf angle) were simultaneously estimated, while the other
PROSAIL parameters were kept fxed at nominal values (Table 1), except for soil spectra which
were those measured in each site.
The inversion was carried out for wavelengths 400-1350 nm at 1 nm bandwidth step for the
Maccarese 2007 data, in order to avoid absorption bands at higher wavelengths. For the 2007
Sele data they were limited to the 400-900 nm range, because of excessively noisy data at higher
wavelengths.
The 3-D model chosen was that developed by Lopez-Lozano et al. (2007). In the model, maize
plants are represented by simple geometrical shapes: a quadrangular pyramid represents the stem,
while each leaf is represented by an isosceles triangle. Leaf number, position on the stem, area
and inclination are defned based on equations derived from measurements and a previous model
developed by Espana (1998) and driven by development through the input of thermal time. The
model has few input parameters (Table 1), and despite the rather crude simplifcations, provides a
canopy description remarkably more realistic (Figure 2) as compared to the homogenous opaque
green slab of a turbid medium model.
Table 1. List of the input parameters of the 1-D model PROSAIL and of the dynamic 3-D model
of Lopez-Lozano (2007) with the values used for their inversion.
Model Parameter Description Unit Used values
PROSAIL s sun zenith angle radians measured
v view zenith angle radians measured
angle between sun and view azimuth radians measured
Rs vector of soil refectance (assumed lambertian) nm measured
Cab leaf chlorophyll a+b content g/cm
2
40
Cw leaf water content g/cm
2
0.012
Cdm leaf dry matter content g/cm
2
0.005
Cbp leaf brown pigment content - 0
N leaf mesophyll structure index - 1.5
Ang leaf surface roughness angle degrees 59
LAI leaf area index estimated
ALA average leaf angle assuming an ellipsoidal
distributition
degrees estimated
Hot hotspot parameter - 0.1
3-D maize N
max
Maximum n of leaves per plant n measured
S
max
Maximum leaf area per plant m
2
measured
Azimut Initial leaf azimuth angle degrees measured
D Plant density plants/
m
2
7
d
rows
Distance between rows m 0.75
H
max
Maximum plant height m measured
max
Inclination of largest leaf degrees estimated
A
leaf
difference of inclination between the biggest
and the smallest leaf
degrees 20
T Temperature sum C/d estimated
This model was chosen because of its simplicity, low number of parameters and fast run time,
typically 1.4 s on a laptop with an Intel Core 2 Duo Processor 1.66 GHz CPU for the generation
of a 3-D scene such as that of Figure 2, thus making it amenable to inversion through optimization
techniques.
The inversion of the 3-D maize model was carried with the same algorithm as used for the PROSAIL
inversion, i.e. the simplex search method with bounds, except that only 1 replicate run was used.
The cost function expressed the difference between measured and modelled gap fractions for the
view confgurations used in the measurements. Measured gap fractions were obtained from Dycam
ADC image classifcation. Modelled gap fractions were calculated using the Z-buffer technique,
consisting to project the generated 3-D scene in a given direction onto a grid. The value of each
grid point is then associated to the depth of the corresponding triangle. The gap fraction is fnally
computed as the ratio between the number of soil grid points (maximum depth) to the total number
of grid points. To avoid border effects, the scene is infnitely replicated, as described by Chelle et
al. (1998). The parameters to be estimated were T and A
leaf
(Table 1). LAI (formally a model
output) was calculated during the model simulations using the estimated parameter values.
The inversion of the PROSAIL model was generally very fast, employing typically less than 30 s for
one optimisation on a laptop with an Intel Core 2 Duo Processor 1.66 GHz CPU. The chosen stopping
simplex settings were: maximum 500 iterations, with 10,000 maximum function evaluations, or
a tolerance of 0.1 on the cost function or 0.01 on the parameter values. These settings, applied in
10 replicates, allowed making sure that the cost function had actually reached a global minimum.
This was appreciated, for example, by plotting the estimated parameter values against the initial
values used to initialise the simplex (Figure 3).
The bounds chosen for the parameters to estimate were 0 to 5 for LAI and 0-90 for ALA. This might
be considered as a way to introduce a priori information, in order to constrain the estimates into
plausible values. Maize LAI, from inversion of the PROSAIL model, yielded reasonable results
(Figure 4, left) with an overestimation of some points of the 2007 dataset. It should be noted that in
2007 the data sets acquired were prevailingly along or across maize rows irrespective of sun azimuth

Figure 2. A typical scene generated by the dynamic 3-D
maize model of Lopez-Lozano et al. (2007).

Figure 2. A typical scene generated by the dynamic 3-D maize model of Lopez-Lozano (2007).
angle, while in 2008 most sets had been acquired as much as possible along the sun principal plane
(i.e. with view azimuth coinciding with sun azimuth), thus providing a better sampling of typical
BRDF features such as the hot spot and therefore yielding better LAI estimates. The root mean
square error (RMSE) for the whole of the data points was 0.15.
The inversion of the 3-D maize model was much slower as compared to PROSAIL, needing typically
about 20 minutes on a laptop with an Intel Core 2 Duo Processor 1.66 GHz CPU. For this reason
only 1 replicate of simplex initialisation was performed. All other simplex stopping criteria used were
the same as for PROSAIL inversion and the parameters T and
max
were respectively constrained
into the bounds 50 to 2,500 C/d and 0 to 90. The measured parameter values had been gathered
in previous feld trials in Spain (Lopez-Lozano, 2007). LAI estimation with the 3-D maize model
was slightly better as compared to that obtained with PROSAIL (Figure 4, centre) with an overall
RMSE of 0.13. The points were quite well distributed along each side of the 1:1 line.
Since exactly the same inversion technique was used for the two models, the results obtained with
the 3-D maize model can be attributed to two possible causes: (1) the use of gap fraction instead
0 1 2 3 4 5
0
1
2
3
4
5
initial LAI
E
s
t
i
m
a
t
e
d

L
A
I
0 20 40 60 80 100
0
20
40
60
80
100
initial ALA
E
s
t
i
m
a
t
e
d

A
L
A

Figure 3. Example of estimated parameter values of the PROSAIL model as function of the
simplex initialization values for the 10 replicates.

Figure 3. Example of estimated parameter values of the PROSAIL model as function of the
simplex initialization values for the 10 replicates.
PROSAIL
0 1 2 3 4
0
1
2
3
4
RMSE =0.15
Measured LAI
E
s
t
i
m
a
t
e
d

L
A
I
Maize 3-D
0 1 2 3 4
0
1
2
3
4
RMSE =0.13
Measured LAI
E
s
t
i
m
a
t
e
d

L
A
I
Poisson
0 1 2 3 4
0
1
2
3
4
RMSE =0.12
Measured LAI
E
s
t
i
m
a
t
e
d

L
A
I

Figure 4. LAI estimation results obtained through the inversion of the PROSAIL (left), the
maize 3-D model of Lopez-Lozano et al. (2007) (centre) and the Poisson model (Nilson,
1971)(right). Filled triangles: measurements carried out at the Sele Plain in 2007; empty
circles: measurements carried at Maccarese in 2008.

Figure 4. LAI estimation results obtained through the inversion of the PROSAIL (left), the maize
3-D model of Lopez-Lozano (2007) (centre) and the Poisson model (Nilson, 1971) (right).
Filled triangles: measurements carried out at the Sele Plain in 2007; empty circles: measurements
carried at Maccarese in 2008.
of refectance in the optimisation, since this is a variable which depends only on canopy structure,
while refectance carries also other information, potentially useful but also confounding; (2) the
more realistic description of the canopy in the 3-D maize model. It should be noted that the model
was built on relationships describing maize leaf arrangement and size, which had been specifcally
derived from maize experimental data (Espana, 1998). This means that a great deal of a priori
information is implicitly injected into the inversion process.
In order to better understand the differences observed between the inversion of the two models, a test
was carried out by inverting a simple Poisson model (Nilson, 1971) on measured gap fraction data.
The model, Po(
v
)=exp
[-k(v)LAI]
where Po is the gap fraction and k(
v
) is the extinction coeffcient
as function of the view zenith angle
v
calculated according to Campbell (1986), was inverted using
the simplex with exactly the same settings as used for the PROSAIL model. The results were quite
good (Figure 4 right), suggesting that when the interest is for retrieving only canopy structure and
not biochemical parameters, and when there is an adequate number of measurements available e.g.
from several view angles, the use of gap fraction data alone might be suffcient, in place of the use
of spectral refectance data.
Conclusion
This work showed the feasibility of inverting a 3-D canopy model by using the same optimisation
technique as generally used for 1-D models. Of course the inversion process is much slower, but
increasingly available computing power should gradually reduce this limitation. The advantage
of this approach, as compared to the use of other inversion techniques such as look-up-tables and
neural networks, is that there is no need of setting up previously a databases of simulations, a rather
delicate task since it needs appropriate sampling of the parameters space and should be based
on model sensitivity analysis (Baret and Buis, 2007). The results of the estimation of LAI from
inversion of the 3-D model are marginally better than those obtained with the 1-D model (Figure
4). The use of gap fraction data is shown to be adequate for the present case, in which observation
from several view angles are available. Nevertheless, whenever limited directional sampling is
available, or when biochemical parameters such as chlorophyll are also needed, spectral refectance
(providing data at great number of wavelengths for each view angle) is necessary for the inversion
of models. It is possible to calculate canopy refectance in 3-D models by employing Monte Carlo
ray tracing or radiosity methods (e.g. Chelle et al., 1998), but these techniques are much slower as
compared to the Z-buffer algorithm used in the present study, currently precluding the possibility
of using optimisation methods for the inversion. Alternatively, when adequate directional sampling
is available, spectral refectance data, available from a range of remote sensing platforms, might
be converted into image fraction data (e.g. gap fraction), by using for example spectral unmixing
techniques (Peddle et al., 1999), and then used in the inversion.
In conclusion, further tests are necessary for a full comparison of 1-D and 3-D models by taking
into account differences in the availability of directional and/or spectral observations.
References
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of methods and associated problems. In: Liang, S., (Ed.), Advances in Land Remote Sensing: System
Modelling, Inversion and Applications. Springer, New York, pp. 171-200.
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inclination angle distribution. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 36: 317-321.
Casa, R. and Jones, H.G., 2005. LAI retrieval from multiangular image classifcation and inversion of a ray
tracing model. Remote Sensing of Environment 98: 414-428.
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L., 2002. Retrieval of canopy biophysical variables from bidirectional refectance using prior information
to solve the ill-posed inverse problem. Remote Sensing of Environment 84:1-15.
Espana, M., 1998. A dynamic model of maize 3D architecture: application to the parameterisation of the
clumpiness of the canopy. Agronomie 18:609-626.
Iowa State University Extension Service, 1993. How a corn plant develops. Special Report No. 48. Cooperative
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Jacquemoud, S., Verhoef, W., Baret, F., Zarco-Tejada, P.J., Asner, G.P., Frangois, C. and Ustin, S.L., 2006.
PROSPECT+SAIL: 15 Years of Use for Land Surface Characterization. In: IEEE International Geoscience
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Simplex Method in Low Dimensions. SIAM Journal of Optimization 9:112-147.
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on spectrometry of crop response to soil salinity. Agricultural water management 89 (1-2):39-48.
Lopez-Lozano, R., Baret, F., Chelle, M., Rochdi, N. and Espana, M., 2007. Sensitivity of gap fraction to
maize architectural characteristics based on 4D model simulations. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
143:217-229.
Nilson, T., 1971. A theoretical analysis of the frequency of gaps in plant stands. Agricultural and Forest
Meteorology 8, 2538.
Peddle, D.R., Hall, F.G. and LeDrew, E.F., 1999. Spectral mixture analysis and geometric-optical refectance
modeling of boreal forest biophysical structure. Remote Sensing of Environment 67:288-297.
Verhoef, W. and Bach, H., 2007. Coupled soil-leaf-canopy and atmosphere radiative transfer modeling to
simulate hyperspectral multi-angular surface refectance and TOA radiance data. Remote Sensing of
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Using GreenSeeker
to drive variable rate application of

plant growth regulators and defoliants on cotton
G. Vellidis, B. Ortiz, G. Ritchie, A. Peristeropoulos, C. Perry and K. Rucker
NESPAL National Environmentally Sound Production Agriculture Laboratory, University of
Georgia, Tifton, Georgia, USA; yiorgos@uga.edu
Abstract
The paper reports on a project designed to evaluate the feasibility of using the GreenSeeker
RT200
mapping system to drive variable rate application (VRA) of plant growth regulators (PGRs) and
defoliants on cotton in Georgia, USA. The frst years results indicate that NDVI appears to be
very good tool for differentiating management zones early and late in the growing season. At mid-
season, when the entire feld is covered by a solid green canopy, NDVI values become saturated
and are not useful for creating PGR management zones. Several confounding factors prevented us
from assessing the effectiveness of using NDVI to manage PGR application. Our results indicate
that NDVI seems to be an excellent tool for managing defoliant applications. In the three felds
we studied, VRA resulted in 8.4% less, 2.8% less, and 1% more defoliant used. In all 3 cases,
defoliation effectiveness was at least as good as or better than a producer-selected constant rate.
Keywords: biomass, vegetation index, NDVI
Introduction
In the United States, cotton is grown in 17 states and is a major crop in 14 of those states. The
Cotton Belt spans the southern half of the United States, stretching from Virginia to California.
Over the last three years, the area planted to cotton ranged from 5.1 to 6.3 million hectares. Cotton
is an intensively managed crop which requires careful nitrogen applications to prevent rank growth,
plant growth regulators (PGRs) to maintain a balance between vegetative and reproductive growth,
and defoliants at the end of the season to allow for mechanized harvesting. Additional inputs are
needed for pest management.
Recent research (Vellidis et al., 2004) has documented the uneven distribution of plant biomass in
cotton felds. This uneven distribution is a result of variability in soil parameters such as nutrients,
moisture, pH, texture and variability in microclimate and disease and pest pressures. Yet most
American cotton producers still apply agrochemicals at uniform rates across the entire feld. Common
sense as well as recent research suggests that variable rate application (VRA) of nitrogen, PGRs,
and defoliants compensates for the uneven distribution of plant biomass and is a good management
practice. For example, applying more PGR or defoliant to a section of the feld with high biomass and
less to a section with low biomass will result in more uniform plant growth or defoliation. In contrast,
constant rate applications frequently result in over-application or under-application and subsequently
uneven growth or defoliation. Uniform growth and defoliation results in higher harvesting effciency,
higher fber quality, and an earlier harvest with an increased recoverable yield. Uneven growth or
defoliation sometimes induces cotton producers to apply additional agrochemicals.
PGRs and defoliants are a major expense for cotton producers and ineffcient use can signifcantly
drive up production costs. VRA has the potential for improving the effciency of application and
the effciency of production. VRA also has environmental benefts as chemicals are applied where
needed at the rates needed and the threat of nonpoint source pollution is reduced. These issues have
raised American cotton producers interest in precision farming as a means of reducing production
costs and improving proftability.
VRA on cotton can be implemented using various techniques. The use in this study entails using
vehicle-based sensors to create biomass maps, delineating the map into management zones with
similar biomass, ground-truthing the maps, creating appropriate agrochemical prescriptions for the
zones, and then using a variable rate controller to apply the prescriptions. Biomass maps are typically
created from multispectral images captured by cameras on airborne or satellite platforms or by
vehicle-based sensors. The technique relies on using vegetation indices (Vis) to quantify biomass.
VIs are mathematical ratios of light refectance at specifc wavelengths. Although dozens of
vegetation indices have been developed, the one most commonly used for quantifying biomass
is the NDVI or Normalized Difference Vegetation Index. NDVI is calculated as shown below. In
the equation, NIR and RED are refectance in the near infrared and in the red range, respectively.
(1)
Several studies have shown very good correlations between NDVI and plant biomass and
practitioners frequently refer to NDVI as an index which measures biomass.
The biggest users of NDVI for cotton management are cotton producers in the Midsouth region of
the USA. There, NDVI maps are developed from multispectral aerial images by InTime (Greenville,
Mississippi, USA), a company which offers precision farming services. The prescriptions are
developed after NDVI maps are ground-truthed by a consultant or the producer. The prescriptions
are then loaded into a variable rate controller and the chemicals applied with a ground-based sprayer
or an aerial applicator. In many cotton producing areas, however, there are no service providers
similar to InTime so cotton producers are evaluating alternative solutions. For example, in Louisiana
and Alabama, cotton producers have been experimenting with variable rate application of PGRs
and defoliants using vehicle-based sensors such as the GreenSeeker
(NTech Industries, Ukiah,

California, USA) to develop NDVI maps. This paper presents the results from the frst year of a
project designed to evaluate the feasibility of using GreenSeeker
to drive variable rate application

of PGRs and defoliants in Georgia, USA.
To achieve our objectives, we designed a replicated experiment which compared three treatments:
control, VRA of PGRs only, and VRA of defoliants only. Under the Control treatment, both PGR
and defoliant was applied at a producer-selected constant rate. In the other 2 treatments, either
the PGR or defoliant was applied variably while the other input was applied at the constant rate.
The experimental design contained 3 experimental blocks within 2 producers felds. Each block
contained 3 replicates of each treatment. Each treatment replicate consisted of 18 rows of cotton that
ran the entire length of the feld. Thus there were 9 strips in each block (Figure 1). The replicates
were randomly distributed within the block. Both felds were planted during the frst week of May
2008 with Roundup-Ready
DP 555 seed. Block 1 was 11.6 ha (29 ac), Block 2 6.8 ha (17 ac),
and Block 3 14.2 ha (35 ac).
We selected the GreenSeeker RT200 on-the-go variable rate application and mapping system with
which to create NDVI maps and installed the system on a John Deere 6700 high clearance sprayer.
The system consists of 6 GreenSeeker sensors, ruggedized PDA interface with color display, and
desktop and PDA software. The sensors were mounted on the spray boom (Figure 2) to sense 3 rows
of cotton on either side of the sprayer centerline. Thus the middle 6 rows of the 18 rows in each
strip were directly sensed. Although the NDVI response of each individual sensor was recorded,
only the average response was used for creating NDVI maps of the experimental blocks. The
GreenSeeker system was linked to a DGPS receiver and all data were georeferenced in real time.
A GreenSeeker sensor generates light at two specifc wavelengths (red and NIR), then measures the
light refected from the target typically plant material and soil. Because the sensors create their
e reflectanc e reflectanc
e reflectanc e reflectanc
Red NIR
Red NIR
NDVI
+
=
1
2
(1) 3
4
5
6
7
Figure 1. Aerial photographs of the fields used
in the study. Superimposed on the photographs
is the experimental design showing the
replicated strips. Each strip is 18 rows wide or
approximately 16.2 m (54 ft).
Field 2
Cotton 2008
One block containing
3 reps in this field.
Control - orange
Defoliant VRA - yellow
PGR VRA - blue
Block 3
Field 1
Cotton 2008
Two blocks each containing
3 reps
Block 1
Block 2
Control - orange
Defoliant VRA - yellow
PGR VRA - blue
Figure 1. Aerial photographs of the felds used in the study. Superimposed on the photographs is
the experimental design showing the replicated strips. Each strip is 18 rows wide or approximately
16.2 m (54 ft).
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
Figure 2. Two of the 6 GreenSeeker

sensors mounted on the spray boom of the
JD6700 high clearance sprayer used in the
study.
Figure 2. Two of the 6 GreenSeeker
sensors mounted on the spray boom of the JD6700 high

clearance sprayer used in the study.
own illumination, through light modulation they are able to mostly eliminate the interference of
ambient light. For optimal performance, the sensors must be located between 0.8 and 1.2 m above
the plant/crop canopy. When in this optimal range, each sensor has an optical feld of approximately
0.6 m. So, when the crops are small, depending on the tillage system, bare soil or plant residue is
also sensed. As the plants mature and the canopy closes, the optical feld is flled with plant material.
We installed a Mid-Tech Legacy 6000 variable rate controller (VRC) on the John Deere 6700 high
clearance sprayer to variably apply PGRs and defoliants in response to prescription maps created
from the NDVI maps produced by the GreenSeeker system.
Collecting biomass data
Beginning with the last week in June 2008, NDVI maps were created at weekly intervals for all
three blocks. Management Zone Analyst (MZA) software was used to delineate NDVI data into
like classes or potential management zones. MZA uses a fuzzy c-means unsupervised clustering
algorithm to assign feld information into like classes (Fridgen et al., 2004). MZA is free software
developed by the United States Department of Agriculture.
The results from the frst few NDVI maps were overlaid and used to delineate the experimental blocks
into zones of low, medium, and high biomass. Two to 3 sampling areas were established within each
strip (replicate). Each sampling area consisted of two 10 m long 3 rows wide areas bracketing the
middle 6 rows of each strip. The center of each sampling area was georeferenced with a DGPS receiver.
Biomass data were collected 4 times during the growing season on the dates shown in Figure 3. At
each sampling event, three adjacent plants were selected within each of the sampling areas. Plant
height was measured and then the plants were clipped at the soil surface, bagged, and returned to
the laboratory for further processing. At the laboratory, the plant material was separated into leaves,
stems, and fruit and oven-dried at 70 C for 48 hours. The dry plant material was then weighed
and the data recorded.
Creating and applying prescription maps
Prescription maps for the PGR and defoliant applications were created using the most recent
NDVI map (Figure 3). As described above, MZA was used to delineate 3 like classes or potential
management zones from the NDVI data. The PGR VRA prescriptions and constant rates were
recommended by the producers based on the maps we presented to them and on their personal
observations of the crop. The defoliant prescriptions used on the VRA defoliant strips were developed
by a University of Georgia cotton extension specialist who walked through the feld and compared
his visual observations to our maps. Producer recommendations were used for the constant rates.
Because the 08 July NDVI values for the low and medium biomass zones were similar, these two
zones within each block were grouped together and received the same rate (medium rate) during
the 15 July PGR application. The high biomass zones received the highest rate. During the August
PGR application in Block 3 (Figure 1) and the October defoliation in all blocks, 3 different rates
were used (low, medium, and high).
A PGR marketed under the trade name PIX was applied on all three blocks on 15 July, and
on Block 3 only on 19 August. The second PIX application scheduled for Blocks 1 and 2 was
cancelled because of the deluge of rain brought to the area by Hurricane Fay between August 21
and 23 approximately 230 mm of rainfall over the 3 day period.
The heavy rain and high winds associated with the storm caused the cotton plants to fall over
effectively eliminating the alleyways on which our sprayer traveled through the felds. At that point,
the two producers who managed the felds requested that we not pass through the felds with our
sprayer until conditions improved. Consequently no additional NDVI maps were created until early
October, 2008. Both felds were defoliated in mid-October, 2008. Again, the producers requested that
we not use the sprayer in the felds following defoliation. To ensure that we were able to document
the NDVI response of defoliation, we measured NDVI in each of the sampling areas with a hand-
held GreenSeeker sensor. The handheld sensor is identical to the sensors used on the sprayer. Data
were recorded continuously while a student passed the sensor over a continuous section of plants
within the sampling area. The data were averaged and a single NDVI value assigned to the sampling
area. Figure 3 summarizes the mapping, sampling, and application activities for each feld.
Two defoliants (Thidiazuron and Tribufos) as well as a boll opener (Ethephon) were applied
simultaneously during defoliation. The high, medium, and low application rates of active ingredient
applied were 367, 260, and 210 ml/ha (12.4, 8.8, 7.1 oz/ac), respectively. The constant or control
rate selected by the producers was 355 ml/ha (12 oz/ac) for Blocks 1 and 2 and 296 ml/ha (10 oz/
ac) for Block 3. Defoliation took place on 15 October in Block 3 and 21 October in Blocks 1 and
2. Defoliation effectiveness was assessed with plant sampling on 28 October in Block 3 and 07
November in Blocks 1 and 2.
Yield maps
Block 3 was harvested on 12 November 2008 while Blocks 1 and 2 were harvested on 08 January
2009. Both felds were harvested with producer-owned John Deere cotton harvesters equipped with
Ag Leader
(Ag Leader, Ames, Iowa) cotton yield monitors. Yield maps will be created when the
producers make the yield data available to us.
Analysis of results
ArcGIS
(ESRI, Redlands, California) was used to extract NDVI values corresponding to the 6
middle rows adjacent to sampling areas from the NDVI maps. NDVI data from the mapping dates
closest to the plant sampling dates were associated in a table. Statistical analyses were performed
to determine if there were signifcant differences between treatments. To overcome possible spatial
dependence between NDVI observations, we incorporated spatial autocorrelation into the standard
general linear models (spatial-GLM). In the spatial-GLM, three distance-related parameters (sill,
range and nuggets) were estimated, along with those in the standard-GLM. The spatial-GLM was
carried out by PROC MIXED in SAS. The experiment was also evaluated qualitatively using the
observations of the producers, researchers, technicians, and students associated with the project.
Equipment performance
Overall, the GreenSeeker system performed well during the study. Our only frustration with the
GreenSeeker system was that on occasion, multiple PDA resets were required to establish the
42
43
44
45
Figure 3. Project timeline showing the occurrence of NDVI mapping, plant sampling, and
PGR and defoliant applications. Arrows without the F1 (Field 1) or F2 (Field 2) designation
indicate that the event took place in both fields on the same date.
2
6

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Def
F1
F1
NDVI Mapping
Plant Sampling
PGR or Defoliant
Application
F1 = Field 1 (Block 1 & Block 2)
F2 = Field 2 (Block 3)
PGR = Plant Growth Regulator
Def = Defoliant
October November July September June August
Figure 3. Project timeline showing the occurrence of NDVI mapping, plant sampling, and PGR
and defoliant applications. Arrows without the F1 (Field 1) or F2 (Field 2) designation indicate
that the event took place in both felds on the same date.
proper communication links between the PDA user interface in the sprayer cabin, the DGPS, and
the sensors. Once these links were established, the system performed fawlessly. Our experience
with similar PDAs indicates that this is a frequent problem and may be a function of software or
hardware compatibility with the PDAs operating system.
The Mid-Tech Legacy 6000 variable rate controller and the John Deere 6700 high clearance sprayer
system was calibrated at 4 application rates: 74 l/ha (8 gal/ac), 92 l/ha (10 gal/ac), 111 l/ha (12 gal/
ac), and 129 l/ha (14 gal/ac). The system was able to achieve the three higher rates consistently
but had diffculty maintaining the lowest rate. Because the VRC recorded the actual application
rates, we were able to create as-applied maps and compare them to the target prescription maps
as illustrated in Figure 4.
NDVI
During late June and July and again in October, there was a wide range of NDVI values. In June
and July, lower NDVI values may have been the result of nitrogen defciency (which was not
measured during plant sampling), lower biomass, or a combination of both. In October, lower
values indicated loss of chlorophyll from crop senescence. In mid-season (August), more than 90%
of NDVI values exceeded 0.8 and nearly half were above 0.9 (Table 1). These observations refect
that by mid-season there was a complete, dense, and very green canopy throughout the felds. This
close clustering of NDVI values effectively eliminates this VI as a tool for discriminating biomass
differences during mid-season cotton. Large biomass differences did exist during this period and
were documented by the plant sampling. The biomass differences were driven primarily by plant
size which NDVI was not able to discriminate effectively under full-canopy conditions. There was
good correlation between NDVI and plant height, stem mass, and leaf mass during the early and
late season periods but not during mid-season. Therefore NDVI appears to be an effective tool for
delineating potential management zones during the early and late season.
PGRs
In both study felds, the inherent variability of soils and topography resulted in a very wide range of
plant biomass data. For example, in Block 3, the southernmost end of the block (shown in yellow
in the NDVI map of Figure 4) is very sandy. Here plants reached a maximum height of 0.3 m. In
contrast, the central section of the block contained a swath of plants that exceeded 1.5 m in height
(red areas in Figure 4). The area just north and south of a waterway on the northern end of the block
(yellow in Figure 4) is topographically low and remained fooded for several days and water logged
for at least two weeks after the heavy rains in August. This resulted in the early defoliation of all
the plants in the area, loss of most of the plants, and some leaf re-growth on the remaining plants
in September. Similar, but not as extreme, variability was observed in Blocks 1 and 2.
For the reasons discussed above, there were statistically signifcant differences in plant height,
stem mass, leaf mass, and fruit mass across zones within a treatment. There were no statistical or
visual differences across treatments within zones with the same NDVI class. PGRs are applied to
maintain a balance between vegetative and reproductive growth. Plants which receive the optimal
application rate should have higher yields than plants which receive suboptimal rates. Consequently,
we expected to see some differences in our results as plants within the same zone but in different
treatments received different rates. One possible explanation for these results is that the PGR
response may have been overwhelmed by residual soil nitrogen from a legume crop in the spring
of 2008 which preceded the cotton.
Defoliant
Defoliation was very effective in Block 3. With the exception of one sampling area from which
we collected 15.4 g of leaves from 3 plants, all the plants collected, regardless of treatment, were
completely defoliated. This indicates that the 3 defoliant rates used in the VRA treatment were as
46
47
48
49
50
15 Oct 2008
Defoliation
06 Oct 2008
NDVI
Field 2
0.00 to 0.65
0.65 to 0.75
0.75 to 0.90
(74 L/ha)
(92 L/ha)
(129 L/ha)
Figure 4. In the NDVI map to the left, each strip represents 1 of 9 treatment replicates. As
the crop approaches maturity, the range of NDVI values increases allowing for better zone
delineation. The map on the right displays the target defoliant application rates in the three
defoliant VRA strips as solid blocks of color. The dots indicate the application rate achieved
by the VRC and sprayer. The 2 higher rates were achieved consistently while the lowest rate
was not. The field was fully defoliated within a week of application.
Figure 4. In the NDVI map to the left, each strip represents 1 of 9 treatment replicates. As
the crop approaches maturity, the range of NDVI values increases allowing for better zone
delineation. The map on the right displays the target defoliant application rates in the three
defoliant VRA strips as solid blocks of color. The dots indicate the application rate achieved by
the VRC and sprayer. The 2 higher rates were achieved consistently while the lowest rate was
not. The feld was fully defoliated within a week of application.
Table 1. Distribution of NDVI values during the growing season in Block 3 (Field 2).
17 July 2008 18 August 2008 06 October 2008
NDVI % of data NDVI % of data NDVI % of data
0.50-0.65 26% 0.00-0.80 6% 0.50-0.65 30%
0.65-0.75 38% 0.80-0.90 45% 0.65-0.75 28%
0.75-0.90 33% 0.90-0.94 49% 0.75-0.90 33%
effective as the constant rate. A normalized value of 271 ml/ha (9.2 oz/ac) of active ingredient were
used on the VRA treatment compared to 296 ml/ha (10 oz/ac) on the control treatment or 8.4% less
product for the same level of defoliation.
The defoliation results from Blocks 1 and 2 were more complex. This felds producer exhausted
his irrigation water supply in mid-July. Little rainfall was received in the subsequent month and the
cotton transitioned from vegetative growth to maturation. The heavy rains of late August reversed
this trend and 0.2 to 0.3 m of new growth with many leaves and young fruit topped the cotton plants
by mid-October when the feld was defoliated. NDVI maps of Block 1 and Block 2 created on 15
October show that more than 86% and 87% of the data points were above 0.75 NDVI in Block 1
and Block 2, respectively. In contrast, only 33% of Block 3 was above 0.75 one week earlier (Figure
4). Using the Block 3 NDVI thresholds to create the defoliant application zones for Blocks 1 and 2
resulted in only medium and high application rates in Block 1 and just two small low application
rate areas totaling 0.2 ha (0.5 ac) in Block 2.
Our cotton extension specialist recommended the same defoliant application rates for Blocks 1 and
2 as were used for Block 3. Consequently, the vast majority of Blocks 1 and 2 were sprayed with
the highest defoliant rate. The producers constant rate (355 ml/ha, 12 oz/ac) was slightly lower
than our highest rate (367 ml/ha, 12.4 oz/ac).
In Block 1, a normalized value of 359 ml/ha (12.1 oz/ac) of active ingredient was used on the VRA
treatment compared to 355 ml/ha (12 oz/ac) on the control treatment or 1% more product. Dried
leaf mass remaining on the plants averaged 12.1 g in the VRA treatment and 26.2 g in the Control
treatment (constant rate).
In Block 2, a normalized value of 345 ml/ha (11.7 oz/ac) of active ingredient was used on the VRA
treatment compared to 355 ml/ha (12 oz/ac) on the control treatment or 2.8% less product. Dried
leaf mass remaining on the plants averaged 7.3 g in the VRA treatment and 29.2 g in the Control
treatment (constant rate). The leaf mass differences are attributed to the slightly higher application
rate used in the VRA treatment. Although the differences between VRA and Control leaf mass were
statistically signifcantly different in both Block 1 and Block 2, it is unclear if these differences held
any practical signifcance in terms of recoverable yield until the yield data are analyzed.
Conclusions
Tools like the GreenSeeker appear to be both useful and practical for managing PGR and defoliant
application on cotton in Georgia, USA. These tools are very good at differentiating management
zones based on NDVI early and late in the growing season. At mid-season, when the entire feld is
covered by a solid green canopy, NDVI values become saturated and are not useful for creating PGR
management zones. Several confounding factors prevented us from assessing the effectiveness of
using NDVI to manage PGR application. However, NDVI seems to be an excellent tool for managing
defoliant applications. Under typical growing conditions, cotton plants have begun senescing as
they approach maturity providing for a wide range of NDVI values and the opportunity to create
management zones that beneft from VRA. In the three experimental blocks which we studied, VRA
resulted in 8.4% less, 2.8% less, and 1% more product. In all 3 cases, defoliation effectiveness was
at least as good as or better than the constant rate.
References
Fridgen, J.J., N.R. Kitchen, K.A. Sudduth, S.T. Drummond, W.J. Wiebold, and C.W. Fraisse. 2004. Management
Zone Analyst (MZA): Software for Subfeld Management Zone Delineation. Agron. J. 96:100-108.
Vellidis, G., M.A. Tucker, C.D. Perry, T. Wells, and C. Kvien. 2004. Predictive cotton lint yield maps from
aerial photographs. Precision Agriculture 5(6):547-564.
Canopy temperature interpretation of thermal imagery for
crop water stress determination
M. Meron
1
, J. Tsipris
1
, V. Alchanatis
2
and Y. Cohen
2
1
MIGAL Galilee technology Center, P.O. Box 831, Kiryat Shmona 11016, Israel; meron@migal.org.il
2
Institute of Agricultural Engineering, ARO - The Volcani Center, P.O. Box 6, Bet Dagan 50250,
Israel
Abstract
Crop water stress determination methods from canopy temperatures, derived from the surface
energy balance equations, treat the canopy temperature as the big-leaf, under the assumption
that the canopy behaves as a single homogeneous virtual leaf, covering the surface. Introduction
of very high resolution thermal imagery, 0.01 to 0.3 m pixel size, acquired from low altitude
platforms, enabled fnely detailed measurement of the whole canopy, raising the question how to
select the relevant temperatures. One approach is to select the sunlit leaves confrming to the big
leaf energy balance paradigm. However, thermal imagery alone lacks part of the information,
and needs additional marking or synchronized visible imagery, making the process complicated
and expensive. The other approach is to use full frame pixel statistics without pattern recognition,
by selecting the mean temperature of the cold fraction from the pixel histogram,. That greatly
simplifes processing for large scale aerial thermography. In irrigation experiments conducted on
cotton and vine grapes, both approaches were tested in parallel. Ground referenced thermal and
visible images were overlapped, and sunlit, shaded and whole canopy leaves were selected for
crop temperature evaluation. The pixel histograms of the same images were analyzed for the mean
temperatures of the lowest 33% and 100% of the pixels, after discarding soil related 7 C higher
than air temperature pixels. Several crop water stress indices (CWSI) were compared to leaf (LWP)
and stem water potentials (SWP) and stomatal conductance. CWSI values determined in grape
vines by either image segmentation or histogram analysis methods correlated well with SWP and
stomatal conductance, with closely similar correlation coeffcients. In cotton, CWSI determined
by histogram analysis was more sensitive stress indicator than LWP. The equal suitability of both
methods in canopy temperature evaluation for crop water stress evaluation was demonstrated.
Keywords: crop-thermography, Vine-grapes, cotton, irrigation, reference surfaces
Introduction
Aerial crop thermography was introduced recently as a viable tool for large scale crop stress
monitoring, thus image interpretation became important for application. Crop water stress
determination methods from canopy temperatures, derived from the surface energy balance
equations (Jackson et al., 1981) treated the canopy temperature as a single value, of a virtual leaf
covering the surface. This abstraction of reducing the three dimensional crop to a one-dimensional
big leaf assumes a homogeneous, level, continuous and extensive canopy, which is non-existent in
the nature. In evapo-transpiration modeling the big-leaf was further divided into sun-lit and shade
sections e.g. (Petersen et al., 1992), or into vertical layers (Alves et al., 1998). Thermal variability
of the crop canopy per-se, without normalization to ambient conditions, was also suggested as crop
stress indicator (Fuchs, 1990).
Introduction of very high resolution thermal imagery, 0.01 to 0.3 m pixel size, acquired from low
altitude platforms, enabled fnely detailed measurements of the whole canopy, revealing a wide
range of temperatures (Meron, 1987). Several methods were suggested for the assessment of crop
water stress from crop temperatures; however, in all of the methods the question to be addressed
remained: which part of the image represents the valid crop temperature in the acquired image?
Superimposing coordinated thermal and visible images (Leinonen and Jones 2004; Alchanatis et al.,
2006; Moller et al., 2007) enables separation of areas of interests by color or thermal segmentation,
and identifcation of soil, sunlit or shaded canopy temperature ranges within the segmented parts.
However, highly accurate specialized imaging equipment is required for exact pixel-to-pixel
coordination at the acquisition stage, or labor intensive implementations when ground references
are used for co-registration in post processing. The costs involved hinder large-scale implementation
of this method in production agriculture for the time being.
An alternative method, better suited for large scale production, ignores pattern recognition, by using
full frame pixel histogram analysis. Soil and non-crop temperature related pixels are discarded by
above and under air temperature thresholds and the mean value of the cold fraction of the canopy
is regarded as the relevant canopy temperature (Meron et al., 2003).
The image superimposition and pixel histogram analysis methods of canopy temperature evaluation
for crop water stress determination are compared in the current paper.
Field plots
Images were acquired at two locations, in a grapevine (Vitis vinifera cv. Merlot) irrigation experiment
at Kibbutz Yiftah, Israel (33.31 N; 35.86 E; 475 masl) and in a cotton (Gossypim hirsutum) irrigation
experiment at the Upper Galilee Field Crops Experimental Farm (33.11N, 35.35 E 70 masl),during
the summer of 2005. Measurements were made on grapevines planted in 1996 in a NS direction
with a vine and row spacing of 1.5 m and 3.0 m, respectively, at 25% crop cover across rows and
on cotton with 0.965 m row spacing, with 60% crop cover at the measurement dates. Three water
stress levels were induced in the grapes by differential irrigation during the season, to maintain
SWP of -7, -10 and -14 MPa (Moller et al., 2007). Six stress levels were induced in cotton, by
doubling drip lines, or withholding irrigation 0, 2, 3, 4, and 6 days before the measurements (Sela
et al., 2007). All treatments were randomly replicated in four blocks.
Image acquisition
Images analyzed in this work were captured in grapes on 2005 August 9 (14 frames), when stress
levels became fully expressed, and in cotton on 2005 June 14 (24 frames), before canopy closure.
Thermal images of the plots were taken with an uncooled thermal infrared camera (ThermaCAM
model SC2000, FLIR Systems Inc.). The camera had a 320240 pixel microbolometer sensor,
sensitive in the spectral range of 7.5-13 m. Digital color images were acquired with a digital
camera (DSCF717, Sony Inc. Japan) that was attached to the thermal camera. The two cameras were
mounted on a truck-crane about 15 m above the canopy. The acquired thermal picture resolution
was 0.016 m /pixel. This resolution enabled distinction between foliage and soil, as well as the
selection of pixels that contained sunlit leaves. Aluminum crosses and rulers were placed in the
cameras feld of view in order to geo-reference the digital RGB and the thermal images.
Thermal-RGB images co-registration procedure
The raw thermal images were obtained in FLIR Systems proprietary format and converted to grey-
scale images as described by (Cohen et al., 2005). The centers of the aluminum crosses were selected
as ground reference points, and the thermal and color digital images were aligned and registered
(Figure 1, crosses not seen) using ImagePro 4.0 software (Media Cybernetics Inc.). The color image
was used to select canopy pixels with specifc features, such as soil, shaded or sunlit pixels. This
was performed by transforming the color image from the RGB to the Hue-Saturation-Intensity
(HSI) color space and then by applying threshold values in each of the color components. Once
a set of threshold values clearly differentiating between the features was chosen by the operators
judgment, the consequent images were processed using the same set of values. Using the above
procedure, masks of shadowed and sunlit leaves were created, and the remainder of the image was
assigned to the soil mask (Figure 2). Calibrated pixels of the thermal image within the masks were
used for determination of soil, shaded and sunlit foliage temperatures.
The image superimposition and pixel histogram analysis methods of canopy temperature
evaluation for crop water stress determination are compared in the current paper.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Field plots : Images were acquired at two locations, in a grapevine (Vitis vinifera cv.
Merlot) irrigation experiment at Kibbutz Yiftah, Israel (33.31 N; 35.86 E; 475 masl) and in a
cotton (Gossypim hirsutum) irrigation experiment at the Upper Galilee Field Crops
Experimental Farm (33.11N, 35.35 E 70 masl),during the summer of 2005. Measurements
were made on grapevines planted in 1996 in a NS direction with a vine and row spacing of
1.5 m and 3.0 m, respectively, at 25% crop cover across rows and on cotton with 0.965 m
row spacing, with 60% crop cover at the measurement dates. Three water stress levels were
induced in the grapes by differential irrigation during the season, to maintain SWP of -7, -10
and -14 MPa (Moller et al. 2007). Six stress levels were induced in cotton, by doubling drip
lines, or withholding irrigation 0, 2, 3, 4, and 6 days before the measurements (Sela et al.,
2007). All treatments were randomly replicated in four blocks.
Image acquisition: Images analyzed in this work were captured in grapes on 2005
August 9 (14 frames), when stress levels became fully expressed, and in cotton on 2005 June
14 (24 frames), before canopy closure. Thermal images of the plots were taken with an
uncooled thermal infrared camera (ThermaCAM model SC2000, FLIR Systems Inc.). The
camera had a 320x240 pixel microbolometer sensor, sensitive in the spectral range of 7.513
m. Digital color images were acquired with a digital camera (DSCF717, Sony Inc. Japan)
that was attached to the thermal camera. The two cameras were mounted on a truck-crane
about 15 m above the canopy. The acquired thermal picture resolution was 0.016 m /pixel.
This resolution enabled distinction between foliage and soil, as well as the selection of pixels
that contained sunlit leaves. Aluminum crosses and rulers were placed in the cameras field
of view in order to geo-reference the digital RGB and the thermal images.

Figure 1. Visible (left) and thermal images (right) of grapes after co-registration. Aluminum
crosses not shown.
1.5 m
Figure 1. Visible (left) and thermal images (right) of grapes after co-registration. Aluminum
crosses not shown.
sunlit sunlit
shaded shaded

Soil Soil

Figure 2. Sunlit, shaded and soil temperature images of grapes. Masked parts (all others
except the relevant image fraction) in black, temperatures in grayscale, white to black,
hot to cold respectively.

Figure 2. Sunlit, shaded and soil temperature images of grapes. Masked parts (all others except
the relevant image fraction) in black, temperatures in grayscale, white to black, hot to cold
respectively.
Histogram analysis procedure
Calibrated thermal image pixels were extracted to an Excel spreadsheet, and aggregated into a
19-45.5, 0.1C bin step histogram. Values with 7C above and 10C below air temperature
were discarded as soil or other non-canopy related. Cumulative weighted mean temperatures were
calculated up to 33% and 100% of the histogram, representing the 33% cold fraction and the mean
crop temperature.
Crop water stress index (CWSI) evaluation
A wetted artifcial reference surface (WARS) (Twet in Eq.1), consisting of a 5 cm thick slab of
expanded polystyrene foam of 4030 cm was foated in a same size plastic tray, coated with a doubled
piece of 0.5 mm thick water absorbent non woven polyester and viscose mixture cloth (Spuntech,
Tiberias, Israel). The edges of the clothes served as a wick, soaking up water to replace evaporation,
and the polystyrene foam insulated the foat from the background. This foating set-up provided
horizontal and vertical alignment and a permanently wet surface of reproducible radiometric and
physical properties (Meron et al., 2003; Moller et al., 2007). CWSI was calculated by:
CWSI = (Tcanopy Twet) / (Tair + 5 Twet)) (1)
Where Tair stands for ambient temperature (C), Tcanopy was evaluated from image superimposition
or histogram analysis procedures, and Twet is the WARS temperature. CWSI ranges from 0 at no
stress to 1 at full stress.
Meteorological and physiological measurements
Stem water potential (SWP) of grapes was determined on pre wrapped, shaded leaves, after two
hours of on-plant equilibration, with a pressure chamber (AriMad, Kfar Haruv, Israel) as described
by (Naor 1998). Leaf water potential (LWP) in cotton was measured on sunlit, fully expanded
leaves with the same chamber, after (Meron et al., 1987). While LWP indicates directly measured
ambient leaf water potential, the pre-wrapped leaves in SWP are isolated from the atmosphere and
are in equilibrium with the stem water potential. Stomatal conductance in grapes was measured on
sun-exposed fully developed leaves in the upper part of the canopy using a steady-state porometer
(Li-Cor model 1600, Lincoln, Nebraska, USA). Meteorological conditions were recorded at the
margins of the feld, 2.0 m above ground, with a CR10X based weather station (Campbell Scientifc,
Lincoln, Nebraska). Plant measurements were replicated 4-6 times per each observation within
the picture frame.
Canopy temperature distribution
The majority of foliage temperatures were near normally distributed at 5-6 C range in the thermal
images taken in both species, as seen in histograms of two representative images (Figure 3). Since
foliage temperatures are near ambient, separation of foliage from non-foliage temperatures was
enabled by simple thresholding at a range around air temperature,. For low limit, lower threshold
of 10 C below air temperature may safely be set to include all the foliage, while still high enough
to exclude cold artifacts.
Bare soil temperatures were mostly above the 44.5 C upper range of the histograms, thus exposed
soil separation by histogram analysis is quite straight forward, and pixels with 7 C above ambient
may be safely related to the soil, as the theoretical foliage upper limit, evaluated from canopy energy
balance, is at most at air temperature +5 C (Irmak et al., 2000).
Shaded soil within the foliage temperature range may bias the foliage temperature evaluation
by histogram analysis. This fraction was negligible relatively to the other fractions in the cotton
frame, thus could be safely disregarded. In the grape image, the shaded soil pixels were more
noticeable, partly because the shade was a larger part of the image, and partly because the diffculty
to distinguish between shaded foliage and shaded soil in the RGB image. Wetted soil visible from
above may pose also a problem of mixing with foliage related pixels, but in this work, only a very
small visible surface area (less than 2%) was drip irrigation wetted.
Crop thermography derived CWSI (Figure 4. and Table 1) correlated well with physiological water
stress indicators. When all the pixels (100%) were used for crop temperature, regression coeffcients
were higher in full-frame processing, where non-foliage temperatures were eliminated by histogram
thresholding, than in the sunlit foliage fraction, segmented by visible image co-registration.
Apparently the work invested in pattern recognition, image co-registration and identifcation of
sunlit foliage had no specifc advantage in the vine grape experiment.
Calculation of CWSI by the coldest 33% histogram fraction yielded ~0.2 CWSI lower intercepts
with similar slopes and regression coeffcients compared with 100% pixels, Elimination of the
shaded soil interference is one of the advantages of using the coldest 33% pixels (Figure 3). Using
the colder fraction of the image histograms in the absence of visible reference enhances confdence
that non-relevant higher temperatures are excluded from the analysis.
In the cotton experiment (Table 2), CWSI was found more sensitive indicator of crop water stress
than LWP, which is the most commonly accepted plant stress indicator in cotton. In this case,
CWSI was evaluated only by the coldest 33% histogram fraction of the segmented images, within
the ambient +7 and -10 C range, a procedure justifed in conclusion of the comparison between
visible segmented to histogram analyses in grapes. Both LWP and CWSI indicators differentiated
between none stressed (doubled and 0 days delayed) and stressed (2-6 days delayed) irrigation
treatments. However, CWSI were statistically signifcant by Tukey HSD tests (JMP software SAS
Institute, Raleigh NC), while LWP was not signifcant. The differentiation between treatment
levels was also fner in CWSI than LWP. CWSI properly indicated the difference between 0, 2 and
3-6 days irrigation delays, while LWP only stress (3-6 days) or no stress (double, 0 and 2 days)
treatments differentiated.
Comparing CWSI evaluation methods from crop temperatures, both Leinonen and Jones (2004) and
Moller et al. (2007) concluded that using reference surfaces as upper or lower temperature boundaries
is more robust than application of energy balance equations. Not using energy balance for CWSI
determination turns the efforts invested in separation of the sunlit canopy unnecessary, as empirical
CWSI derived from reference surfaces could be evaluated directly from the image histogram.

20 25 30 35 40 45
Degrees C
0
5,000
10,000
15,000
20,000
70,000
80,000
Full frame
Shaded
Sunlit
Soil
20 25 30 35 40 45
Degrees C
0
10,000
20,000
100,000
Full frame
Shaded
Sunlit
Soil

Figure 3. Temperature distribution in thermal images of partially covered grape (left) and
cotton (right) canopies. Vertical line denotes ambient + 7C limit. Axes are broken at
the extremes.

The majority of foliage temperatures were near normally distributed at 5-6C range in
the thermal images taken in both species, as seen in histograms of two representative images
(Figure 3.). Since foliage temperatures are near ambient, separation of foliage from non-
foliage temperatures was enabled by simple thresholding at a range around air temperature,.
For low limit, lower threshold of 10C below air temperature may safely be set to include all
the foliage, while still high enough to exclude cold artifacts.
Bare soil temperatures were mostly above the 44.5C upper range of the histograms, thus
exposed soil separation by histogram analysis is quite straight forward, and pixels with 7C
above ambient may be safely related to the soil, as the theoretical foliage upper limit,
evaluated from canopy energy balance, is at most at air temperature + 5 (Irmak et al., 2000).
Shaded soil within the foliage temperature range may bias the foliage temperature
evaluation by histogram analysis. This fraction was negligible relatively to the other fractions
in the cotton frame, thus could be safely disregarded. In the grape image, the shaded soil
pixels were more noticeable, partly because the shade was a larger part of the image, and
partly because the difficulty to distinguish between shaded foliage and shaded soil in the
RGB image. Wetted soil visible from above may pose also a problem of mixing with foliage
related pixels, but in this work, only a very small visible surface area (less than 2%) was drip
irrigation wetted.
pixels
pixels
Figure 3. Temperature distribution in thermal images of partially covered grape (left) and cotton
(right) canopies. Vertical line denotes ambient +7 C limit. Axes are broken at the extremes.
Conclusions
Aerial crop thermography is a promising tool for wide area crop stress evaluation. Image acquisition,
ground referencing, and image processing tools became affordable; however, interpretation methods
are less developed. Traditional sunlit foliage temperature determination, necessary for energy
balance based stress evaluation, faces the diffculties of exact pixel-by-pixel registration of visible
and thermal images. Evaluations of crop temperature from the pixel histogram of a single frame
greatly simplify the image acquisition and processing for empirical CWSI derived from reference
surfaces. Results presented showed that this method evaluates correctly crop water stress in grapes
and cotton.
-1.5 -1.2 -0.9 -0.6
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
Full frame
-1.5 -1.2 -0.9 -0.6
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
Foliage
-1.5 -1.2 -0.9 -0.6
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
Shaded
-1.5 -1.2 -0.9 -0.6
Stem Water Potential
(MPa)
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
Sunlit
100 200 300 400
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
Full frame
100 200 300 400
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
Foliage
100 200 300 400
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
Shaded
100 200 300 400
Stomatal conductance
(mmol m
-2
s
-1)
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
Sunlit
C
W
S
I

Figure 4. CWSI of differentially stressed grape vines vs. SWP and stomatal conductance in
sunlit, shaded, and full foliage (sunlit + shaded) masks, or in full frames, soil included.
Values were calculated from cumulative weighted mean of the coldest 33% (rhomboid)
and 100% of the pixels (circle); ambient +7 and -10C pixels excluded. Regression
parameters shown in Table 1.

Figure 4. CWSI of differentially stressed grape vines SWP and stomatal conductance in sunlit,
shaded, and full foliage (sunlit + shaded) masks, or in full frames, soil included. Values were
calculated from cumulative weighted mean of the coldest 33% (rhomboid) and 100% of the pixels
(circle); ambient +7 C and -10 C pixels excluded. Regression parameters shown in Table 1.
References
Alchanatis, V., Y. Cohen, S. Cohen, M. Moller, M. Meron, J. Tsipris, V. Orlov, A. Naor and Z. Charit, 2006.
Fusion of IR and multispectral images in the visible range for empirical and model-based mapping of crop
water status. Paper number 061171, 2006 ASAE Annual Meeting.
Alves, I., A. Perrier and L. S. Pereira 1998. Aerodynamic and surface resistances of complete cover crops:
How good is the Big leaf? ASAE 41 (2): 345-351.
Cohen, Y., V. Alchanatis, M. Meron, Y. Saranga and J. Tsipris 2005. Estimation of leaf water potential by
thermal imagery and spatial analysis. Journal of Experimental Botany 56: 1843-1852.
Fuchs, M. 1990. Infrared measurement of canopy temperature and detection of plant water stress. Theoretical
and Applied Climatology 42: 253-261.
Irmak, S., D.Z. Haman and R. Bastug 2000. Determination of crop water stress index for irrigation timing and
yield estimation of corn. Agronomy Journal 92: 1221-1227.
Jackson, R.D., S.B. Idso, R.J. Reginato and P.J. Pinter 1981. Canopy temperature as a crop water stress indicator.
Water Resources Research 17: 1133-1138.
Table 1. Regression parameters of relations between CWSI and physiological stress indicators
of differentially stressed grape vines (details as in Figure 4).
100% pixels Coldest 33% pixels
sunlit shade foliage Full
frame
sunlit shade foliage Full
frame
Intercept 0.47 0.34 0.40 0.45 0.30 0.18 0.23 0.22
SWP Slope -0.18 -0.23 -0.22 -0.19 -0.19 -0.25 -0.21 -0.22
(MPa) R
2
0.673 0.798 0.738 0.864 0.671 0.826 0.644 0.838
SE 0.04 0.04 0.04 0.03 0.05 0.04 0.05 0.03
Stomatal - Intercept 0.83 0.79 0.81 0.81 0.67 0.66 0.62 0.63
conductance Slope -0.00075-0.00093-0.00085-0.00071 -0.00076 -0.00094-0.00077-0.00082
(mmol/m
2
/s) R
2
0.760 0.861 0.794 0.789 0.704 0.795 0.587 0.776
SE 0.04 0.03 0.04 0.03 0.04 0.04 0.06 0.04
Table 2. CWSI and LWP in gradually stressed cotton by withholding or doubling irrigation.
Letters denote Tukey HSD LSMeans ranges.
Stressed days LWP (MPa) CWSI (33% coldest)
Sunlit Shade Full frame
doubled -1.54 ns 0.01 c 0.00 b 0.01 b
0 -1.67 ns 0.03 bc 0.01 b 0.02 b
2 -1.68 ns 0.24 abc 0.26 ab 0.25 ab
3 -2.09 ns 0.33 a 0.34 a 0.34 a
4 -2.08 ns 0.31 ab 0.32 a 0.31 a
6 -2.01 ns 0.32 a 0.34 a 0.33 a
Leinonen, I. and H.G. Jones 2004. Combining thermal and visible imagery for estimating canopy temperature
and identifying plant stress. Journal of Experimental Botany 55(401): 1423-1431.
Meron, M. 1987. Measurement of cotton leaf temperatures with imaging IR radiometer. in: Proceedings of
International Conference on Measurement of Soil and Plant Water Status, Utah State Univesity, pp. 111-113.
Meron, M., D.W. Grimes, C.J. Phene and K.R. Davis 1987. Pressure chamber procedures for leaf water potential
measurements of cotton. Irrigation Science 8: 215-222.
Meron, M., J. Tsipris and D. Charitt 2003. Remote mapping of crop water status to assess spatial variability of
crop stress. In: Proceedings of 4th European Conference on Precision Agriculture, Berlin, Germany, Eds:
Stafford. J. and Werner. A. Wageningen Academic Publishers, the Netherlands, pp. 405-410.
Moller, M., V. Alchanatis, Y. Cohen, M. Meron, J. Tsipris, A. Naor, V. Ostrovsky, M. Sprintsin and S. Cohen

2007. Use of thermal and visible imagery for estimating crop water status of irrigated grapevine. Journal
of Experimental Botany 58(4): 827-838.
Naor, A. (1998). Relationships between leaf and stem water potentials and stomatal conductance in three feld-
grown woody species. Journal of Horticultural Science and Biotechnology 73: 431-436.
Petersen, K. L., M. Fuchs, S. Moreshet, Y. Cohen and H. Sinoquet 1992. Computing transpiration of sunlit
and shaded cotton foliage under variable water stress. Agronomy Journal 84: 91-97.
Sela, E., Y. Cohen, V. Alchanatis, Y. Saranga, S. Cohen, M. Mller, M. Meron, A. Bosak, J. Tsipris and V. Orolov
2007. Use of thermal imaging for estimating and mapping crop water stress in cotton. In: Proceedings of 6th
European Conference on Precision Agriculture, Skiathos, Greece, ed: Stafford. J. Wageningen Academic
Publishers, the Netherlands, pp. 365-371.
Using an active sensor to make in-season nitrogen
recommendations for corn
J. Schmidt
1
, R. Sripada
2
, D. Beegle
3
and A. Dellinger
4
1
USDA - Agricultural Research Service, Pasture Systems & Watershed Management Research Unit,
Building 3702 Curtin Road, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA; john.schmidt@ars.usda.gov
2
Monsanto Company, Technology Development, Mail Stop NC4G, 800 N. Lindbergh Blvd., St.
Louis, MO 63167, USA
3
The Pennsylvania State University, Department of Crop and Soil Sciences, 116 ASI Building,
University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA
4
USDA - Natural Resources Conservation Service, 478 Jeffers St, Bldg 3, Ste D, Dubois, PA 15801
Abstract
An active crop canopy refectance sensor could increase N-use effciency in corn (Zea mays L.), if
temporal and spatial variability in soil N availability and plant demand are adequately accounted
for with an in-season application. Our objective was to evaluate the success of using an active
sensor for making N recommendations to corn. Seven increments of in-season N fertiliser (0 to
280 kg/ha) were applied to corn at each of 15 sites during two years. These sites were selected to
represent the corn production regions of east central and southeastern Pennsylvania, conditions
typical in the USA mid-Atlantic region. Canopy refectance in the 590 nm and 880 nm wavelengths,
soil samples, and above-ground biomass were collected at the 6
th
-7
th
-leaf growth stage (V6-V7).
Relative Green Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (GNDVI
relative
) was determined, as
GNDVI(0N) / GNDVI(280 kg N/ha applied at planting). Grain yield was determined at harvest.
Economic Optimum N Rate (EONR) was determined using a quadratic-plateau yield response
function. Observations from the current study were compared to relationships between EONR and
GNDVI
relative
or the presidedress NO
3
test (PSNT) that were developed in an earlier study, based
on an absolute mean difference (AMD) between observed EONR and the previously determined
predicted relationships. The AMD for the EONR and GNDVI
relative
relationship from the current
study was 62.9 kg N/ha. The same measure of AMD was 75.0 kg N/ha for the relationship
between EONR and PSNT. GNDVI
relative
captured similar information as the PSNT, as refected
in a strong relationship (R
2
=0.57) between these two measurements. Above-ground biomass at
V6-V7 was correlated with PSNT (R
2
=0.38), and GNDVI
relative
was dependent on above-ground
biomass (R
2
=0.51). While the PSNT has been considered one of the best methods for making N
recommendations to corn in Pennsylvania, GNDVI
relative
provided as good or better an indicator
of EONR as PSNT, and provides an opportunity to easily adjust in-season N applications spatially.
Keywords: remote sensing, precision agriculture, spatial variability
Introduction
As the world population approaches seven billion, corn production without the adverse environmental
impacts of N fertiliser will be essential to sustainable agriculture. One of the major challenges
related to corn (Zea mays L) production today is the adverse environmental impacts associated
with the large amounts of N fertiliser applied to this crop. Nitrogen fertiliser recovered in the
above-ground plant biomass is less than 40% of the amount applied in the same year as the crop
grown, as represented by the major corn producing areas of the United States (Cassman et al.,
2002). Nitrogen fertiliser in excess of the amount required by corn is readily leached through soil
as NO
3
and adversely impacts ground and surface waters (Hong et al., 2007). With elevated NO
3

levels in ground and surface waters, human health risks are increased and premature eutrophication
of surface waters contributes to a cascade of negative impacts on aquatic life, fshing and tourist
industries, and drinking water quality.
After the 1940s when the availability of N fertiliser increased dramatically through the Haber-
Bosch process, N fertiliser recommendations were developed to facilitate the appropriate use by
farmers of this new and cheap source of N fertiliser. Many N fertiliser recommendations in the
USA were developed based on a model in which yield goal was the defning independent variable.
While some states still rely on this approach (Buchholz et al., 1993; Shapiro et al., 2003; Beegle,
2008), there has been a recent move towards developing N recommendations that better refect
economic return (Sawyer et al., 2006). Maximum yield, i.e. yield goal, does not usually correspond
well with the economic optimum N rate (EONR; Fox and Piekielek, 1995; Vanotti and Bundy
1994), and EONR represents best return for the farmer and corresponds with minimal N losses to
the environment (Hong et al., 2007).
While the spatial variability in crop demand and soil supplying capacity for nutrients has long
been recognised, the recent availability of precision technologies has encouraged researchers
to pursue methods with which to capture the appropriate information for spatially variable N
recommendations (Blackmer et al., 1995; Scharf et al., 2005; Schmidt et al., 2007). Remote sensing
techniques can be used to detect N defciency in corn (Blackmer et al., 1995), and the density
of spatial information available using this technology is particularly attractive for developing
spatially variable N recommendations. Active sensors that can be mounted on a N applicator are
commercially available, and recent research suggests that these sensors can be used for developing
N recommendations for corn (Dellinger et al., 2008). While this latest research has correlated
EONR directly to canopy refectance, the results were based on feld studies from a relatively
small geographic region, and whether the developed algorithms can be extrapolated to a larger
geographic region was undetermined.
The objective of the current study was to evaluate the relationship between EONR and crop canopy
refectance for 15 different feld site years in Pennsylvania, USA.
Corn was grown in a total of 15 farmers felds in 2007 and 2008, located in east central and
southeastern Pennsylvania (Table 1). Previous crop at each of these sites was either corn or soybean
(Glycine Max L. Merr.) with notill (i.e. no tillage) the standard tillage practice. Except for N fertiliser
application, local management practices typical for corn production were followed.
At each site, eight N treatments were arranged in a randomised complete block design with four
blocks. Nitrogen treatments included: 0 (control), 45, 90, 135, 180, 225, and 280 kg N/ha applied at
V6-V7 growth stage (6
th
-7
th
fully mature leaf); and 280 kg N/ha applied immediately after planting
(N reference). These treatments were adjusted slightly at one site, PC3-2007, because the farmer
had inadvertently applied 45 kg N/ha at planting, so additionally including: 0, 22, 45, 67, 135,
180, and 225 applied at V6-V7; and 280 kg N/ha applied immediately after planting. Nitrogen was
broadcast applied by hand between the rows as NH
4
NO
3
in 2007 and as urea in 2008. Plots were
4.6-m wide by 9.1 m long (six 0.76 m wide rows).
Preplant soil samples consisted of four or fve 10-cm-diam. cores (open-faced auger), 0-15 cm deep,
collected at planting. Samples from all four blocks were composited and a subsample retained, air
dried, and ground to pass a 2-mm sieve. Soil pH, P, K, and organic matter content were determined
by the AASL (http://www.aasl.psu.edu). Details about specifc analytical methods were provided
by Dellinger et al. (2008).
Soil samples for the presidedress NO
3
test (PSNT) were collected at V6-V7 from each control
treatment (n=4). Samples consisted of two or six 10 or 2 cm diam. cores (open faced-auger or
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e
r
e

d
e
t
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r
m
i
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s
i
n
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e
c
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3

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e
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(
I
C
P
)
.
step tube-type probe, respectively) from 0-30 cm deep. A subsample was retained, air dried, and
ground to pass a 2 mm sieve.
To determine inorganic soil N, ten g of soil were shaken in an Erlenmeyer fask with 50 ml of 2
M KCl for 30 minutes at 200 rpm, fltered through a Whatman No. 2 flter paper, and analysed
for NH
4
-N and NO
3
-N using fow injection analysis (QuickChem Method 10-107-04-1-A, Lachat
Instruments, Milwaukee, WI).
Canopy refectance data were collected at V6-V7 ( 16-30 June) using a Crop Circle ACS-210
sensor (Holland Scientifc, Lincoln, NE). The ACS-210 measures refectance at 590 (VIS
590
) and
880 (NIR
880
) nm from light emitted by a modulated polychromatic Light Emitting Diode (LED)
array, so is considered an active sensor. The sensor was carried on a pole approximately 60 cm
above and perpendicular to the corn leaf canopy. Refectance was measured from one row in each
plot (row three of six rows), providing 40 measurements per plot. A Trimble Pro XRS Global
Positioning System (GPS) receiver (Trimble Navigation Limited, Sunnyvale, CA) and Trimble
TSCe feld computer (Trimble Navigation Limited, Sunnyvale, CA) were used to simultaneously
record the location of each refectance measurement. All refectance measurements outside a 1 m
buffer inside the plot boundary were discarded, and the mean refectance (n40) was assigned to
each plot. The green normalised difference vegetation index (GNDVI) was determined for each
plot based on Equation 1 (Dellinger et al., 2008).
(1)
Relative GNDVI for each feld site was determined based on the means (n = 4) of the control and
reference (280 kg N/ha) treatments (Equation 2).
(2)
Plant biomass was determined for the control and N reference treatments at V6-V7 by clipping the
above-ground biomass of a 2-m length of row from rows one or six of the six-row plot. Samples
were dried at 70 C and weighed. Relative biomass was determined similarly to GNDVI
relative

(Equation 2), dividing biomass from the control by biomass from the N reference.
Grain yield was determined based on the entire length (9.1 m) of the middle two rows in each plot;
hand harvested, shelled, and weighed. Yield was adjusted to 155 g/kg moisture content. Estimates
of corn ($ 157.28/mg or $ 4.00/bu) and fertiliser ($ 1.32/kg or $ 0.60/lb) prices were used with
the quadratic-plateau yield response functions to calculate the economic return to N fertiliser as a
function of N fertiliser rate for each feld site. The EONR was determined as the N rate corresponding
to maximum return based on these prices. If a quadratic-plateau yield response was not statistically
signifcant (=0.05), the mean yield for each increasing split plot N treatment was compared to the
mean yield for all greater split plot N treatments. This comparison of mean yields continued with
each increasing split plot N treatment until a signifcant difference was not detected. The smallest
split plot N treatment in this fnal comparison was selected as the EONR (Sripada et al., 2008).
PROC NLIN or PROC REG (SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC) were used to ft a split-line, linear-
plateau, and quadratic-plateau or linear regressions, respectively, for EONR as a function of various
independent variables, including: grain yield, GNDVI
relative
, relative biomass, or PSNT. The R
2

for the split-line, linear-plateau, and quadratic-plateau regressions were determined as the r
2
for a
linear regression between predicted vs. observed values.
The success of using GNDVI
relative
or PSNT in estimating EONR from the current study was
based on a comparison to the algorithms for the same relationships developed from an earlier study
(Dellinger et al., 2008), using the absolute mean difference (AMD) between EONR observed in
the current study and previously determined predicted relationships. Details of the previous study
are provided by Dellinger et al. (2008), but a brief description is provided here.
590 880
590 880
VIS NIR
VIS NIR
GNDVI
+
=
Eq. 1

reference
control
relative
GNDVI
GNDVI
GNDVI = Eq. 2

Figure 1. Economic optimum N rate (EONR) as a
function of relative Green Normalised Difference
Vegetative Index (GNDVI
relative
) for the
a) previous and b) current study.
0
50
100
150
200
250
0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0 1.1 1.2
E
O
N
R

(
k
g
/
h
a
)
.
a.
x>1.01: y=1000-959x
o
-245.9(x-x
o
)
x<1.01: y=1000-959x
R
2
=0.76
P>F<0.0001
0
50
100
150
200
250
0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0 1.1 1.2
E
O
N
R

(
k
g
/
h
a
)
.
GNDVI
relative
b.

590 880
590 880
VIS NIR
VIS NIR
GNDVI
+
=
Eq. 1

reference
control
relative
GNDVI
GNDVI
GNDVI = Eq. 2

relative
) for the
0
50
100
150
200
250
0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0 1.1 1.2
E
O
N
R

(
k
g
/
h
a
)
.
a.
x>1.01: y=1000-959x
o
-245.9(x-x
o
)
x<1.01: y=1000-959x
R
2
=0.76
P>F<0.0001
0
50
100
150
200
250
0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0 1.1 1.2
E
O
N
R

(
k
g
/
h
a
)
.
GNDVI
relative
b.

Similar N treatments and methods as already described in the current were used in the earlier study
to determine EONR and GNDVI
relative
. The treatments described in the current study were split plot
treatments in the earlier study, and whole plot treatments included a control of 0 kg N/ha, 56 kg N/
ha

as NH
4
NO
3
, and 37-122 kg/ha of available N (range among felds) as dairy manure, all applied
within 7 days before planting. The earlier study included eight sites in two years within a small
geographic region (<20 k distance; Centre County, Pennsylvania). The previous crop varied among
sites, including corn, soybean, or alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.). The combination of varied previous
crops and whole plot treatments provided a broad range of EONRs (n=24) from which to develop
relationships with GNDVI
relative
or PSNT. All sampling methods were similar between studies.
Without preplant fertilizer or when manure was applied before planting, EONR was strongly
related to GNDVI
relative
(R
2
=0.84) in a split-line type relationship, decreasing from 174 kg N/
ha to almost zero as GNDVI
relative
increased from 0.85 to 1.0 (Dellinger et al., 2008). Using the
same data and including the third preplant treatment (56 kg N/ha) in the regression analysis, the
relationship between EONR and GNDVI
relative
was still strong (R
2
=0.76, Figure 1a). These results,
while encouraging and representing a broad range of management practices (Dellinger et al., 2008),
represented a relatively small geographic region; so the current study focused on extending this
work to other corn producing regions of Pennsylvania, USA.
The dominant soil types for each of the 15 sites selected in farmers felds from east central
and southeastern Pennsylvania included various loams and silt loams (Table 1). General soil
characteristics refected typical conditions of the corn producing regions of Pennsylvania. Soil OM
content ranged from 1.7 to 3.5 g/kg; pH from 4.9 to 7.2; soil test P from 25 to 576 mg/kg; and soil
test K from 56 to 364 mg/kg (Table 1). Preplant inorganic NO
3
and NH
4
was between 3.3 and 19.4
mg NO
3
-N/kg and 1.7 and 7.4 mg NH
4
-N/kg. While the soil characteristics were sometimes less
590 880
590 880
VIS NIR
VIS NIR
GNDVI
+
=
Eq. 1

reference
control
relative
GNDVI
GNDVI
GNDVI = Eq. 2

relative
) for the
0
50
100
150
200
250
0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0 1.1 1.2
E
O
N
R

(
k
g
/
h
a
)
.
a.
x>1.01: y=1000-959x
o
-245.9(x-x
o
)
x<1.01: y=1000-959x
R
2
=0.76
P>F<0.0001
0
50
100
150
200
250
0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0 1.1 1.2
E
O
N
R

(
k
g
/
h
a
)
.
GNDVI
relative
b.

Figure 1. Economic optimum N rate (EONR) as a function of relative Green Normalised
Difference Vegetative Index (GNDVI
relative
) for the (a) previous and (b) current study.
than optimum (e.g. soil pH=4.9 or soil test P=25 mg/kg), these farmers felds provided realistic
conditions for testing these technologies.
Because there were fewer feld sites in the current study where EONR=0, ftting a split-line
regression for the relationship between EONR and GNDVI
relative
was not possible. However, a
comparison to the relationship developed in the earlier study (Figure 1a) was possible. The measure
of success was based on the difference between the observed EONR in the current study and the
predicted EONR of the earlier study. The absolute mean difference (AMD) between the predicted
and observed EONR in the earlier study was 23.9 kg N/ha (Figure 1a). This represents a good
relationship and is comparable to the best indicator (i.e. the PSNT) currently available for making
N recommendations for corn (Figure 2a; Schmidt et al., in press). The AMD between observed
EONR from the current study and the earlier studys predicted EONR (Figure 1b) was 62.9 kg N/
ha, 39 kg N/ha greater for these felds representing a larger geographic region in Pennsylvania. This
measure of deviation was constrained with an upper threshold of 220 kg N/ha for predicted EONR.
This constraint, regardless of the value for GNDVI
relative
, confnes the sidedress N application to
less than 220 kg N/ha. Although there was a 2.5-fold increase in the AMD when results from the
larger geographic region (Figure 2b) were compared to predicted EONR from the earlier study
(Figure 1a), there was a comparable increase in AMD between results from the two studies for the
relationship between EONR and PSNT.
In the earlier study, PSNT was as good an indicator of EONR (R
2
=0.78; Figure 2a) as any of
the current methods for making N recommendations for corn in Pennsylvania (Schmidt et al., in
press), and GNDVI
relative
was comparably effective (R
2
=0.76, Figure 1a). To determine whether
PSNT performed as well as an indicator for EONR in the current study as the earlier study, AMD
between the predicted and observed EONR was evaluated similarly as with GNDVI
relative
. The AMD
increased from 23.1 kg N/ha for the earlier study (Figure 2a) to 75.0 kg N/ha for the current study
(Figure 2b). This represents a greater than 3-fold increase in AMD, suggesting that GNDVI
relative

performed (AMD=62.9 kg N/ha) as well as or better in the current study than one of the best methods

function of the Presidedress NO
3
test (PSNT)
for the a) previous and b) current study.
0
50
100
150
200
250
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
E
O
N
R

(
k
g
/
h
a
)
.
a. x>26: y=271.2-10.4x
o
x<26: y=271.2-10.4x
R
2
=0.78, P>F<0.0001
0
50
100
150
200
250
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
E
O
N
R

(
k
g
/
h
a
)
.
PSNT (mg/kg)
b.

Figure 2. Economic optimum N rate (EONR) as a function of the Presidedress NO
3
test (PSNT)
for the (a) previous and (b) current study.
for making N recommendation for corn, PSNT. Refectance obtained at V6-V7, as GNDVI
relative
,
was an effective indicator for EONR and provides a greater opportunity to address spatial and
temporal requirements in N availability than using a soil test such as the PSNT.
The success in using GNDVI
relative
as an indicator for EONR depends on whether the refectance
information obtained at V6-V7 corresponds with corn N requirements for the entire growing
season. The advantage to using an in-season indicator such as refectance obtained at V6-V7 is that
the plant behaves as an integrator of conditions and stresses already experienced during the early
growing season. If N stress is already present, then GNDVI
relative
should be an indicator for EONR.
Conversely, the shortcoming of obtaining refectance from corn at V6-V7 is that this growth stage
occurs at the beginning of rapid N uptake, so N stresses that occur later in the growing season may
not yet be expressed. In the current study, GNDVI
relative
was related to relative biomass at V6-V7,
increasing linearly from 0.74 to 0.93 as relative biomass increased from 0.30 to 0.52 (R
2
=0.51,
Figure 3). For relative biomass >0.52, GNDVI
relative
remained constant at 0.93. While not as strongly
related (R
2
=0.38, Figure 4), relative biomass increased linearly from 0.45 to 0.77 as PSNT increased
from 5 to 15 mg/kg. The former relationship indicates that GNDVI
relative
was a good indicator of
relative biomass in the current study. This relationship and the relationship between relative biomass
and PSNT suggest that GNDVI
relative
at V6-V7 is providing similar information as obtained with a
PSNT. Combining data from the previous and current studies, GNDVI
relative
was related to PSNT in
a linear-plateau type relationship (R
2
=0.57, Figure 5). GNDVI
relative
increased linearly from 0.8 to
1.1 as PSNT increased from 0 to 31 mg/kg, then GNDVI
relative
remained constant at 1.1 with PSNT
>31 mg/kg. These relationships (Figures 3-5) suggest that crop growth at V6-V7, as measured by
Figure 3. Relative Green Normalised Difference
relative
) as a function of
relative biomass at V6 (current study).
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1.0
1.1
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
G
N
D
V
I
r
e
l
a
t
i
v
e
Relative biomass at V6
x>0.52: y=0.469+0.8881x
o
R
2
=0.51
x<0.52: y=0.469+0.8881x P>F=0.0137

Figure 3. Relative Green Normalised Difference Vegetative Index (GNDVI
relative
) as a function
of relative biomass at V6 (current study).

Figure 4. Relative biomass at V6 as a function of
the Presidedress NO
3
test (PSNT; current study).
y = 0.2823 + 0.0327x
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
R
e
l
a
t
i
v
e

b
i
o
m
a
s
s

a
t

V
6
PSNT (mg/kg)

Figure 4. Relative biomass at V6 as a function of the Presidedress NO
3
test (PSNT; current study).
GNDVI
relative
, provided similar information as obtained with a PSNT. Based on results from the
previous and current studies (Figures 1 and 2), both measurements, GNDVI
relative
and PSNT, were
comparable indicators of EONR.
Conclusion
The current study extended the evaluation of using crop canopy refectance as an indicator for EONR
from Centre County Pennsylvania to 15 additional famers felds in east central and southeastern
Pennsylvania. When compared to the success of PSNT, currently one of the best tools for making
N recommendations for corn in Pennsylvania, GNDVI
relative
obtained at the V6-V7 growth
stage was just as effective as PSNT as an indicator of EONR. Determining a N recommendation
simultaneously with a sidedress N application using GNDVI
relative
provides the opportunity to
adjust the N application spatially depending on the relative plant demands and soil N availability.
References
Beegle, D.B. 2008. Soil fertility management. In: A. Rudisill (ed.) Agronomy guide. Penn State Univ., College
of Agric. Sci., University Park, PA.
Blackmer, T.M., J.S. Schepers, and G.E. Meyer. 1995. Remote sensing to detect nitrogen defciency in corn.
In: P.C. Robert et al. (ed.) Proceedings of site-specifc management for agricultural systems: second
international conference. March 27-30, 1994. Minneapolis, MN, USA, pp. 505-511.
Buchholz, D., J.R. Brown, and R.G. Hanson. 1993. Using your soil test results. Extension Publication G9111.
Univ. of Missouri Extension, Columbia MO.
Cassman, K.G., A. Doberman, and D.T. Walters. 2002. Agroecosystems, nitrogen-use effciency, and nitrogen
management. Ambio 31:132-140.
Dellinger, A.E., J.P. Schmidt, and D.B. Beegle. 2008. Developing nitrogen fertilizer recommendations for corn
using an active sensor. Agronomy Journal 100:1546-1552.
Hong, N., P.C. Scharf, J.G. Davis, N.R. Kitchen, and K.A. Sudduth. 2007. Economically optimal nitrogen rate
reduces soil residual nitrate. Journal of Environmental Quality 36:354-362.
Fox, R.H., and W.P. Piekielek. 1995. The relationship between corn grain yield goals and economic optimum
nitrogen fertilizer rates. Publication #136. Crop and Soil Sciences Department, Pennsylvania State
University, University Park.
Sawyer, J., E. Nafziger, G. Randall, L. Bundy, G. Rehm, and B. Joern. 2006. Concepts and rationale for regional
nitrogen rate guidelines for corn. Extension Publication PM 2015. Iowa State University, Ames, IA.

Figure 5. Relative Green Normalised Difference
relative
) as a function of
the Presidedress NO
3
test (PSNT) for data from
the previous and current study. The lower-right
outlier was omitted from the regression.
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1.0
1.1
1.2
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
G
N
D
V
I
r
e
l
a
t
i
v
e
PSNT (mg/kg)
Current study
Previous study
x>31: y=0.7982+0.0101x
o
R
2
=0.57
x<31: y=0.7982+0.0101x P>F=0.0001

Figure 5. Relative Green Normalised Difference Vegetative Index (GNDVI
relative
) as a function
of the Presidedress NO
3
test (PSNT) for data from the previous and current study. The lower-
right outlier was omitted from the regression.
Scharf, P.C., N.R. Kitchen, K.A. Sudduth, J.G. Davis, V.C. Hubbard, and J.A. Lory. 2005. Field-scale variability
in optimal nitrogen fertilizer rate for corn. Agronomy Journal 97:452-461.
Schmidt, J.P., N. Hong, A. Dellinger, D.B. Beegle, and H. Lin. 2007. Hillslope variability in corn response to
nitrogen linked to in-season soil moisture redistribution. Agronomy Journal 99:229-237.
Schmidt, J.P., A.E. Dellinger, and D.B. Beegle. In press. Nitrogen recommendations for corn: An on-the-go
sensor compared to current recommendation methods. Agronomy Journal.
Shapiro, C.A., R.B. Ferguson, G.W. Hergert, A.R. Doberman, and C.S. Wortman. 2003. Fertilizer suggestions
for corn. Extension Publication G74-174-A. Univ. of Nebraska Cooperative Extension, Lincoln, NE.
Sripada, R.P., J.P. Schmidt, A.E. Dellinger, and D.B. Beegle. 2008. Evaluating multiple indices from a canopy
refectance sensor to estimate corn N requirements. Agronomy Journal 100:1553-1561.
Vanotti, M.B., and L.G. Bundy. 1994. An alternative rationale for corn nitrogen fertilizer recommendations.
Journal of Production Agriculture 7:243-249.
Optical signals of oxidative stress in crops physiological
state diagnostics
E.V. Kanash and Y.A. Osipov
Agrophysical Research Institute, Grazhdansky prosp. 14, St. Petersburg, Russia; ykanash@yandex.ru
Abstract
The infuence of various farming practices, including precision agriculture technology, on
optical characteristics of leaves and the canopy was studied in feld experiment conditions. The
results showed that precision agriculture technology promotes the most effective functioning of
photosynthetic apparatus and high crop-producing power. Under pronounced mineral nutrients
defciency strongly limiting plant growth the deterioration of physiological state of plants can be
revealed by registering the reduction of chlorophyll refection index. When the impact of stressor
is poorly pronounced and at early stages of stress development when chlorophyll concentration
does not vary or varies only slightly, plant depression is detected by the increase of indices, which
is a sign of photosynthetic radiation-use-effciency reduction. Remote diagnostics of canopy colour
characteristics using digital images allows to control spatial heterogeneity of crops physiological
state and detect mineral nutrients defciency at early stages of its occurrence.
Keywords: refection index, diagnostics, colour, net productivity
Introduction
Optical properties of leaves serve as a major plant characteristic and are defned mainly by
photosynthetic pigments contained in their tissues. They depend on leaf structure and the content
of nonphotosynthetic compounds and water. Nondestructive methods of plant growth diagnostics
have been applied in agriculture over three decades, however their resolving power is still very
low. The maximum potential of contact and especially of remote sensing methods can be achieved
only with highly developed engineering tools and technology of crop state monitoring. The most
promising in this respect seem to be methods based on the registration of spectral characteristics
of visible and near infrared radiation (NIR) refected from leaves or canopy.
It is known that in the range from visible radiation to NIR soil refection monotonously increases
while radiation refected by plants has two maxima in visible and NIR spectral bands and is at
its minimum in the red range (RED). Therefore, the simplest refection indexes for plant growth
estimation are either the ratio of refectance in two spectral regions or refectance difference between
them (Jordan, 1969; Thuker, 1979). In plant growth assessment, including remote sensing of crops
state, the widest application received the normalized difference vegetation index NDVI = (NIR
- RED) / (NIR + RED), where NIR and RED are refectance values at 750 and 680 nanometers,
respectively (Rouse et al., 1973). The NDVI value depends on the soil type, humidity and other
characteristics but most of all on the thickness of sowing. Obviously, variations in plant growth
between different parts of the feld may be detected only at early stages of plant ontogenesis with
open crop canopy. The NDVI does not allow to distinguish between well-developed but stressed
crops and underdeveloped but intensively growing ones.
The aim of this study was to investigate in feld experiment conditions the infuence of mineral
nutrients defciency on optical characteristics of leaves and plant canopy and the impact of various
agrotechnologies, precision agriculture including. We also intended to test a number of optical
criteria with the purpose of estimating the effciency of the photosynthetic apparatus in conversion
of solar to chemical energy and detecting mineral nutrients defciency at the earliest stages of its
occurrence.
Wheat plants (Triticum aestivum L.) were grown using four technologies differing in intensity:
extensive technology (C) - no fertilizers were applied (control);
average technology (A) pre-sowing fertilization with nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium
(NPK) was carried out at a rate of 50 kg/ha as calculated for active substance.
high-intensity technology (HI) - 110 kg of nitrogen and potassium fertilizers and 70 kg of
phosphorus fertilizer were applied per hectare before sowing; additional dressing with water-
soluble fertilizer Poly Feed (Haifa Chemicals Ltd) was performed at stages of stem elongation
and ears formation-foral initiation at a rate of 3 kg/ha and 5 kg/ha, respectively;
high-intensity technology with precision agriculture techniques (PA) application rate of
mineral fertilizers and water-soluble nitrogen dressing was identical to HI, however fertilizers
were applied with regard to inhomogenous distribution of mineral elements across the feld
before sowing, while during vegetation optical properties of leaves and canopy determined by
contact and remote methods were taken into account.
The experimental feld was divided into 2 ha plots with different rates of fertilizer application.
Optical characteristics of plants were studied at the stages of stem elongation and ears formation-
foral initiation. Spectra of leaf refectance were registered in situ using a fber-optical spectrometer
HR2000 with refection sensor R200-7-UV-VIS (Ocean Optics, USA) which provides optical
resolution of 0.3 in the range from 400 to 1,100 nanometers; software employed was OOIbase32.
The leaf refectance spectra of no less than 50 plants were measured for each rate of fertilizer
application. Table 1 lists refection indexes which allows to assess the physiological state of plants
and detect mineral defciency from the outset.
Colorimetric characteristics of leaves (hue, colour value and luminance) were studied with the help
of the above-mentioned spectrometer HR2000 with the software IRRAD-COLOR. Colour was
Table 1. Refection indexes for plant physiological state and oxidative stress diagnostics. In the
equations: R leaf refection, numeric character - refected radiation wavelength; C
1
and C
2
are
constant values which equal 0.1 and 0.3, respectively, and are determined for 4 wheat varieties
in controlled conditions.
Refection
index
Parameter measured Computation formula Authors
ChlRI chlorophyll content (R
750
- R
705
)/(R
750
+ R
705
- 2R
445
) Sims and Gamon,
2002
SIPI carotenoids to chlorophyll
ratio
(R
800
- R
445
) / (R
800
R
680
) Peuelas 1995
PRI
mod
photochemical activity of
photosynthetic apparatus
(heat dissipation)
C
1
- [(R
570
- R
531
) / (R
570
+ R
531
)] Peuelas 1995
(modifed by us)
ARI
mod
anthocyanins content C
2
+ [R
750
(1/R
550
- 1/R
700
)] Merzlyak 2003
(modifed by us)
R
800
indicator of light scattering R
800
Sims and Gamon,
2002
characterized by means of the three dimensional model of colour representation CIE L*a*b*, which
is an international standard for color measurement developed by the Commission Internationale
dEclairage (CIE) in 1976. The L*a*b*color consists of a luminance or lightness component (L*
value, ranging from 0 to 100), along with two chromatic components (ranging from -120 to +120):
the a* component (from green to red) and the b*component (from blue to yellow). Remote sensing
of the crops state was accomplished with a radio-controlled fying complex equipped with a GPS
navigation system and an Olympus E-400 digital photographic camera. The complex was developed
and made at the Agrophysical Research Institute (St. Petersburg, Russia). Digital images of crops
were handled with Photoshop CS3 software and model CIE L*a*b*. Statistical data processing
was performed under MS Excel XP and Statistica 6.0 programs.
The crops state estimation on the basis of refection indexes (contact sensor)
As expected, pre-sowing fertilization at the stage of tillering promoted an increase in net productivity
of plants, which for modes A, HI and PA was higher at this stage than in the control case C,
respectively, by 24, 43 and 47 per cent (See Table 2).
Optical characteristics of plants were found to be closely related to the rate of fertilizer usage.
Despite a slight increase in the mean ChlRI values, no infuence of pre-sowing rate of fertilization on
chlorophyll content was observed (Figure 1). Dispersion analysis showed that variability of tillering
plants ChlRI index is only 2% dependent on the rates of pre-sowing NPK application (P=0.48).
At this stage of ontogenesis no signifcant correlation between net productivity of plants and
chlorophyll content was revealed (r=0.22). The results obtained enable us to conclude that at the
early stages of mineral nutrients defciency the intensity of photosynthesis and, consequently, of
the production process is not limited by a small decrease in photosynthetic apparatus capacity. It
seems that one of the main causes of plant growth inhibition at the start of mineral depletion is
decreased conversion effciency of light to chemical energy.
At the tillering stage a close correlation was revealed between the effectiveness of photochemical
processes of photosynthesis and the rate of pre-sowing fertilization. As indicated by the higher values
of the refection indexes, with shortages of mineral nutrition the content of substances partially
inhibiting photosynthetically active radiation (ARI, SIPI) increases together with heat dissipation
(PRI) and scattering of light due to leaf structure transformation (R
800
) (Figure 1). Variability of
refection indexes ARI, PRI and R
800
was infuenced by mineral nutrition to the extent of 13%
(P=2.510
-4
), 8% (P=0.01) and 20% (P=3.810
-7
).
At the stage of ears formation-foral initiation shortage of mineral nutrition is manifested in a strong
inhibition of leaves growth (Table 3).
Table 2. Net productivity and some refection indexes of wheat plants at the tillering stage
depending on pre-sowing rate of fertilizer application. Biomass of 10 plants and refection indexes
is shown with the confdence interval at 95% signifcance level.
Mode Biomass, g ChlRI ARI 10
x
PRI R
800
C 0.680.05 0.4760.010 0.1400.011 0.9080.020 38.70.4
A 0.850.03 0.4870.013 0.1060.009 0.8500.018 37.90.4
HI 0.990.02 0.4900.012 0.1040.011 0.8490.010 37.20.5
PA 1.140.11 0.5030.012 0.1040.010 0.8260.015 36.30.5
Under the infuence of fertilizer application the biomass of leaves and, consequently, their
assimilating surface area in experiments A, HI and PA increased sharply in comparison with variant
C. Interestingly, biomass reduction of the stems occurred when plants tillering increased by 30%.
This fact suggests that plant stems in modes A and HI have smaller amounts of mechanical and
vascular tissues, which makes the lodging of plants in adverse environmental conditions more
probable.
At the stage of ears formation-foral initiation plants differed signifcantly in the ChlRI value
depending on the experimental mode (Figure 1).
The highest values of ChlRI as well as the smallest errors in their determination were observed
in plants tested by the PA mode when pre-sowing fertilization was carried out, with regard to the
spatial inhomogeneity of mineral elements distribution in the soil, and post-sowing dressing took
into account variation of crops optical characteristics across the feld at a given mode. With equal
amounts of fertilizers evenly distributed over the feld, the chlorophyll refection index was lower
in HI than in PA mode. In mode A and especially in the control variant C plant leaves contained
much less chlorophyll than in other modes. The extent of the impact of agricultural technology on
ChlRI during wheat ears formation and foral initiation reached 65% (P=3.1710
-34
).
Thus, shortage of mineral nutrition in the second half of the growing season led to a sharp decrease
in the capacity of the photosynthetic apparatus, due to the formation of smaller assimilative leaf
surfaces as well as to a lower concentration of chlorophyll per unit surface. At the stage of ears
Table 3. Net productivity of wheat at the stage of ears formation-foral initiation as related to
mineral nutrition rate. Biomass of 10 plants or their parts is shown with the confdence interval
at 95% signifcance level.
Mode Leaves Stems Young ears Total
% % % %
C 0.750.05 100 13.02.8 100 1.420.05 100 15.22.9 100
A 1.780.08 237 11.51.1 88 2.310.13 163 15.61.2 103
HI 2.050.18 273 11.40.1 88 2.300.02 163 15.70.3 104
PA 2.890.54 385 14.20.6 109 3.020.17 213 20.11.4 132
1.

0,3
0,35
0,4
0,45
0,5
0,55
0,6
ChlRI

0,02
0,04
0,06
0,08
0,1
0,12
0,14
0,16
ARI

0,86
0,88
0,9
0,92
0,94
0,96
0,98
1
PRI
C
A
HI
PA

Figure 1. Optical characteristics of
wheat leaves at the stage of ears
formation-floral initiation
depending on the rate of fertilizer
application. Confidence interval at
95% level of significance does not
exceed 0.01.
Figure 1. Optical characteristics of wheat leaves at the stage of ears formation-foral initiation
depending on the rate of fertilizer application. Confdence interval at 95% level of signifcance
does not exceed 0.01.
1.

0,3
0,35
0,4
0,45
0,5
0,55
0,6
ChlRI

0,02
0,04
0,06
0,08
0,1
0,12
0,14
0,16
ARI

0,86
0,88
0,9
0,92
0,94
0,96
0,98
1
PRI
C
A
HI
PA

exceed 0.01.
1.

0,3
0,35
0,4
0,45
0,5
0,55
0,6
ChlRI

0,02
0,04
0,06
0,08
0,1
0,12
0,14
0,16
ARI

0,86
0,88
0,9
0,92
0,94
0,96
0,98
1
PRI
C
A
HI
PA

exceed 0.01.
formation-foral initiation mineral nutrients defciency also caused a substantial reduction of
photochemical effciency of photosynthesis, as evidenced for example, by higher values of PRI
and ARI in the control variant C (Figure 1). At this stage of plant development the extent of the
agricultural technology impact to indicators of photosynthetic apparatus effciency was over 45%
(P=3.1710
-20
).
Comparison of the above optical characteristics of wheat leaves under nutrients defciency with
those observed previously under UV-B radiation oxidative stress (Kanash and Osipov, 2008a,b)
suggests that the refection indices provide a means of examining one of the mechanisms of
nonspecifc plant responses to environmental stress. The results obtained indicate that the occurrence
of oxidative stress due to nutritients defciency can be detected with a high degree of reliability
by the change in the features of down regulation activity of photosystem II. Changes of the
photosynthetic apparatus activity under stress, in particular, are characterized by the reduction of
chlorophyll concentration, mainly in the antenna light-harvesting complex, as well as by increased
heat dissipation and accumulation of carotenoids and anthocyanines.
According to the published data, in estimating physiological state of crops, their ability to absorb
light energy is usually taken into account, whereas the effciency of light energy conversion during
photochemical processes of photosynthesis is disregarded.
Table 1 lists refection indexes which allow to assess photosynthetic apparatus capacity (the ChlRI
index) and effciency of light to chemical energy conversion (SIPI, PRI, ARI, R
800
). Optical indices
used in mineral nutrients defciency diagnostics permit estimating a potential ability of plants to
assimilate solar energy, namely:
photosynthetic system capacity (ChlRI - chlorophyll refection index);
effciency of light energy transformation in photochemical processes of photosynthesis (SIPI
the sum of carotenoids to the sum of chlorophyll ratio, PRI photosynthetic radiation-use-
effciency, ARI the content of anthocyanins, R
800
light scattering criterion dependent upon
the surface characteristics and structure of the leaf).
Table 4 and Figure 2 shows correlation between net productivity and refection indices which values
allow to estimate the capacity and effciency of the photosynthetic apparatus. Usually progression
of plant growth inhibition is accompanied by a decrease in ChlRI value and an increase in values
of SIPI, PRI, ARI and R
800
.
Contact and remote assessment of the leaves and canopy colour
Reduction of chlorophyll concentration and accumulation of carotenoids and anthocyanines under
mineral nutrients defciency go hand in hand with a change of the colour of leaves and crop canopy
(Figure 3). Developing yellow disease was typical for plants in C variant while a slight decrease
in green color intensity was observed in A mode. Leaves of the plants in experiments HI and PA
were of the same blue-green colour.
Table 4. Relationship between net productivity (P
n
) of wheat and refection indices.
Index Linear regression equation between P
n
and the indices R
2
ChlRI P
n
= -0.188 + 0.883 0.87
SIPI P
n
= 3.34 3.10 0.70
PRI
mod
P
n
= 0.24 10.48 0.80
ARI
mod
P
n
= 0.288 0.567 0.76
R
800
P
n
= 2.323 0.059 0.75
It should be noted that in variant C crop canopy, because of a smaller leaves size and early death
of leaves of lower layers, remains open even at the stage of ears formation-foral initiation. Large
intensely coloured leaves in mode HI and particularly PA ensured at this stage of ontogenesis the
formation of closed canopy. Colorimetric analysis of leaves and crops characteristics with the use
of remote and contact sensors revealed signifcant differences between modes HI and PA which
could not be detected visually.
The experimental data indicate that signifcant changes in colour characteristics of leaves and
canopy take place not only in the control case C, with material defciency of mineral nutrients,
but also in modes A, HI and PA. In the last two cases, with the same rate but different methods of
fertilizer application, plants varied signifcantly in their colorimetric characteristics. In assessing
colour of the leaves with a contact sensor, these modes can be distinguished by indicators a* and
b*. Signifcant disparity between modes HI and PA was identifed in terms of b* in specifying
colour of the vegetation cover with help of crop digital images.
According to the results of dispersion analysis at the stage of ears formation-foral initiation
variability of values L* and a* rose up to 40%, and that of b* values up to 50% (P=6.510
-17
-
2.710
-19
), due to different mineral nutrition. With the use of variable fertilizer application (PA)
the wheat yield was 25, 40 and 60% higher than in modes HI, A and C, respectively. In PA mode
2.

Figure 2. Relationship between net
productivity (P
n
) and indices (ChlRI,
ARI
mod
and PRI
mod
). Equations of the
linear regression for these and other
indices are shown in Table 4.
Data obtained for 4 wheat varieties
grown under controlled conditions.
Figure 2. Relationship between net productivity ( ) and indices ( , and )
Equations of the linear regression for these and other indices are shown in Table 4. Data obtained
for 4 wheat varieties grown under controlled conditions.
a higher yield than in HI was obtained, which simultaneously cut down the cost of potassium and
nitrogen fertilizers by more than 60% (Yakushev and Yakushev, 2007).
Conclusions
Inferences on the depression of plants and the deterioration of their physiological state under the
impact of a stressor that strongly limits their growth can be made using the decline of the chlorophyll
refection index, measured for each crop and variety under optimal conditions. When the impact of
stressor is poorly expressed, and when chlorophyll concentration does not vary or varies slightly
at early stages of stress development, the plant depression is detected by increase in the SIPI, PRI,
ARI, and

R
800
indexes. This indicates the diminishing of the photosynthetic radiation-use-effciency
and plant growth inhibition.
Remote diagnostics of canopy and leaves condition by means of digital images and three-dimensional
model of colour representation CIE L*a*b*allows to control the spatial heterogeneity of the crops
physiological state and to detect mineral nutrients defciency at early stages of its occurrence.
Acknowledgements
Funding for this study was provided by Russian Foundation for Basic Research (07-04-01714 a;
08-08-13660 obr).
3.

Estimated L*, a*, b*
-15
-5
5
15
25
35
45
55
L* a* b* L* a* b*
C A
HI PA

Figure 3. The colour of leaves and crops cover at the stage of wheat ears formation-floral
initiation depending on the dose of fertilizer. Confidence interval for the values of L*, a* and
b* measured by a contact method does not exceed 0.8, 0.07 and 0.3, respectively; when
determined from a digital image of crop cover received by aerial photography, its maximum
values were 0.3, 0.4 and 0.4, respectively.

Leaves Crop cover
Figure 3. The colour of leaves and crops cover at the stage of wheat ears formation-foral initiation
depending on the dose of fertilizer. Confdence interval for the values of L*, a* and b* measured
by a contact method does not exceed 0.8, 0.07 and 0.3, respectively; when determined from
a digital image of crop cover received by aerial photography, its maximum values were 0.3, 0.4
and 0.4, respectively.
References
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Jordan C.F., 1969. Derivation of leaf area index from quality of light on the forest foor. Ecology 50: 663-666.
Kanash E.V. and Osipov Y.A., 2008a. Diagnostics of physiological state and plant resistance to environmental
stressors conditions (for example, UV-B radiation). Russian Academy of Agriculture. St. Petersburg, 35 p.
Kanash E.V. and Osipov, Y.A., 2008b. The optical characteristics of leaves under oxidative stress and their
relation to resistance and productivity of plants. In: Proceedings XII Russian Botanical Society Congress
Basic and applied problems of botany at the beginning of the XXI century. V.6. 22-27 September 2008.
Petrozavodsk, Karelian Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, pp. 59-62.
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adaptation to solar radiation: spectral features and techniques for non-destructive assessment. Journal of
plant physiology 162: 151-160.
Sims D.A. and Gamon J.A.,2002. Relationships between leaf pigment content and spectral refectance across
a wide range of species, leaf structures and developmental stages. Remote Sensing of Environment 81
(2-3): 337-354.
Peuelas J., Baret, F. and Filella, I. 1995. Semi-empirical indices to assess carotenoids/chlorophyll a ratio from
leaf spectral refectance. Photosynthetica 31(2): 221-230.
Rouse J.W. Jr., Haas, R.H., Schell, J.A. and Deering, D.W., 1973. Monitoring vegetation systems in the great
plains with ERTS. Third ERTS Symposium. NASA SP-351. V. 1. NASA. Washington, DS. pp. 309-317.
Tucker C.J. 1979. Red and photographic infrared linear combinations for monitoring vegetation. Remote
Sensing of Environment 8: 127-150.
Yakushev V.P. and Yakushev V.V. Information support of precision farming. 2007. St. Petersburg, PIYF RAN,
Russia, 382 pp.
Spatial patterns of wilting in sugar beet as an indicator for
precision irrigation
L. Zhang
1,3
, M.D. Steven
1
, M.L. Clarke
1
and K.W. Jaggard
2
1
School of Geography, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham NG7 2RD, United
Kingdom; michael.steven@Nottingham.ac.uk
2
Brooms Barn Research Centre, Higham, Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, IP28 6NP, United Kingdom
3
Now at: Department of Geography, Fourth Floor, Kings Building, Kings College London, Strand,
London WC2R 2LS, United Kingdom
Abstract
Precision irrigation requires a map of within-feld variations of water requirement. Conventional
remote sensing techniques provide only a shallow estimate of water status. The ability of a water
sensitive crop, sugar beet is tested here as an intermediate sensor providing an integrated measure
of water status throughout its rooting depth. Field sampling of soil cores to 1m depth established
that within-feld wilting zones, identifed on aerial photographs, are signifcantly associated with
coarser or shallower soils. Stress classes, determined by classifcation of the digitised images, were
weakly correlated with total available water (R
2
0.4). These results suggest that wilting in sugar
beet can be used as an intermediate sensor for quantifying potential soil water availability within
the root zone. Within-feld stress maps generated in one year could be applied as a strategic tool
to allow precision irrigation to be applied to high-value crops in following years, helping to make
more sustainable use of water resources.
Keywords: crop patterns, soil moisture, remote sensing
Introduction
On a consumptive use basis, 80-90% of all water is consumed in the agricultural sector (Hezarjaribi
and Sourell, 2007) and the problem of how to maintain agricultural productivity with sustainable
use of water is a signifcant global challenge. The use of precision farming techniques for irrigation
management (Sanders et al., 2000) is based on the fact that water storage in soil varies spatially in
felds due to variable textures, topography, water-holding capacity or infltration and drainage rates;
therefore, the need for irrigation may differ across a feld (Hezarjaribi and Sourell, 2007). Remote
sensing can detect spatial variations in soil moisture but direct remote sensing techniques typically
penetrate only the top few centimetres of the soil, even in the microwave bands. Since plants extract
water from the whole root zone (2-3 m depth for some perennial species), these shallow estimates
of soil water status are of little value. In this study we test an indirect remote sensing technique
that uses plant responses to retrieve an estimate of sub-surface soil moisture status.
Where soil moisture is limited, and crop demands are large, wilting may occur. The leaves of
a plant lose turgidity and wilt when their loss of water to supply the demand of the atmosphere
exceeds the ability of the roots and stems to resupply them. Here we investigate the potential of
a broad-leaved crop, sugar beet (Beta vulgaris L.), to act as an intermediate sensor for remote
sensing of water need at a within-feld scale. Our hypothesis is that wilting observed in the feld
is inversely related to soil water holding capacity. If this is the case, then wilting patterns can be
used to generate maps of water requirement matched to local soil properties as a tool for targeting
irrigation. Although the economic case for precision irrigation depends on the price of water relative
to agricultural products and has yet to be shown positive, precision irrigation already offers benefts
for conservation and the conditions for proftability are expected to improve with increasing water
demand (Sadler et al., 2005).
Sugar beet is a good candidate indicator crop because it is seldom irrigated, and often displays
within-feld variation in wilting when under water stress. A diurnal pattern of response to water stress
is common: severe wilting may occur during the day, with recovery occurring at night (Andrieu and
Boissard, 1986). This behaviour is typical of a fully-grown crop canopy in late-July and August and
indicates a hypersensitivity to soil water defcit, even at levels that ultimately cause little damage.
The study area was a region in eastern England known as the Breckland. The soils are mainly
sands and sandy loams developed on coversands and till (Ballantyne and Harris 1994), resting on
Cretaceous chalk. Many felds in this region display crop patterns, including stripes, polygons,
nets and circles with forms typically <2 m wide, or larger tongue-shaped lobes. These patterns are
readily visible on aerial photographs and are believed to be relict cryoturbation features (Ballantyne
and Harris, 1994) caused by soil movements resulting from ice age frost and thaw processes. In the
Breckland region, cryoturbation patterns are often displayed during hot, dry summers, suggesting
that the patterns are manifest by crop responses to water stress caused by differing water holding
capacities of the spatially varying soil textures. Due to the uncertainties of geolocation of aerial
photographs to better than 2 m in an agricultural scene with few hard, invariant features, we have
focused on the larger lobate forms for this study.
Black and white and colour aerial photographs (at scales of 1:10,000 and 1:25,000) from several
years between 1946 and 2003 were obtained from the Agricultural Development and Advisory
Service (ADAS), English Heritage and Brooms Barn Research Centre. The historical series of
images was used to ensure the consistency of the spatial patterns over time (Zhang, 2007). The spatial
analysis of wilting discussed here was based on a set of 1:10,000 scale photographs obtained on 21
August 1995. Three felds with repeatable crop patterns in the historical analysis were chosen for
crop and soil measurements. These felds were all planted with sugar beet in 1995 and the images
from that summer clearly display crop patterns (Figure 1). The felds (Ixworth Thorpe, 15 ha; Barrow,
14 ha; Sapiston, 7 ha) all showed large lobate patterns. Barrow also exhibited some fner-scale
(<5m), striped crop patterns. The analysis here is primarily based on the feld at Ixworth Thorpe
(521912.6N, 04926.7E) as shown in Figure 1; the other two felds were located within 20 km.
Image classifcation techniques were used to relate the observed feld patterns to soil and crop
parameters measured in the feld. The aerial photographs were digitised using a Hewlett Packard
PSC 750 scanner at 1,200 dpi resolution. Ground control points were collected, to 0.5 m horizontal
precision or better, using Leica RTK or RTCM differential Ground Positioning Systems (DGPS).
The sampling points were located in the feld by DGPS and on the rectifed image using ERDAS
IMAGINE 8.7 and ArcView GIS software.
To evaluate the degree of stress in the test felds the distribution of values in the 1995 aerial
photographs was categorised into fve classes, from 1 - critically stressed, with very severe wilting
to 5 - very healthy, with no wilting evident. At least four representative samples of each class were
collected to create a signature fle for classifying the image. As no ground truth data were available
for 1995, feld data collected in 2003 were used to relate the classes to growth state and degree of
wilting. In this process, the assumption is made that stress conditions were similar in both these
years. In fact, while both years were dry enough to induce wilting, the local soil moisture defcit
(at Brooms Barn Research Station, 521538.7N 03352.6E) on 21 August 1995 was 306.8
mm, compared to 204.7 mm on 21 August 2003, indicating a greater degree of stress in the image
data. Nevertheless, it is assumed that the stress classes provide a consistent ranking of responses
whenever wilting conditions apply.
Sampling transects (Figure 1) were aligned across the main parts of the wilting patterns shown in
the aerial photographs. Soil samples were taken along the transects at 30 m or 60 m intervals using a
Cobra TT pneumatic soil corer (1 m core lengths) or a Dutch auger. Bulk density and concentrations
of water, organic matter and chalk were determined in the laboratory using standard methods (Rowell
1994). Total available water (T
av
) and feld capacities (FC) of soil profles (up to 1m depth) were
calculated as the proportion weighted sum of the values for each component in each soil horizon.
Sugar beet usually occupies a given feld in this region every 3-5 years. Of the study felds, Ixworth
Thorpe had sugar beet in 2003 and Barrow in 2004; Sapiston did not grow beet during the study
period. Crop biophysical measurements were undertaken along transects (Figure 1) across the
study felds at Ixworth Thorpe on 8 and 21 August 2003 and at Barrow on 24 August 2004. To
measure leaf water content, 20 disks (1.5 cm diameter) were punched from fully expanded leaves
near the top of the canopy of fve randomly chosen plants and transferred to airtight plastic bags;
the samples were weighed, oven dried for 24 hours and reweighed to obtain leaf moisture. Each
plant was sampled several times during the day to account for diurnal variation, untouched leaves
being selected each time. Plant height above the ground was measured on the inner topmost leaf and
the outer lowest living leaf on seven contiguous plants, and averaged. At each visit to a sampling
point, all the data were collected within 5 minutes.
Water stress becomes visible in sugar beet with a change in canopy geometry as leaves droop
and the pale plant stems and the soil below the plants becomes more visible. To assess this effect,
canopy cover was determined with a Parkinson radiometer (PP Systems, Hitchin, Herts, SG5
1RT, UK) using methods described by Trigg (1990) and Biscoe and Jaggard (1985). During the
previous growing season, this radiometer had been calibrated using typically green, feld grown
1

Figure 1: Aerial photograph of the study field at Ixworth Thorpe on 21st August 1995,
showing the transects and sampling points.

0 60 120m 0 60 120m
Figure 1. Aerial photograph of the study feld at Ixworth Thorpe on 21 August 1995, showing
the transects and sampling points.
sugar beet plants. Representative readings of ground cover were made on undisturbed crop within
3 m of each sampling point.
Results
Field data from the transects at Ixworth Thorpe sampled in August 2003 show that the biophysical
characteristics are not uniform and that low values of leaf moisture, leaf height and canopy cover
(Figure 2) coincide with the occurrence of stress patterns seen on the aerial photographs taken 8
years earlier. Crop measurements on transect AB on 21 August showed more distinct variations
between the patterned and non-patterned locations, and displayed lower absolute values, than the
readings taken for the same transect on 8 August, probably due to greater soil moisture defcit (204.7
mm observed on the 21
st
, compared to 160.4 mm on the 8
th
). Diurnal wilting can be identifed in
Figure 2 by temporal changes in leaf moisture, leaf height and canopy cover. In some of the most
severely stressed areas, as identifed on the imagery, the plants were small with thin, faccid leaves
and a small leaf area index; there was little diurnal variation evident here because the plants were
already stunted, prostrate and dehydrated. These plants clearly represent an accumulated response
to stress throughout the growing season. However, diurnal variations are evident in the less severely
stressed areas, indicating a response to the conditions of the day.
Analysis of the soil cores showed that the wilting zones had shorter soil profles or higher proportions
of sand and stones compared with more clay-rich, loamy soils outside the zones. Chalk, which is
porous, considerably enhanced the water holding capacity of some soils. The integrated effect of soil
characteristics on wilting is illustrated for Ixworth Thorpe (Figure 3), where calculated water holding
capacity and feld capacity (to 1 m depth), derived from measured soil properties, are compared
with the locations of wilting patterns. T
av
within the patterned area of the feld is signifcantly less
than in the non-patterned area (t=-3.807, P=0.001, n=20). This relationship holds when the values
are compared across all three study felds (t=-3.186, P=0.003, n=45). When T
av
or FC at Ixworth
Thorpe are compared with stress rank assessed by image classifcation, statistically signifcant
but weak correlations were found (R
2
=0.40 (T
av
) and 0.41 (FC)); Figure 4). Stronger correlations
(R
2
=0.93 (T
av
) and 0.66 (FC)) were found at Sapiston, but were dependent on assumptions made
about the parameters of an incomplete core sample; no correlation was found at Barrow. Overall
however, these results show the ability of remote sensing to identify and at least partially quantify
local variation in soil water retention.
Conclusions and discussion
In this study, the wilted areas identifed on imagery correspond to soils with poor moisture retention.
Stress rank derived from aerial photographs corresponds reasonably well with measures of soil water
holding capacity. These fndings suggest that wilting in sugar beet can be used as an intermediary
for remote sensing of soil water availability within the root zone, and thus to map a relative index
of stress experienced across a feld. Such maps could be used as a tactical tool to provide near real-
time estimates of variation in soil moisture defcit for immediate targeting of irrigation resources.
However, there is relatively little interest in irrigating sugar beet and we believe that stress maps
have much greater potential as a strategic tool. Stress maps provide a record of soil properties
that are permanent: they need be created only once. In principle, the maps could be coupled with
a regional agrometeorological model to provide within-feld predictions of soil moisture defcit
and applied to target irrigation in felds of high-value, water-hungry crops such as potatoes and
other vegetables, potentially increasing crop yield whilst using limited water resources in a more
sustainable manner.
The observation that diurnal wilting occurs only in relatively healthy crop indicates that the
relationship between plant responses and soil moisture availability involves both long- and
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short-term factors. Further work is required to calibrate the relations between stress class and soil
properties; in particular, plants that are stunted are likely to have shallow roots and may not respond
to water availability at greater depth as assumed in this analysis. However, as water supply, water
demand and the growth of crops (at least until maturity) are all accumulative factors, and as the local
soil characteristics are essentially fxed, the ranking of degrees of stress should be little affected
3

Figure 3. Estimated total available water and field capacity of a 1m soil profile along transects
at Ixworth Thorpe; the shaded areas indicate the location of wilting patterns
Figure 3. Estimated total available water and feld capacity of a 1 m soil profle along transects
at Ixworth Thorpe; the shaded areas indicate the location of wilting patterns.
4

Figure 4. Relationships of the estimated soil water holding capacity (field capacity) at Ixworth
Thorpe and total available water of the soil profiles (1m) to the stress rank derived from
classification of the aerial photograph. Data from all transects are shown.

Figure 4. Relationships of the estimated soil water holding capacity (feld capacity) at Ixworth
Thorpe and total available water of the soil profles (1 m) to the stress rank derived from
classifcation of the aerial photograph. Data from all transects are shown.
by differences in long and short term response. Given suffcient precision in the basic relations,
the spatial distribution of stress seen in remote imagery can then be validated against soil and
crop measurements on hot summer days, when plants are wilting. In areas where the crop rotation
includes sugar beet, a near-complete set of maps could be produced, with direct validation, in 5 or
6 years; or as in this study could be generated from archive imagery with indirect validation based
on the reproducibility of stress responses.
While it is currently diffcult to justify the case for precision irrigation on strictly economic grounds,
there are additional factors that support its case. The problem is widespread: spatially variable
water stress occurs as a persistent problem in as many as 80% of felds in our study region (Zhang,
2007). Regional climate change predictions for Eastern England suggest that summer droughts will
become more frequent (Hulme et al., 2002) and the corresponding predicted increase in winter
precipitation will provide no mitigation, as it will only return the soil to feld capacity, as already
occurs in most years (Smith, 1976). Moreover, even without climate change, water demand from
other users is set to increase and environmental regulation to become more stringent. Water is
the key resource for all agriculture and suitable tools for precision irrigation may be the key to
responsible and sustainable use.
Acknowledgements
We thank University of Nottingham, Henry Lester Trust Limited, Great Britain-China Educational
Trust and Sir Richard Stapley Educational Trust for fnancial support; IESSG, University of
Nottingham for DGPS equipment and data processing; and the farmers of the study felds for
access to their land. Air photograph extracts are reproduced with the kind permission of ADAS.
References
Andrieu, B. and Boissard, P., 1986. volution diurne de la rfectance dun couvert geometrie variable: La
betterave sucre. Consquences pour linterprtation des mesures radiomtriques. Socit Franaise de
la Photogrammetrie et de la tldtection, Bulletin 103, 25-31.
Ballantyne, C.K. and Harris, C., 1994. The Periglaciation of Great Britain. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
Biscoe, P. V. and Jaggard, K.W., 1985. Measuring plant growth and structure. In Marshall, B. and Woodward,
F. I. (Ed.) Instrumentation for Environmental Physiology - Society for Experimental Biology, Seminar
Series 22, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 215-228.
Hezarjaribi, A. and Sourell, A., 2007. Feasibility study of monitoring the total available water content using non-
invasive electromagnetic induction-based and electrode-based soil electrical conductivity measurements.
Irrigation and Drainage, 56, 53-65.
Hulme, M., Turnpenny, J. and Jenkins, G., 2002. Climate Change Scenarios for the UK the UKCIP02 Briefng
Report: http://www.ukcip.org.uk/resources/publications/documents/UKCIP02_briefng.pdf.
Rowell, D. L. (1994). Soil ScienceMethods & Applications. Essex: Pearson Education Limited.
Sadler, E.J., Evans, R.G., Stone, K.C and Camp, C.R., 2005. Opportunities for conservation with precision
irrigation. Journal of Soil and Water Conservation, 60, 371-379.
Sanders, J., Jim, H., Kvien, C. and Stuart P., 2000. Analysis of the benefts of precision irrigation in S. Georgia.
http://nespal.cpes.peachnet.edu/home/links/agwateruse/iniative/precision.asp.
Smith, L.P., 1976. The agricultural climate of England and Wales. MAFF Technical Bulletin 35. London: HMSO.
Trigg, D.A., 1990. The application of remote sensing to the prediction of sugar beet yield. PhD thesis, University
of Nottingham.
Zhang, L., 2007. Remote sensing of wilting in sugar beet as an indicator for spatially variable irrigation. PhD
thesis, University of Nottingham.
Development of an instrument to monitor crop growth
status
M. Li, D. Cui, X. Li and W. Yang
Key Laboratory of Modern Precision Agriculture System Integration Research, Ministry of
Education, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, China; limz@cau.edu.cn
Abstract
Nitrogen content in crop leaf is an important indication for evaluating crop health and predicting
crop yield. A normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) is widely used as an indicator in
estimating leaf nitrogen contents in practice. How to effectively and accurately measure NDVI value
of crop leaves in the feld is a challenge on in-feld use instrument development. In order to detect
the plant nitrogen content in real-time, a wireless crop growth monitor is developed. It is made up
of a sensor and a controller. The sensor consists of an optical part and a circuit part. The optical part
is made up of four optical channels and four photo-detectors. Two channels receive the sunlight
and the other two receive the refected light from the crop canopy. The intensity of sunlight and
the refected light is measured at the wavebands of 610 nm and 1220 nm respectively. The circuit
part is made up of power supply unit, four amplifers and a wireless module. The controller has
functions such as keyboard input, LCD display, data storage, data upload and so on. Both hardware
and software are introduced in this report. Calibration tests show that the optical part has a high
accuracy and the wireless transmission also has a good performance.
Keywords: nitrogen content, ground-based remote sensing, precision agriculture, wireless
Introduction
Nitrogen content which can indicate the growth status and yield is one of the most important
indexes for crop growth. Nitrogen defciency can cause plants innutritious, and nitrogen excess
can also cause some problems, such as the waste of fertilizer and the environmental pollution. So
it is very necessary to fnd a fast and cheap way to detect the nitrogen content in order to increase
the Nitrogen Use Effciency (NUE), especially for Precision Agriculture. Previous researches
revealed that nitrogen had a great effect on the chlorophyll content of the crop leaves, and could
further cause the change of the spectral refectance of the crop canopy (Filella et al., 1995). When
the nitrogen content was defcient, the chlorophyll level in those plants decreased accordingly. It
would cause a reduction in leaves spectral refectance at NIR waveband and an increase at visible
waveband (Li et al., 2006). This characteristic made it convenient and fast to estimate the nitrogen
content by measuring the spectral refectance of the crop canopy.
Since 1970s, many basic researches have been conducted. Walburg et al. (1982) reported that it
was possible to estimate the nitrogen content in corn plants in terms of refectance spectra from
crop canopy. Xue et al. (2004) reported that a ratio index of refectance in NIR band to green band
(R810/R560) was capable to represent the nitrogen status in rice plants. Zhang et al. (2006) studied
about the spectral refectance of cucumber leaves in greenhouse, and two sensitive wavebands were
selected to evaluate the nitrogen content. A model was established and validated using Normal
Difference Color Index (NDCI) and the coeffcient was high up to 0.881. Bell et al. (2004) measured
the energy refected from turf grass canopy at a 350-1,100 nm waveband, found that there was an
acceptable correlation between Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and chlorophyll
content, and concluded that the NDVI could be used to estimate the chlorophyll content of turf
grass (2004). There are many other researches using NDVI to refect the growth condition and
nutrition information of the crops. In this research, NDVI was also chosen to indicate the crop
growth condition.
Mainly based on the principles mentioned above, many researches on developing ground based
sensing systems for detecting plants nitrogen content have been reported recently. Stone et al. (1996)
developed an optical sensor for detecting nitrogen availability in winter wheat plants. The device
could provide a close correlation between the nitrogen content and the Plant Nitrogen Spectral Index
(PNSI). Kim et al. (2001) investigated the applicability of using a multi-spectral camera as a ground
based sensor for assessing corn plant nitrogen stress, and a reasonable correlation between NDVI
and leaf chlorophyll content was also found. Heege and Thiessen (2002) developed an on-the-go
control system for site-specifc nitrogen top dressing in terms of measuring the crop refectance.
Sui et al. (2005) developed a device for detecting nitrogen status in cotton by measuring the
spectral refectance of cotton canopy at four wavebands (blue, green, red, and NIR) with modulated
illumination to the canopy in the Sunlight. Yang (2004) designed a device to get NDVI value
immediately without calibration on the spot. Zhang et al. (2006) developed a handheld spectral
instrument to diagnose the growth status of the crop in greenhouse using optical fbers. Min et al.
(2006) investigated the use of a visible and NIR spectroscopy to estimate nitrogen concentration
of Chinese cabbage. Xu et al. (2008) developed an optical sensor after having analyzed the optical
characters of spectral refectance of canopy and the optical principle of non-destructive nitrogen
monitoring.
This paper mainly reports the design of a hand-held device based on optical principle. It was
capable of measuring spectral refectance of crop canopy and the sunlight at both red and NIR
wavebands, and then gave the NDVI values immediately to estimate the nitrogen content in plants.
A prototype device was designed and manufactured. Calibration tests were conducted to evaluate
the performance of this monitor.
Development
Principle of the development
NDVI is calculated by two refectivity values of crop canopy at red and NIR wavebands as follows:
(1)
Where R
IR
represented the refectivity at NIR waveband and R
R
represented the refectivity at red
waveband.
Two different kinds of photodiodes were adopted to detect the light intensity at red and NIR
waveband respectively. Both sunlight and refected light of the canopy were detected in order to
calculate the refectivity at each waveband. The current signals of the photodiodes were amplifed
to voltage signals. Supposed that U
R
and U
IR
were the measured values of incident light at red
and NIR waveband, U
RR
and U
IRR
were the measured values of the refected light at red and NIR
waveband. K
IR
and K
R
were two constants which were determined by the characteristic specifcations
of the optical part. The R
R
and R
IR
could be calculated as follows:
(2)
Putting Equation 2 in Equation 1, a new formula was gotten as follows:
(3)
where k= K
R
/K
IR
, still represented the optical characteristic constant which could be calculated by
calibrating a standard white panel (NDVI = 0) with the following equation:

R IR
R IR
R R
R R
NDVI
+
= (1)

R
RR
R R
U
U
K R = ;
IR
IRR
IR IR
U
U
K R = (2)

IR RR R IRR
IR RR R IRR
U kU U U
U kU U U
NDVI
+
= (3)

IR RR
IRR R
U U
U U
k = (4)

Channel 1
Controller
Channel 2
Channel 3 Channel 4
Sensor
Channel 1
Controller
Channel 2
Channel 3 Channel 4
Sensor

Figure. 1 The structure of the wired

R IR
R IR
R R
R R
NDVI
+
= (1)

R
RR
R R
U
U
K R = ;
IR
IRR
IR IR
U
U
K R = (2)

IR RR R IRR
IR RR R IRR
U kU U U
U kU U U
NDVI
+
= (3)

IR RR
IRR R
U U
U U
k = (4)

Channel 1
Controller
Channel 2
Channel 3 Channel 4
Sensor
Channel 1
Controller
Channel 2
Channel 3 Channel 4
Sensor


R IR
R IR
R R
R R
NDVI
+
= (1)

R
RR
R R
U
U
K R = ;
IR
IRR
IR IR
U
U
K R = (2)

IR RR R IRR
IR RR R IRR
U kU U U
U kU U U
NDVI
+
= (3)

IR RR
IRR R
U U
U U
k = (4)

Channel 1
Controller
Channel 2
Channel 3 Channel 4
Sensor
Channel 1
Controller
Channel 2
Channel 3 Channel 4
Sensor

(4)
Two sensitive wavebands (610 nm and 1,220 nm) were found suitable to calculating NDVI after
a lot of feld experiences (Xue et al., 2004).
Based on the principles mentioned above, an old wired crop growth monitor was developed in our
research center in 2005 (Cui et al., 2005). It consisted of two main parts, a controller and a sensor
(Figure 1 shows the structure). And a close linear correlation of the measured values between this
monitor and a Crop Scan was gotten at 610 nm (R
2
=0.7604), but not good at 1,220 nm (R
2
=0.4612).
The wire between controller and sensor also made it not convenient to do feld experiences. So a
new wireless monitor was designed with some improvements in optical part, signal amplifcation,
data transmission, and control performance.
Development of the sensing unit
As shown in Figure 2, the newly developed wireless crop growth monitor was also made up of a
sensor and a controller. The sensor consisted of an optical unit and a circuit unit. There were four
optical channels in the optical unit. Channel 1 and channel 2 were used to detect the refected light
of crop canopies, and channel 3 and channel 4 were used to detect the incident light, which was
the sunlight in this situation. Channel 1 and channel 3 were sensitive at red waveband, and channel
2 and channel 4 were sensitive at NIR waveband. The circuit unit in the sensor included signal
amplifcation, A/D converter, and wireless transceiver. Controller mainly consisted of a LCD, a
keyboard, a serial port, and a processor unit.

R IR
R IR
R R
R R
NDVI
+
= (1)

R
RR
R R
U
U
K R = ;
IR
IRR
IR IR
U
U
K R = (2)

IR RR R IRR
IR RR R IRR
U kU U U
U kU U U
NDVI
+
= (3)

IR RR
IRR R
U U
U U
k = (4)

Channel 1
Controller
Channel 2
Channel 3 Channel 4
Sensor
Channel 1
Controller
Channel 2
Channel 3 Channel 4
Sensor


R IR
R IR
R R
R R
NDVI
+
= (1)

R
RR
R R
U
U
K R = ;
IR
IRR
IR IR
U
U
K R = (2)

IR RR R IRR
IR RR R IRR
U kU U U
U kU U U
NDVI
+
= (3)

IR RR
IRR R
U U
U U
k = (4)

Channel 1
Controller
Channel 2
Channel 3 Channel 4
Sensor
Channel 1
Controller
Channel 2
Channel 3 Channel 4
Sensor

Figure 2. The structure of the wireless monitor.

Crop
4 3
1 2
Controller
Sensor

Figure. 2 The structure of the wireless
monitor
Figure 1. The structure of the wired monitor.
Every channel had the same structure as illustrated in Figure 3. Each was composed of an optical
window, a flter, a convex, and a photodiode. Channel 1 and channel 3 had the same flters and
photodiodes. The center wavelength of the flters was 610 nm and the induce material of the two
photodiodes was Si. In a similar way, the center wavelength of the flters in channel 2 and channel
4 was 1,220 nm and the induce material was InGaAs. An infuence could be caused by the angle of
solar incidence which always changed as time passes by, so two milky diffuse glasses were used as
the optical windows of channel 3 and channel 4 used to receive the sunlight. Two standard optical
fat windows were chosen as the windows of channel 1 and channel 2 to receive the refected light.
The sensor should be lifted upon the crop canopy vertically when being used in the feld.
The real channel was assembled from three parts (Figure 4), which were connected with each other
via screw thread. It was convenient and easy for assembly and disassembly.
Figure 5 illustrates the block diagram of the hardware in the sensor. Four lines of signals fowed
from photodiodes to amplifers, then to the microcontroller to be transmitted via antenna.
The power supply unit mainly included a CMOS Low Dropout (LDO) regulator chip named SP6201
(Sipex Corporation, USA). The output voltage was 3.0 V, and every chip on the circuit board was
supplied by this regulator. The diameter of the sensitive area of the photodiodes was 1 mm, so that
the induce current was very low. OPA333 (Texas Instruments, USA), a high-precision and low
quiescent current amplifer, was chosen here. The input bias current of OPA333 was just 70 pA and
completely ignorable comparing the current output from the photodiode. It used a proprietary auto-
calibration technique to simultaneously provide very low offset voltage (10V max) and near-zero

Figure. 4 The design of the optical channel

Screw thread
Figure 4. The design of the optical channel.

Figure. 3 The sketch map of the optical channel

Image distance
Optical window
Filter
Convex
Photodiode
Figure 3. The sketch map of the optical channel.
drift over time and temperature. It was also optimized for low-voltage and single-supply operation
and could offer excellent CMRR without the crossover associated with traditional complementary
input stages. This design resulted in superior performance for driving analog-to-digital converters
(ADCs) without degradation of differential linearity. And the supply voltage was 1.8-5.5V, could
perfectly match with the power supply unit.
The wireless transmission was implemented by JN5139 module (Jennic Ltd, UK), a microminiature
wireless module. JN5139 module provided a comprehensive solution with high radio performance
and all RF components included. It could be used to implement IEEE802.15.4 or ZigBee compliant
systems. A microcontroller like-named JN5139 and an antenna interface were mainly contained
in this module. The microcontroller JN5139 included a 4-input 12-bit ADC, so the signals output
from the amplifers could directly fow into the module.
Development of the controller
Figure 6 shows the development of the controller. A JN5139 module was also used to implement
the wireless reception of signals from sensor. A LCD module LCM128645ZK (Qingyun Hi-tech
Ltd, China) was used to display the results. Eight digital IOs were contributed to the keyboard, and
several functions were implemented on the keyboard. Besides the ADC, two UARTs and one 128
KB fash memory were included in the module, so it was enough to be the microcontroller unit
(MCU) of the controller. 96 KB of the fash memory was used to store the application program,
and the other 32 KB could be allowed to store application data. The Serial Peripheral Interface

Figure. 5 The block diagram of the hardware in the sensor

Reflected light
Sunlight
JN5139 module
RF
transmit
Antenna
MCU

ADC
Figure 5. The block diagram of the hardware in the sensor.

Figure.6 The block diagram of hardware in controller

R
R
K
r
R
= ;
IR
IR
K
r
IR
= (5)

IR
R
K
K
k = (6)
LCD
display
Storage
JN5139 module
Antenna
8

I
O
s

Key
RF
reception
S
P
I

2 IOs
MCU
JN5139
Figure 6. The block diagram of hardware in controller.
(SPI) was used to connect the fash memory and JN5139. Data were processed in the MCU and
the results were stored just in the fash to save space and cost of the controller. Data stored in the
fash could be uploaded to PC via UART at last.
Calibration tests
Calibration of the optical performance
Calibration tests were conducted on September 26, 2008. It was a little cloudy. The calibration
tests were carried out every 15 minutes from 11:30 am to 2:00 pm. Both this monitor and an
illuminometer were used to measure the refected light of a standard white panel at the same time.
The NDVI value of the white panel was 0. The monitor was vertically lifted about 20 cm high upon
the white panel, and the voltage values from the four optical channels were repeatedly stored fve
times in the fash every test time. The illuminometer was vertically lifted about 10 cm high upon
the white panel, and a steady value was recorded. The average values of every test were calculated
to analyze the characteristic specifcation and accuracy of the monitor.
The characteristic specifcation was calculated from Equations 5 and 6 described below:
(5)
(6)
where R
r
, IR
r
, R, IR were the average voltage values output from optical channels 1, 2, 3 and 4.
K
R
, K
IR
and k were calculated by the average values of every test. The result is shown in Figure 7.
The symbol represented the values of k which was the characteristic constant of the monitor.
The average value of k was 1.042, and the standard deviation of k was 0.046.
The voltage values output from four channels were also compared with the measured values of
the illuminometer respectively. The result is shown in Figure 8, and close correlations were found.
The values of R
2
between illuminometer and every channel were very close. The minimum R
2
was
0.7275 of channel 3, and the maximum R
2
was 0.7711 of channel 1.
The wireless performance was tested by two people on the open feld. One people held the controller
stilly at one spot, and the other one held the sensor and kept on moving away straight from the
controller. If there were no obstacle such as people between sensor and controller, signals could be
received accurately in a distance of more than 150m, but if there were some obstacles between them,
the distance could decrease to 120m, more wireless data would be lost as the distance got longer.


R
R
K
r
R
= ;
IR
IR
K
r
IR
= (5)

IR
R
K
K
k = (6)
LCD
display
Storage
JN5139 module
Antenna
8

I
O
s

Key
RF
reception
S
P
I

2 IOs
MCU
JN5139


R
R
K
r
R
= ;
IR
IR
K
r
IR
= (5)

IR
R
K
K
k = (6)
LCD
display
Storage
JN5139 module
Antenna
8

I
O
s

Key
RF
reception
S
P
I

2 IOs
MCU
JN5139

Figure.7 Reflectance of the white panel at different time

0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
1.2
1.4
1
1
:
3
0
1
1
:
4
5
1
2
:
0
0
1
2
:
1
5
1
2
:
3
0
1
2
:
4
5
1
3
:
0
0
1
3
:
1
5
1
3
:
3
0
1
3
:
4
5
1
4
:
0
0
Time
C
h
a
r
a
c
t
e
r
i
s
t
i
c

C
o
n
s
t
a
n
t
s
KR
KIR
k
K
R

K
IR

k
Figure 7. Refectance of the white panel at different time.
Conclusion
A wireless hand-hold monitor based on optical principle was developed, which was used to
measure the NDVI value of the crop canopy and then evaluate the nitrogen content. Calibration and
performance tests were conducted. The calibration tests showed the average of optical characteristic
constant was 1.042, and the standard deviation of it was 0.046, refected a good repetitiveness.
The measured values between the monitor and an illuminometer also had a good correlation. A
better correlation would be gotten in a sunny day. The wireless transmission part also had a good
performance.
Acknowledgements
Funding for this study was provided by National High Technology Research and Development
Program of China (863 Program): Precision Agriculture (2006AA10A302), (2007AA10Z207) and
(2008BADA4B02).
References
Bell, G., Howell, B., Johnson, G., Raun, W., Solie, J. and Stone, M. 2004. Optical sensing of turfgrass chlorophyll
content and tissue nitrogen. American Society for Horticultural Science 39(5) 1130-1132.
Cui, D., Li, M., Zhu, Y., et al., 2005. Development of a crop growth monitor based on optical principle. Lecture
Series on Computer and Computational Sciences (1) 1-3.
Filella, I., Serrano, L., Serra, J. and Penuelas, J. 1995. Evaluating wheat nitrogen status with canopy refectance
indices and discriminant analysis. Crop Science 35(5) 1400-1405.
Heege, H., and Thiessen, E. 2002. Onthego sensing for sitespecifc nitrogen top dressing. ASAE Paper
No 021113. ASAE, St. Joseph, MI, USA.
Kim, Y., Reid, J., Hansen, A., Zhang, Q. and Dickson, M. 2001. Ambient illumination effect on a spectral
image sensor for detecting crop nitrogen stress. ASAE paper No 011178. ASAE, St. Joseph, MI, USA.
Li, M., Han, D. and Wang, X. 2006. Spectral analysis and applications, Science Press, Beijing, China. 180-194.
Min, M., Won, S., Yong, H. and Bucklin, R. 2006. Nondestructive detection of nitrogen in Chinese Cabbage
leaves using VIS-NIR spectroscopy. HortScience 41(1) 162-166.

Figure. 8 Correlation between the measured values of the illuminometer and developed
monitor

Rr: y = 0.6071x - 38.752
R2 = 0.7711
IRr: y = 1.8212x - 97.388
R2 = 0.7302
R: y = 0.5915x - 59.014
R2 = 0.7275
IR: y = 1.8376x - 163.17
R2 = 0.7641
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
320 370 420 470 520 570 620
Illuminat ion(*100 lx)
O
u
t
p
u
t

V
o
l
t
a
g
e
(
m
V
)
1 Rr
2 IRr
3 R
4 IR
Linear(Rr)
Linear(IRr)
Linear(R)
Linear(IR)
Figure 8. Correlation between the measured values of the illuminometer and developed monitor.
Stone, M., Soile, J., Raun, W., Whitney, R., Taylor, S. and Ringer, J. 1996. Use of spectral radiance for correcting
in-season fertilizer nitrogen defciencies in winter wheat. Trans. ASAE 39(5) 1623-1631.
Sui, R., Wilkerson, J., Hart, W., Wilhelm, L. and Howard, D. 2005. Multispectral sensor for detection of
nitrogen status in cotton. Applied engineering in agriculture 21(2) 167-172.
Walburg, G., Bauer, M., and Daughtry, C. 1982. Effects of nitrogen nutrition on the growth, yield and refectance
characteristic of corn canopies. Agronomy Journal 74 677-683.
Xu, Z., Zhu, Y., Jiao X., Cao, W. and Liu, X. 2008. Design of Optic System for Crop Nitrogen Non-destructive
Monitoring Instrument. Transactions of the Chinese Society of Agricultural Machinery 39(3) 120-122.
Xue, L., Cao, W., Luo,W. and Zhang, X. 2004. Correlation between leaf nitrogen status and canopy spectral
characteristics in wheat. Acta Phytoecologica Sinica 28(2) 172-177.
Yang, S. 2004. A measuring technology for Normalized Difference Vegetation Index. Journal of Basic Science
and Engineering 12(3) 328-332.
Zhang, X., Li, M., Cui, D., Zhao, P., Sun, J. and Tang, N. 2006. New method and instrument to diagnose crop
growth status in greenhouse based on spectroscopy. Spectroscopy and Spectral Analysis 26(5) 887-890.
Field hyperspectral imagery: a new tool for crop monitoring
at plant scale
N. Vigneau
1
, G. Rabatel
1
and P. Roumet
2
1
Cemagref, UMR ITAP, 361 rue Jean-Franois Breton, F-34196 Montpellier, France;
nathalie.vigneau@montpellier.cemagref.fr
2
INRA, UMR DIA-PC, Domaine de Melgueil, F-34130 Mauguio, France
Abstract
In the study presented here, we used a pushbroom CCD camera ftted on a motorised rail fxed on a
tractor to take wheat plot images. The camera has a spectral range from 0.4 m to 1 m, a spectral
resolution of 3.7 nm and 160 wavebands. The spatial resolution across track, which is fxed by the
lens and the camera view angle, is 0.2 mm at 1 m above the canopy. The spatial resolution along
track, depending on the motion speed, can be adjusted between 0.2 and 5 mm. Images have been
radiometrically corrected with data given by the camera constructor to obtain signal in radiance.
A ceramic plate was calibrated in laboratory and used as a reference to obtain solar lighting and
correct the images in refectance. Once the images have been corrected with respect to illumination
conditions, they provide us with refectance spectra. The corrected spectra have been compared
to spectrometer measurements. Though the results show the pertinence of our correction process,
additional phenomena must still be taken into account (e.g. leaf orientation and canopy architecture).
They will be investigated in further studies.
Keywords: pushbroom camera, refectance, proximal sensing, wheat
Introduction
In agronomy, vegetation refectance spectra are largely used and make agronomical data acquisition
possible at plant or leaf scale. A large amount of wavelengths generating a continuous spectrum
provides us with accurate information even though partially redundant.
Spectroscopy, formerly reserved to laboratory samples has been extended to feld spectroscopy
from the ffties (Milton et al., in press) and has been generalised over the last years thanks to the
development of very robust feld spectroscopy devices (Milton et al., in press). This technology is
used to obtain refectance spectra in the whole optical domain (from 0.4 m to 2.5 m) and with
a spectral resolution of a few nanometers. Different devices can be used to collect spectra on an
organ like a leaf or on a whole plant. Spectral measurements are used to obtain information about
leaf area (Baret et al., 1987) or chlorophyll concentration (Hansen and Schjoerring, 2003), and to
assess total dry matter (Aparicio et al., 2002). Nevertheless, because feld spectroscopy samples
(only) a few hundred leaves, this engenders poor plot representativeness.
At another scale, many hyperspectral airborne or satellite sensors have been developed these last
years (Casi, Hyperion, Hymap, Aviris). They collect spectra in the optical domain. Spectral
resolution varies from 3 nm to 10 nm and spatial resolution from 5 m to 30 m. Many algorithms
are available to correct atmospheric effects and obtain a refectance signal from digital numbers.
Hyperspectral imagery can help to assess within-feld yield variability thanks to vegetation indices
(Zarco-Tejada et al., 2005) or chlorophyll content by combining an indices-based approach and a
radiative transfer model inversion (Haboudane et al., 2002). (Inoue, 2003) reviewed different ways
of combining methods to access agronomic data from remote sensing.
Remote sensing usage still has one main drawback: poor image spatial resolution. Though this has
been improved, the spatial resolution of satellite hyperspectral sensors is inadequate and leads to
mixed pixels which make spectra analysis more diffcult.
Consequently, obtaining and studying hyperspectral images with high spatial resolution would
combine the advantages of both methodologies described above and thus the characterisation of
very fne phenomenon would be possible at a large scale.
Within the framework of a project designed to improve durum wheat varietys adaptation to
specifc climate condition, geneticists asked for a device able to characterise in a simple way wheat
microplots and which could be used instead of ground samplings and laboratory measurements.
Refectance measurement was chosen because of the amount and diversity of information it could
provide us with (water content, nitrogen content, stress status...). The aim being to avoid tedious
and time-consuming ground samplings, feld spectrometer which would require also a lot of time
was not used. Hyperspectral ground imagery met all the objectives: the image shot was quick and
representative and the spatial resolution (between 0.2 and 5 mm) was good for microplots of 0.5
m by 1.5 m.
The aim of this article was to study the feasibility and the diffculties involved in using of ground
hyperspectral imagery for crop characterisation.
Image acquisition and pre-processing
Within a framework of genetic improvement (Garicc national project), many durum wheat
genotypes have been sown in 2007 in an experimental station (INRA, domaine de Melgueil) near
Montpellier, in France. We used a pushbroom CCD camera (HySpex VNIR 1600 - 160, Norsk
Elektro Optikk, Norway) ftted on a tractor-mounted motorised rail to take images of wheat plots
(see Figure 1) during the whole growing season. The camera has a spectral range of 600 nm (from
0.4 m to 1 m) and a spectral resolution of 3.7 nm. The frst dimension of the CCD matrix is the
spatial dimension (1600 pixels across track) and the second dimension is the spectral dimension
(160 bands). Each image represents about 0.30 m across track by 1.50 m along track. The spatial
resolution across track is 0.2 mm at 1 m above the canopy because of the lens and the view angle
which are fxed. The spatial resolution along track, depending on the motion speed, can be adjusted
between 0.2 and 5 mm.
Data are digitalised on 12 bits, i.e. between 0 and 2
12
-1 = 4095. In order to obtain a correct signal
histogram for the pixels of interest (i.e. vegetation), we adjust the CCD sensor integration time
- 1 -

Figure 1: Garicc prototype developed by Cemagref viewed in CAD-drawing.

] , [
] , [ ] , [
] , [
1
j i RE
j i BG j i DN
j i CN

= (1)

] [
] , [
] , [
1
2
j S
j i CN
j i CN = (2)

field et t et t
E R L ) ( ) ( ) (
arg arg
= (3)

field ceramic ceramic
E R L ) ( ) ( ) ( = (4)

ceramic
ceram
et t
et t
R
L
L
R ) (
) (
) (
) (
arg
arg

= (5)

Figure 1. Garicc prototype developed by Cemagref viewed in CAD-drawing.
using the following procedure. Before each image acquisition, a line (i.e. a CCD frame) is recorded
over vegetation sample and the mean of each spectral band is calculated. Then we consider the
band for which the mean is maximal and set the integration time in order to obtain a value of 2,048
for the mean of this band.
Nevertheless, we obtained yet some saturated pixels: thus pixels for which at least one band has
a value greater than 4,000 are viewed as saturated pixels and their spectra are automatically set to
a null value. They will not be used for further treatments. Images have then been radiometrically
corrected with data provided by the camera constructor (relative responsitivity matrix RE[i,j] for
each detector element and camera sensitivity S[j]) or measured at each image shot (dark current
BG[i,j]). Radiometric correction is made as follows:
(1)
(2)
where DN is the digital number, i refers to the frst dimension of CCD matrix (spatial dimension:
i [1,1600]) and j refers to the second one (spectral dimension: j [1,160]).
After this step, the signal (CN
2
) which has been corrected from instrumental effects is a radiance
signal.
Refectance correction
In order to be able to compare signals between images taken at different dates, we need to have
images independent of illumination conditions. Therefore, a refectance correction is necessary.
The refectance is the ratio of refected light to incident light. So, we need to know solar lighting.
To this end, spectralon (Labsphere, Inc., New Hampshire, USA) is generally used because it is a
lambertian surface and it refects 99% of received signal whatever the wavelength. That is why,
in outdoor conditions the radiance of spectralon provides us with a good approximation of solar
incident light. In our case, spectralon was not appropriate: not only, it is a rather expensive material,
but also feld experiment conditions might damage its refectance properties. Consequently we used
a commercial ceramic plate. Since integration time is optimised for vegetation, we need a quite
dark (i.e. grey) ceramic plate in order to not have saturated ceramic pixels. This plate is present in
the feld of view for every image acquisition. So, we have:
(3)
(4)
L being the radiance, R the refectance and E the solar lighting. This applies to leaf areas that
have the same (horizontal) orientation than the ceramic plate in the scene. In the general case, the
random leaf orientation introduces an unknown scalar factor, due to light incidence angle variation.
Then, we can write:
(5)
While L(i)
target
and L(i)
ceramic
are directly measured in the image (see Equation 2), R(i)
ceramic
has
to be previously determined.
This ceramic calibration is made with the HySpex camera in laboratory. The camera is fxed on the
motorised rail provided with the camera by the constructor. The camera is travelling and visualising
- 1 -


] , [
] , [ ] , [
] , [
1
j i RE
j i BG j i DN
j i CN

= (1)

] [
] , [
] , [
1
2
j S
j i CN
j i CN = (2)

field et t et t
E R L ) ( ) ( ) (
arg arg
= (3)

E R L ) ( ) ( ) ( = (4)

ceramic
ceram
et t
et t
R
L
L
R ) (
) (
) (
) (
arg
arg

= (5)

- 1 -


] , [
] , [ ] , [
] , [
1
j i RE
j i BG j i DN
j i CN

= (1)

] [
] , [
] , [
1
2
j S
j i CN
j i CN = (2)

field et t et t
E R L ) ( ) ( ) (
arg arg
= (3)

E R L ) ( ) ( ) ( = (4)

ceramic
ceram
et t
et t
R
L
L
R ) (
) (
) (
) (
arg
arg

= (5)

- 1 -


] , [
] , [ ] , [
] , [
1
j i RE
j i BG j i DN
j i CN

= (1)

] [
] , [
] , [
1
2
j S
j i CN
j i CN = (2)

field et t et t
E R L ) ( ) ( ) (
arg arg
= (3)

E R L ) ( ) ( ) ( = (4)

ceramic
ceram
et t
et t
R
L
L
R ) (
) (
) (
) (
arg
arg

= (5)

- 1 -


] , [
] , [ ] , [
] , [
1
j i RE
j i BG j i DN
j i CN

= (1)

] [
] , [
] , [
1
2
j S
j i CN
j i CN = (2)

field et t et t
E R L ) ( ) ( ) (
arg arg
= (3)

E R L ) ( ) ( ) ( = (4)

ceramic
ceram
et t
et t
R
L
L
R ) (
) (
) (
) (
arg
arg

= (5)

- 1 -


] , [
] , [ ] , [
] , [
1
j i RE
j i BG j i DN
j i CN

= (1)

] [
] , [
] , [
1
2
j S
j i CN
j i CN = (2)

field et t et t
E R L ) ( ) ( ) (
arg arg
= (3)

E R L ) ( ) ( ) ( = (4)

ceramic
ceram
et t
et t
R
L
L
R ) (
) (
) (
) (
arg
arg

= (5)

objects placed in a closed diffusing bell. Objects to visualise are placed at a distance of 0.3 m from
the camera. Ceramic refectance is calibrated with spectralon:
(6)
Another phenomenon affecting ceramic refectance has also to be taken into account: the refectance
can be different depending on the sun zenith angle, due to a non-uniform BRDF (bidirectional
refectance distribution function). Consequently, a goniometer was used in laboratory to characterise
the ceramic refectance according to the light incidence (noted p
ceramic
(O,i) where O is the light
incidence angle and i is the wavelength).
To use this characteristic in feld conditions, we have to consider a part of light directly received from
the sun with a unique incidence angle , and a part of diffuse light with every possible incidence.
For the diffuse part, the hemispheric refectance p(H,i) is obtained by integrating p(,i) for all
possible values over 2r steradians. This leads to the following equation:

(7)
O being the sun position and F the diffuse fraction which can be assessed from horizontal visibility
measurements provided by meteorological services. So the Equation 5 becomes:
(8)
Before proceeding to refectance correction, we need to isolate ceramic pixels in radiance images. To
obtain this, outlines are drawn manually over ceramic pixels on a colour image of each hyperspectral
image. All pixel coordinates of the ceramic selected regions are stored in an ASCII fle for each
image. During refectance correction process, this fle is read again and a mean radiance ceramic
spectrum is calculated. Then Equation 8 can be applied to obtain the target refectance signal.
Spectrum comparison with other spectrometric sources
In order to link the camera refectance spectra with nitrogen content, we planned to apply existing
chemometric models established with a commercial feld spectrometer (FieldSpec, Analytical
Spectral Devices, Inc. (ASD), Boulder, Colorado, USA). Therefore, as a frst step, we compared
the refectance spectra obtained with both tools, over a set of 20 wheat plants. With the Hyspex
camera at 1 m above canopy, the whole plant was measured and leaf pixels were then selected.
With the feld spectrometer, at each time only one leaf is measured with a leaf-clip.
Ceramic calibration in laboratory
On Figure 2 are the mean ceramic refectance spectrum and its standard deviation (expressed as a
percentage of the mean value) obtained with the Hyspex camera. On the contrary of a spectralon
spectrum, the ceramic spectrum is not fat, which confrms the necessity of laboratory calibration.
The large standard deviation (up to 61% of the mean) found in the short wavelengths could be
explained by the poor sensitivity of the camera in this spectral domain, due to silicon sensor
technology. Below 450 nm, the raw digital count is very low and the noise contribution becomes
signifcant, leading to a great variability. For this reason, only wavelengths above 450 nm will be
used in further processing.
In wavelengths greater than 450 nm, the remaining standard deviation (about 15% of the mean
value) is due to the textural heterogeneity of the ceramic plate. - 2 -

spectralon
ceramic
ceramic
L
L
R
) (
) (
) (
= (6)

) ( ) , ( )) ( 1 ( ) , ( ) , (
tan _ tan _
F H F
ce reflec c hemispheri
ceramic
H
ce reflec nnal bidirectio
ceramic
ceramic
+ =
4 43 4 42 1 4 43 4 42 1
(7)

) , (
) (
) (
) (
arg
arg

=
ceramic
ceramic
et t
et t
L
L
R (8)

0
0,1
0,2
0,3
0,4
403 451 498 545 593 640 687 735 782 829 877 924 972
wavelength (nm)
(
m
)

r
e
f
l
e
c
t
a
n
c
e
0
20
40
60
80
100
s
t
d

(
%

o
f

m
)

Figure 2: Mean reflectance (dot-dash, axe on the left) and standard deviation ceramic spectrum
(solid, axe on the rigth).

- 2 -

spectralon
ceramic
ceramic
L
L
R
) (
) (
) (
= (6)

) ( ) , ( )) ( 1 ( ) , ( ) , (
tan _ tan _
F H F
ceramic
H
ceramic
ceramic
+ =
4 43 4 42 1 4 43 4 42 1
(7)

) , (
) (
) (
) (
arg
arg

=
ceramic
ceramic
et t
et t
L
L
R (8)

0
0,1
0,2
0,3
0,4
403 451 498 545 593 640 687 735 782 829 877 924 972
wavelength (nm)
(
m
)

r
e
f
l
e
c
t
a
n
c
e
0
20
40
60
80
100
s
t
d

(
%

o
f

m
)


- 2 -

spectralon
ceramic
ceramic
L
L
R
) (
) (
) (
= (6)

) ( ) , ( )) ( 1 ( ) , ( ) , (
tan _ tan _
F H F
ceramic
H
ceramic
ceramic
+ =
4 43 4 42 1 4 43 4 42 1
(7)

) , (
) (
) (
) (
arg
arg

=
ceramic
ceramic
et t
et t
L
L
R (8)

0
0,1
0,2
0,3
0,4
403 451 498 545 593 640 687 735 782 829 877 924 972
wavelength (nm)
(
m
)

r
e
f
l
e
c
t
a
n
c
e
0
20
40
60
80
100
s
t
d

(
%

o
f

m
)


However, during refectance correction, where ceramic regions are selected manually on the radiance
image, a very large amount of ceramic pixels are collected. Therefore the uncertainty on the mean
radiance measurement is signifcantly reduced (the reduction factor is n, where n is the number
of collected pixels. In our case, with a standard deviation value around 15%, an n value equal to
10,000, we obtain o/n ~0.15% of the mean).
Concerning the ceramic BRDF, Figure 3 illustrates the ceramic mean refectance spectrum according
to the incident light angle and for a sensor at nadir, obtained from laboratory measurements. This
fgure shows the large variation in ceramic refectance spectra and the importance of taking into
account this phenomenon in our correction process.
Example of an hyperspectral image acquired with the Garicc prototype
Figure 4 shows an example of hyperspectral image taken with the Garicc prototype with a high
spatial resolution.
Spectrum comparison with other spectrometric sources
In order to cancel the leaf orientation effect in the hyperspectral image the spectra have been
normalised before comparison.
- 2 -

spectralon
ceramic
ceramic
L
L
R
) (
) (
) (
= (6)

) ( ) , ( )) ( 1 ( ) , ( ) , (
tan _ tan _
F H F
ceramic
H
ceramic
ceramic
+ =
4 43 4 42 1 4 43 4 42 1
(7)

) , (
) (
) (
) (
arg
arg

=
ceramic
ceramic
et t
et t
L
L
R (8)

0
0,1
0,2
0,3
0,4
403 451 498 545 593 640 687 735 782 829 877 924 972
wavelength (nm)
(
m
)

r
e
f
l
e
c
t
a
n
c
e
0
20
40
60
80
100
s
t
d

(
%

o
f

m
)


Figure 2. Mean refectance (dot-dash, axe on the left) and standard deviation ceramic spectrum
- 3 -

Figure 3: ceramic mean reflectance spectra for a sensor at nadir and an incident angle between
10 and 70 (from nadir)
Figure 3. Ceramic mean refectance spectra for a sensor at nadir and an incident angle between
10 and 70 (from nadir).
An example of a result, given in Figure 5, shows that signifcant differences remain between both
kinds of spectra. It suggests that other spectral phenomena have still to be taken into account. Some
of them, specifc of close-range image acquisition, are listed below:
Because the leaves are observed in their natural plant environment, the incident light contributing
to their radiance does not come exclusively from the sky. A signifcant part can reach the leaf after
multiple refections on surrounding leaves, leading to a modifed lighting spectrum, compared
to the one received by the reference ceramic plate.
Depending on the leaf orientation, specular refection can also be involved.
Due to the 3D scene, light transmitted through leaves can also reach the camera.
In the refectance correction described above, the leaf surface is supposed to be lambertian, so
the leaf orientation only introduces a multiplication factor. A non-uniform leaf BRDF could
also induces some modifcations of the spectral pattern.
Of course, the relative importance of all these phenomena has to be assessed. It will be made
in further experiments. The resulting understanding of the image acquisition phenomena could
be used to guide further chemometric processing (e.g. through spectral space transformations).
Indeed, specifc chemometric calibrations will be mandatory for the development of an operational
hyperspectral monitoring system (although we thought initially of using existing chemometric
models).
- 4 -

a. b. c.
Figure 4: a hyperspectral image (on the left the ceramic reference):
a. 541 nm, b. 661 nm and c. 880 nm
Figure 4. A hyperspectral image (on the left the ceramic reference): (a) 541 nm, (b) 661 nm and
(c) 880 nm.
- 5 -

.
Figure 5: leaf reflectance spectra: spectrometer (solid) and camera (dash)

Figure 5. Leaf refectance spectra: spectrometer (solid) and camera (dash).
Conclusion
This article shows an innovative tool combining a high spatial resolution and a high spectral
resolution in feld hyperspectral images. This new technology mixes advantages of remote sensing (a
large amount of spectra at once) and feld spectrometry (refectance recorded on a little piece of the
target). Nevertheless, it must face a lot of specifc problems due to outdoor imaging conditions and
to the complexity of natural plant scenes in terms of spectral environment. Though some processes
of correction have already been involved to obtain refectance images independently of the solar
lighting, the results obtained are not satisfactory yet at the present stage. Other phenomena, specifc
of feld hyperspectral imagery, will be investigated in the near future.
Acknowledgements
This study has been funded by the Garicc project of Qu@limed competitive cluster. We are very
grateful to Frederic Compan and Martin Ecarnot for their help for feld experiments and nitrogen
content measurements and to Batrice Ramora for providing durum wheat samplings for feld
experiments.
References
Aparicio, N., Villegas, D., Araus, J.L., Casadess, J. and Royo, C., 2002. Relationship between growth traits
and spectral vegetation indices in durum wheat. Crop Science 42: 1547-1555.
Baret, F., Champion, I., Guyot, G. and Podaire, A., 1987. Monitoring wheat canopies with a high spectral
resolution radiometer. Remote Sensing of Environment 22: 367-378.
Haboudane, D., Miller, J.R., Tremblay, N., Zarco-Tejada, P.J. and Dextraze, L., 2002. Integrated narrow-band
vegetation indices for prediction of crop chlorophyll content for application to precision agriculture.
Hansen, P.M. and Schjoerring, J.K., 2003. Refectance measurement of canopy biomass and nitrogen status in
wheat crops using normalized difference vegetation indices and partial least squares regression. Remote
Inoue, Y., 2003. Synergy of remote sensing and modeling for estimating ecophysiological processes in plant
production. Plant Production Science 6: 3-16.
Milton, E.J., Schaepman, M.E., Anderson, K., Kneubhler, M. and Fox, N., in press. Progress in feld
spectroscopy. Remote Sensing of Environment. available online 29 September 2007.
Zarco-Tejada, P.J., Ustin, S.L. and Whiting, M.L., 2005. Temporal and spatial relationships between within-
feld yield variability in cotton and high-spatial hyperspectral remote sensing imagery. Agronomy Journal
97: 641-653.
Determination of canopy properties of winter oilseed rape
using remote sensing techniques in feld experiments
L. Engstrm
1
, B. Lindn
1
, M. Sderstrm
1
, T. Brjesson
2
, K. Nissen
2
, N. Lorn
3
, I. Gruvaeus
4

and O. Hagner
5
1
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Dep. of Soil and Environment, Skara, Sweden;
lena.engstrom@mark.slu.se
2
Lantmnnen, Lidkping, Sweden
3
The Swedish Institute for Food and Biotechnology, Gteborg, Sweden
4
Rural Economy and Agricultural Society of Skaraborg, Skara, Sweden
5
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Dep. of Forest Resource Management, Ume, Sweden
Abstract
Measuring canopy refectance in winter oilseed rape has proved to be a fast and non-destructive
tool for monitoring canopy properties in precision agriculture. In two-year feld experiments of
oilseed rape from 2007 to 2009, in south-western Sweden, investigations were carried out in order to
evaluate the use of the handheld Yara N-Sensor for determination of biomass and N-content instead
of N-analysis of crop samples in the laboratory. The use of digital photography to determine plant
density was also investigated with the purpose to replace time consuming counts of plants by hand in
these feld experiments. The experiment was performed in 40 sampling areas of 1215 m distributed
on four different felds with varying plant density. N-sensor measurements and digital photos were
obtained in late autumn, early spring simultaneously with counts of plants and measurements of
DM and N-content in crop samples from 2 m
2
within each sampling area. The N-content of the
crop in late autumn in 2007 (17 October) was 18 kg N/ha, on average, and ranged from 3 to 81
kg N/ha (sd.=15). The r
2
values for the relationship (ftted power function) between sensor values
and biomass in kg DM/ha and N-content (kg N/ha) were 0.93 and 0.92, respectively. Using image
analysis, fewer plants were detected than with manual counting. This was accentuated when the
plant density increased. The area fraction covered by crop estimated using image analysis of the
ground photographs correlated well (r
2
=0.94) with the dry matter of the manually cut crop samples.
Since biomass and N-content also had a good correlation image analysing may be a method to
determine the N-content. The results indicated that the handheld N-sensor could be a fast and less
costly method to determine the DM- and N-content of winter oilseed rape.
Keywords: N-content, plant density, N-sensor, image analysis
Introduction
The use of vegetation indices of visible and near-infrared (NIR) light allows for estimation of
quantitative growth properties of, e.g. winter oilseed rape such as shoot dry matter and shoot
N-content (Behrens et al., 2006). Yara Research Center in Hanninghof, Germany, has developed a
vegetation index S1(OSR) for winter oilseed rape that well describes the biomass and the N-content
of plants (www.neue-rapsduengung.de). Digital image analysis to measure canopies of winter
oilseed rape has also been used successfully (Behrens and Diepenbrock, 2006). In feld experiments,
determination of plant density, crop biomass and N-content is important for understanding crop
development and the effect of crop management but is also labour-intensive and often erroneous. In
two feld experiments with winter oilseed rape in southwest Sweden performed between 2007 and
2009, investigations are carried out in order to evaluate the use of the handheld Yara N-Sensor and
the index S1(OSR) of oilseed rape for determination of biomass and N-content in comparison to
analysis of crop samples in the laboratory. In addition, the use of digital photography to determine
N-content and plant density with the purpose to replace time consuming manual sampling and
counts of plants was evaluated in feld experiments. In this paper, only results from the autumn of
2007 are presented.
Field experiments
Two feld experiments are being carried out 2007/2008 and 2008/2009 in Vstergtland, southwest
Sweden (5822
1
N). The frst experiment was performed with totally 40 sampling areas of 1215
m distributed on four different felds (Bjertorp 10, Bjertorp 15, Ribbingsberg and Prinshaga), each
with large spatial variability in plant density and growth. Winter oilseed rape (Brassica napus L.)
was sown with a row spacing of 0.12 m. Nitrogen (N) fertilisation, plant protection and P-, K-
and S-fertilisation were done according to general Swedish recommendations. Three of the felds
(Bjertorp 10, Bjertorp 15 and Ribbingsberg) were photographed on 27 September 2007 from the air
with a near-infrared enabled camera (Canon digital Ixus-60, 6 Mpix) mounted on a small unmanned
aerial vehicle (UAV). The UAV used was a SmartPlanes SmartOne mini-UAV described by Rydberg
et al. (2007). The images had a resolution of about 0.1 m and image mosaics were created for the
three felds. Field plots were located according to the variability in the mosaics, but in some cases
the locations were slightly adjusted manually in the feld (Figure 1). The purpose was to select as
homogenous plots as possible in areas with different plant vigour and soil types.
Crop measurements
N-sensor measurements and digital photos were made in late autumn (October) and early spring
(early April) just before counting plants and cutting crop samples for determination of dry matter
(DM) and N-content. This was done in two 11 m areas positioned diagonally within each sampling
area (with as even plant density as possible). Crop samples were cut at the soil surface, dried at 60
C and then subjected to determination of plant N concentration (using Dumas elemental analysis)

Figure 1. Mosaic of UAV-images of Bjertorp 10. The light and dark areas indicate NIR reflection. The lighter
coloured areas correspond to low and high plant biomass. The numbered white squares are the field plots. The
background shows an older ordinary aerial IR photograph.

Figure 1. Mosaic of UAV-images of Bjertorp 10. The light and dark areas indicate NIR refection.
The lighter coloured areas correspond to low and high plant biomass. The numbered white
squares are the feld plots. The background shows an older ordinary aerial IR photograph.
and DM. In the feld, N-sensor measurements were carried out from four directions at the two 1
m
2
crop sampling areas with a hand-held Yara N-Sensor which registers the refectance in several
wave-lengths from green to NIR. The oilseed rape index S1(OSR) was used to estimate DM- and
N-contents in the plants. Digital images were obtained with a Nikon D70 digital camera. The camera
has a resolution of 20003008 pixels and the images are stored in a low-compressed jpeg-format to
achieve the best possible image analysis. The images were acquired with the camera mounted on
an arm stretching out from a tripod about 1.4 m above ground. A white, 1 m
2
square-shaped frame
was put on the ground to delimit the area used for image analysis, plant counts and crop samplings.
An automated image analysis algorithm for the analysis of ground coverage and number of weeds
and crop plants based on ordinary digital photos was created in MATLAB (MathWorks, USA).
The process consists of a sequence of methods for removal of irrelevant information (soil) from the
images and separation of weeds and crop through a combination of a number of image processing
methods (Nyman, 2008). Oilseed rape plants have an obvious pattern of veins on their leaves that
distinctly separate them from weeds, which were used for detecting a leaf (Figure 2). By identifying
the leaves and in which end they are attached to the plant the plant center were localised and thus
the number of plants could be calculated.
N-content in plants in the autumn
The N-content of the crop in late autumn in 2007 (17 October) was 18 kg N/ha on average, and
ranged from 3 to 81 kg N/ha (sd.=15). The r
2
values for the relationship (ftted power function)
between sensor values and biomass in kg DM/ha and N-content (kg N/ha) were 0.93 and 0.92,
respectively (Figure 3).
The area fraction of ground covered by crop estimated by the image analysis algorithm from the
photographs was also very well correlated (r
2
=0.94) with the dry matter of the manually cut crop

Figur 2. Identifying a plant by detecting the nerves of the leaves. Step a-d in detecting the nerves in the leaves of
a winter oilseed rape plant.

Figur 2. Identifying a plant by detecting the nerves of the leaves. Step a-d in detecting the nerves
in the leaves of a winter oilseed rape plant.
samples (Figure 4). There was also a good correlation between N-content and biomass indicating
that it could be possible to determine the N-content by image analysis. The samples at Prinshaga
differed somewhat from the data of the other felds. The plant density was generally very high in
that feld, but the plants were smaller and the measured N content was much less compared with
the plants from the other felds.
Number of plants in the autumn
The number of plants in the autumn was between 20 and 160 per m
2
and on average 52 per m
2
.
In one of the felds, Prinshaga (Figure 5), the number of plants was larger than on the other felds
since an open pollinator cultivar had been sown with a higher seeding rate than the hybrids sown
in the other felds.
Using image analysis, fewer plants were detected than with manual counting (Figure 5). This was
accentuated when the plant density increased. Therefore a logarithmic curve best described the
relationship between manual counting and image analysis.
As can be seen in Figure 6, the results from the image analysis vary quite a lot with the same
number of plants. The largest deviation generally amounts to about 10 plants per m
2
compared

y = 2E-12x
11.046
R
2
= 0.93
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1400
1600
1800
2000
14.0 16.0 18.0 20.0 22.0 24.0
N-sensor value S1(OSR)
D
r
y

m
a
t
t
e
r
,

k
g

D
M

h
a
-
1

y = 7E-12x
9.5211
R
2
= 0.92
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
14.0 16.0 18.0 20.0 22.0 24.0
N-sensor value S1(OSR)
N
-
c
o
n
t
e
n
t
,

k
g

N

h
a
-
1

Figure 3. Relationships between N-sensor measurements and DM- and N-content of winter oilseed rape plants
on 17 October 2007, n = 40.

Figure 3. Relationships between N-sensor measurements and DM- and N-content of winter
oilseed rape plants on 17 October 2007, n = 40.

Figure 4. Scatter plot of the dry matter of winter oilseed rape in relation to the fraction of area covered by crop as
estimated by the image analysis algorithm.

Figure 4. Scatter plot of the dry matter of winter oilseed rape in relation to the fraction of area
covered by crop as estimated by the image analysis algorithm.

0
20
40
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100
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180
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Sampling area
P
l
a
n
t
s
/
m
2

Figure 5. Number of winter oilseed rape plants per m
2
11 October 2007 within sampling areas in the four
investigated fields. Bars refer to field plots (sampling area) at Bjertorp 10 (plot no. 101-119), Bjertorp 15 (no.
201-209), Prinshaga (no. 301-306) and Ribbingsberg (no. 401-406).

Figure 5. Number of winter oilseed rape plants per m
2
11 October 2007 within sampling areas
in the four investigated felds. Bars refer to feld plots (sampling area) at Bjertorp 10 (plot no.
101-119), Bjertorp 15 (no. 201-209), Prinshaga (no. 301-306) and Ribbingsberg (no. 401-406).
with manual counting, also at low plant densities. This is an effect of the fact that the plants are
often growing too close to each other in order to be detected by the algorithm.
Conclusion
The results indicated that the handheld N-sensor could be a fast and less costly method to determine
the DM- and N-content of winter oilseed rape in feld trials. This could improve the possibilities
to further investigate the dynamics of N-uptake in winter oilseed rape in future feld experiments.
Using image analysis it was shown that ground coverage correlated well with dry matter of the
crop. Since biomass and N-content had a good correlation image analysis may also be a method to
determine the N-content in winter oilseed rape. Using image analysis, fewer plants were detected
than with manual counting. This was accentuated when the plant density increased.
References
Behrens, T. and Diepenbrock, W. 2006. Using digital image analysis to describe canopies of winter oilseed
rape (Brassica napus L.) during vegetative developmental stages. Journal of Agronomy & Crop Science
192, 295-302.
Behrens, T., Mller, J. and Diepenbrock, W. 2006. Utilization of canopy refectance to predict properties of
oilseed rape (Brassica napus L.) and barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) during ontogenesis. European Journal
of Agronomy 25, 345-355.
Nyman, M. 2008. Image analysis as a tool for weed detection in pea and rape felds. Applied Physics, Chalmers,
Gothenburg, Sweden Unpublished MSc thesis.
Rydberg A., Sderstrm M., Hagner O. and Brjesson T. 2007. Field specifc overview of crops using UAV
(Unmanned Aerial Viehicle). In: Proceedings of the 6th European Conference on Precision Agriculture,
Skiathos, Greece, 2007-06-03 - 2007-06-06. Precision Agriculture07. Stafford J.V. (ed.), Wageningen
Academic Publishers, the Netherlands, pp. 357-364.

Figure 6. Manual counting of winter oilseed rape plants compared with detection using image analysis (plants
per m
2
), r
2
= 0.56.

Figure 6. Manual counting of winter oilseed rape plants compared with detection using image
analysis (plants per m
2
), r
2
=0.56.
Within-feld and regional prediction of malting barley
protein content using canopy refectance
M. Sderstrm
1,3
, T. Brjesson
2
, C.G. Pettersson
2
, K. Nissen
2
and O. Hagner
4
1
Swedish University of Agricultural Science, Department of Soil & Environment, P.O. Box 234,
532 23 Skara, Sweden; mats.soderstrom@mark.slu.se
2
Lantmnnen Lantbruk, P.O. Box 30192, 104 92 Stockholm, Sweden
3
Sweco Position AB, P.O. Box 2203, 403 14 Gteborg, Sweden
4
Swedish University of Agricultural Science, Department of Forest Research Management, 901
83 Ume, Sweden
Abstract
Producing high quality malting barley is a challenge for all farmers. The protein criterion is strict
with a tolerated range between 9.5 and 11.5% grain crude protein. The within-feld and regional
variability is often considerable due to varying weather and soil conditions. This paper focuses
on predicting within-feld differences in protein in malting barley at a late growth stage using
the Yara N-Sensor as well as explaining and predicting the regional variability in malting barley
protein using satellite images. Late stage feld predictions of protein in the crop could be useful
for farmers in order to plan the harvest, and a regional prediction of barley quality before harvest
would be useful for the grain industry. The project was carried out in central Sweden where there is
documented variability of malting barley both within felds and regionally. N-sensor scanning and
crop sampling were carried out in 2007 and 2008, at ten barley felds each year. The regional data
used consisted of weather data, quality analyses of delivered malting barley to the major farmers
co-operative, crops grown and feld boundaries. Satellite scenes (IRS-P6 LISS-III) were acquired
from a date as close in time as possible to the N-Sensor scannings. Reasonably good PLS models
could be constructed based on weather data and refexion data from either the N-sensor or satellite
data. Most information used by the models was refectance data, but particularly when using
satellite imagery, where the number of spectral bands is very limited, weather data improved the
models considerably. Better feld models could be created with data from the N-Sensor compared
with the satellite image, but a local satellite based model based on a simple ratio (middle infrared/
green) in combination with weather was useful in the regional prediction of malting barley protein.
Keywords: Yara N-Sensor, satellite image, remote sensing, vegetation index
Introduction
The production of barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) for the brewery industry is important for Swedish
farmers. The ideal protein content for European malting barley is 10.7% grain crude protein (CP)
on a dry matter base with a tolerated range between 9.5 and 11.5% CP. To fulfl these demands
is a challenge for the farmer in all production areas of the world, mainly due to variable weather
conditions. Also the within-feld variability of grain CP may be considerable due to variable soil
conditions. A combination of remote sensing data, meteorological data and soil data have been
shown to be useful in explaining both quantity and quality of malting barley, both on the regional
and local scale (e.g. Pettersson and Eckersten, 2007; Pettersson et al., 2006; Schelling et al., 2003;
Weissteiner and Kuhlbauch, 2005). The Swedish Farmers Supply and Crop Marketing Association
(Lantmnnen) and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) have collaborated in
several projects investigating the potential of predicting malting barley quality (e.g. Brjesson and
Sderstrm, 2003; Pettersson et al., 2006). One of the goals has been to develop a commercially
available within-feld protein prognosis using the Yara N-Sensor. The Yara N-Sensor is a tractor-
mounted remote sensing device working in the visible to near-infrared spectrum, mainly used for
adapted nitrogen fertilisation (Link et al., 2002). At present, the Yara N-Sensor is extensively used
in Sweden (~40,000 ha in 2008) primarily as a tool for spreading supplementary N fertilisers in
wheat in response to within-feld differences of plant refectance.
There are three important aspects concerning quality predictions in malting barley: (1) early
prediction of quality variation within the feld that may be adjusted by variable-rate fertilisation;
(2) late prediction of crop quality in felds which could help the farmer to plan the harvest in order
to avoid deliveries outside of the accepted quality range; (3) regional prediction of quality (and
quantity) of harvested malting barley as a planning tool for the grain industry.
Pettersson (2007) developed models for prediction of malting barley status at development stage
32 (BBCH32; Lancashire et al., 1991) based on the vegetation index TCARI (Haboudane et al.,
2002) from tractor-based or hand-held remote sensors in combination with soil information and
meteorological data. Weather conditions (temperature, precipitation and air humidity) are very
important for the development of the malting barley crop (e.g. Pettersson et al., 2006; Schelling et
al., 2003). Brjesson and Sderstrm (2003) showed that canopy refectance in cereals at a later
stage (BBCH69) could be useful for the prediction of within-feld differences in protein content at
harvest. At the regional level, a combination of remote sensing data, meteorological data and soil
data has been shown to be useful for prediction of both quantity and quality of malting barley (e.g.
Schelling et al., 2003; Weissteiner and Khbach, 2005).
This paper focuses on predicting within-feld differences in CP in malting barley at BBCH69 using
the Yara N-Sensor as well as explaining and predicting the regional variability in malting barley
CP using satellite images. The results are from an on-going project.
Field data, Yara N-Sensor data and satellite imagery
Data was obtained for the years 2007 and 2008. We have concentrated the work in two regions
in Sweden, Vstra Gtaland in the southwest and Mlardalen in the east (Figure 1). These areas
differ often regarding malting barley quality. In the latter area, excessively high protein levels have
often been recorded, whereas the opposite has sometimes occurred in the former district. With the
assistance from local farm service advisors, each year at least fve barley felds in both regions were
selected for Yara N-Sensor scanning and sampling (Figure 1). The feld sizes varied between 4 and
43 ha. The farmers provided information on seeding date (Julian day). Within one week before
harvest (BBCH87), control samples of the crop were cut in each feld; in 2007 (n=131) with scissors
about 10 cm from the ground and in 2008 (n=118) with a Minibatt hand-held sample harvester
(GOD, Le Catelet, France). Each sample consisted of nine subsamples taken in a square with 10
m sides At every sub-sample point approximately 0.2 m in two rows was cut. The centre point was
georeferenced with GPS. Each sampling point was chosen based on the spatial variability in data
from a Yara N-Sensor scanning at approximately BBCH69 within each feld (scanning was carried
out in the period 27 June-15 July). When feasible, samples were located within homogenous areas
in order to make it possible to distinguish the area in a satellite image. After drying, the threshed
and mixed samples were analyzed for protein by a FOSS Infratec1241 NIT equipment (FOSS,
Hillerd, Denmark).
The Yara N-Sensor registers spectral data in 45 spectral bands (i) (every ten nm) from 450-890
nm. In some earlier work, models using linear combinations of single wavelengths refectance
were developed (e.g. Pettersson et al., 2006; Brjesson and Sderstrm, 2003). The use of ratios
between single wavelengths is normally more robust and less sensitive to varying solar angle. In
this case therefore all possible combinations of wavelengths in simple ratios were used as input
data (e.g. similar to Reusch; 2003, 2005), both in the case of data from the Yara N-Sensor and from
the satellite scenes. For the Yara N-Sensor, that resulted in total in 990 quotients.
The assessment of regional variability through satellite imagery was limited to data from 2007
in the Mlardalen region (greyscale image shown in Figure 1). Two adjacent satellite scenes
(IRS-P6 LISS-III) (Indian Space Research Organisation, Bangalore, India) from a suitable date
(16 July 2007)) covering the Mlardalen area and close in time to the Yara N-Sensor scanning
were acquired from Saccess (the free Swedish satellite image database). The LISS-III sensor has
a spatial resolution of 23.5 m and registers data in four spectral bands: 520-590 nm, 620-680 nm,
770-860 nm and 1550-1700 nm (G, R, NIR, MIR), similar to what is available in Spot images
(Spot Image, Toulouse, France). As input variables for the PLS-regression, all possible quotients
between the spectral bands were used.
Weather
Air temperature (max. and min. twice a day) and daily precipitation were obtained from the Swedish
Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology (SMHI) in a 1010 km polygon grid covering central
Sweden. The accumulated precipitation for half-month periods during May-July (variables May1,
May2, Jun1, Jun2, Jul1, Jul2) was estimated as was a temperature index (STS20*) for assessment
of damaging temperatures during grain flling (modifed from Pettersson et al., 2006). STS20* was
estimated as accumulated temperature during a three-week period starting at 15 June (approximately
BBCH45) according to:
when Tmax > 20 C (1)
Regional crop data
For the regional analysis, Lantmnnen provided information on protein content in all malting
barley delivered from contracted farmers in 2007 and 2008. Since there is no geographical position

Figure 1. Location of the two project regions (large squares), satellite imagery 12 July 2007
(shaded area in Mlardalen), farms with Astoria malting barley 2007 (small dots) and sensor
scannings and crop sampling 2008 and 2007.

=
=
=
July t
June t
t T STS
6
15
20 ) max( * 20 when Tmax > 20C (1)


=
=
=
July t
June t
t T STS
6
15
20 ) max( * 20 when Tmax > 20C (1)

directly connected to the delivery, each was georeferenced to a SMHI 1010 km polygon via the
co-ordinates of the farm in the Lantmnnen customer database. Astoria was the dominant barley
variety in central Sweden (6,595 deliveries in 2007 and 4,849 in 2008 with a mean weight of 23.5
metric tons each).
Tabular information on crops grown in the regions as well as the digital so called Block map of
agricultural land were obtained from the Jordbruksverket (the Swedish Board of Agriculture) EU-
subsidies database. Each polygon in the Block map is an area of agricultural land delimited by
physical obstacles such as ditches, forests, roads, creeks, etc., but it can consist of several felds
or parcels. The tabular crop data was matched with the Block map. Blocks containing only spring
barley and with matching acreage were selected (implying that the block is identical to a feld). To
facilitate the satellite image analysis and reduce noise and edge effects, we also removed small and
very elongated felds [<5 ha and a circularity ratio <0.2, the latter estimated as 4rArea/Perimeter
2
(Miller, 1953)] and felds covered by clouds or cloud shadows in the satellite image. In addition, a
20 m wide fringe along the feld border was removed. Finally 296 malting barley felds (size range
5.6-50.0 ha) remained in the Mlardalen area. For these felds all possible quotients between the
different spectral bands in the satellite image were estimated as described above. In the regional
data analysis, only SMHI polygons with at least ten deliveries of malting barley and more than fve
felds with malting barley according to the Block map were considered.
Multivariate statistics and geographic information systems
Models for prediction of protein content were constructed using the software Unscrambler 7.6
(CAMO, Oslo, Norway) and partial least squares (PLS) algorithms (Martens and Martens, 1986).
In this procedure, the original variables are frst transformed to latent variables that are linear
regressions of the original variables. These orthogonal latent variables are then used in the regression.
Full cross-validations were performed to test if the models were useful for predicting CP in samples
not included in the construction of the model. In this procedure one sampling point at a time was
removed from the calibration and the model was tested on the left-out sample (Martens and Naes,
1989). In developing the models, all quotients were frst used to predict the protein content and
then the models were simplifed by choosing the quotients with the highest regression coeffcints
in the constructed models. Since adjacent wavelengths give somewhat similar information, it was
possible to reduce the number of quotients to a large extent. Geographical data management and
analysis were carried out mainly in ArcGIS 9 (ESRI Inc., Redlands, USA) with the extensions
Spatial Analyst, Geostatistical Analyst and Image Analysis.
Results
Within-feld models based on N-Sensor data
A combination of Yara N-Sensor quotients (see Table 1 footnote) mainly in the region between red
and NIR, but with some additions from wavelengths in the green area could explain most of the
variation (r
2
=0.77) in malting barley protein within the felds in Mlardalen 2008 (Table 1). Weather
data improved the model only to a minor extent (cf. model b and c in Table 1). A prediction model
based on data from both years and regions (Table 2) was less effcient (r
2
=0.58). In both cases it
was possible to reduce the number of input variables to a great extent without losing precision in
the validation of the models.
Within-feld models and regional predictions based on satellite data
The average protein content in delivered malting barley (cv. Astoria) to Lantmnnen in central
Sweden was 11.2% (sd.=0.96%) in 2007 and 11.7% (sd.=1.01%) in 2008. In Figure 2, the average
protein content in delivered malting barley is shown for the SMHI 10x10 km polygons. There are
obvious regional differences both within and between years. In Vstra Gtaland, there are distinct
differences between the years. The precipitation was very low during parts of the summer 2008
which resulted in generally high protein contents in the spring barley. In Mlardalen 2007, the
protein in the central parts was relatively low compared with the eastern part.
Results from the PLS regression analysis performed on the IRS satellite image 2007 of Mlardalen
versus the control samples of protein from the project felds are shown in Table 3. Compared with
the PLS models developed by the Yara N-Sensor, the satellite image quotients are less effcient in
predicting the protein concentration. The best combination of quotients was MIR and NIR combined
with G and R, respectively, together with the weather variables (r
2
=0.66, RPD=1.56). MIR/G was
the quotient providing most information.
In an attempt to investigate whether it was possible to use the local PLS models to make regional
predictions, the local models h and j in Table 3 were applied on all malting barley felds extracted
from the Block map. The average protein content within SMHI polygons in Mlardalen was thus
estimated and compared with the protein in the actually delivered malting barley (Table 4). Estimates
were made for the 16 SMHI polygons which had at least ten deliveries and more than fve malting
barley felds (totally 1514 malting barley deliveries and 141 spring barley felds from the Block
map within these 16 polygons). The best local model (h) was less successful than a prediction using
only MIR/G and weather (j) (Table 4). Even somewhat better models could be constructed based
on this material, but they were considered quite unstable since the dataset is very small.
Table 1. Cross-validation of PLS models based on data from samples taken at different spots in
fve felds in Mlardalen 2008 (n=48). As PLS independent variables, quotients from the Yara
N-sensor measurements and weather data were used.
Model RMSEP
b
r
2
RPD
c
a. All variables 0.40 0.77 2.10
b. Selected quotients
a
and weather 0.42 0.77 2.00
c. Selected quotients without weather 0.46 0.72 1.83
a
510/570, 510/710, 660/670, 660/680, 670/700, 670/740, 670/780, 700/740, 700/780, 730/760,
730/780, 740/780.
b
Root mean squared error of prediction.
c
Standard deviation of protein divided by the RMSEP-value.
Table 2. Cross-validation of PLS models based on data from samples taken at different spots in
felds in Mlardalen 2008 and in Vstra Gtaland 2007 and 2008 (n=131). As PLS independent
variables, quotients from the Yara N-sensor measurements and weather data were used.
Model RMSEP r
2
RPD
d. All variables 0.62 0.58 1.55
e. Selected quotients
a
and weather 0.62 0.57 1.55
f. Selected quotioents without weather 0.68 0.49 1.42
a
670/690, 680/690, 700/710, 700/720, 710/720, 720/730, 740/830.

Figure 2. Average protein content in delivered malting barley (cv. Astoria) to Lantmnnen
estimated per SMHI 10x10 km polygons in 2007 and 2008. Only SMHI polygons with at least
ten deliveries are shown. Dots indicate farms with Astoria malting barley.

Figure 2. Average protein content in delivered malting barley (cv. Astoria) to Lantmnnen
estimated per SMHI 1010 km polygons in 2007 and 2008. Only SMHI polygons with at least
ten deliveries are shown. Dots indicate farms with Astoria malting barley.
Table 3. Cross-validation of local PLS models based on data from samples taken at different
spots in four felds in Mlardalen 2007 (n=32). As PLS input variables, satellite data quotients,
weather data and seeding date were used.
Model RMSEP r
2
RPD
g. All variables 0.71 0.56 1.45
h. Selected quotients
a
and weather 0.66 0.61 1.56
i. Selected quotients without weather 0.90 0.25 1.14
j. Only MIR/G + weather 0.80 0.40 1.29
a
MIR/G, MIR/R, NIR/G, NIR/R.
Discussion and conclusions
Fairly good prediction models for malting barley CP (r
2
0.7 and RPD2) could be created during
one year for one region using quotients from the Yara N-Sensor scanning during the BBCH69 growth
stage combined with the weather variables. If data from both regions and years were included,
the prediction models were less accurate (r
2
0.5 and RPD1.5). In the data from both years and
regions, the number of quotients could be reduced to seven without considerably reducing the r
2

and RPD). In the continuation of this project, we will investigate if this number of quotients could
be reduced even further.
The prediction model created from the satellite data was not as successful as the model from the
Yara N-Sensor. However, the MIR spectral band provided important information for predicting
the protein content when satellite data were analysed against crop measurements from the ground
control points. This seems reasonable since there is a strong relationship between the refectance
in the MIR region and the amount of water present in leaves, and typically a crop affected to some
degree by water stress will have higher protein content. This also suggests that the addition of spectral
information in the MIR range from the Yara N-Sensor may improve that model. The PLS model
developed from the feld measurements based on the quotient MIR/G together with weather data
was also functional for a regional prediction of protein in malting barley. Even if only a relatively
small data set was analysed here for the regional prediction, this type of extrapolation of a local
model to a large area via satellite imagery and weather data could be of practical use for an early
prognosis of malting barley quality.
The weather variables used were to some extent simplifed to facilitate practical use, but additional
information could be extracted from these data that could explain more of regional variability in
malting barley protein. Whether making predictions over larger areas is possible with the use of
satellite images remains to be examined, also using images with poorer spatial resolution. The
spectral information that was available with the satellite image used in this study is also provided
by the IRS P6 AWIFS sensor, which has a spatial resolution of 70 m but a swath width of 740
km, compared with 140 km for LISS-III and 60 km for Spot. Using lower spatial resolution may
signifcantly reduce to cost of acquiring and processing images.
Acknowledgements
The project was fnancially supported by Rymdstyrelsen [the Swedish National Space Board (Dnr
194/07)].
Table 4. Prediction of protein content in SMHI polygons (n=16) when applying the local PLS-
models (model h and j in Table 3) on the satellite image and weather data and compared with
protein in delivered malting barley.
Model RMSEP r
2
RPD
h. from Table 3 0.76 0.29 0.90
j. from Table 3 0.48 0.51 1.42
References
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Haboudane, D, Miller, J.R., Trembley, N., Zarco-Tejada, P.J. and Dextraze, L., 2002. Integrated narrow-band
vegetation indices for prediction of crop chlorophyll content for application to precision agriculture.
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(3), 561-601.
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nitrogen fertilization. In: Robert, P.C. (ed.) Proceedings of 6th International Conference on Precision
Agriculture (CD), ASA/CSSA/SSSA, Madison, USA, pp. 1012-1018.
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in food research, Bios. Scientifc Publ., Oxford, UK., pp. 3-31.
Martens, H. and Naes, T., 1989. Multivariate calibration. John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, UK, 419 pp.
Miller, V.C., 1953. A quantitative geomorphic study of drainage basin characteristics in the Clinch Mountain
area, Virginia and Tennessee. Tech rep. 3, Offce of Naval Research, Dept. of Geology, Columbia University,
New York.
Pettersson, C.G. and Eckersten, H., 2007. Prediction of grain protein in spring malting barley grown in northern
Europe. European Journal of Agronomy 27, 205-214.
Pettersson, C.G., Sderstrm, M. and Eckersten, H., 2006. Canopy refectance, thermal stress, and apparent soil
electrical conductivity as predictors for within-feld variability in grain yield and grain protein of malting
barley. Precision Agriculture 7, 343-359.
Reusch, S., 2003. Optimisation of oblique-view remote measurment of crop N-uptake under changing
irradiance conditions. In: Stafford, J. & Werner, A (eds.) Precision Agriculture. Proceedings of the 4th
European Conference on Precision Agriculture, Berlin, Germany. Wageningen Academic Publishers, the
Netherlands. pp. 573-578.
Reusch, S. 2005. Optimum waveband selection for determining the nitrogen uptake in winter wheat by active
remote sensing. In: Stafford, J. (ed.) Precision Agriculture 05. Proceedings of the 5th European Conference
on Precision Agriculture, Uppsala, Sweden. Wageningen Academic Publishers, the Netherlands pp. 261-266.
Schelling, K., Born, K., Weissteiner, C. and Khlbauch, W., 2003. Relationships between yield and quality
parameters of malting barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) and phenological and meteorological data. J Agronomy
& Crop Science 189, 113-122.
Weissteiner, C.J. and Kuhlbauch, W., 2005. Regional yield forecasts of malting barley (Hordeum vulgare L.)
by NOAA-AVHRR remote sensing data and ancillary data. J Agronomy & Crop Science 191 (4), 308-320.
Development and improvement of air-assisted seeding for
paddy feld following map information
T. Chosa
1
, M. Furuhata
1
, M. Omine
2
and R. Sugiura
3
1
Advanced Lowland Rice Farming Research Team (Hokuriku Region), National Agricultural
Research Center, 1-2-1 Inada, Joetsu, Niigata, 943-0193 Japan; tchosa@affrc.go.jp
2
Upland Farming Research Team (Kyushu Region), National Agricultural Research Center for
Kyushu Okinawa Region, 6651-2 Yokoichi-machi, Miyakonojo, Miyazaki, 885-0091 Japan
3
Research Team for Biomass Recycling System, National Agricultural Research Center for Kyushu
Okinawa Region, 6651-2 Yokoichi-machi, Miyakonojo, Miyazaki, 885-0091 Japan
Abstract
A new rice seeding technology, air-assisted seeding, aims to reduce production costs and to save
labour. We applied the investigation, plan, act, and check (IPAC) cycle to reduce growth variability
when the new seeding technology is used. Aerial photographs were analysed to investigate growth
variability. The actions taken were (1) improvement of the seeding machine and monitoring of the
revolutions of the application roll of the seeding machine, (2) movement of soil to make felds fatter,
and (3) variable rate seeding. After these actions were taken, the growth variability was reduced in
the subsequent season. However, there were still poor growth areas, which might have been caused
by poor emergence. Further improvement will be continued using yield and other information.
Keywords: air-assisted seeding, growth variability, yield variability, technological development
Introduction
Rice is the main crop in East Asia. Recently, rapid price rises and insuffcient production have
become common problems across the globe. A sustainable price and supply of rice must be discussed
from an international viewpoint. The Japanese rice production system is known to be intensive
and highly mechanised, and so the cost of production is very high. The cost has to be dramatically
reduced for it to be copied around the world for sustainable rice production.
We are studying a new rice seeding technology called air-assisted seeding, designed to reduce
production costs and to save labour. The new machine (Chosa et al., 2007) has been developed,
and agronomic research has been conducted (e.g. Furuhata et al., 2009). Field trials are currently
being conducted. The new cropping system needs to be evaluated in terms of both its potential and
the spatial variability of yields resulting from its application. Monitoring and improving spatial
variability are the targets of this study.
Precision farming involves site-specifc crop management based on information technology to manage
temporal and spatial variability, given that these variabilities affect agricultural products. Our studies
have also monitored feld and growth variability. Variable rate application and decision-making systems
have also been discussed (e.g. Morimoto et al., 2006 and Toriyama et al., 2003). These cropping
systems are evaluated by monitoring the yield variability, cost reduction, or value-added quality.
Additionally, these cropping systems should be also useful for introducing new cropping systems.
Therefore, any new system has to be evaluated both statistically and in terms of yield variability.
The objective of this research is to practically apply precision farming to establish a new cropping
system. We investigated growth variability in the frst season while using a new cropping system,
air-assisted seeding. Next, the cause of the variability is discussed in order to achieve good
uniform growth. Measures were taken to reduce the spatial variability of yields, and their effects
are discussed.
Air-assisted seeding
Although the traditional way to crop rice is transplanting, direct seeding has been gradually
developing in order to achieve a low-cost, labour-saving system. Air-assisted seeding is more
advanced direct seeding and is four times as effcient as usual direct seeding.
The machine for air-assisted seeding was developed using commercially available farm machinery.
The original machine was a granule applicator for a paddy feld vehicle (Goto, 1997). The swath
and fxing device of the applicator were improved. The tested applicator can be mounted on a
conventional tractor using a three-point hitch and power take-off (PTO).
The air-assisted seeding machine consists of a hopper, a boom-shaped application pipe, an
application roll, DC motors, a ventilation fan, and 16 blow heads. The motor drives the application
roll, which transports granular material from the hopper to the application pipe. The application rate
of seeds can be controlled by the revolution rate of the DC motor. A ventilation fan blows granular
material through the pipe to the right and left creating a 10-m wide swath. The applicator is fxed
on a tractor, and the PTO powers the fan. The shape of the blow head is specially designed to blow
air against seeds and mud. This air buries seeds slightly. Figure 1 shows a tractor equipped with
an air-assisted seeding machine.
Investigation of growth variability
The growth variability of a rice paddy caused by air-assisted seeding was monitored using an
unmanned helicopter equipped with a digital camera. Two types of camera were used for the
investigation. One was a standard commercial camera (Canon EOS 5D), and the other was a
recently developed plant cover ratio camera with an attached near-infrared flter. The plant cover
ratio camera is based on a commercial digital camera (Canon EOS Kiss Digital). The resolutions
were 12.8 million pixels for the commercial camera and 6.3 million pixels for the plant cover
ratio one. The luminance of green was used for binary conversion in the standard commercial
camera. The plant cover ratio camera had its infrared flter removed and had a triacetyl cellulose
flter installed. The added flter was a sharp-cut flter. The targeted wavelength was about 860 nm.
The near-infrared refraction ratio of a plant is known to be higher than that of soil (e.g. Shibata et
al., 2002). Thus, the plant cover ratio camera using the band pass flter (Omine 2007) can easily
discriminate between plants and soil.
1

Blow heads
Effect of air assistance
Blow head
Seed
Mud

Figure 1. Field operation by air-assisted seeding machine and effects of air-assisted seeding.
Air from specially designed blow head blows against seeds and mud. Air assistance buries
seeds slightly.

Figure 1. Field operation by air-assisted seeding machine and effects of air-assisted seeding. Air
from specially designed blow head blows against seeds and mud. Air assistance buries seeds
slightly.
The total area of the investigated felds was 6,000 m
2
(10060 m). The helicopter hovered above
the experimental felds while taking photos. The shutters of the cameras were remotely controlled
from the ground by assistant watching a video monitor. The whole area was taken in one photo.
The fight heights were estimated to be about 68 m for the standard commercial camera and about
88 m for the plant cover ratio camera. The middle of the picture was extracted, and distortion of
the image caused by the lens was geometrically compensated. The plant cover ratio was calculated
in 1010 m meshes.
Planning, acting, and checking
The examination was conducted over two years. In the frst season, the growth variability was
monitored by the above-mentioned method. This investigation was the frst step. Next, the reason
for the variability was analysed. The second step was planning measures to reduce the variability.
The third step was testing the planed measures during the following season. Lastly, the growth
variability was monitored again, and the effects of the measures were evaluated.
The yield variability and the difference in the elevation were also monitored for reference and
to fnd the reasons for and the measures needed to reduce growth variability. A yield monitoring
system equipped with a combine harvester (Chosa et al., 2006) and a laser level (Nikon, Electronic
Positioning Staff EPS-05A) was used for these investigations.
Effect of planned measure
Figure 2 shows an aerial photograph of the initial growth of air-assisted seeding in the frst season
(2007). There are a lot of areas with poor growth. Two types of bare areas are observed: one is a
rectangular spot, and the other is an irregular patch. The former is a kind of artifcial error caused
by the seeding machine. It is presumed the seed did not spread in this area. The later is caused by
unstable emergence. Low elevation areas tended to yield poor growth (e.g. east side of the south
feld in Figure 3). It is considered that water was properly managed, and the emergence percentage
was low. There are some areas that had poor growth but were free from the infuence of elevation.
We assume that the differences were in the physical characteristics of the soil, i.e. the soil surface
before seeding was too soft in these areas, but this assumption has not been confrmed yet. However,
one possible measure is to increase the seeding rate to counteract the poor rate of emergence.
2

Experimental field (inside the white frame)
Rectangular spots (inside the black frames) Irregular patch
100 m
6
0

m

Figure 2. An aerial photograph of initial growth of air-assisted seeding in the first season
(2007) before improvements were made. Rectangular spots and irregular patches are observed
in poor growth areas.
Figure 2. An aerial photograph of initial growth of air-assisted seeding in the frst season (2007)
before improvements were made. Rectangular spots and irregular patches are observed in poor
growth areas.
We presumed the following three reasons for the poor growth areas: (1) unexpected movement of
the seeding roll because of stuffed particles, (2) the effects of feld inclination, and (3) differences
in the physical characteristics of the soil. Three measures for the subsequent season were (1)
improvement of the seeding machine, i.e. adopting a more stable control system to drive the
application roll of the seeding machine, as well as monitoring the rotation of application roll of the
seeding machine, (2) feld levelling, i.e. movement of soil from high to low areas, and (3) variable
rate seedling, i.e. increasing the seeding rate in the areas that had poor growth but were free from
the infuence of elevation.
The growth variability was reduced in the second season (Figure 4). No irregular movements of
the application roll were observed during operations, and the rectangular spots that were observed
in the frst season did not reappear. There are several horizontal lines, but these are not because of
poor growth or machine trouble. This area was not seeded because of growth investigation. We
3

(mm)
-21 8 7 1 9 17 12 17 30 8
-41 -17 -9 -5 -1 3 10 22 3 2
-36 -26 -5 1 2 8 2 16 19 -18
-24 1 26 -7 -4 18 4 0 1 -14
5 -12 -3 2 12 2 0 2 7 -5
-8 5 -13 -1 8 -10 4 12 15 -20
less than -10 -10to10 more than 10
0.08 0.35 0.83 1.03 1.13 1.64 1.30 1.33 0.65 0.10
0.11 0.41 0.64 0.75 1.68 1.61 1.50 1.39 0.15 0.70
0.03 0.12 0.14 0.37 0.27 0.65 0.47 1.47 0.50 0.16
0.57 0.87 1.22 1.39 1.29 1.47 0.84 0.66 0.22 0.76
0.99 0.99 1.61 1.49 1.60 1.26 0.85 0.80 1.43 1.11
1.32 2.17 1.95 1.98 1.98 1.92 1.58 1.66 1.33 1.17
less than 0.7 0.7 to1.2 more than 1.2

Figure 3. Comparison between plant cover ratio and elevation. Left: elevation map after
cropping. The number in each mesh is difference (mm) from average level. Area of poorest
growth is low elevation area in east side of south field. Right: plant cover ratio map in the first
season (2007). The number in each mesh is ratio measured against average plant cover ratio.
Figure 3. Comparison between plant cover ratio and elevation. Left: elevation map after cropping.
The number in each mesh is difference (mm) from average level. Area of poorest growth is low
elevation area in east side of south feld. Right: plant cover ratio map in the frst season (2007).
The number in each mesh is ratio measured against average plant cover ratio.
4

Experimental field
(inside the black frame)
0.10 0.74 0.71 1.07 1.12 1.19 1.21 1.11 0.81 0.72
0.51 1.16 1.25 1.33 1.33 1.25 1.20 1.04 0.91 0.85
0.60 1.08 1.14 1.17 1.19 1.12 0.81 0.86 0.76 0.49
0.70 1.14 1.23 1.20 1.11 1.20 0.96 0.93 0.91 0.84
1.03 1.14 1.17 1.10 1.12 1.23 1.17 1.15 1.09 0.89
0.97 1.05 1.03 1.11 1.07 1.12 1.03 1.01 0.80 0.65
less than 0.7 0.7 to1.2 more than 1.2

Figure 4. Growth variability in second season (2008). Left: aerial photograph of initial growth
after precision farming. Horizontal lines of bottom field not seeded because of growth
investigation. We walked several times along these lines. Right: plant cover ratio map after
analyzing left image. The number in each cell is ratio of measured and average plant cover.

Figure 4. Growth variability in second season (2008). Left: aerial photograph of initial growth after
precision farming. Horizontal lines of bottom feld not seeded because of growth investigation.
We walked several times along these lines. Right: plant cover ratio map after analyzing left image.
The number in each cell is ratio of measured and average plant cover.
walked several times along these lines. There were still poor growth areas, which again might have
been caused by poor emergence. Further improvement is required for next season.
Further studies
The middle of the picture was extracted and distortion of the image caused by the lens was
geometrically compensated quite easily in this research. The positions of the helicopter or
characteristics of spectrum refection were not analysed. However, the result of the analysis
revealed the effects of the IPAC cycle in this study. The main topic at this stage is stabilisation of
initial growth, especially emergence, because the development stage of air-assisted seeding is just
beginning. The infuence of photography positions and characteristics of spectrum refraction when
using an unmanned helicopter were reported (e.g. Sugiura et al., 2003 and Ishii et al., 2006). These
results will be useful for the further stage of development, in which we will discuss yield and quality.
The plant cover ratio camera and yield monitoring system were tested in the second season. Figure
5 shows an aerial photograph of a near-infrared image and a yield map. These will be informative
for further study. Binary segmentation will be conducted properly using a near-infrared image. It
is expected that the normalised difference vegetation index should be calculated combining near
infrared and red, green, and blue images. Yield variability is also important information. Yield
variability is caused by fertility variability, growth variability, and irregular management. These
relationships should be considered for further study in order to establish a new cropping system.
It is considered that precision faming can improve the traditional cropping system and achieve more
effcient agricultural production. However, the aim of this research is to develop a new cropping
system, not to improve the old one. Using the IPAC cycle in precision faming to develop technology
is a new concept. We believe that this concept will be useful in establishing a new cropping system.
Conclusion
The investigate, plan, act, and check (IPAC) cycle was applied to establish a new cropping system,
air-assisted seeding, which achieves low cost and labour saving rice production.
The frst investigation was monitoring growth variability of a paddy while using air-assisted seeding.
We planned three actions to reduce growth variability. The frst was the adoption of a more stable
5

Experimental field
(inside the black frame)
720 g/m
2
710 700

Figure 5. Effective information for further improvement. Left: aerial photograph of
near-infrared image by plant cover ratio camera. Right: yield map using yield monitoring
system fixed on combine harvester.

Figure 5. Effective information for further improvement. Left: aerial photograph of near-infrared
image by plant cover ratio camera. Right: yield map using yield monitoring system fxed on
combine harvester.
control system to drive the application roll of the seeding machine to improve the seeding machine.
The second was the movement of the soil from high to low areas to make felds fatter. The third
is the variable rate seedling: increasing the seeding rate in the areas that have poor growth but are
free from the infuence of elevation. The results of these actions revealed the growth variability was
reduced in the following season. However, there were still poor growth areas, which might have
been caused by poor emergence. Further improvement will be continued using yield variations
and other information.
Acknowledgements
K. Miyagawa, S. Tamura and K. Yamasaki of the Air Photo Service Co., Ltd. operated an unmanned
helicopter and took aerial photographs. A. Kimura of Kimura Oyokogei Inc. manufactured a plant
ratio camera and gave us technical advice about optical instruments. The authors thank all those
who made this research possible.
References
Chosa, T., Shibata, Y., Kobayashi, K., Daikoku, M., Omine, M., Toriyama, K., Araki, K. and Hosokawa, H.,
2006. Yield Monitoring System for a Head-Feeding Combine. Japan Agricultural Research Quarterly 40
(1), 37-43.
Chosa, T., Omine, M., Furuhata, M. and Matsumura, O., 2007. Study on high-speed row seeding technology
for direct seeding in paddy. Japanese Journal of Farm Work Research 42 (Extra Issue 1) 87-88.
Furuhata, M., Chosa, T., Matsumura, O. and Yukawa, T., 2007. Studies on technology of high-speed row
seeding culture. Japanese Journal of Crop Science 76 (Extra Issue 2) 6-7.
Goto, T., 1997. Paddy management works by riding machine. Journal of the Japanese Society of Agricultural
Machinery 59(4) 131-135.
Ishii, K., Sugiura, R., Fukagawa, T. and Noguchi, T., 2006. Crop Status Sensing System by Multi-Spectral
Imaging Sensor (Part1) Image Processing and Paddy Field Sensing. Journal of the Japanese Society of
Agricultural Machinery, 68(2), 33-41.
Morimoto, E., Umemoto, H., Shimada, Y., Sugano, H., Nakade, D., Hirako, S., Osaki, H., Chosa, T., Omine,
M., Iida, M., Shibusawa, S. and Kaho, T., 2006. Feasibiblity study of Precision Agriculture in Ishikawa
Rice Production, Conference Abstracts the 8th International Conference on Precision Agriculture, 21.
Omine, M., 2007. Spectrum Digital Camera for Growth Sensing of Soybeans. Journal of the Japanese Society
of Agricultural Machinery 69(6) 18-20.
Shibata, Y., Sasaki, R., Toriyama, K., Araki K., Asano, O. and Hirokawa, M., 2002. Development of Image
Mapping Techniques for Site-Specifc Paddy Rice Management. Journal of the Japanese Society of
Agricultural Machinery 64(1) 127-135.
Sugiura, R., Noguchi, N., Ishii, K. and Terao, H., 2003. Development of Remote Sensing System using an
Unmanned Helicopter (Part1) GIS Mapping for Agricultural Land Information, Journal of the Japanese
Society of Agricultural Machinery, 65(1), 53-61.
Toriyama, K., Sasaki, R., Shibata, Y., Sugimoto, M., Chosa, T., Omite, M. and Saito, J., 2003. Development of
site-specifc nitrogen management system of rice in a large size paddy feld, Japan Agricultural Research
Quarterly, 37(4), 213-218.
Improved modeling of maize growth by combining a
biophysical model of photosynthesis with hyperspectral
remote sensing
N. Oppelt
1
and T. Hank
2
1
Christian-Albrechts-Universitt zu Kiel, Dept. of Geography, Ludewig-Meyn-Str. 14, 24118 Kiel,
Germany; oppelt@geographie.uni-kiel.de
2
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitt Mnchen, Dept. of Geography, Luisenstr. 37, 80333 Munich,
Germany
Abstract
The present study investigates the potential of implementing remote sensing data in a physically-
based SVAT model in order to provide the temporal and spatial heterogeneity occurring in a maize
stand (Zea mays L., cv. Magister). The model PROMET is used to calculate vegetation growth
and yield of silage maize. Vegetation growth is mainly based on the calculation of energy fuxes
at the leaf and photosynthesis in terms of radiation, temperature, CO
2
and O
2
concentrations in
hourly time steps, aggregated to daily values. The results show that PROMET is able to reproduce
both leaf and total dry matter in realistic dimensions; but both parameters are overestimated during
early developmental stages, while being underestimated from the development of fruit to ripening.
The implementation of remotely sensed chlorophyll distribution maps demonstrates that the use of
remote sensing data enables the monitoring of heterogeneities occurring within the feld throughout
the vegetation period. This enables a more realistic modelling and thus PROMET results could
be enhanced.
Keywords: crop modelling, CAI, multi-angular remote sensing, CHRIS/Proba
Introduction
With the increasing public awareness of the deteriorating nutrition situation and the increasing energy
demand of a rapidly growing world population, questions of agricultural productivity have gained
importance in many different scientifc publications. Especially the management effciency of the
available arable land is currently investigated. Computer aided modelling techniques here provide a
promising method for the assessment of the potential of agricultural production for different natural
environments. In order to map crop primary production and yield, complex model approaches are
required that are taking into account the actual physical and chemical processes, which are steering
the exchange of mass and energy between the crop and the atmosphere.
The study presented here investigates the potential improvement for a physically based multi-scale
model approach, when static input data are enhanced by dynamic remote sensing information. The
land-surface model PROMET (PROcesses of radiation, Mass and Energy Transfer) was generally
applied, while the remote sensing input data was derived from hyperspectral CHRIS (Compact
High Resolution Imaging Spectrometer) data, which is operated by ESA (European Space Agency).
The key parameter for the modelling of the photosynthetic capacity is chlorophyll, which is highly
variable in both spatial and temporal dimension (Von Caemmerer, 2000; Schurr et al., 2006). Thus,
there is a need for measurements repeated throughout the vegetation period to monitor the actual
chlorophyll status of a canopy, which is the result of complex interactions between soil, temperature,
irradiance, precipitation and feld management, i.e. fertilization. Even for individual felds, it is
very diffcult to gather all information necessary to model vegetation growth and development,
but this background information is included indirectly in the monitoring of the chlorophyll status
using remote sensing techniques.
The necessity of monitoring not only the spatial distribution of chlorophyll, but also the vertical
distribution within a canopy is also evident (Evans, 1993; Laisk et al., 2005; Oppelt, 2008).
Signifcant differences may be observed between the chlorophyll content of leaves at the top of
a canopy, which is mainly infuenced by direct radiation, and the leaves in the shaded parts of
a canopy, where they are infuenced by a diffuse radiation regime. Thus, it is to be expected a
differentiation between the chlorophyll content of sun and shade leaves using remote sensing is
the most reliable approach.
This study is focused on chlorophyll a, because chlorophyll a is the limiting factor in the utilization
of light for photosynthesis receiving energy absorbed by chlorophyll b and other accessory pigments.
The monitoring of the distribution of chlorophyll a via remote sensing provides a spatial integral
measurement. Thus, it seems to be appropriate to analyse the chlorophyll content on the basis of
ground surface area [g/m
2
].
Methodology
Test site and feld measurements
The test area chosen for this study is located in the Bavarian alpine foothills about 25 km south-
west of Munich, Germany (486 N, 11 17 S). Besides grassland and winter crops, silage maize
is very common within the small parcelled landscape of the alpine foreland. For this study, a stand
of silage maize (Zea mays L., cultivar Magister) was chosen as test feld. The acre has a size of
22.2 ha and is located on a glacial spillway, resulting in fat terrain with sandy loam as soil texture.
A Para-Rendzina has developed at approx. 80% of the feld while Para-Braunerde can be found
at the remaining 20%. Both soil types correspond to cambisols in the FAO classifcation system.
Nearby the test feld, a weather station (Gut Hll) of the Bavarian network of agro-meteorological
stations enables access to local weather monitoring. The mean temperature in 2005 was slightly
below, while both precipitation and global radiation were recorded to have a higher level compared
to the long-term average (Table 1). This indicates that 2005 was characterized by unsettled weather
conditions with heavy rainfall alternating with sunny periods.
The date of sowing was April 20, and the feld was harvested on September 29. Between mid of May
and harvest, weekly measurements of plant height, phenological stage, biomass of stems, leaves
and fruits, leaf area index (LAI) and chlorophyll content were conducted. These measurements
were carried out both in the sun and the shade layer of the canopy at fve sampling points, which
were spread across the feld (Oppelt, 2009).
PROMET
PROMET is a spatially distributed, raster-based model, which calculates the evapotrans-piration
and water balance at different scales as a function of water availability, radiation balance and the
Table 1. Climate parameters as measured at Gut Hll (the vegetation period was calculated
from April 15 to October 15).
2005 Vegetation period 2005 15-year average
Mean temperature [C] 7.78 14.07 8.34
Sum of precipitation [mm] 983 727.4 902
Sum of global radiation [Wh] 11.0310
5
7.9910
5
10.3210
5
physiological regulation mechanisms of plant canopies. The core model is based on eight components
(meteorology; land surface energy and mass balance; vegetation; snow and ice; soil hydraulics and
soil temperature; ground water; channel fow; man-made hydraulic structures) to simulate the water
and energy fuxes for variable time steps (Figure 1). A spatial data modeller provides and organizes
the spatial input data on the feld-, micro- and macroscale (Mauser et al., 2008).
In the vegetation component the energy balance of leaves is calculated using the incoming absorbed
radiation and three variations of energy fuxes from and to the leaf. The simulation of transpiration is
strongly connected to the gas exchange through the stomata and the cuticle of the leaf as described
by Farquhar and Wong (1984). The gas exchange in turn is the result of photosynthetic activities
within the chloroplasts of the leaf.
Photosynthesis is calculated according to a biochemical approach by Farquhar et al. (1980) and
Farquhar and Von Caemmerer (1982), whereby net primary production is modelled by simulating
the Calvin cycle. The availability and transport of CO
2
is regulated by the stomatal resistance of
the leaf (Ball et al., 1987; Falge, 1997). Chen et al. (1994) extended Farquhars approach to C4
plants which forms the basis for the modelling of the C4 pathway used here. The photosynthetic
approach is based on the leaf level. To obtain canopy assimilation rates in PROMET, the processes
in the leaf are scaled to the canopy via the relative leaf area.
The modelling results in the calculation of photosynthesis under environmental conditions in terms
of radiation, temperature, CO
2
and O
2
concentrations in hourly time steps. For this study the daily
sums/averages of output variables leaf and total dry biomass will be discussed, because they are
pure derivates of the photosynthetic processes within the maize plants. Moreover, the total dry
matter is strongly related to the silage yield.
Remote sensing data
The sensor CHRIS on board the ESA small satellite platform PROBA-1 (Project for On-Board
Autonomy) provides multi-angular data. In general, CHRIS provides a spectral coverage from
400 nm to 1,050 nm. In this study, mode 5 data (land mode) are used providing 37 spectral bands
with central wavelengths between 442 nm and 1,019 nm. The spectral resolution varies between 6
nm at 716 nm (band no. 13) and 33 nm at 1,019 nm (band no. 37). The nominal ground segment
distance (GSD) is 17 m at nadir.

Figure 1: Modelling concept of PROMET (Mauser et al. 2008)
Figure 1. Modelling concept of PROMET (Mauser 2008).

CHRIS acquires images of the target when the zenith angle of the platform, with respect to the fy-
by-position, is 55, 36 and 0. A more detailed description of the CHRIS instrument can be found
in Barnsley et al. (2004). The system operates on a sun-synchronous orbit with a descending path
over the test feld. For this reason, the forward-looking angles (+36, +55) are directed towards the
sun, while the backward-looking angles (-36, -55) have a sun-parallel view. Stable acquisition
times near noon (10:33 to 10:47 UTC) result in relatively constant sun zenith angles (27 - 30).
Three CHRIS acquisitions are available for 2005 (May 25, June 3 and July 6), all during different
stages of tillering. After the radiometric pre-processing, the CHRIS data were atmospherically
corrected and calibrated to refectances using an approach based on MODTRAN-4 (Bach, 1995;
Berk et al., 2000). The geometric correction was carried out using aerial orthophotos and ground
control points using a second-order polynomial function in ESRI ARCGIS 9.1. The angular data
were resampled to nadir resolution of 17 m using a nearest neighbour approach. The resulting root
mean square errors (rmse) from the ground control points were less than 0.5 pixels along track
and 0.7 pixels across track.
Oppelt et al. (2007) describe the possibility to obtain sun and shade chlorophyll content of plant
canopies using multi-angular remote sensing data. For maize canopies, the sun chlorophyll content
can be calculated using nadir CHRIS imagery, while shade chlorophyll content can be estimated
using forward-pointing (+36) CHRIS data (Oppelt, 2009).
The enhanced Chlorophyll Absorption Integral (CAI; Oppelt, 2008) is used for the calculation of
the chlorophyll distribution maps. The CAI is an approach based on the measurement of absorption
feature depth, which is obtained by ftting a continuum to vegetation refectance (Equation 1). From
the continuum-removed refectance, the depth D [%] in the absorption feature is computed with a
uniform interval between bands of 0.1 nm (Oppelt 2008). The end points of the continuum were
set to CHRIS bands no. 5 (570 nm) and no. 17 (742 nm). To minimize the infuence of extraneous
factors such as atmosphere, soil or topography, the absorption depths are normalized.
D = 1-R (1)
where
R continuum-removed refectance [%].
Due to the low soil coverage, the early acquisition date (May 25) is not used further on. For the
CHRIS acquisition at June 3 only a sunlit canopy layer exists. Therefore only the sun chlorophyll
content was calculated for this date according to Equation 2. For July 6, the spatial distribution of
the chlorophyll content was calculated according to Equation 2 (sun chlorophyll, r
2
=0.84, estimation
error = 7.32 mg/m
2
) and Equation 3 (shade chlorophyll, r
2
=0.74, estimation error = 71.3 mg/m
2
)
(Oppelt, 2009):
Chla
sun
[mg/m
2
]=3.53e
4.67CAI
(2)
Chla
shade
[mg/m
2
]=0.93e
6.3CAI
(3)
PROMET results without the use of remote sensing data
In this study, PROMET was set up to a feld scale model run (1010 m), mapping the crop
development of the growing season 2005. The input data required is pixel-based information on
meteorology, soil, vegetation and relief. Parameter sets describing the soil properties and vegetation
biophysics are also needed. For a more detailed description it is referred to Hank (2008).
The simulation run was started about four months prior to the sowing date of the crop to provide
appropriate soil moisture conditions at the beginning of the plant growth. The model results were
extracted at exactly the fve points that had also been sampled by the feld campaign. The resulting
time series were averaged and compared to the feld data that had similarly been averaged for the
fve sample points. The results for the leaf and total dry biomass, which is strongly related to the
silage yield, are presented in Figure 2.
PROMET is able to trace the general development of maize plants, which results in high coeffcients
of determination. Low leaf biomass values that occur during tillering and stem elongation are
overestimated; a similar situation can be observed for the total dry biomass. In contrast, both leaf
and total dry matter are underestimated by PROMET during the mid/late developmental stages,
which are characterized by high leaf and total dry matter.
The fat topography as well as a homogeneous soil texture lead to a very low spatial heterogeneity
in the feld (Table 2 and Figure 3, left). A strip of slightly increased values cross the feld and is
due to a different soil type. In this area of higher biomass values, a Rendzina are modelled on the
same soil texture (sandy loam) as opposed to Para-Braunerde in the surrounding area. However,
the resulting differences between these two soil types in leaf and total biomass are in the range of
0.003 kg/m
2
and 0.3 t/ha respectively.
The results show that, although PROMET was developed in the sense of a landscape model, it is able
to reproduce biological variables in realistic dimensions. Keeping in mind that PROMET calculates a
static photosynthetic capacity under given environmental conditions, the results are very promising.
However, the results also demonstrate that, under real conditions, differences result between the
model and measured reality, e.g. on changes in nutrient supply, mechanical infictions or plant
diseases. To overcome these limitations, the implementation of real conditions will be introduced
Results of PROMET combined with remote sensing data
One of the driving parameters is the leaf absorptance, a parameter which is closely related to the
CO
2
assimilation and the chlorophyll content (Bjrkman and Demmig, 1987; Thayer and Bjrkman,

Figure 2: Comparison between modelled and measured leaf dry matter (left) and total dry matter (right)

Figure 2. Comparison between modelled and measured leaf dry matter (left) and total dry
matter (right).
Table 2. Statistics of modeled leaf biomass and total aboveground biomass (silage yield).
Min. Max. Mean St. dev. Field sum
Leaf biomass [kg/m
2
] 0.225 0.235 0.227 0.001 50.0 t
Silage yield [t/ha] 24.8 26.3 25.1 0.24 553.2 t
1990). In the conventional model the leaf absorptance is set to a constant value proposed by Evans
(1987). The modelling of photosynthesis can be dynamised by using the spatially distribution of
remotely sensed chlorophyll.
Using these maps, photosynthesis is modelled using the constant value until a remotely sensed abs
(abs
RS
) map is available. Then on, the abs
RS
is used. The abs
RS
in turn is used until the beginning
of ripening, but is replaced again if an additional abs
RS
map is available for a later day. Otherwise,
from the beginning of ripening until harvest the constant value was set.
Table 3 and Figure 3 demonstrate that the use of remote sensing data enables the monitoring of
heterogeneities occurring within the feld. The zone with higher productivity is present, but areas
with a reduced development of biomass become apparent, such as the zone with lower productivity
in the centre of the feld or the linear structure that crosses the feld in west-east direction. Also,
the slightly lowered yield indicates a former feld lane, which is now ploughed and used as an
agricultural area. The still compacted subsoil leads to a reduced plant development in such areas,
which in turn affects the yield. This zone of lower productivity is most prominent if CHRIS data
acquired during early tillering are used. This area is still visible when remote sensing data from the
end of tillering are used, but is reduced in both size and magnitude (Figure 3, right).

Figure 3: Modelled silage yield using PROMET stand-alone (left, the sampling points in the
field are indicated as numbers), using CHRIS data acquired on June 3 (centre) and using
CHRIS data acquired on July 6.

Figure 3. Modelled silage yield using PROMET stand-alone (left, the sampling points in the feld
are indicated as numbers), using CHRIS data acquired on June 3 (centre) and using CHRIS data
acquired on July 6.
Table 3. Comparison of modelled parameters using CHRIS data of different acquisition dates.
Silage yield [t/ha] Min Max Mean Stdev Field sum [t]
PROMET 24.8 26.3 25.1 0.24 553.2
PROMET + C Jun 3 7.9 29.8 23.8 4.12 524.1
PROMET + C Jul 6 18.6 32.6 26.6 1.65 586.3
PROMET + C Jun 3 + C Jul 6 8.6 37.2 23.9 4.11 526.8
Leaf biomass [kg/m
2
] Min Max Mean Stdev Field sum [t]
PROMET 0.225 0.235 0.227 0.001 50.0
PROMET + C Jun 3 0.076 0.279 0.204 0.034 44.92
PROMET + C Jul 6 0.176 0.269 0.232 0.011 51.08
PROMET + C Jun 3 + C Jul 6 0.076 0.279 0.203 0.033 44.70
Table 4 demonstrates the model results, when the development of a PROMET pixel is validated
using the feld measurements at the corresponding sampling point. Again, the model results can
be enhanced using the remote sensing data, which becomes apparent at P4, which is located
in the low-productive zone. At this sampling point, the high potential of assimilating remote
sensing data is manifested. Although the developmental course can be traced very well by the
model, which is indicated by the high coeffcients of determination, the differences between the
modelled and measured yield and leaf dry biomass are higher compared to 2004. Both parameters
are underestimated by PROMET, independent of whether abs
const
or abs
RS
is used, but the mean
difference at the sampling points is reduced when abs
RS
is implemented. The best results were
obtained with the use of the CHRIS acquisition in July, where PROMET underestimates the total
dry matter by 59 g/m
2
and the leaf biomass by 25 g/m
2
. Therefore, for this study the best date for
implementing remote sensing data turned out to be the end of tillering.
Conclusion
While the raster-based SVAT model PROMET without additional dynamic input data was able
to reasonably reproduce the average net primary production and feld of the crop, the spatial
heterogeneity in the feld was severely underestimated. The combination of remotely sensed
derived chlorophyll maps with the vegetation model led to a signifcant improvement of the spatial
heterogeneity of the crop development in the model, which again entailed an overall improvement
of the model results in comparison to measured reference data.
Although the integration of the remote sensing product still offers appealing possibilities of
development and improvement, the results are promising and will be further pursued in future
scientifc endeavours.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the German Research Foundation (DFG) for funding the project
Coupled analysis of vegetation chlorophyll and water content using hyperspectral, bidirectional
remote sensing. Thanks are also due to ESAs provision and support of CHRIS data.
Table 4. Coeffcients of determination for modelled and measured total and leaf dry matter at
the different sampling points and mean difference [kg/m
2
] between model and measurement
(feld measurement PROMET).
Total dry biomass P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 Mean Mean diff
PROMET 0.802 0.883 0.925 0.829 0.924 0.945 0.108
PROMET + C Jun 3 0.928 0.963 0.959 0.921 0.920 0.953 0.095
PROMET + C Jul 6 0.928 0.961 0.959 0.930 0.929 0.971 0.059
PROMET + C Jun 3 + C Jul 6 0.928 0.962 0.960 0.932 0.939 0.952 0.095
Leaf dry biomass P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 Mean Mean diff
PROMET 0.902 0.906 0.916 0.724 0.907 0.946 0.049
PROMET + C Jun 3 0.914 0.915 0.928 0.834 0.907 0.953 0.057
PROMET + C Jul 6 0.914 0.915 0.926 0.828 0.908 0.951 0.025
PROMET + C Jun 3 + C Jul 6 0.914 0.915 0.928 0.836 0.908 0.872 0.057
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Comparing hyperspectral vegetation indices for estimating
nitrogen concentration of winter wheat
F. Li
1,2
, Y. Miao
1
, S.D. Hennig
3
, M.L. Gnyp
3
, X. Chen
1
, L. Jia
4
and G. Bareth
3
1
College of Resources & Environmental Sciences, China Agricultural University, 100193, Beijing,
China; ymiao@cau.edu.cn; chenxp@cau.edu.cn
2
College of Ecology & Environmental Science, Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, 010019,
Hohhot, China
3
Institute of Geography, University of Cologne, 50923, Kln, Germany
4
Institute of Agriculture Resource & Environment, Hebei Academy of Agricultural and Forestry
Sciences, 050051, Shijiazhuang, China
Abstract
Many vegetation indices have been developed to estimate crop N status at leaf and canopy levels.
However, research is lacking to compare these indices for estimating plant N concentration of winter
wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) at different growth stages using a common dataset. The objective of
this study is to identify promising hyperspectral vegetation indices for estimating winter wheat N
concentration and compare them with a series of published vegetation indices using feld data from
farmers felds. Three feld experiments involving different winter wheat varieties and 4 to 6 N rates
were conducted with cooperative farmers during 2005-2007 in Shandong Province, China. Data
from 69 farmers felds were used to evaluate the hyperspectral vegetation indices for estimating
winter wheat N concentration. Two classes of indices were tested involving all possible two band
combinations from 350 nm to 1075 nm: simple ratio index (SRI) and normalized difference index
(NDI). Results indicated that the performance of different hyperspectral vegetation indices and
band combinations differed with growth stages and years.
Keywords: winter wheat, hyperspectral remote sensing, vegetation index, nitrogen concentration
Introduction
Nitrogen (N) is a key component of the most important photosynthetic pigments including
chlorophyll a and chlorophyll b etc, which are of tremendous signifcance in the biosphere
(Blackburn, 2007). Suffciency and defciency of N signifcantly affects photosynthesis of plants,
which infuence crop growth and yield formation (Gitelson et al., 2003). Real-time and accurate
estimation of crop N status is important for precision N management decisions (Raun et al., 2002;
Mistele and Schmidhalter, 2008; Sripada et al., 2008).
Traditional laboratory-based wet chemical analysis and leaf-based chlorophyll meter measurements
to quantify crop N status across large felds are costly and time consuming (Miao et al., 2009). In
contrast, remote sensing is now able to evaluate and quantify crop N status at canopy level non-
destructively in a cost effective way. Since leaf N content is related to the amount of chlorophyll,
many studies have focused on estimating crop leaf chlorophyll concentration, which is easier to
estimate, to give an indirect assessment of crop N status (Bannari et al., 2007; Haboudane et al.,
2008). However, spectra absorption by chlorophyll is possibly confounded by the spectra absorption
by other plant pigments (Hatfeld et al., 2008), which may infuence the accuracy in estimating crop
N status using remote sensing. Therefore, it is more desirable to use remote sensing technologies
to estimate crop N concentration directly for decision support in precision N management.
A lot of progress has been made in developing approaches and methodologies to estimate chlorophyll
and N content at both leaf and canopy levels, and over diverse vegetation species (Yoder et al.,
1995; Kokaly and Clark, 1999). However, most studies focused on crop leaf N concentration and
accumulation (Hansen and Schjoerring, 2003; Oppelt and Mauser, 2004), while studies directly
estimating winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) plant N concentration at canopy level using remote
sensing has been relatively limited, especially across different growth stages and felds. Therefore,
the objective of this paper is to develop promising hyperspectral vegetation indices for estimating
winter wheat plant N concentration across different growth stages in North China Plain and evaluate
them against selected published hyperspectral vegetation indices.
The experiments were conducted in Huimin County, Shandong Province, China. The area is
located in the North China Plain (NCP) and the climate is warm-temperate subhumid continental
monsoon, with cold winters and hot summers. Annual average precipitation is 578 mm (over a
recent 30-year period), 61 - 84% of which occurs between June and August (Ju et al., 2006). The
average temperature is 12.3 C.
Four experiments were conducted from October 2005 to June 2007 for two wheat seasons at
different Villages of Huimin County. Experiment 1 was a split-plot design with four replications.
The main plot consisted of six N treatments: control (no N was applied), 40% of optimum N rate
(Opt), 70% of Opt, Opt, 130% of Opt and conventional N rate fertilization (Con), and the subplot
consisted of two winter wheat cultivars: Kenong9204 (new cultivar) and Lumai23 (local cultivar).
The Opt was determined based on soil Nmin test according to Chen et al. (2006), and recommended
133 and 155 kg N/ha for 2005-2006 and 2006-2007, respectively. The conventional N treatment
represents local farmers practice and applied a total of 369 kg N/ha(103 and 266 kg N/ha

were
applied as basal and top dressing at shooting stage (Feekes 6, Large, 1954). Experiment 2 used the
cultivar Weimai8 and had 5 N rates (0, 25, 50, 75 and 100 kg N/ha) and 4 replications. Experiment
3 had four N treatments: control (CK, 0 kg N/ha), soil Nmin test-based N recommendation as
the Opt. treatment in Experiment 1, GreenSeeker-based N recommendation, and Conventional N
application as used in Experiment 1. This experiment was conducted in 16 and 14 farmers felds
randomly selected around Experiment 1 and 2 in 2005/2006 and 2006/2007, respectively. This
on-farm experiment did not have any replication in each feld, but the different felds were used
as replication. A total of 69 farmers felds were further selected for evaluating the relationships
developed using the previous three experiments. The farmers felds were managed by the farmers
according to their common practices and did not have any formal treatments.
Canopy spectral refectance was measured using the ASD Hand-held Fieldspec optical sensor
(Analytical Spectral Devices, Inc., Boulder, CO, USA) from 10 am to 2 pm under cloudless
conditions. The refectance of the target is calculated with the calibration measurements of dark
current and a white reference panel with known refectance properties (ASD Users Guide 2002).
In this study, the sensor was mounted on the tripod boom and held in a nadir orientation 1 m
above the canopy. Spectral measurements were taken randomly at three sites in each plot and were
averaged to represent the canopy refectance of each plot. Aboveground biomass was collected at
100 by 30 cm quadrates in each plot or farmers feld following each sensor scanning at Feekes
growth stage 4, 6 and 9 for Experiment 1, 2 and 3 and at Feekes growth stage 4, 6, 7 and 9 for the
farmers felds in 2006, and at Feekes growth stage 4, 5, 7, 9 and 10 for all experiments in 2007.
All plant samples were oven dried at 70
o
C to constant weight and then weighed, ground, and their
Kjeldahl-N determined (Perrin, 1953).
In this study, we selected 19 published hyperspectral vegetation indices related to plant N or
chlorophyll estimation (Table 1). Two classes of indices were calculated involving all possible two
band combinations from 350 nm to 1,075 nm: simple ratio index (SRI), and normalized difference
index (NDI). Data collected from Experiment 1, 2 and 3 were used for developing the regression
models, and data collected from the 69 farmers felds were used to validate the regression models.
In order to address the effect of biomass on the relationships, we separated the growth stages into
Feekes 4-7, when canopy was not fully covered and Feekes 8-10, when canopy was fully covered.
The correlation analysis was performed using a self-developed computer program using the
MATLAB 7.0 software (The MathWorks, Inc., Natick, MA).

Feekes4-7_NDI Feekes4-7_SRI
Feekes8-10_NDI Feekes8-10_SRI
2006_NDI 2006_SRI
2007_NDI 2007_SRI
b
a
c
d
Figure 1. Contour maps of coeffcient of determination (r
2
) between plant N concentration and
narrow band normalized difference indices (NDI) and simple ratio indices (SRI) calculated from
all possible two band combinations in the range of 350 nm to 1,075 nm at (a) Feekes growth
stage 4-7, (b) Feekes growth stage 8-10, (c) 2006 and (d) 2007.
All possible two narrow band combinations in the range of 350 - 1075 nm were used to develop
SRIs and NDIs. The coeffcients of determination (r
2
) between these indices and winter wheat plant
N concentration at different growth stages and years are shown in Figure 1. The r
2
values vary from
0.1 to 0.69 refecting the wide range of variation in strength of the relationships across growth stages
and years. At Feekes growth stage 4-7 across the two years, the plant N concentration was poorly
correlated with different band combinations (Figure 1a). At Feekes 8-10, the sensitive bands were
mainly centered on blue, green and red region (Figure 1b), and the coeffcients of determination
were higher than those at Feekes 4-7. This result is similar to the fndings of Flowers et al. (2003),
and the difference was probably due to differences in aboveground biomass. The best performing
band combinations occurred in the similar regions across the two years (Figures 1c and 1d).
Table 1. Spectral vegetation indices tested in this study. The indices include published and
calculated vegetation indices. The calculated indices in this paper are computed as i1 (350~1075)
and i2 (350~1075 nm) pairs (i2>i1).
Index Defnition Reference
Calculated
indices
Normalized difference
indices (NDI)
Simple ratio indices (SRI)
(i2 i1) / (i2 + i1)
i2 / i1
Rouse 1973
Jordan, 1969
Published
indices
Simple Ratio (SR)
Green Index
Zarco-Tejada&Miller(ZTM)
RVI
SR1
SR2
SR3
SR4
SR5
R
554
/R
677
R
750
/R
710
(R
790
: R
810
)/(R
640
:R
660
)
R
700
/R
670
R
740
/R
720
R
675
/R
700
R
860
/(R
550
* R
708
)
R
810/
R
560
Smith 1995
Zarco-Tejada 2001
Jacobson 1998
McMurtrey 1994
Vogelman 1993
Chappelle 1992
Datt, 1998
Xue 2004
Difference Index (DI) and Normalized Difference Index (NDI)
R-M
MTCI
NPQI
SIPI
RGRcan
NDI1
NDI2
NDI3
Integrated Index (II)
MCARI
TCARI(705, 750)
REIP
(R
750
/R
720
)-1
(R
750
-R
710
)/(R
710
-R
680
)
(R
415
-R
435
)/(R
415
+R
435
)
(R
800
-R
445
)/(R
800
-R
680
)
(R
612
-R
660
)/(R
510
+R
560
)
(R
850
-R
710
)/(R
850
-R
680
)
(R
734
-R
747
)/(R
715
+R
726
)
(R
760
-R
708
)/(R
760
+R
708
)
[(R
700
-R
670
)-
0.2*(R
700
-R
550
)](R
700
/R
670
)
3*[(R
750
-R
705
)-
0.2*(R
750
-R
550
)(R
750
/R
705
)]
700+40*{[(R
670
+R
780
)/2]
-R
700
}/(R
740
-R
700
)
Gitelson (2005)
Dash and Currant (2004)
Barnes 1992
Penuelas 1995
Steddom 2003
Datt, 1999
Vogelman 1993
Steddom 2003
Daughtry 2000
Wu (2008)
Guyot (1988)
In order to fnd promising hyperspectral indices and their optimal band combination, we compared
the predictive power of the best performing calculated hyperspectral indices based on contour maps
and the selected published indices in estimating plant N concentration (Table 1). The results are
given in Table 2 and indicate that the selected new indices (SRIs and NDIs) are generally more
effective than published indices. However, the band combinations differeed with stages and years,
as found out by Sembiring et al. (2000).
Before a model can be applied in practice, it should be evaluated using independent data. In
this study, the relationships developed in Experiment 1-3 were evaluated using data from the 69
different farmers felds in two consecutive years, and the results were given in Table 3. Again at
Feekes growth stages 4-7, none of the calculated or published indices had r
2
over 0.3, indicating
the diffculty in estimating plant N concentration at early stages. At Feekes growth stage 8-10, the
calculated indices NDI (418, 405) and SRI (418, 405) had higher coeffcients of determination (r
2
,
0.32) and lower root meat square error (RMSE, 4.9) and relative error (RE, 16.5-16.6%) than other
indices. Across different growth stages in 2006, the published RVI performed the best among all
the developed or published indices (r
2
=0.39, Table 3). While in 2007, the developed indices NDI
(442, 355) performed the best (Table 3). Consistent with the studies of Hansen and Schjoerring
(2003), the sensitive bands in estimating crop N concentration focused on VIS spectral range,
mainly in the blue and red region. A difference was that our results were validated by independent
dataset from farmers felds.
Table 2. Coeffcient of determination (r
2
) between plant N concentration and selected spectral
indices based on contour maps and published spectral indices. Those indices not listed in this
table performed worse than the listed indices.
Feekes 4-7 (n=449) Feekes 8-10 (n=358) 2006 (n=317) 2007 (n=490)
Spectral indices R
2
Spectral indices R
2
Spectral indices R
2
Spectral indices R
2
Calculated spectral indices
NDI (763,761) 0.43
**
NDI (418,405) 0.57
**
NDI (396, 365) 0.69
**
NDI (442, 355) 0.66
**
SRI (763,761) 0.43
**
NDI (553, 524) 0.56
**
NDI (685,679) 0.61
**
NDI (925, 910) 0.65
**
NDI (687, 630) 0.54
**
NDI (938, 740) 0.70
**
NDI (948, 936) 0.64
**
NDI (809, 791) 0.56
**
SRI (396, 365) 0.70
**
SRI (426, 355) 0.67
**
SRI (418, 405) 0.57
**
SRI (685, 679) 0.61
**
SRI (925,910) 0.65
**
SRI (550, 524) 0.56
**
SRI (938, 741) 0.69
**
SRI (948,936) 0.64
**
SRI (687,630) 0.54
**
SRI (758, 747) 0.61
**
SRI (809,791) 0.56
**
Published spectral indices
MCARI 0.22
**
SR1 0.51
**
RVI 0.58
**
REIP 0.44
**
TCARI (705,750) 0.15
**
Green index 0.51
**
REIP 0.56
**
NDI2 0.42
**
SR3 0.46
**
NDI2 0.56
**
SR4 0.41
**
RGRcan 0.46
**
R-M 0.55
**
SR5 0.39
**
NPQI 0.39
**
NDI1 0.55
**
R-M 0.39
**
SPRI 0.36
**
NDI3 0.55
**
TCARI(705,
750)
0.39
**
ZTM 0.54
**

SR2 0.54
**

MTCI 0.54
**

T
a
b
l
e

3
.

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v
a
l
u
a
t
i
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n

r
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i
m
a
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i
n
g

p
l
a
n
t

N

c
o
n
c
e
n
t
r
a
t
i
o
n

w
i
t
h

c
a
l
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a
t
e
d

a
n
d

p
u
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e
d

s
p
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t
r
a
l

i
n
d
i
c
e
s

u
s
i
n
g

d
a
t
a

f
r
o
m

6
9

f
a
r
m
e
r
s

f
e
l
d
s

a
c
r
o
s
s

d
i
f
f
e
r
e
n
t

g
r
o
w
t
h

s
t
a
g
e
s

a
n
d

y
e
a
r
s
.
F
e
e
k
e
s

4
-
7
F
e
e
k
e
s

8
-
1
0
2
0
0
6
2
0
0
7
S
p
e
c
t
r
a
l

i
n
d
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s
R
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R
E

(
%
)
R
2
S
p
e
c
t
r
a
l

i
n
d
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e
s
R
S
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(
%
)
R
2
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p
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l

i
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s
R
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(
%
)
R
2
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p
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i
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s
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E

(
%
)
R
2
C
a
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u
l
a
t
e
d

s
p
e
c
t
r
a
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i
n
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s
N
D
I

(
7
6
3
,
7
6
1
)
4
.
8
1
2
.
7
0
.
2
2
N
D
I

(
4
1
8
,
4
0
5
)
4
.
9
1
6
.
5
0
.
3
2
N
D
I

(
3
9
6
,
3
6
5
)
6
.
0
2
0
.
2
0
.
3
3
N
D
I

(
4
4
2
,
3
5
5
)
4
.
9
1
3
.
6
0
.
3
6
S
R
I

(
7
6
3
,
7
6
1
)
4
.
8
1
2
.
7
0
.
2
2
N
D
I

(
5
5
3
,
5
2
4
)
6
.
8
2
3
.
3
0
.
0
1
N
D
I

(
6
8
5
,
6
7
9
)
1
1
.
8
3
9
.
4
0
.
3
4
N
D
I

(
9
2
5
,
9
1
0
)
5
.
9
1
6
.
3
0
.
3
1
N
D
I

(
6
8
7
,
6
3
0
)
7
.
4
2
5
.
2
0
.
1
1
N
D
I

(
9
3
8
,
7
4
0
)
7
.
6
2
5
.
6
0
.
2
6
N
D
I

(
9
4
8
,
9
3
6
)
6
.
4
1
7
.
7
0
.
3
2
N
D
I

(
8
0
9
,
7
9
1
)
7
.
0
2
3
.
9
0
.
1
0
S
R
I

(
3
9
6
,
3
6
5
)
6
.
0
2
0
.
1
0
.
3
3
S
R
I

(
4
2
6
,
3
5
5
)
5
.
3
1
4
.
6
0
.
3
6
S
R
I

(
4
1
8
,
4
0
5
)
4
.
9
1
6
.
6
0
.
3
2
S
R
I

(
6
8
5
,
6
7
9
)
1
2
.
0
4
0
.
1
0
.
3
4
S
R
I

(
9
2
5
,
9
1
0
)
5
.
9
1
6
.
3
0
.
3
1
S
R
I

(
5
5
0
,
5
2
4
)
6
.
7
2
2
.
9
0
.
0
2
S
R
I

(
9
3
8
,
7
4
1
)
8
.
0
2
6
.
6
0
.
2
4
S
R
I

(
9
4
8
,
9
3
6
)
6
.
4
1
7
.
7
0
.
3
2
S
R
I

(
6
8
7
,
6
3
0
)
7
.
6
2
5
.
9
0
.
0
9
S
R
I

(
7
5
8
,
7
4
7
)
7
.
3
2
4
.
5
0
.
2
6
S
R
I

(
8
0
9
,
7
9
1
)
7
.
0
2
3
.
9
0
.
1
0
P
u
b
l
i
s
h
e
d

s
p
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c
t
r
a
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i
n
d
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s
M
C
A
R
I
5
.
1
1
3
.
6
0
.
1
1
S
R
1
6
.
0
2
0
.
4
0
.
0
1
R
V
I
8
.
1
2
7
.
0
0
.
3
9
R
E
I
P
8
.
6
2
3
.
8
0
.
2
3
T
C
A
R
I

(
7
0
5
,
7
5
0
)
5
.
5
1
4
.
5
0
.
0
5
G
r
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n

i
n
d
e
x
5
.
9
2
0
.
0
0
.
0
7
R
E
I
P
7
.
1
2
3
.
9
0
.
2
4
N
D
I
2
8
.
8
2
4
.
2
0
.
2
6
S
R
3
5
.
8
1
9
.
6
0
.
0
2
N
D
I
3
7
.
9
2
6
.
5
0
.
2
5
S
R
4
1
1
.
6
3
2
.
0
0
.
2
8
R
G
R
c
a
n
6
.
2
2
1
.
3
0
.
0
0
R
-
M
7
.
6
2
5
.
5
0
.
2
7
S
R
5
9
.
4
2
6
.
0
0
.
3
1
N
P
Q
I
6
.
2
2
1
.
0
0
.
1
8
N
D
I
1
6
.
7
2
2
.
4
0
.
2
2
R
-
M
8
.
5
2
3
.
4
0
.
2
6
S
P
R
I
5
.
1
1
7
.
5
0
.
2
9
N
D
I
3
6
.
7
2
2
.
2
0
.
2
9
T
C
A
R
I

(
7
0
5
,
7
5
0
)
8
.
9
2
4
.
6
0
.
3
0
Z
T
M
8
.
0
2
6
.
8
0
.
2
8
S
R
2
7
.
4
2
4
.
7
0
.
2
7
M
T
C
I
7
.
2
2
4
.
0
0
.
2
2
The differences of best performing vegetation indices and band combinations also indicate the
challenge of developing a simple crop sensor with two bands for estimating crop N concentration
across different growth stages and environment. More studies are needed to identify sensitive
vegetation indices that may be able to estimate crop N uptake across different stages and environment,
which may be a better indicator of crop N status.
Conclusions
This study used all possible band combinations in the range of 350-1,075 nm to select best
performing hyperspectral vegetation indices for estimating winter wheat N concentration at different
growth stages in North China Plain from 2006 to 2007, and compared them with selected published
vegetation indices. The results indicated that the best performing hyperspectral indices and their
band combinations changed over growth stages and years. This inconsistency presents a challenge
of developing a simple sensor for estimating crop N concentration across growth stages and different
environments. More studies are needed to determine if hyperspectral vegetation indices will perform
more consistently for estimating crop N uptake across different growth stages and environments,
which may be a better indicator of crop N status for precision N management.
Acknowledgements
This research was supported by the National Basic Research Program (973-2009CB118606), Sino-
German Cooperative Nitrogen Management Project (2007DFA30850), and Key Project of National
Science &Technology Support Plan (2008BADA4B02).
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Possibilities of cereal canopy assessment by using the NDVI
J. Ken
1,2
, V. Lukas
1
, I. Svobodov
2
, T. Drylov
1
, P. Ma
2
and L. Neudert
1
1
Mendel University of Agriculture and Forestry, Zemdlsk 1, 613 00 Brno, Czech Republic;
kren@mendelu.cz
2
Agrotest Fyto, Ltd., Havlkova 2787/121, 767 01 Krom, Czech Republic
Abstract
The evaluation of canopy structure development of winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and
spring barley (Hordeum vulgare L.), and its spectral characteristics by means of the Normalised
Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) was performed in small-plot feld experiments carried out
at two locations within three years (2005-2007). Statistically signifcant effects of year, location,
experimental treatment (i.e. a combination of seeding rate and nitrogen dose), and growth stage on
values of NDVI were confrmed. Correlation analysis demonstrated that increased NDVI values
indicated: a greater amount of biomass and its dry matter, above all in the period of stem elongation;
a higher weight of plants, number of tillers per plant, and a number of plants per stand unit area in
the period of tillering; a higher average weight of tillers and number of tillers per stand unit area
at the beginning of stem elongation; a more intensive green colour of the stand, indicating higher
supply of nitrogen. Correlations between coeffcients of variation for the weight of plants and tillers
and values of NDVI were negative till the full canopy closure (usually till BBCH 31). In this period,
the assessment of NDVI can be used for the evaluation of quality of stand establishment (i.e. of
uniform distribution of individual plants). Identical values of NDVI may indicate either a greater
amount of above-ground biomass with a defcit of nitrogen or a lower amount of tops in a good
nutritional status. When using NDVI values, it is also rather diffcult to decide if the given amount
of above-ground biomass consists of a greater number of less tillering plants or, on the contrary,
of a smaller number of plants with more tillers. Nevertheless, NDVI can be use for the evaluation
of heterogeneity of cereal stands in precision agriculture.
Keywords: winter wheat, spring barley, stand structure development, canopy refectance
Introduction
Possibilities of the assessment of canopy structure and crop condition on the basis of their spectral
characteristics have been discussed by a number of authors. Statistically signifcant correlations exist
between spectral characteristics of the stand presented above all by NDVI (Rouse et al., 1973) on
one hand and chlorophyll content (Houborg et al., 2007), nutritional status of the stand (Jorgensen
et al., 2007; Zhao et al., 2005), total amount of above-ground biomass (Starks et al., 2006) and
yields of feld crops (Freeman et al., 2003; Hansen et al., 2002) on the other one. The advantage of
measurement of canopy spectral characteristics lies partly in a rapid and areal evaluation of feld
crop and partly also in the assessment of variability of stands growing in individual felds which
can be used in precision agriculture.
Investigations described in this paper are focused on relationships between spectral characteristics
(especially NDVI) and morphological, structural and physiological traits of winter wheat and
spring barley stands. Some of these traits are used in decisions concerning cropping measures in
agricultural practice (i.e. number of plants per unit area, number of tillers and ears per unit area,
nutrient content in plants).
Characterisation of locations and feld experiments
During three years (2005-2007), small-plot feld experiments with winter wheat (cv. Cubus) and
spring barley (cv. Malz) were carried out in the Czech Republic at two locations differing in
soil and climatic conditions (Table 1). Treatments with contrast stand structure, different seeding
rates and N rates were investigated in both crops at growth stages BBCH 22/25, 31, 37, 55, 65
and 87-spring barley only (Meier, 2001). In sampling plots (10 m
2
), squares of the size 0.25 m
2
were marked out for multispectral imaging and obtaining plant samples used for analyses of stand
structure and nutritional status which involved:
estimation of numbers and weight of individual tillers and plants;
estimation of dry matter (DM) weight of the above-ground part of plants;
estimation of chlorophyll content in leaves;
analysis of DM of the above-ground part of plants for the contents of nitrogen (N).
Above-ground parts of plants were dried under 60 C to constant weight and then were homogenized
by milling (size of parts under 1mm), N-total was determined according Kjeldahl (Zbral et al.,
2005).
The segregation of tillers to productive and non-productive ones was performed as follows: When
performing analyses, tillers were ordered according to their decreasing weight. The number of fully
ripe ears per plot was taken as the number of productive tillers. Tillers with the highest weight at the
given developmental stage were rated as productive ones and the sum of their weights represented
the so-called productive biomass. This value was separated from the total weight of fresh above-
ground biomass per unit area of the stand.
Estimation of spectral characteristics of the stand
The imaging set consisted of a multispectral camera DuncanTech MS-3100 with the Sigma 14 mm
f/2.8 EX lens and a framegrabber National Instruments NI-1428 connected to laptop. The camera
records images in three bands green (500-600 nm, peak 550 nm), red (600-700 nm, peak 650 nm)
and near infrared (750-900 nm, peak 830 nm). The imaging set was mounted at height of 5.5 m on
a mobile aluminium scaffold, which corresponded with the image area 2.541.9 m (4.83 m
2
) and
the spatial resolution of less than 2 mm per image pixel. Since 2005, a set of refectance etalons
SphereOptics Zenith
was a part of each imaged scene to normalise the refectance of radiation

in accordance with existing light conditions (sunny overcast). It was performed on the basis of
a conversion of digital numbers (DN) of image pixels according to the measured and calibrated
Table 1. Characteristics of the experimental locations.
Parameter Location
abice Krom
Geographical location 490120 N, 163755 E 491712 N, 172150E
Soil type Gleyc Fluvisol (FMG) Luvi Haplic Chernozem (CMl)
Texture class Clay loam Silt loam
Altitude (m) 177 235
Annual mean temperature 9.2 C 8.7 C
Annual sum of precipitations 480 mm 599 mm
refectance of a 25% optic etalon. Using images processed in this way it was thereafter possible
to calculate the Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) according to the equation NDVI
= (NIR R)/(NIR + R) where NIR = Near Infrared, R = Red. Simultaneously, average values of
calibrated DN and NDVI of the demarcated part of the canopy were determined on the basis of
CIR (colour infrared) and NDVI images.
Image processing (radiometric calibration, NDVI calculation) was performed using Erdas Imagine
software (Erdas, Inc., USA). The obtained results were processed with Statgraphic (StatPoint
Technologies, Inc.,USA) and Statistica (StatSoft, Inc., USA) software using elementary statistical
characteristics, analysis of variance (ANOVA) and correlation analysis.
In both crops, winter wheat (Table 2) and spring barley (Table 3), ANOVA determined statistically
signifcant effects of the experimental treatment and in winter wheat also of the year on the NDVI
values. As compared with other growth stages under study, the NDVI value at BBCH 25 was more
evidently and statistically highly signifcantly lower in winter wheat (Figure 1A) to compare to
spring barley (Figure 1B). This could be explained by a sparse stand canopy at the stage of tillering
and a greater refectance of soil (Liu and Heute, 1995), which showed lower values of NDVI than
later closured canopy. It conforms to the previous fndings of Carlson and Ripley (1997) about
sensitivity of NDVI to fractional cover of a canopy until a full coverage is reached. At BBCH 65
and 87 (spring barley), lower values of NDVI were associated with a gradual reduction of active
leaf area and canopy yellowing during the period of grain flling and ripening. Changes of NDVI,
as observed during the growing season, corresponded with changes in spectral characteristics of
barley canopy described by Lorenzen and Jensen (1991), who suggested to divide the growing
Table 2. ANOVA of factors infuencing values of NDVI in winter wheat.
Source Sum of squares Df Mean squares F-ratio -value
Year 0.083 2 0.042 7.15 0.002
Location 0.022 1 0.022 3.72 0.058
Treatment 0.028 1 0.028 4.77 0.032
Growth stage 0.877 4 0.219 37.73 0.000
Residual 0.389 67 0.006
Total (correlated) 1.393 75
Table 3. Analysis of variance of factors infuencing values of NDVI in spring barley.
Source Sum of squares Df Mean squares F-ratio -value
Year 0.056 2 0.028 3.15 0.052
Location 0.010 1 0.010 1.13 0.292
Treatment 0.115 3 0.038 4.31 0.009
Growth stage 1.618 5 0.323 36.44 0.000
Residual 0.417 47 0.009
Total (correlated) 2.321 58
season into four distinct periods corresponding to the following BBCH stages: 1. BBCH 10-25; 2.
BBCH 29-57; 3. BBCH 59-85 and 4. BBCH 85-91.
In winter wheat (Table 4) at the level of the stand the NDVI was positively correlated with: (1) the
weight of fresh and dry total above-ground biomass (g/m
2
), (2) number of tillers per m
2
, (3) weight
of productive tillers. Lower values of correlation coeffcients between NDVI and productive traits
of the stand at BBCH 37 are unclear and diffcult to explain.
At the level of individual plants NDVI was correlated: (1) positively with the weight of an average
plant (at BBCH 25) and with the weight of an average productive tiller (at BBCH 31), (2) negatively
with the CV for plant weight and for productive tiller (both at BBCH 31). The results indicated
that the parameters characterising the growth of biomass were correlated with NDVI positively
and traits characterising a greater heterogeneity of the stand (i.e. CV for the weights of plants and
tillers) were correlated negatively. These fndings may be important for the interpretation of the
NDVI values, above all in the period when the stand canopy is not fully developed, i.e. usually
till the beginning of stem elongation (BBCH 31) when the NDVI values are more infuenced by
radiation refected from the soil surface. The assessment of NDVI in this growth period could be
used to evaluate the quality of stand establishment (i.e. of the plant distribution uniformity).
The correlation coeffcients between NDVI and the uptake of nitrogen in above-ground biomass
changed from negative at BBCH 25 to a highly positively signifcant at BBCH 31 and 65. This could
be explained by the aforementioned effect of radiation refected from the soil surface on values of
NDVI measured within the period before the canopy closure (Liu and Heute, 1995; Carlson and
Ripley, 1997). Such an explanation can also be used when interpreting changes in correlations
between values of NDVI and the content of chlorophyll in the above-ground biomass. NDVI
was positively correlated with the uptake of nitrogen and chlorophyll converted into the biomass
of productive tillers. Correlations with the content of chlorophyll were higher and statistically
signifcant. However, it remains diffcult to explain why the correlations between NDVI and other
traits were so low at BBCH 37.
Similar results were obtained in spring barley (Table 5 and 6). NDVI was positively correlated
with: (1) the weight of fresh and dry above-ground biomass, (2) the number of all and productive
tillers, (3) the weight of productive tillers. At the level of individual plants NDVI was correlated:
(1) positively with the weight of an average plant (at BBCH 22 and 31), weight of average tiller
(at BBCH 31, 55 and 65) and with the weight of an average productive tiller (at BBCH 31, 37, 55
and 65), (2) negatively (but insignifcantly) with CV of the weight of plants (at BBCH 22 and 31),
(3) differently with CV of the weight of all tillers and of the weight of productive tillers. Similarly
to winter wheat these results indicate that the traits characterising an increase in the amount of
1

A B

Figure 1. A graphical presentation of differences in values of NDVI at individual stages of
growth and development of winter wheat on the significant level of 95 % ( = 0.05); A
winter wheat, B spring barley.

Figure 1. A graphical presentation of differences in values of NDVI at individual stages of growth
and development of winter wheat on the signifcant level of 95% ( = 0.05); (A) winter wheat,
(B) spring barley.
above-ground biomass correlated positively with NDVI and the traits characterising heterogeneity
of the stand (i.e. CV of the weight of plants and tillers) correlated negatively.
In spring barley, correlations between NDVI and physiological traits also indicate relationship
between nitrogen uptake by the above-ground biomass, especially by biomass of productive tillers
and chlorophyll content in this biomass. NDVI values were positively correlated with: (1) uptake
of nitrogen by the above-ground biomass (at BBCH 22, 31, 55 and 65), (2) uptake of nitrogen by
biomass of productive tillers (at BBCH 31, BBCH 55 and 65), content of chlorophyll in biomass
of productive tillers (BBCH 31, 55 and 65).
The results confrmed that NDVI was positively correlated with the amount of above-ground
biomass and its colour. But similar values of NDVI may obviously indicate either a greater amount
of above-ground biomass with a nitrogen defciency or a smaller amount of biomass under good
nutritional conditions. Based on NDVI, it is also diffcult to estimate whether a given amount
of above-ground biomass was produced by a higher number of less tillering plants or, on the
contrary, by a lower number of plants with a higher number of tillers. This means that correlations
between morphological (structural) and physiological parameters of stand condition and its spectral
characteristics require further investigations.
Table 4. Correlations between NDVI and measured traits in winter wheat stand.
Trait BBCH 25 BBCH 31 BBCH 37 BBCH 65
n r n r n r n r
Number of plants per m
2
10 0.031 10 0.609 4 0.436
Number of tillers per m
2
10 0.553 10 0.702* 6 0.295 10 0.739*
Weight of fresh total about-ground
biomass (g/m
2
)
10 0.800** 10 0.960** 6 0.206 10 0.709*
Total dry matter weight (g/m
2
) 10 0.868** 10 0.834** 6 0.514 10 0.595
Number of productive tillers per m
2
10 0.243 6 -0.391 12 0.552
Weight of productive tillers (g/m
2
) 10 0.714* 6 0.365 12 0.639*
Average plant weight (g) 10 0.804** 10 0.513 4 0.710
CV of plant weight (%) 10 -0.437 10 -0.977** 4 -0.736
Average number of tillers per plant 10 0.590 10 0.088 4 0.652
CV of the number of tillers per plant (%) 10 -0.557 10 -0.258 4 -0.388
Average tiller weight (g) 10 0.622 10 0.493 6 0.048 10 0.288
CV of the weight of all tillers (%) 10 0.439 4 0.851
Average weight of a productive tiller (g) 10 0.746* 6 0.568 12 0.491
CV of the weight of productive tillers (%) 10 -0.866** 6 -0.384 12 -0.241
Uptake of N in total above-ground
biomass (g)
6 -0.465 6 0.946** 6 0.506 12 0.802**
Uptake of N in biomass of productive
tillers (g)
10 0.767** 6 0.408 10 0.546
Content of chlorophyll in total above-
ground biomass
6 -0.749 6 0.781 6 0.670 6 0.682
Content of chlorophyll in biomass of
productive tillers
6 0.889* 6 -0.486 6 0.819*
*

0.05, ** 0.01.
Table 5. Correlations between NDVI and measured traits spring barley stand.
Trait BBCH 22 BBCH 31
n r n r
Number of plants per m
2
18 0.233 14 0.167
2
18 0.438 14 0.609*
Weight of fresh total about-ground biomass (g/m
2
) 18 0.801** 13 0.793**
2
) 18 0.811** 13 0.880**
2
14 0.354
2
) 14 0.840**
Average plant weight (g) 18 0.696** 14 0.831
CV of plant weight (%) 12 -0.382 12 -0.140
Average number of tillers per plant 18 0.260 14 0.647*
CV of the number of tillers per plant (%) 12 -0.360 12 -0.534
Average tiller weight (g) 18 0.207 14 0.626*
CV of the weight of all tillers (%) 14 0.331
Average weight of a productive tiller (g) 14 0.811**
CV of the weight of productive tillers (%) 14 -0.490
Uptake of N in total above-ground biomass (g) 12 0.852** 14 0.899**
Uptake of N in biomass of productive tillers (g) 13 0.889**
Content of chlorophyll in total above-ground biomass 12 0.047 12 0.440
Content of chlorophyll in biomass of productive tillers 11 0.925**
*

0.05, ** 0.01.
Table 6. Correlations between NDVI and measured traits spring barley stand.
Trait BBCH 37 BBCH 55 BBCH 65 BBCH 87
n r n r n r n r
2
6 0.216 8 0.878** 10 0.701 6 0.547
Weight of fresh total above-ground biomass (g/m
2
) 6 0.783 8 0.898** 10 0.836** 6 0.770
2
) 6 0.814* 8 0.973** 10 0.840** 6 0.709
2
6 0.643 8 0.857** 10 0.857**
2
) 6 0.745 8 0.886** 10 0.853**
Average tiller weight (g) 6 0.756 8 0.869** 10 0.793* 6 0.064
CV of the weight of tillers (%) 6 -0.311 8 0.036 10 -0.376 6 0.651
Average weight of a productive tiller (g) 6 0.821* 8 0.799* 10 0.715*
CV of the weight of productive tillers (%) 6 0.112 8 0.322 10 -0.134
Uptake of N in total above-ground biomass (g) 6 0.772 8 0.751* 10 0.918** 6 0.725
Uptake of N in biomass of productive tillers (g) 6 0.739 6 0.799 8 0.829*
Content of chlorophyll in total above-ground
biomass
8 0.370 4 0.969*
Content of chlorophyll in biomass of productive
tillers
8 0.912** 4 0.974*
*

0.05, ** 0.01.
Negative correlations between NDVI and CV for plant weights and tillers identifed in our
investigation indicate the importance of a spatial distribution of plants. This effect of stand
heterogeneity should be taken into account when interpreting values of NDVI, especially within
the period before canopy closure, i.e. till BBCH 31 (beginning of the stem elongation stage). The
assessment of the NDVI values in this period could be used for the quality evaluation of stand
establishment (i.e. uniformity of spatial distribution of individual plants). Nevertheless, Flowers
et al. (2001) mentioned the existence of close correlations between NIR digital counts and tiller
density at BBCH 25 (r=0.67-0.87), and also Phillips et al. (2004) recommended to use a high
determination of the correlation between NDVI and density of tillers at BBCH 25 (r
2
=0.67-0.99)
for a variable application of nitrogen.
NDVI can be use for the evaluation of cereal crops heterogeneity in precision agriculture (Reyniers
et al., 2006). A great advantage is the possibility of a quick and areal evaluation of canopy, which
enables variable cropping measures to be taken during tillering and stem elongation.
Conclusions
Statistically signifcant effects of year, location, experimental treatment (i.e. a combination of
seeding rate and N-dose), and growth stage on values of NDVI for winter wheat and spring barley
canopy were confrmed. Higher values of NDVI indicated:
a greater amount of biomass and its dry matter per m
2
above all in the period of stem elongation;
a greater average weight of plants, a higher number of tillers per plant, and a higher number of
plants per m
2
within the stage of tillering;
a greater average weight of tillers and a higher number of tillers per m
2
at the beginning of
stem elongation;
a more intensive green colour of the stand, which indicated a better nutritional status of the
stand as far as nitrogen supply was concerned.
At later phenological stages, these relationships between NDVI and the productive traits of the
stand were not so strong.
Traits characterising heterogeneity of the stand (i.e. CV for the weights of plants and tillers)
correlated negatively with the NDVI. This fnding can be important for the interpretation of NDVI
values, above all in the period when the stand canopy is not fully developed and NDVI values
are infuenced by soil background, i.e. usually till the beginning of stem elongation (BBCH 31).
It is obvious that identical values of NDVI may indicate either a greater amount of above-ground
biomass with a defcit of nitrogen or a smaller amount of it in a good nutritional status. The effect
of canopy morphological (i.e. structural) and physiological properties on its spectral characteristics,
therefore, requires further investigations. Nevertheless, NDVI can be use for the evaluation of
heterogeneity of cereal stands in precision agriculture.
Acknowledgements
This study was supported by the Czech Science Foundation of the Czech Republic, project No.
521/05/2299, and by Research plan No. MSM6215648905 fnanced by the Ministry of Education,
Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic.
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Evaluation of palm trees water availability using remote
thermal imaging
Y. Cohen
1
, V. Alchanatis
1
, A. Levi
1
, V. Soroker
2
, A. Prigojin
1,4
and Y. Cohen
2
1
Agricultural Research Organization (ARO), Institute of Agricultural Engineering, Bet-Dagan,
Israel
2
Agricultural Research Organization (ARO), Entomology, Bet-Dagan, Israel
3
Agricultural Research Organization (ARO), Plant Sciences, Bet-Dagan, Israel
4
Ben-Gurion University, Department of Geography and Environmental Development, Beer-Sheva,
Israel
Abstract
Thermal images of date palm trees (Phoenix dactylifera L., cv. Medjool) under two irrigation levels
(commercial and 80% defcit) were acquired from an elevated stage reaching about 5m above the
trees canopy. Leaf temperature of single trees canopy was extracted from the thermal images. The
temperature of the commercial irrigation level was lower than that of the water stressed palms by
2-3 degrees. Based on these results airborne thermal images were acquired over a number of palm
orchards along the Jordan valley. In 4 of the orchards, two irrigation levels were applied (commercial
and 80% defcit). The thermal images were processed to map the canopy temperature of the palm
trees. First, palm trees canopy was extracted mainly from soil. A watershed image processing
algorithm was employed to fnd the low temperature sinks that represent the canopy. Then, binary
image was transformed to polygons of canopy outlines. A random set of trees (polygons) was
selected from each plot, allowing for a minimal distance between the selected trees (calculated
by the semivariogram of the original thermal image). Statistical analysis of the temperature of the
randomly selected sets revealed that the canopy temperature in the reduced irrigated plots was
signifcantly higher than that of the commercially irrigated one. The results of this work indicate
the potential use of airborne thermal images to assess the water availability of individual date palm
for site specifc irrigation management.
Keywords: thermography, image processing, watershed segmentation
Introduction
Date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) is a major tree crop in the Middle East and North Africa, having
an important impact on the economy of many countries in these regions (Zaid and De Wet, 1999).
In recent years, dates became a major crop in the arid regions of Israel along the Jordan River and
Arava rifts. Date palm is thermophilic and a drought tolerant plant. They can survive under very
low, and even without any supplemental irrigation. They are also tolerant to high concentration
of salts (Tripler et al., 2007). These characteristics made the date palm the major fruit crop in
desert oases. However, date palm needs suffcient water of acceptable quality to reach its potential
yield (Liebenberg and Zaid, 1999). In most of the date growing regions irrigation is supplied by
fooding. In Israel drip or sprinkler irrigation is used. Together with the micro-irrigation these
three localized irrigation methods are considered more effcient and are becoming an alternative
to the fooding irrigation for water saving and improving water use effciency. Different methods
are used to calculate the water requirements of date palms. In Israel, USA and South Africa, the
`evapotranspiration/Class A Pan` method is frequently used because the information, is readily
available (Liebenberg and Zaid, 1999). Irrigation scheduling in date palms is determined by the water
availability (soil type and depth) and the daily usage of water by the palm (Liebenberg and Zaid,
1999). Israeli palm growers usually increase irrigation levels beyond the recommendations (safety
factor) in response to signifcant uncertainties regarding the suitability of the recommendations to
a specifc orchard. These safety factors are justifed based on the current limited knowledge and
current water stress assessment tools that are available for commercial use. Monitoring water status
of individual date palms is the frst step toward wise-irrigation management in this proftable crop.
The primary method of remote water stress detection in plants has been through the use of the thermal
part of the spectrum. Early studies showed a relationship between plant canopy temperature and
water status (Ehrler, 1973). High-resolution thermal imaging systems have been used to evaluate
water status of several crops and orchards, e.g. cotton, wheat, vineyards and olives (Cohen et al.,
2005; Sepulcre-Canto et al., 2006; Grant et al., 2007; Mller et al., 2007; Tilling et al., 2007). The
objective of this study is to evaluate the potential in using aerial thermal images for monitoring
water availability of individual date palms.
Defcit irrigation levels were manipulated in four drip-irrigated date-palm plots (cultivar Medjool)
during the winter period (January-April) of 2007 and 2008. The plots are located in the western side
of the northern Dead-Sea region. Commercial irrigation management is determined by multiplication
of the physical evaporation from pan by a coeffcient of 0.65, where irrigation in this period is
applied every 3-4 days. Along with the commercial irrigation management (denoted sp-100%)
100-200 trees were irrigated with 80% defcit (denoted sp-20%) in each plot.
The rate of vegetative growth was compared on three trees from each treatment, throughout the
period of the manipulated irrigation. Meters were attached by a string to the tip of the Spear leafs
rachis. The expanding leaf, growing vertically, pulled the string showing its exact leafs expansion
on the meter (Bernestein, 2004). The measured leaf expansion was divided to the time between
each consecutive measurement to give the spear leafs average daily growth.
The results in this paper relate to only one experimental plot located in Kibbuts Kalia.
Acquisition of thermal images
The frst thermal imaging campaign was conducted on 26/4/2007 in Kibbuts Kalia. Thermal images
were acquired with an uncooled infrared thermal camera (BCAM FLIR systems, Portland, Or, USA)
with a microbolometer sensor in the spectral range of 7.5-13 m, with spectral resolution of 0.1
C, temperature accuracy of ~2 C, 120120 pixels resolution and a lens with an angular feld of
view of 24. The thermal camera was mounted on a high-crane about 5m above the palm canopy
and diagonal images were acquired to cover trees from both sp-100% and sp-20%.
On 9/4/2008 an aerial thermal imaging campaign was conducted along a few adjacent strips along
the North-Western side of the Dead Sea. Unfortunately the sky was partly hazy. Under these diffuse
radiation conditions canopy temperature does not reach its maximum and the differences between
plant water availability may be obscured. Tens of date-palm plots (covering more than 25,000
trees) were photographed among which the 4 plots under defcit irrigation. Thermal images were
acquired with an uncooled infrared thermal camera (ThermaCAM model SC2000, FLIR systems)
with similar spectral properties and temperature accuracy with the BCAM but with 320240 pixels
resolution. Flight height was 500m above the ground allowing a spatial resolution of 0.7 m.
Processing of thermal images
Temperature values of palm canopy from each sub-plot were extracted from the diagonal thermal
images using the ARO tool of the ThermaCamResearcher software (FLIR Systems, Sweden). The
aerial images were processed to map the canopy temperature of the palm trees. First, the raw aerial
thermal images that were obtained in FLIR Systems proprietary format, were converted to gray-
scale images as described in Cohen et al. (2005). Secondly, they were geo-referenced to new Israel
coordinate system using ERDAS-IMAGINE software (Leica Geosystems A.G. Inc., Heerbrugg,
Switzerland). The images were then processed to extract palm canopy from soil using Matlab R13
software (The Mathworks Inc., Natick, MA, USA). A watershed image processing algorithm was
employed to the thermal image to outline the palms canopy. The watershed transform, originally
proposed by Digabel and Lantuejoul (1978), is a region-based segmentation approach in which a
grey-level image is considered as a topographic surface. The intuitive idea underlying this method
comes from geography: it is that of a landscape or topographic relief that is fooded by water, with
watersheds being the dividing lines between the domains of attraction of rain falling over the region
(Serra, 1982). During a successive pseudo fooding of the grey value relief, watersheds with adjacent
catchment basins are constructed. This methodology was used by Karantzalos and Argialas (2006)
for olive tree detection and by Safren et al. (2007) for fruit detection in apple trees. The reason for
using the watershed procedure for canopy detection in thermal images is that the canopy objects
are of much lower temperature in comparison to its surrounding soil and can be considered as
basins which are gradually being flled till a temperature threshold is reached. In this work, basins
containing a certain minimum temperature (Tmin) were recognized as a potential canopy basin and
all other basins were excluded from further analysis. Each canopy basin originally contains pixels
of the surrounding soil or mixed pixels. Selection of pure-canopy pixels was done by searching for
a maximum number of pixels (Nmax) that the difference between their temperature and the Tmin
does not exceed a certain threshold (Tdif). The algorithm was operated with changing Tmin to fnd
the optimum. Nmax was set to 7 pixels and Tdif was set to 5 C. The binary image of the palm
canopy was transformed to polygon shapefle format of canopy outlines using ArcGIS software
(ESRI Ltd., USA). A random set of trees (polygons) was selected from each plot using the Hawths
analysis tools for ArcGIS (www.spatialecology.com). To avoid autocorrelation between selected
trees the semivariogram of the original thermal image was calculated for setting a minimal distance
between the selected trees. Finally, the temperature values of the randomly selected sets from each
treatment (sp-100% and sp-20%) were analyzed using ANOVA single factor analysis.
Results
The rate of vegetative growth
Figure 1 presents the rates of vegetative growth, measured as the daily spear leaf expansion, from
3 trees of each treatment between the middle of January and the frst week of April 2007. The
differences between the irrigation treatments increased with time. To this we may add the fact that
no signifcant difference in fruit yields were detected at the end of the season.

0.0
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
2.5
3.0
3.5
4.0
16/1/07 6/2/07 27/2/07 20/3/07
D
a
i
l
y

s
p
e
a
r

l
e
a
f

g
r
o
w
t
h

(
c
m
)
sp-100%
sp-20%

Figure 1: Spear leaf's daily expansion rate

Figure 1. Spear leafs daily expansion rate.
Diagonal thermal image
Figure 2 presents a diagonal thermal image above the border between sp-100% and sp-20%
in Kibbuts Kalia. The temperature difference between the two differentially irrigated plots is
approximately 2 C.
Aerial thermal images
Figure 3 presents a geo-referenced aerial thermal image of the palm plot in Kibbuts Kalia. The
watershed algorithm was operated iteratively with different Tmin values. Figure 4 presents the
number of canopy basins detected with growing Tmin. It can be seen that the number of canopy
basins is generally stabilized from Tmin of 25.5 C. Combined with visual interpretation the Tmin
was set to 26.6 C. Selection of pure canopy pixels within the canopy basin is presented in Figure 5
as a polygon shapefle of the canopy outline overlaid on the original thermal image. Semivariogram
was calculated such as the lag size was set to the distance between palm trees (10m) (Figure 6).
Based on the semivariogram the minimal distance between selected canopy outline was set to 30m.
With the minimal distance of 30 m, the Hawths analysis tools allowed for only 10 canopies to
be selected in each sub-plot (Figure 7). Figure 8 presents the temperature histogram of each set
of canopy outlines. Both sp-100% and sp-20% has temperature range of ~2 C, but sp-100% has
lower temperature range. The mean values of sp-100% and sp-20% are 25.24 C and 26.25 C,
respectively. Despite the difference of only one Celsius degree sp-100% has signifcant lower
canopy temperature than sp-20% (P<0.005).

Figure 2: Diagonal thermal image above a date-palm plot, Kibbuts Kalia, 26/4/2007. sp-100% on the
left, sp-20% on the right.

Figure 2. Diagonal thermal image above a date-palm plot, Kibbuts Kalia, 26/4/2007. sp-100% on
the left, sp-20% on the right.

Figure 3: Aerial thermal image above a palm plot. upper: sp-20% ; lower sp-100%
Figure 3. Aerial thermal image above a palm plot upper: sp-20%; lower sp-100%.

1480
1490
1500
1510
24 24.5 25 25.5 26 26.5 27 27.5 28 28.5 29
Temperature threshold (Tmin) for the water shed
analysis
N
u
m
b
e
r

o
f

o
b
j
e
c
t
s

(
t
r
e
e
s
)

Figure 4: Number of canopy basins detected as a function of growing minimum temperature threshold
(Tmin)
Figure 4. Number of canopy basins detected as a function of growing minimum temperature
threshold ( ).

Figure 5: Polygons of palm canopy outlines using watershed algorithm.

Figure 5. Polygons of palm canopy outlines using watershed algorithm.

Figure 6: Semivariogram of the original thermal image

Figure 6. Semivariogram of the original thermal image.
Discussion
Being monocot trees, palms are unique in their vascular system, composed of thousands of bundles
each containing isolated xylem and phloem elements and their root system is composed of primary
roots (Tomlinson, 1990). Water consumption methods developed for dicotyledonous trees may not
necessarily be applicable for palm trees. Most of the attempts to evaluate water consumption of
palm trees were based on indirect measurements of water content in soil. The unique root system
and huge root volume make this approach inaccurate. Attempts to monitor date water consumption
were also made using stem SAP fow (Sellami et al., 2003) and electrical conductivity (Nadler et
al., 2008) techniques. These approaches may be good for monitoring single tree or a few trees in
the orchard but none of these suggests an effcient tool for monitoring water status of all individual
date palms in wide commercial orchards.
Initial and successful attempt to differentiate between water availability of palm trees in commercial
orchards over wide areas using thermal imagery was presented. Water status evaluation by thermal
imagery was used in other studies for various crops and orchards (Cohen et al., 2005; Sepulcre-
Canto et al., 2006; Grant et al., 2007; Mller et al., 2007; Tilling et al., 2007). One limitation in
the application of this technique is that a pure canopy temperature is needed, and any measure of
the soil background can result in false detection of water stress. To overcome this, thermal images
were combined with images in the VIS-NIR (Moran et al., 1994; Clarke, 1997, Mller et al., 2007;
Sela et al., 2007; Tilling et al., 2007; Sepulcre-Canto et al., 2006). In palm tress this complexity
is minimized. Their large canopy with almost no exposed soil under their canopy and the lack of

Figure 7: Selected canopy outlines in each subplot

Figure 7. Selected canopy outlines in each subplot.
0
1
2
3
4
5
24 24.5 25 25.5 26 26.5 27 27.5
N
u
m
b
e
r

o
f

T
r
e
e
s
sp-20%
sp-100%

Figure 8: Canopy temperature histogram of the selected canopy outlines in each sub-plot

Canopy Temperature (
0
C)
Figure 8. Canopy temperature histogram of the selected canopy outlines in each sub-plot.
overlaps between the crowns of neighboring trees, enable the detection of pure canopy pixels of
individual trees based on thermal images without the need for images in the VIS-NIR. In this study
we showed that using the watershed segmentation analysis allowed for the detection of all palm
trees in the thermal image with no false alarms. Additionally, further relatively simple procedures
enabled the selection of pure canopy pixels in each palm tree. Finally, the difference between two
water statuses of palm trees under two extreme water regimes using thermal imagery was found
signifcant. The meteorological conditions in the day of thermal imaging were sub-optimal. This
may have contributed to the fact that a difference of only one Celsius degree between the two sub-
plots was detected. In light of that, under optimal meteorological conditions smaller difference in
water availability may be also detected using thermal images.
This study showed that differences in temperature indicate for difference in water availability,
yet future study should focus on connecting the differences or their magnitude to the actual water
status of the palm tree. It can be seen that despite the signifcant differences in temperature and in
vegetation growth (Figure 1), no signifcant difference was found in fruit yield.
Conclusions
Thermal imagery was shown as a potential tool to monitor water availability in date palms. As
a highly proftable crop, monitoring the water availability of individual trees in palm orchards is
valuable as it enables the early detection of irrigation malfunctions that results in yield reduction.
Thermal imagery may lead to a wide extent of water saving as well. As mentioned above, yield
samples taken from sp-20% in the four experimental plots did not show reduction in yield. These
observations indicate the ability to reduce irrigation amounts at least in the winter period. Such
decrease is analogous to 11 m
3
of water per tree during the four months with mildest irrigation levels.
For the 25,000 trees in this region the water saving reaches to 275,000 m
3
per year. Additionally, in
a wide irrigation experiment performed in the ARAVA region for three years, reduction of 30% in
irrigation levels along the whole season did not affect growth and yield parameters (Kramer, personal
communication). Palm growers usually increase irrigation levels beyond the recommendations
(safety factor) in response to uncertainties regarding the suitability of the recommendations to a
specifc orchard. If thermal imagery approach will be improved to be a reliable monitoring tool of
water status of individual palm trees it may assist in the adoption of defcit irrigation by the farmers
and also tree-specifc irrigation approach.
References
Bernestein, Z. 2004. The Date Palm. Israeli Fruit Board, Tel Aviv. (in Hebrew).
Clarke, T.R. 1997. An empirical approach for detecting water stress using multispectral airborne sensors.
Horticulture Technology, 7: 9-16.
Cohen, Y., Alchanatis, V., Meron, M. and Saranga, Y. 2005. Estimation of leaf water potential by thermal
imagery and spatial analysis. International of Experimental Botany, 56, (417), 1843-1852.
Digabel, H., and C. Lantuejoul. 1978. Iterative algorithms. In Actes du Second Symposium Europeen dAnalyse
Quantitative des Microstructures en Sciences des Materiaux, Biologie et Medecine, 85-99. J. L. Chermant,
ed. Stuttgart, Germany: Riederer Verlag.
Ehrler, W.L., 1973. Cotton leaf temperatures as related to soil water depletion and meteorological factors.
Agronomy Journal 65: 404-409.
Grant, O.M., Tronina, L., Jones, H.G., and Chaves, M.M,. 2007. Exploring thermal imaging variables for
the detection of stress responses in grapevine under different irrigation regimes. Journal of Experimental
Botany, 58 (4): 815-825.
Karantzalos, K., and Argialas, D., 2006. Improving edge detection and watershed segmentation with anisotropic
diffusion and morphological levellings. International Journal of Remote Sensing, 27 (23-24): 5427-5434.
Liebenberg, P.J. and Zaid, A. 1999. Date Palm Irrigation. In: Zaid, A. (ed) Date Palm Cultivation. Plant
Prudection and Protection Paper 156, FAO, Rome, pp. 130-143.
Mller, M., Alchanatis, V, Cohen, Y., Meron, M., Tsipris, J., Naor, A., Ostrovsky, V., Sprintsin, M., and Cohen,
S. 2007. Use of thermal and visible imagery for estimating crop water status of irrigated grapevine.
International Journal of Experimental Botany, 58(4): 827-838
Moran, M.S., Clarke, T.R., Inoue, Y., Vidal, A., 1994. Estimating crop water defcit using the relation between
surface-air temperature and spectral vegetation index. Remote Sens. Environ. 49: 246-263.
Nadler, A., Raveh, E., Yermiyahu, U., Kado, M., Nasser, A., Barak, M. and Green, S., 2008. Detecting water
stress in trees using stem electrical conductivity measurements. Journal of the Soil Science Society of
America, 72: 1014-1024.
Safren, O; Alchanatis, V; Ostrovsky, V, and Levi, O., 2007. Detection of green apples in hyperspectral images
of apple-tree foliage using machine vision. Transactions of the ASABE, 50 (6): 2303-2313.
Sela, E., Y. Cohen, V. Alchanatis, Y. Saranga, S. Cohen, M. Mller, M. Meron, A. Bosak, J. Tsipris and V.
Orolov. 2007. Thermal imaging for estimating and mapping crop water stress in cotton. In: J.V. Stafford
(ed.), European Conference in Precision Agriculture 2007, Skiathos, Greece. Wageningen Acadamic
Publishers, the Netherlands. pp. 365-371.
Sellami, M.H. and Sifaoui, M. S. 2003. Estimating transpiration in an intercropping system measuring sap
fow inside the oasis. Agricultural Water Management 59, 191-204.
Sepulcre-Canto, G., Zarco-Tejada, P.J., Jimenez-Munoz, J.C., Sobrino, J.A., de Miguel, E. and Villalobos, F.J.,
2006. Detection of water stress in an olive orchard with thermal remote sensing imagery. Agricultural and
Forest Meteorology, 136(1-2): 31-44.
Serra, J. 1982. Image Analysis and Mathematical Morphology. New York, N.Y.: Academic Press.
Tilling, A.K., OLeary, G.J., Ferwerda, J.G., Jones, S.D., Fitzgeral, G.J., Rodriguez, D. and Belford, R. 2007.
Remote sensing of nitrogen and water stress in wheat. Field Crops Research, 104: 77-85.
Tomlinson, P.B. 1990. The structural biology of palms. Oxford Science Publications, Oxford.
Tripler, E., Ben-Gal, A. and Shani, U. 2007. Consequence of salinity and excess boron on growth,
evapotranspiration and ion uptake in date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L., cv. Medjool). Plant and Soil.
297:147-155.
Zaid, A. and De Wet, P.F. 1999. Origin, geographical distribution and nutritional values of date palm. In Date
Palm Cultivation Ed. A. Zaid. FAO, Rome, pp. 29-44.
Section 2
Biomass other than remote sensing
Use of ultrasonic transducers for on-line biomass
estimation in winter wheat
S. Reusch
Yara International, Research Centre Hanninghof, 48249 Dlmen, Germany;
stefan.reusch@yara.com
Abstract
An ultrasonic transducer was mounted on a vehicle, pointing straight downward to the crop. While
the vehicle was moving, the device continuously sent short ultrasonic pulses. After sending each
pulse, the sensor sequentially registered the echoes refected by the individual leaf layers and the
ground. Resulting echograms were averaged and stored for later analysis. Measurements were
taken in winter wheat trials at multiple times during the 2007 and 2008 growing season. The
trial plots comprised different nitrogen levels, varieties and seed densities. Immediately after the
measurements, a sample area was harvested from each plot and the dry matter was determined. From
the echograms characteristic parameters were extracted and related to the crop biomass. Results
show very good relationships between sensor readings and dry matter (r
2
between 0.79 and 0.94,
depending on variety and growth stage). The relationship was not affected by crop density, but by
variety. Variety effects correlated with the varietys typical crop height. Repeated measurements
within the growing season showed that the relationship shifts when the canopy architecture changes
due to the phenological development of the crop. From the results it is suggested that both the
growth stage and the variety should be taken into account if the dry matter has to be predicted
from the sensor readings.
Keywords: ultrasonic sensor, ultrasound, echogram, dry matter, biomass
Introduction
The in-season aboveground biomass is a key parameter to describe the crop status and the spatial
variability within a feld. Variable-rate applications of mineral fertilizers, growth regulators or
fungicides are often based on this parameter, either alone or in conjunction with others. In the
recent years various mainly optical sensors have been successfully developed and calibrated for
crop biomass (Solie et al., 2002; Holland, 2005), but these devices are often costly, typically read a
composite signal of biomass and chlorophyll and sometimes only allow measurements with a small
footprint (Ehlert et al., 2007). Standard industrial ultrasonic transducers are robust, comparably
cheap, can cover a reasonable footprint of more than 1 m in diameter, and their signal solely depends
on the canopy structure. Because of this, a study has been carried out to explore the capabilities and
limitations of ultrasonic transducers for biomass estimation in winter wheat. Great importance was
attached to a simple, cost-effective and practical set-up by using a standard industrial ultrasonic
device and operating it remotely at nadir view from above the crop.
In comparison to optical sensors, there are only few studies that deal with the use of ultrasonic
transducers for crop characterisation. Shibayama et al. (1985) built a portable instrument and
operated it in various feld crops. They concluded that mainly the horizontal planes within the
canopy (i.e. leaves, ground, ears) contribute to the ultrasonic signal, whereas the stems were rarely
detected. Maertens et al. (2003) investigated the potential of modifed standard ultrasonic transducers
for crop density estimation. They placed the transducer inside the crop, parallel to the ground
and perpendicular to the stems, and tried both refectance and transmittance measurements. Their
conclusion was that only in transmittance mode reliable results could be achieved. For practical
purposes this approach may be of limited use, as it would require a separate emitter and receiver
to be dragged through the canopy. Scotford and Miller (2003) used another ultrasonic transducer
to simultaneously determine the height and the density of a winter wheat crop from remote nadir
view measurements. They successfully related the ultrasonic distance reading itself to crop height
and found the variability of the signal to be related to crop density, as dense canopies generally
exhibited less height variability than thinner crops.
Ultrasonic transducer
A standard industrial ultrasonic transducer (P42-A4M-2D-K130E from PIL Sensoren GmbH, Erlensee,
Germany) was mounted on a vehicle, pointing downward to the crop from a height of approximately
2.6 m above the ground. The beam angle of the device was 8, leading to a footprint of approximately
0.36 m in diameter (Figure 1). A specifc feature of the chosen transducer was its capability to measure
multiple echoes as they were refected from different leaf layers in the canopy and from the ground.
The transducer also contained a temperature sensor to determine the air temperature.
A specifc control electronic was built to continuously trigger short ultrasonic pulses, measure the
time-of-fight of the individual echoes and transmit all data to the serial port of a portable computer
for data logging and further processing. In the 2007 measurement campaign individual pulses
were triggered every 50 ms, leading to 20 individual scans per second. In 2008, this number was
increased to 30 scans per second, which is close to the theoretical limit given by the distance to
the ground and the speed of sound.
The times-of-fight were converted into distances by multiplying with the speed of sound, corrected
by the current air temperature. All readings acquired within an interval of one second were fnally
accumulated in a histogram (further addressed as echogram) displaying the frequency of the
individual echoes at given distances (Figure 2). Typically, these echograms contained at least two
peaks, one from the top of the canopy and a second one from the soil. In well-developed canopies
often less pronounced additional peaks were visible from leaf layers in between.

Figure 1: Principle and mounting of the ultrasonic transducer
Figure 1. Principle and mounting of the ultrasonic transducer.
Trial setup
In 2007, a three-factorial plot trial was conducted on a sandy soil in Dlmen, Germany (51.839
N, 7.255 E). Four varieties of winter wheat (cv. Hattrick, Batis, Drifter and Ludwig) were sown
on October18
th
, 2006 at three seeding densities (90, 160 and 330 m
-2
). Varieties were selected to
cover a wide range of different crop heights and canopy geometries. For example, Batis is known
for its distinct planophile leaf orientation, while Drifter exhibits a strong erectophile growth habit.
In spring, each variety-seed density was subdivided into 10 individual plots receiving nitrogen
rates from 0 to 225 kg N/ha in 25 kg/ha steps. Nitrogen was applied as CAN fertilizer in three
applications on March 8
th
, April 19
th
and May 16
th
, 2007, respectively. This setup resulted in a total
number of 120 plots with a size of 3x10 m
2
each. At two dates in the growing season (May 15
th

and May 24
th
) a 0.96 m
2
subsample of each plot was harvested and the aboveground dry matter
was determined. The growth stage of the crop at those dates was BBCH 37/39 and BBCH 59/61,
respectively (Lancashire, 1991).
In 2008, a more simple trial setup was chosen on a nearby location (51.840 N, 7.251 E). Winter
wheat (cv. Winnetou) was sown on October 8
th
, 2007 and then grown at 10 nitrogen levels ranging
from 0 to 315 kg N/ha in fve applications. The frst two of those fve applications were applied as
NPK fertilizer already in autumn to induce crop variability as early as possible. In this trial, the
size of the individual plots was at least 15x20 m
2
. Subsamples were harvested and dry matter was
determined ten times between March 4
th
and June 13
th
, resulting in a time series across all relevant
growth stages from BBCH 21 to BBCH 69.
Measurements
At each crop sampling date the vehicle was driven across the plot at a speed of approximately 0.5-
1 m/s. Ultrasonic data were continuously logged together with positioning information and plot
numbers. With the given vehicle speed and the size of the plots in 2007 typically 8-12 echograms
could be calculated from each plot at each date. In 2008, because of the bigger plot size typically
20-40 echograms were taken per plot.
From each echogram, a so-called ultrasonic value was calculated by subtracting the 5%-quartile
distance from the 95%-quartile distance of the echogram. This number may also be attributed as
0 180 200 220 240 260 280
Distance /cm
0
2000
4000
6000
8000
F
r
e
q
u
e
n
c
y

(
a
.

u
.
)
N0
N8
soil peak
top-of-canopy peak

Figure 2: Two examples of echograms acquired from wheat plots with no (N0) and high (N8)
nitrogen supply rates at BBCH 59/61 (acquired May 24
th
, 2007)
Figure 2. Two examples of echograms acquired from wheat plots with no (N0) and high (N8)
nitrogen supply rates at BBCH 59/61 (acquired May 24
th
, 2007).
average crop height as seen by the ultrasonic transducer. Quartiles were chosen instead of the
spread in order to reduce the noise and to suppress single outliers. Finally all values taken from
within one plot were averaged to produce one single reading per plot and date.
Variety trial 2007
Figure 3 displays the relationships between the ultrasonic value and the aboveground dry matter
for the individual varieties in the 2007 trial. Generally good linear relationships with coeffcients
of determination between r
2
=0.79 and 0.93 were obtained across both measuring dates. However,
a slight saturation effect seems to occur at high dry matters, particularly in the Ludwig variety.
Though in the latter case a nonlinear regression would have been more adequate, for consistency
only linear equations have been used.
The parameters of the linear regression lines are listed in Table 1. In the same table the relative crop
height as ranked by the breeders and listed in the descriptive variety list (Bundessortenamt, 2008)
is also shown. It can be seen that both the intercept and particularly the slope of the regression line
are related to the varietys typical crop height: As can be expected, the taller the variety, the higher
the ultrasonic value at a given dry matter.
In addition to the crop height, it can be suspected that the leaf orientation (planophile or erectophile)
may have an additional effect on the ultrasonic reading. At a given dry matter, the top leaf layers of
a planophile canopy probably refect more energy than in an erectophile crop and therefore produce
0 2 4 6 8
Dry matter /(t ha
-1
)
0
40
80
120
U
l
t
r
a
s
o
n
i
c

v
a
l
u
e

/
c
m
0 2 4 6 8 10
0
40
80
Hattrick Batis
Drifter
Ludwig
May 15
th
, 2007
May 24
th
, 2007

Figure 3: Relationship between aboveground dry matter and ultrasonic value for the four va-
rieties in the 2007 trial.

Figure 3. Relationship between aboveground dry matter and ultrasonic value for the four
varieties in the 2007 trial.
a higher ultrasonic value. However, though the Batis and Drifter canopies differed signifcantly in
leaf orientation, there seems to be little effect on the dry matter relationship. The slightly higher
readings retrieved from the Batis variety may already be explained by the slightly taller crop.
For the practical purpose of predicting the aboveground dry matter from ultrasonic readings, these
fndings indicate that it may not be necessary to calibrate for each variety independently. Instead, the
relative crop height as published by the breeder might be suffcient to correct for variety differences.
Growth stage trial 2008
The results from the 2008 trial are plotted in Figure 4. The graph generally shows a good correlation
between the aboveground dry matter and the ultrasonic value. As in the variety trial 2007, a slight
saturation effect could be observed at the very late growth stages (BBCH 60 and beyond).
Obviously the data can be separated into three groups: Early stages at tillering and early stem
elongation (BBCH 21 BBCH 32/33), intermediate stages at around ear emergence (BBCH 39
BBCH 49) and late stages at fowering (BBCH 60 BBCH 69). The respective linear regression
lines are plotted in the graph and the parameters are listed in Table 2. Within each group a good
Table 1. Slope ( ), intercept ( ) and coeffcient of determination ( ) obtained from linear
regressions between dry matter and ultrasonic value for each individual variety. The relative
height (on a scale from 1 to 9) of the individual varieties as given in the descriptive variety list
(Bundessortenamt, 2008) is also listed.
Variety Slope ( ) Intercept ( ) r
2
Relative height
Hattrick 6.32 22.7 0.83 3
Batis 7.98 23.5 0.81 6
Drifter 6.70 23.8 0.93 5
Ludwig 8.74 27.0 0.79 7
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18
Dry matter /(t ha
-1
)
0
20
40
60
80
100
U
l
t
r
a
s
o
n
i
c

v
a
l
u
e

/
c
m BBCH 21
BBCH 25
BBCH 29
BBCH 30/31
BBCH 31/32
BBCH 32/33
BBCH 39
BBCH 49
BBCH 60
BBCH 69

Figure 4: Relationship between aboveground dry matter and ultrasonic value at different
growth stages (2008 trial)

Figure 4. Relationship between aboveground dry matter and ultrasonic value at different growth
stages (2008 trial).
linear relationship between dry matter and ultrasonic value can be observed (r
2
between 0.79 and
0.94). However, the slopes and intercepts between groups seem to be largely different.
The parallel shift of the regression line at ear emergence as compared to the regression line at
earlier growth stages can be attributed to the structural changes taking place at this stage. The crop
stretches and gets taller without fully compensating this with a proportionate increased dry matter.
The second change between BBCH 49 and BBCH 60 is possibly caused by the ears, which refect
a signifcant portion of the ultrasonic signal at the surface of the canopy. This may level out the
apparent height differences to some extent and result in a lower slope.
Compared to the 2007 data, in the 2008 trial lower values for both the slope and the intercept have
been obtained. In other words, at a given dry matter lower ultrasonic values were retrieved in the
2008 trial compared to 2007. Unfortunately the reason for this observation is diffcult to fnd in
retrospect. The varietys relative crop height is listed as 5 in the descriptive variety list, which is
comparable to the Drifter variety in the 2007 trial. This at least excludes the assumption of a strong
variety effect. Instead, a possible reason might be that due to more favourable growing conditions in
2008 the crop developed a more compact canopy with more leaves and more biomass at a comparable
crop height. This might explain why the dry matter was generally higher in 2008 compared to 2007.
Conclusion
A standard industrial ultrasonic transducer was used to determine the aboveground dry matter in
winter wheat. Instead of simply measuring the distance to the frst object (i e. the surface of the
canopy), the selected transducer allowed to retrieve multiple echoes from within the canopy and
the ground. Echograms were computed by averaging multiple individual measurements and the
apparent crop height was determined by subtracting the frst echo (from the canopys surface) from
the last (soil) echo. By this, the reading is largely independent of the absolute distance between
the sensor and the canopy and cannot be affected by tilting effects of the vehicle or changing track
depths within a feld.
Results show good and largely linear relationships between the ultrasonic reading and the
aboveground dry matter sampled manually at the time of measurement. However, it also turns out
that the slope and the intercept of these relationships at least depend on variety and growth stage.
The variety effect could be attributed to the varietys typical crop height and might therefore be
calibrated for in a future application. The growth stage effect seems to be related to three groups of
phenological stages of the crop, namely tillering, ear emergence and fowering. While relationships
were different between these groups, universal relationships were observed within the groups.
Practically this means that a calibration only needs to be carried out for each group of growth
stages, not for each stage individually. However, the observed difference between the 2007 and
the 2008 data also show that there are probably still some further unknown parameters affecting
the relationships and requiring further investigations.
Table 2. Slope ( ), intercept ( ) and coeffcient of determination ( ) obtained from linear
regressions between dry matter and ultrasonic value for three growth stage groups in the
2008 experiment.
Growth stage Slope ( ) Intercept ( ) r
2
BBCH 21 BBCH 32/33 4.50 9.2 0.94
BBCH 39 BBCH 49 5.47 15.4 0.89
BBCH 60 BBCH 69 2.47 45.4 0.79
Future opportunities
Apart from straight dry matter estimations, the described technology may provide additional future
opportunities. The retrieved echograms (Figure 2) by principle contain information along the whole
canopy depth and may therefore reveal more information about canopy structural parameters, such
as number and position of leaf layers, height distribution of biomass or occurrence of a second (i.e.
weed) crop within the primary canopy.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Arno Ruckelshausen and Andreas Linz from the University of Applied Sciences
in Osnabrck for developing and assembling the control electronics for the ultrasonic transducer.
Furthermore, thanks a lot to Klemens Brggemann and his team at Research Centre Hanninghof
for preparing the trials, taking the crop samples and supporting the measurements.
References
Bundessortenamt. Beschreibende Sortenliste 2008 (Descriptive variety list 2008), Deutscher Landwirtschaftsverlag
GmbH, Hannover, Germany
Ehlert, D., Adamek, R. and Horn, H-J., 2007. Assessment of Laser Rangefnder Principles for Measuring
Crop Biomass, In: J. V. Stafford (ed.), Precision Agriculture 07, Wagenin-gen Academic Publishers,
Netherlands, pp. 317-324.
Holland, K., 2005. Light Sensor with Modulated Radiant Polychromatic Source, US-Patent No. 2005/0098713
Lancashire, P. D., Bleiholder, H., Langelddecke, P., Stauss, R., van den Boom, T., Weber, E. and Witzenberger,
A., 1991. A uniform decimal code for growth stages of crops and weeds. Annals of Applied Biology 119:
561-601.
Maertens, K., Reyns, P., De Clippel, J. and De Baerdemaeker, J., 2003. First experiments on ultrasonic crop
density measurement. Journal of Sound and Vibration 266: 655-665.
Scotford, I.M. and Miller, P.C.H., 2003. Characterisation of winter wheat using measurements of normalized
difference vegetation index and crop height. In: J.V. Stafford (ed.), Precision Agriculture, Wageningen
Academic Publishers, Netherlands, pp. 621-626.
Shibayama, M. and Akiyama, T., 1985. A portable feld ultrasonic sensor for crop canopy characterization, In:
Solie, J.B., Stone, M.L., Raun, W.R., Johnson, G.V., Freeman, K., Mullen, R., Needham, D.E., Reed, S. and
Washmon, C N., 2002. Real-time sensing and N fertilization with a feld scale GreenSeekerTM applicator.
In: Robert, P. et al. (eds.), Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Precision Agriculture. July
14-17, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
Use of a ground-based LIDAR scanner to measure leaf area
and canopy structure variability of grapevines
J. Arn, A. Escol, J.M. Valls, R. Sanz, J. Masip, J. Palacn and J.R. Rosell
Department of Agro-Forestry Engineering, University Of Lleida, Rovira Roure, 191, Lleida, 25198,
Spain; JArno@eagrof.udl.cat
Abstract
Measurement of grapevine vigour by mobile proximal sensors can provide an indirect method
for determining grape yield and quality. Of the various indexes related to the characteristics of
grapevine foliage, the Leaf Area Index (LAI) is probably the most widely used in viticulture. To
assess the feasibility of using Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) sensors in precision viticulture
for predicting the LAI, several feld trials were made in a block of grapevines (Merlot) using a
tractor-mounted LIDAR system that measured the crop in a transverse direction along the rows
of vines. Geometric and structural parameters of vines were computed from the scanned data.
The main parameters were the height of the vines (H), the cross-sectional area (A), the canopy
volume (V
D
), and the Tree Area Index (TAI), which is an index related to the canopy density. In
order to compare the relationships between the indexes calculated from sensor data with the real
values of LAI, the scanned vines were defoliated after LIDAR measurements to obtain LAI values
for different row sections (4, 2 and 1 m long, respectively). Linear regression analysis showed a
good correlation (R
2
=0.8054) between canopy volume (V
D
) and measured values of LAI for 1
m long sections. Nevertheless, the best estimation of the LAI was given by the Tree Area Index
(R
2
=0.9188), formulated as the ratio between crop measured area per ground unit area, and assuming
when calculating this parameter, that laser beam transmission probability within vines could be
approximated by means of the Poisson probability model or Beers law.
Keywords: vine vigour, laser sensor, Leaf Area Index, proximal ground sensor
Introduction
In viticulture there is a clear requirement for quality measuring on-the-go sensors to be developed,
and this is one of the principal objectives of precision viticulture. The aim is to be able to measure
the parameters that defne grape quality by direct or indirect measurement at pre-harvest or at
the time of harvest. However, direct measurement of grape quality is complicated. Tisseyre et al.
(2001) carried out trials with some degree of success using sensors on grape harvesting machines
to measure average sugar content (refractrometry) and acidity (pH).
On the other hand, there is a well known inter-relationship between production (amount harvested),
vine vigour and the quality of the harvested grapes. In fact, from estimations of leaf area and/or
leaf density a measure of the grapevine vigour can be obtained which can provide another factor
to be considered in indirect determinations of harvest quality and quantity. There are different
indexes related to grapevine vigour. The total leaf area, or Leaf Area Index (LAI) is probably the
most widely used index.
At present, the LAI can be measured, or estimated, using various types of sensors. In the last few
years land-based optical instruments have been used in order to describe vegetation using simple,
fast and non-destructive methods that scan a crop to get information about the geometry and/or
structure of the canopy. Experiments have been carried out using laser sensors in fruit orchards
(apple and pear) (Palacn et al., 2007; Sanz et al., 2004; Walklate et al., 2002) and in grapevine,
in which in addition to laser sensors (Arn et al., 2006), radiometric sensors mounted on tractors
were used (Goutouly et al., 2006). As an alternative to optical sensors, ultrasonic sensors have been
used to measure grapevine canopy volume (Escol et al., 2005) and citrus canopy volume (Tumbo
et al., 2002; Wei and Salyani, 2004 and 2005; Zaman and Schumann, 2005).
Remote sensing, using satellite and aerial photography, is another option that has also been used
to estimate LAI. For example, Johnson et al. (2003) obtained a signifcant correlation (R
2
=0.72)
between the estimated leaf area per vine using satellite images (NDVI, Normalized Difference
Vegetation Index) and the leaf area per vine obtained through direct and indirect measurement
on the ground. However it is also known that the relationship between LAI and NDVI varies
over time and requires a specifc calibration according to the different growth stages of the crop.
Johnson et al. (2003) also pointed out the diffculty of remote detection of LAI in vineyards due to
the spatial discontinuity of this crop in which leaves are concentrated over long stems and cover
a relatively small percentage of the ground. Vegetation present between rows (such as vegetative
cover or weeds) further complicates the correct interpretation of refectance data from the images.
The continuous evaluation of the canopy of the vineyards is undoubtedly an important objective for
precision viticulture. The laser scanner (LIDAR) was the instrument chosen to reliably estimate LAI
and canopy density in grapevine, having discarded ultrasonic sensors due to their low resolution,
and rejected the option of using refectance sensors due to their relatively poor ability to estimate
the LAI.
The LIDAR provides a large amount of data and there are different procedures for analyzing the
information received (Palacn et al., 2007; Sanz et al., 2004; Tumbo et al., 2002; Wei and Salyani,
2004 and 2005). Faced with all these methods of measuring canopy volume, Walklate et al.
(2002) obtained several parameters of leaf canopy by analyzing the data from the LIDAR using
a probability based model. In this study the geometric and structural parameters mentioned in the
work of Walklate et al. (2002) for orchards, were obtained, reviewed and validated for the specifc
case of estimating the leaf area (LAI) in vineyards.
LIDAR scanner
Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) sensors operate based on the measurement of the time
a laser pulse takes to travel from the sensor to the target; in this case, the vegetation surface of
vines, and then travel back to the sensor. For each interception, the sensor determines the radial
distance (r) between the intercepted point and the sensor position and the angular coordinate ()
of this intercepted point according to an adequate reference system. The laser beam is pulsed with
different angular values in each vertical scan and therefore the feld data are organized as a matrix
of polar coordinates (r, ) of the intercepted points. Thus, each scan defnes a matrix of data and
the displacement of LIDAR along the row defnes several scans with their corresponding polar
coordinate matrices. The LIDAR used in this study was a low-cost general-purpose LMS-200 model
(SICK AG, Waldkirch, Germany), with an accuracy of 15 mm over a range up to 8 m, with an
aperture angle of 180 and a selectable angular resolution confgured at 1 (used in this study). The
MultiScan program developed using MATLAB (MATrix LABoratory, The MathWorks Inc., Natick,
Massachussetts) was used to control the scanner, and subsequently process the information. Data
transfer from the sensor to a laptop was done via a RS-232 protocol. This external communication
fnally limited the scanning frequency up to 12 scans/s (or 2.25 cm row long/scan at a speed of 1
km/h). The scanner and mounting are shown in Figure 1.
Data analysis
With the scanner positioned as shown in Figure 1, the LIDAR generated the data (polar coordinates)
according to the scanners reference system shown in Figure 2. Thus, for the position of the axes
it was assumed that the axis Ox was parallel to the ground and directed towards the interior of the
canopy, and that the Oy axis was maintained perpendicular to the ground and that the Oz axis was
parallel to the ground and in the direction in which the LIDAR moved.
With this arrangement, the origin O corresponded to the centre of the semicircle of the LIDAR scan
and all the points intercepted by the laser beam in each semicircular scan were in the Oxy plane.
The LIDAR provided (r, ) values (Figure 2) where r is the distance between the reference origin
O and the intercepted vegetation, and is the angle between the Oy axis and the direction of the
laser beam (clockwise). As the LIDAR moved relative to the crop (Oz axis) it carried out vertical
scans and maintained an approximately constant height from the ground, H
g
(Figure 2). However,
possible changes in the height produced by ground irregularities did not affect signifcantly the
sensor function and were always limited due to the short scanned row section and the reduced
speed of tractor-mounted scanning lidar.
For the subsequent analysis of the data, the interception points of the whole volume scanned were
projected relative to the Oz axis on a two-dimensional grid of polar cells (Walklate et al., 2002)
(Figure 2). The cross-section of the volume of the canopy was divided into cells with equal angle
increments A = 3(A =
60
rad) and equal radial increments Ar = 100 mm, (Figure 2). The number
of interceptions, An
k,j
occurring between the laser beam and the presence of vegetative material in
its path should satisfy the following expression:
An
k,j
= n
k,j
n
k,j+1
(1)
where n
k,j
is the number of laser beams reaching the entrance side of the cell (k, j) and n
k,j+1
is the
number of beams that cross the exit side of the cell, and therefore enter the next cell. The number
of beams entering the frst cells, or cells nearest the LIDAR (k, j=1) could be easily established
(typical values range from 489 to 573 in row sections of 4 m long), as the number of scans carried
out over the row (between 163 and 191), the angular resolution (1) and the angle increment A of
the cells (3). The readings from the LIDAR were fnally structured according to two data matrices:
the interception matrix (An
k,j
) and the matrix of beams entering each cell (n
k,j
). In other words,
the information about the crop was reduced to a two-dimensional distribution over the plane Oxy
of the interception of the laser with the crop canopy, and a two-dimensional distribution over
the same plane that describes the attenuation that the laser beam undergoes on passing through
the crop canopy. The crop vegetation parameters shown in Table 1 were obtained from the two
aforementioned matrices.
1

Figure 1. LMS 200 scanner (left) and mounting used in the field (right)

Figure 1. LMS 200 scanner (left) and mounting used in the feld (right).
2

Figure 2. Coordinates system of the LIDAR (left) and diagram showing a two-dimensional polar cell (k, j)
(right), where H
g
is the height of the LIDAR from the ground and d
t
the distance that permits us to exclude the
points at ground-level and at the level of the trunk from the matrix of the analysis, in other words the points
whose Cartesian coordinate at a height (Oy) satisfy: y < -d
t
d
t

LIDAR
H
g

Z
Y
X
O
Figure 2. Coordinates system of the LIDAR (left) and diagram showing a two-dimensional polar
cell ( , ) (right), where is the height of the LIDAR from the ground and the distance that
permits us to exclude the points at ground-level and at the level of the trunk from the matrix of
the analysis, in other words the points whose Cartesian coordinate at a height ( ) satisfy: y<-
Table 1. Vegetative parameters of vines computed from LIDAR data.
Parameter Formulae
1
Notation
Tree Height ( )
(m)
is the height of the LIDAR above
the ground (m) and (m) and (rad)
are the polar coordinates of the cell
( ).
Cross-sectional
Area ( ) (m
2
)
This is the cross section along the
plane, where is the polar distance
(m), is the angle increment (rad)
and is the radial increment (m).
Canopy Volume
( ) (m
3
)
This is the sum of the unit volumes
from each scan, where is the cross-
sectional area of each scan , A is
the width (mm) of a scan, and the
number of scans carried out.
Tree Area
Index ( )
(dimensionless)
Using Beers law to model probability
of the laser beams transmission within
vines, the index is formulated as
the ratio between crop detected area
by LIDAR and the ground area. (m)
is the distance between rows.
1
In all the formulae, the presence or absence of foliage in each cell was indicated by the
function where its value is taken as =1 when the coeffcient A / is greater or equal
to 0.01, and its value is =0 when the coeffcient was less than 0.01 (Walklate 2002).
The relationship between the Leaf Area Index (LAI) and the LIDAR parameters was
evaluated by regression analysis according to linear models of the following type:

LIDAR LAI + =
1 0
(2)

here LAI is the Leaf Area Index (m
2
/m
2
), LIDAR the considered vegetative parameter
Table 1. Vegetative parameters of vines computed from LIDAR data
Parameter tion
w
(expressed in the corresponding units) and
0
and
1
are the model's coefficients obtained by
the method of least squares.

Formulae Nota
Tree Height
(H) (m)
r sin
+ =
k j k j g
H H
2
,
max
H
g
is the heigh AR above the t of the LID
ground (m) and r
j
(m) and
k
(rad) are the
polar coordinates of the cell (k, j).
Cross-sectional
Area (A) (m
2
)
j k
K
k
J
j
j
k
r r A
,
1 1

= =
=
This is the cross section along the Oxy
plane, where r
j
is the polar distance (m),
is the angle increment (rad) and r is
the radial increment (m).
Canopy Volume
(V
D
) (m
3
)
=
=
N
i
i D
A
z
V
1
1000

This is the sum of the unit volumes from
each scan, where A
i
is the cross-sectional
area of each scan i, z is the width (mm)
of a scan, and N the number of scans
carried out.
Tree Area Index
(dim
(TAI)
ensionless)
= =

=
K
k
J
j
j k
j k
j k j
k
n
n
r
W
TAI
1 1
,
,
,
1 ln

law to model probability of Using Beers
the laser beam's transmission within
vines, the TAI index is formulated as the
ratio between crop detected area by
LIDAR and the ground area. W (m) is the
distance between rows.

j k,
In all the formulae, the presence or absence of foliage in each cell wa n s indicated by the functio where its
value is taken as 1
,
=
j k
when the coefficient
j k j k
n n
, ,
/ is greater or equal to 0.01, an s value is d it
0
,
=
j k
when the ent was less than 0.01 (W ., 2002). coeffici alklate et al

Figure 3. Diagram of the scanning procedure over a length of crop vegetation using LIDAR (left), and
o are

esults
general, when the leaf area (LAI) of the vines increased, there was a proportional increase
in the values of the parameters obtained from LIDAR. However, the Tree Area Index (TAI)
LAI zone
LIDAR
left
right

1

2

3

4
1m
15 16 17
A
1 m
left
right

def liation sections 1, 2, 3 and 4 (1 m long each) of the LAI zone (right). Thus either eight values of the LAI
obtained when left and right row sides are considered separately, and four values when the row is considered as a
whole
R

In
5

LIDAR LAI + =
1 0
(2)

2
/m
2
Parameter tion
w
0
and
1

Formulae Nota
Tree Height
(H) (m)
r sin
+ =
k j k j g
H H
2
,
max
H
g
ground (m) and r
j
(m) and
k
(rad) are the
Cross-sectional
Area (A) (m
2
)
j k
K
k
J
j
j
k
r r A
,
1 1

= =
=
plane, where r
j
Canopy Volume
(V
D
) (m
3
)
=
=
N
i
i D
A
z
V
1
1000

each scan, where A
i
carried out.
Tree Area Index
(dim
(TAI)
ensionless)
= =

=
K
k
J
j
j k
j k
j k j
k
n
n
r
W
TAI
1 1
,
,
,
1 ln


j k,
value is taken as 1
,
=
j k
j k j k
n n
, ,
0
,
=
j k

o are

esults
LAI zone
LIDAR
left
right

1

2

3

4
1m
15 16 17
A
1 m
left
right

whole
R

In
5

LIDAR LAI + =
1 0
(2)

2
/m
2
Parameter tion
w
0
and
1

Formulae Nota
Tree Height
(H) (m)
r sin
+ =
k j k j g
H H
2
,
max
H
g
ground (m) and r
j
(m) and
k
(rad) are the
Cross-sectional
Area (A) (m
2
)
j k
K
k
J
j
j
k
r r A
,
1 1

= =
=
plane, where r
j
Canopy Volume
(V
D
) (m
3
)
=
=
N
i
i D
A
z
V
1
1000

each scan, where A
i
carried out.
Tree Area Index
(dim
(TAI)
ensionless)
= =

=
K
k
J
j
j k
j k
j k j
k
n
n
r
W
TAI
1 1
,
,
,
1 ln


j k,
value is taken as 1
,
=
j k
j k j k
n n
, ,
0
,
=
j k

o are

esults
LAI zone
LIDAR
left
right

1

2

3

4
1m
15 16 17
A
1 m
left
right

whole
R

In
5

LIDAR LAI + =
1 0
(2)

2
/m
2
Parameter tion
w
0
and
1

Formulae Nota
Tree Height
(H) (m)
r sin
+ =
k j k j g
H H
2
,
max
H
g
ground (m) and r
j
(m) and
k
(rad) are the
Cross-sectional
Area (A) (m
2
)
j k
K
k
J
j
j
k
r r A
,
1 1

= =
=
plane, where r
j
Canopy Volume
(V
D
) (m
3
)
=
=
N
i
i D
A
z
V
1
1000

each scan, where A
i
carried out.
Tree Area Index
(dim
(TAI)
ensionless)
= =

=
K
k
J
j
j k
j k
j k j
k
n
n
r
W
TAI
1 1
,
,
,
1 ln


j k,
value is taken as 1
,
=
j k
j k j k
n n
, ,
0
,
=
j k

o are

esults
LAI zone
LIDAR
left
right

1

2

3

4
1m
15 16 17
A
1 m
left
right

whole
R

In
5
Field trials
The feld trials were carried out in a vineyard feld (Merlot) in Raimat (Lleida, Spain). They were
carried out in four trials at four different growth stages of the vines. In each trial a 4 m long section
of row (LAI zone) was scanned (three consecutive grapevines) which were subsequently defoliated
manually following the diagram of the sections shown in Figure 3. In this way the Leaf Area Index
(LAI) was determined for 1 m, 2 m and 4 m long sections of the crop. LAI was calculated for
both the left and right side of the row separately and as an average over the total row width. The
LAI zone (Figure 3) was scanned twice with the LIDAR on each side of the row, at a speed of
approximately 1 km/h, with the LIDAR at 1.60 m above ground level, and so a total of 4 readings
per row length were obtained (two readings on each side).
The relationship between the Leaf Area Index (LAI) and the LIDAR parameters was evaluated by
regression analysis according to linear models of the following type:
LAI =
0
+
1
LIDAR (2)
where LAI is the Leaf Area Index (m
2
/m
2
), LIDAR the considered vegetative parameter (expressed
in the corresponding units) and
0
and
1
are the models coeffcients obtained by the method of
least squares.
Results
In general, when the leaf area (LAI) of the vines increased, there was a proportional increase in
the values of the parameters obtained from LIDAR. However, the Tree Area Index (TAI) was the
parameter that showed the greatest ability to predict the LAI. Specifcally, with defoliation areas
of 1 m, the TAI parameter was able to explain 91.88% of the variability of the Leaf Area Index,
compared with 80.54% that was explained by the Canopy Volume (V
D
) (Figure 4). Both regression
models estimate the LAI of the total width of the row, i.e. regardless of the side of the row from
which the LIDAR reading is made.
In a second analysis, four additional regression models were obtained with the aim of investigating
the relationship between leaf area of each half of the row-width (or partial LAI) and the LIDAR
parameters obtained using readings from the corresponding side of the row (Figure 5). By
considering the LAI of the right and left sides of the row separately, a greater number of data was
handled (32 LAI values and 64 values of each LIDAR parameter). Once again, the canopy volume
(V
D
) (R
2
=0.7142) and the Tree Area Index (TAI) (R
2
=0.8282) were the parameters that showed the
3

defoliation sections 1, 2, 3 and 4 (1 m long each) of the LAI zone (right). Thus either eight values of the LAI are
whole

LAI zone
LIDAR
left
right

1

2

3

4
1m
15 16 17
A
1 m
left
right
Figure 3. Diagram of the scanning procedure over a length of crop vegetation using LIDAR (left),
and defoliation sections 1, 2, 3 and 4 (1 m long each) of the LAI zone (right). Thus either eight
values of the LAI are obtained when left and right row sides are considered separately, and four
values when the row is considered as a whole.
4

Figure 4. Linear regression models for estimating the Leaf Area Index (LAI) in grapevine, using LIDAR
parameters obtained for 1 m long sections of crop vegetation

IAF = 2,179 H - 3,8104
R
2
= 0,6219
0,0
0,3
0,6
0,9
1,2
1,5
1,8
2,1
2,4
1,7 1,9 2,1 2,3 2,5 2,7
Altura de la vegetacin, H (m)
n
d
i
c
e

d
e

r
e
a

F
o
l
i
a
r
,

I
A
F
IAF = 1,8982 A - 0,1931
R
2
= 0,7217
0,0
0,3
0,6
0,9
1,2
1,5
1,8
2,1
2,4
0,0 0,3 0,6 0,9 1,2 1,5
rea transversal de las cepas, A
(m
2
)
n
d
i
c
e

d
e

r
e
a

F
o
l
i
a
r
,

I
A
F
IAF = 11,267 V
D
- 0,6685
R
2
= 0,8054
0,0
0,3
0,6
0,9
1,2
1,5
1,8
2,1
2,4
0 0,05 0,1 0,15 0,2 0,25
Volumen discretizado, V
D
(m
3
)
n
d
i
c
e

d
e

r
e
a

F
o
l
i
a
r
,

I
A
F
IAF = 1,3014 TAI - 0,2329
R
2
= 0,9188
0,0
0,3
0,6
0,9
1,2
1,5
1,8
2,1
2,4
0,0 0,5 1,0 1,5 2,0
Tree Area Index, TAI
n
d
i
c
e

d
e

r
e
a

F
o
l
i
a
r
,

I
A
F
Tree height, H (m)
Cross-sectional area, A (m
2
)
Canopy volume, V
D
(m
3
) Tree Area Index, TAI
LAI
LAI
LAI
LAI
LAI=2.179 H 3.8104
R
2
=0.6219
LAI=1.8982 A 0.1931
R
2
=0.7217
LAI=11.267 V
D
0.6685
R
2
=0.8054
LAI=1.3014 TAI 0.2329
R
2
=0.9188
2.4
2.1
1.8
1.5
1.2
0.9
0.6
0.3
0.0
2.4
2.1
1.8
1.5
1.2
0.9
0.6
0.3
0.0
2.4
2.1
1.8
1.5
1.2
0.9
0.6
0.3
0.0
2.4
2.1
1.8
1.5
1.2
0.9
0.6
0.3
0.0
1.7 1.9 2.1 2.3 2.5 2.7
0.0 0.3 0.6 0.9 1.2 1.5
0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0
0.0 0.05 0.10 0.15 0.20 0.25
Figure 4. Linear regression models for estimating the Leaf Area Index (LAI) in grapevine, using
LIDAR parameters obtained for 1 m long sections of crop vegetation.
5

Figure 5. Linear regression models for estimating the Leaf Area Index (LAI) for half of the width of a row (right
side or left side), using LIDAR parameters obtained for 1 m long sections of crop vegetation

IAF = 2,149 H - 3,7416
R
2
= 0,5366
0,0
0,3
0,6
0,9
1,2
1,5
1,8
2,1
2,4
1,7 1,9 2,1 2,3 2,5 2,7
Altura de la vegetacin, H (m)
n
d
i
c
e

d
e

r
e
a

F
o
l
i
a
r
,

I
A
F
IAF = 1,9279 A - 0,2149
R
2
= 0,6604
0,0
0,3
0,6
0,9
1,2
1,5
1,8
2,1
2,4
0,0 0,3 0,6 0,9 1,2 1,5
rea transversal de las cepas, A
(m
2
)
n
d
i
c
e

d
e

r
e
a

F
o
l
i
a
r
,

I
A
F
IAF = 11,264 V
D
- 0,6681
R
2
= 0,7142
0,0
0,3
0,6
0,9
1,2
1,5
1,8
2,1
2,4
0 0,1 0,2 0,3
Volumen discretizado, V
D
(m
3
)
n
d
i
c
e

d
e

r
e
a

F
o
l
i
a
r
,

I
A
F
IAF = 1,3118 TAI - 0,2444
R
2
= 0,8282
0,0
0,3
0,6
0,9
1,2
1,5
1,8
2,1
2,4
0,0 0,5 1,0 1,5 2,0
Tree Area Index. TAI
n
d
i
c
e

d
e

r
e
a

F
o
l
i
a
r
,

I
A
F
Tree height, H (m)
Cross-sectional area, A (m
2
)
Canopy volume, V
D
(m
3
)
Tree Area Index, TAI
LAI LAI
LAI
LAI
LAI=2.149 H - 3.7416
R
2
=0.5366
LAI=1.9279 A - 0.2149
R
2
=0.6604
LAI=11.264 V
D
- 0.6681
R
2
=0.7142
LAI=1.3118 TAI - 0.2444
R
2
=0.8282
2.4
2.1
1.8
1.5
1.2
0.9
0.6
0.3
0.0
2.4
2.1
1.8
1.5
1.2
0.9
0.6
0.3
0.0
2.4
2.1
1.8
1.5
1.2
0.9
0.6
0.3
0.0
2.4
2.1
1.8
1.5
1.2
0.9
0.6
0.3
0.0
1.7 1.9 2.1 2.3 2.5 2.7
0.0 0.3 0.6 0.9 1.2 1.5
0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 0.0 0.10 0.20 0.30
Figure 5. Linear regression models for estimating the Leaf Area Index (LAI) for half of the width
of a row (right side or left side), using LIDAR parameters obtained for 1 m long sections of
crop vegetation.
best estimation of the Leaf Area Index (LAI). On the other hand, the vine height (H) did not seem
to be a good option when estimating grapevine leaf area.
It was clear that the TAI showed itself to be a valuable parameter for estimating LAI. To bring
together one overall model that would be valid for both canopy sections of 1 m, 2 m and 4 m, and
also to estimate the total, or partial, leaf area of a row, the Leaf Area Index (LAI) could be estimated
with the following average equation:
LAI = 1.2646 * TAI 0.1935 (R
2
= 0.9986) (3)
which was obtained by regression analysis of the simulated LAI values (or ft LAI values) using the
two linear models shown in Figures 4 and 5, and the models for canopy sections of 2 m and 4 m.
Equation 3 has an obvious advantage because the Leaf Area Index of vines could be estimated from
the readings from scanning only one of the sides of the row. This feature is especially interesting
as it reduces the mapping and scanning time required for a feld.
Conclusions
LIDAR sensors detect canopy structure differences, and if adequate crop parameters are developed
from sensor data, it can estimate the foliage characteristics of grapevines. Therefore the study
shows that LIDAR sensor technology provides a feasible method for monitoring within-feld leaf
area variability.
References
Arn, J., Valls, J.M., Llorens, J., Blanco, R., Palacn, J., Sanz, R., Masip, J., Ribes-Dasi, M. and Rosell, J.R.,
2006. Ground laser scanner data analysis for Leaf Area Index (LAI) prediction in orchards and vineyards.
In: VDI Verlag (ed.) Book of Abstracts of the AgEng 2006 Conference. September 3-7, 2006. Bonn,
Germany, pp. 311-312.
Escol, A., Rosell, J.R., Massana, P., Planas, S., Gil, E., Val, L., Camp, F., Gracia, F., Solanelles, F., Llorens,
J. and Valls, J.M., 2005. Tree canopy volume measurement with ultrasonic sensors in fruit orchards,
vineyards and citrus groves. In: Gil, E., Solanelles, F., Escobar, C., Planas, S., Rosell, J.R. and Val, L.
(ed.) Book of Abstracts of the spray application techniques in fruit growing workshop. June 29-July 1,
2005. Barcelona, Spain, pp. 89-90.
Goutouly, J.P., Drissi, R., Forget, D. and Gaudillre, J.P., 2006. Characterization of vine vigour by ground
based NDVI measurements. In: Proceedings of the VI International Terroir Congress. Bordeaux, France,
pp. 237-241.
Johnson, L.F., Roczen, D.E., Youkhana, S.K., Nemani, R.R. and Bosch, D.F., 2003. Mapping vineyard leaf
area with multispectral satellite imagery. Computers and Electronics in Agriculture 38: 33-44.
Palacn, J., Pallej, T., Tresnchez, M., Sanz, R., Llorens, J., Ribes-Dasi, M., Masip, J., Arn, J., Escol, A.
and Rosell, J.R., 2007. Real-time tree-foliage surface estimation using a ground laser scanner. IEEE
Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement 56 (4): 1377-1383.
Sanz, R., Palacn, J., Sis, J.M., Ribes-Dasi, M., Masip, J., Arn, J., Llorens, J., Valls, J.M. and Rosell, J.R.,
2004. Advances in the measurement of structural characteristics of plants with a LIDAR scanner. In: Book
of Abstracts of the AgEng 2004 Conference. September 12-16, 2004. Leuven, Belgium, pp. 400-401.
Tisseyre, B., Mazzoni, C., Ardoin, N. and Clipet, C., 2001. Yield and harvest quality measurement in precision
viticulture Application for a selective vintage. In: Grenier, G. and Blackmore, S. (ed.) Proceedings of
the European Conference on Precision Agriculture. June 18-20, 2001. Montpellier, France, pp. 133-138.
Tumbo, S.D., Salyani, M., Whitney, J.D., Wheaton, T.A. and Miller, W.M., 2002. Investigation of laser and
ultrasonic ranging sensors for measurements of citrus canopy volume. Applied Engineering in Agriculture
18 (3): 367-372.
Walklate, P.J., Cross, J.V., Richardson, G.M., Murray, R.A. and Baker, D.E., 2002. Comparison of different
spray volume deposition models using LIDAR measurements of apple orchards. Biosystems Engineering
82 (3): 253-267.
Wei, J. and Salyani, M., 2004. Development of a laser scanner for measuring tree canopy characteristics: Phase
1. Prototype development. Transactions of the ASAE 47 (6): 2101-2107.
Wei, J. and Salyani, M., 2005. Development of a laser scanner for measuring tree canopy characteristics: Phase
2. Foliage density measurement. Transactions of the ASAE 48 (4): 1595-1601.
Zaman, Q.U. and Schumann, A.W., 2005. Performance of an ultrasonic tree volume measurement system in
commercial citrus groves. Precision Agriculture 6: 467-480.
Sensing tree canopy parameters in real time for precision
fructiculture/horticulture applications: methodology set-up
and frst results
A. Escol
1
, J. Arn
1
, R. Sanz
1
, F. Camp
2
, J. Masip
1
, F. Solanelles
2
, J.R. Rosell
1
and S. Planas
1
1
University of Lleida, Agroforestry Engineering Department, Av. Rovira Roure 191, 25198 Lleida,
Catalonia, Spain; Aescola@Eagrof.Udl.Cat
2
Generalitat de Catalunya, Dar - Centre De Mecanitzaci Agrria, Av. Rovira Roure 191, 25198
Lleida, Catalonia, Spain
Abstract
Lidar sensors are used in high resolution canopy characterization of fruit orchards. Tree height,
canopy shape, volume and cross-sectional area, foliar area and density can be estimated from
lidar data. Most of the procedures need multiple vertical scans to obtain statistically signifcant
information about trees or whole orchards. Therefore, this information is neither processed nor
used in real time. Recently, some work has been done on processing lidar data in real time to
implement variable rate technologies in fruit production taking into account intra-row canopy
variability. Canopy volume and foliage density or area can be used in real time dose adjustment
for plant protection products applications. In this paper, a methodology is described to assess the
foliar area contained in a single vertical lidar scanned silhouette and a statistical model is developed
to estimate it from lidar data in real time. First results are reported from measurements in a Pyrus
communis L. cv. Conference orchard. The initial step is to determine the leaves that intercept
the laser beam. Second step is to collect all the impacted leaves and the ones behind them within
the cross section. Leaf collection was performed dividing cross sections into two heights for each
full vertical scan, so each full scan consisted of 2 partial scans. Leaf area was determined in the
laboratory. The statistical analysis consisted in applying a linear multivariate regression model.
Two models were built, one for partial scans data set and another for full scans data set. In both
models foliar area contained in the profle had a statistically signifcant linear correlation with
canopy height and canopy half cross section (R
2
=0.77 for partial scans and R
2
=0.86 for complete
scans). Results allow orchard canopy characterization in real time and encourage implementation
of variable rate technologies in precision fructiculture/horticulture, especially in precision spraying
of plant protection products.
Keywords: lidar, foliage density, precision fructiculture/horticulture, orchards, real time
Introduction
Since ground based lidar sensors started to be used in crop canopy characterization (Walklate, 1989;
Walklate et al., 1997a,b; Wangler et al., 1993), many studies have been carried out to correlate its
measurements with already trusted methodologies. Focusing on fruit orchards, a properly positioned
lidar sensor provides vertical scans of the canopy. The silhouette of the canopy facing the sensor
can be obtained from each lidar scan. These measurements have been used to estimate canopy
height, cross-sectional area, canopy shape and volume, foliar area, foliage density and many other
geometric parameters (Sanz et al., 2004; Tumbo et al., 2001, 2002; Walklate et al., 1997a, 2000; Wei
and Salyani, 2004). Most of these methodologies are designed to log several vertical scans along
a representative row distance in the feld to be subsequently analysed to obtain useful information
about individual trees or about the whole orchard. Therefore, this information can only be used in
a non real time basis to build vegetation maps or to correlate it with other parameters to generate
useful recommendations mostly on dose adjustment in plant protection products application (Cross
et al., 2004; Cross and Walklate, 2008; Planas et al., 2006; Richardson et al., 2006; Sanz et al.,
2005; Walklate et al., 2002, 2003, 2006, 2007).
Recently, some work has been done on analysing and processing the lidar information in real time
to start implementing variable rate technology applications in fruit growing. A method is proposed
to estimate the foliage density of citrus canopies (Wei and Salyani, 2005). The authors build a ratio
with the area contained within the silhouette from lidar readings and the tree row plane (taking holes
in the canopy into account) and the area contained within a mathematically smoothed silhouette
(representing the outer boundary of the canopy including foliage and holes) and the tree row plane.
The authors named this ratio foliage density. This density was then used to adjust the airfow rate
of a sprayer in real time in order to maximize the deposit of plant protection products and minimize
the drift (Salyani et al., 2007).
In another work (Escol et al., 2007), lidar data were used to estimate single canopy half-cross-
sectional areas (contained within the lidar determined silhouette and the tree row plane) every 10 cm
along the row and the volume in-between. The process was performed in real time to immediately
adjust the sprayed fow rate of an air assisted sprayer in fruit crops. Even though results were
acceptable, dosing plant protection products could be more accurate taking into account not only
the canopy volume but also foliar area or foliar density.
Another approach is to determine canopy volume from lidar recordings and then to estimate the
foliar surface within that specifc volume (Palacn et al., 2007). To achieve this in real time, previous
calibration work in the feld has to be done measuring the foliar area of a known canopy volume
to ft a statistical model. The authors measured the foliar area of virtual canopy boxes with known
volumes in a previously scanned canopy. After removing the leaves and determining the foliar
area of each virtual box, a generic relation was established between canopy volume and foliar
area. Virtual boxes are reported to be 0.6 m height, 1 m width and about 4.5 m length therefore
the relationship between canopy volume and foliar area was determined by physically averaging
the foliar area contained in about 2.7 m
3
of vegetation. This methodology arises 2 questions: (1) is
foliar area only dependent on canopy volume? (2) Is it possible to measure foliar area variability
along the tree row using a calibration that just could belie it? The present research work tries to
answer these questions and to complement the work done by Palacn et al. (2007) by introducing
four variables in the statistical model to estimate foliar area and by only analyzing individual lidar
scans to take variability into account.
Objective
The objective of this paper was to design a methodology to assess the foliar area contained in a
single vertical lidar scanned cross section and to develop a statistical model to estimate it from lidar
information in real time. This information could be used to estimate foliage density of canopies
and its variability along tree rows for plant protection products application and other purposes.
Field trials were performed in a comercial Pyrus communis L. cv. Conference pear orchard
located in Gimenells (Catalonia, Spain; lat 41.657 N, long 0.392457 E, WGS84). The lidar used,
a LMS-200 (SICK AG, Waldkirch, Germany), is a general-purpose sensor and was confgured
to perform 181 measurements in a vertical plane with an angular resolution of 1 degree (Figure
1). Data acquisition was performed with a laptop through a RS-232 cable with specifc software
designed by the authors with LabVIEW (National Instruments, Austin, US).
The lidar, the laptop, a battery and the rest of the instrumentation was boarded onto a wheeled
platform with an attached mast to allocate the lidar in order to facilitate movements around the
orchard. The platform was stationed in the middle of an avenue in a manner that the lidar measuring
plane was perpendicular to the tree row plane. The distance from the lidar to the tree row plane was
written down for subsequent analysis and the readings of the sensor were acquired with the laptop.
To assess the foliar area contained in a single scan, a frst step was to precisely determine the leaves
that intercepted the laser beam. Since the wavelength of the laser is 905 nm, a camcorder with night
shoot option was used (Figure 1) to detect laser beam impacts on leaves in total dark conditions
(the trial started at 10:00 pm and fnished at 4:00 am).
Second step was to collect all leaves contained in the half cross section where the measurement
was being done. That half cross section was delimited by the outer silhouette of the canopy and
the tree row plane. To do this in a reliable manner, a Rugby 55 (Leica Geosystems AG, Heerbrugg,
Switzerland) rotary visible laser pointer was used (Figure 1). This device consists of a visible red
laser pointer which light is projected through a rotating mirror. The resulting effect is like drawing
a visible red line along the impact surface. The way to identify the leaves to be collected was by
overlapping the visible red line and the lidar impacts (only seen by means of the camcorder). Once
both lines overlapped, lidar impacts, visible pointer impacts and the measured cross section were
contained in the same plane and the outer leaves were clearly visible emphasizing the canopy
silhouette. The collection started by the spotted leaves (the outer ones). When every leaf was removed
the leaf behind became spotted and the collection continued until there was no red marked leaf from
the tree row plane to the alley. Leaves were collected and stored according to 2 different heights
per scan (above and under 170 cm) in order to estimate foliar area with 2 different approaches: (1)
using information of complete scans of the half cross section and (2) using information of partial
scans of the half cross section.

Figure 1. Instrumentation set-up with the lidar, the rotary laser pointer and the camcorder in
night shot operation mode (left) and variable description diagram (right).

0
250
500
750
1,000
1,250
1,500
1,750
2,000
2,250
2,500
2,750
3,000
3,250
3,500
3,750
4,000
0 250 500 750 1,000
C
a
n
o
p
y

h
e
i
g
h
t

(
m
m
)
Canopy width (mm)
Rotary
pointer
Lidar
Camcorder
Complete
scan
canopy
height
Lower
partial scan
half-cross-
sectional
area
Upper
partial
scan half-
cross-
sectional
area
Upper
partial scan
canopy
height
Lower
partial scan
canopy
height
Lidar scanned
silhouette
Figure 1. Instrumentation set-up with the lidar, the rotary laser pointer and the camcorder in
night shot operation mode (left) and variable description diagram (right).
Ten vertical complete scans were analyzed following this methodology. The result was ten lower
partial scans and nine upper partial scans (one scan had no foliage in the upper area). Leaf area
was assessed with a planimeter in the laboratory and was considered to be the dependant variable
in the statistical analysis. Several independent variables were estimated from lidar data for each
sample: half-cross-sectional area (area contained within the outer boundary and the tree row plane),
canopy height and perimeter of the silhouette (see Figure 1 for details).
The statistical analysis consisted of applying a linear multivariate regression model with a forward
stepwise selection method to avoid collinearity problems. Two models were built, one for the total
amount of 19 partial scans and another for the 10 complete vertical scans.
Results show a high variability between samples even though measurements were performed within
50 m along a single row (Table 1). Half-cross-sectional and foliar areas had the highest coeffcient
of variation. This variability in canopy parameters supports the implementation of variable rate
technologies in orchard management, especially in foliar application of plant protection products.
The statistical analysis for partial scans only took into account two independent variables: canopy
height and canopy half-cross-sectional area. The model is described in Equation 1:
F = 0.120 c + 0.047 h + 0.008 (1)
where F is foliar area in m
2
, c is partial half-cross-sectional area in m
2
and h is partial canopy
height in m.
The model explains 77.1% of the variability of foliar area in partial scans (R
2
=0.771) and the root
mean square error is 0.025 m
2
which represents 17.81% of the mean of response. The residual of
the predictions did not show structured data.
When analyzing complete scans, the same independent variables used in Equation 1 are taken into
account as described in Equation 2.
F = 0.103 C + 0.059 H 0.004 (2)
where F is foliar area in m
2
, C is complete half-cross-sectional area in m
2
and H is complete
canopy height in m. This model explains 86.2% of the variability of foliar area in complete scans
Table 1. Descriptive statistics of the results obtained from leaf samples (foliar area) and lidar
data for both complete and partial scan measurements.
Foliar area
(m
2
)
Half-cross-sectional
area (m
2
)
Silhouette
perimeter (m)
Canopy
height (m)
Complete
scans
(N=10)
Mean 0.27 0.95 11.36 2.89
Minimum 0.12 0.55 7.49 1.46
Maximum 0.40 1.67 14.85 3.71
Std deviation 0.08 0.40 2.90 0.75
Coef. of variation 31.63% 42.74% 25.55% 25.84%
Partial
scans
(N=19)
Mean 0.14 0.50 5.98 1.52
Minimum 0.05 0.19 2.35 0.80
Maximum 0.26 1.05 10.06 2.42
Std deviation 0.05 0.23 2.12 0.44
Coef. of variation 35.06% 46.06% 35.38% 28.62%
(R
2
=0.862) and the root mean square error is 0.035 m
2
which represents 13.34% of the mean of
response. The residual of the predictions did not show structured data.
The model ftted to complete scan measurements is more accurate than the one ftted to partial
scans. But both models describe the foliage area consistently with quite similar parameter estimates.
The variability not explained by the models may be caused by lack of accuracy in the trial but
mostly by other elements of the canopy such as trunks, branches and petioles not included in
foliar area values but able to generate laser rebounds to the sensor distorting the cross-sectional
area measurements. However, the models are accurate enough for a wide range of applications
using this information especially considering the promptness with which results are obtained.
Nevertheless, a lot of work has to be done in the feld to validate these models and see if they can
be generalized to other orchards.
Canopy volume and foliage density can also be estimated from predicted foliar surface in
combination with lidar data. If a representative width is given to the cross-sectional area, a canopy
volume can be related to each vertical scan along the row. Foliage density is the result of dividing
predicted foliar surface by canopy volume.
Conclusions
A methodology has been designed to accurately assess the foliar area contained in a single half
cross section with 2 different approaches, based on partial scans and based on full vertical scans
of the canopy. The procedure had to be performed under dark conditions in order to see the lidar
impacts on leaves and to easily identify the leaves to be collected.
The model ftted for the complete scan approach is more accurate in predicting the foliar area in a
half cross section (R
2
=0.862; RMSE=13.34% of the mean) than the partial scan predicting model
(R
2
=0.771; RMSE=17.81% of the mean). Both models are accurate enough for a wide range of
applications especially considering that results are obtained in real time. Even though, a lot of
work has to be done in the feld to validate these models and see if they can be generalized to other
orchards.
Results show that it is possible to predict foliar surface from lidar measurements in real time,
subsequently, calculation of foliage density, understood as the ratio between foliar surface and

Figure 2. Measured versus predicted foliar area for partial scan model (left) and complete scan
model (right). Horizontal dashed lines represent the mean value and dashed curved lines
represent 95% confidence interval.
0.00
0.05
0.10
0.15
0.20
0.25
0.30
A
c
t
u
a
l

F
o
l
i
a
r

a
r
e
a

(
s
q

m
)
0.00 0.05 0.10 0.15 0.20 0.25 0.30
Predicted Foliar area (sq m)
0.00
0.10
0.20
0.30
0.40
0.50
A
c
t
u
a
l

F
o
l
i
a
r

a
r
e
a

(
s
q

m
)
0.00 0.10 0.20 0.30 0.40 0.50
Predicted Foliar area (sq m)
Figure 2. Measured versus predicted foliar area for partial scan model (left) and complete
scan model (right). Horizontal dashed lines represent the mean value and dashed curved lines
represent 95% confdence interval.
canopy volume, is also possible. Both variables are important parameters in dose adjustment
of plant protection products but many other applications have to be considered such as canopy
characterization and orchard mapping in scientifc research in orchard irrigation, fertilization,
growth modelling, etc.
The results of this work encourage the research in and the implementation of variable rate
technologies in precision horticulture, especially in precision spraying of plant protection products.
Until now, research on variable rate real time dosing has been done by estimating canopy volumes.
The methodology developed will allow establish statistical models to dose plant protection products
according to foliar area or foliar density which may improve spray application effciency.
Acknowledgements
The authors wish to thank the Estaci Experimental de Lleida from the Institut de Recerca i
Tecnologia Agroalimentries for allowing the use of their orchards in Gimenells and Leica
Geosystems Spain for supplying the Rugby 55 rotational pointer.
This work has been funded by the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacin and by the European Regional
Development Fund (FEDER) in the framework of the project AGL2007-66093-C04-03/AGR.
References
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Environment (PACE): effcacy evaluations in UK apple orchards 2002-2003. Aspects of Applied Biology
71 (2): 287-294.
Cross, J.V. and Walklate, P.J., 2008. The UK PACE Scheme for Adjusting the Dose to Suit Apple Crops.
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article/view/1240/1097.
Escol, A., Camp, F., Solanelles, F., Llorens, J., Planas, S., Rosell, J.R., Grcia, F. and Gil, E., 2007. Variable
dose rate sprayer prototype for tree crops based on sensor measured canopy characteristics. In: Stafford, J.V.
(ed.) Precision Agriculture 07. Papers presented at the 6th European Conference on Precision Agriculture.
Wageningen Academic Publishers, Wageningen, Holanda, pp. 563-571.
Palacn, J., Pallej, T., Tresanchez, M., Sanz, R., Llorens, J., Ribes-Dasi, M., Masip, J., Arn, J., Escol, A.
and Rosell, J.R., 2007. Real-Time Tree-Foliage Surface Estimation Using a Ground Laser Scanner. IEEE
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Test of a high-end laser rangefnder scanner in agriculture
D. Ehlert, M. Heisig and R. Adamek
Leibniz-Institute for Agricultural Engineering Potsdam-Bornim (ATB), Germany;
dehlert@atb-potsdam.de
Abstract
In the last years laser rangefnder sensors have become in the focus of agricultural engineering
practice and research. In the feld of research, frst laser rangefnders were investigated in horticulture
and in agriculture. For vehicle-based determination of crop biomass, market available laser
rangefnders were analysed and tested to measure above-ground biomass in oilseed rape, winter
rye, winter wheat, oat, and grassland. The investigated laser rangefnder models did not fully meet
the specifc demands of agricultural feld and crop conditions. Therefore, based on literature and
own fndings, in a frst step newest available laser rangefnders were analysed to meet agricultural
demands. A new high-end laser rangefnder scanner (ibeo-ALASCA XT) was chosen. This device
was specifcally developed for drivers assistance and autonomous guiding of road vehicles.
This device was tested in 2008, focussing on the measuring properties in crop stands under feld
conditions. The sensor achieved very good results in repeatability of measurements. The standard
deviation for the measurements of refection height to characterise the crop height and density from
a stationary vehicle in winter wheat was less than 3 mm in low, medium and high biomass areas.
The low values refect in corresponding low coeffcients of variation less than 1%. The ground
speed of the vehicle, ranging from 6 to 24 km/h, did not infuence the readings signifcantly. For
measurements in front of tractors and self-propelled machines (feld sprayers, combine and forage
harvesters) the sensor has to scan the crop stands under different inclination angles. It is shown that
the inclination angle of the laser beam (varied from 10 to 80) infuences the readings signifcantly.
Higher inclination angles result in increased refection heights in crops. Therefore, measures are
necessary to avoid or compensate these phenomena.
Keywords: precision agriculture, crop production, sensor, refection height
Introduction
In precision agriculture, crop height, leaf cover, and biomass are important parameters for the
assessment of crop stands. Based on these parameters, expected crop yields can be appraised
and the amount of fertilisers and pesticides for site-specifc crop management can be optimised.
Moreover, during harvesting combines parameters as ground speed or the rotation speed of
functional units (rasp-bar cylinder, cutter head) can be adapted to crop conditions. Furthermore,
autonomous guidance of agricultural machinery along tramlines and crop edges are of great interest
to increase the machinery performance and to reduce the workload for the driver. For gathering
these parameters, suitable sensors are needed with high robustness and at low cost. In the past
years frst research was carried out to investigate the potential of laser rangefnders for measuring
physical properties of crop stands.
Market available laser rangefnder sensors use one of the following measuring principles: light
time-of-fight, phase modulation, interferometry and triangulation. In many cases, the frst three
principles are summarised as time-of-fight measurement. Triangulation sensors measure short
ranges (maximum a few meters) with high accuracy, while time-of-fight sensors are suitable for
both short and far ranges. Todays market available laser rangefnders are very different in prices
and performance parameters. Simple laser rangefnders cost less than 1000 and airborne high
end laser scanner systems are about up to one million Euros.
In agricultural engineering industry, laser rangefnders are already used on combine harvesters. The
company CLAAS offers the Laserpilot for the Lexion series to detect the edge of crop stands for
auto-guidance. This results in optimum cutting width and threshing performance. A similar solution
SmartSteer can be found on CX combine harvesters from Case-New Holland. However, these
laser rangefnder sensors are not able to detect specifc crop stand parameters like crop height, leaf
cover and biomass.
In the feld of agricultural engineering research, market available low cost laser rangefnders were
investigated in both horticulture and in agriculture. In horticulture Tumbo et al. (2002) measured
the canopy volume and structure in citrus. Walklate et al. (2002) compared different spray volume
deposition models using LIDAR measurements of apple orchards. Sanz et al. (2004) reported about
advances in the measurement of structural characteristics of plants (peach trees) with a LIDAR
scanner. Escola et al. (2007) investigated a variable dose rate sprayer prototype for tree crops based
on sensor measured characteristics.
In agriculture, Ehsani and Lang (2002) used a laser scanner to estimate the volume of geometric
objects with defned shape (cylinders) and of soybean plants under laboratory conditions. The aim
was to develop a method of measuring plant volume or biomass in order to monitor plant growth
rate in the feld at early growth stages. Quantitative relationships between laser scanner readings and
crop biomass were not presented. Thsink et al. (2004) made a frst test to measure the height of oat
plants. To calculate the crop height, the level of soil surface was discriminated from the distribution
of height classes. In a comparative study Kirk et al. (2004) estimated the canopy structure from
laser range measurements and computer vision. Ehlert et al. (2007) measured crop biomass density
by laser triangulation and time-of-fight principles in oilseed rape, winter rye, winter wheat and
grassland. Lenaerts et al. (2008) predicted crop plant density using LIDAR sensors.
Ehlert et al. (2007) assessed low cost laser rangefnders for vehicle-based crop biomass estimation.
For measuring ranges up to 2.50 m, high functional correlations were found between mean refection
height h
Rmean
(m) -calculated from measured refection range and sensor height- and fresh crop
biomass FMD (kg/m
2
). In oilseed rape, winter rye and winter wheat, the coeffcient of determination
for linear regression was more than 0.90 (R
2
>0.9). In grassland (pasture) the accuracy was lower.
In all literature cited from agriculture engineering research, the distance between the sensor and the
crop or soil was less then 3.5 m; and therefore, small strips were scanned. Agricultural spreaders and
sprayers have working widths up to 36 m. To ensure a high representativeness of measurements,
the scanned strip should be in an adequate relation. The same problem exists for scanning the area
in front of harvesters, because the crop biomass, crop stand edges or obstacles must be detected in
great distance to adapt the speed above ground, to navigate the harvester or to stop the machine in
time before contacting obstacles. To meet these demands, laser rangefnder sensors should measure
up to 20 m with high reliability.
Because vehicle based laser rangefnder measurements in crop stands for higher distances were
not investigated up to now, the objective of this paper was:
To analyse market available laser rangefnders.
To investigate the repeatability of crop measurements.
To assess the infuence of vehicle ground speed on the mean refection heights in crops.
To assess the infuence of the inclination angle on the mean refection height.
The laser rangefnder sensors used in previous scientifc investigations were assessed to measure crop
stand parameters for short ranges. From the point of view of the authors, these sensors did not fully
meet the demands to work on vehicles under feld conditions. Therefore, a prerequisite for testing
the potential of laser rangefnders in crop production was to fnd a suitable sensor model. Based
on an analysis of market available laser rangefnders, a laser scanner developed for automobile
driver assistance (ibeo ALASCA XT, Automobile Sensor GmbH, Hamburg, Germany) was
chosen (Figure 1).
The ALASCA laser scanner is an instrument based on LIDAR (LIght Detection And Ranging)
technology measuring the pulses time of fight. The built-in laser generates short rapid-fre
pulses, which are transmitted by a tilted rotating mirror. The intensity of the refected laser pulse
is recorded by a photo diode inside the scanner. If the intensity is below a threshold, the measured
value is discarded. The laser scanner transmits and analyses up to four echo pulses of different
target distances over a period of one measurement pulse. That means that from a single pulse up
to four individual echoes are recorded. Because of this the crop stand can potentially be measured
in the depth and interfering effects like raindrops or dust can be eliminated to a certain extent.
Furthermore, the sensor measures in four layers which have an angle of divergence of 0.8 with
respect to each other. The layers are arranged on top of each other. From this results a 44 matrix
according Table 1.
The sensor works with a rotation frequency of 12.5 Hz. From that result the following scan angular
resolutions: 0.125 for <16, 0.25 for =16 to 60, and 0.5 for =60 to 90.
Because the laser scanner is mounted on a vehicle, the measured range l
R
depends on the height of
the laser scanner h
S
above the ground and the inclination angle of the sensor. As shown in Figure
2, the measured range l
R
is not suitable to describe crop stands in a plausible manner. Therefore, the

Figure 1. Laser scanner ibeo ALASCA XT.
Figure 1. Laser scanner ibeo ALASCA XT.
Table 1. Layer-Echo-Matrix of the laser scanner ALASCA.
Layer
Echo pulse
1
st
2
nd
3
rd
4
th
4 Yellow channel (top) 4A 4B 4C 4D
3 Green channel 3A 3B 3C 3D
2 Blue channel 2A 2B 2C 2D
1 Red channel (bottom) 1A 1B 1C 1D
mean height of refection point h
R
was calculated to improve the interpretation of results. During
scanning the laser beam rotates in a plane. The sensor does not deliver the measured range l
R
and
the corresponding scanning angle (polar coordinates) but Cartesian coordinates x and y. X is the
coordinate of refection point related to the sensor axis (scanning angle = 0) and y is the lateral
distance of the refection point to the x-axis. The potential scanning width is determined by the
sensor hardware, the inclination angle and the sensor height h
S
. Furthermore, the scanning width
can be adopted according the measuring task by user software. In all investigations the readings of
all (four) layers and (four) echoes were used.
In a frst test series we checked the repeatability of readings in a winter wheat crop. For this purpose,
a tool carrier was positioned stationary at places with different crop biomass (low, medium, high)
along a tramline. The laser scanner was oriented sideways on the tool carrier (h
S
=2.96 m, =45,
scanning width y= 3 m). Under these conditions it was guaranteed that the laser beam always
scanned the same crop population. All individual readings were recorded. For each scan the mean
value was calculated on a PC. Furthermore, the standard deviation and the coeffcient of variation
of mean values were calculated.
In a second test series we investigated the infuence of ground speed on the readings. For this
purpose the laser scanner was mounted on a tractor with an inclination angle of =45 and sensor
height h
S
= 2.74 m. It was adjusted into the direction of tractor movement. We scanned a transect
(tramline) of about 700 m in a winter wheat feld (BBCH 75) with different ground speeds (6; 12;
18, and 24 km/h). To assess the infuence of ground speed, the sensor readings and the GPS position
along the transect were recorded for later analyses on PC.
In a third test series we investigated the infuence of the inclination angle on the mean refection
height. For this purpose, the laser scanner was mounted into driving direction on a tractor. A transect
(tramline) with a length of about 700 m in a winter wheat feld (BBCH 55 to 58) was sensed with
different inclination angles (10; 20; 30; 40; 50; 60; 70; 80), the sensor height was h
S
=2.74
m and the scanning width y = 0-1 m. A DGPS system was used for positioning. On the PC, the
transect was divided into segments of 10 m for more sophisticated analysis of the infuence of
inclination angle on mean refection height. The lag of the scanned area in relation to the tool
carrier, resulting from different inclination angles, was compensated by a specifc transformation
program for coordinates.

h
R
h
S Laser beam
Movement of the sensor
Laser range finder
l
R
h
R
h
S
h
R
h
S Laser beam
Movement of the sensor
Laser range finder
l
R

Figure 2. Measuring principle and parameters
for calculation of reflection height h
R
.
Figure 2. Measuring principle and parameters for calculation of refection height h
R
.
Results
The results for the repeatability of measurements are presented in Table 2. The standard deviation
for the measurement from the stationary vehicle in winter wheat was less than 3 mm for plots
with low, medium and high biomass. This low value refects in corresponding low coeffcients of
variation less than 1%.
A strip of 1.00 m width was taken into account for analysing the infuence of vehicle speed on the
mean refection height. The whole transect was divided in sub-transects with a length of 10 m each.
Based on regression calculations of the type y =a
1
x+a
0
for each of the resulting 68 sub-transects
the correlation of mean refection height was compared for all 10 combinations of vehicle ground
speeds (Table 3).
In the case of no infuence of the vehicle speed on the mean refection height, the slope a
1
of linear
function should be 1 with an intercept a
0
=0. The matrix in Table 3 expresses that there are differences
Table 2. Standard deviation and coeffcients of variation for measurements under the same
conditions (h
S
=2.96 m, =45, y= 3 m).
Crop biomass
(FM)
kg/m
2
Mean of
refection height
m
No. of
measurements
-
Standard
deviation
m
Coeffcient of
variation
%
0.80 (low) 0.40 57 0.0024 0.56
2.37 (medium) 0.61 54 0.0027 0.43
4.08 (high) 0.81 52 0.0019 0.24
Table 3. Parameters of regression lines for the relation between mean refection height and
ground speed of the vehicle (h
S
=2.74 m, =45, y=0-1 m).
y x 6 km/h
(1st run)
12 km/h 18 km/h 24 km/h 6 km/h
(2nd run)
6 km/h
(1
st
run)
a
1
(-) - 0.99 0.96 1.04 1.04
a
0
(m) - -0.01 0.01 -0.04 -0.05
R
2
(-) - 0.99 0.88 0.86 0.99
12 km/h a
1
[-] 1.00 - 0.96 1.05 1.05
a
0
[m] 0.01 - 0.02 -0.04 -0.04
R
2
[-] 0.99 - 0.87 0.87 0.98
18 km/h a
1
[-] 0.92 0.91 - 1.03 0.96
a
0
[m] 0.07 0.06 - -0.01 0.02
R
2
[-] 0.88 0.87 - 0.87 0.87
24 km/h a
1
[-] 0.82 0.82 0.85 - 0.87
a
0
[m] 0.12 0.11 0.09 - 0.07
R
2
[-] 0.86 0.87 0.87 - 0.88
6 km/h
(2
nd
run)
a
1
[-] 0.95 0.94 0.91 1.00 -
a
0
[m] 0.05 0.05 0.06 0.00 -
R
2
[-] 0.99 0.98 0.87 0.88 -
compared to the ideal conformity. But, because these differences are not very pronounced, a low
infuence of ground speed can be concluded. To confrm this result statistically, a Wilcoxon rank-sum
test was performed (Table 4). In the case of statistic signifcant differences the p-Value (probability
of a larger statistic under the null hypothesis) is less than 0.05. The test results clearly confrm that
there are no signifcant differences between the runs with different ground speeds.
To investigate the infuence of inclination angle on mean refection height, the mean values of
refection height h
R
for sub-transects within a width of 1.00 m along the whole transect are plotted
in Figure 3.
This fgure demonstrates that increased inclination angles generally result in higher readings for
mean refection heights. For a more sophisticated analysis of this phenomenon, all readings of the
runs along transect were compared. For this purpose, regression calculations of the type y =a
1
x+a
0
were performed for all 28 combinations of each inclination angles from 10 to 80. In the case
of no infuence of inclination angle on the mean refection height, the slope a
1
of linear function
should be 1 with an intercept a
0
=0. Signifcant differences compared to the ideal conformity were
observed (Figure 4).
Table 4. Differences of mean refection height and values (in brackets) for different ground
speeds (68 sub-transects) according Wilcoxon rank-sum test.
Speed 6 km/h

12 km/h 18 km/h 24 km/h

6 km/h (1
st
run) -
12 km/h -0.013 -
18 km/h -0.019 -0.006 -
24 km/h -0.015 -0.002 0.004 -
6 km/h

(2
nd
run) -0.023 -0.009 -0.003 -0.007
-value.

Figure 3. Mean reflection heights for inclination angles from 10 to 80 along transect.
Figure 3. Mean refection heights for inclination angles from 10 to 80 along transect.
In general these results show that increasing inclination angles cause signifcantly increased
refection heights h
R
. As an example, this is demonstrated in more detail in Figure 4. The left
diagram in Figure 4 shows the relationship of mean refection height for neighboured inclination
angles of 50and 60. For this combination, high R
2
=0.99, low a
0
=0.08 m, and slope a
1
=0.93
express similarity with the ideal line (dotted). In the case of very different inclination angles 10
and 80 (right diagram) the differences related to the ideal line (dotted) are essential, expressed by
low R
2
=0.69, high a
0
=0.60 m, and slope a
1
=0.71.
Under constant measuring conditions (constant inclination angle and identical crop stand) the laser
scanner achieved a high level of repeatability for each scan. In the case of low level of repeatability,
the laser rangefnder based measuring of crop parameters would have to be assessed negatively
(exclusion criterion). On the other hand, high repeatability only does not guarantee the suitability
of the sensor in crop production.
The independence of readings on the ground speed of vehicle is a further positive fact for suitability
of the laser rangefnder. That can be explained with the high ratio of light speed (about 300,000
km/s) to ground speed of basic vehicle in the range of a few m/s.
The dependency of readings to inclination angle is a problem that needs to be solved. In the case of
constant inclination angle, i.e. a fxed mounted laser rangefnder (not scanner) this problem will not
exist. Because the investigated sensor is a laser scanner type, the refection height would increase
in the outer parts of scanned strips. Further research work is necessary to fnd a compensation
algorithm for avoiding the overestimation of crop height in the outer parts of sensed crop strips.
Based on experience of the authors, for inclination angle more than 60 the inaccuracies increase
drastically. This is caused mainly by roll and pitch movements of the vehicle. Nevertheless,
the authors conclude that the laser rangefnder scanner has a high potential for representatively
measuring morphologic parameters in crop stands under feld conditions.
References
Ehlert, D., Adamek, R. and Horn, H.-J., 2007. Assessment of laser rangefnder principles for measuring crop
biomass. In Precision Agriculture 07: Proceedings of the 6
th
European Conference on Precision Agriculture,
Stafford, J.V., Ed.; Wageningen Academic Publishers: NL, 2007; pp. 317-324.
Ehsani, R. and Lang, L., 2002. A sensor for rapid estimation of plant biomass. In: Proceedings of the 6
th

International Conference on Precision Agriculture, Bloomington, MN, pp. 950-957.

Figure 4. Examples for correlation of mean reflection height for different inclination angles.
Figure 4. Examples for correlation of mean refection height for different inclination angles.
Escola, A., Camp, F., Solanelles, F., Llorens, J., Planas, S., Rossell, J.R., Grcia, F. and Gill, E., 2007. Variable
dose rate sprayer prototype for tree crops based on sensor measured characteristics. In Precision Agriculture
07: Proceedings of the 6
th
European Conference on Precision Agriculture, Stafford, J.V., Ed.; Wageningen
Academic Publishers: NL, 2007; pp. 563-571.
Kirk, K., Thomson, A. and Anderson, H. J., 2004. Estimation of canopy structure from laser range measurements
and computer vision: A comparative study. International Conference on Agricultural Engineering, Leuven,
Belgium, Book of Abstracts, ISBN 90-76019-258, pp. 420-421.
Lenaerts, B., Craessaerts, G., De Baerdemaeker, J. and Saeys, W., 2008. Crop Stand Density Prediction using
LIDAR-Sensors. International Conference on Agricultural Engineering Hersonissos-Crete, Greece, OP 390.
Sanz, R., Palacn, J., Sis, J.M., Ribes-Dasi, M., Masip, J., Arn, J., Liorens, J., Valls, J.M. and Rossell,
J.R. 2004. Advances in the measurement of structural characteristics of plants with a LIDAR scanner. In
Proceedings of EurAgEng Conference, Leuven, Belgium, 2004; Paper 277.
Thsink, G., Preckwinkel, J., Linz, A., Ruckelshausen, A. and Marquering, J., 2004. Optoelektronisches
Sensorsystem zur Messung der Pfanzenbestandesdichte. [Optoelectronic sensor system for crop density
measurement]. 59 Landtechnik, 2, 78-79.
ultrasonic ranging sensors for measurements of citrus canopy volume. Appl. Eng. Agric. 18, 367-372.
Walklate, P., Cross, J., Richardson, G., Murray, R. and Baker, D., 2002. Comparison of different spray volume
deposition models using Lidar measurements of apple orchards. Biosyst. Eng. 82, 253-267.
Section 3
Plant disease
Determination of head blight on ears of winter wheat by
means of hyperspectral and chlorophyll fuorescence image
analysis
E. Bauriegel
1
, H. Beuche
1
, K.-H. Dammer
1
, A. Giebel
1
, W.B. Herppich
1
, J. Intre
1
and B.
Rodemann
2
1
Leibniz Institute for Agricultural Engineering Potsdam-Bornim, Max-Eyth-Allee 100, D-14469
Potsdam, Germany; ebauriegel@atb-potsdam.de
2
Federal Research Centre for Cultivated Plants Julius Khn-Institut, Messeweg 11/12, D-38104
Braunschweig, Germany
Abstract
New regulations for critical values of the Fusarium toxins in cereals and cereal products have
been implemented in the European Union since 2005. For selective mycotoxin analyses of cereals
information about the status of infestation in the feld would be helpful. Therefore, early detection
of disease symptoms directly on the ears together with the corresponding geographic position will
become highly important for selective harvest. In this project various digital imaging methods were
tested for their ability to detect head blight disease on winter wheat. For hyperspectral imaging
a laboratory system was developed. Time series of images of healthy and artifcially Fusarium-
infected ears were recorded within the wavelength range of 400 nm to 1000 nm. The image analysis
software ENVI was applied to defne disease specifc spectral signatures. Applying Spectral Angle
Mapper as an appropriate method for classifcation healthy and diseased ear tissue could be clearly
distinguished. Simultaneous to hyperspectral imaging chlorophyll fuorescence imaging of healthy
and Fusarium-infected ears, and visual rating of the degree of infection was performed. Using the
FluorCam 690 MF the photosynthetic effciency was measured to determine the effect of disease
on photosynthesis. A decrease of photosynthetic effciency of diseased compared to healthy ears
was observed between six and eleven days after artifcial inoculation. The severity of disease
symptoms was correlated with the photosynthetic effciency. Chlorophyll image analysis reliably
detects diseased ears at a limit of 5%. A differentiation of 10% steps up to 10% severity of disease
degree succeeded. Hyperspectral image analyses very exactly detect head blight after 7 days after
inoculation up to a degree of disease of 50%. The result strongly depends on the quality of chosen
region of interests (ROI). From the beginning of ripening (growth stage 81) the possibility to
distinguish between healthy and diseased ears is very limited with the evaluated methods.
Keywords: discrimination, early recognition, Fusarium culmorum, photosynthetic effciency,
sensors
Introduction
Many species of the Fusarium-fungus can cause head blight on wheat (Edwards et al., 2001, Schlter
et al., 2006), which leads to crop loss and to contamination of the reaped grains with mycotoxins
(trichothecenes), mainly deoxynivalenol (DON) and 3-acetyl DON (3-ADON) (Miedaner et al.,
2003). Since June 2005 new ordinances have been brought into effect for limiting values for the
Fusarium toxins deoxynivalenol, zearalenon and fumonisin in grains and cereal products within
the European Union (Ordinance (EG) Nr. 856/2005 in the European Union, June 2005). To enforce
this directive for controlling the critical values of the Fusarium toxins, efforts are made to consider
existent methods and to develop better sensors for checking the mycotoxin using new technical
know how. An automatic identifcation of head blight on wheat ears would be a frst step towards
a directed exclusion of affected feld areas.
In conventional agriculture the wheat plants can be treated only preventively against a Fusarium
infection until close to the start of bloom. Whether feld areas are really affected can be estimated
with time consuming and expensive pre- and post-harvest laboratory tests (serological rapid tests,
Fast-DON-ELISA-test, counting method; Thate et al., 2008). Thus, the ability to identify the disease
right in the feld using less complex methods would allow the farmers to harvest healthy grain in
the future. Storage of contaminated lots of grain could be prevented, and fnally, consumers and
producers of feeding stuff could beneft from receiving less toxin-burdened grain.
Image analysis methods are suitable for the identifcation of diseases in the feld, because they
can rapidly, effectively and contactlessly determine the (externally visible) state of health of the
plants. For instance, spectral measurement systems are used to diagnose viral infections (Polischuk
et al., 1997) and to identify temporal and spatial variabilities of crop canopies (Zbell, 2007).
Hyperspectral imaging has already been used to detect fungal based grain diseases (Franke et al.,
2005; Lorenzen and Jensen, 1989; Muhammed and Larsolle, 2003). Furthermore, Bravo et al.
(2004) could fnally improve the discrimination of yellow rust on winter wheat to an accuracy of
94-95% by the combination of chlorophyll fuorescence and hyperspectral refection measurement.
On the other hand, chlorophyll fuorescence analysis does not only measure the externally visible
effects on diseased plants. Instead it provides comprehensive information about the potential and
the actual activity of photosynthesis (Von Willert et al., 1995), which is often considerably reduced
in stressed or affected plants. Thus, symptoms of a disease can be detected with this method at a
very early stage. Nowadays, the chlorophyll fuorescence analysis has already been universally
applied, for instance for the evaluation of the vitality of plant tissues (Herppich, 2002; Herppich
et al., 2001; Forstreuter et al., 2006), diseases like rust leaf on cereals (Kuckenberg et al., 2007)
or the affection by the tobacco mosaic virus (Daley, 1995).
Therefore, both methods seem to be predestined for the detection of head blight. In a laboratory
experiment these two imaging methods were compared to fnd out which one detects head blight
earliest. Furthermore, several questions should be answered. (1) How exactly and in what time frame
can head blight be detected generally? (2) Are there differences in the accuracy of the detection
with different degrees of disease?
Materials and experimental design
In eight pots (18x18 cm) 16 grains per pot (four control pots and four infected pots, respectively)
were sown and after germination wheat plants (cultivar Taifun) were cultivated in green house.
Plants were inoculated with a germ mixture of the phylum Fusarium culmorum at a spore-density
of 250,000 spores per ml

on three successive days after beginning of blooming. To guarantee the
spread of germs plants were kept at 202 C, high humidity (70%) and an illumination period of
12 hours (high-pressure sodium-vapour lamps, SON-T Plus 400 W, Philips GmbH, Hamburg,
Germany). Measurements started immediately after inoculation.
Rating of the laboratory plants were performed three times a week. Developmental stages of ears
were graded according to the BBCH scale, the percental affection of the ears was estimated according
to Walter et al. (2000). All measurements were performed on whole-plant level.
Chlorophyll fuorescence imaging
Chlorophyll fuorescence imaging was performed with a modular system (FluorCAM 640MF, PSI,
Brno, Czech Republic) measuring sequences of fuorescence images with an user-defned timing
of set points, measurements intervals and irradiance (Nedbal et al., 2000a; Herppich 2001, 2002).
Basic fuorescence F
0
was induced by two sets of 345 super-bright orange light emitting diodes
(
max
= 620 nm). Photosynthesis was driven by continuous actinic irradiation provided by the LED
panels. Maximum fuorescence (F
m
) was measured by short-term (1 s) closure of photosystem II
as induced by saturation light pulses (max. 2,500 mol photons/m
2
/s) generated by a electronic
shutter-equipped halogen lamp (250 W). The ratio F
v
/F
m
(F
v
= F
m
F
0
= variable fuorescence)
is an indicator of the potential maximum photochemical effciency, and, thus, a valuable tool to
determine both capacity and stability of photosynthesis (von Willert et al., 1995). A CCD camera
with a F1.2/2.8-6 mm objective and a short-pass flter recorded fuorescence images (12-bit, 512x512
pixel; maximal frequency 50 images/s) synchronously with the weak, non-actinic measuring-light
pulses. The system was controlled by the FluorCam 6 software (PSI, Brno, Czech Republic). All
measurements were performed on dark-adapted plants (6 ears per treatment) before the start of
the artifcial lighting.
Hyperspectral imaging
The laboratory hyperspectral imaging device recorded refection spectra in a wavelength range
of 400 to 1000 nm with a spectral resolution of 2.5 nm. The system comprises the spectrograph
(ImSpector V10E, Spectral Imaging Ltd., Oulu, Finland), the b/w camera (Pixelfy qe, PCO AG,
Kelheim, Germany), an accessory rotating mirror with microstep motor and the software HyBiS
1.0. The hyperspectral camera stores the spectra of all pixels of an image line by line. HyBiS 1.0,
developed under LabView 8.2 (National Instruments Corporation, Austin, USA), is used to control
the camera system, for data pre-processing, including the black/white calibration of the spectra and
was. The samples were illuminated with a stabilised halogen lamp of 150W. The same six ears per
variant used for chlorophyll fuorescence analysis were also examined by hyperspectral imaging
with a time lag of approximately two days during a period of three weeks.
Data analysis
The classifcation of diseased and healthy areas was performed with the evaluation software ENVI
(Research Systems Inc., Boulder, CO, USA) by means of monitored classifcations in the evaluation
algorithm spectral angle mapper. For this purpose regions of interests (ROIs) were established as
the bases for the classifcation according to the two classes diseased and healthy. After classifcation
the relative portions of pixels per image belonging to the healthy, diseased and unclassifed object
classes were determined.
Results
Table 1 gives an overview over the development of diseased plants regarding days after inoculation
(dai), BBCH state and degree of disease. First symptoms appears in the BBCH state 71/75, frst
ripening symptoms developed in the BBCH state 81.
Chlorophyll fuorescence imaging
Ears with a degree of disease between 2 and 100% were evaluated. Under optimal conditions the
maximum F
v
/F
m
value of healthy, intact plant parts may be 0.84. Fluorescence imaging very well
Table 1. Development of plants and disease symptoms of head blight.
dai 5 7 9 11 14 16 18 21 23 25
BBCH state 65/71 71/75 75 75/77 77/79 79/81 79/81 81/85 85 89
Rating in % (n=6) 0 3 5 6 9 16 19 60 82 90
distinguished between diseased and healthy tissue areas at the stage BBCH 75 (medium milk). In
very weakly diseased ears (2%) values of photosynthetic effciency concentrated in high effciency
classes (Figure 1A), in stronger diseased ears (50%) the distribution of F
v
/F
m
broadened (Figure
1B) due to the coexistence of both healthy and diseased tissues. As expected, the distribution
of values of photosynthetic effciency of control plants and very weakly diseased ears is nearly
identical (Figures 1A).
For a further evaluation and derivation of the degree of disease all F
v
/F
m
-values were cumulated
and classifed into classes (step size 0.05) and cumulatively depicted in the graph (Figure 2). 80% of
the F
v
/F
m
values of weakly diseased ears (2-3% affection) concentrated in the high photosynthesis
effciency classes (>0.6), only few could be found in the lower-effciency classes. In contrast, in
strongly diseased ears cumulated F
v
/F
m
values obtained only low effciency classes (<0.3). In
moderately diseased ears (40-60%), comprising both photosynthetically active and inactive areas,
approximately 40% of all cumulative F
v
/F
m
values accumulated in low effciency classes (<0.3).

Figure 1: Pixel distribution of the maximum photochemical efficacy (F
v
/F
m
) of weakly (2 %)
(A) and strongly diseased (50 %) wheat ears (B).

0
0.001
0.002
0.003
0.004
0.005
0.006
0.007
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9
F
v
/F
m
-value
A
m
o
u
n
t

i
n

%
diseased
control plant
(B)
0
0.001
0.002
0.003
0.004
0.005
0.006
0.007
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9
F
v
/F
m
-value
A
m
o
u
n
t

i
n

%
diseased
control plant
(A)
0
0.001
0.002
0.003
0.004
0.005
0.006
0.007
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9
F
v
/F
m
-value
A
m
o
u
n
t

i
n

%
diseased
control plant
(B)
0
0.001
0.002
0.003
0.004
0.005
0.006
0.007
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9
F
v
/F
m
-value
A
m
o
u
n
t

i
n

%
diseased
control plant
(A)
Figure 1. Pixel distribution of the maximum photochemical effcacy (F
v
/F
m
) of weakly (2%) (A)
and strongly diseased (50%) wheat ears (B).

0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35 0.4 0.45 0.5 0.55 0.6 0.65 0.7 0.75 0.8
Class groups of F
v
/F
m
C
u
m
u
l
a
t
i
v
e

p
e
r
c
e
n
t
a
g
e

o
f

F

v

/
F
m

i
n

%
2%
3%
10%
40%
50%
60%
90%
100%

Figure 2: Differentiation of the degrees of infection: cumulative percentage of F
v
/F
m
-values
(%) of ears, diseased to a different degree (3-100%, per degree n=3).

Figure 2. Differentiation of the degrees of infection: cumulative percentage of F
v
/F
m
-values (%)
of ears, diseased to a different degree (3-100%, per degree n=3).
Hence, an effciency value of 0.3 seems to be a relevant threshold to differentiate diseased and
healthy ears.
The cumulative photosynthetic effciency overlapped in the disease classes 2% and 10%. This
means that results from visual rating and chlorophyll fuorescence were not completely identical.
This may be due to the high subjectivity of visually rating of the degree of disease. The scale
applied has a step size of 10%; therefore the absolute rating error would be 10% in the worst case.
Methodological problems with the FluorCam measurements could not be entirely excluded but can
be largely minimised by proper handling of the system. As chlorophyll fuorescence measurements
are susceptible to changes in irradiation intensity, complete illumination of the object is essential.
However, poorly observable marginal areas at the border area of the ROIs can be excluded from
further data analysis.
In a time series study starting one day after inoculation weakly (Figure 3A) and strongly infected
ears (Figure 3B) could easily be differentiated by analysing the accumulation of F
v
/F
m
-in the
classes with values below 0.3. With chlorophyll image analysis it was possible to reliably detect
diseased ears from a degree of disease of 5% on (Figure 3B). The cumulative proportion of low
effciency classes was found 3% above the control value even at the frst day of measurement and
rose to 10% within one week. Up to a degree of disease of 4% F
v
/F
m
of diseased and control ears
did not differ. Even with a degree of disease of 10% plants showed only minor visible symptoms of
head blight after one week. Despite the high detection limit of the degree of disease of 5% and the
need to eliminate inaccuracies of measurement two measurement dates (6
th
and 11
th
day) yielded
a reliable determination of the disease.
Hyperspectral measurement
For analysis of the hyperspectral images the SAM classifcation algorithm was chosen because it
is insusceptible to variations of illumination. The classifcation results of the degrees of disease
obtained from hyperspectral imaging nicely corresponded to those of the visual rating (Figure 4).
In the initial 14 days after inoculation (dai) the classifcation results were slightly higher than the
rated degrees of disease; from the beginning of the ripening 16 dai they were slightly lower. The ear
damages rated in the initial phase (up to 3%) were not based on head blight but refect developmental
disorders like barren middle ears or tips. Those damages were classifed as diseased by hyperspectral
imaging. Head blight was also very well separated from the healthy class after ripening has begun
(from BBCH 81). Pixels, which previously were classifed as healthy, remain unclassifed now.

Figure 3: Cumulative percentage of F
v
/F
m
values larger than 0.3 of controls (line) and
diseased plants (squares) and the degree of disease (%, triangles) with weakly (A) and with
strongly infected ears (B).

(A)
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Days after inoculation
C
u
m
.

p
e
r
c
e
n
t
a
g
e

o
f

F
v

/
F
m

<

0
,
3

i
n

%
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
D
i
s
e
a
s
e

o
f

d
e
g
r
e
e

i
n

%
control plant (mean)
Fv/Fm
disease degree in %
F
v
/F
m
(B)
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
C
u
m
.

p
e
r
c
e
n
t
a
g
e

o
f

F
v
/
F
m

<

0
,
3

i
n

%
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
D
i
s
e
a
s
e

o
f

d
e
g
r
e
e

i
n

%
(A)
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
C
u
m
.

p
e
r
c
e
n
t
a
g
e

o
f

F
v

/
F
m

<

0
,
3

i
n

%
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
D
i
s
e
a
s
e

o
f

d
e
g
r
e
e

i
n

%
control plant (mean)
Fv/Fm
disease degree in %
F
v
/F
m
(B)
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
C
u
m
.

p
e
r
c
e
n
t
a
g
e

o
f

F
v
/
F
m

<

0
,
3

i
n

%
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
D
i
s
e
a
s
e

o
f

d
e
g
r
e
e

i
n

%
Figure 3. Cumulative percentage of F
v
/F
m
values larger than 0.3 of controls (line) and diseased
plants (squares) and the degree of disease (%, triangles) with weakly (A) and with strongly
infected ears (B).
Nine days after inoculation control plants (not shown) were 98% classifed as healthy and 94% 14
days after inoculation. The still adhering anthers and the damages caused by development were
classifed as diseased. This forms the basic burden of damages, which appeared independently
from head blight on the plants under indoor conditions. With further ripening there appeared more
areas of the ear, which remain unclassifed (4% 14 dai).
Diseased ears with head blight symptoms could be identifed using supervised classifcation with
the SAM algorithm up to BBCH-stage 75 (7 dai). Damages not caused by Fusarium were also
classifed as diseased. Both damages could not be distinguished. In the BBCH-stage 77 to79 it was
be possible to gain a good classifcation of ears being affected with head blight without additional
basic damages. The evaluation of the classifcation in advanced stages of development is not yet
fully completed.
Conclusion
After an infection it is possible to determine the disease on the 6
th
and 11
th
day after infection,
respectively, by chlorophyll fuorescence image analysis. Although only one measurement may
allow discriminating between healthy and suffciently affected diseased ears, we suggest two
measurement dates to reliably determine even low affections and to possibly exclude measuring
errors. Hyperspectral imaging and following supervised classifcation (SAM) can identify diseased
ears. The best period is in the BBCH-stage 77 to 79. The image analysing detection of head blight
can applied to determine diseased sections early and, depending on the severity, to harvest them
separately. From the beginning of ripening at the growth stage 81 on, there is an only very limited
possibility to distinguish between healthy and diseased ears with the evaluated methods.
Acknowledgement
This study is a part of the ProSenso.net
2
research project Sensor based technologies and integrated
assessment models in the food production chains, which is fnancially supported by the German
Federal Ministry of Education and research (BMBF 0339992).

0
5
10
15
20
25
30
5 7 9 11 14 16 18 21 23 25
P
r
o
p
o
r
t
i
o
n

o
f

d
i
s
e
a
s
e
d

c
l
a
s
s
i
f
i
e
d
p
i
x
e
l

i
n

%

(
m
e
a
n

o
f

6

e
a
r
s
)
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
R
a
t
i
n
g

i
n

%

(
m
e
a
n

o
f

6

e
a
r
s
)
diseased, classified in %
diseased, rating in %

Figure 4: Comparison of degree of head blight obtained by visual rating and classified from
hyperspectral images (means of 6 ears).

Figure 4. Comparison of degree of head blight obtained by visual rating and classifed from
hyperspectral images (means of 6 ears).
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Early detection of Puccinia triticina infection in susceptible
and resistant wheat cultivars by chlorophyll fuorescence
imaging technique
K. Brling, M. Hunsche and G. Noga
University of Bonn, INRES - Horticultural Science, Auf dem Hgel 6, D-53121 Bonn, Germany;
buerling@uni-bonn.de
Abstract
In modern agriculture, there is a demand for rapid and objective screening methods of pathogen
resistance of new cultivars. Using the pulse amplitude modulated (PAM) fuorescence-imaging
technique as a non-destructive method for such purposes we hypothesised, that not only disease
detection but also discrimination of wheat (Triticum aestivum) cultivars differing in their level
of resistance against the economically important leaf rust (Puccinia triticina) pathogen can be
accomplished. Experiments were done using the cultivars Dekan and Retro as representatives for
a susceptible and a highly resistant genotype, respectively. Spatial resolved PAM fuorescence
measurements were carried out daily in control and Puccinia triticina inoculated plants until the
frst small red-brown pustules appeared in the centre of chlorotic spots. In our observations, we
focused on the quantum yield of non-regulated energy dissipation in PSII (Y(NO)), which displayed
changes in the plant physiology after pathogen inoculation earlier. Moreover, the impact of physical
masking effect due to high spore density during the inoculation period was assayed. According to
our results, the parameter Y(NO), which showed a characteristic temporal dynamic in the resistant
and susceptible cultivars, might be used for discrimination of wheat genotypes at an early stage
of pathogen infection. Besides of the great potential of PAM-fuorescence-imaging technique as
an additional decision tool in breeding programs, further optimisation of the evaluation method
is required.
Keywords: PAM, screening, breeding, leaf rust, wheat
Introduction
In modern agriculture, the use of cultivars which are resistant against specifc stresses e.g. pathogen
infections is an integral component. As a part of breeding programs, the resistance of new cultivars
is tested over several years in feld experiments, requiring a high input of time and money (Schnabel
et al., 1998). Considering the great demand for a rapid and objective screening method for stress
resistance of new cultivars and the parallel development of non-invasive and non-destructive
technologies to determine the physiological status of living tissues, the question arises, whether
chlorophyll fuorescence imaging is suitable for such purposes. In the last years a number of
experiments were done regarding evaluation of plant resistance against different abiotic (Petkova
et al., 2007; Belkhodja et al., 1994; Schapendonk et al., 1989; Smillie and Hetherington, 1983) and
biotic stresses (Schnabel et al., 1998). Considering the latter, a particularity of pathogen attacks
is that in seldom cases whole leaves are affected at once (Lichtenthaler and Mieh, 1997). Thus,
an imaging fuorescence system may give more detailed and precise information in comparison to
point measurements. On this basis, differences in the response of susceptible and resistant barley
leaves showing well developed symptoms of powdery mildew have been described (Swarbrick et al.,
2006). Similarly Chaerle et al. (2007) assessed the plant-fungus interaction of Cercospora beticola
in sugar-beet cultivars differing in the level of resistance using an imaging setup of chlorophyll
fuorescence, thermal and video cameras.
In the past, numerous attempts have been made to develop screening methods for specifc plant-
pathogen interactions of cultivars differing in their level of resistance. However no comparative
studies have been conducted, yet, in exploring the potential of chlorophyll fuorescence imaging
technique for early detection of leaf rust and discrimination of wheat genotypes differing in their
level of resistance. Wheat is one of the three most cultivated corn species worldwide, and leaf rust
is one of its most common diseases. Our hypothesis therefore is that early detection of leaf rust
(Puccinia triticina) and also discrimination of wheat (Triticum aestivum) cultivars differing in
their level of resistance to this pathogen can be accomplished. Furthermore, in the literature there
is no information given on the impact of fungal spore suspension density on fuorescence imaging
readings; therefore the question needs to be addressed, if there is a physical masking effect due to
spore density, leading to false result interpretation. Therefore, we also investigated the physical
masking infuence of different Puccinia triticina spore densities on absolute and relative chlorophyll
fuorescence parameters.
Plant material
Seeds of winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L. emend. Fiori. et Paol.) of the cultivars Dekan (rust
susceptible) and Retro (rust resistant) were sown in pots (0.44 l) flled with perlite (5 seed per pot)
and fertilised every second day with a Hoagland nutrient solution. Plants were grown in a controlled-
environment cabinet under a 14/10 h (day/night) photoperiod (200 mol/m/s), temperature of 20/15
2 C, and relative humidity of 75/80 10%. Twenty days after sowing, when plants reached the
three-leaf stage, the youngest fully expanded leaf of one plant per pot was chosen for inoculation
with leaf rust.
Inoculation of Puccinia triticina
Undefned spore concentration: in this experiment an undefned high amount of Puccinia triticina
spores (multisporic inoculum) was applied with a fne-brush on a predefned area of horizontally
fxed leaves. Afterwards, an atomized spray (water) was produced above the leaves before placing
plants under a plastic cover in order to maintain a saturated relative humidity. After 24 h the visible
spore coat was removed carefully using water and fne-brush.
Defned spore concentration: in this experiment, single droplets of spore suspensions were applied
onto the wheat leaves. For optimising this inoculation method, a trial on the physical masking
infuence of different Puccinia triticina spore densities on absolute and relative chlorophyll
fuorescence parameters has been initiated. Spores of Puccinia triticina (multisporic inoculum)
were suspended in distilled water containing 0.01% (w/v) of Tween 20 (Merck-Schuchardt,
Hohenbrunn, Germany); the spore concentration was then estimated microscopically employing a
Fuchs-Rosenthal counting chamber. The suspension was subsequently diluted to the highest intended
concentration (1,000,000 spores/ml). Out of this suspension, dilutions of 1:25 (40,000), 1:50 (20,000)
and 1:75 (13,333) as well as 1:3 (330,000) and 1:9 (111,111) were prepared and immediately applied
onto wheat leaves. Here, two areas per leaf (n = 6 leaves) were marked with a felt-tip pen in the
middle of the adaxial leaf length, and within each of these zones a 6 l droplet of the accordant
spore solution or of distilled water including 0.01% Tween 20 (equates 0 spores per ml as control)
was gently deposited after an initial fuorescence measurement. In the following experiments on
the biological assessment of temporal fuorescence response to leaf rust, a concentration of 100,000
spores/ml was used. During the inoculation period of 24 h, plants were maintained in the climate
chamber under a plastic cover and at saturated relative humidity.
Fluorescence measurements and data processing
For detection of chlorophyll fuorescence, a pulse amplitude modulated (PAM) imaging chlorophyll
fuorometer (Walz, Effeltrich, Germany) was used. The light source for fuorescence excitation and
actinic illumination consists of 96 blue light emitting diodes (LEDs) at 470 nm. The fuorescence
images were captured with a mounted black and white CCD (1/3 chip with 640480 pixel) camera
which operated in a 10-bit-mode at 30 frames/sec. For protecting the CCD-chip from blue excitation
light, a 2 mm colour glass flter (RG 645 (Schott)) served as long-pass flter. The measurements
comprised the acquisition of the fast fuorescence kinetic parameters as well as the slow induction
kinetic parameters and were carried out daily till the frst small red-brown pustules appeared in the
centre of chlorotic spots. Measurements were carried out after 60 minutes dark-adaption of plants.
For evaluation of the physiological state of the leaves, the last of 17 images, captured 300 seconds
after starting actinic illumination was analysed by ImagingWin v2.21d (Walz, Effeltrich, Germany).
For that, localised changes in values of pictures of infected leaves were marked with circular
areas of interest (aoi). Corresponding aois were set in control leaves. Results of preliminary tests
indicated the parameter Y(NO) as the more appropriate for our studies since the highest contrast
between control and infected plants as well as between the two different cultivars was observed.
Y(NO) describes the quantum yield of non-regulated energy dissipation in PSII and is calculated
according to Kramer et al. (2004) by the equation:
Y(NO) = 1/(NPQ+1+qL(Fm/Fo-1)) (1).
Statistical analysis
The experimental data were subjected to ANOVA with the SPSS statistical package (SPSS Inc.,
Chicago, USA) version 15.0. Graphs (Mean SE) were designed with SigmaPlot 8.02 (Systat
Software Inc.).
Results
Undefned spore concentration
As observed during the visual evaluations of the pathogen development, the frst chlorotic spots
appeared 4 dai (days after infection) in both cultivars. In the susceptible cultivar Dekan the frst small
red-brown pustules appeared two days later (6 dai); these became larger and more distinct in the
following days. In the resistant cultivar Retro the chlorotic spots got larger and more conspicuous
(necrotic), and at the 7
th
dai a few pustules became apparent.
The chlorophyll fuorescence measurements were started 2 dai, when values of Y(NO) reached
a modifcation of 12.7% as compared to control measurements in leaves of Dekan, and 7.9% in
leaves of Retro (Figure 1). During the next days Y(NO) values of Dekan frst decreased to 10.1%
(3 dai), increased up to 11.3% (5 dai), and after a strong decrease down to 3.4% (6 dai) reached
21.5% at the end of the experiment. On the other hand, values of Retro increased up to 8.9% (with
respect to control) at 4 dai before a strong decrease to 4.1% at 5 dai, one day earlier than Dekan.
Six and 7 dai Y(NO) increased up to 12.6% and 19.6%, respectively.
Physical masking of fuorescence with Puccinia spores
Investigations on the physical masking effect of spore densities revealed that concentrations
of 1,000,000 and 40,000 spores/ml, respectively, have a signifcant infuence on the absolute
fuorescence parameters, such as Fm (Figure 2). At these levels of spore concentration, Fm was
reduced from 0.7 to 0.64 and 0.69 to 0.23 at 40,000 and 100,000 spores/ml, respectively. Similarly,
values of absorbtivity were lower at the highest spore concentration tested (data not shown).
At the lower densities of 20,000 and 13,333 spores/ml no signifcant effect could be observed. On
the other hand, the highest spore density (1,000,000 spores/ml) resulted in a signifcant increase
of Y(NO) values. Nevertheless, in all other treatments no signifcant difference between Y(NO)
values collected before and after droplet application was recorded.
In an additional experiment, the inoculum concentrations of 333,333 and 111,111 spores/ml, which
are in the range between the two highest levels of the previous experiment, were chosen. In both
cases, no physical masking infuence on Y(NO) was observed (data not shown). Nevertheless, the
decision for the highest spore concentration to be used in the experiment in order to assess the
biological response of plants was 100,000 spores/ml.
Biological assessment of leaf rust on susceptible and resistant cultivars
Evaluation of visual symptoms: On the cultivar Dekan the frst chlorotic spots became apparent
5 dai and got larger and more distinct during the next day. At 7
th
dai small red-brown pustules
appeared in the centre of these spots. On the cultivar Retro, frst chlorotic spots became apparent
one day later than in the susceptible cultivar (6 dai), and got larger and more distinct within the next
24 h (necrotic). In both cases, symptom development was not homogeneous within all repetitions
of a treatment.
1
2 3 4 5 6 7
M
o
d
i
f
i
c
a
t
i
o
n

o
f

Y
(
N
O
)

[
%

o
f

c
o
n
t
r
o
l
]
-5
0
5
10
15
20
25
Dekan
Retro
Days after inoculation [dai]

Figure 1: Modification of the quantum yield of non-regulated energy dissipation in PSII
(Y(NO), given as % of control) in leaves of the susceptible wheat cultivar Dekan and the
resistant wheat cultivar Retro inoculated with an undefined concentration of Puccinia triticina
spores, preliminary test (Mean SE).

Figure 1. Modifcation of the quantum yield of non-regulated energy dissipation in PSII (Y(NO),
given as % of control) in leaves of the susceptible wheat cultivar Dekan and the resistant wheat
cultivar Retro inoculated with an undefned concentration of spores, preliminary
test (Mean SE).
2

Spore density [s/mL]
F
m

[
r
e
l
.

u
n
i
t
s
]
before application
after application
0 13,333 20,000 40,000 1,000,000
0.0
0.2
0.6
0.8
0.4
1.0
Spore density [s/mL]
Y
(
N
O
)

[
r
e
l
.

u
n
i
t
s
]
before application
after application
1,000,000 0 13,333 20,000 40,000
0.0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6

Figure 2: Maximal fluorescence (Fm) (left) and quantum yield of non-regulated energy
dissipation in PSII (Y(NO)) (right) before and after application of wheat leaves with different
densities of Puccinia triticina spore suspension droplets. Measurements were done 1 h after
droplet application (Mean SE; n = 12).

Figure 2. Maximal fuorescence (Fm) (left) and quantum yield of non-regulated energy dissipation
in PSII (Y(NO)) (right) before and after application of wheat leaves with different densities of
spore suspension droplets. Measurements were done 1 h after droplet application
(Mean SE; n = 12).
Temporal assessment of Y(NO): Of all fuorescence parameters evaluated during plant-pathogen
interaction on wheat cultivars differing in their resistance level, the parameter Y(NO) proved to
be the most sensitive one. Already at the start of the measurements, two days after inoculation,
physiological changes in infected leaves could be observed on both susceptible and resistant cultivars
by means of Y(NO) (Figure 3). At that time, no visual symptoms were observed.
The resistant cultivar Retro revealed a tendency of increasing Y(NO) values within the period of
pre-visual symptom development. Compared to non-inoculated tissue, a modifcation of almost
4.3% as referred to values of healthy tissues was observed, which increased up to 8.8 during the
following 48h. At the end of measurement period, these values reached a level of 7.2 and 6.3%,
respectively, at 6
th
and 7
th
dai. In contrast, plants of the susceptible cultivar Dekan showed a
modifcation in Y(NO) of 15.5% 2 dai (with respect to control), which decreased down to 9.2% at
4 dai. Up to the 7
th
dai Y(NO) values increased and reached a level of modifcation of 14.8%, as
related to control (Figure 3).
Discussion
In the present study, the suitability of the imaging chlorophyll fuorescence method as an additional
tool for screening pathogen resistant wheat lines and cultivars was evaluated. The development
of the methodology included experiments on the physical masking effect of high spore densities
and the evaluation of selected fuorescence parameters during pathogen growth and development.
In our studies, spore densities of 1,000,000 and 40,000 spores/ml had a signifcant infuence on fast
fuorescence kinetic parameters, represented by the maximal fuorescence Fm (Figure 2). This is
attributed to a shielding effect caused by the high densities of spores which produce a flter effect
between chlorophyll and detection sensor. Analogous to that, Kuckenberg et al. (2009) described a
strong reduction of Fo and Fm concomitant with the appearance of pustules on the leaf surface of
wheat leaves; a shielding of plant tissues from excitation light was the most plausible explanation
for this sharp change of parameters.
Considering that parameters of the slow chlorophyll fuorescence kinetic are more sensitive in the
early detection of stress (Schreiber, 2004) we focused in all further experiments on the parameter
Y(NO), which yielded the best results in our preliminary tests. In the masking experiment the
highest applied spore density of 1,000,000 spores/ml caused a signifcant increase in values of
3

Days after inoculation (dai)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
M
o
d
i
f
i
c
a
t
i
o
n

o
f

Y
(
N
O
)

[
%

o
f

c
o
n
t
r
o
l
]
0
5
10
15
20
25
Dekan
Retro

Figure 3: Modification of the quantum yield of non-regulated energy dissipation in PSII
(Y(NO), given as % of control) in leaves of the susceptible wheat cultivar Dekan and the
resistant cultivar Retro inoculated with Puccinia triticina with concentration of 100,000
spores/mL (Mean SE).

Figure 3. Modifcation of the quantum yield of non-regulated energy dissipation in PSII (Y(NO),
given as % of control) in leaves of the susceptible wheat cultivar Dekan and the resistant cultivar
Retro inoculated with with concentration of 100,000 spores/ml (Mean SE).
Y(NO) (Figure 2). This might be due to the extreme strong decrease of Fo and Fm values which
are used to calculate Y(NO) (Equation 1). At the other spore concentrations the difference between
Y(NO) before and after application of spore suspension was not signifcant.
While the main parameters of the slow induction kinetic of chlorophyll fuorescence have been
extensively discussed in the literature, not much information is available on the usefulness and
meaning of Y(NO). According to Klughammer and Schreiber (2008) this parameter refects the
fraction of energy that is passively dissipated in form of heat and fuorescence, mainly due to
closed PSII reaction centers at saturating light intensity. In this context, high values of Y(NO)
refect suboptimal capacity of photoprotective reactions. Our results revealed that at the beginning
of pathogen infestation the capacity of photoprotective reactions was more infuenced in the
susceptible cultivar Dekan than in the resistant cultivar Retro. A presymptomatic increase in
chlorophyll fuorescence in leaf rust susceptible wheat leaves infected with the pathogen has been
already shown (Kuckenberg et al., 2009; Bodria et al., 2002), and it was referred to the chlorophyll
breakdown within the chlorotic patches.
Results of the experiment with undefned spore concentration revealed a difference in temporal
development of Y(NO) as well as in symptom characteristic between a susceptible and a resistant
leaf rust cultivar. Higher values of Y(NO) in the susceptible cultivar at the beginning was followed
by a decrease, indicating a later onset of defense mechanisms. At 5 dai when chlorotic spots became
necrotic in the resistant cultivar, values of Y(NO) decreased. This is analogous to observations in
a sugar beet cultivar infected by Cercospora, where after the chlorophyll fuorescence increase a
cell death linked decrease has been observed (Chaerle et al., 2007).
Results of the biological assessment by treating both cultivars with 100,000 spores/ml, revealed
similar temporal development of the parameter Y(NO). In this case, values of the resistant cultivar
increased, starting at a lower level, while in the susceptible cultivar values decreased, starting at a
signifcantly higher level. This indicates that the frst days after infection show a typical temporal
change of the passively dissipated heat and fuorescence emissions.
In the past, several research programs based on microscopic observations were done in order to
analyse the development of Puccinia triticina in susceptible, partially resistant and resistant wheat
cultivars, and contributed to the elucidation of some resistance mechanisms (Poyntz and Hide,
1987; Jacobs, 1989; Martinez et al., 2004). In this context it was shown that the host-pathogen
interaction, which depends on the genotype of both plant and fungus, determines the resistance
to a great extent (Kolmer, 1997; Bolton et al., 2008; McIntosh et al., 1995; Rubiales and Niks,
1995). Moreover, the need of an accurate inoculation protocol, including spore strains and spore
density, should not be neglected.
In contrast to most studies on pathogen resistance where well-defned monospore strains were
used, we have chosen a multisporic inoculum. The spore inoculation lead to differential pathogen
development in the susceptible and resistant cultivars, and was revealed very early by modifcations
of chlorophyll fuorescence values. Here, a higher passively dissipated fuorescence and heat
emission indicated a stronger disturbance of the PSII reaction centers. Especially at the end of the
test with undefned spore concentration stronger chlorosis, rather necrosis, with just a few pustules
in the resistant cultivar Retro indicated papilla formation and cell collapse as another characteristic.
Nevertheless, the genetic background of the two cultivars should be analysed and also microscopic
observations be done to supplement the revealed fndings for being able to correctly interpret the
higher Y(NO) values in the susceptible cultivar.
Conclusions
Chlorophyll fuorescence imaging technique proved to be suited as tool for screening of leaf rust
resistance in wheat plants. In our study, the most appropriate fuorescence parameter was Y(NO),
which indicated physiological differences between resistant and susceptible cultivars as early as
two days after pathogen inoculation. Thereby, the use of spore densities of up to 20,000 s/ml in
case of fast fuorescence kinetic parameters and up to 100,000 s/ml in case of slow fuorescence
kinetic parameters are adequate without producing any physical masking. Nevertheless, in order
to establish a reliable resistance quantifcation protocol, further assay optimisation, essentially
on symptom development, as well as a wider selection of susceptible and resistant cultivars of
known resistance levels, has to be investigated. In addition to the latter, the various host-pathogen
interactions based on different spore strain and genetic plant resistant background need to be
considered in respective studies.
Acknowledgements
We thank the German Research Foundation (DFG-research training group 722) for the fnancial
support.
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Detection of the Tulip Breaking Virus (TBV) in tulip using
spectral and vision sensors
G. Polder
1
, G.W.A.M. van der Heijden
1
, J. van Doorn
2
, R. van der Schoor
3
and A.H.M.C. Baltissen
2
1
Wageningen UR, Biometris, P.O. Box 100, 6700 AC, Wageningen, the Netherlands
2
Wageningen UR, Applied Plant Research, P.O. Box 85, 2160 AB, Lisse, the Netherlands
3
Wageningen UR, Plant Research International, P.O. Box 16, 6700 AA, Wageningen, the Netherlands
Abstract
Experiments are described for detection of Tulip Breaking Virus in tulip plants. Four optical
techniques were investigated and compared with visual assessment by crop experts as well as with
Elisa (Enzyme ImmunoAssay) analysis of the same plants. The optical sensor techniques used were:
an RGB Color camera, a spectrophotometer ranging from 400-2400 nm, a spectral imaging camera
covering a spectral range from 400-900 nm and a chlorophyll fuorescence imaging system which
measures the photosynthetic activity. Linear discriminant classifcation was used to compare the
results of these optical techniques with the Elisa score and the visual assessment. A good correlation
was found when the results of the spectral camera and the results of the visual examinations of
the crop expert were compared. These are very promising results which are translated in a follow
up with as fnal goal an autonomous robot for detection and removal of diseased tulip plants in
the open feld.
Keywords: plant virus, image processing, hyper spectral imaging, spectroscopy, machine vision
Introduction
Tulip and other bulbous ornamental crops are plagued by viral diseases. One of the most important
viruses in tulips is the potyvirus TBV (Tulip Breaking Virus). The virus symptoms can manifest
itself in different ways, including striping of the leaves and abnormal fowers (Dekker et al., 1993).
The presence of virus causes a reduction of the quantity and especially the quality of the product
and leads to sales and export restrictions. Current methods to keep the disease under control are
twofold. Firstly, plants are sprayed with chemicals to control aphids, which spread the virus (Asjes
and Blom-Barnhoorn, 2001). Secondly, crop experts go through the feld and remove symptomatic
plants as observed visually. The total costs of the viral problem in the Netherlands is estimated at
over 9 M yearly.
A large problem with visual assessment of infected plants is, that the symptoms are often diffcult
to see and require a expert eye. The visibility of the symptoms is also largely infuenced by the
cultivar of the tulips, the weather conditions and can only be seen during a limited period of the
growing season. This causes a high peak of labor of trained personnel, which is diffcult to fnd. In
order to reduce the amount of chemicals for aphids and the high labor pressure, various alternatives,
were studied and it was concluded that presently the best possibility to control the disease was by
means of imaging techniques to automatically fnd infected tulips. In this study, our fnal objective
is to develop a robot system which automatically detects and removes diseased plants in the feld.
As a frst step a feasibility study was carried out to test the detection performance of several optical
sensors for virus symptoms in tulips under laboratory conditions.
Experimental setup
Three tulip varieties (Barcelona, Monte Carlo, Yokohama) with high TBV infection rates, as assessed
in the former breeding season by Elisa, were used. The established infection rates for the bulb lots
were 14% in Yokohama, 16% in Barcelona en 31% in Monte Carlo. Per cultivar between 400 and
800 plants per cultivar were planted in small plastic baskets and buried in the feld.
Early in the growing season individual plants were visually assessed and marked when TBV
symptoms were present. Afterwards, leafs of about 100 visually healthy and 100 visually infected
plants were measured using four different vision sensors.
An Elisa (Enzyme ImmunoAssay) analysis using TBV-specifc antisera and a validated protocol
(Derks et al., 1982) was carried out on the same leaves of the measured plants. These measurements
were used as the reference analysis.
Optical techniques
Four different optical sensor techniques were assessed in this study: an RGB Color camera, a
spectrophotometer ranging from 400-2,400 nm, a spectral camera ranging from 400-900 nm and
the Multiple Imaging Plant Stress (MIPS) system (Jalink et al., 2004; Polder et al., 2007), which
measures the photosynthetic activity using Chlorophyll fuorescence.
RGB Color camera
From each leaf a digital picture was taken under controlled light conditions. The camera used was
a Nikon D70 with a Nikon 18-70 mm zoom lens in a closed cabinet equipped with high frequency
fuorescent illumination (Osram Biolux daylight tubes). To correct for possible changes in the
illumination, a Macbeth color chart was put in each image. This makes it possible to check whether
there were color changes and to correct for them if needed. To identify each leaf, each image was
coded by putting a 2D QR-barcode in the image. In Figure 1 a typical image is displayed.
After recording, the images were segmented and a number of shape parameters were calculated
for each leaf. Table 1 gives a list of the calculated shape parameters.
Infected plants very often have a red/purple spot pattern on the leaves. These spots were quantifed
using color segmentation. Afterwards the total area of the spots, the total perimeter of the spots,
and the number of separated spots were calculated (Figure 2).

Figure 1. RGB image of tulip leaf, Macbeth color standard and barcode.

Figure 1. RGB image of tulip leaf, Macbeth color standard and barcode.
Spectrophotometer
Using a spectrophotometer the refection spectrum of two spots was measured on each leaf. The
spectrometer used was a FieldSpec Pro FR spectroradiometer from Analytical Spectral Devices
(ASD). The total range was (350-2,500 nm), with a resolution of 3 nm in the visible range and 10
nm in the infrared. A leaf clip was used to measure the refection spectrum of a circular part of the
leaf with a diameter of 2 cm in a standardized way.
Since the spectrophotometer consists of three different sensors, sometimes a small mismatch between
the adjacent spectral regions was present. Each spectrum is corrected for this mismatch before
further processing using standard protocols. The spectrophotometer outputs 2,151 data points per
spectrum. This is far too much for classifcation and also much more than the physical resolution
of the sensors. Therefore the data were reduced to 40 points, using SavitzkyGolay smoothing and
sub sampling (Savitzky and Golay, 1964).
The analysis of the spectrophotometer data was needed to answer two questions: can we distinguish
between healthy and diseased plants using only spectral information and secondly how informative
are the data in the various parts of the spectrum, especially in the (near) infrared region. In order
to answer these questions the difference between the mean spectrum of the healthy and diseased
plants was investigated. Also the total spectral region was subdivided in small spectra of 100 nm,
with an overlap of 90 nm. The height of the classifcation error of these subsets is an indication of
the importance of the subsequent spectral region.
Table 1. Calculated shape parameters.
Name Description
Dimensions dimensions (length, width, depth) of the object
Mean mean object intensity
StdDev standard deviation of object intensity
Size number of object pixels
Perimeter perimeter length of the object
Inertia moments of inertia of binary object
Mu elements of the inertia tensor
CCBendingEnergy bending energy of object perimeter (chain-code method)
P2A circularity of the object (perimeter
2
/area)
PodczeckShapes Podczeck shape descriptors

Figure 2. Image of infected Tulip leaf (left), segmented color pattern (middle) and contour
pixels of color pattern (right).

Figure 2. Image of infected tulip leaf (left), segmented color pattern (middle) and contour pixels
of color pattern (right).
Spectral camera
Whereas the color camera only has a red, green and blue value per pixel, the spectral camera
gives the complete refection spectrum from 430-900 nm with a resolution of 4.5 nm. The spectral
imaging system is build around an imaging spectrograph from Spectral Imaging Ltd (Specim). A
detailed description of the system has been published elsewhere (Polder et al., 2003). Figure 3
depicts an example of spectral image data, showing images at three different wavelengths as well
as the refectance spectrum of one pixel.
The same shape features as with the RGB images were calculated. The red/purple spots were
quantifed by dividing the sum of the images from 560-590 nm by the sum of the images from
740-780 nm.
Chlorophyll fuorescence imaging system
The chlorophyll fuorescence imaging system measures the photosynthetic reaction on stress factors.
The output of this system is an image where each pixel value gives the Photosynthetic Effciency
(PE) between 0 and 1. The system is developed at our institute by Jalink, (2004). The images were
analyzed by calculating the mean and standard deviation for each leaf. Furthermore thresholds
were applied with small differences in PE, e.g. 0.4-0.5, 0.5-0.6 etc. The size of the objects after
these thresholds was used in the classifcation. Figure 4 gives an example.

Figure 3. Part of the spectral image of a Tulip leaf. Only three images are shown. In reality
257 images at wavelengths from 430-900 nm are available. The spectrum shows the reflection
of all wavelengths at the position of the selected pixel.

400 500 600 700 800 900 1000
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
golflengte
re
fle
c
tie

gezond, pixel (210,110)
600 nm 682 nm 736nm
Figure 3. Part of the spectral image of a tulip leaf. Only three images are shown. In reality 257
images at wavelengths from 430-900 nm are available. The spectrum shows the refection of all
wavelengths at the position of the selected pixel.

Figure 4. Photosynthetic efficiency image (upper left) and segmented images at different
threshold values.

Figure 4. Photosynthetic effciency image (upper left) and segmented images at different threshold
values.
Data analysis
Each optical technique described above gives a list of 10-40 features. These features were used
in the data analysis. Linear discriminant analysis (LDA) using leave one out cross validation was
used to predict whether a plant is healthy or diseased. LDA is a so called supervised technique. A
model is trained using the features of known healthy or diseased leaves. As ground truth (ultimate
reference) the Elisa measurements were used. The training algorithm calculates the optimal
separation function. In leave one out cross validation all the samples except one are used for training
and the remaining sample is used for validation. This is repeated such that each observation in the
sample is used once as the validation data.
Results
Visual assessment
Table 2 gives the score of the visual assessment by the crop expert compared to the Elisa score,
the latter considered as the ground truth. Columns two and three give the number of plants which
were scored as healthy and diseased by both the Elisa test and the crop expert. Columns four and
fve gives the number of plants which were diseased and healthy according to the Elisa test, but
were scored as healthy and diseased respectively by the expert. The last column gives the total
percentage error.
Color camera
Analysis of the RGB values of the Macbeth color standard showed minimal differences between
images. We concluded that the illumination was consistent and correction between images was
not needed. Classifcation is done on the shape parameters, the red/purple spot parameters and a
combination of the features. The results of the combination was the best of the three and is shown
in Table 3.
Table 2. Visual assessment score compared to Elisa analysis (H=Healthy, I=Infected).
Variety Elisa and
expert: H
Elisa and
expert: I
Elisa: I
Expert: H
Elisa: H
Expert: I
Total error
Barcelona 89 86 15 10 13%
Monte Carlo 100 22 22 25 28%
Yokohama 103 88 16 4 9%
Table 3. Color camera score compared to Elisa analysis.
Variety Elisa and
Camera: H
Elisa and
Camera: I
Elisa: I
Camera: H
Elisa: H
Camera: I
Total error
Barcelona 83 72 29 16 22%
Monte Carlo 93 30 14 32 29%
Yokohama 101 84 19 5 12%
Spectrophotometer
The difference between the mean spectrum of the healthy and infected plants was the largest in the
region between 500 and 700 nm. The error of the classifcation of the 100 nm subsets was smallest
in the same region, as showed for variety Yokohama (Figure 5). Table 4 shows the classifcation
result for the full range spectra.
Spectral camera
The same procedure as with the color images was applied on the spectral images using only shape
parameters, spot parameters and a combination of the features. Here also the combination gives
the best result, as is shown in Table 5.
Table 4. Spectrophotometer score compared to Elisa analysis.
Variety Elisa and
Camera: H
Elisa and
Camera: I
Elisa: I
Camera: H
Elisa: H
Camera: I
Total error
Barcelona 147 137 65 51 29%
Monte Carlo 202 63 25 48 24%
Yokohama 189 172 36 25 14%
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500
0.1
0.15
0.2
0.25
0.3
0.35
0.4
0.45
0.5
wavelength
e
r
r
o
r

Figure 5. Classification error for subsets of 100 nm (variety Yokohama).

Figure 5. Classifcation error for subsets of 100 nm (variety Yokohama).
Table 5. Spectral camera score compared to Elisa analysis.
Variety Elisa and
Camera: H
Elisa and
Camera: I
Elisa: I
Camera: H
Elisa: H
Camera: I
Total error
Barcelona 94 71 30 5 17%
Monte Carlo 89 31 13 36 29%
Yokohama 102 88 15 4 9%
Chlorophyll fuorescence imaging system
The results for the Chlorophyll fuorescence imaging system is shown in Table 6.
Combination of techniques
Several combinations were investigated with the data from the four methods. The most interesting
combination was that the result of color camera and spectral camera is taken if they predict the
same and the result of the spectrophotometer is taken, if color camera and spectral camera predict
differently. In this case the error for variety Monte Carlo drops signifcantly, as can be seen in Table 7.
Finally the optical techniques were compared to the manual assessment. Table 8 gives the result
for the spectrophotometer, the color and spectral camera.
Table 6. Chlorophyll fuorescence imaging system score compared to Elisa analysis.
Variety Elisa and
Camera: H
Elisa and
Camera: I
Elisa: I
Camera: H
Elisa: H
Camera: I
Total error
Barcelona 70 57 44 29 36
Monte Carlo 68 24 20 57 46
Yokohama 73 73 31 34 31
Table 8. Comparison between manual assessment and optical techniques.
Variety Camera system Number
of errors
Number of
errors expert
Error in
same plants
Percentage
correspondence
Barcelona Spectrophotometer 47 25 10 40%
Monte Carlo Spectrophotometer 50 47 24 51%
Yokohama Spectrophotometer 37 20 6 30%
Barcelona Color camera 45 25 13 52%
Monte Carlo Color camera 46 47 18 38%
Yokohama Color camera 24 20 7 35%
Barcelona Spectral camera 35 25 9 36%
Monte Carlo Spectral camera 49 47 16 34%
Yokohama Spectral camera 19 20 7 35%
Table 7. Score where if color camera and spectral camera predict different, the result of the
spectrophotometer is taken.
Variety Elisa and
Camera: H
Elisa and
Camera: I
Elisa: I Camera:
H
Elisa: H
Camera: I
Total error
Barcelona 88 74 27 11 19%
Monte Carlo 100 31 13 25 22%
Yokohama 102 87 16 4 10%
The control of plant viral diseases in ornamental crops as for instance tulips by using plant protection
agents is more and more restricted. Integrated crop protection management systems are still in
progress; certain chemicals are restricted, and not only in the Netherlands.
For the control of TBV the vectors (aphids) can be controlled by the use of mineral oil with
insecticides (pyrethroides) (Asjes and Blom-Barnhoorn, 2001). However, due to new regulations
chemical-free methods are needed to control the incidence of virus-infected tulips.
As standard the results of the Elisa measurements were taken, as this serological method has been
proved to be a reliable, sensitive and reproducible method. Also detection of TBV using RT-PCR
might be an additional control to further confrmation of the presence of virus, also other viruses
as TBV (Dekker et al., 1993). This will be needed in future, as certain other viruses than TBV
might be present in tulips and noticed by the vision techniques, giving rise to false-negative results.
It was found that the error of visual assessment of symptoms differed between 9 and 28% for the
different varieties (Table 2). The best result for the optical methods was for the spectral camera
(Table 5). This result is only slightly worse than the visual assessment by the expert.
The overall results of variety Monte Carlo were bad, which was due to hail and other problems
which causes severe damage to the leaves during cultivation of these plants. Also the number of
infected plants for this variety was too low for a proper statistical analysis.
The analysis of the spectrophotometer data shows that the most important features (wavelengths) are
in the visual range (below 1000 nm). This implies that for practical implementation no expensive
infra-red sensors are needed, which improves the economical feasibility of the system. Results for
the chlorophyll fuorescence imaging system indicates that this method is not suitable for detection
of TBV. A possible explanation for this is that this system measures overall plant stress and can not
distinguish between different stress sources such as virus symptoms.
The fact that the spectral camera performs similar as the crop expert is very promising and gives
reason for follow up with as fnal goal an autonomous robot for detection and removal of diseased
tulip plants. Although an RGB color camera is easy to implement and it performed reasonably
well in the laboratory test, we opt for the spectral camera for the feld test of 2009. Reason for this
is that feld conditions are much more diffcult to control and therefore we like to get the highest
signal to noise ratio from the camera system.
Acknowledgements
We like to thank J.G.P. Clevers and H.M. Bartholomeus for providing the spectrophotometer and
instructing its usage.
References
Asjes CJ and Blom-Barnhoorn GJ., 2001. Control of aphid-vectored and thrips-borne virus spread in lily,
tulip, iris and dahlia by sprays of mineral oil, polydimethylsiloxane and pyrethroid insecticide in the feld.
Annals of applied biology 139: 11-19.
Dekker EL, Derks AFLM, Asjes CJ, Lemmers MEC, Bol JF and Langeveld SA., 1993. Characterization of
Potyviruses from Tulip and Lily which Cause Flower-Breaking. J Gen Virol 74: 881-887.
Derks AFLM, Vink-van den Abeele JL and Van Schadewijk AR., 1982. Purifcation of tulip breaking virus and
production of anti-sera for use in ELISA. European Journal of Plant Pathology 88: 87-98.
Jalink H, van der Schoor R and Schapendonk AHCM., 2004. A method and a device for making images of
the quantum effciency of the photosynthetic system with the purpose of determining the quality of plant
material and a method and a device for measuring, classifying and sorting plant material. Dutch Patent
No. 1,021,800.
Polder G, van der Heijden GWAM, Jalink H and Snel JFH., 2007. Correcting and matching time sequence
images of plant leaves using Penalized Likelihood Warping and Robust Point Matching. Computers and
Electronics in Agriculture 55: 1-15.
Polder G, van der Heijden GWAM, Keizer LCP and Young IT., 2003. Calibration and Characterization of
Imaging Spectrographs. Journal of near Infrared Spectroscopy 11: 193-210.
Savitzky A and Golay MJE., 1964. Smoothing and Differentiation of Data by Simplifed Least Squares
Procedures. Analytical Chemistry 36: 1627-1639.
Investigation into the classifcation of diseases of sugar beet
leaves using multispectral images
S.D. Bauer, F. Kor and W. Frstner
University of Bonn, Institute of Geodesy and Geoinformation, Department of Photogrammetry,
Nussallee 15, D-53115 Bonn, Germany; sabine.bauer@uni-bonn
Abstract
This paper reports on methods for the automatic detection and classifcation of leaf diseases based
on high resolution multispectral images. Leaf diseases are economically important as they could
cause a yield loss. Early and reliable detection of leaf diseases therefore is of utmost practical
relevance - especially in the context of precision agriculture for localized treatment with fungicides.
Our interest is the analysis of sugar beet due to their economical impact. Leaves of sugar beet may
be infected by several diseases, such as rust (Uromyces betae), powdery mildew (Erysiphe betae)
and other leaf spot diseases (Cercospora beticola and Ramularia beticola). In order to obtain best
classifcation results we apply conditional random felds. In contrast to pixel based classifers we
are able to model the local context and contrary to object centred classifers we simultaneously
segment and classify the image. In a frst investigation we analyse multispectral images of single
leaves taken in a lab under well controlled illumination conditions. The photographed sugar beet
leaves are healthy or either infected with the leaf spot pathogen Cercospora beticola or with the
rust fungus Uromyces betae. We compare the classifcation methods pixelwise maximum posterior
classifcation (MAP), objectwise MAP as soon as global MAP and global maximum posterior
marginal classifcation using the spatial context within a conditional random feld model.
Keywords: pattern recognition, leaf diseases, maximum posterior classifcation, conditional random
felds, watershed algorithm
Introduction
This paper presents an investigation into three classifcation methods to detect leaf diseases on sugar
beet plants. This is a prerequisite for precision farming, in order to obtain complete information
about the spatial distribution of the infected areas in the feld. This replaces sparsely sampled tests.
Identifying leaf diseases normally is destructive. The leaves are cut off the plants and scanned or
photographed in the lab (cf. Boissard, 2008, Pydipati, 2006). Non-destructive approaches exist
to obtain the 3D-structure of plants. In this approaches are adopted X-ray (Stuppy, 2003) or laser
scanning systems (Hanan, 2004). X-ray cannot be applied in the feld and laser scanning is costly
and in case of wind, due to the motion of the leaved, cannot yield spatially consistent information.
Pan (2004) used stereo photos for obtaining the 3D-structure of leaves, but there the user must
select matching-points in stereo images.
In contrast, our approach to identify leaf diseases is non-destructive and applicable in the feld. We
take several images in order to enable stereo analysis. So we can integrate observations of different
cameras, in this case RGB and Infrared, as well as investigate the evolution of a disease over time
on the same leaf. Both the stereo reconstruction and the classifcation are fully automatic, thus
enable real time analysis, a prerequisite for precision farming.
The investigation focuses on leaf disease of sugar beet plants due to their economical impact in
Germany. But the methods can be transferred to other species. Leaves of sugar beet may be infected
by several diseases, such as rust (Uromyces betae), powdery mildew (Erysiphe betae) and other
leaf spot diseases (Cercospora beticola and Ramularia beticola). In this investigation we restrict
us to the leaf spot pathogen Cercospora beticola and the rust fungus Uromyces betae.
The investigation will show:
The non-destructive and automatic classifcation allows the analysis of the development of a
disease.
Pixelwise classifcation can be improved by taking learning the spatial distribution of disease
patterns and using this knowledge for the classifcation.
Cercospora beticola can be automatically identifed with a probability of 85% and Uromyces
betae with a probability of 22%.
In the following we introduce frst the experimental set-up (Figure 1). Then we explain how we fuse
the images from the RGB- and the Infrared-camera. Finally we defne our classifcation strategy.
Experiment set-up
The multispectral stereo images were taken in a lab under well controlled illumination conditions. We
restrict us in this investigation of single leaves. For each leaf we take four RGB images (FujiFilm
FinePix S5600, 2,5921,944; 1 px equates 0.0967 mm) and one infrared image (Tetracam ADC,
1,2801,024; 1 px are 0.2123 mm) from an altitude of 30 cm and different positions with an
approximate mutual distance of 10 cm. The infrared camera has the channels RED, GREEN and
NIR (700 - 950 nm). The photographed sugar beet leaves are healthy or either infected with the
leaf spot pathogen Cercospora beticola or with the rust fungus Uromyces betae.
Fusion of the images from the RGB- and the Infrared-camera
We calibrate the camera using a 3D-test feld to obtain the inner orientation, especially to eliminate
lens distortion. Afterwards we automatically determine the six parameters of the pose (position and
rotation) of the cameras using the program AURELO (Lbe, 2006). Based on the inner and exterior
orientation of the cameras we determine the surface model, i.e. the 3D-structure of the leaves with
the INPHO-Software MATCH-T (Lemaire, 2008). This fusion of the fve images per leaf allows
the rectifcation of the leaf w.r.t a reference plane. For each pixel of this rectifed image we obtain
seven values: (1) blue from the RGB-camera, (2)-(5) 2 green and 2red from the RGB- and the
Infrared cameras, and (6) infrared.
1

Figure 1: Experiment set-up
Figure 1. Experiment set-up.
Classifcation methods
We investigate three versions of a maximum posterior (MAP) classifcation. MAP classifcation
works in such a way, that the joint probability or the product of the likelihood function P(e|
i
) and
the a-priori probability P(
i
) is being maximised:
(1)
The vector e=[e
j
] stands for the feature vectors, which are in our case the different colour information.
The class
i
are one of the four classes: background, healthy leaf areas, with Cercospora beticola
or Uromyces betae infected areas. This is equivalent to maximizing the posterior probability P(
i
|e)
as the probability for the feature vector P(e) can be unconsidered, as it is constant.
The three different methods for classifcation are frst a pixelwise MAP classifcation, further referred
to as PMAP. Second an objectwise MAP classifcation, with watershed regions as objects, further
referred to as OMAP and third a global MAP classifcation by considering the spatial context in
a conditional random feld, further referred to as CRF. They refer to different objects, pixels for
PMAP and CRF or regions for OMAP, and use different priors, local ones for the PMAP and OMAP
and global ones for the CRF.
First we classify binary leaf and background. In a second step we discriminate healthy and infected
leaf areas. Therefore we make two separated classifcations for leaf against Cercospora beticola
and leaf against Uromyces betae.
Pixelwise maximum posterior classifcation PMAP: The a-priori probability P(
i
) can easily
computed from the frequency of the occurrence of the different classes. To fnd the likelihood
function P(e|
i
) we use the expectation maximization (EM) algorithm, where we assume the density
to be a mixture of two Gaussian distributions per class. As result from the EM-algorithm we get
for each class a matrix with the mean vector and the covariance matrix.
(2)
In the classifcation process we must now compute the posterior probability, i.e. the density for each
class Equation 2 multiplied with the a-priori probability, and obtain that class, whose probability,
is the greatest one, cf. Equation 1.
A pixel-wise classifcation has the disadvantage, that all pixels are being classifed separately. So
it can happen, that in a region most of the pixels are classifed for example as background and
one or two as leaf. Such classifcation errors can be reduced, if the neighbourhood of the pixels is
taken into account. One solution is an objectwise classifcation another one the use of conditional
random felds, which will be presented in the next chapter.
Objectwise classifcation OMAP: For an objectwise classifcation the images must be segmented.
In our study we use the watershed algorithm (Vincent, 1991). This algorithm derives a partitioning
of the image area into a set of disjunct regions based on a gradient image as input. We use the RED,
GREEN and NIR channel to compute the gradient image.
The algorithm works well, if a good contrast between the different regions exists and the regions
relate to a unique class. In our case, the contrast between the healthy leaf and the Cercospora beticola
leaf spots isnt good, how it is seen in Figure 2. The white ring indicates the border of the leaf spot.
One region must be allocated to one class even though the region may contain pixels from different
classes. In such a case the region is being related to the majority class in that region. Figure 3 shows
watershed regions on a leaf, which is infected with Uromyces betae. Obviously the watershed
algorithm does not fnd edges around the small dark spots. Therefore all this regions will be allocated
to the class healthy leaf areas. For this reason leaves infected with Uromyces betae cannot be
classifed with an object-wise classifer.
Global MAP with conditional random felds (CRF): In the context of classifcation, we are generally
interested in estimating the posterior distribution over labels given the observations. In this work,
we use a Conditional Random Field (CRF) to model the posterior distribution as a Markov Random
2
and other leaf spot diseases (Cercospora beticola and Ramularia beticola). In this
investigation we restrict us to the leaf spot pathogen Cercospora beticola (Figure 2) and the
rust fungus Uromyces betae (Figure 3).
The investigation will show:
The non-destructive and automatic classification allows the analysis of the
development of a disease.
Pixelwise classification can be improved by taking learning the spatial distribution of
disease patterns and using this knowledge for the classification.
Cercospora beticola can be automatically identified with a probability of 85% and
Uromyces betae with a probability of 22%.

2. Materials and Methods

In the following we introduce first the experimental set-
up. Then we explain how we fuse the images from the
RGB- and the Infrared-camera. Finally we define our
classification strategy.

2.1 Experiment set-up
The multispectral stereo images were taken in a lab under
well controlled illumination conditions. We restrict us in
this investigation of single leaves. For each leaf we take
four RGB images ("FujiFilm FinePix S5600", 2592 x
1944, 1px equates 0.0967 mm) and one infrared image
("Tetracam ADC", 1280 x 1024, 1px are 0.2123 mm) from
an altitude of 30 cm and different positions with an
approximate mutual distance of 10 cm. The infrared
camera has the channels RED, GREEN and NIR (700 -
950 nm). The photographed sugar beet leaves are healthy
or either infected with the leaf spot pathogen Cercospora
beticola or with the rust fungus Uromyces betae.

2.2 Fusion of the images from the RGB- and the Infrared-camera
We calibrate the camera using a 3D-test field to obtain the inner orientation, especially to
eliminate lens distortion. Afterwards we automatically determine the six parameters of the
pose (position and rotation) of the cameras using the program AURELO (Lbe, 2006). Based
on the inner and exterior orientation of the cameras we determine the surface model, i.e. the
3D-structure of the leaves with the INPHO-Software MATCH-T (Lemaire, 2008). This fusion
of the five images per leaf allows the rectification of the leaf w.r.t a reference plane. For each
pixel of this rectified image we obtain seven values: (1) blue from the RGB-camera, (2)-(5) 2
x green and 2x red from the RGB- and the Infrared cameras, and (6) infrared.

2.3 Classification methods
We investigate three versions of a maximum posterior (MAP) classification. MAP
classification works in such a way, that the joint probability or the product of the likelihood
function ) | ( i e P and the a-priori probability ) ( i P is being maximised

(1)
Figure 1: Experiment set-up
Field (MRF), globally conditioned on the observed data. MRF allows probabilistic modelling
of local contextual constraints in labelling problems and is the most commonly used model for
modelling spatial interactions in image analysis (Li, 2001). A CRF provides an approach for
combining local classifers A that allow the use of arbitrary overlapping features, with adaptive
data-dependent label interaction B. As MRF, it is a global model, however directly modelling the
posterior probability distribution
(3)
Such formulation gives us freedom to choose any domain specifc method to identify class labels
and neighbourhood dependencies and provides several advantages compared to the traditional MRF
model. For discussion on the formulation, on the differences between a traditional MRF formulation
and the CRF model, and comparison of the performance of the two models and an independent
sitewise classifer, see references in Kor (2008).
Evaluation
The classifcation methods PMAP and OMAP are tested on 243 data sets, from which 98 data
sets are infected with Cercospora beticola and 145 with Uromyces betae in different development
stages. The photos are taken distributed about three weeks after the inoculation. These data sets are
divided in subsets for a 5-fold cross validation separately performed for the Cercospora beticola
data sets and the Uromyces betae data sets. We use each of the subsets of the data sets for training
and the other four for testing. For memory reasons, from the training data sets we choose randomly
250,000 pixels for each class for training by the pixelwise MAP classifcation. For the objectwise
MAP classifcation we use up to 250,000 regions for training.
2

Figure 2: Watershed regions
by Cercospora beticola
Figure 2. Watershed regions by
3

Figure 3: Watershed regions
by Uromyces betae
Figure 3. Watershed regions by
In our CRF experiments we adopt the multiclass formulation from Kumar (2004) and learn the
CRF model parameters automatically from training data as it is described in Kor (2008). Final
labelling is computed using the max-product belief propagation (Tappen, 2003), where we employ
the software accompanying (Szeliski, 2008).
To compare the formulations, we applied an independent sitewise classifer and the CRF model
to our pixelwise class segmentation task. The aim of these experiments is to assign each image
pixel with one of the three class labels. For this purpose, we prepared two datasets, the Uromyces
dataset with 871 images and the Cercospora dataset with 867 images. Both datasets contain
imagepatches of size 6464 pixels. Each pixel is assigned with a feature vector composed of the
pixel RGB colour vector extended with the information from the infrared channel. In other words,
each pixel is associated with a 4D feature vector. We use the 2-norm of the vector difference for
modelling the pairwise label interaction B in (3). In each experiment, 10 randomly chosen images
are used as the training set for parameter learning and 400 images are randomly chosen from the
rest of the images for testing.
In this chapter we give representative results of our classifcation experiments using different feature
vectors and methods. First we illustrate the results of the pixel-wise classifcation PMAP, second
the results of the object-wise OMAP and fnally the results of the conditional random feld CRF.
In all tables on the left side are the ground truth labels and on the top the test classes.
Results of the PMAP classifcation
In a frst step we make a binary classifcation for separating the leaf from the background. Therefore
we uses the features red, green and blue from the RGB camera, and additional the near infrared
(NIR) channel from the infrared camera. The results are shown in the Table 1.
The rate of correct classifed pixels lies by 99.53%. For the most application areas this would be a
good result. After separating the leaf from the background we detect the healthy and infected areas
on the leaf. First we investigate the PMAP classifer on the 98 leaves infected with Cercospora
beticola. There we use feature vectors only with RGB information and then the gain of additional
use of the NIR channel. Table 2 shows the median of the confusion tables for the two cases over all
leaves. In both cases the classifcation rate due to the large number of healthy pixels adds up to 99%.
Without the NIR information the percentage of true positives, i.e. correctly classifying Cercospora
leaf spots, called C-detection rate, is 42%, whereas the adding NIR causes some improvement
about 12% to 54%. In order to analyse the low C-detection rates we show the distribution of the
C-detection rate of Cercospora leaf spots over the infected leaves in Figure 4. The C-detection rate
ranges from 0% to nearly 100%. I.e. on 12 infected leaves no leaf spot were detected.
As we are not interested in classifcation of the pixels but the classifcation of the leaves, we
investigate the probability of fnding a truly infected leaf as infected. Especially we are interested
Table 1. Leaf against background in by pixelwise MAP classifcation.
RGB plus NIR classifcation rate 99.53%
Leaf Background
Leaf 99.59% 0.41%
Background 0.50% 99.50%
in an early detection after inoculation. In case we treat a leaf as infected if at least more than 0%
of the leaf area is infected, i.e. at least one pixel is classifed as infected. We fnd the C-detection
rate as a function of the day after inoculation being 100% from day 4 on. How it is seen in Figure
5 right, almost all healthy leaves are also classifed as infected.
If we use a threshold for the infected pixels of 0.2% of the leaf area the detection rate from the
healthy leaves increases but also the detection rate of the infected leaves decreases. After the tenth
day of inoculation all leaves are infected, so the detection rate of healthy leaves must be there zero.
Table 2. PMAP: Median of the confusion tables. Healthy leaf areas against .
Only RGB classifcation rate 99.33% RGB plus NIR classifcation rate 99.27%
C. leaf spots Healthy areas C. leaf spots Healthy areas
C. leaf spots 41.52% 58.48% 54.15% 45.85%
Healthy areas 0.14% 99.86% 0.24% 99.76%
4

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
detection rate in %
n
u
m
b
e
r

o
f

l
e
a
v
e
s

Figure 4: C-detection rate of Cercospora beticola: used channels are RGB and NIR

Figure 4. C-detection rate of Cercospora beticola: used channels are RGB and NIR.
5

4 6 10 11 12 13 14 15 17 19 21
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
days after inoculation
d
e
t
e
c
t
i
o
n

r
a
t
e

o
f

i
n
f
e
c
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Figure 5: C-Detection rate of infected (left) and healthy leaves (right) in Cercospora beticola.
Black: Threshold 0%. Gray: Threshold 0.2%

Figure 5. C-Detection rate of infected (left) and healthy leaves (right) in
Black: Threshold 0%. Gray: Threshold 0.2%.
Figure 6 shows the infected area over time after inoculation for ground truth (solid) and the result of
the classifcation (dashed). The percentage of the infected areas on the leaves increase up to 10% on
the 21
st
day after the inoculation. The classifcation systematically overestimates the infected area.
The classifcation results of Uromyces betae is shown in Table 3. The overall classifcation rate is
99.95%, but the correctly classifed rust spots are only 13%, which indicates a weak classi-fcation
result. The number of Uromyces leaf spots is so marginal, that the a-priori probability for this class
is only 0.06%. So this bad result hasnt a great effect of the whole classifcation rate.
Results of the OMAP classifcation
As outlined in the chapter Classifcation methods, Uromyces betae cannot be classifed with
an object-wise classifer based on watershed segments. So we are only executing a pixel-wise
classifcation with Cercospora beticola. We chose the features RGB plus NIR, as they have shown
the best results in the PMAP classifcation of Cercospora beticola. The overall classifcation rate is
with 99% just as well as in the PMAP classifcation (Table 4). But the detection rate of Cercospora
beticola decreases considerably. The reason for this is that the watershed algorithm cut all borders
of the leaf spots, as shown in Figure 2.
Results of the CRF classifcation
Detailed classifcation results on the Cercospora dataset and the Uromyces dataset using the CRF
model are shown in Table 5 and Table 6, respectively.
The advantage of using the CRF is illustrated in Figure 7, where on the left side it can be observed
that the classifcation result of the full CRF is considerably smoother compared to the pixelwise
classifcation. Further, we note that solution yielded by CRF in general cannot be reached through
simple data independent smoothing of a pixelwise classifcation result. CRF solution is smooth
6

Figure 6: Infected areas on the leaf in
% in Cercospora beticola. Dashed:
Detected areas. Solid: GroundTruth
5 10 15 20
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
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%
Figure 6. Infected areas on the leaf in% in . dashed: detected areas. solid:
groundtruth.
Table 3. Pixelwise MAP: Healthy leaf against
U. leaf spots Healthy areas
U. leaf spots 12.73% 87.27%
Healthy areas 0.04% 99.96%
where data support it and does not impose smooth solution on object boundaries. The process of
training the CRF model can be viewed as maximizing overall classifcation rate on the training
data. However, classifcation rate of a particular class is dependent on the proportion of training
examples of this class in the training data. For instance, the proportion of the Uromyces pixels in
our training data is small and, hence, the classifcation rate of this class has small infuence on the
overall classifcation rate that is maximized. This explains decreased detection with respect to the
reduced CRF shown in Figure 7 (Right).
To illustrate the gain of using the neighbourhood relations in the CRF, we compare the result of the
full CRF model to a CRF without using the neighbourhood relations, thus without the factors B in
(Equation 3). We observe that the overall classifcation rates of the full CRF model on these two
datasets are respectively 95.40% and 98.22%, whereas the classifcation rates of the reduced CRF
drop to respectively 93.82% and 97.65%. We stress that this pixelwise classifer is not identical to
the PMAP classifer and is not meant to be compared to it in our experiments.
Table 4. Objectwise MAP in
C. leaf spots Healthy areas
C. leaf spots 35.56% 64.44%
Healthy areas 0.11% 99.89%
Table 5. CRF classifcation in
C. leaf spots Healthy areas Background
C. leaf spots 84.77% 14.90% 0.33%
Healthy areas 1.91% 97.83% 0.26%
Background 2.21% 3.30% 94.49%
Table 6. CRF classifcation in
U. leaf spots Healthy areas Background
U. leaf spots 22.03% 77.78% 0.19%
Healthy areas 0.21% 99.24% 0.55%
Background 1.48% 2.00% 96.52%
Conclusions and outlook
The overall classifcation rates of 99% seem promising for our application area. The detection
rate of Cercospora beticola achieved by the CRF is 85%. In contrast, CRF classifcation rate of
Uromyces betae, however, is only 22%. The reason for this is may be the small proportion of the
Uromyces pixels in the training data.
In future work we will investigate whether the CRF classifcation rates of particular classes could
be improved by weighting of the training examples.
In a next step, we aim to examine to what extent the two diseases can be distinguished.
Last, we want to compute the surface roughness using the existing 3D-structure of the leaves and
exploit the potential of the surface roughness as feature for classifcation of leaf diseases. First
results shown, that the surface roughness of a leaf three days after inoculation and the roughness
of the same leaf 21 days after inoculation are different (Figure 8).
In future investigations on plant and canopy level the 3D-structure enables us also to compensate
for illumination and occlusion effects as soon as we can refer to the true leaf area.
Acknowledgements
This research is funded by the DFG Post Graduate Program 722 Use of information technologies
for precision crop protection and partly by EU-STREP 027113 eTRIMS E-Training for Interpreting
Images of Man-Made Scenes. The authors are grateful to the Department of Phytomedicine at the
University Bonn for their assistance.
7

Figure 7: Left: Cercospora beticola Right: Uromyces betae. In both cases: First image, CRF model reduced
to a pixelwise classifier, then the result of the full CRF model and last the ground truth image.
Black: Background, Gray: Leaf, White: Left Cercospora beticola and right Uromyces betae
Figure 7. Left: Right: . In both cases: First image, CRF model
reduced to a pixelwise classifer, then the result of the full CRF model and last the ground truth
image. Black: Background, Gray: Leaf, White: Left and right
8

0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8
0
0.005
0.01
0.015
0.02
0.025
0.03
0.035
0.04
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8
0
0.005
0.01
0.015
0.02
0.025
0.03
0.035
0.04
0.045
0.05

Figure 8: Roughness. Left: An infected leaf with Cercospora beticola 21 days after inoculation. Dashed:
Areas with Cercospora spots on the leaf. Continuous: Healthy leaf areas. Right: Dashed: Leaf infected
with Cercospora beticola 21 days after inoculation. Continuous: Healthy leaf.

Figure 8. Roughness. Left: an infected leaf with 21 days after inoculation.
Dashed: areas with spots on the leaf. Continuous: healthy leaf areas. Right: Dashed:
leaf infected with 21 days after inoculation. Continuous: healthy leaf.
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Spectral signatures of diseased sugar beet leaves
A.-K. Mahlein, U. Steiner, H.-W. Dehne and E.-C. Oerke
Institute for Crop Science and Resource Conservation (INRES) Phytomedicine, University of
Bonn, Nussallee 9, 53115 Bonn, Germany; amahlein@uni-bonn.de
Abstract
Crop diseases are often distributed heterogeneously in agricultural felds. An understanding of the
spatial and temporal distribution and spread of pathogens is necessary for site-specifc fungicide
applications. As shown in previous studies, remote sensing can be a useful device to detect and
observe spectral differences in the feld. Conventional remote-sensing techniques use vegetation
indices to describe the vitality of vegetation cover. Remote sensing is used for the assessment
of the effect on yield formation of crops; however, there are limitations of these approaches for
disease detection. In this study non-imaging hyperspectral near-range sensing was used to examine
its potential to detect and identify fungal diseases on sugar beet leaves. The spectral properties
of sugar beet plants infested with Cercospora beticola (Sacc), Erysiphe betae (Vanha) Weltzien,
and Uromyces betae (Persoon) Lev. have been assessed during pathogenesis. Using a handheld
spectrometer, refectance spectra from diseased plants in the range from 450 to 1,050 nm were
investigated on the leaf and plant level. Signifcant differences between the disease-specifc spectra
were detected in the visible range and in the near infrared range. Structural and pigmentation indices
used in remote sensing NDVI, PSSR, ARI, SIPI, mCAI, and REP - indicated signifcant differences
in plant vitality depending on the disease. The hyperspectral vegetation indices calculated from
leaf spectra showed disease-specifc decreases in the chlorophyll content of plants. Infestations of
C. beticola and U. betae caused increased values of the anthocyanin refectance index.
Keywords: hyperspectral sensors, disease detection, sugar beet, Cercospora beticola, Erysiphe
betae, Uromyces betae
Introduction
The detection and differentiation of several diseases in early stages of disease epidemics is essential
for precision and site-specifc plant protection. Optical methods like hyperspectral imaging and non-
imaging sensors have been proved to be a useful tool to detect changes in plant vitality (Hatfeld et
al., 2008; West et al., 2003). Several studies have shown a high potential in discriminating between
healthy and stressed plants (Bravo et al., 2004; Delalieux et al., 2005; Laudien et al., 2003; Zhang
et al., 2004). However, more research is still required because little is known about the effects
of different diseases on spectral characteristics of a plant species. Sugar beet diseases are serious
threats in European sugar production. Cercospora beticola and Erysiphe betae causing Cercospora
leaf spot and powdery mildew, respectively, are the most relevant fungal leaf pathogens causing
losses in yield quantity and quality. Because infection appears late in the season Uromyces betae is
economically of less importance (Wolf and Vereet, 2002). The diseases are associated with typical
mature symptoms including bicolored leaf spots, white mycelium on the leaf surface as well as
tiny rust uredia (Figure 1). In order to assess typical changes in the refectance of sugar beet leaves
caused by the leaf pathogens C. beticola, E. betae, and U. betae, the pathogenesis of the pathogens
was investigated. Spectral signatures of non infested and diseased sugar beet leaves were evaluated
at different stages of disease development. Moreover, the potential of vegetation indices for an
early detection and discrimination of diseases was analysed.
Plant material, pathogens
Sugar beet plants, cultivar Pauletta (KWS GmbH, Einbeck, Germany), were grown in a commercial
substrate in plastic pots ( 13 cm) in a controlled environment at 23 C and 60% relative humidity
(RH). Plants were watered as necessary and fertilized weekly.
The plants were inoculated with the different pathogens when four leaves were fully developed
(GS 14). Each pathogen required specifc growth and environmental conditions.
Spore suspensions of C. beticola were produced from wetted infected sugar beet leaves incubated
for 24 h under 100% RH and were sprayed on the leaves of healthy plants. After inoculation the
plants were covered with plastic bags to realize 100% RH for 48 h. For further incubation the plants
were transferred to 25 C and 6010% RH. Suspension of U. betae urediniospores harvested from
sporulating uredia and stored at 8 C was sprayed onto sugar beet leaves the plants were covered
with plastic bags for 48 h and 100% RH and were incubated in a climate chamber at 19 C. Plants
heavily infested with powdery mildew were used as inoculum source of E. betae. Healthy plants
were inoculated in a chamber where a ventilator ran for 5 seconds in order to distribute E. betae
conidia evenly on their leaf surfaces. Plants were left over night and subsequently transferred to a
glasshouse at 23 C, separated from the other plants. The control insisted of 15 plants which were
kept at 23 C and 60 10% RH.
Hyperspectral measurements, data analysis
Using a handheld non-imaging spectrometer with a contact probe foreoptic and a leafclip (ASD
FieldSpec Pro FR spectrometer, Analytic Spectral Devices, Boulder, USA), measurements of
infected and non-infected leaves were taken daily for 21 days after inoculation (dai). The contact
probe foreoptic has a 10 mm spot size and an integrated halogen bulb light source. The measuring
range of the ASD FieldSpec is from 450 nm to 1,050 nm with a spectral resolution of 1.423 nm.
In each treatment, spectra from 15 plants and 2 leaves per plant were taken. Furthermore, disease
severity of each pathogen was assessed daily and digital pictures of the leaves were taken. In order to
identify the best discriminating wavebands between healthy and diseased plants, different vegetation
indices were calculated (Table 1). In this study the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI),
Figure 1. Healthy sugar beet leaf (a) and leaves infected by (b),
(c) and (d) 14 days after inoculation.
the structure-independent vegetation index (SIPI), the pigment specifc simple ratio for chlorophyll
a and b (PSSRa / PSSRb) and the anthocyanin refectance index (ARI) were used. In addition the
red edge position (REP) and the modifed chlorophyll absorption integral (mCAI) were calculated.
Statistical analyses
Statistically signifcant differences between treatments were calculated using the Superior Performing
System SPSS 17.0 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA). Data were analysed by standard analysis of
variance (ANOVA) and homogeneous subgroups were built using the Tukey-test, with a signifcance
level of P=0.05. The experiments were repeated twice.
Results
Disease development
The development of diseases and the symptoms varied for the three pathogens (Figure 2). Small
chloroses were the frst symptoms of C. beticola infestation. After 6 to 8 days of incubation the
spots became necrotic and the characteristic red border of the spots became visible. First symptoms
of powdery mildew appeared 5 days after inoculation and disease severity of powdery mildew
increased rapidly. In the beginning, small colonies were visible on the upper side of leaves, which
covered the whole leaf 14 dai. First chloroses caused by U. betae became visible 9 dai. At later
stages rust spores ruptured the epidermis and amber uredinia became visible on the upper and
lower side of leaves.
Spectral signatures
Refectance measurements of non-inoculated leaves and leaves inoculated with the foliar diseases
were conducted on 21 consecutive days following inoculation. Figure 3 illustrates characteristic
spectral signatures of the different treatments 1, 7, 14, and 21 dai. Refectance of C. beticola-
infected leaves increased in the visible (VIS) spectrum mostly in the green and red ranges of the
spectrum (500-700 nm) and decreased in the near-infrared (NIR) range. Refectance spectra of
leaves colonized by the ectoparasitic E. betae increased consecutively throughout the increase in
Table 1. Vegetation indices and algorithms used in this study.
Index Equation Indicator Reference
Normalized difference
vegetation index
NDVI= (R800-R670) / (R800+R670) Biomass/ leaf area Rouse
(1974)
Structure insensitive
vegetation index
SIPI= (R800-R445) / (R800+R680) Carotinoids:
chlorophyll a ratio
Penuelas
(1995)
Pigments specifc
simple ratio
PSSRa= R800/R680
PSSRb= R800/R635
Chlorophyll (a/b) Blackburn
(1998)
Anthocyanin
refectance index
ARI= (1 / R550) - (1/R700) Anthocyanin Gitelson
(2001)
Red edge position R
RE
= R670+R780/2
REP= 700+40x (R
RE
-R700)/
(R740-R700)
Infection point
red edge
Guyot and
Baret (1988)
Modifed chlorophyll
absorption integral
Chlorophyll Laudien
(2003)

D
i
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a
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d

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a
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a
DAI
Cercospora leaf spot
Leaf rust
Powdery mildew
dai

Figure 2. Progression of disease severity of Cercospora leaf spot, leaf rust and powdery
mildew on sugar beet leaves

Figure 2. Progression of disease severity of leaf spot, leaf rust and powdery mildew
on sugar beet leaves.
0,0
0,1
0,2
0,3
0,4
0,5
0,6
400 500 600 700 800 900 1000
Cercospora beticola
0,0
0,1
0,2
0,3
0,4
0,5
0,6
400 500 600 700 800 900 1000
Wavelength [nm]
Uromyces betae
0,0
0,1
0,2
0,3
0,4
0,5
0,6
400 500 600 700 800 900 1000
R
e
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[
%
/
1
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]
Healthy
0,0
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0,6
400 500 600 700 800 900 1000
R
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[
%
/
1
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]
Wavelength [nm]
Erysiphe betae
0 DAI 7 DAI 14 DAI 21 DAI
leaf spot
Leaf rust Powdery mildew

Figure 3. Spectral signature of healthy and diseased sugar beet leaves 1, 7, 14 and 21 dai. The
spectral profiles represent an average of 60 measurements per day

Figure 3. Spectral signature of healthy and diseased sugar beet leaves 1, 7, 14 and 21 dai. The
spectral profles represent an average of 60 measurements per day.
disease severity. This increment was most distinctive in the visible range (400-700 nm) and least
pronounced in the NIR (700-1000 nm). Due to the small size of leaf area affected by U. betae
changes of refectance spectra were comparatively low for leaf rust. Refectance increased in the
VIS range (550-680 nm), whereas there was a minor decrease in the NIR ranges. These changes
in refectance were strongly correlated with the occurrence of disease symptoms.
Vegetation indices
Vegetation indices result in a reduction of the data dimension and hence might be useful in data
analysis for disease discrimination. From Figure 4 it can be concluded that the vegetation indices
are an approach to detect plant stress. Depending on the disease and their impact on biochemical
constitution of the diseased plants, some indices were more suitable than others. Infections caused
by C. beticola could be discriminated from non-diseased by all indices used in this study. Signifcant
differences between the indices were observed 9 dai (ARI), 10 dai (NDVI; SIPI, PSSRa; PSSRb)
and 13 dai (REP). E. betae, a very fast growing and fast spreading organism caused signifcant
changes between healthy and infested plants after 8 dai (PSSRa) and 9 dai (NDVI; REP; SIPI;
PSSRb). As the progression of rust caused by U. betae is slow, only NDVI, PSSRa and PSSRb
showed statistically signifcant values between healthy and diseased plants 13 dai. Presymptomatic
disease detection with simple use of vegetation indices was not feasible according to statistical
analysis. Most common physiological indices use wavebands in the VIS spectrum, due to the fact
that these indices are sensitive to visible changes of leaf structures.
Discussion
Plants are in various stress stages under disease impact. Disease symptoms often result from the
physiological changes in plant metabolism brought about by the pathogen (Oerke et al., 2006).
Literature indicated that spectral refectance of green vegetation in the visible region (400-700 nm)
is most sensitive to leaf pigment such as chlorophyll, carotinoids or anthocyanin content while the
near infrared range (700-1000 nm) is most sensitive to structural changes (West et al., 2003). The
chlorophyll content provides valuable information on the vitality and health state of plants (Gitelson
et al., 2003, Penuelas et al., 1995). These spectral characteristics have been used to evaluate stresses
caused by different leaf pathogens.
The chlorophyll content of sugar beet plants infected by the perthotroph pathogen C. beticola
decreased due to the formation of chloroses and necroses. Diseased plants had increased refection
of red light in the visible range and higher absorption of NIR radiation. With disease progression,
a combination of high lesion number and the accumulation of phytotoxins in the leaves induce
complete leaf senescence (Weiland and Koch 2004). Similar results were observed for plants
heavily infected by U. betae; however, changes in refectance characteristics caused by the
biotroph rust fungus was not so obvious and appeared only in later stages of rust pathogenesis.
The biotroph pathogen E. betae relies on the functional metabolism of sugar beets as a nutrient
source (Francis, 2002). The changes in leaf refectance due to powdery mildew resulted from the
growing white, fuffy mycelia, which covered the leaf surface. There was only a minor impact on
leaf pigments. Different diseases affected the leaf tissue in different ways and resulted in different
spectral signatures. Extracting spectrally pure features from this spectral information about sugar
beet diseases on leaf level endmember classifcation using on canopy and feld level using airborne
sensor data independent of ground-truth data might be possible.
Using traditional physiological vegetation indices a reliable and robust discrimination between
healthy and diseased plants was feasible. As Thenkabil et al. (2000) have shown best narrow band
vegetation indices models explain up to 88% variability in biophysical variables of different crops.
Depending on the diseases, the index-values varied in their sensitivity, but for disease discrimination
further information like infection stage and ground truth data are still required. Considering that
dai
Healthy
Cercospora leaf spot
Leaf rust
Powdery mildew
dai

Figure 4. Effect of Cercospora leaf spot,
leaf rust, and powdery mildew on the
vegetation indices of sugar beet leaves
NDVI, SIPI, PSSRa, PSSRb, ARI, REP
and mCAI 1, 7, 14 and 21 days past
inoculation.
Figure 4. Effect of leaf spot, leaf rust, and powdery mildew on the vegetation indices of
sugar beet leaves NDVI, SIPI, PSSRa, PSSRb, ARI, REP and mCAI 1, 7, 14 and 21 days past inoculation.
these indices have not been developed for the identifcation and differentiation of plant diseases and
that they are using only marginal spectral information most indices use two or three wavebands
of the refectance spectra , it seems likely that the potential of indices for detection, identifcation
and quantifcation is underutilized. The development of disease-specifc indices seems promising;
however, their use may be in turn limited by a high specifcity as they may be applicable only
to one or few disease(s) of a crop. Further problems arise from the use of non-imaging sensors
that generate signals by integration over a larger area. The spectral signal is always from a mixed
source, which implies that the spectra are composed of healthy leaf tissue next to infected tissue.
This fact complicates especially the detection of diseases in early stages of epidemics necessary
for its use in practical crop protection.
Imaging hyperspectral sensors are likely to improve the potential to detect and identify plant
diseases reliably at early stages of epidemics as well as to quantify disease severity. Chaerle and
Van der Straeten (2001) documented that imaging techniques at the remote-sensing scale can
be implemented as a frst line of defense to identify frst hot spots of diseases in the feld. Using
imaging techniques to visualize local changes upon stress, successful classifcation of healthy and
diseased tissue could be achieved.
Conclusion
Indices-based disease differentiation by using hyperspectral information of crop refectance
seems to be feasible by using a multivariate approach. Changes in refectance caused by diseases
are strongly correlated to the stage of pathogenesis and disease severity. This is a very dynamic
process depending on weather conditions and plant status, because each pathogen requires specifc
environmental condition and has a characteristic pathogenesis, i.e. undergoes various stages during
its interactions with the host plant. The index values, therefore, have to be related to the stage of
pathogenesis (= time after inoculation) and to disease severity (= percentage leaf area affected).
Nevertheless, physiological indices are a useful tool to identify crop anomalies and to quantify
stress implication. In order to improve information extraction, data may be analysed in further steps
with continuative analyses and discrimination methods like decision trees or bandwise comparison.
Acknowledgements
This study has been conducted within the Research Training Group 722 Information Techniques
for Precision Crop Protection, funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG).
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Section 4
Sensing plant characteristics
Plant leaf roughness analysis by texture classifcation
with generalized fourier descriptors in a dimensionality
reduction context
L. Journaux
1
, M.F. Destain
2
, F. Cointault
1
, J. Miteran
3
and A. Piron
2
1
Enesad, Engineering Sciences, 26 Bd Dr Petitjean, BP 87999, 21079 Dijon Cedex, France;
ljournaux@enesad.fr
2
FUSAGX, Unit de Mcanique et Construction, 2 passage des dport, 5030 Gembloux, Belgium
3
Universit de Bourgogne, Le2i, Avenue Alain Savary, BP 47870, 21078 Dijon Cedex, France
Abstract
In the context of precision spraying research, this article explores the capacity and the performance
of some combinations of pattern recognition and computer vision techniques applied to plant leaf
roughness analysis. The techniques merge feature extraction, linear and nonlinear dimensionality
reduction techniques and several kinds of classifcation methods. The performances are evaluated
and compare in terms of the classifcation error. We concluded of the well performance of leaf
roughness characterisation through the combination of Generalized Fourier Descriptors for feature
extraction, SVM for classifcation method and Kernel-Discriminant for dimensionality reduction.
Keywords: texture classifcation, motion descriptors, dimensionality reduction, leaf roughness
Introduction
In precision spraying research, one objective is to minimize the volume of phytosanitary product
in order to be more environmentally respectful with more effective plant treatments. Thus the main
goal is to be sure the spray reaches the target, to reduce losses that occur at the application. Though
mechanisms of losses by drift are now well known, those due to runoffs on leaf are still poorly
understood. These last ones are related to adhesion mechanisms of liquid on a surface for which
specifc models have been developed (Forster et al., 2005) and showed that the predominant factor
is leaf roughness, for which, few robust works have been carried out. Taking the computer vision
viewpoint, we propose to characterize the leaf roughness of different plant leaf images (1,242 texture
images) through the performance of a combination of spatio-frequential texture feature extraction
and six classifcation methods. For natural images, texture is a fundamental characteristic which
plays an important role in pattern recognition and computer vision. A successful classifcation or
segmentation requires an effcient feature extraction methodology but the major diffculty is that
textures in the real world are often not uniform, due to changes in orientation, scale, illumination
conditions, or other visual appearance. In our case we consider the invariants called Generalized
Fourier Descriptors (GFD), which provide robust (Smach et al., 2007) but high dimensional texture
features. Unfortunately, in a classifcation context, high-dimensional data are often redundant,
highly correlated and suffer from the problem of the Hughes Phenomenon (Hughes, 1968), which
causes inaccurate classifcation. To improve the classifcation performance of the original features
we combine the classifcation steps with a selection of 13 linear and nonlinear Dimensionality
Reduction (DR) techniques (from the classical Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to recent
methods as Laplacian Eigenmaps (LE) or Kernel Discriminant Analysis (KDA) which transform
high-dimensional data into a meaningful representation of reduced dimensionality. Numerous studies
have aimed at comparing DR algorithms, usually using synthetic data (Aldo Lee et al., 2003: Aldo
Lee et al., 2004) but less for natural tasks as in Journaux et al. (2006) or Niskanen and Silven (2003).
In Section 2, explanations are given on GFD and the employed classifcation methods in order to
briefy describe all the DR methods that will be compared in section 3. Results on the comparison and
discussion are presented in section 4 before conclusion and proposition of some prospective works.
Generalized Fourier descriptors (GFD) and classifcation methods
Texture characterisation using Generalized Fourier descriptors (GFD)
The GFD are defned as follows. Let f be a square summable function on the plane, and f
its
Fourier transform:
f
(x) =
2
f (x) exp (- jxx) dx (1)
If (l,q) are polar coordinates of point x, we shall denote again f
(l,q) the Fourier transform of f at

point (l,q). Gauthier et al. (1991) defned the mapping D
f
from + into + by
D
f
(l) =
0
2p
| f
(l, q)
|
2
dq (2)
So, D
f
is the GFD feature vector which describes each texture image and will be used as an input of
the supervised classifcation method and be reduced by DR methods. Motion descriptors, calculated
according to Equation 2, have several properties useful for object recognition: they are translation,
rotation and refection-invariant (Gauthier et al., 1991; Smach et al., 2007).
Classifcation methods
Classifcation is a central problem of pattern recognition (Duda et al., 2001) and many approaches
to solve it have been proposed such as connectionist approach (Bishop, 1995) or metrics based
methods, k-nearest neighbours (k-nn) and kernel-based methods like Support Vector Machines
(SVM) (Vapnik, 1998), to name the most common. In our experiments, the average performance
of the dimensionality reduction methods and one basic feature selection method applied on the
GFD features have to be evaluated. In this context, we have chosen and evaluated six effcient
classifcation approaches coming from four classifcation families: the boosting (adaboost) family
(Schapire, 1990) using three weak classifers, (Hyperplan, Hyperinterval and Hyperrectangle),
the Hyperrectangle (Polytope) method (Miteran et al., 1994), the Support Vector Machine (SVM)
method (Vapnik, 1998; Abe, 2005) and the connectionist family with a Multilayer perceptron
(MLP) (Rumelhart et al., 1986). We have excluded the majority of neural networks methods due to
the high variability of textures from natural images which included an infnite number of samples
required for the learning step (kind of leaves, growth stage, pedo-climatic conditions, roughness,
hydration state,). In order to validate the classifcation performance and estimate the average
error rate for each classifcation method, we performed 20 iterative experiments with a 10-fold
cross validation procedure.To improve the classifcation performance it is well interesting to use
Dimensionality Reduction (DR) techniques in order to transform high-dimensional data from GFD
into a meaningful representation of reduced dimensionality.
Dimensionality reduction methods
Let X=(x
1
,..,x
n
)
T
be an nm data matrix. The number n represents the number of image examples
contained in each texture dataset, and m the dimension of vector x
i
, corresponding to the discrete
computation of the D
f
(from Equation 2). We have in our case n=2,048 and m=32 for Brodatz
texture database and n=1,034 and m=254 for plant leaf texture database. These datasets represent
respectively 32 and 6 classes of texture surfaces.
Ideally, the reduced representation has a dimensionality that corresponds to the intrinsic
dimensionality of the data. One of our working hypotheses is that, though data points (all texture
images) are points in
m
, there exists a p-dimensional manifold M=(y
1
,,y
n
)
T
that can satisfyingly
approximate the space spanned by the data points. The meaning of satisfyingly depends on the
dimensionality reduction technique that is used. The so-called intrinsic dimension (ID) of x in
m
is
the lowest possible value of p (p<m) for which the approximation of x by M is reasonable. In order
to estimate the ID of our two datasets, we used a geometric approach that estimates the equivalent
notion of fractal dimension (Camastra and Vinciarelli, 2002). Using this method, we estimated and
fxed the intrinsic dimensionality of our two datasets as being p=5.
DR methods can be classifed according to three characteristics:
Linearity: DR can be Linear or nonlinear. This describes the type of transformation applied to
the data matrix, mapping it from
m
to
p
.
Scale analysis: DR can be Local or global. This refects the kind of properties the transformation
does preserve. In most nonlinear methods, there is a trade off between the preservation of local
topological relationships between data points, or of the global structure of x.
Metric: Euclidean or geodesic. This defnes the distance function used to estimate whether
two data points are close to each other in
m
, and should consequently remain close in
p
, after
the DR transformation.
In this context, we retained 13 methods based on these various criteria, 4 are linear methods and 9
are nonlinear. In order to complete this review of DR methods, we compared them with one classical
feature selection method. This comparison will show which approaches are the most relevant.
Linear Methods
Principal Components Analysis (PCA): It is the best known DR method. PCA fnds a linear
transformation for keeping the subspace that has largest variance. It can be shown that reconstruction
error. J
PCA
is minimized for the u
i
being the eigenvectors of the covariance matrix of x. PCA is
linear, global and Euclidean technique
Second-Order Blind Identifcation (SOBI): SOBI (Belouchrani et al.,1997) relies on stationary
second-order statistics that are based on a joint diagonalization of a set of covariance matrices.
The set X is assimilated to a set of signals X
i
(t) and the p features of the destination space we are
searching are assimilated to a fxed number of original sources s
i
(t). Each X
i
(t) is assumed to be an
instantaneous linear mixture of n unknown components (sources) s
i
(t), via the unknown mixing
matrix A. SOBI is a linear, global and Euclidean method.
X(t)= As(t) (3)
Projection pursuit (PP): This method (Friedman and Tukey, 1974) is based on the optimization of
the gradient descent. Our algorithm uses the Fast-ICA procedure (Hyvarinen 1999) that allows
estimating the new components one by one by defation. The symmetric decorrelation of the
vectors at each iteration was replaced by a Gram-Schmidt orthogonalization procedure. When p
components w
1
,,w
p
have been estimated, the fxed point algorithm determines w
p+1
. After each
iteration, the projections w
T
p+1
w
j
w
j
(j=1,....,p) of the p precedent estimated vectors are subtracted
from w
p+1
. Then, w
p+1
is re-normalized according to Equation 4:
(4)
The algorithm stops when p components have been estimated. Projection Pursuit is linear, global
and Euclidean.
Nonlinear methods: global approaches
Sammons mapping (Sammon): Sammons mapping is a DR method that tries to preserve the
neighbourhood topology of the set of data by preserving distances between points (Sammon
1969). To evaluate the preservation topology, we use the following stress function minimized by
a gradient descent:
2
FUSAGX, U ( )
2
( ) ( ) exp . f f x j x dx x x = -
(1)

( )
2
2
0
= ( , ) .
f
D f d
p
l l q q
(2)

1
1 1 1
1
1 1
p
p T
p p p j j
j
T
p p
w
w w w w w
w w
+
+ + +
=
+ +
= =
(3)

2
, ,
, 1
,
,
, 1
( )
1
m p
n
i j i j
sam n m
m
i j
i j
i j
i j
d d
J
d
d =
=

=

(4)

2
,
( , ) ( )
n
m p
ISOMAP ij ij
i j
J X p =
(5)

i ij j
j
W

y y (6)

( )
2
/
LE ij i j ii jj
ij
J W D D =
y y (7)

(X) ( ),
m
m ij
D d = where
m
ij i j
d = x x

(X) ( ),
p
p ij
D d = where
p
ij i j
d = y y

2
, 1
(X, ) ( ) ( ),
n
m p p
CCA ij ij ij
i j
J p d d F d
=
=
(8)
2
, 1
(X, ) ( ) ( ),
n
m p p
CDA ij ij ij
i j
J p d F d
=
=
(9)
(5)
Where d
m
i,j
and d
p
i,j
are the distances between points i
th
and j
th
points, in
m
and
p
. This function,
allows adapting the distances in the projection space compared to the initial space. Sammons
mapping is a nonlinear, global, and Euclidean method.
Isometric feature mapping (Isomap): Isomap (Tenenbaum et al., 2000) estimates the geodesic
distance along the manifold using the shortest path in the nearest neighbours graph. It then looks
for a low-dimensional representation that approximates those geodesic distances in the least square
sense. The three steps are: (1) Build D
m
(X), the all-pairs distance matrix. (2) Build a graph from X
(k nearest neighbours). For a given point x
i
in
m
, a neighbour is either one of the K nearest data
points from x
i
or one for which d
m
ij
< . Build the all-pairs geodesic distance matrix
m
(X), using
Dijkstras shortest path algorithm. (3) Use classical MDS to fnd the transformation from
m
to
p

that minimizes
(6)
Isomap is nonlinear, global and geodesic.
Kernel methods (K-PCA, K-Isomap, KDA): Recently, several well-known algorithms for
dimensionality reduction of manifolds have been developed in a new way, taking the kernel machine
viewpoint (Ham et al., 2004; Shawe-Taylor and Cristianini, 2004). We retain here the three most
known: the kernel-PCA (K-PCA) (Schlkopf et al., 1998), the kernel Isomap (K-Isomap) (Choi and
Choi, 2007) and the kernel Discriminant Analysis (KDA) (Liang et al., 2006). The non-linearity is
introduced via a mapping of the data from the input space
m
to a feature space F. Projection methods
(PCA, Isomap or Discriminant Analysis) are then performed in this new feature space, expressed
by a kernel K in terms of a Mercer Kernel function (Schlkopf et al., 1999). These methods are
nonlinear and global; K-PCA and KDA are Euclidean, K-Isomap is geodesic.
Nonlinear methods: local approaches
Local linear embedding (LLE): The LLE algorithm (Roweis and Saul 2000) estimates the local
coordinates of each data point in the basis of its nearest neighbours, then looks for a low-dimensional
coordinate system that has about the same expansion. The 3 steps are: (1) Find the neighbourhood
graph (see steps 1 and 2 of Isomap). (2) Compute the weights W
ij
that best reconstruct x
i
from its
neighbours, thus minimizing the reconstruction error, ||x
i
-x
i
||, where x
i
=
j
W
ij
x
j

x
i
. (3) Compute
vectors y
i
in
p
reconstructed by the weights W
ij
. Solve for all y
i
simultaneously.
(7)
It fnds the local affne structure of the data manifold, and identifes the manifold by joining the
affne patches. LLE is nonlinear, local and Euclidean.
Laplacian Eigenmaps (LE): Laplacian Eigenmaps method fnd a low-dimensional data representation
by preserving local properties of the manifold (Belkin and Niyogi 2003). The three steps of
the algorithm are the following: (1) Build the non-oriented symmetric neighbourhood graph.
(2) Associate a positive weight W
ij
.to each link of the graph (Constant weights (W
ij
=1/k), or
exponentially decreasing (W
ij
= exp(-||x
i
-x
i
||
2
/
2
)). (3) Obtain the fnal coordinates y
i
of the points
in
p
by minimizing the cost function

(8)
where D is the diagonal matrix D
ii
=
j
W
ij
. LE is a nonlinear, local, Euclidean method.
Curvilinear Components Analysis (CCA) and Curvilinear Distances Analysis (CDA): CCA is an
evolution of the nonlinear Multidimensional Scaling (MDS) and Sammons mapping algorithms
(Demartines and Hrault, 1997). Instead of the optimization of a reconstruction error, CCA aim at
preserving of the so-called distance matrix while projecting data onto a lower dimensional manifold.
Let D
m
(X) be the n
2
n
2
matrix of distances between pairs of points in X
2
FUSAGX, U ( )
2
( ) ( ) exp . f f x j x dx x x = -
(1)

( )
2
2
0
= ( , ) .
f
D f d
p
l l q q
(2)

1
1 1 1
1
1 1
p
p T
p p p j j
j
T
p p
w
w w w w w
w w
+
+ + +
=
+ +
= =
(3)

2
, ,
, 1
,
,
, 1
( )
1
m p
n
i j i j
sam n m
m
i j
i j
i j
i j
d d
J
d
d =
=

=

(4)

2
,
( , ) ( )
n
m p
ISOMAP ij ij
i j
J X p =
(5)

i ij j
j
W

y y (6)

( )
2
/
LE ij i j ii jj
ij
J W D D =
y y (7)

(X) ( ),
m
m ij
D d = where
m
ij i j
d = x x

(X) ( ),
p
p ij
D d = where
p
ij i j
d = y y

2
, 1
(X, ) ( ) ( ),
n
m p p
CCA ij ij ij
i j
J p d d F d
=
=
(8)
2
, 1
(X, ) ( ) ( ),
n
m p p
CDA ij ij ij
i j
J p d F d
=
=
(9)
2
FUSAGX, U ( )
2
( ) ( ) exp . f f x j x dx x x = -
(1)

( )
2
2
0
= ( , ) .
f
D f d
p
l l q q
(2)

1
1 1 1
1
1 1
p
p T
p p p j j
j
T
p p
w
w w w w w
w w
+
+ + +
=
+ +
= =
(3)

2
, ,
, 1
,
,
, 1
( )
1
m p
n
i j i j
sam n m
m
i j
i j
i j
i j
d d
J
d
d =
=

=

(4)

2
,
( , ) ( )
n
m p
ISOMAP ij ij
i j
J X p =
(5)

i ij j
j
W

y y (6)

( )
2
/
LE ij i j ii jj
ij
J W D D =
y y (7)

(X) ( ),
m
m ij
D d = where
m
ij i j
d = x x

(X) ( ),
p
p ij
D d = where
p
ij i j
d = y y

2
, 1
(X, ) ( ) ( ),
n
m p p
CCA ij ij ij
i j
J p d d F d
=
=
(8)
2
, 1
(X, ) ( ) ( ),
n
m p p
CDA ij ij ij
i j
J p d F d
=
=
(9)
2
FUSAGX, U ( )
2
( ) ( ) exp . f f x j x dx x x = -
(1)

( )
2
2
0
= ( , ) .
f
D f d
p
l l q q
(2)

1
1 1 1
1
1 1
p
p T
p p p j j
j
T
p p
w
w w w w w
w w
+
+ + +
=
+ +
= =
(3)

2
, ,
, 1
,
,
, 1
( )
1
m p
n
i j i j
sam n m
m
i j
i j
i j
i j
d d
J
d
d =
=

=

(4)

2
,
( , ) ( )
n
m p
ISOMAP ij ij
i j
J X p =
(5)

i ij j
j
W

y y (6)

( )
2
/
LE ij i j ii jj
ij
J W D D =
y y (7)

(X) ( ),
m
m ij
D d = where
m
ij i j
d = x x

(X) ( ),
p
p ij
D d = where
p
ij i j
d = y y

2
, 1
(X, ) ( ) ( ),
n
m p p
CCA ij ij ij
i j
J p d d F d
=
=
(8)
2
, 1
(X, ) ( ) ( ),
n
m p p
CDA ij ij ij
i j
J p d F d
=
=
(9)
2
FUSAGX, U ( )
2
( ) ( ) exp . f f x j x dx x x = -
(1)

( )
2
2
0
= ( , ) .
f
D f d
p
l l q q
(2)

1
1 1 1
1
1 1
p
p T
p p p j j
j
T
p p
w
w w w w w
w w
+
+ + +
=
+ +
= =
(3)

2
, ,
, 1
,
,
, 1
( )
1
m p
n
i j i j
sam n m
m
i j
i j
i j
i j
d d
J
d
d =
=

=

(4)

2
,
( , ) ( )
n
m p
ISOMAP ij ij
i j
J X p =
(5)

i ij j
j
W

y y (6)

( )
2
/
LE ij i j ii jj
ij
J W D D =
y y (7)

(X) ( ),
m
m ij
D d = where
m
ij i j
d = x x

(X) ( ),
p
p ij
D d = where
p
ij i j
d = y y

2
, 1
(X, ) ( ) ( ),
n
m p p
CCA ij ij ij
i j
J p d d F d
=
=
(8)
2
, 1
(X, ) ( ) ( ),
n
m p p
CDA ij ij ij
i j
J p d F d
=
=
(9)
After DR transformation to
p
, we also have
CCA tries to fnd the best suitable transformation, minimizing
(9)
Where F is a decreasing, positive weighting function, giving more importance to the preservation
of small distances. CCA is nonlinear, local and Euclidean.
CDA is a refnement of CCA (Aldo Lee et al., 2004), minimizing
(10)
Where
m
ij
measures the geodesic distance between x
i
and x
j
, as in Isomap. CDA is nonlinear, local
and geodesic.
Feature selection method
Parameter selection with an exhaustive search is impractical due to the large amount of possible
feature subsets. To select the 5 best parameters fxed by intrinsic dimensionality estimation, we use
sequential forward selection (SFS) (Kittler, 1978) because this feature selection method performs
best when the optimal subset has a small number of features. The criteria function is the average
correct classifcation rate over all classes, obtained by quadratic discriminant analysis (QDA) on all
observations. The QDA approach was chosen because it is not dependant on parameters other than
the observations and that the goal is not to compute the optimal classifcation rate but a measure
of the feature subset effciencies. At the end of the process, the 5 best features have been selected.
Results
In order to test our texture classifcation protocol, the experiment included images from two
different sources:
The main texture grey level images used in this study have been provided for our agronomic
application. These images were acquired with a SEM microscope and represent different kinds of
leaf surfaces coming from six leaf plant species (Figure 1). For each class of leaf texture 150 to
200 images have been acquired. Each image consists of a 100 m scale image, with a resolution of
512512 pixels adapting the scale to our biological application (1,242 texture images in six classes).
The well known Brodatz textures dataset (Brodatz, 1966) present in more than 500 relevant paper
this last 20 years. The dataset is composed of 32 different textures. The original images are grey
level images with a resolution of 256256 pixels resolution. Each image has been cropped into 16
disjoint 6464 samples. In order to evaluate scale and rotation invariance, three additional samples
were generated per original sample (90 degrees rotation, 6464 scaling, combinations of rotation
and scaling). Finally, the set contains almost 2,048 images, 64 samples per texture.
2
FUSAGX, U ( )
2
( ) ( ) exp . f f x j x dx x x = -
(1)

( )
2
2
0
= ( , ) .
f
D f d
p
l l q q
(2)

1
1 1 1
1
1 1
p
p T
p p p j j
j
T
p p
w
w w w w w
w w
+
+ + +
=
+ +
= =
(3)

2
, ,
, 1
,
,
, 1
( )
1
m p
n
i j i j
sam n m
m
i j
i j
i j
i j
d d
J
d
d =
=

=

(4)

2
,
( , ) ( )
n
m p
ISOMAP ij ij
i j
J X p =
(5)

i ij j
j
W

y y (6)

( )
2
/
LE ij i j ii jj
ij
J W D D =
y y (7)

(X) ( ),
m
m ij
D d = where
m
ij i j
d = x x

(X) ( ),
p
p ij
D d = where
p
ij i j
d = y y

2
, 1
(X, ) ( ) ( ),
n
m p p
CCA ij ij ij
i j
J p d d F d
=
=
(8)
2
, 1
(X, ) ( ) ( ),
n
m p p
CDA ij ij ij
i j
J p d F d
=
=
(9)
2
FUSAGX, U ( )
2
( ) ( ) exp . f f x j x dx x x = -
(1)

( )
2
2
0
= ( , ) .
f
D f d
p
l l q q
(2)

1
1 1 1
1
1 1
p
p T
p p p j j
j
T
p p
w
w w w w w
w w
+
+ + +
=
+ +
= =
(3)

2
, ,
, 1
,
,
, 1
( )
1
m p
n
i j i j
sam n m
m
i j
i j
i j
i j
d d
J
d
d =
=

=

(4)

2
,
( , ) ( )
n
m p
ISOMAP ij ij
i j
J X p =
(5)

i ij j
j
W

y y (6)

( )
2
/
LE ij i j ii jj
ij
J W D D =
y y (7)

(X) ( ),
m
m ij
D d = where
m
ij i j
d = x x

(X) ( ),
p
p ij
D d = where
p
ij i j
d = y y

2
, 1
(X, ) ( ) ( ),
n
m p p
CCA ij ij ij
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2
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n
m p p
CDA ij ij ij
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2
FUSAGX, U ( )
2
( ) ( ) exp . f f x j x dx x x = -
(1)

( )
2
2
0
= ( , ) .
f
D f d
p
l l q q
(2)

1
1 1 1
1
1 1
p
p T
p p p j j
j
T
p p
w
w w w w w
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+
+ + +
=
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= =
(3)

2
, ,
, 1
,
,
, 1
( )
1
m p
n
i j i j
sam n m
m
i j
i j
i j
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d d
J
d
d =
=

=

(4)

2
,
( , ) ( )
n
m p
ISOMAP ij ij
i j
J X p =
(5)

i ij j
j
W

y y (6)

( )
2
/
LE ij i j ii jj
ij
J W D D =
y y (7)

(X) ( ),
m
m ij
D d = where
m
ij i j
d = x x

(X) ( ),
p
p ij
D d = where
p
ij i j
d = y y

2
, 1
(X, ) ( ) ( ),
n
m p p
CCA ij ij ij
i j
J p d d F d
=
=
(8)
2
, 1
(X, ) ( ) ( ),
n
m p p
CDA ij ij ij
i j
J p d F d
=
=
(9)
2
FUSAGX, U ( )
2
( ) ( ) exp . f f x j x dx x x = -
(1)

( )
2
2
0
= ( , ) .
f
D f d
p
l l q q
(2)

1
1 1 1
1
1 1
p
p T
p p p j j
j
T
p p
w
w w w w w
w w
+
+ + +
=
+ +
= =
(3)

2
, ,
, 1
,
,
, 1
( )
1
m p
n
i j i j
sam n m
m
i j
i j
i j
i j
d d
J
d
d =
=

=

(4)

2
,
( , ) ( )
n
m p
ISOMAP ij ij
i j
J X p =
(5)

i ij j
j
W

y y (6)

( )
2
/
LE ij i j ii jj
ij
J W D D =
y y (7)

(X) ( ),
m
m ij
D d = where
m
ij i j
d = x x

(X) ( ),
p
p ij
D d = where
p
ij i j
d = y y

2
, 1
(X, ) ( ) ( ),
n
m p p
CCA ij ij ij
i j
J p d d F d
=
=
(8)
2
, 1
(X, ) ( ) ( ),
n
m p p
CDA ij ij ij
i j
J p d F d
=
=
(9)

Fig. 1 The six classes of leaf texture images; from left to right: tomato, ray grass, mature wheat, pea, young wheat, horsetail.
Figure 1. The six classes of leaf texture images; from left to right: tomato, ray grass, mature
wheat, pea, young wheat, horsetail.
The comparison of the classifcation performance and estimation of the average error rate for
each classifcation method are performed with 20 iterative experiments following a 10-fold cross
validation procedure. In the case of SVM, we used the classic gaussian kernel for which we
determined the optimum.
In the case of Brodatz texture dataset (Table 1), regarding the classifcation error using the original
feature space, the best results were obtained using SVM (e=2.65%). All the other methods gave
poorer results (from 12.2% to 22.5%). Their performance is generally improved by DR: optimum
error is obtained by combining KDA and SVM (e=0.8%, i.e. the error is divided by a factor 3). The
LE combination with SVM gives similar results. One can note that the use of kernel methods in
combination with DR methods generally improves performance compared to the stand-alone DR
approach (Isomap vs K-Isomap, PCA vs. K-PCA). In the family of fast decision methods, the best
result is obtained using Hyperrectangle combined with KDA. These results are generally confrmed
by the experiments performed using the plants Leaf dataset (Table 2), although the dimension of
the original space is signifcantly higher than in the previous case (254 vs. 32) and the number of
classes is lower (6 vs. 32). In this case, the gain factor is 3 (comparing SVM using the original
feature space, and SVM combined with KDA).
It appears that the combination of GFD and KDA provides suffcient information to characterize
plant leaf roughness. Particularly, this solution of texture classifcation allows to separate our six
kinds of agronomic images in six different clusters. Moreover, it is possible to discriminate two
wheat images taken at two different growth stages.
Conclusion
In this paper we proposed a comparison of DR methods combined with several classifcation
methods, in the context of texture classifcation of natural images using GFD. We used the powerful
GFD which have interesting properties such as translation, rotation and refection invariance.
Table 1. Classifcation results on the Brodatz dataset (% error rate).
Methods Boosting Hyperrectangle SVM MLP
Hyperplan Hyperinterval Hyperrectangle
Original features 17.26 12.2 22.5 15.5 2.65 20.4
Selection 21.3 19.7 13.4 8.3 3.06 15.3
Linear
PCA 23.4 18.5 13.2 7.4 8.4 11.2
SOBI 46.6 27.1 25.7 24.8 10.46 16.4
PP 84 82 69 75 61.4 73.0
Nonlinear
Sammon 23.8 21.2 12.9 15.6 7.8 13.3
Isomap 23.4 19.5 12.9 7.3 6.55 12.1
LLE 22.5 23.4 15.3 8 4.5 15.9
CCA 23.7 20.7 13.9 9.1 5.7 18.2
CDA 22.6 20 15.3 7.4 3.9 15.6
Laplacian 16.7 11.8 14 5.56 1.20 10.2
K-PCA 23.6 19.1 14.2 7.2 6.65 11.8
KDA 24.5 15.3 12.2 6.6 0.8 12.3
K-Isomap 21.3 17.7 15.1 6.13 1.9 9.6
In any case, the SVM classifer outperforms all other classifcation methods using the original
feature space. However, we experimentally demonstrated that some DR methods still improve the
fnal classifcation performance. The best DR methods are the LE and KDA, even if the standard
PCA still offers a fair tradeoff between computation time and performances. For our specifc
application, these results have to be combined with contact angle measurements with the aid of a
high speed imaging system based on a PTVS (Particle Tracking Velocimetry Sizing) technique which
is under development in FUSAGx University. In our future work, we plan to apply our protocol
on two different problems: First, in precision viticulture in order to model the evolution of vine
leaf roughness in a context of precision spraying research. Second, we will apply this comparison
review to multispectral texture images for which the dimension of the original space is higher and
for which the correlation between spectral bands is often very important.
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Evaluation of cost-effective real-time slope sensing system
for wild blueberry
Q.U. Zaman, A.W. Schumann, K.C. Swain, D.C. Percival, M. Arshad and T.J. Esau
Engineering Department, Nova Scotia Agricultural College, Truro, Nova Scotia, B2N 5E3, Canada;
qzaman@nsac.ca
Abstract
The development of site-specifc agriculture has increased the need for knowledge regarding
within-feld variability in factors such as soil/plant characteristics and topography that infuence
wild blueberry production. The majority of blueberry felds in eastern Canada have gentle to severe
topography. An automated slope measurement and mapping system (SMMS) consisting of low-
cost accelerometers used as tilt sensors, DGPS, laptop and custom software was developed and
mounted on an All-Terrain-Vehicle for real-time slope measurement and mapping. Six commercial
wild blueberry felds at two different sites were surveyed in Central Nova Scotia to evaluate the
performance of SMMS. The automatically sensed slopes (SS) were compared with manually
measured slopes (MS) at 20 randomly selected points in each feld to examine the accuracy of
SMMS. The fruit yield, leaf nutrients and soil samples were taken from selected points in different
slope zones in each selected feld. Those samples were analyzed to relate with variable slope within
each feld. The SMMS measured slope reliably in the selected felds with root mean square error
(RMSE) ranging from 0.12 to 0.56 degrees and correlations of SS with MS of R
2
=0.95-0.99. The
SS map showed substantial variation in slope (ranging from 0.8 to 31.0 degrees) in the felds. MS
slopes were overlaid on SS maps and matched with the SS throughout the felds. The soil organic
matter, leaf nutrients (N, P) and fruit yield were signifcantly different in steep slopes and low
lying areas of each feld. Therefore, the use of low-cost and reliable accelerometers with a Trimble
AgGPS332 is a better option than expensive RTK-DGPS for developing cost-effective SMMS to
quantify and map slopes (real-time) for planning site-specifc management practices in commercial
felds. The SS maps or real-time SMMS could also be used to adjust vehicle speed at particular
steep slopes to avoid accidents in wild blueberry felds.
Keywords: accelerometer, DGPS, GIS, precision agriculture, tilt sensor
Introduction
Wild blueberry felds (Vaccinium angustifolium Ait.) are developed from native stands on deforested
farmland by removing competing vegetation (Eaton, 1988). The crop is unique as it is native to
northeastern North America and has never been cultivated. The majority of felds are situated
in acidic soils (pH<5) that are low in mineral nutrients, and have poor water holding capacities,
signifcant bare spots, weed patches and gentle to severe topography (Trevett, 1962). The substantial
variation in soil/plant characteristics, topographic features and fruit yield within blueberry felds
emphasizes the need for precise site-specifc crop management to maximize proft and minimize
environmental impacts.
Soil surface properties are a critical component used by producers in developing wild blueberry
management plans (Yarborough, 2004). Topographic features are not yet routinely used to guide
within-feld management and to control erosion in wild blueberry felds. Traditionally, agrochemicals
are applied uniformly without considering the substantial variation in soil/plant characteristics,
topographic features and crop yield with-in felds (Iqbal et al., 2005). Over-fertilization in lower
slope areas may deteriorate water quality and reduce proft, while under-fertilization in steep slope
areas may restrict crop yield. Risk of nutrient runoff from soils increases with the steepness of
the slope. Spatial mapping of topography, soil properties and fruit yield could help to manage the
feld inputs in a site-specifc fashion. There is extensive literature that suggests the possibility of
using topography to delineate practical, argonomically meaningful feld management zones (Corre
et al., 1996; Vitharana et al., 2008). Several researchers have concentrated on the measurement
and mapping of topographic features using different techniques for site-specifc application of
agrochemicals and irrigation in agronomic crops (Jenson and Domigue, 1988; Kravchenko and
Bullock, 2002). Pennock et al., (2001) delineated a canola feld into N management zone based
on variation in elevation using a digital elevation model (DEM). Iqbal et al. (2005) used a real-
time kinematics-global positioning system (RTK-GPS) and geographic information system (GIS)
to derive topographic

features and relate them with hydrologic attributes in a corn feld. Remote
sensing is another option to estimate slope variations within a feld. A survey-grade RTK-GPS
was more accurate than survey maps and DEM. However, these techniques are expensive and data
processing is also intensive and complicated. Therefore, there is a need to develop a cost-effective
system using reliable and cheap sensors for real-time measurement and mapping of topography
in wild blueberry felds.
The widespread availability of accurate DGPS, low-cost and reliable sensors such as accelerometers
since 2000 and the rapid evolution of laptop computing power, offers new opportunities for feld-
scale measurement and mapping of topographic features. Several researchers have been using
accelerometers for feld-scale tilt measurements (Powers et al., 2000; Jeon et al., 2004). There are
several advantages in the use of accelerometers as tilt sensors; they are cheap, small in size, reliable,
and have a fast response time. These features make this type of sensor ideal for feld-scale slope
mapping (Spencer and Owen, 1981; Barbosa et al., 2007).
Because of the lack of information about topographic features which could be used to optimize
management practices to improve fruit production, wild blueberry producers have continued to
apply agrochemicals uniformly without considering variation in slope. Therefore, the objective
of this study was to evaluate the performance of a cost-effective automated system for real-time
slope measurement and mapping in commercial wild blueberry felds for site-specifc application
of agrochemicals.
Hardware development for Slope Measurement and Mapping System (SMMS)
A tilt sensor was developed from two Memsic 2125 2-axis thermal accelerometers (Parallax, Inc.,
Rocklin, Calif. USA) in order to permit sensing the tilt of a vehicle in any orientation on a slope.
The confguration uses two accelerometers mounted with their X-Y planes perpendicular to each
other in a custom plastic enclosure. The tilt sensor was mounted on an all terrain vehicle (ATV)
nominally 0.3 m above ground level (Figure 1). The ATV was driven at an average speed of about
2.0 m/s following 10-m spaced gridlines on a ProMark3 mobile mapper (Thales Navigation, Santa
Clara, Calif., USA) also mounted on the ATV (Figure 1). The gridlines within the boundary of
each feld were created in Arcview GIS 3.2 (ESRI, Redland, Calif.) using the extension Orchard
(Lincoln Ventures Ltd, Hamilton, NZ) and imported into the ProMark3 mobile mapper. The reason
for using the mobile mapper to follow the gridlines is that wild blueberry felds have no rows or
tramline for guiding the vehicle.
The accelerometers pulse width modulation (PWM) outputs for their X and Y axes were processed
by a BasicX-24 microcontroller (Netmedia Inc., Tucson, Ariz.) which used software algorithms
to convert the force vectors to angles of tilt. Thus the microcontroller accelerometer assembly
was confgured to continuously measure tilt of the vehicle and therefore slope of the terrain at any
orientation in the X-Y plane. The tilt data from the microcontroller was continuously transmitted
through a serial RS-232 port to a laptop computer. Software on the laptop computer sampled the
tilt data at preset distances while moving over the ground with the ATV. The sample locations were
determined by a Trimble AgGPS-332 DGPS antenna (Trimble Navigation Limited, Sunnyvale,
CA) mounted on the ATV above the tilt sensor. The laptop computer also collected DGPS position
(x, y coordinates) and ground speed data in a MS-Access database (Microsoft Corp., Redmond,
WA) (Figure 1).
Software interface
The custom software for reading DGPS and tilt sensor output, calculating slope, and storing the data
in a central database was written in Delphi 5.0 (Borland Software Corp., Scotts Valley, Calif.) for
a 32-bit Windows operating system (Microsoft Corp., Redmond, WA). The software incorporated
confguration, setup and monitoring features on the main data collection page, to select the computer
hardware, and to diagnose the correct operation of the slope and DGPS (Figure 2). Tilt sensor data
output was continuously plotted on the main screen of the software. Real-time on-screen updates of
ground speed were used to manually adjust the vehicles speed to the target speed, and the measured
slope was also displayed in real-time at 1 Hz (Figure 2).
The database table could be easily viewed in the Database page of the program (Figure 2). The
tilt sensor (slope sensor) could be calibrated using the option calibrate on the main screen of the
software before taking the measurements in the feld. Slope data together with matching coordinates
could then be viewed and easily exported by copying to the Windows clipboard, and pasting to a
spreadsheet or GIS program for further processing or mapping.
Real-time performance tests and data analysis
The performance of the SMMS (software and hardware) was assessed by measuring the tilt angle
(slope, in degrees) in a number of different wild blueberry felds. For this study, four felds (site
1, Truro; F1: 2.97 ha; F2: 1.49 ha; F3: 1.49 ha; F4: 0.53 ha) located (lat. 45.365588
o
N, long.
-63.214287
o
W) and two felds (site 2, Londonderry; F5: 3.09 ha and F6: 1.07 ha) located (lat.
45.483130
o
N, long. -63.574842
o
W) in Colchester County, Central Nova Scotia were selected for
testing the accuracy of the SMMS. These felds have gentle to severe slopes. There were no rows
1

GPS Antenna
Mobile Mapper
Laptop
GPS Receiver
Slope Sensor
GPS Antenna
Mobile Mapper
Laptop
GPS Receiver
Slope Sensor
GPS Antenna
Mobile Mapper
Laptop
GPS Receiver
Slope Sensor

Fig. 1: Slope measurement and mapping system (SMMS) integration
Figure 1: Slope measurement and mapping system (SMMS) integration.
or tramlines in wild blueberry felds. Land surveys in four felds were conducted, during 13-14 Oct.
2007 to map variation in slope within the felds. Two felds in Londonderry, NS were mapped to
obtain slope variability during 13 May 2008. The tilt sensor was calibrated on a level ground surface
(0 degree slope) before taking the measurements. Actual ground speed, monitored on the main
software screen during the surveys, was maintained at about 2 m/s. The slope data and corresponding
DGPS (x, y co-ordinates) were collected at 3-m intervals and stored on the laptop computer. In
order to assess the accuracy of SMMS, the sensor slope data (SS) were correlated with manually
measured slopes (MS) at 20 randomly selected data points in each feld. These points were selected
randomly in each feld to cover the representative slope variability within felds. The sampling
points were marked with a ProMark3 mobile mapper. The slope angle was measured manually at
the 20 selected points in each feld with a Craftsman SmartTool Plus digital level (Sears Holdings
Corp., Hoffman Estates, IL). Five slope measurements were made at each selected point within a
radius of one meter and averaged to obtain the representative slope of that point.
Soil properties, leaf nutrients and fruit yield data collection
Soil profle samples (site 1; 120 samples and site 2; 70 samples) were taken from 0-15 cm depth
at each selected point in different slope zones in all felds. These samples were analyzed for soil
pH, soil organic matter content (SOM) with standard methods.
Leaf samples (site 1; 28 samples and site 2; 38 samples) from each selected point were collected
for nutrient analysis out of the 0.5 0.5 m quadrat in different slope zones to cover variability
in each feld. Leaf nitrogen (N) was determined by the Kjeldahl method and phosphorus (P),
potassium (K), concentration were determined by Inductively Coupled Plasma Atomic Emission
Spectroscopy (ICP AES). Fruit samples (site 1; 55 samples and site 2; 37 samples) were collected
by hand-harvesting out of the 0.50.5 m quadrat, using hand raking from different slope zones
in each feld. Blueberries were separated from debris including leaves, grass and weeds for each
sample and weighed at the time of harvest.
Data analysis
The datasets (SS and MS at selected points) of all felds were analyzed using classical statistical
techniques with SAS software (SAS Institute, Cary, NC, USA) to obtain minimum, maximum
and mean values. The linear regression method was used to test the relationship between SS and
MS of selected points. The coeffcients of determination (R
2
) and root mean square error (RMSE)
were calculated to examine the performance of the system using SAS and Excel (MS Offce 2000)
spreadsheets. Soil properties, leaf nutrients and fruit yield data from the selected felds were
combined and divided into three classes for each site to relate with different slope zones (0-12, 12-
18 and 18-30 degrees). The mixed procedure was used to compare the means and matching means
of selected variables and slope were separated by the t-test at 5% level of signifcant with SAS
software. The survey data fles of DGPS, MS and MS were imported into ArcView GIS software for
mapping. Interpolated SS slope surfaces were obtained with the neighborhood statistics analysis
function using an inverse distance squared function. The georeferenced MS data was mapped and
overlaid on a smoothed SS map for comparison.
The system performed reliably during these surveys, permitting real-time measurement, calculation,
presentation and storage of slope data. Each feld survey took about 25, 16, 20, 6, 26 and 9 minutes
to complete, and collected 1107, 715, 862, 242, 1150 and 400 slope measurements in the felds F1,
F2, F3, F4, F5 and F6, respectively.
The MS were signifcantly correlated with SS (R
2
=0.98 to 0.99; RMSE=0.11 to 0.57 degrees) in the
selected felds. The difference between MS and SS could be infuenced by the accuracies of both
SMMS and manual measurements. The results indicated that low-cost, accurate accelerometers
could be used as tilt sensors to develop SMMS for reliable real-time measurement and mapping
of slope variations within wild blueberry felds.
Due to space constraints the maps of site 1 (F1-F4: Figure 2) are presented as an example. There
was substantial variation in slope within each feld (Figure 2). The slope varied from 0.8 to 31.0
degree in the selected felds. The slopes in each feld were divided into fve classes; very low (0-
6), low (6.1-12), moderate (12.1-18) steep (18.1 -24) and very steep (24.1-30). A smoothed map
of slopes developed by interpolation of individual measured SS, identifed contiguous classifed
zones of the felds where slopes were different (Figure 2). The MS data were mapped and overlaid
on the SS map for comparison. The results indicated that SMMS was suffciently accurate for
many site-specifc or precision agriculture uses. The MS at each location in the felds coincided
with SS. Low and steep SS was very well correlated with low and steep MS at each selected data
point throughout the felds (Figure 2). The relationships between MS and SS (Table 1) support the
relations identifed from the map (Figure 2). The substantial low lying areas and the areas with steep
slope of each feld emphasize the need for the development of cost-effective SMMS to measure
and map slope variability in wild blueberry felds. Accurate, reliable measurement and mapping
of slope with SMMS is useful to produce prescription maps for precise site-specifc application of
agrochemicals within wild blueberry felds.
The soil organic matter, leaf nutrients (N, P) and fruit yield were signifcantly different in steep
slopes and low lying areas of each feld (Table 2). The results indicated that fruit yield in low lying
areas increased as the amount of SOM and nutrients (N, P) increased. The fruit yield was less in
very steep slope zones where the amount of SOM, N and P were also less as compared to low slope
zones in the felds. The plants in steep slope (>18 degree) areas would receive less fertilizer than
the plants in low lying areas (slope <12 degree) with uniform application of agrochemicals. The
reason is that nutrients erode from steep slope areas to low lying areas within felds. Unnecessary
2

Fig. 2: Interpolated maps of slope angles in degrees, measured automatically with the
SMMS (SS) and manually (MS) at selected points () in wild blueberry fields.

Figure 2. Interpolated maps of slope angles in degrees, measured automatically with the SMMS
(SS) and manually (MS) at selected points () in wild blueberry felds.
or over-fertilization in low lying areas may also deteriorate water quality, promote increased weed
growth and increase production cost. Under-fertilization restricts yield and can reduce berry quality
(Percival and Sanderson, 2004). The maps obtained by SMMS could be used to develop appropriate
management zones based on slope variation for variable rate application of agrochemicals within
wild blueberry felds.
Table 1. Summary statistics for determining the accuracy of slope angle measurements with
an automated system (SS) relative to the manual reference measurements (MS) of 20 selected
points in each of six felds.
Field (n) Mean (degree) Max. (degree) Min. (degree) R
2
RMSE
MSF1 (20) 12.6 30.1 1.2 0.995 0.570
SSF1(20) 12.9 31.0 1.0
MSF2 (20) 10.1 20.8 0.9 0.990 0.135
SSF2 (20) 10.2 21.4 1.1
MSF3 (20) 12.8 30.3 1.3 0.995 0.111
SSF3 (20) 12.8 29.5 0.8
MSF4 (20) 7.8 13.9 3.3 0.981 0.165
SSF4 (20) 8.0 13.4 3.5
MSF5 (20) 11.97 26.2 1.3 0.994 0.207
SSF5 (20) 12.15 27.2 1.1
MSF6 (20) 11.24 23.9 0.7 0.996 0.456
SSF6 (20) 11.66 24.6 1.0
Table 2. Comparison of mean fruit yield, soil properties, and leaf nutrients for different slope
zones at both sites.
Soil properties/laf
nutrients/fuit yield
Site 1
Slope (degrees) zones
Site 2
Slope (degrees) zones
0-12 12-18 18-24 0-12 12-18 18-24
Yield (Mg/ha) 6.1
a
4.9
b
2.6
b
8.6
a
5.6
b
3.15
b
Soil poperties
SOM (g/kg) 55.4
a
45.1
b
41.7
b
82.2
a
70.2
b
57.2
b
Soil pH 4.54
a
4.6
a
4.62
a
4.65
a
4.65
a
4.68
a
Leaf ntrients
N (g/kg) 16.3
a
16
a
13.2
b
18.1
ab
18.3
a
16.2
b
P (g/kg) 1.3
a
1.2
ab
1.0
b
1.4
a
1.2
ab
1.0
b
K(g/kg) 4.1
a
4.2
a
3.8
a
4.4
a
4.3
a
4.1
a
a,b
Means followed by similar letter(s) in each row not signifcantly different from each other at
the 5% confdence level.
Conclusions
It is concluded that the cheap, accurate, reliable, small size and light weight accelerometers could
be used as tilt sensors to develop the SMMS. The SMMS was suffciently accurate to measure and
map slope rapidly and reliably in selected wild blueberry felds. Therefore, it is proposed that wild
blueberry felds should be surveyed to measure and map slope with a SMMS. The slope map along
with nutrient and yield maps could be used to generate prescription maps for precise site-specifc
application of agrochemicals in the felds to improve horticultural proftability and environmental
protection. The slope maps can also be used for safety reasons during feld operations by adjusting
the vehicles speed at particular slopes.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the Oxford Frozen Foods Limited, Agri-Futures (ACAAF) Nova Scotia,
Wild Blueberry Producers Association of Nova Scotia and Nova Scotia Department of Agriculture
Technology Development Program. The authors would like to thank Gary Brown and Doug Wyllie
(farm managers Bragg Lumber Company), Dainis Nams, Robert Morgan (research assistant) and
Scott Reed (technician) for their assistance during the experiment.
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topographic properties to delineate potential management classes for precision agriculture in the European
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Yarborough, D.E., 2004. Innovation in weed management in wild blueberry felds in Maine. In: Proceeding
VIII International Symposium on Vaccinium Culture. L. Lopes da Fonseca et al. (Eds.) Acta Hort 715,
ISHSW 2006. pp. 197-202.
Intelligent autonomous system for the detection and
treatment of fungal diseases in arable crops
D. Moshou
1
, C. Bravo
2
, R. Oberti
3
, L. Bodria
3
, S. Vougioukas
1
and H. Ramon
2
1
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Agricultural Engineering Lab, Faculty of Agriculture, P.O.Box
275, 54124, Thessaloniki, Greece; dmoshou@agro.auth.gr
2
Division of Mechatronics, Biostatistics and Sensors, Department of Biosystems, KULeuven,
Belgium
Istituto Di Ingegneria Agraria, Universita Degli Studi di Milano, Italy
Abstact
In this paper, the development phases of a ground-based real-time remote sensing system are
described. The proposed system can be carried by tractors or robotic platforms. This prototype
system makes possible the detection of plant diseases automatically in arable crops at an early stage
of disease development, even before the diseases are visibly detectable, during feld operations.
The methodology uses differences in refectance and fuorescence properties between healthy
and diseased plants. Hyperspectral refectance, fuorescence imaging, and multispectral imaging
techniques were developed for simultaneous acquisition in the same canopy. New fuorescence
acquisition techniques were developed, experimental platforms were constructed, and the advantage
of using sensor fusion was proven. An intelligent multisensor fusion decision system based on
neural networks was developed aiming at predicting the presence of diseases or plant stresses, in
order to treat the diseases in a spatially variable way. A robust multi-sensor platform integrating
optical sensing, GPS and a data processing unit was constructed and calibrated. The functionality
of automatic disease sensing and detection devices is crucial in order to conceive a site-specifc
spraying strategy against fungal foliar diseases. Furthermore, feld tests were carried out to optimise
the functioning of the multi-sensor disease-detection device. An overview is provided on how
disease presence data are processed in order to enable an automatic site-specifc spraying strategy in
winter wheat. Furthermore, mapping of diseases based on automated optical sensing and intelligent
prediction provide a spatially variable recommendation for spraying.
Keywords: foliar disease detection, site-specifc spraying, fuorescence, refectance, multispectral
imaging
Introduction
In order to reduce the effective amounts of fungicides sprayed on wheat felds, a new approach
was developed. This method aimed at applying phytopharmaceuticals according to the required
dose, observable through the health status of wheat plants. This implies spraying less or nothing
on healthy feld parts, while infested parts should be covered. The advantage would be double: less
environmental loading by chemicals and reduced spraying costs for the feld operator.
The objective of this work is to propose a site-specifc spraying strategy against fungal foliar diseases
in winter wheat. This strategy depends upon the ability of detecting diseases accurately. However,
automatic disease sensing devices are limited in their capacity to detect infestations on the feld.
This paper reviews the reason why and in which infestation stage fungal diseases are detectable.
Finally, taking into account the limitations of automatic disease sensing, an overview will be
provided on how this information can be used for spraying effciently against foliar fungal diseases.
The diseases under investigation were yellow rust (Puccinia striiformis) and Septoria graminicola.
Measurement techniques
Fluorescence imaging
The used method takes advantage of the fuorescing plant capabilities. This offers the opportunity
to estimate the plants chlorophyll content as well as to have an idea about the metabolic status of
the plant. Fluorescence can be measured in several ways. In fuorescence techniques a saturating
light beam is sent from a shorter waveband (blue or red) to the leaf and the fuorescing signal is
then measured in a longer waveband.
Using Charged Coupled Device (CCD) or Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS)
technology, it is possible to take images of fuorescence. The imaging camera is triggered on a
predefned moment after the beam has been sent on the leaves. By tuning the best moment can be
found for mapping the fuorescing signals on the leaf. A result for a laboratory experiment is shown
in Figure 1. Here, brown rust (Puccinia recondita) inoculum was added on a winter wheat plant.
For the same inoculated leaf, a fuorescence image was sampled up to 20 days after inoculation
(dai). During the early infection stages (3 and 7 dai) zones of high fuorescence are detected on
inoculation areas (Bodria et al., 2002).
When necrosis appears (after 14 dai), the fuorescence signal tends to disappear (notice the dark
spots inside a halo of high fuorescence). However the fungal infections can already be detected well
before symptoms become visible. Basically, the chlorophyll content on infected cells does not change
during incubation, but their metabolism does. The infected cells change onto respiration; meanwhile
the surrounding healthy cells have to produce more carbohydrates for the fungal biotrophe through
photosynthesis. Therefore, the surrounding cells are better prepared for using the overwhelming light
energy, and thus fuoresce less. This causes the typical infection pattern seen on Figure 1. Though
highly reliable for indoor measurements with controlled conditions, outdoor fuorescence imaging
seems only possible when attenuating all ambient light. Especially during chlorophyll saturating
conditions such as direct sunlight illumination, fuorescence imaging seems impossible. However,
the results of evening experiments pointed out that under attenuated illumination conditions, the
fuorescence signal can be useful for disease detection (Bodria et al., 2002).
Spectral refection analysis
A very popular way in remote sensing consists of analyzing the refected spectral radiation from
the canopy (or single leaves) in order to fnd differences between healthy and infected plants.
Diseases can be mainly detected as a stress: this means a higher yellow-red refectance (due to lower
pigmentation and chlorophyll content) and a lower NIR refectance (due to the structural collapse

Figure 1. Fluorescence images at 690nm of Brown Rust infected leaf for several days after
inoculation (dai). These measurements were performed in light controlled conditions in a
laboratory environment.

Figure 1. Fluorescence images at 690 nm of brown rust infected leaf for several days after
inoculation (dai). These measurements were performed in light controlled conditions in a
laboratory environment.
of the dying cells). This is illustrated in Figure 2. This confrms the naked eyes observations in
which a necrotic leaf area seems more yellow-brown.
In Table 1 a summary is provided of how stresses can be recognized, taking into account three
types of stresses: yellow rust infestation, Septoria infestation or a nutrient defciency due to reduced
fertilizer application (in this case nitrogen). The major disadvantage of this spectral approach is
that a healthy well fertilized reference crop is always necessary for calibration.
Multispectral imaging
Foliar disease infections can be seen as a spatial pattern on the leaf. Therefore one could opt for
imaging systems. A crucial problem here is how to identify a disease spot. Mostly no illumination
references are available during imaging and ambient conditions change drastically. These methods
should thus rely on relative changes in image features that appear during monitoring the same plant.
Concretely this means that for every acquired image following algorithms are needed:
a. to discriminate soil from leaf; and
b. to locate possible disease lesions.
wavelength (nm)
r
e
f
l
e
c
t
a
n
c
e
450 500 550 600 650 700 750 800 850 900
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
4.5
healthy
diseased
blue green
yellow
red
red edge
NIR
wavelength (nm)
r
e
f
l
e
c
t
a
n
c
e
450 500 550 600 650 700 750 800 850 900
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
4.5
healthy
diseased
blue green
yellow
red
red edge
NIR

Figure 2. Intensity normalized reflectance spectra for greenhouse Septoria presence; the X-
axis represents the wavelength region in nm, the Y-axis is the reflectance (dimensionless).

Figure 2. Intensity normalized refectance spectra for greenhouse presence; the X-axis
represents the wavelength region in nm, the Y-axis is the refectance (dimensionless).
Table 1. Spectral differences in stress characteristics
1
.
Spectral refectance per stress
type compared to a healthy
control
550 nm 550-620 nm 620-650 nm 650-670 nm >750 nm
low increasing increasing max negative
Yellow rust low increasing max decreasing negative
Fertilizer defciency max decreasing decreasing low negative
1
Summary of the principal spectral differences in stress characteristics over the 450 to 900 nm
range compared to a well fertilized healthy crop
All used flters and thresholds are not solely dependent on ambient conditions, but are also related
to the acquisition circumstances (lens aperture, camera gain settings, CCD exposure time, etc.).
Figure 3 shows a Color InfraRed (CIR) image (in false colors) with the subsequent processed image.
The spectral methods presented above indicate that these wavebands should be situated in the
red as well as in the NIR regions. The more lesions are observed the higher the disease pressure.
The proportion of leaf area showing lesions is called the lesion index (LI). Multispectral imaging
provides a very strong instrument for detecting lesions. The use of only one red and one NIR image
is suffcient for separating a diseased area from healthy tissue. The fundamental question here is
to relate the detected lesions with disease presence.
Detection stage
The stage of infection at which the disease becomes detectable is clearly different between the three
presented methods. Except for fuorescence imaging, no other technique can detect an effective
disease presence before it becomes visible to the naked eye. Using increased discoloration of
infected leaves, the disease evolution can be monitored by spectral methods slightly before the frst
sporulation. Finally, when symptoms appear as obvious lesions, multispectral imaging becomes
useful. For laboratory measurements on single plants, the precise date of infection can be critical,
and pre-visual disease assessment might be necessary. In feld circumstances, detection of diseases
before sporulation provides the opportunity of preventing a new infection cycle. Lesions at that
moment are already visible and highly infected plants will show advanced discolorations. Refection
based systems should provide suffcient information for accurate mapping of diseases.
Site specifc spraying strategy
A disease detection prototype
In order to gather spatial data related to disease presence over an entire feld, a prototype was
assembled. The general idea behind this prototype is to combine two independent disease detection
systems: a multispectral imager and a spectrophotometer. While multispectral imaging provides a
reliable idea of necrotic spot concentration on wheat leaves, the spectrophotometer will concentrate
on the analysis of refectance spectra measured at canopy level. The insertion of optical fbers on a
spray boom offers the possibility for sampling over the entire boom width. The acquisition of the
optical data is synchronized with the accompanying DGPS positional data.

Figure 3. On the left: a raw CIR image where the blue color represents a NIR waveband, red
and green colors represent respectively red and green wavebands; on the right: the resulting
lesion map with classified pixels as lesions in white and as healthy vegetation in grey.

Figure 3. On the left: a raw CIR image where the blue color represents a NIR waveband, red
and green colors represent respectively red and green wavebands; on the right: the resulting
lesion map with classifed pixels as lesions in white and as healthy vegetation in grey.
A multitude of optical fbers (15 in total) are arranged along the length of the boom and each fber
is pointed downwards, collecting light from an area of about 20 cm diameter at the upper canopy
level. The fbers then guide the light to a spectrophotometer. In the boom direction, fbers are
spaced at 1 m intervals; in the driving direction, data should be acquired at maximum 1 m distances
triggered by the on-board GPS system independently of the tractor speed. The used prototype is
illustrated in Figure 4.
Sensor fusion results
The feasibility of using sensor fusion for more robust and accurate detection of fungal diseases and
nutrient stresses has been proven in Moshou et al. (2005) and Bravo et al. (2004).
Sensor data fusion was performed by concatenating the LI resulting from the CIR camera to the
spectral results as a separate variable to each spectral observation. This was possible since all fbers
felds of view were concentrated in the feld of view of the CIR camera. By adding the spectral
wavebands to the LI, it is possible to estimate the classifcation effciency due to fusion. Spectral
data between 450-900 nm were divided into 2510-pixelwide wavebands (covering 18 nm each)
in order to remove as much as possible spectral noise. A total of 281 healthy and 141 spectra were
used. A percentage of 70% were randomly chosen for training and the rest were used for testing.
Two methods were compared: quadratic discrimination (QDA) vs. neural networks and more specifc
multilayer perceptrons trained with bayesian regularisation (NN). The results are shown in Table
2. It was found that due to noise the spectra gave a marginal though effcient addition to the LI.
From sensing to a site-specifc spray command
The developed optical system must ft into a complete set of tools that allow site-specifc treatment
of in-feld foliar diseases. The following is an example of how the disease detection results can be
implemented into a practical spraying decision. The disease detection results obtained from the
multisensor prototype were used to construct a map which is shown in Figure 5. The grey dots
are positions of measurements estimated as healthy and the black dots represent the feld points
estimated as diseased.
Actual recommendation and application maps were constructed from disease detection data using
the multisensor prototype presented above. The data concerning Yellow Rust were measured on
June 6
th
, 2003. On the other hand, the same data were analyzed by epidemiologists (Figure 6).
The observed focus diameter was 3 meter (presented by the dark circle). Taking into account the
weather up to June 6
th
(date of measurement, indicated by the right vertical bar), it was possible

inoculation
focus
CIR camera
field of view
optical fibers
field of view
CIR camera
inoculation inoculation
focus
CIR camera
field of view
optical fibers
field of view
CIR camera
inoculation

Figure 4. On the left: picture of the tractor mounted prototype platform. The field of view of
the multi-spectral camera is on the right side of the tractor, 2 m away from the tramlines; the
15 downward looking spectrograph fibers are distributed along the boom frame, at 1 m
distance from each other; on the right: sketch of the instrumental arrangement.

Figure 4. On the left: picture of the tractor mounted prototype platform. The feld of view of
the multi-spectral camera is on the right side of the tractor, 2 m away from the tramlines; the
15 downward looking spectrograph fbers are distributed along the boom frame, at 1 m distance
from each other; on the right: sketch of the instrumental arrangement.
to identify the nearest infection period at which the observed infection started. This is calculated
by subtracting the necessary latency period from the measurement date (second vertical bar). The
closest previous day with high infection risks is then determined to be the day responsible for the
latest observed infections. Infection risks are determined by a combination of relative humidity,
temperature and rainfall. Therefore, it is possible to estimate the position of the incubating disease
(latent infections) and the disease under the detection level indicated by the light grey circle.
The light grey circle indicates the zone that has to be certainly sprayed in order to prevent further
inoculations and crop damage. In Figure 6 the size of the light grey circle is calculated for June
6
th
, but could be considered for a later date also. This information was combined with the original
disease presence map such that a spray recommendation map was obtained (Figure 7).
The dark areas show the part of the measured area that needs to be treated following the spray
recommendation. The grey areas show the measured area, which does not need a special protection
treatment.
Table 2. Results of disease detection
1
.
Lesion Index (LI) Wave band index Error percentage
QDA YES NO 7.8
QDA YES 3 17 22 6.6
NN YES 3 17 22 5.9
QDA YES All 25 8.6
NN YES All 25 5.1
1
Results of disease detection using a two hidden layer neural network with respectively 30
and 15 neurons, 26 inputs (25 spectral bands and LI) and two outputs (diseased-healthy). The
waveband index refers to one of the 25 wavebands with a width of 18 nm that are spanning
the spectral region 450-900 nm. The error percentage expresses overall misclassifcation rate
calculated as number of misclassifed test samples (diseased misclassifed as healthy and vice-
versa) divided by their total number.

-100 -90 -80 -70 -60 -50 -40 -30 -20 -10 0
-25
-20
-15
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-5
0
5
relative lattitude (m)
r
e
l
a
t
i
v
e
l
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(
m
)
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)

Figure 5. Map with all optical observations in grey and detected disease in black; data
measured on June 6
th
, 2003.
Figure 5. Map with all optical observations in grey and detected disease in black; data measured
on June 6
th
, 2003.
Conclusions
The functionality of automatic disease sensing and detection devices is crucial in order to conceive
a site-specifc spraying strategy against fungal foliar diseases. Due to their limitations, disease
presence will be detected above a certain infestation threshold, and a certain infestation stage. Pre-
visual disease assessment is only possible 3 to 7 days after infestation using fuorescence imaging.
However this method was not practical in feld circumstances. On the other hand, light refection
systems (spectral analysis and multispectral imaging) are only useful when the disease symptoms are
visible. In order to protect the feld effciently, the sprayer needs to know the spatial distribution of
diseases during incubation. For radially propagated diseases, it is possible to determine a perimeter
100
80
60
40
20
temperature
1/10/02
1/10/02
1/12/02
1/12/02
1/02/03
1/02/03
1/04/03
1/04/03
1/06/03
1/06/03
daily meteorological data
30
20
10
0
% relative humidity
20
15
10
5
0
rainfall in mm
100
0
daily infection risks
100
80
60
40
20
temperature
1/10/02
1/10/02
1/12/02
1/12/02
1/02/03
1/02/03
1/04/03
1/04/03
1/06/03
1/06/03
daily meteorological data
30
20
10
0
% relative humidity
20
15
10
5
0
rainfall in mm
100
0
daily infection risks

Figure 6. Epidemiologic model output for the disease map in Figure 5; rainfall (mm) is
represented in dark grey (bar plot in the bottom of the figure), temperature (C) in black
(continuous line), relative humidity (%) in light grey and daily infection risks in pale grey; the
three vertical red bars represent the observation date (highest bar), the observation date less
the latency period (medium bar) and the last risk period situated before this date (lowest bar);
the black circle represents the observed focus area and the light grey circle represents the
extent of infected area to be sprayed around this observed focus.

Figure 6. Epidemiologic model output for the disease map in Figure 5; rainfall (mm) is represented
in dark grey (bar plot in the bottom of the fgure), temperature (C) in black (continuous line),
relative humidity (%) in light grey and daily infection risks in pale grey; the three vertical red
bars represent the observation date (highest bar), the observation date less the latency period
(medium bar) and the last risk period situated before this date (lowest bar); the black circle
represents the observed focus area and the light grey circle represents the extent of infected
area to be sprayed around this observed focus.
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-25
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-5
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m
)
-100 -90 -80 -70 -60 -50 -40 -30 -20 -10 0
-25
-20
-15
-10
-5
0
5
r
e
l
a
t
i
v
e
l
o
n
g
i
t
u
d
e

(
m
)

Figure 7. Spray recommendation map based on a 3m protection distance.
Figure 7. Spray recommendation map based on a 3 m protection distance.
around a detected infection hazard using advanced epidemiologic models. These consider the
disease presence above the detection threshold at the moment of detection and therefore estimate
real disease presence. By combining this presence with meteorological data these models provide
a minimal protection radius around the initially detected infection hazard. As it is impossible to
estimate this effective presence during measurement, the authors plead for a two way approach:
a. location of diseases during an early feld operation such as fertilization;
b. site-specifc spraying when the effective disease presence is known.
The example of this article shows in brief steps how the acquired spatially accurate disease detection
data are effciently processed towards practical spraying decisions. Highly accurate disease detection
and infection estimation are therefore the most crucial and delicate parts of this process and to this
end a multisensor data fusion system is a critical performance enhancing component.
Acknowledgements
This research has been partially funded by the OPTIDIS project EU-QLK5-CT99-01280. The
OPTIDIS project was funded by the EU under the Quality of Life ProgrammeFramework V.
References
Bodria, L., Fiala, M., Oberti, R. and Naldi, E., 2002. Chlorophyll fuorescence sensing for early detection of
crops diseases symptoms. In: ASAE (eds.), ASAE Paper No. 021114. St. Joseph, Mich. Proceedings of
the ASAE - CIGR World Congress. 28 July - 1 August 2002. Chicago, IL, USA.
Bravo, C., Moshou, D., Oberti, R., West, J., McCartney, A. and Ramon, H., 2004. Foliar Disease Detection
in the Field Using Optical Sensor Fusion. Agricultural Engineering International: the CIGR Journal of
Scientifc Research and Development. Manuscript FP 04 008. Vol. VI. December 2004.
Moshou, D., Bravo, C., Oberti, R., West, J., Bodria, L., McCartney, A. and Ramon, H., 2005. Plant Disease
Detection based on Data Fusion of Hyper-spectral and Multi-spectral Fluorescence Imaging using Kohonen
Maps. Real Time Imaging Journal-Special Issue on spectral Imaging II 11(2):75-83.
On-the-go yield and sugar sensing in grape harvester
E.M. Bguena
1
, P. Barreiro
1
, C. Valero
1
, X. Sort
2
, M. Torres
2
and J.M. Ubalde
2
1
Laboratorio de Propiedades Fsicas y Tecnologas Avanzadas en Agroalimentacin ETSI
Agrnomos, Universidad Politcnica de Madrid, Avda. Complutense, s/n. Madrid, Spain;
eva.baguena@upm.es
2
Department of Viticulture, Miguel Torres Winery, S.A. c/ Miquel Torres i Carb, 6. Vilafranca del
Peneds, Spain
Abstract
This paper summarises the results of a joint R+D project between university and industry. The
study was developed at the Alt Pendes region, in Barcelona, during the 2006 and 2007 (on 3, 22,
69 felds respectively). The quality sensors set-up in year 2007, mounted on a New Holland SB55
grape harvester, were: two load cells, one refractometer, an ambient temperature prove and a GPS
antenna, while in 2006 only the load cells and the GPS performed properly. The method used for
this study is as follows: (1) Data recording from GPS and Logger (the latter is use for according and
digitalising the sensor signal); (2) Wireless download of data to a PC; (3) Automatic data integration
in a single fle; (4) Lane automatic identifcation based on trajectory angles, machine forward
speed determination, effective time calculation, masic fow, kg/m, and total amount harvested, kg/
hopper, computation of characteristic soluble solid content and temperature during harvest; (5) Data
broadcasting through GPRS to the winery; (6) Comparison of transmitted data with the invoice of
the winery containers. After the season was fnished, a data post processing was performed in order
to a assess the causes of isolated incidences that were registered in 10 felds. Also a recalibration
of the sensors for future seasons was performed. At current stage R
2
of 0.9547 is found between
winery and in feld yield data. Beside georeference data were gathered and compare to the remote
photos in Instituto Cartogrfco de Catalua. Site-specifc yield maps and speed maps have been
computed while broad soluble solid information is not available due to slight dysfunctions of the
grape juice pumping system towards to the refractometer.
Keywords: precision viticulture, sensors, weight, soluble solid content, site-specifc maps
Introduction
Precision viticulture (PV) is a precision agriculture (PA) application where technologies, computing
and electronics are used to evaluate vineyard management and variability. Several authors have
studied spatial variability of vineyard yield using grids to sampling different points and variables and
linking these with optical remote sensing (Ortega et al., 2003; Arn et al., 2005; Paolit et al., 2005).
This work shows the preliminary results of a joint collaboration between the Polytechnic University
of Madrid and Miguel Torres S.A., a large winery situated at the Alt Pendes region, in Barcelona.
The work aims at developing a system for grape harvesters which allows gathering the information
and data that link feld production and corresponding quality, as to improve vineyard management.
During harvest season 2006 and 2007 data from some vineyards located at the Alt Pendes region
were gathered and analysed. With these data site specifc yield maps and speed maps have being
computer.
A New Holland SB55 grape harvester (Figure 1a) equipped with a DGPS (for data georeferentation),
a DataLogger (for recording sensor measurements), two load cells with devoted electronics, one
refractometer and a PT100 probe were used to obtain the different data.
The refractometer is an Atago CM-780 in-line brix-monitor (Atago, USA). This instrument measures
the refractive index that increases in proportion to the concentration of the solution. The output
is an analog current signal (4 mA to 20 mA) proportional to Soluble Solid Content (SSC, Brix).
In 2006 haverst season, grape juice was ghatered from the bottom of the hopper, but seeds went to
block the mechanism. To overcame this problem, in harvest season 2007, grape juice was ghatered
from a worm drive situated on the top of the hopper, just where grape grains fall into the hopper.
Data were collected along harvest season 2006 and 2007. In the 2006 vintage, data were collected
for 22 vineyards and in the 2007 vintage, data from 69 vineyards were gathered along 6 weeks
(25
th
August - 4
th
October). Nevertheless, in the frst harvest season, only 5 out of these 22 felds
could be processed, and in the second harvest season, 31 out of 69 felds could be processed, as
full data sets were available.
The data analysis procedure consisted of:
a. On board PC data recording from the GPS and the DataLogger with a 1 Hz frequency. Selected
NMEA messages were: GPGGA, GPGSA and GPVTG. GPGGA message was used to
determinate antenna position in latitude and longitude, GPGSA message provided the number
of available satellites and the signal precision, and GPVTG message was used to know the
speed in km/h. The DataLogger recorded data from the two load cells in mV, data from the
refractometer in mA and data from PT100 probe in degree Celsius.
b. Data download by means of Wi-Fi communications towards a portable PC situated at feld. The
GPS and the DataLogger were connected to a Wi-Fi.
c. Automated time based data linking of GPS-Logger. Data in a portable PC were unifed with a
Matlab routine in an only fle to link each GPS data with each DataLogger data.
d. Data processing by means of Matlab routines as to derive: weight (kg), crop yield (kg/m), soluble
solids content (Brix) and feld temperature (C). These routines will be further explained in
the text.
e. GPRS communication of data towards the winery with devoted application. Once data have
been processed, a Matlab routine provides a summary table containing the most important
parameters for winery personnel, which is sent to the winery server.
f. comparison of onboard and winery data. Data comparison will explain subsequently.
Data processing
DGPS data (latitude, altitude, longitude) in degrees are converted to UTM coordinates according
to datum ED-50 (European Datum) which is the standard used by the Instituto Cartogrfco de
Catalua (ICC), the Institution that provides free access to Catalonian orthomaps.
Figures 1b and 1c show an example of orthomap and corresponding XUTM-YUTM data.
A dedicated mathematical routine has been programmed for the identifcation of crop rows using
the inverse tangent of the displacement (AYUTM/AXUTM) as recorded by the GPS (Figures 1e and
1f). This algorithm allows to differentiate the periods when the grape harvester stays within crop
line (effective time, ET) and those when the grape harvester turns, unloads the hoppers, or stops
within the feld (accessory times, AT). This information allows computing the so called machine
performance (ET/(ET+AT)*100, 0-100, see Table 1).
Table 1 shows different data for 10 vineyards harvested in 2006 vintage. To compute the parameters,
the GPS information is necessary. The most important fact observed in the table is the large
differences in machine performance for the different vineyards. For example, in the vineyard
number 8, machine performance is 39.59%, through in the vineyard 1, machine performance is
77.93%. The reason for this is the effect of feld shape and line length on corresponding AT and ET.
Weight signal (kg) is fltered as to remove the noise caused by vibrations due to the movement of
the grape harvester. A one-dimensional digital flter that eliminates high frequencies related noise
is used (see Figure 2). This flter fnds a running average without using a for loop. Instantaneous
mass fow (kg/s) is computed by means of linear regression of the weight-time signal using a
0 / 2
-+

a) b)

c)
d) e) f)

Figure 1: a) Photograph of the grape harvester New Holland SB55; b) Example of an
orthomap; c) Example of XUTM and YUTM coordinates; d) Example of the grape harvester
speed; e) and f) Identification of row crops.

Figure 1. (a) Photograph of the grape harvester New Holland SB55; (b) Example of an orthomap;
(c) Example of XUTM and YUTM coordinates; (d) Example of the grape harvester speed; (e)
and (f) Identifcation of row crops.
Table 1. Theoretical work capacity (ha/h) and machine performance (%) for processed vineyards
in 2006.
Vineyard Rows (n) Accessory
time (s) AT
Effective
time (s) ET
Mean
speed
(km/h)
Yield
(kg/m)
Theoretical
work capacity
(ha/h)
Machine
performance
(%) ET/(ET+AT)
1 108 4050 14299 3.68 3.22 0.81 77.93
2 32 1557 3342 3.02 2.29 0.66 68.22
3 34 2263 3601 3.16 4.09 0.69 61.41
4 36 1396 4104 3.01 2.82 0.66 74.62
5 30 775 2055 3.11 2.42 0.68 72.61
6 29 2051 2499 3.33 2.94 0.74 54.92
7 24 3387 2811 3.36 2.51 0.74 45.35
8 72 12249 8027 3.08 2.57 0.65 39.59
9 7 500 833 3.02 2.69 0.66 62.49
10 34 1760 2384 2.59 3.21 0.57 57.53
user defned window, which in our case was fxed to 5 points. The instantaneous yield (kg/m) is
computed as the ratio between instantaneous fow (kg/s) and instantaneous fltered speed (m/s).
Taking into account that inter-vine distance is standardised to 1 meter, the yield (kg/m) is also
referring to a single plant yield. The total weight of the hoppers (kg) was assessed as the integral
of the instantaneous mass fows for inter unload periods.
Site-specifc maps
Once data have been processed and UTM coordinates have been computed, the process to develop
yield maps is the following. The frst step is to include these UTM coordinates into a web site of
the ICC with the aim of addressing the proper orthophoto. The second step consisted of including
the orthophotos into ArcGis, creating layers on top of them referring to yield (kg/m) and machine
speed (km/h).
Weight data analysis
In harvest season 2006 only 5 felds data were processed; however in harvest season 2007, data were
gathered from 69 vineyards, although only 31 vineyards of these 69 could be processed correctly.
When onboard weight and winery weight data (from 31 vineyard data of harvest season 2007) are
compared by means of linear regression, a random error of 4.53% is found with an slope of 1.0979
(9.79% above the unit value).
Figure 3 shows the weight comparison between harvest season 2006 (squares) and 2007 (stars).
Both sensors follow the same linear function.
Yield data analysis
Figure 4 shows the site-specifc yield map for vineyard A. Data were divided into eleven ranks to
difference the yield along the vineyard with STD/x*100, % variation along the feld.
Sugar data analysis
During the two harvest seasons, the grape juice fow system showed strong incidences: pump
feeding, mechanical problems related to the DC motor and worm drive system, thus most of the

Figure 2: Load cells weight (kg)

Figure 2. Load cells weight (kg).
vineyards havent got solible solid data. However, the procedure used in harvest season 2007,
previosly explained, would be more solid for mapping compared to the former.
Figure 5 shows Soluble Solid Content (SSC) from two different vineyards harvested in 2006 vintage.
One of this (black) corresponds to Muscat variety (more sweet), while the other vineyard (grey)
corresponds to Parellada variety (less sweet than the Muscat). The frst vineyard presents one SSC
mode of 26.6 Brix and the second presents two modes whose values are 12.1 and 16.2 Brix, the
second one due to juice mixture between felds.

Figure 3: Weight comparison between harvest season 2006 (squares) and 2007 (stars)

Figure 3. Weight comparison between harvest season 2006 (squares) and 2007 (stars).

Legend
Vineyard A yield
rdto (kg/m)
0,0 - 1,0
1,1 - 2,0
2,1 - 3,0
3,1 - 4,0
4,1 - 5,0
5,1 - 6,0
6,1 - 7,0
7,1 - 8,0
8,1 - 9,0
9,1 - 10,0
>10

Figure 4:Site-specific yield map for vineyard A
Figure 4. Site-specifc yield map for vineyard A.

Conclusions
GPS data allow a very representative estimation of machine performance. Weight system underneath
the hoppers of the grape harvester is very robust, however, in future works, weight data could be
processed computing in more robust ways as to adjust better the weights compared to winery values.
Soluble Solid Content estimation depends on the proper fow of liquid, so the system should be
revised to come to a better adjustment.
Acknowledgments
The authors acknowledge the following projects for corresponding founding: PETRI PTR-95-
0895-OP Integrating grape quality sensors in yield monitors in grape harvesters, TAGRALIA
P-AGR-000187-0505 (founded by the Madrid Regional Government) and the collaboration project
P070240675 between the University and Miguel Torres, S.A. winery. The feld work could not been
made without the collaboration of: Antonio Bolet, Guillermo Garca and the others farm workers.
References
Arn, J., Bordes, X., Ribes-Dasi,M., Blanco, R., Rosell. J.R. and Esteve, J., 2005. Obtaining grape yield maps
and analysis of within-feld variability in Raimat (Spain). In: Proceeding of the 5
th
European Conference on
Precision Agriculture, Eds. J.V. Stafford, Wageningen Academics Publishers, the Netherlands, pp. 899-906.
Domsch, H., Heisig, M. and Witzke, K., 2007. Estimation of yield maps using yield and data from a few tracks
of a combine harvester and aerial images. In: Proceeding of the 6
th
Agriculture, Eds. J.V. Stafford, Wageningen Academics Publishers, the Netherlands, pp. 289-296.
Hall, A., Louis, J. and Lamb, D., 2003. Characterising and mapping vineyard canopy using high-spatial-
resolution aerial multispectral images. Computers & Geosciences 29: 813-822.
Johnson, L.F., Roczen, D.E., Youkhana, S.K., Nemani, R.R. and Bosch D.F., 2003. Mapping vineyard leaf with
multisprectral satellite imagery. Computer and Electronics in Agriculture 38: 33-44.

Figure 5: Brix histograms for two different vineyards harvested in 2006

Figure 5. Brix histograms for two different vineyards harvested in 2006.
MARVIN: high speed 3D imaging for seedling classifcation
N.J.J.P. Koenderink, M. Wigham, F. Golbach, G. Otten, R. Gerlich and H.J. van de Zedde
Wageningen UR GreenVision, Bornsesteeg 59, 6708 PD Wageningen, the Netherlands;
nicole.koenderink@wur.nl
Abstract
The next generation of automated sorting machines for seedlings demands 3D models of the plants
to be made at high speed and with high accuracy. In our system the 3D plant model is created
based on the information of 24 RGB cameras. Our contribution is an image acquisition technique
based on volumetric intersection which is capable of the required order of speed and accuracy and
which can easily be calibrated by non-expert operators. The use of 24 cameras leads to a non-trivial
calibration procedure. A calibration procedure has been developed which is based on commercial
single-calibration routines, offering robustness. This will be incorporated into the MARVIN-machine
in such a way that a non-expert operator can easily calibrate the system with minimal intervention.
In this paper we show a proof of principle for the fast and accurate image acquisition method.
Keywords: image acquisition, seedling inspection, multi-camera, calibration
Introduction
In horticulture, seedlings are sorted on their expected profciency to effectively produce quality fruits
or vegetables. This pre-selection of young plants on potential productivity signifcantly increases
the total yield of the whole crop. At present, the quality assessment process is performed by highly
trained experts. The experts use the morphological properties of the plants to assign them to a
quality class. One of the reasons for researching the possibility of automated seedling inspection
is the observation that experts are subjective in assessing quality. This is caused by the fact that
experts perform their seedling inspection task based on explicit knowledge, tacit knowledge gained
by experience and training, and heuristics. An example of the subjectivity of experts is as follows.
If the quality inspection is performed by an expert, the result of the inspection may depend on
previously inspected batches of seedlings. By replacing the human inspection with an automated
inspection, the unwanted subjectivity is removed. However, the automation of the quality inspection
task is complex due to the fact that seedlings are biological products with inherent variation between
plants of the same quality class. Seedlings are assessed by a broad range of sorting criteria. They
have to be inspected on simple criteria such as leaf area, stem length, and leaf curvature, but also
on more complex issues concerning e.g. the likelihood that a plant is budless, and the regularity
of the leaf shape. In the MARVIN-project we automate the quality assessment process taking all
of these quality factors into account.
This paper describes the image acquisition process used in the MARVIN-project. The MARVIN
method (Koenderink et al., 2006) requires a 3D input model for each seedling. One of the major
issues that had to be solved was to obtain a 3D input model that is accurate and fast enough for a
commercial application of the computer vision system. The image acquisition method has to be able
to cope with at least 10,000 seedlings per hour. It has to be able to recognize details in a resolution
of 1 mm. We have developed a multi-camera solution based on the volumetric intersection technique
that is described in the theory section. In the experimental section, we describe an experiment to
estimate the speed and accuracy of our method. We then evaluate the results before ending the
paper with conclusions.
Related work
At present, three types of automated seedling inspection systems are commercially available. One
type takes a picture of a tray of very young seedlings to give an estimation of the average cotyledon
area. This feature is used as a rough quality indication. A second system looks at individual seedlings.
Two cameras one above, one from the side are used to determine the cotyledon area. The third
existing machine can not only determine cotyledon area but also true leaf area. All these machines
are hampered by two limitations. Firstly, although leaf area is an important feature in seedling
inspection, it is far from being the only relevant feature. The inspection knowledge that is used by
experts is more detailed than this. Secondly, these machines use a two-dimensional (2D) image of
the seedlings. This implies imprecise measurements due to distortions introduced by the projection
of the three-dimensional seedling onto a 2D image. A three-dimensional (3D) recording of the
seedlings is essential to perform inspection with suffcient precision.
An enormous body of work exists on the subject of 3D reconstruction, which mostly falls in one
of two domains. The frst involves high quality scanning of objects, such as archaeological fnds
(Rocchini et al., 2001). Here the time required is not a critical issue. The second focuses on real-
time applications such as tele-immersion or augmented reality (Grau, 2004; Sakamoto et al., 2005).
Here quality is less important than interactive rates. Our application demands both high resolution
and high speed. Further we must be able to use the model to accurately measure features of the
plants. This means that inadequacies of the model cannot be masked using texture mapping or
fltering a model that merely appears realistic is not good enough. Finally, the cost and reliability
of the equipment cannot be ignored.
Techniques for 3D modelling can be active or passive. Active techniques include the projection of
structured light patterns onto the object. This is most often used for high-quality scanning, with a
consequently high price tag. Low cost versions do exist (Rocchini et al., 2001), but the required
time for scanning is excessively long for our purposes. Zhang and Huang (2006) achieve good
quality at interactive frame rates, but for only a partial model.
Passive techniques offer the advantage of requiring only ordinary cameras. Two major types are
(1) those that use the differences between different images to build a depth map of the object, and
(2) those that produce a volumetric reconstruction. Volumetric reconstruction is better suited to
fne structures with occlusions (Eisert, 2005). The speed/quality trade-off remains a problem. Grau
(2005), Kehl et al. (2005), Matusik et al. (2002) and Sakamoto et al. (2005) come reasonably close
to the speed required by the sorting application. In each of these cases, the level of detail in the
captured model is much less than that required for our application. Methods reported in literature
indicate that higher quality models require signifcantly longer, ranging from tens of seconds to
hours (Kutulakos and Seitz, 2000; Zeng et al., 2006).
Regardless of the specifc technique used, any 3D acquisition system using multiple cameras must
be calibrated. Calibration of a single camera is a simple, widely implemented procedure. Calibration
of multiple cameras is more diffcult, in particular in our application as the necessary positioning of
the cameras to capture all plant details precludes the possibility of them all being able to view the
same calibration object. Papers do exist which offer solutions to this more diffcult problem (Kurillo
et al., 2008; Svoboda et al., 2005; Sebe and Chen, 2002). The technique described by Svoboda et al.
(2005) is even available as a free MATLAB toolbox. However our application is intended for use in
a commercial environment where time and manpower are limited. It is therefore undesirable to use
third party software which does not offer full technical support or where redistribution is limited,
and the calibration should ideally proceed fully automatically. These requirements cannot be fulflled
by either current commercial products or the algorithms described in the aforementioned papers.
3D-reconstruction of seedlings
For our purpose, we build upon the volumetric intersection method. With this technique, cameras
can be placed at arbitrary positions around the object. In order to obtain a good view of the seedling
under inspection, we use 20 to 30 cameras distributed in a half dome around the plant. In the related
work discussed above, volumetric intersection is often used to create 3D models of large objects:
people, houses, mature plants, statues or indoor scenes. Since the algorithm starts with a cube flled
with voxels that are gradually carved away to reveal the recorded object, the amount of detail in
the 3D object and the memory needed to contain the voxel cube are strongly related (Zeng et al.,
2006). The available memory limits the details that are recognizable in the model and the speed
with which the model can be processed. A high level of accuracy limits the speed at which the
algorithm can be performed.
Our research involves the creation of a 3D model of a seedling. High speed and high accuracy are
both required. Since seedlings are at most 101010 cm
3
, the voxel cube containing the object
is relatively small and hence we can ensure that the required accuracy is achieved. Therefore, the
issue that needs to be resolved is to implement the 3D image acquisition method with suffciently
high speed. Moreover, the fnal application is to be used in an industrial setting, hence it must be
user friendly and robust.
Volumetric intersection can be decomposed into three steps (Eisert, 2005): (1) calibration of cameras,
(2) segmentation of the object, and (3) intersection of the viewing cones with silhouettes of the
object. For the image acquisition of seedlings, a controlled environment with light cabinet is used.
Therefore, the segmentation step is straightforward. Below, we discuss the calibration procedure
and the cone intersection algorithm.
Calibration
The purpose of a camera calibration is to determine the mapping between the pixel coordinates of
features in the camera image [u,v]
T
and the real world coordinates of the location of that feature
[X,Y,Z]
T
. This mapping is given by Equation 1.
s[u,v,1]
T
= K[R|t] [X,Y,Z]
T
(1)
Where s is a scaling factor, K is a matrix of the intrinsic camera parameters, and R and t are the
rotation and translation of the camera.
Our calibration technique builds on the Halcon single camera calibration code (http://www.mvtec.
com/halcon/overview/calibration.html). This code is widely used in commercial applications and
is fully supported. The calibration routine uses a simple pattern, which must be placed in a number
of different positions. For a straightforward positional calibration this pattern would have to be
visible to all the cameras in all the positions, then R and t could be estimated relative to the same
real world origin for all cameras. However this is not possible in our setup. Instead we place the
pattern in a variety of different positions such that each camera has a suffcient number of good
views of the calibration pattern, even though it cannot view the pattern in every position. Each
cameras position is thus calibrated relative to a different origin. We use the overlap in camera views
to calculate the projection between cameras and relate their positions to the same real-world origin.
First, the calibration pattern is moved through a variety of positions j in the capture volume to
ensure that each camera has a minimum number of good views of the pattern in different positions.
Then for each position the algorithm determines which cameras had a good view of the pattern.
Positions in which the pattern was visible to multiple cameras are then used as stepping-stones
to move from camera to camera. At each step the projection between the two camera images is
calculated, proj
i,i+1
(Figure 1).
For any given camera i there are multiple choices for the next camera i+1, and multiple choices
for the calibration pattern position j to use in stepping to that camera. As a result there are multiple
possible paths to each camera in the model. For each camera the calibration error is estimated
(Equation 2).
(2)
Where error
i
is the calibration error in the ith camera calibration relative to the local origin, e
i,x
2

and e
i,y
2
are the calibration errors in the x and y direction as calculated by the Halcon module,
Area
i
is the area of the calibration pattern as viewed in the camera image, and BoundingBoxArea
i

is the area of the bounding box of the pattern in the camera image. Dividing the error by the ratio
of the two areas increases the error in images where the pattern is viewed from an angle (giving a
less reliable calibration). This error is used to calculate the total path error for each possible path
(Equation 3). We can then choose the path with the lowest total error.
(3)
Where error
k
is the error for path k, error
i
is the error for camera i and n is the total number of
cameras. Finally, the calculated projections along the path are multiplied together (Equation 4) and
used to calculate R and t for each camera relative to the same real-world origin.
(4)
where proj
1,N
is the projection between camera 1 and camera N. The intrinsic parameters K of each
camera can be calculated via the single-camera calibration as normal.

ensure that each camera has a minimum number of good views of the pattern in different
positions. Then for each position the algorithm determines which cameras had a good view of
the pattern. Positions in which the pattern was visible to multiple cameras are then used as
stepping-stones to move from camera to camera. At each step the projection between the two
camera images is calculated, proj
i,i+1
.

Figure 1: Cameras i and i+1 can both see position j. Cameras i+1 and i+2 can both see
position j+1. Via the images of the calibration pattern (i,j) and (i+1, j) we can calculate the
projection between cameras 1 and 2. The same can be done for cameras i+1 and i+2.
Position j Position j+1
image i, j image i+2, j+1
i image i+1, j image i+1, j+1
i+2

For any given camera i there are multiple choices for the next camera i+1, and multiple
choices for the calibration pattern position j to use in stepping to that camera. As a result there
are multiple possible paths to each camera in the model. For each camera the calibration error
is estimated (Equation 2).
+
=
i
i
y i x i
i
xArea BoundingBo
Area
e e
error
2
,
2
,
(2)
Where error
i
is the calibration error in the ith camera calibration relative to the local origin,
e
i,x
2
and e
i,y
2
are the calibration errors in the x and y direction as calculated by the Halcon
module, Area
i
is the area of the calibration pattern as viewed in the camera image, and
BoundingBoxArea
i
is the area of the bounding box of the pattern in the camera image.
Dividing the error by the ratio of the two areas increases the error in images where the pattern
is viewed from an angle (giving a less reliable calibration). This error is used to calculate the
total path error for each possible path (Equation 3). We can then choose the path with the
lowest total error.
=
=
n
i
i k
error error
1
2
(3)
i+1
proj
i+1,i+2
proj
i,i+1

ensure that each camera has a minimum number of good views of the pattern in different
positions. Then for each position the algorithm determines which cameras had a good view of
the pattern. Positions in which the pattern was visible to multiple cameras are then used as
stepping-stones to move from camera to camera. At each step the projection between the two
camera images is calculated, proj
i,i+1
.

Figure 1: Cameras i and i+1 can both see position j. Cameras i+1 and i+2 can both see
position j+1. Via the images of the calibration pattern (i,j) and (i+1, j) we can calculate the
projection between cameras 1 and 2. The same can be done for cameras i+1 and i+2.
image i, j image i+2, j+1
i image i+1, j image i+1, j+1
i+2

For any given camera i there are multiple choices for the next camera i+1, and multiple
choices for the calibration pattern position j to use in stepping to that camera. As a result there
are multiple possible paths to each camera in the model. For each camera the calibration error
is estimated (Equation 2).
+
=
i
i
y i x i
i
xArea BoundingBo
Area
e e
error
2
,
2
,
(2)
Where error
i
is the calibration error in the ith camera calibration relative to the local origin,
e
i,x
2
and e
i,y
2
are the calibration errors in the x and y direction as calculated by the Halcon
module, Area
i
is the area of the calibration pattern as viewed in the camera image, and
BoundingBoxArea
i
is the area of the bounding box of the pattern in the camera image.
Dividing the error by the ratio of the two areas increases the error in images where the pattern
is viewed from an angle (giving a less reliable calibration). This error is used to calculate the
total path error for each possible path (Equation 3). We can then choose the path with the
lowest total error.
=
=
n
i
i k
error error
1
2
(3)
i+1
proj
i+1,i+2
proj
i,i+1
Where error
k
is the error for path k, error
i
is the error for camera i and n is the total number of
cameras. Finally, the calculated projections along the path are multiplied together (Equation
4) and used to calculate R and t for each camera relative to the same real-world origin.
+
=
N
i i N
proj proj
1
1 , , 1
(4)
where proj
1,N
is the projection between camera 1 and camera N. The intrinsic parameters K of
each camera can be calculated via the single-camera calibration as normal.

Through the use of a turntable, the calibration pattern can be automatically moved through the
required range of positions. As such the entire calibration procedure can be carried out
without user intervention.

Intersection
With the 24 images from the calibrated cameras segmented, 24 silhouettes of the seedling
under inspection are taken from different viewpoints. In order to ensure that the processing of
these silhouettes takes place in an efficient way, we aim to quickly reduce the number of
voxels in memory. Instead of processing the recorded silhouettes one by one, we process the
datacube voxel by voxel. This process has proven to be a crucial step in the quick rendering of
the 3D model. To quickly decide whether a voxel has to be kept or can be discarded, we
determine wether the corresponding pixels in each of the camera images is part of the object
or of the background (see Figure 2) . If the pixel is background we discard the voxel directly
and move on to the next one.

Figure 2: Schematic representation of camera viewpoints with respect to the voxel cube. The voxel
v
i,j,k
can be seen from each of the camera's. The algorithm processes the datacube voxel by voxel.

In more detail, let f
c
be the focal point of camera c. Let i
c
be the 2D image recorded by camera
c. This image plane is defined by the normal n = (x
n
,y
n
,z
n
). Let (t,u) be the coordinate system
of i
c
. Let p
t,u
be a pixel in i
c
. Let V be the voxel cube consisting of voxels v
i,j,k
. For each voxel
v
i,j,k
in V, the projection of this voxel onto each camera image i
c
can be determined. This
projection lies both on the line through f
c
and v
i,j,k
and on the image plane i
c
. In the first step
of the intersection algorithm, the silhouette in the first image is processed in the voxel cube
and all background voxels are carved away. This initial step results in an immediate reduction
of the remaining voxels of approximately 80%. Then, for each remaining voxel, the value of

Figure 1: Cameras i and i+1 can both see position j. Cameras i+1 and i+2 can both see position j+1.
Via the images of the calibration pattern (i,j) and (i+1, j) we can calculate the projection between
cameras 1 and 2. The same can be done for cameras i+1 and i+2.

i
i+1
i+2
image i, j
image i+1, j image i+1, j+1
image i+2, j+1
i+1,i+2
proj
i,i+1
proj
Figure 1. Cameras i and i+1 can both see position j. Cameras i+1 and i+2 can both see position
j+1. Via the images of the calibration pattern (i,j) and (i+1, j) we can calculate the projection
between cameras 1 and 2. The same can be done for cameras i+1 and i+2.
Through the use of a turntable, the calibration pattern can be automatically moved through the
required range of positions. As such the entire calibration procedure can be carried out without
user intervention.
Intersection
With the 24 images from the calibrated cameras segmented, 24 silhouettes of the seedling under
inspection are taken from different viewpoints. In order to ensure that the processing of these
silhouettes takes place in an effcient way, we aim to quickly reduce the number of voxels in memory.
Instead of processing the recorded silhouettes one by one, we process the datacube voxel by voxel.
This process has proven to be a crucial step in the quick rendering of the 3D model. To quickly
decide whether a voxel has to be kept or can be discarded, we determine wether the corresponding
pixels in each of the camera images is part of the object or of the background (see Figure 2). If the
pixel is background we discard the voxel directly and move on to the next one.
In more detail, let f
c
be the focal point of camera c. Let i
c
be the 2D image recorded by camera c.
This image plane is defned by the normal n = (x
n
,y
n
,z
n
). Let (t,u) be the coordinate system of i
c
.
Let p
t,u
be a pixel in i
c
. Let V be the voxel cube consisting of voxels v
i,j,k
. For each voxel v
i,j,k
in
V, the projection of this voxel onto each camera image i
c
can be determined. This projection lies
both on the line through f
c
and v
i,j,k
and on the image plane i
c
. In the frst step of the intersection
algorithm, the silhouette in the frst image is processed in the voxel cube and all background
voxels are carved away. This initial step results in an immediate reduction of the remaining voxels
of approximately 80%. Then, for each remaining voxel, the value of the corresponding pixels in
each of the camera images is intersected. When this intersection leads to a background value it is
discarded. Hence, only the object voxels are kept as part of the 3D model. When each voxel has
been processed, the solid 3D model has been created. Then, a second processing step takes place
to ensure that only the boundary voxels are kept and the interior voxels are discarded. In this step,
the number of neighbouring voxels is counted for each voxel in the 3D model. When a voxel has
too few neighbours, it is considered as a boundary voxel. Otherwise, the voxel is an interior voxel
and is discarded. The result is a 3D model of the object surface.

Figure 2: Schematic representation of camera viewpoints with respect to the voxel cube. The voxel
v
i,j,k
can be seen from each of the camera's. The algorithm processes the datacube voxel by voxel.

Figure 2. Schematic representation of camera viewpoints with respect to the voxel cube. The
voxel v
i,j,k
can be seen from each of the cameras. The algorithm processes the datacube voxel
by voxel.
Results
The acquisition and calibration methods have both been tested with a limited number of cameras.
These tests have yielded the following preliminary results, which are promising.
Model acquisition
We have implemented the acquisition method described above and tested it frstly with a prototype
environment consisting of a single camera which can be moved to multiple viewpoints to simulate
a multi-camera environment, and secondly with a six-camera setup. For the frst test, images of a
watering can were captured from 24 different viewpoints. For the second test images of an artifcial
seedling were captured by the six cameras. Each camera image had a resolution of 743552 pixels.
The 3D models were processed in a voxel cube with 128 voxels on each side. In Figure 3, four of
the seedling images are shown together with the created 3D model.
The 3D voxel model was constructed by frst processing the silhouette of one camera (see Figure
4a), thereby discarding most of the background pixels. Next, for each voxel, its value as background
voxel, interior voxel or boundary voxel was determined. The voxels were discarded or kept
accordingly. This procedure results in the 3D model displayed in Figure 4b. In Figure 5, we have
displayed only half of the watering can, since the hollow interior is more clearly visible for this
object than for a seedling. This fgure shows that the interior voxels of the object are discarded and
only boundary voxels are kept.
Calibration
The calibration was tested in the prototype environment, with fve cameras simulated. Acquisition
of the calibration images took approximately fve minutes, while the calibration algorithm itself
required approximately thirty seconds. Further tests will be carried out once the full 24 camera test
environment is constructed, as calibration accuracy cannot be adequately tested in the prototype
environment, since errors in placing the camera in the different viewpoints could be wrongly
attributed to calibration errors.

Figure 3: A 3D-model of a recorded artificial but realistic seedling model based on volumetric
intersection with six cameras. Four of the camera images are displayed.

Figure 3. A 3D-model of a recorded artifcial but realistic seedling model based on volumetric
intersection with six cameras. Four of the camera images are displayed.
Evaluation
For the acquisition of a seedling we use a volume of 101010 cm
3
. The resulting volume is divided
up into a block of 128128128 voxels, giving a voxel size of 1.11.11.1 mm
3
. It is possible to
increase the voxel resolution to 256256256 without memory issues, which would improve the
accuracy by a factor of 2. The 1 mm accuracy demanded by the application is therefore within the
reach of our software. Processing a 128128128 voxel cube for the test seedling requires 20 ms
on a 2.8 GHz Intel Q9550 processor. Doubling the resolution in each direction would theoretically
increase the required time eight-fold to 160 ms. To attain the desired capacity of 10,000 plants
per hour, each plant must be processed in 360 ms. The speed achieved therefore meets the system
requirements.
The construction of the watering can model from the simulated 24-camera environment demonstrates
that the approach also works for a larger number of cameras. The next step will be to construct the
24-camera environment for further testing of calibration and acquisition.

(a)
(b)

Figure 4: Illustration of the volumetric intersection process. In image (a) the first camera viewpoint has
been processed, in image (b) the 3D representation of a watering can is depicted.
Figure 4. Illustration of the volumetric intersection process. In image (a) the frst camera viewpoint
has been processed, in image (b) the 3D representation of a watering can is depicted.
a b

Figure 5: When we show only half the watering can, it is clearly visible that only the outer layer of
voxels is part of the model.

Figure 5. When we show only half the watering can, it is clearly visible that only the outer layer
of voxels is part of the model.
Conclusion
We have shown that our acquisition software is capable of constructing models with the required
accuracy and speed for a commercial seedling classifcation machine. The calibration routine we
have described is based on proven commercial code, and is automatable, which will contribute
greatly to the user-friendliness of the machine.
References
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Zhang, S. and Huang, P.S., 2006. High-resolution, real-time three-dimensional shape measurement. Optical
Engineering 45(12): 123601.
Flower spatial variability in an apple orchard
A.D. Aggelopoulou
1
, D. Bochtis
2
, A. Koutsostathis
1
, S. Fountas
1
, T.A. Gemtos
1
and G.D. Nanos
1
1
University of Thessaly, Crop Production and Rural Environment, Fytokou Str., 38446 N. Ionia,
Greece; aggelop@agr.uth.gr
2
Aarhus University, Department of Agricultural Engineering, Blichers All 20, 8830 Tjele, Denmark
Abstract
Precision pomology is the application of site-specifc management into orchards. Orchards produce
high value crops and the application of site-specifc management has high potential. Finding plant
or soil characteristics that would correlate or predict yield variability would be of great importance
for applying site specifc management. Such data often come from remote sensing plant indices.
Flowering distribution in the feld has been suggested as a possible early in the season characteristic
that can lead to successful site specifc management for the rest of the year. Our objectives were
(1) to study the fower density variability in an apple orchard and (2) to fnd a quantitative variable
related to an image depicting a tree in full blooming, that is correlated with the fower density and
consequently to the fruit yield of the tree in the current year. The research was carried out in a
commercial 5 ha apple orchard, located in Agia area, Central Greece. The orchard included two
apple cultivars, Red Chief (main cultivar) and Golden Delicious (pollinator). The between-row
spacing of the trees was 3.5 m and the intra-row 2 m. Trees were trained as free palmette. In April
2007, when the trees were in full bloom, 200 photos of whole trees of Red Chief cultivar were
taken in a grid of 207 m. The location of those trees was recorded using a hand-held computer
with GPS in order to create the fower map. In September 2007 yield mapping was carried out
measuring yield per ten trees and recording the position in the centre of the ten trees. Using this
data, e.g. the measured yield of the trees and their corresponding images, an image processing
based algorithm was developed that predicts the yield of a tree by analyzing its image when it is in
full bloom. For the evaluation of the algorithm a case study scenario is presented where the error
of the predicted yield was found to be in the order of 18%. These results indicated that potential
yield might be predicted early in the season from fowering maps, which is very important for the
farmer and fruit industry. Other potential uses of the fower map include planning site-specifc
chemical thinning, fertilization and application of other cultural practices in the orchard based on
fower density variability.
Keywords: apple orchard, image processing, yield mapping, spatial variability
Introduction
In Greece and southern Europe in general, the application of site-specifc management has
been delayed because of small farm size, low adoption of new technology, crop subsidies from
the European Union and lack of suitable technology for horticultural crops (Gemtos et al.,
2002). Precision agriculture began to be practiced in Greece in 2001 in cotton production. Yield
maps showed signifcant variability even in small size farms (Gemtos et al., 2005). However,
the application of precision agriculture in horticulture has recently started mostly in apple
orchards, where the spatial variability of yield, soil and fruit quality parameters have been studied
(Aggelopoulou, 2008).
Apple (Malus domestica Borkh.) is the fourth most important tree crop in Greece after olive, citrus
and peach (Vasilakakis, 2004). Greek apples are of high quality especially when the orchards are
located at high elevations, where the apples have deep red colour (Red Delicious group), good
taste and long cold storage potential. Fruit quality is generally associated with climate and soil
conditions, tree characteristics, and cultural practices. Changes in cultural practices are the primary
means by which orchard managers in Europe have made the transition to intensive environmentally-
friendly models of production over the past 40 years while meeting market demands for quality
and yield. Trees are pruned and trained to have open forms with a central leader and weak wide
angle branches and maintained with relatively low density foliage to avoid shading of the lower
branches, as shading reduces yield and quality.
Flower- and fruit-thinning are used to improve fruit size and alternate bearing of apple trees.
Thinning has become the most important cultural practice that many growers undertake. Chemical
thinning is done on a whole-block basis that does not allow for individual tree variation. Hand-
thinning is much more costly, but may be necessary if chemical thinning proves inadequate. Many
thinning trails have shown that fnal yields are closely related to fower density, assuming adequate
pollination (Lakso and Robinson, 1997).
The estimation of fowers per tree would be very important to help farmers to better manage their
thinning process and also to make an early in the season yield prediction. An attempt to estimate
the fower numbers of apple trees was carried out by Aggelopoulou et al. (2006). In April 2005,
estimates were made of the number of fowers per tree. The number of fowers on the tree was
estimated using a systematic uniform random sampling procedure (Wulfsohn et al., 2006). In all,
162 trees were sampled for fowering. Due to the palmette shape a vertical plane naturally separates
each tree in two parts. The number of fower buds was counted on one side of the tree (i.e. with
probability 0.5), alternating sides for each sampled tree and then multiplied by 2 (the inverse
sampling probability) to obtain an estimate of the total number of buds per tree. A correlation
between apple fower bud and number of fowers per bud was also established. Yield of these trees
was measured in September 2007. The results of this study showed that the number of fowers per
tree was positively correlated with yield of the current year (with a correlation coeffcient r=0.78).
The above study was conducted by manually counting the number of fower buds per tree with
the stereology method in a small 0.8 ha apple orchard. However, in larger orchards, this procedure
seemed diffcult to implement and therefore a more automated process was required. Image
processing analysis seemed to be a potential method and tree images were taken at full bloom.
In orchards, image processing and sensor technology has been applied in several cases to estimate
the yield potential. Zaman et al. (2006) used ultrasonic sensors, while Wei and Salyani (2004)
used laser sensors to estimate the volume of trees and to correlate them with yield, with correlation
coeffcient r
2
=0.80. Multispectral images were also used to estimate the number of fruits on the
trees and correlated them to the real yield with application in oranges (Annamalai and Lee, 2003;
Okamoto et al., 2007) and in mandarins (Xujun et al., 2007).
Alchanatis et al. (2007) developed and implemented a yield mapping system using hyperspectral
imagery in apples. The results of their study showed that the correlation coeffcient between the
number of fruits manually counted from the images and the number of fruits counted by the machine
vision algorithm was r
2
=0.91.
The objectives of this study were (1) to study the fower density variability in an apple orchard
and (2) to examine the correlation between the number of fowers and the yield of the current year.
Site description
The research was carried out in a commercial 5 ha apple orchard, located in Agia area (22
o
45
33, 39
o
40 28N), Central Greece. The orchard included two apple cultivars, Red Chief, which
was the main cultivar, and Golden Delicious, which was the pollinator. The between-row spacing
of the trees was 3.5 m and the intra-row 2 m. Trees were trained as free palmette.
In April 2007, when the trees were at full bloom about 200 images of whole trees of the Red
Chief cultivar were taken in a grid of 207 m. The images were acquired using a hand-held
commercial RGB digital camera, Canon PowerShot A510 Digital Camera 3.2 Mega pixels with
up to 2,0481,536 pixel images and focal length 5.8-23.2 mm. Behind the tree, when the image
was taken, a black cloth screen was unrolled to ensure contrast between the white colour of the
fowers and to avoid interference from the sun light and other trees. From the total of 200 images,
some were corrupted and a number of them had low contrast due to the direction of the sunlight.
A total 113 images were used for the image processing analysis. The location of these trees was
recorded using a hand-held computer with GPS. In September 2007, yield mapping was carried
out by measuring the yield per ten trees and recording the position in the centre of the ten trees.
Using these data, that is, the measured yield of the trees and their corresponding images, an image
processing based algorithm was developed that predicts the yield of a tree by analyzing its digital
image when it is in full bloom.
Image processing analysis
The developed algorithm operates in two stages, the training and the prediction stage. The frst stage
takes place off-line, while the second stage can be executed either off-line or on-line, resulting in
almost real time yield prediction due to its low computational requirements.
In the training stage, the available sample images and its corresponding measured yield, is used
as the base for correlation between the measured yield of a tree and the value of a quantitative
variable related to its corresponding image.
The images were resized manually based on the black background screen dimensions in a way
that equal number of pixels to correspond to the same background surface in each image. Let S
denote the set of the (indices of the) available images and y
m
(i) denote the measured yield of the
sector represented by image iS. In a frst step, using the Matlab Image Processing Toolbox the
images are converted to grayscale type. By doing so, for each iS an image data matrix P
i
[xy]
is created, where the product xy represents the number of the pixels for each resized image and
the matrix elements are restricted by the inequality: 0 p
i
jk
255, where p
i
jk
denotes the (j,k)
th

entry of the matrix P
i
.
Following, for a given threshold, , the images are converted to binary type and for each image a
new data matrix B
i/
[xy] is created, where:
The quantitative variable correlated to the yield is the number of the pixels of the corresponded
picture that have value equal to 255, i.e.: , where symbol | | denotes the
cardinality of a set. For a given image, this variable is a function of the thresholds value. This
fact is clearly depicted in Figure 1, where two presentations of the same original image are shown.
These two binary type images result from two different values of .
For each threshold value between 150 and 255, the vectors w(1,), w(2,),......, w(|S|,) and <y
m
(1),
...., y
m
(|S|) > are correlated by a frst order polynomial (linear regression), using the least squares
procedure. This procedure results to the optimal vector (a,b,)
*
, where a and b are the polynomial
coeffcients, that minimize the mean error between the predicted and the measured yield. Formally
the following optimization problem is solved:
The prediction stage concerns the yield prediction of a tree, using its corresponding image. Let E
denote the set of the (indices of the) images at hand. The image that is being processed is resized
and converted to greyscale type exactly as in the frst step of the training stage. In the second step
of this stage, the image is being converted to binary type using * as threshold value. The predicted
yield, y
p
(i), of the corresponding tree is given by:
/
255
0
i
i
jk
jk
i
jk
p
b
p

The quantitative variable correlated to the yield is the number of the pixels of the
corresponded picture that have value equal to 255, i.e.:
{ }
/ /
( , ) / 255
i i
jk jk
w i b b

= = , where
symbol denotes the cardinality of a set. For a given image, this variable is a function of the
thresholds value. This fact is clearly depicted in
Figure 1, where two presentations of the same original image are shown. These two binary
type images result from two different values of .

For each threshold value between 150 and 255, the vectors (1, ), (2, ),..., ( , ) w w w S and
(1),..., ( )
m m
y y S < > are correlated by a first order polynomial (linear regression), using the least
squares procedure. This procedure results to the optimal vector
*
( , , ) a b , where a and b are the
polynomial coefficients, that minimize the mean error between the predicted and the
measured yield. Formally the following optimization problem is solved:
( ) [ ] ( )
2 *
( , , )
1
, , argmin ( , ) ) ( )
S
m
a b
i
a b a w i b y i

=
= +

The prediction stage concerns the yield prediction of a tree, using its corresponding image.
Let E denote the set of the (indices of the) images at hand. The image that is being processed
is resized and converted to greyscale type exactly as in the first step of the training stage. In
the second step of this stage, the image is being converted to binary type using
*
as
threshold value. The predicted yield, , of the corresponding tree is given by:

( )
p
y i
* *
( ) ( , )
p
y i a w i b = +
*

Figure 1. A sample image for two different values of threshold .
/
255
0
i
i
jk
jk
i
jk
p
b
p

{ }
/ /
( , ) / 255
i i
jk jk
w i b b

= = , where

(1),..., ( )
m m
*
( ) [ ] ( )
2 *
( , , )
1
, , argmin ( , ) ) ( )
S
m
a b
i
a b a w i b y i

=
= +

*
as

( )
p
y i
* *
( ) ( , )
p
y i a w i b = +
*

/
255
0
i
i
jk
jk
i
jk
p
b
p

{ }
/ /
( , ) / 255
i i
jk jk
w i b b

= = , where

(1),..., ( )
m m
*
( ) [ ] ( )
2 *
( , , )
1
, , argmin ( , ) ) ( )
S
m
a b
i
a b a w i b y i

=
= +

*
as

( )
p
y i
* *
( ) ( , )
p
y i a w i b = +
*

Results
For the evaluation of the method, 113 images were used. As a case study scenario, 60 of them
constituted the set of the training images (|S| = 60), while the rest 53 images constituted the set of
the images that was used for yield prediction (|E| = 53). Figure 2a presents the percentage error in
the yield prediction of the 53 corresponding sectors that is given by:
and Figure 2b presents the distribution of the percentage errors absolute value (bin range = 2.5).
Although that the error in prediction of some sectors is over 30%, the mean resulted error is 18.12%
while the standard deviation is 3.47.
The maps which represented the measured and the predicted yield of the 53 test set apple trees are
depicted in Figure 3 and the scale is according to the yield quartiles based on univariate statistical
analysis of measured and predicted yield respectively. The results show signifcant variability for
the predicted and the measured yield of the trees. For the measured yield map presented in Figure
3a the average yield was 3 ton/ha, the standard deviation 1.03 ton/ha and the CV 34%, while for the
predicted yield map average yield was 3.1 ton/ha, the standard deviation 1.20 ton/ha and the CV 39%.
The maps of the predicted and measured yield (Figure 3) have similarities such as the yield is higher
in the right part of the map in both predicted and measured data.
Discussion
An image processing based algorithm was developed that predicts the yield of a tree by analyzing
its digital image when it is in full bloom. The application of this algorithm is to forecast the yield in
/
255
0
i
i
jk
jk
i
jk
p
b
p

{ }
/ /
( , ) / 255
i i
jk jk
w i b b

= = , where

(1),..., ( )
m m
*
( ) [ ] ( )
2 *
( , , )
1
, , argmin ( , ) ) ( )
S
m
a b
i
a b a w i b y i

=
= +

*
as

( )
p
y i
* *
( ) ( , )
p
y i a w i b = +
*

Results

For the evaluation of the method, 113 images were used. As a case study scenario, 60 of
them constituted the set of the training images ( 60 S = ), while the rest 53 images constituted
the set of the images that was used for yield prediction ( 53 E = ). Figure 2a presents the
percentage error in the yield prediction of the 53 corresponding sectors that is given by:
( ) ( )
100%,
( )
p m
i
m
y i y i
e
y i
= i E , and Figure 2b presents the distribution of the percentage errors

absolute value (bin range = 2.5). Although that the error in prediction of some sectors is over
30 %, the mean resulted error is 18.12 % while the standard deviation is 3.47.

Figure 2a Percentage error on the yield
prediction for each sector
Figure 2b Histogram of the errors
distribution (error in absolute value)

The maps which represented the measured and the predicted yield of the 53 test set apple trees
are depicted in Figure 3 and the scale is according to the yield quartiles based on univariate
statistical analysis of measured and predicted yield respectively. The results show significant
variability for the predicted and the measured yield of the trees. For the measured yield map
presented in Figure 3a the average yield was 3 ton/ha, the standard deviation 1.03 ton/ha and
the CV 34%, while for the predicted yield map average yield was 3.1 ton/ha, the standard
deviation 1.20 ton/ha and the CV 39%.
The maps of the predicted and measured yield (Figure 3) have similarities such as the yield is
higher in the right part of the map in both predicted and measured data.

orchards for the same year and inside bearable limits of fault. This can contribute to the estimation
of production almost simultaneously with the reception of data, making the application of site
specifc management more successful.
The estimation of the expected yield early in the season, during the blossoming period, can be
very useful for the farmers, the post-harvest industry and regional market planning. In particular,
for chemical or hand thinning, which is currently applied more or less uniformly to the whole
feld, management zones could be delineated and different levels could be applied. Moreover, this
correlation provides the possibility of using the variable rate technology taking into account the
estimated yield. Variable cultural practices could be applied different parts of the orchard depending
on its predicted yield. This will result in more rational use of the applied inputs such as fertilizers
and pesticides with positive economic and environmental impact and fruit quality improvement.
In future work, our aim is not only to optimize the algorithm and the way of calculation of the
binary image, which as it is reported are connected with the number of blossoms in the trees, but
also to minimize the errors during the process of image acquisition. A better structure could be
to be mounted to a 4-wheel vehicle to assure a more exact distance from the trees to the camera

Figure 2a Percentage error on the yield
prediction for each sector

Figure 2b Histogram of the errors
distribution (error in absolute value)

Figure 2. (A) Percentage error on the yield prediction for each sector. (B) Histogram of the
errors distribution (error in absolute value).

Figure 3a. Measured yield map (ton/ha)

Figure 3b. Predicted yield map (ton/ha)

Figure 3. Measured (a) and predicted (b) yield map (ton/ha).
instead of walking through the orchard and this could also enable the whole process to be easier
and faster. A research autonomous vehicle could be very useful for this type of research. Finally, the
background screen that was used could be also improved with suffcient size to avoid any blossoms
left out. Alternatively, the background screen could also be attached to a second vehicle that could
drive parallel to the vehicle acquiring the images.
Conclusions
From the results of our experiment we concluded that:
Measured yield and predicted yield of the trees showed signifcant variability with coeffcients
of variation 34% and 39% correspondingly. This indicates the potential of applying site-specifc
management in the orchard.
The number of the white pixels per photo demonstrating the fowers of the trees was signifcantly
correlated with the number of real fowers per tree and was positively correlated with the fnal yield.
The implemented algorithm can be used at bloom time for yield estimation early in the season in
order to apply site-specifc management in the orchards over the cultivation period.
References
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th
International Conference of Precision Agriculture, July 23-26, Minneapolis,
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Aggelopoulou, K.D., 2008. Precision agriculture in apple orchards. PhD Thesis. University of Thessaly, Greece.
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Xujun, Y., Sakai, K., Manago, M., Asada, S. and Sasao, A. 2007. Prediction of citrus yield from airborn
hyperspectral imagery. Precision Agriculture, 8(3):111-125.
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Paper N 041168.
Wulfsohn, D., Maletti, G. M. and Todam- Andersen, T. B. 2006. Unbiased estimator of the number of fowers
per tree. Acta Horticulturae, 707: 245-252.
Zaman, Q., Schuman, W. A. and Hostler, H. K. 2006. Estimation of citrus fruit yield using ultrasonically-sensed
tree size. Applied Engineering in Agriculture 22(1): 39-43.
Apple detection in natural tree canopies from multimodal
images
J.P. Wachs
1,2
, H.I. Stern
2
, T. Burks
3
and V. Alchanatis
1
1
Institute of Agricultural Engineering, Agricultural Research Organization, the Volcani Center,
Bet-Dagan, Israel; victor@volcani.agri.gov.il
2
Dept. of Industrial Engineering, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel
3
Agricultural and Biological Engineering, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, 110570, USA
Abstract
In this work we develop a real time system that recognizes occluded green apples within a tree
canopy using infra-red and color images in order to achieve automated harvesting. Infra-red provides
clues regarding the physical structure and location of the apples based on their temperature (leaves
accumulate less heat and radiate faster than apples), while color images provide evidence of circular
shape. Initially the optimal registration parameters are obtained using maximization of mutual
information. Haar features are then applied separately to color and infra-red images through a process
called Boosting, to detect apples from the background. A contribution reported in this work, is the
voting scheme added to the output of the RGB Haar detector which reduces false alarms without
affecting the recognition rate. The resulting classifers alone can partially recognize the on-trees
apples however when combined together the recognition accuracy is increased.
Keywords: mutual information, multi-modal registration, sensor fusion, Haar detector, apple
detection
Introduction
In the last few years, object recognition algorithms are focusing on the effcient detection of objects
in natural scenes. A system is developed to recognize in real-time partially occluded apples regardless
of position, scale, shadow pattern and illumination within a tree canopy.
The work is motivated by the fact that labor for orchard tasks constitutes the largest expense
(Jimnez et al., 2000), and hence there is a need to develop autonomous robotic fruit picking
systems. Here we address the frst step in such a system by tackling the problem of on tree green
apple detection using real-time machine vision algorithms. The complexity of the task involves
the successful discrimination of green apples within scenes of green leaves, shadow patterns,
branches and other objects found in natural tree canopies. Color and edges are features highly
dependent on illumination while texture is highly sensitive to the proximity (scale) of the object.
An excellent review regarding apple recognition systems was presented in (Jimnez et al., 2000b).
The concept of background modeling using Gaussian mixture color distributions in RGB images
was used in Tabb et al., (2006). This algorithm detected 85 to 96 percent of both red and yellow
apples assuming a uniform background in an artifcial environment. Color distribution models for
fruit, leaf and background classes were used in Annamalai et al., (2003) in a citrus fruit counting
algorithm. In Stanjnko et al., (2004) pixel thermal values were mapped to RGB values and detected
using the normalized difference index. However the effciency of the algorithm was affected by
the apples position on the tree and degree of sunlight. In Sapina (2001), textural features extracted
from the gray level co-occurrence matrix were used to discriminate between warm objects and their
background in thermal images. On the same vein, a threshold selection approach was proposed by
Fernandez et al. (1993) based on apples texture features in grayscale images. The authors assume
that all the apples have a bright spot (due to their exposure to sunlight) and the apple region is
practically homogenous and spherical. These assumptions have limited validity in natural un-
controlled scenarios. Texture based edge detection combined with a measure of redness are used
in Zhao et al., (2005) for the detection of green and red apples in trees. The authors claim that their
method can deal with occluded apples, clustered apples and cluttered environments. However no
recognition rates are reported. A robust system using an infrared laser is presented in Jimnez et
al., (2000) which considers illumination, shadows and background objects. The authors report a
rate of 80-90% of detection when used with an artifcial orange tree.
Our paper proposes the use of two modalities; infra-red and color. Infra-red provides clues regarding
the physical structure and location of the apples based on their temperature (leaves accumulate
less heat and radiate it faster than apples), while color images provide evidence of circular shape.
Our approach consists of a pipeline of registration, detection, color space voting and combining
stages as shown in Figure 1. In registration correspondence matching between a color and a thermal
image is achieved using the maximization of mutual information technique and the registration
parameters are obtained. At the same time, apples are detected using a ViolaJones classifer
(Viola and Jones, 2004) based on Haar-like features in the detection phase. The color detections
are converted to hypotheses that are tested each by a voting scheme. The resulting detections are
combined with the thermal results and transformed using the registration parameters.
This paper is structured as follows. The registration algorithm based on maximization of mutual
information is described, then the process of training and detecting apples and the classifcation
fusion scheme is presented. The results of each modality independently, their combination and the
resulting enhancement are given in the last section.
Multimodal image registration using mutual information
Multi-modal image registration is a fundamental step preceding detection and recognition in
image processing pipelines used by the pattern recognition community. This preprocessing stage
concerns the comparison of two images the base and sensed images- acquired from the same
scenario at different times or with different sensors in such a way that every point in one image
has a corresponding point on the other images, in order to align the images. In our problem, the

1

Figure 1. Flowchart of multimodal apple
detection procedure
Figure 1. Flowchart of multimodal apple detection procedure.
transformation between two images of different modalities is affne which means; rotations,
translations and scaling are allowed. Transformation of the coordinates P
A
and P
B
from the sensed
image A to the base image B is given by Equation 1.
(1)
Where C
A
and C
B
are the coordinates of the centers of the images, s is a scaling factor, R() is the
rotation matrix, and t is the translation vector.
We shall compare fve different registration methods using the similarity indices: cross correlation
normalized (CC
1
), correlation coeffcient (CC
2
), correlation coeffcient normalized (CC
3
), the
Bhattacharyya coeffcient (BC) and the Mutual Information index (MI).
We frst introduce the mutual information (MI) method (Viola and Wells, 1995) as this will be
compared to other methods for registration. Let A, B be two random variables, p
A
(a) and p
B
(b)
with marginal probability distributions and p
AB
(a,b) a joint probability distribution. The degree of
dependence between A and B can be obtained by the MI, according to Equation 2.
(2)
A data set including 125 color and thermal images of apple trees were acquired from a digital RGB
camera and an IR FLIR camera. These images were registered by the fve indices mentioned earlier.
Table 1 shows the root mean squared errors (RMS) of the fve indices for each registration parameter.
By observing the results in Table 1, the mutual information technique performed better than the
other four methods for three parameters (s, , t
x
), and comparable to cc
1
for the last parameter
(t
y
). Therefore MI was selected as the preferred method for registering the whole set of images.
Figure 2 shows an example of a pair of images registered from the dataset.
Apple detection using Haar classifers
Apple detection using Haar classifers are applied separately in color and thermal images. We also
use a boosted cascade of simple classifers inspired by Viola and Jones (2004). This classifer relies
on features called Haar-like, since they follow the same arrangement as the Haar basis. The eleven
basis features, i.e. edge, line, diagonal and center surround features, are presented in Figure 3.
Since the number of features to be computed is quite large, integral images are adopted for fast
computation. Let I be a temporary image, representing the sub-window to be classifed, which
includes the sum of gray scale pixel values of the sub-window N with height y and width x, such that:
=
+ =
Y
X
B B B B
t
t
t
) cos( ) sin(
) sin( ) cos(
) ( R
t ) C P ).( ( sR ) C P (

=
b , a
AB
AB
) b ( p ). a ( p
) b , a ( p
log ) b , a ( p B) I(A,
B A

=
+ =
Y
X
B B B B
t
t
t
) cos( ) sin(
) sin( ) cos(
) ( R
t ) C P ).( ( sR ) C P (

=
b , a
AB
AB
) b ( p ). a ( p
) b , a ( p
log ) b , a ( p B) I(A,
B A

Table 1. Registration parameteres RMS error using the fve 5 similarity indices.
Measure RMS
As A At
x
(%) At
y
(%)
bc 0.226 2.205 3.958 4.328
mi 0.175 1.701 3.547 3.912
cc
1
0.196 1.929 3.985 3.868
cc
2
0.196 1.715 6.030 6.875
cc
3
0.196 1.713 6.067 6.848
(3)
The integral image is calculated recursively: I(x,y)=I(x,y-1)+I(x-1,y)+N(x,y)-I(x-1,y-1) where
I(-1,y)=I(x,-1)=I(-1,-1)=0. This requires one scan over the input sub-window. Rotated features can
be computed effectively in a similar way (Lienhart and Maydt, 2002).
A feature is detected when the computation of the weighted differences between the white and black
areas of the rectangles (Figure 3) are higher than a threshold. This threshold is determined during
the training process in such a way that the minimum number of samples is misclassifed. The set
of selected features is learned through a Classifcation and Regression Tree (CART) technique,
which is a form of binary recursive tree. To achieve a given detection and error rate, a set of simple
CARTS is selected through the Gentle Adaboost algorithm (Freund and Shapire, 1996).
In order to improve the overall performance of the classifers, they are arranged in a cascade
structure, where in every stage of the cascade, a decision is made whether the sub-window includes
the object to be detected. At every stage, at least a high hit rate is assured, e.g. 0.995 and at least
half of the false alarms are discarded. In spite of the hit rate and the false alarms are reduced, the
hit rate decreases slower than the false alarms rate (FA). For example for 20 stages, since every
stage keeps the hit rate to 0.995 at least, after 20 stages, the hit rate is 0.99510
20
=0.904. The false
alarms rate (FA) is decreased in every stage so half of the FA detections is rejected every stage. For
every stage the classifcation function is learned until the maximum number of stages is reached
or the minimum acceptable FA rate is obtained.
Learning color subspaces using A voting scheme
In this section separate artifcial neural network classifers are trained and tested for each of the thee
color spaces; L*a*b, hsv and rgb. Since, as we will show, the accuracies obtained for all the color
spaces are identical, it was decided to see if a fusion method would provide any advantage. We will
show that combining the output of the three classifers as an ensemble by majority voting will
decrease the false alarms without affecting the recognition rate. Thermal images are not considered
here since their intensity information can lead to ambiguity between classes.
= =
=
x
0 ' x
y
0 ' y
) ' y , ' x ( N ) y , x ( I

(3)

2

Figure 2. Color and thermal registered image

Figure 2. Color and thermal registered image.

3

Figure 3. Eleven Haar features: edge, line, diagonal, center surround and rotated features

Figure 3. Eleven Haar features: edge, line, diagonal, center surround and rotated features.
Training the classifers
For each window obtained from the Haar detector in the RGB images the hypothesis of whether the
window is or is not an apple was subsequently tested. For this purpose three classifers of the type
MLP (feed forward multi-layer perceptrons) were used. Each was trained and tested by splitting a
sample set of 751,100 vectors of dimension three. The dataset was constructed using the following
procedure: (1) a user selected and labeled manually rectangular regions of interest (sub-windows)
from the color image dataset according to 5 classes: apples, leaves, branches, sky and ground, and
(2) each selected window was resized to 1010 pixels and the values of each of the three channels
of all pixel was stored as a set of 3D vectors. This process was repeated for three color models:
L*a*b, HSV and RGB; and hence three datasets were obtained. Each classifer was trained and
tested with a different dataset; therefore each classifer is used for one color space. The details
of the datasets are given in Table 2. There are 3 such data sets, one for each of the color models.
Each classifer had the same topology: 3-layer perceptron with 3 inputs, 5 outputs and two
hidden layers including 100 neurons each. A symmetrical sigmoid activation function was used
f(x)=*(1-e
-x
)/(1+e
-x
) with =0.66 and =1.71. The training consisted of maximally 300 iterations
resulting in the accuracies of 0.784, 0.78 and 0.782 for training and 0.782, 0.78 and 0.78 for testing,
for the L*a*b, hsv and rgb classifers respectively.
Since the accuracy values obtained using different classifers are the same, in the next section a
fusion approach is tested to see if an improved solution can be obtained.
Majority voting in classifer combination
One possible way of combining the output of the three classifers is in an ensemble that is called
majority voting. For a given triplet of values z, let defne a classifer B
i
that responds with an
output vector y
i
such that the entry y
ij
=1 if z is classifed as class j, otherwise 0. In our case i=1,..,3
and j=1,..,5. Lets defne another type of classifer D
i,
that produces an output vector [d
i
,
1
,,d
i
,
c]

where the value di,j represents the base to the hypothesis that the sub-window w being tested on
classifer i belong to class j. Each measurement level d
i,j
can be obtained by Equation 4.
(4)
For example, for window w
1
, the response vector D
1
=[0.2 0.2 0.1 0.4 0.1] means that 20%, 20%
10%, 40% and 10% of the pixels in the window belong to classes apples, leaves, branches,
ground and sky respectively. However, to discriminate between true hits and false alarms, it
is enough to classify the sub-window in two classes apple and not apple. Therefore vector
[d
i,1
,,d
i,c
] can be converted to a binary two dimensional vector [e
i,1,
e
i,2
] such that:

(5)
=
w z
ij ij
) z ( B
w
1
d

,
>
=

+ = =
otherwise , 0
d d if , 1
e
c
1 k j
ij
k
1 j
ij
1 , i
1 , i 2 , i
e e =
=
w z
ij ij
) z ( B
w
1
d

,
>
=

+ = =
otherwise , 0
d d if , 1
e
c
1 k j
ij
k
1 j
ij
1 , i
1 , i 2 , i
e e =
Table 2. Dataset used to train the classifers.
Class Sub-windows Pixels
1-apples 1,416 141,600
2-leaves 2,263 226,300
3-branches 1,535 153,500
4-sky 1,583 158,300
5-ground 714 71,400
All 7,511 751,100
where k is the partition index between classes, and c is the number of classes. For example, to
consider the frst two classes in one group (likely to be an apple), and all the rest in a different
group (not likely to be an apple), k=2, n=5 and i=3.
Then, the majority vote scheme (Equation 6) determines the label L of the sub window detected
by the 3 classifers. The scheme is presented in Figure 4.
=
=
=
l
1 i
j , i
c
1 j
d max arg L

(6)
The majority voting scheme was used to accept or reject the hypothesis about whether the detected
sub-windows were or were not apples. In addition, two rules were implemented to accept a
hypothesis: (a) the detected window does not include sub-windows, (b) the detected sub-window
size is smaller than k*median (W,H), where we used k=1.5.
The following subsections describe the performance of the multimodal apple detection system
using frst, the RGB and IR Haar detectors independently.
Results of the RGB Haar detector
To train the RGB detector, a set of 146 color images of apple trees was used which included a total
of 9420 green apples under natural conditions. The classifer was tested on 34 images including
1972 apples. There were 30 stages in the detectors cascade, where each stage reached a hit rate
of 0.995 with two splits, and its base resolution was 2020 pixels. Figure 5 shows the detections
found in a sub-region of a testing image.
The fgure shows the classifers ability to generalize apples (e.g. partially occluded with leaves,
non-occluded, pits showing or not). False alarms were reduced using the voting scheme in classifer

4

Max
w
D1
D2
D3
Classfiers
Decision
Rule
Label

Figure 4. Classification combination scheme

Figure 4. Classifcation combination scheme.

5

Figure 5. Six apples detected by the RGB Haar detector

Figure 5. Six apples detected by the RGB Haar detector.
combination presented in Section 4. Table 3 presents the hits over the total number of apples, the
missed apples over the total number of apples, and the false alarms when using the RGB Haar
detector alone (single color space) and after adding the voting scheme (multiple color spaces).
The voting scheme affected the correct detections only by less than 0.8% while dropping the FA
rate by 7%.
Results of the IR Haar detector
The apple detector classifer with IR images was trained with a training set of 286 images including
2,330 apples from the same trees used to train the RGB Haar detector. Due to the lower resolution
of the thermal camera, the area captured by the image is much smaller, and hence contained less
apples. This classifer was trained with a cascade of 20 stages, with a minimum hit rate of 0.995
in each stage, with two splits and a base resolution of 2424 pixels detection window. Figure 6
shows apples detected in an IR sub-image.
The performance of this detector is given in Table 4 for stages 17-20. For each stage, the total
number of apples, the total hits and the false alarms are presented. These results show the dependency
between hit rate and false alarms. The cascade with 18 stages was used for the experiments, more
stages decrease signifcantly the hit rate, while an increase yielded a drastic increase in the FA.
Results of combined Color-IR scheme
The detected hits resulted from the voting scheme are added to the output of the IR Haar detector
after applying the transformation parameters. First, the registration parameters for each pair of
Table 4. Hit rate and false alarms per stage of the Haar detector.
Stage # Hits Missed FA
17 274/504 0.456 80
18 263/504 241/504 61
19 245/504 259/504 51
20 231/504 273/504 47

6

Figure. 6. Nine apples detected by the IR Haar detector

Figure 6. Nine apples detected by the IR Haar detector.
Table 3. Detection rate using the color Haar detector with and without the voting.
Hits Missed FA
RGB Haar 1,326/1,972 646/1,972 536
RGB Haar+Voting 1,307/1,972 646/1,972 536
images (color and IR) are found using mutual information. Then, the RGB and IR Haar detectors
are applied to the color and infra-red images respectively. Later, the affne transformation is applied
to the set of detections obtained using the IR Haar detector. Finally, the total number of detections
is the sum of both sets, RGB and IR. The apples considered for the detection in this step are those
found in the common area between the color and IR images.
The results are presented in Table 5 when applied to 34 pairs of testing images. The combination
approach shows that the recognition accuracy was increased (74%) compared to the conventional
approach of detection using either the color (66%) or the IR (52%) modalities alone. One interesting
feature of the methodology is that the three main processes: registration, Haar feature detection
in RGB and IR are independent and hence can be easily parallelized by assigning each process to
a different CPU.
Conclusions
We presented an algorithm for apple detection in natural scenes using a multimodal approach.
Initially the optimal registration parameters are obtained using maximization of mutual information
and are stored for later use. Then, Haar features in color and infra-red images are obtained through
an Adaboost algorithm. Later, a voting scheme is used to improve the detection results. Finally, the
detection results are fused after applying the best transformation found in the frst step. A contribution
reported in this work, is the voting scheme added to the output of the RGB Haar detector which
drops the false alarms with little effect on the recognition rate. The resulting classifers alone can
partially recognize the on-trees apples however when combined together the recognition accuracy
is increased. Although the algorithm did not detect all apples and contains false alarms, the main
concern is its implementation in a robotic fruit picking scenario. In this case, the performance of
the algorithm seems to be a suffcient for prepositioning a robot picking arm. Since images will
be acquired from cameras mounted on the robotic arm which can be oriented to take close up
pictures, gradually all the apples in the tree can be found and false alarms can be identifed as the
robot arm explores the canopy. In spite of the relatively low recognition accuracy, this is the frst
system, to our knowledge, that can deal with green apple detection, that are partially occluded
with shadow patterns, from a tree canopy of green leaves, branches, and sky background. Future
work will include increasing the robustness of the Haar classifers by increasing the sample set,
and incorporate morphologic information to the voting scheme.
Acknowledgments
This research was supported by Research Grant No US-3715-05 from BARD, The United States
- Israel Binational Agricultural Research and Development Fund, and by the Paul Ivanier Center
for Robotics Research and Production Management, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.
Table 5. Performance when using single and combined modalities.
Modality Hits Missed FA
Color + Voting 1,307/1,972 665/1,972 498
IR 263/504 241/504 61
Combined 679/913 234/913 344
References
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of the IEEE Conf. on Image Processing (ICIP 02), pp. 155-162.
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Computer Vision, June 1995, pp. 16-23.
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IEEE/RSJ Int. Conf. Intell. Robots and Systems, pp. 263-268.
Effects of seed rate and nitrogen fertilisation on cereal
canopy characteristics
J. Ken
1,2
, I. Svobodov
2
, T. Drylov
1
, P. Ma
2
and L. Neudert
1
1
Mendel University of Agriculture and Forestry, Zemdlsk 1, 613 00 Brno, Czech Republic;
kren@mendelu.cz
2
Agrotest Fyto, Ltd., Havlkova 2787/121, 767 01 Krom, Czech Republic
Abstract
A detailed evaluation of the development and structure of winter wheat and spring barley stands was
performed in small plot feld experiments established at two locations in Central and South Moravia
within the period of three years (2005-2007). A possibility of compensation of a reduced number
of plants by nitrogen application was demonstrated in both crops. An increased density of plants
and a lack of nitrogen accelerated and intensifed the differentiation of tillers. The differentiation
of tillers to productive and non-productive ones could be identifed on the basis of local minima
in histograms illustrating the frequency of their weight distribution. This enabled to estimate the
proportion of productive and non-productive biomass in the total above-ground biomass as an
important indicator of effectiveness of farming inputs into the crop cultivation. Positive correlations
between the total above-ground biomass and its content of nitrogen and the biomass of potentially
productive tillers were statistically highly signifcant. As compared with other traits under study,
values of the coeffcient of variation for the proportion of biomass of productive tillers in the total
above-ground biomass were very low (i.e. less than a half). Therefore, this characteristic can be used
to estimate the production potential of the stand on the basis of values of the total above-ground
biomass. The results also indicated that various and dynamically changing situations can occur in
cereal stands. The application of the population concept enabled us to fnd out some viewpoints that
provided a unifying base for relatively chaotic phenomena. They can be applied easily to study and
test new methods of quick areal screening of cereal using spectral characteristics and technologies
of terrestrial and remote sensing.
Keywords: winter wheat, spring barley, tiller differentiation, stand structure development,
possibilities of canopy assessment
Introduction
The state of the cereal stand and its structure refect variability in soil conditions as well as
cropping treatments. Shoots and stems with spikes are the most often assessed units of cereal stand
structure. Their size and number per unit area are changing during the plant growth within the stand.
Therefore, to attain higher effectiveness of crop management practices, extensive research on cereal
stand structure was conducted in the 1980s and 1990s (Masle-Meynard and Sebillote, 1981a,b;
Porter, 1983, 1984; Ken, 1990, 1991). Understanding the rules of cereal canopy development
can contribute to the identifcation of stress factors and to the improvement of crop management
practices. Therefore, this study is focused on a more detailed analysis of differentiation of cereal
tillers during the period of generative growth and development. The objective of this study was to
obtain data enabling estimation of the number of productive and non-productive tillers and of ratio
of productive and non-productive biomass (i.e. of the crop production potential) as basic data for
an optimisation of canopy management.
During three years (2005-2007), small-plot feld experiments with winter wheat and spring barley
were carried out in the Czech Republic at two locations differing in soil and climatic conditions
(Table 1). Variants with contrast stand structure, different seeding rates and N rates (Table 2) were
investigated at growth stages BBCH 31-beginning of stem elongation, 37-fag leaf just visible,
55-middle of heading, 65-full fowering. Each experimental variant was established in fve 10 m
2
replications. In sampling plots, squares of the size 0.25 m
2
(0.50.5 m) were marked out to obtain
plants for analyses of stand structure and nutritional status which involved estimation of: (1) number
and weight of individual tillers and plants, (2) dry matter (DM) weight of the above-ground part
of plants, (3) nitrogen content in above-ground biomass.
Table 1. Characteristics of the experimental locations.
Parameter Location
abice Krom
Geographical location 490120 N, 163755 E 491712 N, 172150E
Soil type Gleyc Fluvisol (FMG) Luvi Haplic Chernozem (CMl)
Texture class Clay loam Silt loam
Altitude 177 m 235 m
Annual mean temperature 9.2 C 8.7 C
Annual precipitation 480 mm 599 mm
Table 2. Characteristics of the experimental variants.
Crop and
variety
Preceding
crop
Variant Seed rate
(seeds/m
2
)
N fertilisation (kg N/ha) Location Year
Winter
wheat
variety
Cubus
Spring barley A 350 40 before sowing abice 2006,07
Krom 2005,06,07
B 500 40 before sowing, 40 at
regeneration, 40 at the
beginning of shooting
abice 2006,07
Krom 2005,06,07
Spring
barley
variety
Malz
Maize C 300 0 abice 2005,07
Krom 2005,06,07
D 300 60/05 and 50/07 by the
3-rd leaf
abice 2005,07
50/05, 60/06 and 07
before sowing
Krom 2005,06,07
E 500 0 abice 2005,07
Krom 2005,06,07
F 500 60/05 and 50/07 by the
3-rd leaf
abice 2005,07
50/05, 60/06 and 07
before sowing
Krom 2005,06,07
The segregation of tillers to productive and non-productive ones was performed as follows: When
performing analyses, tillers were ordered according to their decreasing weight. The number of fully
ripe ears per plot was taken as the number of productive tillers. Tillers with the highest weight at the
given developmental stage were rated as productive ones and the sum of their weights represented
the so-called productive biomass. This value was separated from the total weight of fresh above-
ground biomass per unit area of the stand.
Results were evaluated using elementary statistical characteristics (including mean, coeffcient of
variation and histograms of the distribution of weights of tillers) and correlation analysis.
An uneven growth of plants and tillers as well as their competition are the major factors which
infuence the stand structure. It is very diffcult to evaluate directly the intensity of mutual interactions
and competition of plants growing together only on the basis of the depletion of available resources
(Harper, 1977). For that reason the size distribution of plants is used as a suitable indicator of
these relationships and of changes taking place in the structure of plant populations (Koyama and
Kira, 1956). Therefore, the process of tiller differentiation was evaluated by means of histograms
illustrating the frequency distribution of their weights. This paper presents the results of the analyses
related to the process of tiller differentiation, as schematically illustrated in Figure 1. The separation
of tillers into subgroups of productive and non-productive ones could be identifed on the basis of a
local minimum. The process of tiller differentiation was infuenced both by the stand density and the
N dose. The higher density of plants and a lack of nitrogen accelerated the process of differentiation
and made it also more intensive. Application of nitrogen prolonged the processes of differentiation
till the stage of heading. From the viewpoint of yield formation, a gradual differentiation of tillers is
benefcial because potentially productive tillers can be preserved for a longer time interval. On the
other hand, however, too dense stands can suffer from a lack of resources (e.g. during dry periods).
To estimate the production potential and predict the yield, it is an advantage to know the numbers
of productive tillers and their critical weight for the transition from the vegetative to the generative
stage of growth and development. In our analyses, this was done in two different ways: (1) based
on the position of local minima in histograms (Figure 1), (2) by deduction of the strongest tillers
(evaluated on the basis of the number of ears at BBCH 91) from their total number. The observed
critical weights of winter wheat and spring barley individual tillers were approximately 2 g and
1.5 g, respectively.
1

Figure 1. A schematic presentation of changes in the distribution of tiller weights during the
period of generative development (BBCH 31 - 65). V vegetative tillers, G generative
(potentially productive) tillers (stems); the dark area represents tillers that can become,
depending on availability of resources, either vegetative or potentially productive.

Figure 1. A schematic presentation of changes in the distribution of tiller weights during the period
of generative development (BBCH 31 - 65). V vegetative tillers, G generative (potentially
productive) tillers (stems); the dark area represents tillers that can become, depending on
availability of resources, either vegetative or potentially productive.
The separation of tillers into two groups, i.e. vegetative and generative (potentially productive),
enabled us to determine the ratio of productive and non-productive biomass in the total above-
ground biomass of the stand. This value can be an important indicator of the effectiveness of
farming inputs into the crop cultivation. Thereafter an analysis of metapopulations of potentially
productive tillers was performed.
Basic data about tillers of winter wheat are presented in Tables 3 and 4 (for the locations of abice
and Krom, respectively) and data concerning tillers of spring barley in Tables 5 and 6. In both
crops the application of nitrogen was manifested in: (1) a higher weight of an average tiller even
under conditions of an increased stand density, (2) lower values of coeffcients of variation (CV) for
tiller weight. These relationships were expressed above all under higher soil fertility in Krom.
In abice (drier location with lower production potential), these relationships were not so clear
or even opposite.
In this context it is necessary to mention that in the majority of cases the values of CV for the weight
of all tillers (i.e. including vegetative ones) were more than doubled in comparison with productive
tillers. However, their reference value is low because of a bimodal distribution of the weight of
Table 3. Basic characteristics of tillers in the stand of winter wheat in abice (two-year means;
2005 and 2007).
Characteristic/variant BBCH 31 BBCH 55 BBCH 65
A B A B A B
Number of all tillers per m
2
1,462 1,664 444 612 476 608
Average tiller weight (g) 0.89 1.13 3.93 3.98 5.82 4.96
CV of tiller weight (%) 88.58 125.36 78.96 73.26 48.77 53.14
2
374 456 232 432 374 456
Biomass of productive tillers (g/m
2
) 762 1032 1523 2304 2705 2567
Aver. weight of productive tillers (g) 2.05 2.28 6.56 5.33 7.05 5.86
CV of productive tillers (%) 25.23 25.97 26.82 44.98 26.25 39.28
Table 4. Basic characteristics of tillers in the stand of winter wheat in Krom (three-year
means; 20052007).
Characteristic/variant BBCH 31 BBCH 55 BBCH 65
A B A B A B
2
1,387 1,805 1,125 1,380 720 951
Average tiller weight (g) 0.96 1.08 2.50 2.78 5.06 5.26
CV of tiller weight (%) 79.29 88.60 97.52 99.17 74.68 71.68
2
483 625 543 665 524 665
2
) 865 1375 2468 3368 3507 4755
Aver. weight of productive tillers (g) 1.79 2.16 4.61 5.06 6.67 7.15
CV of productive tillers (%) 29.84 25.18 36.54 32.83 44.66 33.96
Note: * BBCH 55 in 2007.
all tillers. In Krom, under higher soil fertility, the lower variability of productive tillers was
associated with their higher density on one hand and an increased amount of productive biomass per
unit area on the other hand. Of four variants representing various combinations of stand density and
nitrogen fertilisation in spring barley, the highest productive potential at the end of the generative
stage was recorded in Variant D (300 seeds per m
2
, 50-60 kg N/ha). This fnding corresponds with
the results of our earlier experiments, in which it was found out that the highest grain yield could
be reached on the basis of maximum amount of above-ground biomass and density of productive
stems at the minimum density of plants (Ken, 1993). In abice, on the contrary, in most cases
the higher CV values of productive tillers responded to the higher stand density and higher amount
of productive biomass. It can be explained by increased competition within the stand (inter- and
intra-plant) and by higher apical dominance of main stems under dry conditions.
Further analyses were focused on the evaluation of relationships between metapopulations of
productive and non-productive tillers. Correlations between the total above-ground biomass and
biomass of potentially productive tillers were positive and statistically highly signifcant while
correlations between the total above-ground biomass and the ratio of the biomass of potentially
Table 5. Basic characteristics of tillers in the stand of spring barley in abice (two-year means;
2005 and 2007).
Characteristic/variant BBCH 31 BBCH 55/65*
C D E F C D E F
2
1,536 1,973 1,483 1,590 868 858 944 950
Average tiller weight (g) 1.12 1.01 1.18 0.96 2.85 2.88 2.83 3.16
CV of tiller weight (%) 59.32 68.78 59.70 66.00 66.48 63.39 61.07 59.69
2
680 824 904 784 560 634 630 610
2
) 1180 1365 1510 1176 2396 2503 2596 2716
Aver. weight of productive tillers (g) 1.74 1.66 1.67 1.50 3.99 3.63 3.88 4.32
CV of productive tillers (%) 21.41 27.67 29.99 28.57 34.51 39.22 28.90 27.72
Table 6. Basic characteristics of tillers in the stand of spring barley in Krom (three-year
means; 20052007).
Characteristic/variant BBCH 31 BBCH 55/65*
C D E F C D E F
2
848 1,189 997 1,831 841 1,051 823 1,084
Average tiller weight (g) 0.92 1.17 0.88 1.13 2.90 3.26 2.46 2.76
CV of tiller weight (%) 71.12 68.94 68.44 72.30 57.05 61.20 52.42 56.05
2
545 715 588 679 545 715 588 679
2
) 659 1170 740 1340 2097 3185 1864 2616
Aver. weight of productive tillers (g) 1.21 1.67 1.26 2.02 3.85 4.45 3.12 3.79
CV of productive tillers (%) 37.81 34.35 35.50 22.99 27.73 30.56 26.83 21.43
Note: * BBCH 65 in 2007.
productive tillers varied considerably. Similar values and a similar character of correlations were
also found between the content of nitrogen in the total above-ground biomass and biomass of
potentially productive tillers and also their ratio in the total above-ground biomass (Table 7).
Low values (i.e. less than a half) of the CV for the proportion of biomass of productive tillers in
the total above-ground biomass (ranging from 7.06 to 15.79% and from 7.37 to 17.46% for winter
wheat and spring barley, respectively) were found while values of CV for other features under
study ranged from 29.81 to 54.43% (Table 8).
Based on this observation, it can be concluded that there is a close relationship between the total
above-ground biomass and N-content in the total above-ground biomass on the one hand and the
biomass of potentially productive tillers already in the period of stem elongation on the other.
Because of a low degree of variability it is possible to use the ratio of potentially productive tillers
in the total above-ground biomass for the estimation of overall productive capacity of the stand.
Table 7. Relationships in stands of winter wheat and spring barley.
Crop Develop-
mental
stage
BBCH
n Correlation coeffcient between
Total and
productive
biomass
Total biomass and
ratio of productive
biomass
N-content in
biomass and
productive biomass
N-content in
biomass and ratio of
productive biomass
Winter
wheat
31 10 0.911** 0.085 0.866** 0.184
37 8 0.966** -0.352 0.941** -0.113
65 10 0.972** 0.218 0.913** -0.268
Spring
barley
31 16 0.950** -0.781** 0.885** -0.760**
37 8 0.999** 0.966** 0.966** 0.895**
55/65 20 0.984** 0.170 0.874** 0.336
Note: * Statistically signifcant ( =95%); ** highly statistically signifcant ( =99%).
Table 8. Mean values and coeffcients of variation for features in stands of winter wheat and
spring barley.
Crop Develop-
mental stage
BBCH
n Trait
Total biomass N-content in
biomass
Productive
biomass
Share of
productive tillers
Mean
(g/m
2
)
CV (%) Mean
(g/m
2
)
CV (%) Mean
(g/m
2
)
CV (%) Mean CV (%)
Winter
wheat
31 10 1,586 33.12 8.78 39.86 1,031 38.74 0.65 15.79
37 8 3,032 30.76 12.65 46.64 2,667 29.81 0.89 7.06
65 10 3,775 35.00 16.14 45.13 3,533 34.31 0.94 7.57
Spring
barley
31 16 1,376 39.58 6.55 36.24 1,060 30.99 0.80 12.80
37 8 2,430 54.43 8.03 49.95 2,573 50.36 0.84 17.46
55/65 20 2,777 38.19 9.83 34.46 2,485 40.44 0.89 7.37
This creates preconditions for a more effcient use of indirect methods of canopy assessment on
the basis of its spectral characteristics, e.g. when using vegetation indices for optimisation of the
canopy management in dependence on the intensity of inputs (Thenkabail et al., 2002).
The results also indicate that there is a possibility of the occurrence of various, dynamically
changing situations in cereal crops. The population concept applied in studies concerning modular
units (tillers) enabled to create a unifying base for these relatively chaotic phenomena. They can
therefore be used when studying and testing new methods of effcient and areal screening of the
condition of cereal stands by means of spectral characteristics and technologies of remote and
terrestrial sensing (Hammen, 2001; Scotford and Miller, 2004; Reyniers et al., 2006).
Conclusions
A higher density of plants and a lack of nitrogen accelerated the differentiation of tillers and made
it more intensive. A segregation of tillers into two subgroups (i.e. productive and non-productive
ones) was possible due to an identifcation of the local minimum in histogram of their weight
distribution. In variants without the nitrogen application, symptoms of the minimum appeared
already at the beginning of the stage of stem elongation. On the other hand, however, the fertilised
variants showed in this period a marked shift of values to the left, i.e. the proportion of lighter tillers
was increased due to more intensive tillering, which was supported by nitrogen.
The application of nitrogen prolonged processes of differentiation till the end of heading. From the
viewpoint of yield formation, a gradual differentiation of tillers is benefcial because potentially
productive tillers can be preserved for a longer time interval. On the other hand, however, too dense
stands can suffer from a lack of resources (e.g. during dry periods).
The observed critical weights of winter wheat and spring barley individual tillers for transition from
vegetative to generative growth and development were approximately 2 g and 1.5 g, respectively.
The separation of tillers into two groups, i.e. vegetative and generative (potentially productive)
enabled to determine the share of productive and non-productive biomass in the total above-ground
biomass. This value can be used as an indicator of the effectiveness of farming inputs into the crop
cultivation.
Under higher soil fertility in Krom, the application of nitrogen was manifested in: (i) a higher
weight of an average tiller even under conditions of an increased stand density, (ii) lower values
of CV for tiller weight. Decreased variability of productive tillers was associated with a higher
productive density of the stand and with a higher amount of productive biomass per unit area of
the stand. These relationships were not so clear or even opposite in abice (drier location with
lower production potential).
The relationship between the total above-ground biomass and that of potentially productive tillers
were close already at the stage of stem elongation. Because of a low variability it is possible to use
the proportion of potentially productive tillers in the total above-ground biomass for the estimation
of the productive potential of the crop. This fnding can be useful for more effective methods of
canopy control based on spectral characteristics and on indirect estimation of above-ground biomass
using vegetation indices.
The results also indicate that various and dynamically changing situations can occur in cereal stands.
The population concept applied in studies concerning modular units (tillers) enabled to create a
unifying base for these relatively chaotic phenomena. They can, therefore, be used when studying
and testing new methods of effcient and areal screening of the condition of cereal stands by means
of spectral characteristics and technologies of remote and terrestrial sensing.
Acknowledgements
This study was supported by the Czech Science Foundation of the Czech Republic, project No.
521/05/2299, and by Research plan No. MSM6215648905 fnanced by the Ministry of Education,
Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic.
References
Hammen, V.C., 2001. On-line sensing of cereal crop biomass. Dissertation, Humboldt Universitt Berlin, 171
pp. Available at: http://edoc.hu-berlin.de/dissertationen/hammen-volker-carsten-2001-07-17.
Harper, J.L., 1977. Population biology of plants. Academic press, London New York San Francisco.
Koyama, H. and Kira, T., 1956. Intraspecifc competition among higher plants. VIII. Frequency distribution
of individual plant weight as affected by the interaction between plants. Jour. Inst. Polytech. Osaka Univ.,
D Biol. 7: 73-94.
Ken, J., 1990. Zmny variability rostlin a stbel v porostu penice [The changes in variability of plants and
shoots in the wheat stand]. Rostlinna vyroba 36: 1251-1259.
Ken, J., 1991. Vyuit poznatk o variabilit rostlin a stbel v porostu penice. [The use of knowledge in
variability of plants and stems in the wheat stand]. Rostlinna vyroba 37: 297-305.
Ken, J., 1993. Zsady zakldn porost ozim penice. [Principles of winter wheat vegetation establishment].
Obilnsk listy 1: 10-11.
Masle-Meynard, J. and Sebillotte, M., 1981a. Etude de lhtrognit dun peuplement de bl dhiver. I.
Notion de structure du peuplement. [Study on the heterogeneity of a winter-wheat stand. 1. Notion of
stand structure]. Agronomie 1: 207-215.
Masle-Meynard, J. and Sebillotte, M., 1981b. Etude de lhtrognit dun peuplement de bl dhiver. II.
Origine des diffrentes categories dindividus du peuplement: lments de description de se structure.
[Study on the heterogeneity of a winter-wheat stand. 2. Study on the different sorts of individuals of the
stand factors allowing the description of its structure]. Agronomie 1: 216-224.
Porter, J.R., 1983. A modular approach to analysis of plant growth. I. Theory and principles. New Phytology
94: 183-190.
Porter, J.R., 1984. A model of canopy development in winter wheat. Journal of Agricultural Science 102:
383-392.
Reyniers, M., Vrindts, E. and De Baerdemaeker, J., 2006. Comparison of an aerial-based system and an on
the ground continuous measuring device to predict yield of winter wheat. European Journal of Agronomy
24: 87-94.
Scotford, I.M. and Miller P.CH., 2004. Estimating tiller density and leaf area index of winter wheat using
spectral refectance and ultrasonic sensing techniques. Biosystems Engineering 89: 395-408.
Thenkabail, P.S., Smith, R.B., De Pauw, E., 2002. Evaluation of narrowband and broadband vegetation indices
for determining optimal hyperspectral wavebands for agricultural crop characterization. Photogrammetric
Engineering and Remote Sensing, 68: 607-621.
Section 5
Sensing weeds
Classifcation of sugar beet and volunteer potato refection
spectra using a neural network to select discriminative
wavelengths
A.T. Nieuwenhuizen
1
, J.W. Hofstee
1
, J.C. van de Zande
2
, J. Meuleman
2
and E.J. van Henten
1,3
1
Farm Technology Group, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 17, 6700 AA Wageningen, the
Netherlands; ard.nieuwenhuizen@wur.nl
2
Field Technology Innovations, WUR, Plant Research International, P.O. Box 616, 6700 AP
Wageningen, the Netherlands
3
Wageningen UR Greenhouse Horticulture, P.O. Box 644, 6700 AP Wageningen, the Netherlands
Abstract
Volunteer potato plants are important weeds in sugar beet crops in the Netherlands. As a consequence,
much attention is paid to the control of these weeds. The objectives of this study are to determine
the refectance properties of volunteer potato and sugar beet and to compare the ability to separate
sugar beet and volunteer potato at different growth stages, using spectral refectance characteristics.
Multispectral recordings of fve sugar beet and fve volunteer potato plants were taken in 2006
and 2007 at three different growth stages. The recordings contained vegetation refection in 167
wavelength bands between 450 and 1665 nanometer. A neural network approach was successfully
used to identify sets of 10 discriminating wavelength bands both for the range of 450-900 nm as
well as in 900-1,650 nm bands. Sets of wavelengths did not uniquely discriminate between sugar
beet and volunteer potato plants on measurement day and soil type. Therefore a sensor system that
combines and adaptively uses the refectance properties of the wavelengths between 450 and 1,650
nm is needed for detection of volunteer potato plants between sugar beets.
Keywords: weed, detection, discriminant analysis, sensors, analysis, intelligence
Introduction
One of the important weeds in sugar beet crops in the Netherlands are volunteer potato plants.
As a consequence, much attention is paid to the control of these weeds. Plants sprouting from
overwintered tubers are diffcult to control in sugar beet, since no selective herbicides are available.
Left uncontrolled, volunteer potato harbours diseases like late blight, insects, and nematode pests
of potato. As a result, the positive effects of crop rotation are lost (Boydston, 2001).
Sugar beet is a common rotational crop with potato in the Netherlands. The sugar beet crop grows
in rows which gives farmers better opportunities to control the volunteer potatoes with glyphosate.
The space between the rows is treated mechanically or with band sprayers while the volunteer
potato plants growing within the rows have to be treated manually. This task is labour intensive
up to 30 hours per ha (Paauw and Molendijk, 2000) and automation is required to give farmers
economically attractive opportunities for volunteer potato control.
The initial step in automation of volunteer potato removal is their detection. The present study
designed consistent methods for volunteer potato detection within the sugar beet crop rows using
the expected differences in refective properties of the crops and the volunteer potato weed.
Commercially available systems e.g. WeedSeeker (Ntech Industries Inc., Ukiah, CA, USA)
distinguish green plant material from the soil and other background elements and spray only where
plant material is present. However, in addition to the discrimination of green plant material and
background, inter-species discrimination is necessary for volunteer potato control within a sugar
beet crop. Previous researchers have used visible light image processing to discriminate between
species. After soil background subtraction, plant objects were classifed based on shape, colour
and texture (Guyer et al., 1986; Woebbecke et al., 1995; Gerhards and Christensen, 2003). They
were focussed on a more complex problem of discriminating between all the weed species and
the crop plants. Nevertheless, this classifcation process still has several problems that require a
solution. For example, the changing light conditions strongly infuence the classifcation success.
Occluding and twisting leaves also negatively affect the consistency of shape, colour, and texture
parameters. Multispectral analysis of crop and weed refections, to some extent, already deal with
some restrictions of image processing, such as occluded leaves and inconsistent shape features
(Vrindts et al., 2002). In addition, multispectral measurements give information outside the visible
spectrum that traditional digital cameras measure. For example, Thenkabail et al. (2000) took
multispectral measurements from several crop species in different growth stages. However, sugar
beets, our crop species of interest, were not measured. Thenkabail et al. (2000) indicated that narrow
band ranges are suitable for discrimination between crops. Nevertheless, the infuences of changing
crop growth stage conditions in the feld are rarely taken into account when taking experiments for
crop/weed identifcation systems.
The objectives of this study are to determine the refectance properties of volunteer potato and sugar
beet and to assess the ability to separate sugar beet and volunteer potato at different growth stages,
using spectral refectance characteristics. The scope of the research covers spectra gathered in two
different felds with two different soils, different crop varieties, and different growth stages. The
spectra were gathered in 2006 and 2007. The infuences of different felds and crops on characteristic
wavelength refection were investigated with neural network wavelength selection methods. The
results of this research will be used to improve the detection system for a precise volunteer potato
removal system.
Multispectral recordings of fve sugar beet and fve volunteer potato plants were taken in 2006
and 2007. The identical plants were recorded at three different growth stages. The recordings
contained vegetation refection at 167 wavelength bands between 450 and 1665 nm. A minimum
of 100 spectra were recorded for each plant that was measured. One spectrum measurement is the
refection of 1 mm
2
vegetation.
In-feld data recording
On May 17, June 2, and June 20, 2006, spectral measurements were taken on two felds in
Wageningen, the Netherlands. On May 15, May 29, June 12, and June 19, 2007, again measurements
were taken on two felds in Wageningen, the Netherlands. The frst feld had a clay soil and the
second feld had a sand soil. In both felds, sugar beet and volunteer potato were present. Due to
crop rotation, the identical felds as used in 2006 could not be used in 2007, but they were within a
range of 500 m of each other and of the same type of soil. The number of plants measured is given
in Table 1. At some dates data was not recorded due to growth stage or missing plants as a result
of weed control practices on the farm.
The ImspectorMobile (Molema et al., 2003) vehicle was used to take measurements of sugar
beet plants and volunteer potato plants in each feld (Figure 1). The plants were randomly chosen
in the feld and marked for the successive measurement days. To be sure that only sugar beet or
volunteer potato refections were measured, the area before and after the plant was covered with
blue plastic sheets, measurements on the blue sheets were neglected in the analysis (Figure 1).
Xenon fash lights and adequate shielding to prevent sunlight infuence were used to maintain
constant lighting conditions. Furthermore, a Spectralon
(Labsphere, North Sutton, NH, USA) 50%

refectance reference panel was measured in each recording to standardise the measured refectance.
Depending on the actual growth stage, between 20 and 30 line spectra were recorded from each
plant. Recordings from 450 to 900 nm were done with sensor 1 that consisted of a V9 Imspector
(Specim, Oulu, Finland) and a Kappa camera and recordings from 900 to 1650 nm were done
with sensor 2 that consisted of a N17 Imspector (Specim, Oulu, Finland) and an Indigo camera. A
slit of 80 micron was used within both spectrographs. Due to the slit width, sensor 1 and sensor 2
produced 91 and 75 wavelength bands of 5 nm and 10 nm bandwidth respectively. Both sensors
had a feld of view of 1.2 mm by 12 cm and the height above the ground was 50 cm. The driving
velocity was approximately 1 cm/s. The precise measurements and the amount of lines recorded
resulted in up to 2 10
5
spectra each measurement day. Therefore, the data was reduced to prevent
correlation of the spatial neighbouring data points. The spatial resolution was reduced to fve mm
blocks perpendicular to the driving direction. The data from sensor 1 and sensor 2 were separately
analysed as they were measured independently in the feld (see Figure 1). After data reduction, soil
spectra were removed from the dataset based on the following equations for sensor 1 and sensor 2.

R
680

R
555
Pixel is plant:
R
743
< 0.5 and
R
680
> 1.0 and R
680
< 0.15 and NDVI 330 (1)
Where R
743
is the interpolated refectance between R
740
and R
745
. The NDVI is defned as:
(2)
Pixel is plant if: < 0.7 and R
1456
< 0.3 (3)
Where R
1456
is the interpolated refectance between R
1450
and R
1460
. These equations are developed
and described in detail by Schut et al. (2003).
The sugar beet and potato plants recorded on clay, on sand soil, and the soils combined were used to
do 15 discriminant analyses, as shown in Table 1. The resulting spectra were identifed as sugar beet
and volunteer potato spectra using a variable selection method followed by a classifcation. A variable
selection method was chosen as for future detection systems specifc discriminating wavelengths
need to be identifed. To overcome the restrictions of only investigating linear relationships with
linear discriminant analysis as variable selection method, a neural network wavelength selection
method was used. A fully connected Kohonen neural network with three layers was trained and used
for classifcation. The input layer consisted of the refection variables, the hidden layer consisted
of one, two or three hidden neurons, and the output layer consisted of two neurons, one for the
volunteer potato class and one for the sugar beet class.
The wavelength selection and classifcation procedure was as follows: ffty percent of the dataset was
used for training the neural network and ffty percent was used for verifcation of the classifcation.
3
they were within a range of 500 m of each other and of the same type of soil. The number of
plants measured is given in Table 1. At some dates data was not recorded due to growth stage or
missing plants as a result of weed control practices on the farm.
Figure 1 ImspectorMobile measurements in sugar beet field. A and B are reflectance references in the field of view
of sensor 1 and sensor 2 respectively. C are plastic sheets covering vegetation that was not recorded. D is one of the
plants recorded by sensor 1.
The ImspectorMobile (Molema et al., 2003) vehicle was used to take measurements of sugar beet
plants and volunteer potato plants in each field (Figure 1). The plants were randomly chosen in
the field and marked for the successive measurement days. To be sure that only sugar beet or
volunteer potato reflections were measured, the area before and after the plant was covered with
blue plastic sheets, measurements on the blue sheets were neglected in the analysis (Figure 1).
Xenon flash lights and adequate shielding to prevent sunlight influence were used to maintain
constant lighting conditions. Furthermore, a Spectralon
(Labsphere, North Sutton, NH, USA)

50% reflectance reference panel was measured in each recording to standardise the measured
reflectance. Depending on the actual growth stage, between 20 and 30 line spectra were recorded
from each plant. Recordings from 450 to 900 nm were done with sensor 1 that consisted of a V9
Imspector (Specim, Oulu, Finland) and a Kappa camera and recordings from 900 to 1650 nm
were done with sensor 2 that consisted of a N17 Imspector (Specim, Oulu, Finland) and an Indigo
camera. A slit of 80 micron was used within both spectrographs. Due to the slit width, sensor 1
and sensor 2 produced 91 and 75 wavelength bands of 5 nm and 10 nm bandwidth respectively.
Both sensors had a field of view of 1.2 mm by 12 cm and the height above the ground was 50 cm.
The driving velocity was approximately 1 cm s
-1
. The precise measurements and the amount of
lines recorded resulted in up to 2 10
5
spectra each measurement day. Therefore, the data was
reduced to prevent correlation of the spatial neighbouring data points. The spatial resolution was
reduced to five mm blocks perpendicular to the driving direction. The data from sensor 1 and
sensor 2 were separately analysed as they were measured independently in the field (see Figure 1).
After data reduction, soil spectra were removed from the dataset based on the following equations
for sensor 1 and sensor 2.
330 and 15 . 0 and 0 . 1 and 5 . 0 : if plant is Pixel
680
680
555
743
680
< > < NDVI R
R
R
R
R
(1)
Where R
743
is the interpolated reflectance between R
740
and R
745
. The NDVI is defined as
675 750
675 750
1024
R R
R R
NDVI
+
= (2)
4
3 . 0 and 7 . 0 : if plant is Pixel
1456
1130
1456
< < R
R
R
(3)
Where R
1456
is the interpolated reflectance between R
1450
and R
1460
. These equations are
developed and described in detail by Schut et al. (2003)
Table 1: Overview of measurements in 2006 and 2007. The recording dates and soil types, the number of sugar beet
and potato plants recorded, and the number of spectra recorded for both sensors are shown. Measurements on clay
soil were delayed in 2007, due to a later emerged crop in the fields.
Sensor 1 Sensor 2
Analysis
#
Recording
date
Soil type Sugar
beet
plants
Potato
plants
Sugar
beet
spectra
Potato
plant
spectra
Sugar
beet
spectra
Potato
plant
spectra
1 17-5-2006 clay 5 5 179 779 228 1510
2 sand 5 5 426 1690 1003 569
3 clay+sand 10 10 605 2469 1231 2079
4 2-6-2006 clay 5 3 744 263 2213 971
5 sand 5 4 4260 115 4720 265
6 clay+sand 10 7 5004 372 6933 1236
7 20-6-2006 clay 5 4 4922 4922 4268 4267
8 15-5-2007 sand 5 5 343 1475 91 218
9 29-5-2007 clay 5 5 960 6795 599 1433
10 sand 5 5 1859 5938 390 2130
11 clay+sand 10 10 2819 12732 989 3563
12 12-6-2007 clay 5 5 546 1376 3208 1151
13 sand 5 5 0 414 1454 198
14 clay+sand 10 10 546 1790 4662 1349
15 19-6-2007 clay 5 5 932 3112 6374 5830
The sugar beet and potato plants recorded on clay, on sand soil, and the soils combined were used
to do 15 discriminant analyses, as shown in Table 1. The resulting spectra were identified as
sugar beet and volunteer potato spectra using a variable selection method followed by a
classification. A variable selection method was chosen as for future detection systems specific
discriminating wavelengths need to be identified. To overcome the restrictions of only
investigating linear relationships with linear discriminant analysis as variable selection method, a
neural network wavelength selection method was used. A fully connected Kohonen neural
network with three layers was trained and used for classification. The input layer consisted of the
reflection variables, the hidden layer consisted of one, two or three hidden neurons, and the
output layer consisted of two neurons, one for the volunteer potato class and one for the sugar
beet class.
The wavelength selection and classification procedure was as follows: fifty percent of the dataset
was used for training the neural network and fifty percent was used for verification of the
classification. A forward inclusion method of input variables was used. More specifically, the
first variable separates the two output classes the best with a net including one input variable.
Each next step the net is expanded with one input variable that separates the two output classes
better compared to the remaining wavelength bands and increases classification accuracy. The
inclusion of variables was stopped when no increase in correctly classified spectra was seen.
1

Figure 1 ImspectorMobile measurements in sugar beet field. A and B are reflectance references in the field of view
of sensor 1 and sensor 2 respectively. C are plastic sheets covering vegetation that was not recorded. D is one of the
plants recorded by sensor 1.

Figure 1. ImspectorMobile measurements in sugar beet feld. A and B are refectance references
in the feld of view of sensor 1 and sensor 2 respectively. C are plastic sheets covering vegetation
that was not recorded. D is one of the plants recorded by sensor 1.
A forward inclusion method of input variables was used. More specifcally, the frst variable
separates the two output classes the best with a net including one input variable. Each next step
the net is expanded with one input variable that separates the two output classes better compared
to the remaining wavelength bands and increases classifcation accuracy. The inclusion of variables
was stopped when no increase in correctly classifed spectra was seen.
After the selection and classifcation procedure, a sensitivity analysis was done. The selected
wavelength bands were inserted into the neural network at once and a leave-one-out classifcation
was performed. With this method the discriminative power of 10 wavelengths within the set of
selected wavelengths could be determined. To summarize the results of the 15 analyses, the soil
types and the measurement days the following equation was used:
(4)
where N is the total number of 15 analyses, rank
w
is the rank of the wavelength band in the leave-
one-out classifcation. The highest ranking wavelength band received 10 points, the lowest ranking
wavelength band received 1 point. The sum of the rank points was divided by the total rank points
given for the 15 analyses which yields the normalized discriminative power of the wavelength band
w as a result. The classifcation accuracy was determined as the quotient of correctly classifed
spectra and total spectra in the analysis. The classifcation accuracy was used to evaluate the results
of discrimination with 1, 2, and 3 hidden neurons, and to evaluate the results of discrimination
between sand soils, clay soils and sand and clay soils combined.
5
After the selection and classification procedure, a sensitivity analysis was done. The selected
wavelength bands were inserted into the neural network at once and a leave-one-out classification
was performed. With this method the discriminative power of 10 wavelengths within the set of
selected wavelengths could be determined. To summarize the results of the 15 analyses, the soil
types and the measurement days the following equation was used:
points rank Total
rank
(w) power tive discrimina Normalized
N
1
w
= (4)
where N is the total number of 15 analyses, rank
w
is the rank of the wavelength band in the leave-
one-out classification. The highest ranking wavelength band received 10 points, the lowest
ranking wavelength band received 1 point. The sum of the rank points was divided by the total
rank points given for the 15 analyses which yields the normalized discriminative power of the
wavelength band w as a result. The classification accuracy was determined as the quotient of
correctly classified spectra and total spectra in the analysis. The classification accuracy was used
to evaluate the results of discrimination with 1, 2, and 3 hidden neurons, and to evaluate the
results of discrimination between sand soils, clay soils and sand and clay soils combined.
Results
The forward inclusion approach for selecting discriminative wavelengths reduced the number of
wavelengths needed for classification. The reduction was from 167 to a maximum of 10
wavelength bands needed for > 90% correct classification of the spectra. This was valid for the
simpler neural networks with one or two hidden neurons in the net, as well as for the more
complex neural network with 3 hidden neurons in the hidden layer.
The mean classification accuracy was 97.67 %, 98.85 %, and 99.03 % for 1, 2, and 3 hidden
neurons respectively for sensor 1 and the classification accuracy was 96.46 %, 97.96 %, and
98.49 % for 1, 2, and 3 hidden neurons respectively for sensor 2. This shows that more complex
networks better model the reflectance response of the crops to distinguish between them. This
holds for both sensor 1 and 2. Additionally, sensor 1 better modelled the reflectance properties
compared to sensor 2.
The spectra recorded on the sand soils were better discriminated than the spectra recorded on the
clay soils. This resulted in a higher correct classification accuracy of 98.8 and 98.2% compared to
96.5 and 94.7% for both sensors 1 and 2 respectively, when a network with 1 hidden neuron was
used. The networks with 2 and 3 hidden neurons showed a higher classification accuracy for sand
soils as well.
In 13 out of 15 analyses a combined set of 10 wavelengths was needed to reach a classification
accuracy over 95%. These sets of wavelengths were different between the analyses. In two cases
less variables were needed to achieve a classification accuracy larger than 95%. In one case on
the sand soil at 17-5-2006 only two bands, 855 and 715 nm, were needed. In another case on the
clay soil at 29-5-2007 only one band, 1490 nm, was needed.
Depending on the complexity of the neural network, different wavelengths scored higher on their
normalized discriminative power. This can be seen in Table 2 where for example band 765 nm
was selected and scored high in a simple net with 1 hidden neuron. However, this band was not
within the most important bands in a net with 2 and 3 hidden neurons.
Table 1. Overview of measurements in 2006 and 2007. The recording dates and soil types, the
number of sugar beet and potato plants recorded, and the number of spectra recorded for both
sensors are shown. Measurements on clay soil were delayed in 2007, due to a later emerged
crop in the felds.
Analysis # Recording
date
Soil type Sugar beet
plants
Potato
plants
Sensor 1 Sensor 2
Sugar
beet
spectra
Potato
plant
spectra
Sugar
beet
spectra
Potato
plant
spectra
1 17-5-2006 clay 5 5 179 779 228 1,510
2 sand 5 5 426 1,690 1,003 569
3 clay+sand 10 10 605 2,469 1,231 2,079
4 2-6-2006 clay 5 3 744 263 2,213 971
5 sand 5 4 4,260 115 4,720 265
6 clay+sand 10 7 5,004 372 6,933 1,236
7 20-6-2006 clay 5 4 4,922 4,922 4,268 4,267
8 15-5-2007 sand 5 5 343 1,475 91 218
9 29-5-2007 clay 5 5 960 6,795 599 1,433
10 sand 5 5 1,859 5,938 390 2,130
11 clay+sand 10 10 2,819 12,732 989 3,563
12 12-6-2007 clay 5 5 546 1,376 3,208 1,151
13 sand 5 5 0 414 1,454 198
14 clay+sand 10 10 546 1,790 4,662 1,349
15 19-6-2007 clay 5 5 932 3,112 6,374 5,830
Results
The forward inclusion approach for selecting discriminative wavelengths reduced the number of
wavelengths needed for classifcation. The reduction was from 167 to a maximum of 10 wavelength
bands needed for > 90% correct classifcation of the spectra. This was valid for the simpler neural
networks with one or two hidden neurons in the net, as well as for the more complex neural network
with 3 hidden neurons in the hidden layer.
The mean classifcation accuracy was 97.67%, 98.85%, and 99.03% for 1, 2, and 3 hidden neurons
respectively for sensor 1 and the classifcation accuracy was 96.46%, 97.96%, and 98.49% for 1,
2, and 3 hidden neurons respectively for sensor 2. This shows that more complex networks better
model the refectance response of the crops to distinguish between them. This holds for both sensor
1 and 2. Additionally, sensor 1 better modelled the refectance properties compared to sensor 2.
The spectra recorded on the sand soils were better discriminated than the spectra recorded on the
clay soils. This resulted in a higher correct classifcation accuracy of 98.8 and 98.2% compared
to 96.5 and 94.7% for both sensors 1 and 2 respectively, when a network with 1 hidden neuron
was used. The networks with 2 and 3 hidden neurons showed a higher classifcation accuracy for
sand soils as well.
In 13 out of 15 analyses a combined set of 10 wavelengths was needed to reach a classifcation
accuracy over 95%. These sets of wavelengths were different between the analyses. In two cases
less variables were needed to achieve a classifcation accuracy larger than 95%. In one case on the
sand soil at 17-5-2006 only two bands, 855 and 715 nm, were needed. In another case on the clay
soil at 29-5-2007 only one band, 1,490 nm, was needed.
Depending on the complexity of the neural network, different wavelengths scored higher on their
normalized discriminative power. This can be seen in Table 2 where for example band 765 nm was
selected and scored high in a simple net with 1 hidden neuron. However, this band was not within
the most important bands in a net with 2 and 3 hidden neurons.
Figure 2 shows the discriminative power of the wavelength bands of the two sensors, after the
sensitivity analyses were applied. The graph shows all the wavelength bands that were selected and
one can see that the selected bands are quite evenly distributed over the available wavelengths. So,
bands from both the visible as well as from the near-infrared region were needed for discrimination.
The largest bubble represents band 1,530 nm that was always in combination with other bands
one of the most powerful discriminative bands.
Discussion
The spectra from the two sensors could not be linked against each other as the places on the plants
were not recorded at the same time, as can be seen from the fgure of the ImspectorMobile (Figure
1). This hindered combinations of wavelengths of both sensors to be selected as discriminative.
Probably combinations of wavelength bands of both sensors could have had more discriminative
power. The classifcation accuracies were higher for sensor 1. This indicates that the wavelength
bands between 450 and 900 nm have a higher information content compared to the wavelength
bands between 900 and 1,650 nm, as the neural network was confgured identical for training and
classifcation.
In all analyses except two combinations of 10 wavelengths were needed to discriminate between
the refectance spectra of the two crops. These combinations of bands were different between the
felds and between the days of measurement, therefore the discriminating wavelengths could not
be generalized onto the 15 analyses. Our results show that the spectral refectance properties of
growing plants change in time and are different for soil types. This hampers the selection of unique
bands suitable for discrimination between the crop species.
Table 2. Normalized discriminative power of the ten highest ranking wavelength bands for the
analyses for 1, 2, and 3 hidden neurons in the neural network. The upper half of table covers
results for sensor 1, the lower half of the table covers the results for sensor 2. The numbers
shown are for the two soils together, and for the measurement days together.
1 hidden neuron 2 hidden neurons 3 hidden neurons
wavelength
band
normalized
discriminative
power
wavelength
band
normalized
discriminative
power
wavelength
band
normalized
discriminative
power
765 5.4 855 4.2 450 5.6
515 5.0 770 3.9 855 5.5
470 4.1 550 3.3 525 5.1
900 3.9 690 3.2 745 4.0
510 3.4 705 3.2 515 3.5
525 3.4 535 3.1 590 3.3
855 3.2 730 3.1 895 3.2
780 3.0 780 2.7 690 2.8
715 2.9 890 2.7 735 2.8
825 2.7 525 2.5 825 2.5
1,440 6.0 1,530 8.0 1,530 10.5
1,530 5.8 1,470 5.5 1,470 5.1
900 4.7 1,120 5.0 1,320 4.2
1,430 4.7 1,590 4.5 1,280 3.5
1,370 4.0 1,380 4.2 1,360 3.9
1,650 4.0 1,280 3.2 1,490 2.8
1,510 3.4 1,490 3.2 1,410 2.7
1,380 3.2 910 3.0 1,440 2.5
1,590 3.2 1,450 3.0 1,520 2.4
910 3.0 1,430 2.9 1,030 2.3
2

Figure 2 The normalized discriminative power between sugar beet and potato reflectance spectra of a specific band is
shown as a function of all measured wavelength bands. Larger bubbles indicate larger discriminative power. The
figure shows a combined summary for the 15 analyses of neural networks with 1, 2, and 3 hidden neurons.

Figure 2. The normalized discriminative power between sugar beet and potato refectance
spectra of a specifc band is shown as a function of all measured wavelength bands. Larger
bubbles indicate larger discriminative power. The fgure shows a combined summary for the 15
analyses of neural networks with 1, 2, and 3 hidden neurons.
This research as well as the research by Vrindts et al. (2002) selected discriminative wavebands
between crops and weeds. Their selection methods were statistical linear discriminant analyses
that could not represent nonlinear relations like neural networks in this research. In the research of
Vrindts et al. (2002) the crops and weeds were measured on specifc growth stages and changing
light conditions, which did not result in specifc wavelengths for crop-weed detection, applicable
in changing conditions.
From the bands that were selected, 1,530 nm was one with a relatively high discriminative power
within the sets of 10 bands. The 1,530 nm band relates to the starch content of the plants as
described by Curran (1989). This band ranked high, although it was in all cases supported by other
wavelengths to be discriminative.
Conclusion
Both in the visual and in the near-infrared refection region, combinations of wavelengths were
responsible for discrimination between sugar beet and volunteer potato plants. A neural network
approach was successfully used to identify sets of 10 discriminating wavelength bands both
for the range of 450-900 nm and 900-1,650 nm. These sets of wavelengths were not unique for
discrimination on measurement day and soil type, therefore a sensor system that combines and
adaptively uses the refectance properties of the wavelengths in the bands between 450 and 1,650
nm is needed for detection of volunteer potato plants between sugar beets.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Unifarm Wageningen for providing the experimental felds and
Willem de Visser for their assistance with the experiments. This research is supported by the Dutch
Technology Foundation STW, applied science division of NWO and the Technology Program of
the Ministry of Economic Affairs. Secondly the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food
Quality supported this research. The research is part of research programme LNV-427: Reduction
disease pressure Phytophthora infestans.
References
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sugarbeet, winter wheat and winter barley. Weed Research 2003(43), 385-392.
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spectroscopy system as tool for crop characterization in agriculture. In: Precision Agriculture, edited by
A. Werner and A. Jarfe, Wageningen Academic, pp 499-500.
Paauw, J.G.M. and Molendijk, L.P.G. 2000. Aardappelopslag in wintertarwe vermeerdert aardappelcystenaaltjes.
Praktijkonderzoek Akkerbouw Vollegrondsgroenteteelt bulletin Akkerbouw, pp. 4.
Schut, A.G.T. and Ketelaars, J.J.M.H. 2003. Monitoring grass swards using imaging spectroscopy. Grass and
Forage Science 58, 276-286.
Thenkabail, S., Smith, R.B. and de Pauw, E. 2000. Hyperspectral vegetation indices and their relationships
with agricultural crop characteristics. Remote sensing environment 71, 158-182.
Vrindts, E., De Baerdemaeker, J., and Ramon, H. 2002. Weed detection using canopy refection. Precision
Agriculture 2002(3), 63-80.
Woebbecke, D.M., Meyer, G.E., Van Bargen, K.. and Mortensen, D.A. 1995. Color indices for weed
identifcation under various soil, residue, and lighting conditions. Transactions of the ASAE 38(1), 259-269.
Automated weed detection in winter wheat by using
artifcial neural networks
A. Kluge and H. Nordmeyer
Julius Khn-Institut. Federal Research Centre for Cultivated Plants, Institute for Plant Protection
in Field Crops and Grassland, Messeweg 11-12, 38100 Braunschweig, Germany;
Alexander.Kluge@jki.bund.de
Abstract
A weed detection system was developed that consisted of artifcial neural networks. A CCD camera
acquired digital colour images of weeds. To recognize weeds more effectively than by discriminant
analysis, an artifcial neural network was used. In this paper new geometrical features were
applied, these were the angle between a point on the leaf axis and a point at the edge of the leaf.
This feature is nearly independent from the dimension of leaves. Several angles measured in this
way were evaluated by an artifcial neural network. A classifcation between two selected weeds
(Galium aparine and Veronica hederifolia) was made. The recognition rate was 90.0% for Veronica
hederifolia and 93.4% for Galium aparine. The results show that the neural network model can
distinguish weed species at the cotyledon growth stage. The weed detection system with artifcial
neural networks could improve weed detection for site specifc weed control.
Keywords: machine vision, leaf recognition, weeds, precision farming, herbicide reduction
Introduction
Weeds are a persistent problem in agricultural production and many efforts have been put into
studying and developing chemical, physical and cultural weed control methods. Within agricultural
felds there is a competition between weeds and crops for limited resources like light, water, space
and nutrients. Weeds can cause high yield losses and therefore weed control is indispensable.
Herbicide application is the most important method in weed control to secure economic benefts
in crop production. Spraying the whole feld with the same application rate is the current practice.
But in fact, all weed infestations have an aggregated or clumped distribution at different scales.
Weeds are patchy distributed in agricultural farm land (Husler and Nordmeyer, 1999; Oebel and
Gerhards, 2005; Nordmeyer, 2006). Weed distribution and density varies across the feld. It has
been shown that a herbicide application adapted to feld situation can reduce herbicide inputs.
Donald (1994) discovered that particular perennial weeds are distributed in local defned areas. Rew
and Cussans (1995) recognised that these clusters can be localised nearly at the same position for
several years. Based on this knowledge many concepts of site specifc weed control were developed
(e.g. Nordmeyer et al., 2003; Oebel, 2006), but it could be shown that manual weed counting by
feld walking is too labour-intensive and thus not economical. Therefore, automatic techniques
have been developed (e.g. Yang et al., 2000; Cho et al., 2002; Gerhards and Christensen, 2003;
Gee et al., 2004; Nordmeyer et al., 2005). It was tried to establish these concepts in agricultural
practice (Gerhards and Oebel, 2006).
Hemming (2000), Perez et al. (2000) and Jafari et al. (2006) emphasised that weed recognition
based on colour and shapes of plants are the best qualifed methods. Methods of image recognition
are able to differentiate between weed species itself and crops by different plant characteristics like
shape, colour and others. Image recognition is able to analyse pictures automatically and therefore
an automatic weed mapping for agricultural felds is possible.
Schuster et al. (2007) developed an algorithm based on plant shape to distinguish between
monocotyledonous and dicotyledonous weeds. Oebel (2006) showed a method to distinguish
between crops and weeds by merging plant species in several classes. However, on the feld
overlapping plants and changing light conditions make it diffcult to get the best recognition.
Often the reliability of weed detection methods is not high enough for an application under feld
conditions. Especially there is a need for recognition with high accuracy for weed species which
lead to high yield losses at very low densities (e.g. Galium aparine). In integrated weed control,
herbicide use is justifed only when the economic damage caused by the weed population is greater
than the cost of the treatment (economic threshold concept).
For weed detection, cameras with CCD- (Charged Coupled Device) and CMOS- (Complementary
Metal Oxide Silicon) technology are often used. Skefeld et al. (2007) used two CCD monochromatic
cameras. They were mounted in one module and provided a differentiated image of two recorded
wavelengths. Schuster et al., (2007) used also a camera based on CCD technology. Machine
vision systems combined with artifcial neural networks (ANN) have been used for weed-plant
discrimination (Cho et al., 2002; Perez et al., 2000; Yang et al., 2000). A neural network is a
powerful data modelling tool that is able to capture and represent complex input/output relationships
with the advantage of requiring less calculating time than a procedural model (Yang et al., 1997).
In the present study a weed detection system was developed applying artifcial neural networks.
The aim was to identify shape features for detecting Galium aparine and Veronica hederifolia and
to develop an algorithm for separating weeds by applying an ANN.
Acquiring images
A CCD camera acquired digital colour images of weeds. The physical resolution is 3111 x 2328
pixels acquisition format and a colour depth of 48 Bit. The weed species Galium aparine (GALAP)
and Veronica hederifolia (VERHE) were cultivated in containers (dimension 450280 mm) in a
greenhouse under natural light conditions. The containers were fxed in a rack above a camera
at 360 mm height. Most objects are desribed by three dimensions in the karthesien space. In this
space objects show six degrees of freedom that persists of rotations and translations and there are
a lot of representation of this scene in two dimensional karthesian space. The leaves of cotyledons
were in this research expected to grow horizontally. Therefore the cotyledons could be imaged
perpendicular from a top view. By this assumption the described degrees of freedom are reduced to
two rotations. The scene was illuminated by artifcal light to reduce the work for colour constancy
algorithms. Images were recorded and stored in RAW-format. That means the build-in processor
of the camera is disabled and no precision of data is lost. The camera has a special format for raw
data. Therefore a lossless conversion into the standardized DNG-format was executed. DNG was
developed by Adobe Systems and denots digital negative format. The images show weeds at growth
stage of BBCH 10-11, that means that two leaves were developed.
Calculating features for the artifcial network
The pictured plants were free in two translations and one rotation and have to be fxed to get the
same measuring points for all plants. This was done with a 44 matrix of transformation. The
parameters for the transformation-matrix were determined by calculating the balance point and
the turning momentum around the balance point. A coordinate system was constructed originates
between two leaves. Its abscissas was oriented parallel to the leaf centre line (Figure 1). In the ideal
case the axis of abscissas is the centre line of the leaf.
The middle axis (x) of a plant leaf was divided into fve equal parts. Then the distance between
origin and a part (distance x) and between a part and its intersection with the outline (distance y)
was measured. Both values are needed to compute an angle by using the tangent-function (Figure
2). The fve measuring points were used for the ANN.
Artifcial neural networks (ANN)
The artifcial neural network is based on a back propagation network scheme. The Neural Network
Simulator software is called MemBrain. The simplifed structure of the net is shown in Figure 3,
because the measured values had to be normalized.
The obtained angles of 40 images of Galium aparine and of Veronica hederifolia respectively were
training data for the constructed network. At the input layer each input node was assigned to the
angle of one measure point of the leaf. Two hidden layers were used and two output neurons show

Figure 1. Orientation of weed leaves and its coordinate system (left: Veronica hederifolia,
right: Galium aparine)

Figure 1. Orientation of weed leaves and its coordinate system (left: , right:
).

Figure 2. Intersections of leaf and tangent-function, P denotes the cross points at plants
contour

Figure 2. Intersections of leaf and tangent-function, P denotes the cross points at plants contour.

Figure 3. Simplified structure of the neural network

Figure 3. Simplifed structure of the neural network.
the result of the networks classifcation. The generated output is a tuple. The values get one if a
neuron is activated else it gets a zero value. The output [0,1] defnes Galium aparine and the output
[1,0] defnes Veronica hederifolia. The applied transfer function between the neurons was sigmoid.
The network was trained until the error was below 0.1 as shown in Figure 4. This means the weights
between the neurons were adjusted until the expected error margin was reached. After this the ANN
was evaluated by using 30 new images. A performance assessment of calculation time was not
done, because it depends on computer hardware and there was no special optimisation of the net.
Results
Cotyledons of Galium aparine and Veronica hederifolia differed in leaf length and width. They were
segmented and arranged as is shown in Figure 1 and divided into segments as shown in Figure 2.
The angles between the axis of abscissas and the intersection with the leaf outline were measured
by using the tangent-function. The statistic distribution of calculated angles of Veronica hederifolia
is shown in Table 1. As expected, the values decrease with increasing distance from the origin. The
angles get more acute and fnally at measuring point 5 they get a value of zero degrees, because
both corresponding points are on the midline of leaves. On average the angle values at the frst
measuring point are 61 and decrease to 22 at the fourth measuring point. The variance differed
between measuring points.

5

Figure 4. Decreasing error rate of the net while teaching

Figure 4. Decreasing error rate of the net while teaching.
Table 1. Angles of leaves ( , n=40).
measuring points [angle in degrees]
1 2 3 4 5
Mean value 61.823 47.111 33.758 21.747 0
Standard deviation 5.833 4.656 5.145 4.466 0
Variance 34.027 21.683 26.471 19.946 0
Max 68.198 54.246 42.797 29.054 0
Min 49.398 39.805 27.512 15.708 0
Similar characteristics have been found for Galium aparine. The calculated angles are shown in
Table 2. However, the mean values for each measuring point are lower than the corresponding data
of Veronica hederifolia (Table 1). The variances of Galium aparine values are smaller than the
values of Veronica hederifolia. Both show a value of zero degrees at measuring point 5, because
of its construction (see material and methods).
The arithmetic mean showed no signifcant differences between Veronica hederifolia and Galium
aparine at the 95% confdence level (analysis of variance). For this reason, based on this approach
there is no mathematic functional solution that can certainly differentiate between both plant species.
Artifcial neural networks can improve this as the network can learn the patterns and classify in a
new way. Therefore the ANN was trained with 40 weed plants for each species and evaluated by
30 test series (Table 3).
The ANN classifed 3 of 30 (10.0%) Veronica hederifolia plants and 2 of 30 (6.6%) Galium aparine
plants wrong. The recognition rate was 90.0% for Veronica hederifolia and 93.4% for Galium
aparine.
Discussion
Site specifc weed management in agricultural practice requires automatic methods for weed
recognition (e.g. Schuster et al., 2004; Oebel, 2006). Available systems provide insuffcient
recognition accuracy. Some weed species look similar at cotyledon growth stage. Weed control
has to be done with high effcacy, especially for weeds with low economic threshold values. This
requires a high recognition rate of 95 to 99% to use a recognition system under practical conditions.
Recently a system for weed recognition based on geometric features was developed. Kluge and
Nordmeyer (2008) achieved a recognition rate of 78.8% for Galium aparine in winter wheat. The
present work demonstrates a signifcant improvement by using an artifcial neural network. So
Table 2. Angles of leaves ( , n=40).
measuring point [angle in degrees]
1 2 3 4 5
Mean value 57.605 40.290 27.587 18.416 0
Standard deviation 3.213 3.712 3.109 2.530 0
Variance 10.323 13.786 9.671 6.403 0
Max 63.434 47.489 33.023 21.689 0
Min 52.125 30.256 20.323 12.804 0
Table 3. Results of test images according to artifcial neural networks.
Weed species Number of observation false positive false negative
n No. % No. %
30 0 0 3 10
30 0 0 2 6.6
far, the developed ANN model recognizes Galium aparine with 93.4% and Veronica hederifolia
with 90.0% accuracy at the cotyledon growth stage. It is expected that the accuracy can be further
increased by additional training data. Comparing to methods which only use geometric features
the ANN model will be more precisely in distinguishing weeds and feld crops. The advantage of
the described method is the independency of scale. This is very important, because the distance
between plants and camera(s) varies under practical conditions and therefore the plants in the
mapped images will change in size (scale).
In future, the method of this work could be combined with another method that can only distinguish
between rough weeds in order to improve the recognition quality. More implementations are
also possible if another method is more rapid in using computing time. The speed of this method
cannot be compared to other research, because no benchmarks for such a case are published and
secondly the algorithm is not optimized like using parallelism or special hardware with graphics
computing or feld programmable gate areas. By using these techniques an even higher acceleration
could be achieved. There is no error infuence on the results, because of the technique for taking
the images is perpendicular to the surface. The projection of the three-dimensional space into a
two-dimensional space is the reason that the information on the height at the projection axis is
lost. Consequently, these investigations are an appropriate simulation for practice and its results
can be probably assigned in felds.
Future research should apply the artifcial neural network model to other weed species and other
growth stages of weeds. The described technique for accelerating the process should be used to
reach real-time processing in site specifc weed control, so that a site specifc herbicide application
in agricultural practice will be possible.
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Development of an integrated approach for weed detection
in cotton, for site specifc weed management.
R. Efron
1,3
, V. Alchanatis
1
, Y. Cohen
1
, A. Levi
1
, H. Eizenberg
2
and U. Shani
3
1
Institute of Agricultural Engineering, Agricultural Research Organization (ARO), The Volcani
Center, P.O. Box 6, 50250 Bet Dagan, Israel; victor@volcani.agri.gov.il
2
Dept. of Phytopathology and Weed Research, Agricultural Research Organization, Newe Yaar
Research Center, P.O. Box 1021, Ramat Yishay, 30095, Israel
3
Dept. of Soil and Water Sciences, Faculty of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences, The
Hebrew University of Jerusalem, P.O. Box 12, Rehovot 76100, Israel
Abstract
The ability to properly control and eliminate weed infestation in cotton felds can be a crucial factor
for the crops proftability. Site specifc weed management has long been marked as the next step in
precision agriculture and the tools of remote sensing and image processing stands in the front line
of this discipline. Several researches that have conducted trials in this feld showed encouraging
results for distinguishing weeds from the crop, but no mechanism has been implemented yet in the
agriculture routine. This fact has driven us to develop a low cost, yet effective, method for weed
map preparation which later on will be used for on-the-go herbicide application. A new approach
is suggested which includes combining information from a hydro-thermal model into image
processing algorithms. This information consists of the expected number of plants per m
2
, leaves
per plant and other inouts. The suggested system consists of a simple RGB camera, mounted on a
tractors sprayer boom and connected to an on-board computer. A video fle is recorded with the
camera at a rate of 7.5 frames per second. The pictures are then being extracted from this fle and
analyzed in a MatLab environment. The process involves applying different vegetation indices
using the RGB channels. Object separation is based on morphological features and compared to
incoming information from the hydro-thermal model and data from previous years. The result of
this process is a weed map calibrated with DGPS data that had been collected during the image
acquisition stage. The information achieved each year will also be used for continuous update and
amendment of the hydro-thermal model.
Keywords: remote sensing, image analysis, weed control
Introduction
Cotton is one of the major crops in Israel where the entire yield is directed for export. Weed
infestation can reduce proftability of the crop in two manners. At the germination stage competition
for water and nutrition can affect yield. At harvest time, weeds that are being harvested with the crop
can stain the lint and reduce its value in the market (Vargas et al., 1996). Cotton is usually irrigated
with treated sewage water. Water saving requires crop cycles, and an improper use of herbicides
that have soil residues can severely damage the following crop in the cycle. Even with low residue
herbicides, the common practice is to spray the entire feld evenly. Since weeds tend to grow in
patches, this action is both economically and environmentally undesirable. Those reasons drove
many researchers to develop site specifc weed control methods. Herbicide application according
to weeds spatial variability requires an automated weed or weed patches detection (Stafford and
Benlloch, 1997). Several methods have been proposed, some based on machine vision, others based
on spectroscopy (Elfaki, 1997; Wang et al., 2001). Spectroscopy methods use the refected light
spectrum in order to separate weeds from crop. Alchanatis et al. (2005) showed that using specifc
wavelengths in the visible and NIR can segment vegetation. Other researches (Woebbecke et al.,
1995, Lamm et al., 2002) showed that using image proceeding algorithms, several morphological
features can be used for weed-crop differentiation. Texture-based weed classifcation method was
presented by Tang et al. (1999). Several known and novel RGB indices were tested in order to
separate vegetation from soil background (Golzarian 2007, Meyer 2006). This ability is an important
prerequisite for the image processing algorithms.
The objective of our work is to develop a process that generates a usable weed map. This map can
then be used both as input for selective spraying (Elkabetz et al., 1998) and as a yearly layer for a
geographic information system (GIS). A novel approach is being tested in this work that combines
information from a new hydro-thermal model into the image processing algorithms.
The main purpose for this work was to develop a usable tool that can be implemented into agro-
technical systems. One main aspect was to make it affordable, for this reason we chose not to use
high-end vision equipment, but to work with standard, off the shelf devices.
Data acquisition
Images were acquired with a simple but high-resolution USB webcam (Model NX-6000 from
Microsoft
). The camera was based on a CCD sensor sensitive to the Red, Green and Blue
wavelengths (RGB) and had a 1,6001,200 pixel resolution. Two cameras were mounted on a
tractors spraying boom at 1.4 m above ground level resulting a 1.61.2 m Field Of View (FOV)
for each camera. This setup yields a spatial resolution of about 1mm/pixel. The cameras were
operated in video capture mode, and the information was stored in an AVI format with a frame rate
of 7.5 frames per second. This relatively high frame rate enabled more than 50% longitudinal FOV
overlapping even when traveling at high speed (>10 km/hr). A 5% to 10% lateral overlapping in the
FOV was achieved by fxing the position of the cameras on the boom appropriately. The cameras
were connected with a USB interface to an onboard computer with Pentium4
1.7GHz CPU and

1 GB RAM. During the image acquisition process the cameras location was being logged using a
DGPS with sub-meter accuracy.
Videos were acquired on two dates: 15
th
and 30
th
of May 2007 at a cotton feld located at Alonim,
Israel (324320N, 351141E). The tractor drove at a speed of 2-4 m/s while videos were
recorded. A total of 22,500 images were extracted from the videos, representing an area of 18,700
square meters. In this paper, we present the results using 20 different images, which yielded a data
set of 1,207 objects.
Algorithm and image processing
After data were collected in the feld, the rest of the process was performed in the lab using Matlab

(ver. 2007b, The Mathworks Inc., Natick, MA). An application was developed for this research to
enable control and fexibility of the process. The application can be used in three modes: (1) Training
mode, which enables the creation of a training set by collecting information from the user into a
specifcally designed database. (2) Operational mode, which performs automatic object classifcation
and weed-map preparation, based on an existing database and training set. (3) Evaluation mode,
which enables the evaluation of the entire process and the specifc parameters being used during
analysis. The entire process is presented as a fowchart in Figure 1. It is currently an off-line process,
yet we take under consideration that the fnal platform should operate in on-line mode. Therefore
we try to develop the algorithms in the most effcient way.
The captured video fle was converted into a sequence of JPEG images that were then analyzed
individually. The frst step in the image analysis process was to separate vegetation objects from
background (e.g. soil, rocks, shade, etc.). This was performed by using vegetation indices. The
vegetation indices were calculated with normalized RGB data (Equation 1) rather than the raw data.
R G B
R =
R+G+B
, G =
R+G+B
, B =
R+G+B
(1)
where R, G and B are the normalized image components, and R, G and B are the raw image
components. The purpose of the normalization was to reduce the infuence of different illumination
conditions between images.
Four indices were calculated and tested BGI, NDI, EGI and MEGI:
R B
BGI =
|R G|
(2) Blue Green Index (Wobbecke et al., 1995)
R G
NDI =
R + G
(3) Normalized red green Difference index (Mao et al., 2003) aka
NGRDI
EGI = 2G R B (4) Excessive Green Index (Wobbecke et al., 1995)
0 if G < R
MEGI = 0 if G < B
EGI otherwise
(5) Modifed EGI (Mao et al., 2003)
Morphological operations
The four indices images were binarized by applying a threshold value. The threshold value was
set individually for each index and determined by analyzing a set of representative images. The
Figure 1: Processing algorithm flowchart

RGB
Image
EGI MEGI
I
NDI BGI
Binary
Noise
Object
Object Classification Classification
Training
Phenological Info
Hydro-thermal Model
Weed Map
Vegetation
indices
GPS
On the go GIS database
Data collecting system

Figure 1. Processing algorithm fowchart.
sensitivity of the binarization process on the value of the threshold on different image sections
(center or edge of the image) was evaluated and the threshold value was set accordingly.
Morphological operations and noise reduction are then being performed on the binary images.
First, small objects (less than 1000 pixels) were removed using bwareaopen function. Holes
were flled and objects were closed by dilation followed by erosion (closing). This enabled better
object separation. Then, each object in the image was labeled and its geometric properties were
calculated (Table 1).
The second information source that provided data into the process was the Hydro-thermal model
developed by Eizenberg et al. (2000) the input from the model is based on a Growing Day-Degree
measurement and indicates the expected phenological stage of the weeds in the feld.
Classifcation
Once the objects were identifed, classifcation was performed. Seven classes were defned: (1)
Cyperus rotundus-Single, (2) Cyperus rotundus-Cluster, (3) Broadleaf weeds, (4) Cotton-Single,
(5) Cotton-Cluster, (6) Mixture and (7) Shade. Each identifed object was manually assigned to one
of the above classes, to create a labeled data set for classifers evaluation. The data set consisted
of a n-by-13 matrix that contained the values of the 13 geometrical features of the n objects, and
a n-by-1 vector that contained the class for each object.
The geometrical features (Table 1) were used to classify the detected objects in one of the above
classes. A linear discriminant classifer was used, which fts a multivariate normal density with a
Table 1. Geometrical features calculated for the detected objects.
# Feature Description Units Scale
1. Area Area of the object pixels pic size
2. Orientation The angle between the x-axis and the major axis of the
ellipse that has the same second-moments as the region
Degr. (-90) -
(90)
3. Extent Proportion of the pixels in the bounding box that are
also in the region
- > 0
4. Perimeter Distance around the boundary of each contiguous
region in the image
pixels > 0
5. EquivDiameter Scalar; the diameter of a circle with the same area as
the region
> 0
6. Eccentricity Scalar; the eccentricity of the ellipse that has the same
second-moments as the region
- 0 - 1
7. MajorAxisLength Scalar; the length (in pixels) of the major axis of the
ellipse that has the same normalized second central
moments as the region
pixels > 0
8. MinorAxisLength Scalar; the length (in pixels) of the minor axis of the
ellipse that has the same normalized second central
moments as the region
pixels > 0
9. Solidity Scalar; the proportion of the pixels in the convex
hull that are also in the region. Computed as Area/
ConvexArea
- > 0
10. Compactness1 Ratio of the major axis length squared to the area - > 0
11. Compactness2 Ratio of the perimeter squared to the area - > 0
12. DistToRows Min {dist to frst row, dist to second row} pixels 0-1200
pooled estimate of covariance to each group. The performance of the classifcation was evaluated
by the classifcation accuracy and classifcation reliability for each class, as well as the overall
classifcation accuracy of the set. The classifcation results of the training set were evaluated and
the cross validation results were performed using the leave-one-out scheme.
RGB indices
The performance of each index in separating the background from the vegetation was tested
separately. Three representative zones were chosen, center, edge and mid-way (between the edges
and the center) of the image, in order to evaluate the effect of the camera lens and feld illumination
conditions. An area of 5050 pixels was selected in each zone. Each pixel, was manually labeled
as background (soil) or vegetation. Each index image was then binarized using a threshold value
from 1 to 100 and compared to the manually labeled image. The difference between the classifed
and the labeled images represents the error. Figure 2 summarizes the performance of the different
indices along the different zones of the image. The BGI index (Figure 2a) was found to be sensitive
to vignette, probably caused by low quality lens. The error in the edge of the images was greater than
in the center and mid-way of each image. The error using BGI index was also found to be higher
than other indices at the edges of the image. As opposed to the edge of the image, where less light
reaches the CCD, the center of the image can get fully saturated some times. As a consequence the
proportions between the red green and blue channels are distorted. Nevertheless, all the indices show
good results in the center of the image. The MEGI index (Figure 2d) shows very low sensitivity
to the threshold value and maintains a similar error throughout the entire range. The NDI and EGI
(Figure 2b,c respectively) gave similar results in all the areas of the image. For the Mid-Way area,
all four indices were able to distinguish vegetation from background. The BGI index showed the
highest sensitivity for the changes in the threshold, which can result in a higher error if a wrong
threshold value is chosen.
Geometrical features
The performance and contribution to classifcation ability of each geometrical feature was tested in
stepwise regression using the MATLAB statistics toolbox. The most single distinguishable feature
was found to be the Extent. The model with lowest RMSE contained the following features: Area,
Perimeter, Extent, EquivDiameter and Compactness1 (features 1, 2, 5, 6 and 10 from Table 1).
Those features were selected in order to evaluate the classifcation process.
0 20 40 60 80 100
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500

(c) - EGI
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
E
r
r
o
r

[
n
u
m
b
e
r

o
f

p
i
x
e
l
s
]

(a) - BGI
20 40 60 80 100

(d) - MEGI
(b) - NDI

Center
Mid-Way
Edge
Center
Mid-Way
Edge
Center
Mid-Way
Edge
Center
Mid-Way
Edge
Threshold value
Figure2:Indicesperformance
Figure 2. Indices performance.
Classifcation
Classifcation was conducted separately for each index and the results are presented as confusion-
matrix. Table 2a-d presents the classifcation results of the training set into 7 different classes. The
highest total accuracy was achieved using the MEGI (85%) and the lowest with BGI (74%). In all
four tests the most accurate classifcation was of class 4, a single cotton leaf, probably due to its
round and regular shape, and the similarity to other leafs. The highest confusion was between class
1 and 2 (Cyperus rotundus-Single and Cyperus rotundus-Cluster respectively) which in a practical
perspective has a minor infuence since both are designated to be sprayed. Yet this information is
important for validation of information from the hydro-thermal model. BGI yielded low reliability
(22%) when classifying objects as shade. This poor performance fts the performance of the index
in the image edges.
Table 3a-d presents the classifcation results of the cross validation process, using the leave-one-
out scheme. The results confrmed the high classifcation accuracy of MEGI (84%) and showed a
decreased performance for EGI.
The same data were then used to classify the objects to two simpler categories: Classes 1,2,3 and 6
were combined to a class that indicates that spraying is needed, and classes 4,5 and 7 were combined
to a class that indicate that there is no need to spray. Table 4 presents the classifcation results of two
classes. Both accuracy and reliability are high for all indices, with the best performance achieved
by MEGI. Therefore, the presented algorithms can also serve for the simpler task of generic weeds
detection for selective spraying.
Hydro-Thermal model
Preliminary results from the ongoing study by Eizenberg are presented in Figure 3. The sigmoid
graph represents a typical biological behavior. The model on Figure 3 enables to estimate the
expected number of leafs for a single Cyperus rotundus plant as a function of GDD (Growing Degree
Days). The relationship between the automatically detected area and the number of leaves is shown
in Figure 4. The slope of a linear model denotes the there are 640 pixels per leaf. Therefore, the
number of leaves of each detected weed can be estimated from its area in the image, and compared
to the expected value from the hydrothermal model. A better classifcation can be achieved using this
information and knowing the GDD of the time the images were taken. Yet further research is needed.
Summary and conclusions
A combined process that tries to achieve a low-cost, yet useful, weed map was presented. At the
frst stage, the ability to separate vegetation from background, using several vegetation indices was
tested. The tests focused on the performance of the indices in feld conditions and the performance
in different zones of the image. Several geometrical features were tested and the most effcient were
used in the classifcation process. A linear discriminant classifcation was used to detect the weeds.
Cross validation accuracy reached 85% when different classes of weeds were considered. When
only the spry-not spray option was tested, weed detection accuracy reached more than 95%. This
is a high accuracy with the potential to be grown into a usable system. Since the main output of
the process is a decision whether to spray or not the adjustment of the classifying process should
be whether to prefer type I or type II errors.
The information from the different indices should be compared and combined into one matrix,
considering the performances of the different indices in different zones of the image. This matrix
can then be georeferenced according to the DGPS data that has been logged in the feld, and then
will be added to the matrix of the prior image. The fnal result is a vector layer that represents the
weed-map, which can be used both as an input for site specifc spraying system and as a layer in
a yearly geospatial database.
Table 2. Confusion matrices of classifcation results of the training set using different indices:
(a) NDI, (b) BGI, (c) EGI and (d) MEGI.
(a) NDI
Class
Reference
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Total Reliability
Predicted 1 30 2 1 0 0 0 1 34 88%
2 4 5 0 0 0 0 0 9 56%
3 0 0 6 1 0 1 7 15 40%
4 1 0 2 45 5 0 1 54 83%
5 0 0 1 1 33 1 1 37 89%
6 0 0 1 0 1 11 0 13 85%
7 3 0 5 0 0 0 12 20 60%
Total 38 7 16 47 39 13 22 182
Accuracy [%] 79 71 38 96 85 85 55 78%
(b) BGI
Predicted 1 37 2 2 1 0 0 0 42 88%
2 4 8 1 0 1 1 1 16 50%
3 2 0 7 1 0 0 0 10 70%
4 6 0 1 30 2 1 0 40 75%
5 0 0 1 0 26 1 0 28 93%
6 0 0 0 0 5 5 0 10 50%
7 6 0 1 0 0 0 2 9 22%
Total 55 10 13 32 34 8 3 155
Accuracy [%] 67 80 54 94 76 63 67 74%
(c) EGI
Predicted 1 33 1 1 0 0 0 0 35 94%
2 9 6 0 0 0 0 0 15 40%
3 1 0 13 0 0 0 0 14 93%
4 1 0 0 35 3 0 0 39 90%
5 0 0 1 0 40 5 0 46 87%
6 0 0 1 0 2 5 0 8 63%
7 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 -
Total 44 7 16 35 45 10 0 157
Accuracy [%] 75 86 81 100 89 50 - 84%
(d) MEGI
Predicted 1 22 1 0 0 0 0 0 23 96%
2 7 0 0 0 0 0 0 7 0%
3 1 0 19 2 0 0 0 22 86%
4 2 0 0 54 4 0 0 60 90%
5 0 0 1 3 51 1 0 56 91%
6 0 0 1 0 3 2 0 6 33%
7 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 -
Total 32 1 21 59 58 3 0 174
Accuracy [%] 69 0 90 92 88 67 - 85%
Table 3. Confusion matrices of classifcation results of the cross validation using different indices:
(a) NDI, (b) BGI, (c) EGI and (d) MEGI.
(a) NDI
Class
Reference
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Total Reliability
Predicted 1 64 6 1 0 0 0 1 72 89%
2 13 17 0 0 0 0 0 30 57%
3 1 0 17 2 0 1 7 28 61%
4 1 0 3 75 10 0 1 90 83%
5 0 0 3 2 51 6 1 63 81%
6 0 0 1 0 2 17 0 20 85%
7 7 0 3 0 0 1 18 29 62%
Total 86 23 28 79 63 25 28 332
Accuracy [%] 74 74 61 95 81 68 64 78%
(b) BGI
Predicted 1 66 4 7 0 0 0 1 78 85%
2 7 16 2 0 0 0 1 26 62%
3 5 0 11 1 0 0 1 18 61%
4 10 1 2 64 3 1 0 81 79%
5 0 0 3 0 32 5 0 40 80%
6 0 0 0 0 6 5 0 11 45%
7 8 0 1 0 0 0 7 16 44%
Total 96 21 26 65 41 11 10 270
Accuracy [%] 69 76 42 98 78 45 70 74%
(c) EGI
Predicted 1 74 3 4 1 0 0 0 82 90%
2 27 15 0 0 0 1 0 43 35%
3 6 0 19 0 0 0 0 25 76%
4 3 0 2 53 8 1 0 67 79%
5 0 0 3 0 60 5 0 68 88%
6 0 0 1 0 3 11 0 15 73%
7 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 -
Total 110 18 29 54 71 18 0 300
Accuracy [%] 67 83 66 98 85 61 - 77%
(d) MEGI
Predicted 1 58 0 0 0 0 2 0 60 97%
2 16 3 0 0 0 0 0 19 16%
3 3 0 26 1 0 0 0 30 87%
4 1 0 2 86 10 0 0 99 87%
5 0 0 3 5 75 1 0 84 89%
6 0 0 1 0 4 8 0 13 62%
7 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 -
Total 78 3 32 92 89 11 0 305
Accuracy [%] 74 100 81 93 84 73 - 85%
Table 4. Confusion matrices of cross validation classifcation results for two classes, using
different indices: (a) NDI, (b) BGI, (c) EGI and (d) MEGI.
(a) NDI
Class
Reference Total Reliability
Spray Not Spray
Pred. Spray 138 16 154 90%
Not Spray 19 156 175 89%
Total 157 172 329
Accuracy [%] 88 91 89%
(b) BGI
Pred. Spray 123 10 133 92%
Not Spray 31 106 137 77%
Total 154 116 270
Accuracy [%] 80 91 85%
(c) EGI
Pred. Spray 161 7 168 96%
Not Spray 11 121 132 92%
Total 172 128 300
Accuracy [%] 94 95 94%
(d) MEGI
Pred. Spray 117 2 119 98%
Not Spray 10 176 186 95%
Total 127 178 305
Accuracy [%] 92 99 96%
Figure 3. Hydrothermal model describing the number of leaves of the weed as a function of the
physiological age expressed by Growing Day Degrees (GDD).
Further tests and validation that should be performed using different data sets with different
training sets, compare the performance of different geometrical features on other datasets, evaluate
system performance in cloudy lit conditions.
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Figure 4 : Relationship between the automatically detected area and the number of leaves
Figure 4. Relationship between the automatically detected area and the number of leaves.
Selectivity of weed harrowing with sensor technology in
cereals in Germany
V. Rueda-Ayala and R. Gerhards
Department of Weed Science (360b), University of Hohenheim, 70599 Stuttgart, Germany;
victor@uni-hohenheim.de
Abstract
Three feld experiments were installed to investigate whether intensity, timing, and direction of
post-emergence weed harrowing in winter and spring cereals infuenced the selectivity. Selectivity
was studied as originally defned in Denmark. Each experiment was designed to create various
intensities by increasing number of passes angle tine and driving speed, applied at varying crop
growth stages. Objective estimation of leaf cover through differential image analysis was used. A
recent proposed statistical procedure was used to analyse the effects. Selectivity was in general
infuenced by timing of harrowing. Improving effects were seen at late crop growth stages, when
harrowing was aggressive enough according to the season. Leaf cover and weed density decreased
exponentially at increasing harrowing intensities. That caused an increment of crop soil cover,
although not always improving weed control. Harrowing across crop rows did not cause impacts
on selectivity, while along rows seemed to improve it at early growth stages. Nevertheless, further
research is needed to prove the results. Sensors to estimate leaf cover index and soil resistance,
were tested to generate algorithms to automatically adjust in real-time the harrow to a determined
intensity. Intensities which generate the crop soil cover percent associated with the higher selectivity
will be taken as the basis to develop algorithms.
Keywords: image analysis, weed harrowing, timing, wheat, barley, soil coverage, site-specifc
mechanical weed control
Introduction
Environmental concern has stimulated research to improve effectiveness of non-chemical weed
control methods. Weed harrowing is a common practice of mechanical weed control in cereals. It
involves whole crop cultivation and thus that may cause crop injury. Research on selectivity as key
parameter of post-emergence weed harrowing has been a priority (Rasmussen et al., 2008), because
control success depends on the balance of weed damage relative to crop damage. The concept
of selectivity was developed in Denmark by Rasmussen (1990); it is defned as the relationship
between crop burial by soil immediately after treatment and weed control.
Weed harrowing can be carried out at three different stages (Rasmussen and Svenningsen, 1995):
pre-emergence, early post-emergence, and from late tillering until the crop becomes about 40-50
cm high. It can effectively control small broad leaved weeds, but it is less effective against deep
rooted weeds and grasses. If broad leaved weeds are at cotyledon stage and the crop has reached
at least three true leaves stage, weed harrowing can be highly selective. However, a generally high
harrowing frequency is required. However, a generally high harrowing frequency is required to
control surviving weeds which were neither uprooted nor buried (Kurstjens and Perdok, 2000). In
post-emergence harrowing two aspects relate to selectivity (Jensen et al., 2004): (1) Resistance of
the crop to soil covering (including height, fexibility, shape of leaves, and treatment aggressiveness).
(2) Tolerance of the crop to soil covering (burial depth, soil texture, and plant recovery processes).
Crop damage may increase at higher harrowing intensity, precisely when greater weed density
reduction is reached. A high crop:weed competition is important, and sometimes lower than
optimum control levels have to be accepted (Rasmussen and Rasmussen, 2000). In winter wheat
with low weed pressure, harrowing may produce yield reduction. Thus, lighter treatments would
be advantageous or even not to perform any weed control (Rasmussen, 2004). Rasmussen and
Rasmussen (2000), found that increasing harrowing intensity two or three times improved yield
by 4% and 11%, respectively in spring barley under high weed pressure. Nevertheless, harrowing
three times decreased yield by about 9% in absence of weeds, while two times caused no signifcant
reduction. Additionally, harrowing induces aeration of soil, mineralization of nutrients (Dierauer
and Holger, 1994), as well as tillering in wheat; this processes may stimulate crop growth and
competition ability.
When using the fexible tinned harrow for weed control, treatment effect will vary due to variations
on working depth, depending on the soil resistance to the mechanical action of the tool. Both, loose
and heavy soils may cause variable results. In areas with lighter soils the tines could penetrate
deeper and easier, increasing soil coverage and crop damage. Contrarily, hard surfaces would be
very much resistant to penetration of the tines and therefore, the working depth might be reduced
and so the weed control (Sogaard, 1998).
Soil coverage depends not only on soil state but also on the aggressiveness of harrowing (Cirujeda
et al., 2003). More aggressive treatments can be set by changing the tine angle in relation to the
feld surface. This is normally adjusted by hand, which is tedious and could produce variations
on soil cover. Increased driving speeds may also generate more aggressive treatments and more
soil cover; however this does not mean better control effcacy (Engelke, 2001; Cirujeda et al.,
2003). Another way to increase intensity is through various consecutive passes on the same day
(Rasmussen et al., 2007, 2008).
Sogaard (1998) carried out a pilot project with sensor technology for automatic control of a 9 m
Einbck fnger weeder with six harrow sections of 1.5 m each. Ultrasonic sensors measure the depth
of the loosened soil immediately after harrowed and an actuator to control the angle of the tines
had been mounted on the second harrow section. This system was developed to maintain a fxed
working depth between 2 mm of a preset reference depth by controlling the angle of the tines. A
positive correlation between this working depth and soil coverage was found, indicating that soil
coverage is a linear function of the working depth. Nevertheless, it is discussed that harrow intensity
is not necessarily determined through working depth regulation, but also due to differences in soil
structure hence, cases of poor soil coverage.
In this study, the main objectives were: (1) to investigate how different intensities of weed harrowing
at various crop growth stages, and driving direction, infuence selectivity in loamy soils in Germany;
and (2) to work out algorithms to adjust in real-time the harrow intensities based on automatic
image weed detection and soil resistance measurement. This will be an starting point to perform
site-specifc weed harrowing. Special attention is given to the statistical analysis which is based
on regression on values of percentage of leaf cover and total weed density.
Experiments on selectivity
In order to fnd out how timing infuences selectivity, three experiments were implemented in barley
(Hordeum vulgare L.), and wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). All were conducted at the research stations
Heidfeldhof, Ihinger Hof and Meiereihof at the University of Hohenheim, Germany. Study factors
included different timings and intensities of post-emergence weed harrowing; experiment 3 had
additionally the factor direction. Timing was determined after the BBCH-scale, which identifes the
phenological development stages of the crop plant. Different equidistant intensities were created by
changing the tine angle, repeating passes in the same day from 0 to 3, speed varied from 8 to 12 km/
ha. Experiments 1 and 2 hat additionally herbicide treatments (Difufenican + Flufenacet, 0.6kg/ha)
applied in winter and spring. Further details on these experiments are described in Table 1, and in a
paper in preparation yet unpublished. Harrowing was carried out with a 6m wide fex tine harrow,
Hatzenbichler-Harrow (tine width 6 mm).
Assessments
Weed density was evaluated in four subplots (0.40 m
2
) randomly selected on the feld, and data were
summarized per square meter. Weeds were counted before harrowing and immediately after (Table
1). Dominant weeds in all experiments were Lamium purpureum L., Alopecurus myosuroides Huds.,
Veronica persica Poiret, Veronica hederifolia L., Galium aparine L., Polygonum convolvulus L.,
and Thlaspi arvense L. Soil cover was assessed by difference of leaf cover percentage, calculated
from digital difference images. The leaf cover outcome was mapped (see below 2.2) for the whole
feld as a coverage map.
Statistical analysis
Analysis of variance and linear regression were compared to test for lack-of-ft. PROC GLM and
PROC MIXED of the SAS software programme (SAS version 9.1, SAS Institute, Cary, USA)
were used. The two-step analysis of leaf cover procedure was applied to estimate the selectivity
(Rasmussen et al., 2007). Further validation of those models and crop recovery models were
developed by Rasmussen et al. (2008) were also considered. In the frst step, leaf cover index (L
0
)
and weed density (W
0
) are analysed as function of harrowing intensity (I). The step two comprises
the estimation of selectivity as function of weed control [WC=100(1-W / W
0
)] and crop soil cover
[CSC=100(1-L/ L
0
)].
Leaf cover index was described by the exponential declining function
L = L
0
-bI
(1)
where L is leaf cover index in untreated plots, I is the harrowing intensity, and b is the slope
parameter.
Due to unfavorable weather and technical diffculties, leaf cover and weed density could not be
measured in experiment 3 for the last timing BBCH 27, but only at BBCH 14 and BBCH 22 with
no high quality (data neither presented, nor analysed).
Table 1. Description of experiments, treatments, timing, leaf cover index and weed density in
untreated plots at the time of harrowing.
Experiment Treatment Intensity Timing
(BBCH)
Leaf cover
(%)
Weed density
(plants/m
2
)
Date
(1) winter barley Harrowing 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 1 (12) 19.6 53.3 26-Oct-08
2 (24) 21.5 65 27-Feb-08
Herbicide winter 1 (17) 18 47.3 29-Nov-07
spring 2 (23) 19.7 65.2 25-Feb-08
(2) winter wheat Harrowing 0,1,2,3 1 (14) 4.9 0.8 19-Feb-08
2 (22) 11.6 0.8 01-Apr-08
3 (27) 30.9 1 21-Apr-08
Herbicide winter 1 (14) 5.3 0.4 08-Nov-07
(3) summer barley Harrowing
along and
across rows
0, 1, 2, 3 1 (13) 8.6 32.2 18-Apr-08
2 (21) 15 31.2 26-Apr-08
3 (24) 26.4 40.7 02-May-08
Weed density as a function of intensity was described for experiment 1 by the negative exponential
equation
W = W
0
-cI
(2)
and for experiment 4 with:
W = W
0
[-c ln(I+1)]

(3)
where W
0
is weed density in untreated plots, I is the harrowing intensity and c is the slope parameter.
Equation 3 indicates that the frst level of intensity reduced more weed density than the following
ones.
Simple linear regression models were compared to analysis of variance to test for lack-of-ft. Ln
transformation for leaf cover and weed density was used when required to accomplish with the
homogeneity of variance. Parameters L
0
, b, W
0
, and c were estimated through use of mixed linear
models and accordingly to the procedure by Rasmussen et al., (2008).
Comparison of selectivity among different timings was carried out by calculation of percentage of
crop soil cover related to 80% weed control. Determination of 95%confdence intervals (95%-
CI) using the delta-method with a correlation between estimates of b, and c of 0.8 (Rasmussen et
al., 2008).
The selectivity curve is predicted from resistance (b) and weed control (c) parameters. When weed
density is described by Equation 2, weed control WC relative to soil cover CSC is deduced from
Equations 1 and 2
WC = 100 {1 1
[
c
b
ln(1-
CSC
100
)]
C
} (4)
and if Equation 3 described weed density, the relationship is obtained from Equations 1 and 3
WC = 100 {1 1
[
1
1
b
ln(1-
CSC
100
)
]
C
} (5)
Development of algorithms
In this study algorithms for real-time automatic adjustment of harrowing intensities were searched.
For this purpose, differential images were analyzed to calculate leaf cover and a soil sensor to
measure resistance to mechanical action was used. Results on crop soil cover and selectivity would
allow determination of the algorithm for site-specifc weed harrowing.
Functioning of the camera-sensor system is detailed by Weis et al. (2008). One to two bi-spectral
cameras (IR-VIS) were mounted on a vehicle. Images were taken around the feld while driving the
vehicle on the experimental plots. Each bi-spectral camera takes two images at once in the near-
infrared spectrum (770-1,150nm) and in the red spectrum (610-670nm). Images of both cameras
were adjusted in brightness and subtracted (IR-VIS) in real-time, and a difference image was
obtained. A gray level threshold was automatically set to extract white objects which correspond to
green plants; hence leaf cover. Leaf cover percentage was calculated from pixels with white objects.
Leaf cover values were measured before and after harrowing operations and data were introduced
to the image database (Weis et al., 2008). A web-application of this database allows to get coverage
maps which can be included into a Geographical Information System (GIS); crop cover maps and
weed cover maps can be obtained. By using these tools, leaf cover percentage variation in the
experimental felds was mapped. The software Open Jump Pirol Edition with general public license
(GPL) was used to create the maps.
An automatically controlled fnger weeder (Weis et al., 2008) is being developed and used to
adjust the harrowing intensities. A sensor to measure soil resistance against penetration of harrow
tines and forward movement is under development and test. From an analog (Figure 1a) prototype
data were measured in experiment 1 while harrowing. A sensor to measure soil resistance against
penetration of harrow tines and forward movement is under development and calibration from an
analog prototype (Figure 1a). An electronic digital sensor (Figure 1b) replaces the analog (data
not presented in this paper). Collected data must be stored inside a control unit (Figure 1c). A real
time kinematics differential global positioning system (RTK-DGPS) (Figure 1d), provides the
geographical position were every data is measured. The control unit commands the motors (Figure
1e) to regulate the angle tine to change intensity.
Results
For the frst objective, effects on selectivity of increasing intensity of harrowing at different crop
growth stages were studied. To fnd out algorithms to regulate intensity of harrowing, data from
bi-spectral cameras and soil sensor would be the starting point.
Effects of intensity and timing on selectivity
Test for lack-of-ft confrmed the exponential decline, parameter b in Equation 1, of leaf cover
index with increasing harrowing intensity for all experiments (P<0.05). In experiment 3 there were
no data for timing 2 and 3 for leaf cover and weed density, therefore no model could be applied.
Decline of leaf cover index with increasing intensity was infuenced by timing in experiments 1
(P<0.0001), 2 (P<0.0001), and 3 (P<0.001). In addition, direction of harrowing showed signifcant
impact in experiment 3 (P=0.001). Maximum achieved crop soil cover in winter barley (experiment
1) at BBCH 12 and BBCH 24 was 31%. For winter wheat (experiment 2) maximum cover was
44% at BBCH 14; 42% at BBCH 22; and 10% at BBCH 27. Maximum cover for summer barley
(experiment 3) was 29% along rows and 14% across rows, both at BBCH 13; 11% along rows and
27% across rows, both at BBCH 21; fnally, 14% along rows and 6% across rows, both at BBCH 24.
Weed density decline (parameter c) was appropriately described for experiment 1 (Figure 2b)
by Equation 2, and enough for experiment 3 (Figure 3b) by Equation 3. In experiment 2 weed
density was to small that no signifcant effect was found, therefore no analysis could be performed.
Diminution of weed density at increasing intensity was affected by timing in experiment 1 and 3
(P<0.0001); additionally, direction of harrowing had non signifcant effect in experiment 3. The
greatest weed reduction by increasing intensity in winter barley (experiment 1) at BBCH 12 was
98% and 64% at BBCH 24. Experiment 2 in winter wheat hat a very low weed density that no effects

Figure 1: Automatically controlled weed harrow with a) Analog soil sensor; b) Digital soil
sensor; c) Control unit; d) RTKDGPS; e) Motor to control harrowing intensity

Figure 1. Automatically controlled weed harrow with (a) Analog soil sensor; (b) Digital soil
sensor; (c) Control unit; (d) RTKDGPS; (e) Motor to control harrowing intensity.
were observed. Maximum weed density reduction in summer barley (experiment 3) at BBCH 13
and BBCH 21 was 99%, and 95% at BBCH 24.
By increasing levels of intensity more crop soil cover was achieved. The higher the intensity level
was, the more crop soil cover was reached but not necessarily higher weed control. Timing and
direction of harrowing affected selectivity in experiments 1 and 3. For experiment 2, selectivity curve
could not be plotted due to low weed density, i.e. impossible to measure weed control. Predicted
selectivity curves illustrate the relationship between percentage of weed control and percentage
of crop soil cover. For winter barley in experiment 1, the predicted selectivity was signifcantly
improved at BBCH 12 (Figure 2). Crop soil cover required to achieve 80% weed control was 14.2%
(95%-CI:12%-16%) at early growth stage and 43.8% (95%-CI:37%-50%) at later stage.
The selectivity was in general higher in summer barley in experiment 3 (Figure 3). Non-signifcant
effect at higher crop growth stages was seen due to overlaps of confdence intervals for crop soil

Figure 2: a) Leaf cover index, b) weed
density, and c) selectivity inuenced by crop
growth stage for Experiment 1)


Diminishment of leaf cover index in all experiments was lower when harrowing was at later
crop growth stage (timing). Rasmussen et al. (2007) pointed out that even if the all same level of
intensities are applied at each growth stage, it is meaningless to believe that the same harrowing
aggressiveness resulted for each timing. Indeed, when all tested intensities in the winter period
were also used for the late timings, they did not generate the same aggressiveness effect. This
was seen for winter barley (Figure 2a), at harrowing after periods of frost in the soil at the
beginning of spring resulted in gentler treatments. That is why settings for the other experiments
had treatments with more penetration of tines into the soil and higher driving speeds for the later
timings, nonetheless ranged as the same intensity level as for earlier timings.
The above stated preamble does not indicate better timing to control weeds by harrowing,
regardless of timing impacts in diminution of leaf cover index. Similar situation was found in
Copenhagen for harrowing in spring barley (H. Mathiasen, 2008, unpublished data). Thus
decline of leaf cover and weed density related to timing could not be deduced. Conversely, when
intensity was more aggressive for later timings as for summer barley (experiment 3), greater
influence of timing was identified on the leaf cover decline. However, that did not imply more
weed control. Hence, a clear relationship between timing and weed reduction, i.e. leaf cover and
weed density, could not be inferred either due to lack of differences in selectivity.
Figure 2. (a) Leaf cover index, (b) weed density, and (c) selectivity infuenced by crop growth
stage for Experiment 1).
cover at 80% weed control. Harrowing across the rows showed lower selectivity than along the
rows for the earlier growth stages, but no statistical difference was found for the latter stage.
Soil cover associated with 80% weed control was 5.7% (95%-CI:3%-8%) along rows and 16.7%
(95%-CI:14%-19%) across rows, both at BBCH 13. At BBCH 21 the needed soil cover for 80%
weed control was 7.9% (95%-CI:5%-10%) along rows and 18.8% (95%-CI:13%-24%) across
rows. Finally, at BBCH 24 soil cover was 7.8% (95%-CI:1%-15%) along rows and 14.2% (95%-
CI:12%-16%) across rows.
Avail of sensors
Percentage of leaf cover was calculated from the differential images, hence assessment of absolute
and objective estimates of soil cover. Decision making for different harrowing intensities (i.e.
changing the tine angle, number of passes and driving speeds) was initially done on a pre-harrowing



aggressiveness resulted for each timing. Indeed, when all tested intensities in the winter period
were also used for the late timings, they did not generate the same aggressiveness effect. This
was seen for winter barley (Figure 2a), at harrowing after periods of frost in the soil at the
beginning of spring resulted in gentler treatments. That is why settings for the other experiments
had treatments with more penetration of tines into the soil and higher driving speeds for the later
timings, nonetheless ranged as the same intensity level as for earlier timings.
The above stated preamble does not indicate better timing to control weeds by harrowing,
regardless of timing impacts in diminution of leaf cover index. Similar situation was found in
Copenhagen for harrowing in spring barley (H. Mathiasen, 2008, unpublished data). Thus
decline of leaf cover and weed density related to timing could not be deduced. Conversely, when
intensity was more aggressive for later timings as for summer barley (experiment 3), greater
influence of timing was identified on the leaf cover decline. However, that did not imply more
weed control. Hence, a clear relationship between timing and weed reduction, i.e. leaf cover and
weed density, could not be inferred either due to lack of differences in selectivity.
Figure 3. (a) Leaf cover index, (b) weed density, and (c) selectivity infuenced by crop growth
stage for Experiment 3).
leaf cover state of the whole feld, as shown in Figure 4a. Immediately after weeding operations
and repeated image acquisition, a post-harrowing leaf cover state was also mapped, see Figure 4b.
As an example, Figure 2a and 3a indicate the decline of leaf cover related to increasing harrowing
intensity (1, 2 and 3), whereas slightly different leaf cover percentage variation is observed in
untreated plots (0) and herbicide sprayed plots (ch).
Data on resistance force of soil against penetration and forward movement of the harrow were
measured with the analog sensor (Figure 1a) only in autumn at the time of frst harrowing in
experiment 1, but data are not shown in this paper. The electronic digital sensor (Figure 1b) was
mounted and tested for the rest of experiments and timings of harrowing. By the end of the last
timing of harrowing the sensor was not fully functional, therefore soil resistance force could not
be measured. Since it is compulsory to store a big amount of data in different soil types, further
experiments are planned to use this sensor for searching algorithms for adjustment of harrowing
intensity.
Discussion
With soil covering as the primary mechanism of weed control and crop damage (Jensen et al., 2004)
it is possible to use the statistical analysis proposed by Rasmussen et al. (2008). An equidistant
increment of ranges of harrowing intensity made reasonable and valid to use this procedure. It
is important to mention that to analyse selectivity with this method weeds, uprooted plants and
pieces of leafs pulled after harrowing, do not or insignifcantly contribute to leaf cover. Study
factors including chemical weed control had to be excluded from the models, since they provide
crop response to harrowing only.
aggressiveness resulted for each timing. Indeed, when all tested intensities in the winter period were
also used for the late timings, they did not generate the same aggressiveness effect. This was seen

Figure 4: Leaf coverage map a) before and b) after harrowing operations

Figure 4. Leaf coverage map (a) before and (b) after harrowing operations.
for winter barley (Figure 2a), at harrowing after periods of frost in the soil at the beginning of spring
resulted in gentler treatments. That is why settings for the other experiments had treatments with
more penetration of tines into the soil and higher driving speeds for the later timings, nonetheless
ranged as the same intensity level as for earlier timings.
The above stated preamble does not indicate better timing to control weeds by harrowing, regardless
of timing impacts in diminution of leaf cover index. Similar situation was found in Copenhagen
for harrowing in spring barley (H. Mathiasen, 2008, unpublished data). Thus decline of leaf cover
and weed density related to timing could not be deduced. Conversely, when intensity was more
aggressive for later timings as for summer barley (experiment 3), greater infuence of timing was
identifed on the leaf cover decline. However, that did not imply more weed control. Hence, a clear
relationship between timing and weed reduction, i.e. leaf cover and weed density, could not be
inferred either due to lack of differences in selectivity.
When results at BBCH 24 are not taken into account from experiment 1, it is possible to make
comparisons of selectivity with experiment 3 and previous studies. It has been found that weed
harrowing controls weeds from 40% up to 80% (Rasmussen et al., 2000). Selectivity curves display
weed control against percent of soil cover. Therefore 80% weed control level was chosen in this
study to compute confdence intervals for linked crop soil cover, similar as Rasmussen et al. (2008).
In the present study selectivity was higher than in danish previous experiments (Rasmussen, 1990;
Rasmussen and Svenningsen, 1995) but comparable to recent results (Rasmussen et al., 2008).
Anyhow, the only reliable comparison is the latter, since previous results were based on visual
assessments of leaf cover sometimes done by different individuals (Rasmussen et al., 2007).
Direction of harrowing seems to infuence selectivity, particularly when it is along the rows.
Experiment 3 showed higher selectivity at early crop growth stages with harrowing along the rows,
but no effect was found for later growth stages. Rasmussen et al. (2008) found similar results.
Conclusions can not be drawn yet, because direction did not infuenced selectivity at all timings
and these are only one years results at one location. Thus, such a conclusion would be reliable
only if similar results were found in future experiments.
In the present investigation it was seen that crop growing stages greater than BBCH 24 have also
bigger weeds, which contributed to leaf cover percentage. Therefore, more total leaf area was
measured by the camera sensor, and hence leaf cover index would not ft correctly as objectively
estimated variable for the statistical analysis. A tentative solution for this problem was the use of
image base classifcation of individual weed species (Weis et al., 2008). These authors found an
average identifcation rate between 85% and 98%, but image datasets were acquired rather on felds
of weeds at earlier growth stages, e.g. BBCH 10 to 16.
Up to now, the image database allows to attain total leaf cover and weed cover maps. Leaf cover
in this study measured at late crop growth stages was calculated including crop and weed leaves.
Nevertheless, corrected leaf cover maps are to be created by including weeds leaf cover map, to
determine whether weed leaves in fact insignifcantly contribute to leaf cover index. It is expected
to reach the same above mentioned identifcation rates, though.
So far, leaf cover assessment is proved to be an objective estimation, as required for investigation
in weed research projects (Vanhala et al., 2004). In this work, leaf cover was well estimated
from difference images and values can be probably a bit more precise than digital image analysis
(Rasmussen et al., 2007). This hypothesis comes out of the fact that less noise in the differential
images is obtained by the two bi-spectral cameras, compared to common digital cameras. However,
that was not an objective of any described experiments. Thus, it would be useful to design
experiments with the aim of comparing among different sensors.
In conclusion, this study reveals that increasing harrowing intensity produce an increment in crop
soil cover, which may improve weed control. Timing of harrowing is not relevant to selectivity when
intensities are aggressive enough according to the development of the crop and weeds, otherwise
gentler treatments at late stages reduce selectivity. Harrowing along the rows could improve
selectivity, but it requires proof through more research. Defnition of intensity levels might be
based on soil coverage related to high percentages of weed control, thus sensors for estimating leaf
cover (and soil resistance force) will provide algorithms to automatically regulate the harrow tine.
References
Cirujeda, A., Melander, B., Rasmussen, K., and Rasmussen, I.A., 2003. Relationship between speed, soil
movement into the cereal row and intra-row weed control effcacy by weed harrowing. Weed Research,
43(4):285-296.
Dierauer, H.-U. and Holger, S.-Z., 1994. Unkrautregulierung ohne Chemie. Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart.
Engelke, B., 2001. Entwicklung eines Steuersystems in der ganzfchig mechanischen Unkrautbekmpfung.
Dissertation, Institut fr Landwirtschaftliche Verfahrenstechnik, der Christian-Albrechts-Universitt zu
Kiel, Gttingen.
Jensen, R. K., Rasmussen, J., and Melander, B., 2004. Selectivity of weed harrowing in lupin. Weed Research,
44(4):245-253.
Kurstjens, D.A.G. and Perdok, U.D., 2000. The selective soil covering mechanism of weed harrows on sandy
soil. Soil and Tillage Research 55(3-4):193-206.
Rasmussen, I., Melander, B., Rasmussen, K., Jensen, R., Hansen, P., Rasmussen, G., Christensen, S., and
Rasmussen, J., 2000. Recent advances in weed management in cereals in denmark. In Proc 13th IFOAM
Scientifc Conference Basel, Switzerland pp. 178.
Rasmussen, I.A., 2004. The effect of sowing date, stale seedbed, row width and mechanical weed control on
weeds and yields of organic winter wheat. Weed Research, 44:12-20.
Rasmussen, J., 1990. Selectivity - an important parameter on establishing the optimum harrowing technique
for weed control in growing cereals. In Proceedings 1990 EWRS Symposium 1990, Integrated Weed
Management in Cereals. 197-204, Helsinki, Finland.
Rasmussen, J., Bibby, B.M., and Schou, A.P., 2008. Investigating the selectivity of weed harrowing with new
methods. Weed Research, 48(06):523-532.
Rasmussen, J., Nrremark, M., and Bibby, B.M., 2007. Assessment of leaf cover and crop soil cover in weed
harrowing research using digital images. Weed Research, 47(04):299-310.
Rasmussen, J. and Svenningsen, T., 1995. Selective weed harrowing in cereals. Biological Agriculture and
Horticulture, 12:29-46.
Rasmussen, K. and Rasmussen, J., 2000. Barley seed vigour and mechanical weed control. Weed Research,
40(2):219-230.
Sogaard, H.T., 1998. Automatic control of a fnger weeder with respect to the harrowing intensity at varying
soil structures. Journal of Agricultural Engineering Research, 70(2):157-163.
Vanhala, P., Kurstjens, D.A.G., Ascard, J., Bertram, A., and Cloutier, D., 2004. Guidelines for physical weed
control research: Flame weeding, weed harrowing and intra-row cultivation. In Proceedings 6th EWRS
Workshop on Physical and Cultural Weed Control., Lillehammer pp. 194-225.
Weis, M., Gutjahr, C., Rueda-Ayala, V., Gerhards, R., Ritter, C., and Schlderle, F., 2008. Precision farming
for weed management: techniques. Gesunde Pfanzen, 60(4):171-181.
Automatic derivation of weed densities from images for
site-specifc weed management
M. Weis and R. Gerhards
Department of Weed Science, University of Hohenheim, Germany; Martin.Weis@uni-hohenheim.de
Abstract
Site-specifc herbicide applications can save large amounts of herbicides and improve management
practices. One crucial part of a system for site-specifc weed management is the measurement of
the spatial variability of weed densities. A system was developed to identify different weed species
from images taken in the feld. The automation has the potential to increase the spatial density of
weed sampling points. A manual sampling with high density of points is unfeasible due to the costs.
Image processing algorithms are used to generate a shape description for each plant in the image.
A classifer can be constructed that assigns weed and crop classes to the plants based on the shape
features. Weed density maps are generated using the results of the classifcation. The weed maps
are transformed to application maps, which are used for the site-specifc herbicide application.
The shape of the plants vary with their growth stage and may be segmented into parts, e.g. single
leaves, in the image processing. Therefore different classes for each species need to be introduced
into the process. To avoid over- or underestimation of the actual number of weeds some of the
classes are aggregated using weight factors. To derive transformation functions the results of the
automatically derived weed counts are compared to manual measurements of weed densities, which
were derived from the images and in the feld. The results show that the raw classifcation results
are linearly related to the actual number of manually counted weeds and the results can be used as
input for a site-specifc decision component.
Keywords: spatial density, weed identifcation, image processing, application maps
Introduction
Site-specifc weed control has the potential to reduce the amount of herbicides usually applied for
crop production. Within a feld many weeds occur in patches and their locations are often stable
across years (Barroso et al., 2004; Clay et al., 2006; Colbach et al., 2000; Dieleman and Mortensen
1999; Heijting et al., 2007; Rew et al., 2001). Varying the herbicide dose according to the actual
weed infestation requires application technolgy which is able to apply herbicides only on the patches
of high weed density within the feld.
Knowledge about the weed distribution is a prerequisite for site-specifc weed control. Brown and
Noble (2005) describe the different approaches for the determination of weed infestations within a
feld. The weed infestation has to be quantifed by sampling within the feld. To increase the spatial
resolution of the sampling we are developing an automated approach for the determination of the
weed densities. The system uses image processing to estimate the weed infestation. Slaughter
et al. (2008) identify the robust weed detection as a primary obstacle for robotic weed control
technology. Several image processing approaches for weed detection have been proposed, most
of them using standard RGB images. Aitkenhead et al. (2003) use a neural network classifcation
approach on parts of the binary image. Berge et al. (2008) use RGB (red, green, blue) images to
distiguish between broadleaved weeds and cereals using thesholds for the size and roundness of
the objects. Blasco et al. (2002) built a robot which is able to detect and control individual weed
plants. Some approaches determine crop rows for intrarow weed detection (e.g. Bossu et al., 2009).
The developed system uses bi-spectral images and a shape based approach to distinguish different
plants species of crops and weeds.
Study site and data acquisition
The weed infestation was determined from images, which were taken in a feld. The feld is located
at the experimental station Ihinger Hof in the South West of Germany near Stuttgart in the vegetation
period of 2007/2008. Images were taken in winter wheat at early growth stage. Two cameras took
photos at a size of 4030 cm of the same scene, one of the red and the other of the infrared spectrum
of the refected light. A difference image of these two photos lead to a good separation of the plants
and the background (Skefeld et al., 2007). A (D)GPS-receiver was used to record the positions
of the images in the feld.
The images were taken along tracks of three meter distance, resulting in an approximate distance
of one meter in the driving direction. Nearly 14,000 images cover an area of three hectares. The
weed densities were also sampled manually at irregular spaced intervals of nine meters. The most
frequent weed species found in the feld were Alopecurus myosuroides, Veronica persica and
Matricaria chamomilla.
Image processing
In the images the plants appear brighter than the background (soil, mulch, stones) and can be
segmented using a gray level threshold. In the resulting binary image the plants are white against
a black background. The connected white regions are the foreground objects of interest (segments),
of which the shape analysis is performed. Preprocessing steps can flter noise (using a minimum
size criterion) and deselect objects, which are not completely within the image. Image processing
techniques are used to analyse the shape of the segments (plants) in the image. Several shape
parameters are computed. These can be grouped into region based ones, which use the object pixels,
contour features, which use the border pixels, and skeleton features. The skeleton is the middle
line of an object, and statistics of the distance to the contour lead to measures of leaf broadness.
All information about the image processing parameters like the threshold, preprocessing steps and
features are stored in a database. It stores also meta-information about the images, their associated
segments, the features and GPS positions. After this step the image processing is fnished and the
features are used for the following analysis.
Classifcation
The classifcation step uses the features and prototype information to assign a class to each segmented
object. Prototypes have to be labeled manually by class assignment.
The classes are constructed from three parts: the EPPO-code, which add fve letters for the species
(EPPO, 2007), the BBCH code, a two-digit number for the phenological stage of growth (Hess
et al., 1997), and an additional letter for special situations which occur during the segmentation
process, e.g. single leaves and overlapping. This scheme is used both for the weed and crop
species. For instance a completely segmented Alopecurus myosuroides plant in germination stage
belongs to class ALOMY10N, if only one of the leaves was segmented, the class is ALOMY10L
(N=normal, L=leaf).
Unsupervised classifers (cluster algorithms) do not need training data, they use only the feature
vectors to group similar objects into clusters. We use clustering to ease the training step, since
very often certain classes can be related to the clusters. This presorting step reduces the training
complexity to the decision use as prototype for the class? yes or no.
Before the classifcation takes place it is recommended to reduce the number of features which
are to be used. Too many features, especially ones which have a more or less random distribution
across the classes, decrease the classifcation accuracy. In this step the features are weighted and
selected according to their ability to discriminate the defned classes. The selection algorithm
used implements a genetic search strategy, which adds features and fnds the best subset using a
crossvalidated performance value of a classifer.
To identify the different species based on the selected features a supervised classifcation step assigns
a class to each segment. Supervised classifers need training data, feature vectors with assigned class
information. The classifer generates a model from the training data. This is later used to classify
the segments according to their shape features. Feature selection, clustering and classifcation were
implemented with the data mining software RAPIDMINER (Mierswa et al., 2006).
Interpretation of the classifcation result
The classifcation results can be assembled to maps using the GPS-positions of the images. For
each image the numbers of class assignments are summed separately for each class. There are
often more than one class defned for each species and these have to be aggregated. Single leaves,
which were segmented during the image processing, and different growth stages of one species
are combined to an overall measure of density using weighted sums:
C
S
= Z
i
u
i
c
i
(1)
c
s
is the resulting measure for one species, u
i
is the weight and c
i
is the number of assignments for
each class. The summation iterates over the classes i belonging to the species s.
Results
The classifcation results, based on a kNN nearest neighbor classifer (k=3 with majority vote),
are compared to a manual interpretation of the images. The weed densities have been estimated
for a subset of 160 images. The comparison of the manual weed density and the classifcation is
shown in Figure 1. The classifcation included also a class for Matricaria chamomilla, but there
were not enough samples (14 observations) in the selected test images and therefore are left out
from the analysis.
The classes ALOMY10L (single leaves) and ALOMY12N (complete plants) for Alopecurus
myosuroides and VERPE10N (germination stage) and VERPE12N (two leaf stage) for Veronica
persica were combined using formula 1. The weights were calculated using multiple linear
regression for each species (function lm of the free statistics program R), leading to u
ALOMY10L
=0.06,
u
ALOMY12N
=0.20, u
VERPE10N
=0.68, u
VERPE12N
=0.54. The weights for the single leaf classes are
usually lower than the ones for whole plants, since a plant can be segmented into several leaves.
Additionally the classifcation accuracy can be lower for the leaf classes, due to the similar shape
of leaves of different species, and the lower weight take this into account. These weights indicate
that the single leaf class ALOMY10L tends to overestimate the infestation. The result fts well to
the observation, that a single Alopecurus myosuroides plant may be segmented into separate leaves.
A low infestation may not be estimated correctly from one image, a spray decision therefore should
be based on more than one image.
The classifcation results of all images were transformed into application maps, which are shown
in Figures 2 and 3. A grid of 66 m was created and the weighted weed counts of the images were
interpolated to that grid using the mean. This way, the decision is based on the results of several
images. Additionally to the application maps feld sampling results are shown in Figures 2 and 3
as an overlay of circles. The results can be visually compared: the application maps coincide with
the manually sampled points and clearly show the patches in the feld. Due to the nature of the
sampling there are some differences between the manual feld survey and the automatically assessed
weed infestation: for the manual sampling the weeds in an area of 0.25 m were counted and the
classifcation results are based on several images, which are located within each cell. The medium
weed densities of Veronica persica in Figure 3 do not need to be sprayed, but they are shown here
for a better comparison of the manual and automated sampling.
Conclusion
An approach for automated weed sampling was developed, which is a prerequisite for site-specifc
weed control. The results of an image based weed sampling differ from manual weed sampling
because the shape plant identifcation leads to a slightly different and a higher number of classes
than manual weed sampling. This is due to the fact that the plants appear different in shape during
their several growth stages. To handle these different appearances we introduced several classes
for each species, which have to be aggregated later. Linear relationships can be used to weight the
counts for different classes of one species. The results show that the raw classifcation results are
linearly related to the actual number of manually counted weeds and that the results can be used as
input for a site-specifc decision component. The weighted results were used to create application

Figure 1: Comparison of classification results and manual weed counts before and after linear
combination for Alopecurus myosuroides (
R
2
= 0.90
) and Veronica persica (
R
2
= 0.76
)
Figure 1. Comparison of classifcation results and manual weed counts before and after linear
combination for (R
2
=0.90) and (R
2
=0.76).

Figure 2: Application map for Alopecurus myosuroides generated from the image
classification and manual weed mapping results
Figure 2. Application map for generated from the image classifcation
and manual weed mapping results.

Figure 3: Application map for Alopecurus myosuroides generated from the image
classification and manual weed mapping results
Figure 3. Application map for generated from the image classifcation and
manual weed mapping results.
maps, which resemble the actual patches in the feld. A comparison with manual weed sampling
shows that the weed infestation can be assessed using the proposed image processing technique.
Further work is being done to apply this approach to different crops and weed communities. Since
the approach relies on prototypes of all relevant species, a database for samples of crop and weed
plants in several growth stages has been created. The robustness of the classifcation can be improved,
if the special diffculties of the shape based detection from images are addressed.
References
Aitkenhead, M., Dalgetty, I., Mullins, C., McDonald, A., and Strachan, N., 2003. Weed and crop discrimination
using image analysis and artifcial intelligence methods. Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, 39(3):
157.
Barroso, J., Fernandez-Quintanilla, C., Ruiz, D., Hernaiz, P., and Rew, L., 2004. Spatial stability of Avena
sterilis ssp. ludoviciana populations under annual applications of low rates of imazamethabenz. Weed
Research, 44(3): 178-186.
Berge, T., Aastveit, A., and Fykse, H., 2008. Evaluation of an algorithm for automatic detection of broad-leaved
weeds in spring cereals. Precision Agriculture, 9: 391-405.
Blasco, J., Aleixos, N., Roger, J.M., Rabatel, G., and Molt, E., 2002. Aeautomation and emerging technologies:
Robotic weed control using machine vision. Biosystems Engineering, 83: 149-157.
Bossu, J., Ge, C., Jones, G., and Truchetet, F., 2009. Wavelet transform to discriminate between crop and weed
in perspective agronomic images. Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, 65(1): 133-143.
Brown, R. and Noble, S., 2005. Site-specifc weed management: sensing requirements what do we need to
see? Weed Science, 53(2): 252-258.
Clay, S.A., Kreutner, B., Clay, D.E., Reese, C., Kleinjan, J., and Forcella, F., 2006. Spatial distribution, temporal
stability, and yield loss estimates for annual grasses and common ragweed (Ambrosia artimisiifolia) in a
corn/soybean production feld over nine years. Weed Science, 54: 380-390.
Colbach, N., Forcella, F., and Johnson, G., 2000. Spatial and temporal stability of weed populations over fve
years. Weed Science, 48: 366-377.
Dieleman, J. and Mortensen, D., 1999. Characterizing the spatial pattern of Abutilon theophrasti seedling
patches. Weed Research, 39: 455-467.
EPPO, 2007. Harmonized classifcation and coding of the uses of plant protection products. EPPO Bulletin,
37(1): 25-28.
Heijting, S., Van Der Werf, W., Stein, A., and Kropff, M.J., 2007. Are weed patches stable in location?
Application of an explicitly two-dimensional methodology. Weed Research, 47(5): 381-395.
Hess, M., Barralis, G., Bleiholder, H., Buhr, L., Eggers, T., Hack, H., and Stauss, R., 1997. Use of the extended
BBCH scale - general for the descriptions of the growth stages of mono- and dicotyledonous weed species.
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Rew, L.J., Whelan, B., and Mcbratney, A.B., 2001. Does kriging predict weed distributions accurately enough
for site-specifc weed control? Weed Research, 41(3): 245-263.
Slaughter, D.C., Giles, D.K., and Downey, D., 2008. Autonomous robotic weed control systems: A review.
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6the Netherlands. 6th European Conference on Precision Agriculture (ECPA), Wageningen Academic
Assessment of a ground-based weed mapping system in
maize
D. Andujar
1
, A. Ribeiro
2
, C. Fernandez-Quintanilla
1
and J. Dorado
1
1
ICA-CSIC, Serrano 115B, 28006 Madrid, Spain; andujar@ccma.csic.es
2
IAI-CSIC, 28500 Arganda del Rey, Madrid, Spain
Abstract
Weed spatial distribution was measured with a ground-based weed mapping system. The system
consists of three different components: (1) weed detection by optoelectronic sensors; (2) weed
geopositioning by DGPS receiver; and (3) a data acquisition and processing system. Three
optoelectronic modules were mounted on the front of a tractor at a 75 cm distance between them
and at 60 cm height above ground level. Consequently, the system was able to explore a 2.25 m
band, corresponding to three crop rows, detecting the vegetation present in the middle of the inter-
rows maize area. The working capacity of the system was higher than 1 ha/h. The weed mapping
system was evaluated in three maize felds during spring, when the crop was at 4-to-6 leaves stage.
In order to verify the system with highly reliable data, digital images were obtained in random
geo-referenced points distributed throughout the three felds. Three experienced observers rated
these images for weed presence/absence, using a presence threshold of 15% weed cover. The
comparison between the data obtained with the optoelectronic mapping system and from the values
derived from visual assessments of the digital images showed a 84% correlation between the two
sets of data. The comparison among the results obtained with various simulated distances between
sensors (from 1.5 m to 6.0 m) indicated that the optoelectronic system could construct weed maps
accurately using a distance between optic sensors of 4.5 m.
Keywords: weed detection, optoelectronic sensors, sampling resolution
Introduction
Mapping of weeds in agricultural crops can be done by manual surveys, by remote-sensing or by
sensors located on ground vehicles. Although discrete manual sampling methods have been used
in the past for research purposes, they are too time consuming to be acceptable in commercial use
(Rew and Cousens, 2001; Barroso et al., 2005). Continuous mapping systems based on visual
assessments of weed infestations conducted from all-terrain vehicles or from combine harvesters
provide a simple, cost-effective solution for weed mapping commercial felds (Van Wychen et
al., 2002; Barroso et al., 2005; Ruiz et al., 2006). However, these systems rely heavily on human
perception and have various other limitations.
Remote-sensing has been commonly considered as an effective technique for weed patch delineation
(Thorp and Tian, 2004; Lpez-Granados et al., 2006; Pea-Barragn et al., 2007). However, the use
of satellite and airborne methods is strongly dependent on sky cloudiness. This is a major limitation
due to the relatively short time window available for weed detection and subsequent control actions
(i.e. herbicide spraying). Considering that additional time is required for data processing, this may
cause undesirable delays in herbicide application. Furthermore, the relatively low resolutions of
aerial images limit their potential to discriminate low weed densities (Lamb et al., 1999).
Ground-based, machine-mounted sensors offer numerous advantages for practical weed mapping.
These sensors are relatively independent of the environmental conditions, they can be used on
real-time applications or shortly before herbicide treatment and they may discriminate low weed
densities. Various ground-based sensing systems have been used for weed mapping. Most of these
studies have used machine vision techniques to detect and identify plant species (either crops or
weeds) based on their shape, colour and texture features (Gerhards and Oebel, 2006; Slaughter et
al., 2008). Recent works (Downey et al., 2004; Tellaeche et al., 2008; Burgos-Artizzu et al., 2009)
have described automatic methods for mapping weeds in the feld using a digital video camera for
continuous image capture along the crop seedline from a moving vehicle equipped with a GPS
receiver. A manual validation of the accuracy of the image processing method conducted on a random
sample of video frames indicated that 74% of the weeds present were correctly identifed (Downey
et al., 2004). However, the practical feasibility of computer vision equipments in ground-based
agricultural feld operations continues to be a challenge for large-scale weed mapping.
Vegetation and soil discrimination can be accomplished using optoelectronic sensors. As soon
as 1991, Shearer and Jones used this type of sensors to detect inter-row weed growth. Although
optoelectronic sensors are not able to distinguish between weeds and crops, this does not represent
a problem if the sensor is operated only in the inter-row area. Lack of interspecifc discrimination
is not a major problem when a single herbicide or herbicide mixture is used on the whole feld.
The unspecifc information generated by this type of sensors may be useful for positioning areas
at high risk for weed infestation. High- and low-risk areas can be managed differentially either
with herbicides or with other control techniques. Furthermore, fast and reliable weed mapping
tools are needed to characterize and study weed populations in research studies conducted in large
commercial felds. Recently, Sui et al. (2008) have used this approach to identify the relationships
among airborne multi-spectral imagery and ground truth data of weed intensity obtained with
optoelectronic sensors.
The objectives of this work were: (1) to describe a simple and cost-effective optoelectronic
mapping system developed for research and commercial purposes; (2) to assess the performance
and accuracy of the system in maize felds; and (3) to assess the infuence of distance between
sensors on mapping errors.
System components
A ground-based weed mapping system combining optoelectronic sensors with location information
was constructed to map weed distribution within maize felds. Three different components
integrate the mapping system: green detection sensors, geopositioning receiver and devices of data
acquisition and processing. For green detection, the system uses the optical technology included
in the WeedSeeker sensor (NTech Industries Inc.). The WeedSeeker
is an active optical sensor

with its own light source and it is able to detect the presence of green plants by measuring their
refectance in comparison to that of bare ground. Three WeedSeeker
sensors were mounted on the

front of a tractor (John Deere 1140) at a 75 cm distance between them and at 60 cm height above
ground level (Figure 1a). Hence, the system was able to explore a 2.25 m band, corresponding
to three rows of maize, viewing 342 cm strips in the middle of the inter-row area. The sensors
were modifed by eliminating the valve cartridge. This way an electrical connector socket was able
to use the 5V output signal when green was detected. Signals from each sensor were conducted
to the data acquisition device with three 5 m long cables. Optical calibration of the sensors was
performed from the WeedSeeker
controller panel on a bare (weed free) area of ground in each

feld and their sensitivity was adjusted in order to detect weeds covering about 15% of the surface.
Thus, preliminary tests conducted with various sensitivity adjustments of the sensors indicated that
a medium sensitivity (switch in position 6) resulted in a threshold of 15% weed cover generating a
5V output signal. This means that all areas with weed cover below this threshold were not detected.
Weed location information was obtained from a differential GPS (DGPS) receiver (Hemisphere
Crescent R130 DGPS receiver, with an Omnistar correction signal) working with a 5 Hz frequency,
that is generating 5 positions/sec. The DGPS antenna was located on top of the central green sensor
(Figure 1a). Geopositioning of the data obtained with the two other sensors was corrected during
postprocessing. With the tractor at constant velocity drive of 5 km/h, the working/analysing capacity
of the system was about 1 ha/h.
The data acquisition device was an USB-based data acquisition module Labjack U12 (LabJack
Corporation) which had 20 digital I/O channels that could be individually confgured as input or
output and it was connected through the USB connector to a processing device, an Itronix Duo-
Touch Tablet PC (1.1 GHz processor, 8.4 TFT SVGA outdoor transmissive display and Windows
XP Tablet PC applications). The DGPS receiver signal was collected by the Tablet PC through a
USB port. In addition, the analog signals from the three WeedSeeker
sensors were input to the

data acquisition device and then processed by the Tablet PC. The data capture software used was
developed in Visual Basic for this specifc application. Postprocessing of the data was conducted
in a laboratory computer with Arcgis
9.2 (ESRI) software.

The WeedSeeker
controller panel, the DGPS receiver, the data acquisition device and the Tablet PC
were placed on a toolbar-mounted unit located in the back of the tractor, near the operator (Figure
1b). All these instruments were directly powered by the 12 V battery of the tractor.
Study sites
Field experiments were conducted in La Poveda Research Farm (Arganda, Central Spain). Three
maize felds, planted in early April 2008 with 75-cm row spacing and a population of 90,000 plants/
ha, were assessed in May 2008 when maize was at the 4- to 6-leaves stage. Field A (2.5 ha) was
heavily infested with Sorghum halepense (L.) Pers., Datura ferox L. and Xanthium strumarium L.,
with very sparse weed free areas. In contrast, large portions of Field B (3.0 ha) and Field C (1.7
ha) were almost weed free, with light patches of S. halepense, X. strumarium, Datura stramonium
L. and D. ferox present in the remaining areas. A herbicide treatment with isosafutol (0.135 kg/
ha active ingredient) was applied at pre-emergence. Postemergent herbicides were applied after
mapping had been completed. Farm machinery, including plough, seed drill, sprayer and combine
harvester run parallel to the longest side of the felds.
In order to verify the system, digital images were obtained on the same day at 160, 70 and 112
geo-referenced points randomly distributed in Field A, Field B and Field C, respectively. A Nikon
digital camera D70 equipped with a 18-70 mm AF-S DX Nikkor lens was used to capture the
digital images. The camera incorporates a 6.1-effective megapixel DX Format CCD image sensor
that produces 3,0082,000-pixel images, suffcient to show clearly any green objects in the image.

Figure 1a. Weed detection sensors and DGPS Figure 1b. Toolbar-mounted unit with DGPS
antenna located in the front of the tractor. receiver, WeedSeeker
controller panel,
Tablet PC and data acquisition device.

WeedSeeker
sensors
DGPS
antenna
Support
frame
WeedSeeker

controller panel
Tablet PC
DGPS receiver Data
acquisition
module
Figure 1. (A) Weed detection sensors and DGPS antenna located in the front of the tractor.
(B)+ Toolbar-mounted unit with DGPS receiver, WeedSeeker
controller panel, tablet PC and

data acquisition device.
The images were taken on the area between the crop rows and the area covered by each image was
0.28 m
2
(0.70.4 m). During image collection the camera was handheld at about 1.30 m height
and direct sunlight was avoided on image area with a white umbrella. Weed cover present in each
image was assessed independently by three experienced observers using a 0/1 rating system to
differentiate absence/presence of weeds. It was considered that weeds were present (value= 1) when
they covered more than 15% of the area in the image. This threshold had been agreed previously
by a panel of weed experts as an adequate decision threshold for weed control.
Optimization of the sampling resolution
Weed mapping was performed by integrating the weed presence/absence values recorded from
optoelectronic sensors with their geographical coordinates. These data were kriged to estimate
densities at unsampled locations. Kriging is the most widely used method to interpolate weed
distribution data (Heisel et al., 1996; Zanin et al., 1998; Barroso et al., 2005). An exponential
model was used to ft the semivariograms to the data with the geostatiscal analyst procedure in
Arcgis 9.2 (ESRI). Due to the characteristics of the data (0/1), an indicator kriging in Arcgis
9.2 (ESRI) was used to develop weed maps.
One of the main objectives of this work was to study the infuence of the sampling strategy (i.e.
the distance between optoelectronic sensors) on the performance and accuracy of weed maps. The
most detailed map was obtained by monitoring the complete area with the sensors separated 0.75
m. These data were subsampled at different sensor spacings by progressively eliminating sampling
units (0.75 m wide strips corresponding to the original distance among sensors) from the original
detailed maps, and were then used to produce maps by kriging. Sampling spacings of 1.5, 2.25,
3.0, 3.75, 4.5, 5.25 and 6.0 m were obtained after removing the data from 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7
optoelectronic sensors, respectively.
The infuence of distance between sensors on mapping errors was assessed by comparison of the
detailed map with the maps with increasing spacing between them. A total of 94,439, 115,625 and
67,464 points were used in feld A, B and C, respectively, to determine the frequency of points
with similar information on weed presence/absence (percentage of agreement) on both maps.
The estimated geostatistical range (the scale over which spacings tend to be correlated) with the
geostatiscal analyst procedure in Arcgis 9.2 (ESRI) was also used to test these maps. Validation
of the data obtained with the optoelectronic mapping system was performed by comparing the
agreement on information of weed presence/absence at points where geo-referenced digital images
were obtained.
The large capacity for data collection of the optoelectronic mapping system and its robustness allowed
to create weed maps easily. The comparison between the data obtained with the optoelectronic
mapping system and those obtained from the digital images indicated a good correlation (84%
agreement on average) between the two sets of data (Table 1). Most (2/3) of the failures
corresponded to weedy areas not detected by the sensors and the remaining 1/3 of failures were
clean areas assessed as weedy. The weed cover level present in each area did not infuence the
reliability of the system.
As expected, the most detailed maps were obtained sampling all the crop rows (sensors separated
0.75 m). These maps showed two patterns of weed spatial distribution. Field A was characterised
by a high weed infestation level in general, with only a few weed free areas (Figure 2). In the two
other felds, most of the area was weed free, with weed patches concentrated in a few locations.
An anisotropic effect was apparent in the same direction as the crop lines (North-South direction)
probably associated to cultural practices (Figure 2). Field B was diagonally divided in two zones,
one practically weed free whereas the other presented moderate weed infestations. This pattern
was probably due to a feld restructuring, with the clean zone belonging to the new maize cropping
area and with the zone presenting higher weed infestation level belonging to the zone where maize
has been cultivated during the last 5 years.
Geostatistical algorithms assume that closer points are more similar than those further away. This
way the adjustment of interpolated data to real data decreases as the number of rows used for the
interpolation decreases. With this premise, we compared the maps obtained by interpolating the raw
data (0.75 m between optic sensors) and the maps with progressive increase of spacing between
sensors (Table 2).
The results of the agreement test showed differences greater than 10% between the maps constructed
with the raw data and the other resampled maps, regardless of the distance between optic sensors.
These differences were higher in Field A, in coincidence with the pattern of higher weed presence
throughout the feld. These results were in contradiction with our expectation, since we were
expecting more accuracy (i.e. higher agreement) in the interpolated maps in cases where the
occurrence of weeds throughout the feld was higher.
Since the agreement test did not show signifcant differences between sensor spacings, an analysis
of the scale over which spacings tend to be correlated by estimating geostatistical ranges was
Table 1. Frequency of points with similar information on weed presence/absence (% agreement)
when comparing the optoelectronic mapping system with digital images assessed by experienced
observers.
Agreement (%) Field A Field B Field C Average
Yes 84.4 81.4 85.7 84.2
No
Clean areas assessed as weedy 4.4 5.7 4.5 4.7
Weedy areas not detected 11.2 12.9 9.8 11.1
Table 2. Frequency of points with similar information on weed presence/absence (% agreement)
when comparing the most detailed maps constructed with optical sensors separated 0.75 m and
the maps with progressive increase of spacing between optical sensors. Asterisk (*) indicates
that no spatial dependence was found.
Distance between
sensors (m)
Field A Field B Field C
Agreement Not
predicted
Agreement Not
predicted
Agreement Not
predicted
Yes No Yes No Yes No
1.50 77 18 5 87 8 5 90 7 3
2.25 73 22 6 85 10 5 87 10 3
3.00 67 26 7 83 12 5 85 11 3
3.75 60 33 7 86 11 3 86 11 2
4.50 63 29 7 85 12 3 83 14 3
5.25 61 30 9 85 12 4 83 13 4
6.00 59 32 9 81 15 4 * * *
conducted (Figure 3). Estimates of the geostatistical range increased with the reduction of crop
rows sampled (i.e. increasing the distance between sensors), regardless of the feld. The coincidence
in the results of the three felds, with different patterns of spatial distribution of weeds, supports
the hypothesis that it is possible to map weeds accurately using a distance between sensors of 4.5
m. With a spacing between sensors of 5.25 m or higher, the estimates of the geostatistical range
increased substantially due to the low spatial dependence in the weed community (Figure 3).
Our results point to the possibility to obtain precise weed maps with optical sensors separated 4.5
m, which provides a good opportunity for site-specifc weed management in maize crops. Wider

Figure 2. Kriged maps of the three sampled sites, showing the results of the interpolation with
the raw data, i.e. 0.75 m spacing between optic sensors (left side), and with data from sensors
spaced 5.25 m (right side): darker means higher probability of weeds.

Field C
0.75 m between sensors
Field C
Field B
Field B
Field A
Field A
Figure 2. Kriged maps of the three sampled sites, showing the results of the interpolation with
the raw data, i.e. 0.75 m spacing between optic sensors (left side), and with data from sensors
spaced 5.25 m (right side): darker means higher probability of weeds.
distances among sensors may result in various types of errors. For example, in Field B the map
obtained with a distance between sensors of 5.25 m did not show relatively large weed patches
present at the bottom of the image of about 100 m
2
(Figure 2). In addition, in the feld A with high
weed infestation throughout the feld, signifcant errors in the map constructed with information
every 5.25 m were found, with weed patches much larger than in the map constructed with the raw
data (0.75 m between sensors).
Conclusions
The optoelectronic mapping system tested in our study was effective with spacings between sensors
up to 4.5 m. This relatively coarse sampling resolution may allow to use a low number of sensors,
reducing the cost of the equipment. The system works well with different patterns of weed spatial
distribution. Similar results were achieved in aggregated and less aggregated weed communities
with large areas free of weeds.
Acknowledgements
This research was funded by the Spanish CICyT (project AGL 2005-06180-C03 and project AGL
2008-04670-C03).
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Figure 3. Estimates of the geostatistical range for weed maps constructed
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Evolution of agricultural machinery: the third way
M. Berducat, C. Debain, R. Lenain and C. Cariou
Cemagref, 24 Avenue des Landais, 63172 Aubire, France; michel.berducat@cemagref.fr
Abstract
The innovations in agricultural equipments have always been an important stimulator to the
development of agriculture. For several years, we were witnesses of an irremediable increase in
the size of agricultural machines. If this frst way, encouraged by farm machinery industry, is
synonymous of high outputs, a lot of disadvantages can nevertheless be identifed in term of soil
compaction, diffculty to control large width implements on irregular soils, or to integrate the
traffc on rural roads. A second way has recently been proposed by several research laboratories
(Europe, Japan), based on light weight robots for a small scale farming at the plant level. This
approach is well suited for high added value product such as market garden produce or fower
productions. However, for crops like cereals which represent the frst productive sector in Europe,
previous smart robot machines even in swarm working confguration, would certainly not be able
to assume harvest operations in large production areas. Thereby, another scenario, called the third
way, could consist to propose machines medium in size and power but always integrating a high
degree of technologies. Medium power could mean the possibility for agricultural machines to
easier beneft of future car component developments in term of transmission (engine-wheel pack)
or energy motorization (electric fuel cell). For preservation of economic competitiveness, these
machines could compensate the decreasing of the work width by an increase of the forward speed.
A high degree of modularity could also authorize the cooperation of machines, with a leader
machine always driven by an operator, and one or several other following. The paper underlines
main advantages and limitations of each way and gives some cost comparison elements about the
frst and third ways.
Keywords: robotics, cooperation of agricultural machines, technological scenarios, feld cost price
Introduction
The agro equipments have been always an important vector for the development of agriculture.
Innovation and technological evolution in the agricultural machinery sector have a major role to
play in order to:
reduce functioning costs;
mitigate the sources of agricultural pollution (chemical products, fertilizers, gas emission);
improve comfort and safety for the operators and maintain the competitiveness of European
agriculture.
As in all other economic sectors, new devices integrating electronic, automatic, information and
communication systems, robotic components are necessary to develop new machines more accurate,
fexible comfortable and safe. These new technology developments can nevertheless be suited
with several scenarios of agricultural machinery evolution. Three ways are presented in this paper:
the frst way: size increasing of agricultural machines;
the second way: light weight robots for Precision Farming at plant level;
the third way: cooperation of medium size machines.
The frst way: size increasing of agricultural machines
Today, in order to preserve economic competitiveness, we observe an increase of the size of
conventional agricultural machines. For example in France, between 2000 and 2005, the ratio of
the tractor power of more 110 kW (150 Horse Power) has nearly doubled (12.5% to 20% of the
number of vehicles) (SYGMA, 2006). If the trend of increasing machine sizes remains number of
problems need to be addressed. Beyond diffculties as to control large width implements on irregular
soils from a single central platform, or to circulate on narrow country roads out side of the felds
for big machines, one main limitation is the risk of soil compaction.
The reports of experts of the Technical Working Groups Established under the Thematic Strategy
for Soil Protection (Van-Camp, 2004) of the European Environment Agency have mentioned in
relation to soil compaction issues that:
Problems of compaction are widely distributed throughout the world but tend to be most
prevalent, where heavy machinery is used in agriculture or forestry. About 25 Millions of
hectares proved to be lightly and about 36 M ha moderately compacted just in Central and
Eastern Europe.
The area degraded by soil compaction is increasing because wheel loads in agriculture are
still increasing. Contrary to the topsoil, the subsoil is not loosened annually and compaction is
cumulative. In the long run, a more or less homogeneous compacted layer is created.
In conclusion, the report underlined that Although the conclusions of many researchers on subsoil
compaction and guidelines on soil stress have been known for many years now, this knowledge
seems to be neglected by manufacturers and users of heavy agricultural equipment. However in
the long term the disadvantages of the reduced fertility and proftability of the soil, problems with
too wet soils and environmental problems, will become apparent at the expense of the farmer and
the whole society.
The opportunity to replace the trend of continuously increasing the size of machines, by introducing
smaller size machines working in cooperation with each other will contribute to a reduction of the
risk of soil compaction and thus contribute to a better sustainable development.
The second way: light weight robots for Precision Farming at plant level
The second way answers to this previous purpose. Several research laboratories (Jorgensen,
2006; Blackmore, 2007) work on robotic solutions based on light weight robots for small scale
farming at the plant level (detection of position of each plant during sowing operation and localized
interventions after during the whole of the production process (hoeing, fertilizing)). These interesting
approaches are very well suited to future applications for high added value products such as market
gardening or fowers production where a lot of manual work is mobilized during the production
cycle on small or medium feld areas. Previous light-weight robots are nevertheless not adapted to
crops such as cereals which are the main productive agricultural commodity sector in Europe (260
millions of tons in 2006 for 51 millions of hectares). Indeed, even in swarm working confguration,
small smart machines, as they are currently designed, would not be able to perform harvest operations
in large production areas.
The third way: cooperation of medium size machines
General presentation
This scenario introduced in this paper and called the third way proposes to associate (as illustrated
in Figure 1) several medium machines in cooperation under the control of only one single remote
operator in charge to control formations of machines in outdoor applications.
In several professional application domains, effcient work organization often leads to the
intervention of several machines in the same area. In road construction, for example, two or three
road rollers are used together to compact asphalt. For environmental upkeep such as highways
or green parks (grass cutting, hedges, etc.), several mowing machines are often used together to
carry out the work. In agriculture, during sowing operations in crop farms, some confgurations
use a lead tractor towing a plough, while a second one is linked with a drill. During forage, crops
or sugar beet crop management, transport vehicles are used to transfer materials to other areas of
a feld from one or several harvester machines.
All these examples require several drivers and the work is labour intensive and repetitive. Anymore,
it can be diffcult to motivate workers to become involved in these activities. So the ambition is to
introduce new automation and robotics tools that lead to increased user acceptance amongst end users
and managers. The main idea, as presented in Figure 2 is not to eliminate all human intervention,
but to retrain users to take control of the cooperation of several machines working together at the
same time. From a practical viewpoint, that means that one driver will be able to operate from a
lead machine [Mode (2a)] and supervise one or more identical machines following the frst one
(like tractors, mowers, or combine harvesters) and/or to supervise the global execution of feld
operations (both composed of homogeneous machines [i.e.: two or three combine harvesters] and
different machines [such as the control of an additional automatic vehicle transporter]).
In an optional mode, the operator could work remotely from a control post [Mode (2b)]. Although
this solution would be a little bit more expensive for future users, it could be particularly welcome
for specifc dangerous activities that can threaten the safety of the operators. For agricultural
applications for example, this could be interesting in spraying interventions using phytosanitary
products which are known to deeply endanger human health. Indeed the damages on health that
might be related to the use of these products are numerous (cancers, fertility troubles, teratogenesis)
(Dowling and Seiber, 2002; Arbuckl, 2002). Farmers are the frst concerned in terms of massive
1

Figure1: Illustration of a possible configuration for the "Third Way"

Figure1. Illustration of a possible confguration for the third way.
2

Mode (a): operator on the lead machine Mode (b): operator from a remote control post

Figure 2: Typical running scenarios of the "Third Way"

Figure 2. Typical running scenarios of the third way.
exposure to these molecules. Although individual (mask and protective suit) or collective protections
(cab fltration system) can reduce the potential dermal and inhalation exposure, a more radical
solution is to suppress all proximity of the operator with the aerosol this could be achieved via
the remote control of one or several simultaneous spraying robotic platforms.
The third way approach will develop to enable several reasonably sized machines to cooperate
collectively on large agricultural tasks using just one operator. This one will keep European
agriculture competitive enabling it to take advantage of economies of scale and large size farms
without the inconvenience associated with big machinery.
Economic impact simulation on one concrete scenario
A high degree of modularity given by the third way could permit for example a farmer in extensive
production or livestock zones to use a single automatic machine, while in more intensive production
or large-scale farming zones the possibility for the farmer to associate several of the automatic
machines in cooperation under the control of one operator. This approach can reinforce new
behaviours in the economic way of thinking for farmers. Indeed, farmers could then better reason
their investments by dimensioning the size of their equipments to the majority of their activities
carried out during the whole year (seed bed preparation, spreading, spraying, harvesting, etc.). In
case of specifc periods asking for more performances, taking into account meteorological constraints
for example, they will have the possibility to associate in a cooperation process a second or third
machine borrowed from a farming neighbour or rent additional equipment from their agro equipment
dealer without adding wages charge for supplementary drivers. By optimising the write-off cost of
equipment, such practices could considerably reduce the mechanization outgoings which currently
represents in average 45% of the structure costs of a farm.
Figure 3 compares for example the write-off costs (including structural [capital allowances] and
variable outgoings [fuel consumption, maintenance cost and manpower]) of two scenarios:
One powerful tractor 200 kW (270 HP) linked with a wide mower (width of 8.8 m).
Three tractors of medium power 60 kW (80 HP) equipped each one with a mower of 3 meters
width.
3
Profitabilitybetweentwotechnologicalscenarios(roughmachines)
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800 2000
Hectares
C
o
s
t
1bigtractor(270HP)+1bigmower(8.8mwidth)
3mediumpowertractors(80HP)+3mowers(3mwidth)

Figure 3: Field cost price of technological scenarios related to field area size

Figure 3. Field cost price of technological scenarios related to feld area size.
(
)
The three tractors are of equivalent technology level (top of the range) to the biggest one. In these
scenarios we considered a forward speed of 12 km/h and 5% of lost time in half turn for the frst
confguration (single big machine) and 12 km/h and 10% of lost time in half turn execution with
the second confguration (cooperation of three medium machines). Results show that nevertheless
the return on ones investments is quite similar between the two confgurations.
In fact despite that the write-off cost of three medium machines (tractors + mowers) is still over
the cost of the big one, the gap is not so high, taking into account that we have always only one
driver for the two scenarios.
The next Figure now takes again the same example with three medium tractors and three medium
mowers. In the option 2, two of the three tractors are equipped with low cost cabs, considering that
the driver is only in the frst one with all comfort available. To go deeper in this logic, in the option
3, two of the three tractors have no cabs (hypothesis of reduction of 20% of price of the tractor).
The return on ones investments of the option 2 and above all, the option 3 are more competitive. The
feld cost price of the option 3 is inferior to the scenario with a big tractor associated to a big mower.
In the previous scenarios, we must nevertheless underline that we considered for the third way
scenario simulation, only rough cost of machines (three tractors + three mowers), without taking
into account cost of the technology development needed to control the whole cooperation system
(remote controller and communication technologies). Figure 5 takes in consideration these aspects
by respectively adding an additional cost of 25 k for the leader top of the range tractor with cab
and 15 k for the other two ones medium tractors without cabs (that means total additional cost of
55 k for the whole system).
Under these hypotheses, the gap is slightly always in favour of the frst way. Nevertheless, the
estimation of additional cost of technology is currently fully theoretical and can evolve down in
4
Onetechnologicalscenario
(3mediumpowertractors+3mowers)
3options
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800 2000
Hectares
C
o
s
t
3mediumpowertractors(80HP)+3mowers(3mwidth)
3mediumpowertractors(1topoftherangewithcab+2bottomoftherangewithcab)+
3mowers(3mwidth)opton2
3mediumpowertractors(1topoftherangewithcab+2bottomoftherangewithout
cab)+3mowers(3mwidth)opton3

Figure 4: Field cost price related to field area of 3 options for the technological scenario
of 3 medium power tractors and 3 medium mowers

Figure 4. Field cost price related to feld area of 3 options for the technological scenario of 3
medium power tractors and 3 medium mowers.
(
)
future (or revised upwards!). Anyway, simulations done are based only on one agricultural operation
(grass cutting) and as explained in the general presentation of the third way, it would be interesting
to consider all farm activities carried out during all the year and to integrate into the demonstration,
possibilities of rental services of machines during the high activity periods.
Perspectives
The third way concept introduced in this paper can be easily extended to other professional activities
domains. These include:
Civil engineering where a lot of heterogeneous or homogeneous machines are also associated
during heavy works (grader + bulldozer in cooperation) or in more superfcial works for road
construction involving the cooperation between specifcs machines (road fnishing machines
and trucks, rollers.).
Upkeep of environment with, for instance, the interest of cooperative machines for the mowing
of well kept lawn in parks or golf areas. The third way will also open new opportunities for
the development of new sustainable services as the beach cleaning, or upkeep of fre breaks.
For all these activity domains, the third way consisting to favour cooperation of existing machines
with a leader machine always driven by an operator, and one or several other following machines
in automatic modes (supervised by the driver), could be a new opportunity. Currently, there is
little demand for this solution, mainly because end users are unaware of the possibilities that exist
with these new technologies (supply and offer principle). So this new scenario proposed always
in competiveness continuance, could be an alternative to the current tendency of machine size
increasing.
5

ProfitabilitybetweenFirstway(roughmachine)
andthirdway(machineswithremotecontrolsystem)
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800 2000
Hectares
C
o
s
t
.
1bi gtractor(270HP)+ 1bi gmower(8.8mwi dth)
3medi umpowertractors(1topoftherangewi thcab+ 2bottomoftherange
wi thoutcab+ 3mowers(3mwi dth)+remote control systembetweenvehi cl es

Figure 5: Field price cost of the "First Way" technological scenario with the best "Third Way"
scenario including technology cost for control of the whole system

Figure 5. Field price cost of the frst way technological scenario with the best third way
scenario including technology cost for control of the whole system.
(
)
Looking forward, and still taking into account necessary yield ratio increases, the third way could
lead to the development of medium machines in terms of size and power, whose work cooperation
could reach the capacity of one larger one. In the long term, the use of medium power equipment
could also open the opportunity for agricultural machines to beneft from future car component
developments in term of transmission (engine-wheel pack) or energy utilisation (electric fuel cell).
This new approach could hopefully trigger the interest of many professional actors and induce, in
the middle term, new behaviours that will lead buyers to choosing better economic and sustainable
solutions that are in accordance with their effective needs.
The Cemagref team of Clermont-Ferrand in close cooperation with the LASMEA, a research
laboratory of the Blaise - Pascal University, is working to the feasibility demonstration of the third
way. First technological robotic developments will be presented in the near future.
Acknowledgements
Kalk, J., Pretot, T., 2008 Trainee students, Study on simulation of economic scenarios, Licence
Professionnelle Agroquipements Chalon sur Sane.
References
Arbuckle,T., 2002, Predictors of herbicide exposure in farm applicators, Int. Arch. Occup, Environ. Health,
pp 406-414.
Blackmore, B.S., 2007, A systems view of agricultural robots, 6
th
European Conference on Precision Agriculture,
Skiathos, Greece, pp 23-31.
Dowling, K. and Seiber, J., 2002, Importance of respiratory exposure to pesticides among agricultural
populations, International J. of Toxicology, pp 371-381.
Grift, T., 2005, Robot synergy: a marriage of engineering and biology, Resource: Engineering and Technology
for sustainable world, p 9.
Jorgensen, R.N., 2006, Hortibot: A system design of a robotic tool carrier for high-tech plant nursing, Automation
Technology for Off-road equipment Conference, Bonn, Germany, pp 13-21.
Van-Camp L., Bujarrabal, B., Gentile, A.R. and Jones, R., 2004, Reports of the technical group thematic
strategy for soil protection, Volume IV, European Commission, Direction General, Joint Research Center,
EUR 21319 EN/6.
SYGMA, 2006, le march des tracteurs agricoles. Available at http://www.sygma.org/main/core.php?pag_id=16.
Section 6
Yield monitoring and ICT
Mass fow sensor for combines with bucket conveyors
R.S. Zandonadi
1
, T.S. Stombaugh
1
, D.M. Queiroz
2
and S.A. Shearer
1
1
Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering, University of Kentucky, USA; tss@uky.edu
2
Agricultural Engineering,Universidade Federal de Vicosa, Brazil
Abstract
Most commercially available yield monitoring technology for grain harvesting equipment is designed
to work with paddle-type clean grain elevators. There are some harvesting machines such as peanut
and dry edible bean harvesters that use bucket conveyors to move grain from the cleaning shoe
to the clean grain tank. This conveyor design prevents the use of currently available impact plate,
optical, or radiometric mass fow sensors. Thus, a torque-measurement technique was developed
for sensing mass fow rate through a bucket conveyor. One potential advantage of this technology,
especially for developing countries, is that in-feld calibration can be performed with static weights
thus eliminating the need for weigh carts or immediate weigh scale receipts. Using empirical model
parameters found in literature for a similar conveyor system, the mass fow rate based on the static
torque calibration was slightly overestimated. The slope coeffcient of the regression between the
reference and the estimated mass fow rate was approximately 1.12 and 1.07 for steady stead and
varying fow rate tests conditions, respectively. After adjusting empirical model parameters, the
mass fow rate computed based on a static torque calibration was the same as the reference for the
steady state fow conditions.
Keywords: yield monitor, mass fow sensor, dry edible beans, bucket conveyor
Introduction
Because of the importance of yield maps in agricultural production system decision making,
researchers have been developing yield monitoring systems for non-grain harvesters such as
tomatoes (Pelletier and Upadhayaya, 1999), potatoes (Campbell et al., 1994), forages (Behme et al.,
1997), sugar cane (Molin and Menegatti, 2004), citrus (Schuller et al., 1999) and coffee (Balastreire
et al., 2002). One crop harvesting system that has not been explored is dry edible bean combines.
The majority of edible bean crops are harvested with specialized machines that help reduce
losses and achieve quality standards set by the market. Much of these specialized pull-type bean
harvesters utilize a bucket elevator to convey the clean grain from the cleaning shoe to the storage
bin. Commercially available mass fow sensors such as impact plate and optical devices will not
work with bucket conveyors because of the low discharge velocity of the grain from the conveyor
and the concealment of the grain in the buckets. Zandonadi (2008) developed and tested a new
torque-based grain mass fow sensing device that overcame these issues and proved to be a feasible
alternative for harvesters with bucket conveyors.
Grain fow sensor calibration is often identifed as one of the biggest challenges to good functioning
of a yield monitor system. Arslan and Colvin (2002) mentioned that mass fow sensor calibration
is probably the greatest potential source of error in yield monitors. According to Arslan and Colvin
(1999), the range of fow rates used in the calibration process was the most important factor for
good accuracy. They showed that better accuracy levels could be obtained after careful calibration
in feld operations by targeting realistic fow rates.
The calibration process can be a fairly diffcult task considering that the conditions found in a feld
cannot be well controlled. Furthermore, the need of some minimum infrastructure such as a grain
cart with a weighing system or a truck scale could also be an issue in remote areas where much of
the worlds dry edible bean crops are produced.
Mundim (2003) developed and validated a power requirement model for a pull type edible bean
where the model for power estimation on the elevator shaft was based on the computation of the
elevator chain tension based on techniques outlined by the American Chain Association (ACA 1975).
The possibility exists, with the device proposed by Zandonadi (2008), to perform a static calibration
based on known weights and then compute the mass fow rate from a torque measurement using
some model such as the ACA (1975) model. This would vastly simplify the calibration process
especially for developing countries where access to grain scales for yield monitor calibration is
limited. However, some model parameters are empirical and adjusted according to the elevator type
and usage. Thus, the goal of this study was to evaluate a potential static calibration method for the
torque-based mass fow sensor developed for specialized edible bean harvesters.
Sensing device description
The bucket conveyor on the dry edible bean harvester is driven by a roller chain transmission
(Figure 1). The tension on the roller chain should vary as the torque on the elevator shaft varies
according to the mass being lifted by the buckets. Thus, a force sensing device with a load cell was
fabricated and installed on the tensioned side of the roller chain. The load cell used in the device
was a 4.5 kN sealed beam transducer. It was placed behind a pivoting arm with an idler sprocket
that engaged the tensioned side of the chain. Further details and description of the device can be
found in Zandonadi (2008). The torque-measuring performance of the device was evaluated on a
hydraulic test bench with a torque dynamometer. The encouraging results prompted further testing
on a bucket conveyor.
Test facility
The mass fow sensing performance tests were conducted on the Yield Monitor Test Facility
developed by Burks et al. (2003) located at the Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering Department,
University of Kentucky using a bucket elevator supplied by the harvesters manufacturer. The
facility was composed of a storage/supply tank that holds up to 12.5 ton of grain, a grain metering
system capable of varying the fow supplied to the clean grain elevator from approximately 0.5
to 40 kg/s, a fxture that supports the elevator, a hydraulic motor that drives the elevator and a
receiving weigh tank.
1

Figure 1. Pull type edible bean harvester with location of clean grain elevator drive chain
indicated (A), and torque/mass flow sensing device mounted on the bucket conveyor
transmission (B).

(A) (B)
Figure 1. Pull type edible bean harvester with location of clean grain elevator drive chain indicated
(A), and torque/mass fow sensing device mounted on the bucket conveyor transmission (B).
1

Figure 1. Pull type edible bean harvester with location of clean grain elevator drive chain
indicated (A), and torque/mass flow sensing device mounted on the bucket conveyor
transmission (B).

(A) (B)
Evaluation
Because of availability, soybean (9.5% moisture content) was used for testing instead of dry edible
beans. Considering that the buckets carry the grain without the grain contacting the wall of the
elevator, the grain type should not affect the torque on the elevator appreciably. The only grain-
specifc effect would occur when the buckets scoop the grain from the reservoir at the bottom of
the conveyor.
Two sets of tests were conducted to evaluate the overall performance of the fow sensing device:
steady state tests and varying fow tests. This paper focuses on the techniques used to calibrate
the device for these different fow tests. The full results of varying and steady state grain fow rate
experiments are not reported in this paper.
The device was calibrated both dynamically by measuring actual grain fow and statically using
fxed weights on the torque sensing device. The hypothesis was that if there was a relatively stable
relationship between mass fow rate and torque required on the transmission, accurate mass fow
could be computed based on a static calibration for torque measurement.
The dynamic calibration was accomplished by running a set of four different target fow rates
within the elevator capacity range (0.9, 1.8, 2.7 and 3.4 kg/s). The actual reference fow rates were
based on the accumulated mass in the weigh tank after each run. Twenty fve seconds (50 total data
points at 2 Hz data logging) of the steady state fow data were used in the calibration. Each fow
rate was repeated three times. It was noticed during testing that the elevator speed varied slightly
in accordance with the grain fow rate. This meant that the resultant torque caused by the mass fow
would vary with elevator speed as was expected according to the theoretical model proposed by
ACA (1975). To remediate this error, the speed was compensated by changing the conveyor drive
motor hydraulic fow rate for each mass fow rate of grain to keep the shaft speed at 1203 rpm.
Unfortunately, this compensation was not possible for the varying fow rate tests. In those tests, a
hydraulic fow rate that provided a speed of 1203 rpm near the maximum capacity (1293 rpm
for zero fow) was chosen.
A run before the steady state and varying grain fow rate tests was used to calibrate the device, and
a run after those respective tests was used to check the calibration. Calibration data were evaluated
by using a linear regression of the sensor calibrated output against the reference mass fow, and
then applying a t-test with the null hypotheses that the regression slope was equal to one (Ho: o
= 1 vs. Ha: o 1) and the regression intercept was equal to zero (Ho: = 0 vs. Ha: 1).
The static calibration was accomplished by physically locking the elevator shaft and installing a
moment arm on the driver shaft so different torque levels could be created by hanging weights
on the arm (Figure 2). The procedure was repeated during the steady state and varying fow tests.
2

Figure 2. Components of static calibration apparatus for mass flow sensor: moment arm and
weights on driver shaft (A) and lock arm on driven shaft (B).

(A)
(B)
Figure 2. Components of static calibration apparatus for mass fow sensor: moment arm and
weights on driver shaft (A) and lock arm on driven shaft (B).
The moment arm was loaded sequentially, and for every load, data were collected for a period
of 20 seconds at 1Hz. The moment arm loading procedure was repeated three times during each
calibration. Once the torque calibration was completed, the lock and moment arm were removed
for normal operation.
The amount of torque to be applied during static calibration was computed to correspond to the
expected fow rates in the conveyor as outlined by (ACA, 1975) in the following equations:
T
el
= k
1
+ k
2
Q
g
(1)
k
1
= (m
ch
h + m
bu
n
bu
) g r (2)
(3)
where:
Q
g
= mass fow rate (m
2
/s);
m
ch
= linear mass of the chain (kg/m);
m
bu
=mass of individual bucket (kg);
n
bu
= number of buckets on side of the strand;
g = gravitational constant (m
2
/s);
h = distance between top and bottom elevator axles (m);
r = distance to force application point in elevator chain from elevator shaft (m);
N
t
= number of teeth on the boot sprocket;
p = chain pitch (mm);
n = boot sprocket speed (rpm);
d = diameter of the boot sprocket (m);
e
c
= bucket spacing (m);
J = empirical corrective factor;
FS = service factor.
J and FS are empirical parameters in the model. ACA (1975) recommends J=1 for centrifugal
discharge elevators handling coarse lumpy material, 0.67 for centrifugal discharge elevators handling
fne free fowing material, and 0.5 for continuous bucket elevators. FS is defned according to the
speed and service conditions (shock, type and frequency of operation, etc.) and varies from one
to three.
Once the system was calibrated for torque, mass fow rate going through the elevator was computed
based on the torque Equation 4 and it was compared with the measurements based on the dynamic
calibration.
(4)
where:
T = torque measured by the device (Nm);
Q
gb
= torque based mass fow rated (kg/s).
The regression parameters for each one of the four calibration runs and their respective statistics
relative to the variance analyses for a valid slope are presented in Table 1.
The high coeffcient of determination (R
2
>0.99 for all runs) and the signifcance of the analyses
of variance (P<0.0001 for all runs) strongly supported the linear relationship between Y and X,
r g FS
e
d J 12
n
1
1
n p N
h
60000 k
c bu t
2

]
]
]
]
,
,
(
(
,
\
,
,
(
j
+

5

Once the system was calibrated for torque, mass flow rate going through the elevator
was computed based on the torque equation (4) and it was compared with the measurements
based on the dynamic calibration.

2
1
gb
Q
k
k T
=
(4)

T = Torque measured by the device (Nm)
Q
gb
= Torque based mass flow rated (kgs
-1
)

Results and Discussion

The regression parameters for each one of the four calibration runs and their respective
statistics relative to the variance analyses for a valid slope are presented in Table 1.

Table 1. Parameters and analyses of variance results of the regression analyses of the
calibration data from the four calibration runs.
95% interval 95% interval
Run slope lower upper inter lower upper
(A) Before steady state 126.5 126.1 126.9 92.7 91.9 93.4
(B) After steady state 126.6 125.9 127.3 89.3 87.9 90.6
(C) Before dynamic 122.4 122.0 122.7 93.3 92.6 94.1
(D) After Dynamic 122.6 122.1 123.0 94.7 93.8 95.5

The high coefficient of determination (R2 > 0.99 for all runs) and the significance of
the analyses of variance (P value < 0.0001 for all runs) strongly supported the linear
relationship between Y and X, i.e. mass flow rate and sensor voltage output. Notice that the
slopes of Run A and B fell into each others confidence interval as well as the slopes of Run
C and D forming two groups according to the shaft speed characteristics of each test. That
showed that the curves could be considered similar among each group and that there was not a
significant change in the device response across the experiments. The difference between
groups was due to the fact that at a higher shaft speed, a lower torque is developed on the
elevator shaft for the same mass flow rate. Consequently, the lower sensor response for the
dynamic tests reflected the lower slope of curves C and D, which had the elevators no-load
shaft speed set to a higher value. Thereby, the Run A and Run C data were used to calibrate
the system before the steady state and varying flow tests, respectively, and the Run B and Run
D data were used to validate and assess calibration error for steady state and varying flow
rates, respectively. The results of the t-tests for calibration are presented in Table 2.

Table 2: Results of the t test applied to the calibration verification with the validation data set.
Group Estimate Standard error test P value
Slope 1.00 0.003 0.35 0.729
Steady state calibration
Intercept -0.03 0.005 -5.09 0.000
Slope 1.00 0.002 0.93 0.352
Dynamic calibration
Intercept 0.01 0.004 3.11 0.002
*degree of freedom of 748, critical value of t = 1.963

The P values for the slopes supported the failure of rejecting the null hypothesis Ho:
o = 1 indicating that the slopes were well adjusted. The P value for the intercept indicated
i.e. mass fow rate and sensor voltage output. Notice that the slopes of Run A and B fell into each
others confdence interval as well as the slopes of Run C and D forming two groups according
to the shaft speed characteristics of each test. That showed that the curves could be considered
similar among each group and that there was not a signifcant change in the device response across
the experiments. The difference between groups was due to the fact that at a higher shaft speed,
a lower torque is developed on the elevator shaft for the same mass fow rate. Consequently, the
lower sensor response for the dynamic tests refected the lower slope of curves C and D, which
had the elevators no-load shaft speed set to a higher value. Thereby, the Run A and Run C data
were used to calibrate the system before the steady state and varying fow tests, respectively, and
the Run B and Run D data were used to validate and assess calibration error for steady state and
varying fow rates, respectively. The results of the t-tests for calibration are presented in Table 2.
The P-values for the slopes supported the failure of rejecting the null hypothesis H
0
: o=1 indicating
that the slopes were well adjusted. The P-value for the intercept indicated hat it was different than 0.
This intercept problem could be minimized in practice by periodically measuring the no-load output
and resetting an offset point at the zero load. The zero load measurement check could be carried
out, for instance, after unloading the harvesters basket or even during headland turn operations
when there is no grain fowing through the elevator.
During the static calibration procedures, a range of torques from 0 up to 85 Nm were created
on the elevator shaft, which corresponded to mass fow rates up to 6.0 kg/s as estimated by the
theoretical model. The values for FS and J that were the closest match to the harvester conveyor
were 1.728 and 1, respectively, which were the numbers used by Mundin (2003). During the static
calibration, the device tended to respond differently during the frst loading/unloading cycle of the
moment arm than it did on subsequent cycles. Such behavior could be explained by the settling of
the mechanism when the load was frst applied on the system. Thus, a small pre-load was applied
Table 1. Parameters and analyses of variance results of the regression analyses of the calibration
data from the four calibration runs.
Run slope 95% interval
inter
95% interval
lower upper lower upper
(A) Before steady state 126.5 126.1 126.9 92.7 91.9 93.4
(B) After steady state 126.6 125.9 127.3 89.3 87.9 90.6
(C) Before dynamic 122.4 122.0 122.7 93.3 92.6 94.1
(D) After Dynamic 122.6 122.1 123.0 94.7 93.8 95.5
Table 2. Results of the t test applied to the calibration verifcation with the validation data set.
Group Estimate Standard error test P value
Steady state calibration Slope 1.00 0.003 0.35 0.729
Intercept -0.03 0.005 -5.09 0.000
Dynamic calibration Slope 1.00 0.002 0.93 0.352
Intercept 0.01 0.004 3.11 0.002
*degree of freedom of 748, critical value of t = 1.963
to condition the mechanism before calibrations. The torque calibration equations parameters are
presented in Table 3 with the 95% interval for the slope and intercept.
The no-load reading was hard to accomplish. It was infuenced by the positioning of the lock
and moment arms, and also the position in which the transmission was found when the arms
were mounted. That is why the intercept presented such variation. The more critical performance
parameter, though, was the rate at which the sensor output changed relative to the torque input
(mVN/m), i.e. the regression slope. Thereafter, the dynamic torque would be computed by
multiplying the sensor output, when subject to mass fow rates, by the slope resulting from the
static torque calibration.
Combining the second and third repetition of each round of calibration, a slope of 9.2 mVNm
-1

was found, and it was used to convert the sensor readings into torque. Thereafter, given the torque
measured by the sensor, the mass fow rates were estimated by the torque Equation 4 and it was
referred to as torque-based mass fow rate. The theoretical torque (given by the torque model) and
the measured torque (given by the torque calibration) for the different evaluated fow rates were
plotted and presented in Figure 3.
Notice that the measured torque tended to be higher than the theoretical torque as the mass fow
increased. If the torque model underestimates the measurement, the use of its parameters to compute
mass fow rate would result in an overestimation of mass fow. By regressing the torque based mass
fow against the measurements obtained from the dynamic calibration, it was evident that the static
torque calibration alternative overestimated mass fow (Table 4).
Table 3. Torque calibration regression parameters from static calibration loading cycles for
runs A and B.
slope 95% interval intercept 95% interval R
2
A 7.2 6.8 7.5 211.6 193.2 230.1 0.976
A 9.0 8.8 9.3 256.6 244.5 268.8 0.993
A 9.1 9.0 9.3 223.4 215.7 231.1 0.997
B 7.9 7.7 8.1 312.9 302.0 323.7 0.993
B 9.3 9.1 9.4 209.6 201.7 217.5 0.997
B 9.4 9.3 9.5 185.8 179.7 191.9 0.998
3

Figure 3: Theoretical (torque model) and measured (sensor) torque measurement versus actual
grain flow rate.

Figure 3. Theoretical (torque model) and measured (sensor) torque measurement versus actual
grain fow rate.
Using the static calibration approach to compute mass fow rate, the values would be overestimated
for both testing conditions (steady state and varying fow). Recall that the data sets A and B had
the elevator speed compensated according to the fow rate keeping it at approximately 120 rpm
throughout the calibration, whereas in data sets C and D the elevator speed was not constant. The
variation was 93 rpm from zero fow rate (129 rpm) to 3.3 kg/s fow rate (120 rpm). Thereby, it
was expected that the data sets A and B would have presented better results than data sets C and D
due to the fact that in the theoretical torque model an elevator speed of 120 rpm was considered.
However, the fact that several parameters in the model had to be approximated according to the
option that closely described the conditions of the elevator requires caution. For instance, changing
the service factor (FS) from 1.73 to 1.93, improved the performance of the model (Table 5). By
adjusting the FS factor, the values of mass fow rate computed based on the static torque calibration
were the same as the reference for steady state fow, but were underestimated for varying fow.
Notice that data sets A and B now presented better results than datasets C and D. Hence, the FS
parameter should be refned for this type of elevator.
Conclusions
The proposed static calibration method for a new mass fow sensing technique exhibited potential
to be implemented as an alternative calibration procedure. The calibration routine involves
applying static weights to a moment arm while the machine is not running. This technique does not
require access to weighing carts or truck scales for yield monitor calibration, and it could be faster
because loads at different operational speed are not required as is the case on current yield monitor
Table 4. Regression results of the reference mass fow rate versus the torque-based mass fow
rate.
Data set slope 95% interval intercept 95% interval R2
A 1.120 1.114 1.127 0.013 0.000 0.025 0.996
B 1.116 1.112 1.121 0.031 0.023 0.040 0.998
C 1.076 1.072 1.080 0.060 0.052 0.069 0.998
D 1.077 1.072 1.081 0.042 0.034 0.050 0.998
Table 5. Regression results of the reference mass fow rate versus the torque based mass fow
rate using a modifed service factor in the torque model.
Data set slope 95% interval intercept 95% interval R
2
A 1.002 0.996 1.008 0.011 0.000 0.023 0.996
B 0.999 0.995 1.002 0.028 0.021 0.036 0.998
C 0.962 0.959 0.966 0.054 0.047 0.061 0.998
D 0.963 0.959 0.967 0.037 0.030 0.044 0.998
technology. The calibration technique relies heavily on a model of drive torque on a particular bucket
conveyor as affected by mass fow rate of grain through the conveyor. Results of the study showed
that further testing should be carried out to refne the empirical parameters of the torque model.
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Masters thesis. 119p. Lexington, KY. University of Kentucky.
Automated, low-cost yield mapping of wild blueberry fruit
K.C. Swain, Q.U. Zaman, A.W. Schumann, D.C. Percival, D. Nams and T.J. Esau
Engineering Department, Nova Scotia Agricultural College, Truro, Nova Scotia, B2N 5E3, Canada;
swainkc@yahoo.com
Abstract
The presence of weeds, bare spots, variation in soil/crop characteristics and fruit yield within the
wild blueberry feld requires more accurate applications to maximize proft and reduce environmental
risks. The objective of this research was to develop an Automated Yield Monitoring and Mapping
System to produce real-time fruit yield map for site-specifc application of agrochemicals. This
AYMMS was mounted on a specially designed Farm Motorized Vehicle (FMV). The AYMMS
consists of a 10-mega pixel, 24-bit digital color camera (Canon Canada Inc., Mississauga, ON,
Canada), Trimble Ag GPS 332 (Trimble Navigation Limited, Sunnyvale, CA) for geo-referencing
and a laptop computer. Custom software was developed in Delphi and C programs for image
processing to estimate %BPI (blue pixel index) representing ripe fruit. Two wild blueberry felds
were selected in central Nova Scotia to evaluate the yield monitoring system. Percentage blue pixels
correlated highly signifcantly with actual fruit yield in feld 1 (R
2
=0.90; P<0.001; n=19) and feld
2 (R
2
=0.97; P<0.001; n=19). The correlation between actual and predicted fruit yield in feld 2
(validation) was also highly signifcant (R
2
=0.97; P<0.001; n=19). Real time yield mapping was
carried out with AYMMS by acquiring images on the moving FMV at a spacing of 1.25 m and a
ground speed of 0.5 m/sec. The estimated yield per image feld of view along with geo-referenced
coordinates was imported into ArcView 3.2 GIS (ESRI, Redlands, Calif., USA) to map fruit yield for
the two selected felds. The maps showed substantial variability in fruit yield in both felds. The yield
maps along with soil maps could be used for variable rate application of site specifc crop inputs.
Keywords: AYMMS, fruit yield map, GIS, FMV
Introduction
Wild blueberry (Vaccinium angustifolium Ait.) is a unique crop native to Northeastern North America
with annual production of 82 million kg of fruit (market price around $352 million) covering an
area of 79,000 ha. Wild blueberry felds are developed from native stands on deforested farmland
by removing competing vegetation (Eaton, 1988). The majority of felds are situated in naturally
acidic soils that are low in nutrients and have high proportions of bare spots, weed patches and
gentle to severe topography (Trevett, 1962; Zaman et al., 2008). This crop is perennial in nature,
having a vegetative growth season (sprout year) followed by a productive season (fruit year).
Considerable spatial variability of fruit yield occurs in wild blueberry felds, originating primarily
from, signifcant bare spots, weed patches, variable plant sizes, and soil limitations. There is
increasing interest by growers to manage these variable felds site-specifcally using variable rate
technology, potentially resulting in more effcient use of inputs, increased yields, and preventing
environmental pollution by excess agrochemicals.
Wild blueberries are low input systems with narrow optimal window of plant nutrients; detrimental
effects on excess N occur when too much N is applied (i.e. lowers foral bud numbers and harvestable
yields). Unnecessary or over-fertilization in both bare spots and weed patches may also deteriorate
water quality, promote increased weed growth and reduce proft. Under-fertilization restricts yield
and can reduce berry quality (Percival and Sanderson, 2004). Yield maps along with topography and
soil nutrient maps could be used to develop precise site-specifc nutrition programs for wild blueberry
production. Malay (2000) developed a yield monitoring system for blueberries using optical
sensors. The limitations of this system were that the debris common to blueberry harvest, including
sticks, grass, and rocks, affected the accuracy of the CERES II yield monitor (R.D.S Technology,
Gloucester, UK) used as an optical sensor and caused overestimation. Wild blueberries are fragile
when harvested, and mechanical sensing devices can harm the berries and reduce their quality and
marketability. In addition, load cells are impractical to use because they are diffcult to mount on the
belt, as the conveyor system is sealed to reduce berry loss and damage (Swinkles, 2007). Zaman et
al. (2006) estimated citrus fruit yield using ultrasonically-sensed tree canopy volume. An airborne
hyperspectral imagery system could also be used to estimate fruit yield variability (Young et al.,
2003). However, the system was expensive and data processing was complicated.
A low-cost yield mapping system may be possible with the addition of photographic yield sensors
on blueberry harvesters, estimating fruit yield on the ground just ahead of harvesting. Several
studies have concentrated on camera-based, non-destructive, indirect fruit yield estimation and
mapping (Annamalai et al., 2004). A complete real-time wild blueberry fruit yield mapping system
would use a DGPS receiver for ground speed sensing and adjustment, and, together with position
coordinates and digital color camera data, for the continuous calculation and storage of fruit yield
data. Moreover, the performance of camera and DGPS should be continuously monitored during
the measurement process. Therefore, this study was designed to:
1. Develop an automated yield monitoring and mapping system (hardware and software) interface
solution for real-time fruit yield estimation for wild blueberry.
2. Evaluate the accuracy of the system to measure and map fruit yield in commercial wild blueberry
felds.
Principle for yield estimation
The wild blueberry fruit yield estimation was carried out just before harvesting during the fruit
year of the crop cycle. Commercially available a 10-mega pixel, 24-bit digital color camera (Canon
Canada Inc., Mississauga, ON, Canada) (Canon Inc.) was used to acquire images of the matured
fruits. The system estimated the yield of wild blueberry as the percentage blue pixel present in
each image. Underlined principle is to mask out blue color fruits from rest of the plant material
through the software. The percentage blue pixel is determined by no. of blue pixel index (BPI)
pixels in the images.
(1)
(2)
Where, BPI: Blue Pixel Index for the image, (threshold 75); Blue, Green, Red: Digital values
for blue, green and red spectral bands, respectively.
Methodology
Farm motorized vehicle (FMV)
An automated yield monitoring and mapping system (AYMMS) was developed and mounted on
a specially designed Farm Motorized Vehicle (FMV), (Figure 1). The FMV was assembled using
locally available materials and parts to optimize the total system cost. The 190 cc engine (Honda
Inc., Nova Scotia, Canada) of FMV is capable to generate 6 hp with a maximum rpm of 3,600.
The slim bicycle wheels of FMV will cause little or negligible damage to crop during operation in
the feld. The vehicle direction and speed is controlled at the handle mounted at the center of front
pair of wheels. The gasoline engine with a chain-sprocket power transmission system provides
the required power to the vehicles. The vehicle can travel at 0-10 km/h, which can be monitored
profit. Under-fertilization restricts yield and can reduce berry quality (Percival and Sanderson,
2004). Yield maps along with topography and soil nutrient maps could be used to develop
precise site-specific nutrition programs for wild blueberry production. Malay (2000)
developed a yield monitoring system for blueberries using optical sensors. The limitations of
this system were that the debris common to blueberry harvest, including sticks, grass, and
rocks, affected the accuracy of the CERES II yield monitor (R.D.S Technology, Gloucester,
U.K.) used as an optical sensor and caused overestimation. Wild blueberries are fragile when
harvested, and mechanical sensing devices can harm the berries and reduce their quality and
marketability. In addition, load cells are impractical to use because they are difficult to mount
on the belt, as the conveyor system is sealed to reduce berry loss and damage (Swinkles,
2007). Zaman et al. (2006) estimated citrus fruit yield using ultrasonically-sensed tree canopy
volume. An airborne hyperspectral imagery system could also be used to estimate fruit yield
variability (Young et al., 2003). However, the system was expensive and data processing was
complicated.
A low-cost yield mapping system may be possible with the addition of photographic yield
sensors on blueberry harvesters, estimating fruit yield on the ground just ahead of harvesting.
Several studies have concentrated on camera-based, non-destructive, indirect fruit yield
estimation and mapping (Annamalai et al., 2004). A complete real-time wild blueberry fruit
yield mapping system would use a DGPS receiver for ground speed sensing and adjustment,
and, together with position coordinates and digital color camera data, for the continuous
calculation and storage of fruit yield data. Moreover, the performance of camera and DGPS
should be continuously monitored during the measurement process. Therefore, this study was
designed to:
(i) Develop an automated yield monitoring and mapping system (hardware and
software) interface solution for real-time fruit yield estimation for wild blueberry,
(ii) Evaluate the accuracy of the system to measure and map fruit yield in commercial
wild blueberry fields.

Principle for Yield Estimation

The wild blueberry fruit yield estimation was carried out just before harvesting during the
fruit year of the crop cycle. Commercially available a 10-mega pixel, 24-bit digital color
camera (Canon Canada Inc., Mississauga, ON, Canada) (Canon Inc.) was used to acquire
images of the matured fruits. The system estimated the yield of wild blueberry as the
percentage blue pixel present in each image. Underlined principle is to mask out blue color
fruits from rest of the plant material through the software. The percentage blue pixel is
determined by no. of blue pixel index (BPI) pixels in the images.

BPI = 255
Re
x
d Green Blue
Blue

+ +
(1)
% BPI = 100 x
s Totalpixel
pixels BPI
(2)

Where, BPI: Blue Pixel Index for the image, (threshold 75); Blue, Green, Red : Digital
values for blue, green and red spectral bands, respectively.

Methodology

Farm motorized vehicle (FMV)
from an in-built speedometer mounted near the operator. Special arrangement was made to mount
the laptop on the vehicle. The DGPS antenna can be mounted at centre of the vehicle as well as
at the front of the vehicle.
AYMMS System
Hardware components:The AYMMS consists of a 10-mega pixel, 24-bit digital color camera
(Canon Canada Inc., Mississauga, ON, Canada), Trimble Ag GPS 332 (Trimble Navigation Limited,
Sunnyvale, CA) for geo-referencing and a laptop (Dell Canada Inc., ON, Canada) computer. The
camera was mounted at the front of the vehicle, pointing downward at a height of 1.5 m with a clear
view of the ground. The DGPS antenna was mounted above the camera to provide GPS coordinates
of the central pixel in the image. The large no. of images from the camera were transferred
continuously to a 1.4 GHz laptop computer instead of using the limited memory space of the camera
on the FMV through a RS232 communication cable (9600, 8, n, 1), routed through the DGPS. The
DGPS position data were simultaneously transmitted (merged) to the laptop RS-232 port at 1 Hz,
using the National Marine Electronics Association (NMEA-0183) standard RMC code sentences.
Software development: Custom image processing software was developed in Delphi 5.0 (Borland
Software Corp., Scotts Valley, CA) (Camera interface) and C (BPI estimation) programming
languages for a 32-bit Windows operating system (Microsoft Corp., Redmond, WA), to estimate
the blue pixels representing ripe fruit in the feld of view of each image and expressed them as
a percentage of total image pixels. The remote camera interface (Figure 2) collected the GPS
readings (x, y coordinates) and ground images, simultaneously, to record in the laptop through
a RS-232 communication cable. Every second (1Hz), DGPS coordinates from the previous and
the current DGPS output were converted to decimal degrees averaged, offset and automatically
estimate the timing for next image acquisition. The distance offset was calculated with Universal
Transverse Mercator (UTM) projected coordinates by utilizing the ProLat UTM (Effective Objective,
Issaquah, WA) program function. The UTM projection was selected because it produces a fat grid
of geometrically correct Cartesian ground coordinates in meters. The ground speed (in knots) was
parsed from the DGPS string and converted to metric units, using speed (m/s) = 0.51444 speed
(knots). Ground speed was also averaged for every adjacent coordinate pair, and saved to a MS-
Access database table.

Figure 1: Farm Motorized Vehicle (FMV) mounted with AYMMS
(1-GPS Antenna, 2-Digital camera, 3-Laptop, 4-GPS Receiver)

3
4
1
2
Figure 1. Farm Motorized Vehicle (FMV) mounted with AYMMS (1-GPS Antenna, 2-Digital
camera, 3-Laptop, 4-GPS Receiver).
Real-time % BPI and yield estimations were carried out using the linear regression model developed
in C programming environment. The estimated yield per image feld of view along with geo-
referenced coordinates was imported into ArcView 3.2 GIS (ESRI, Redlands, Calif., USA) for
further processing.
AYMMS system calibration
Two wild blueberry felds were selected in central Nova Scotia to evaluate the performance of
the automated yield monitoring system. The selected felds were termed as Debert (feld 1) site
(45.4418
0
N 63.4496
0
W) and Cattle (feld 2) site (45.3643
0
N 63.2121
0
W). Both felds were in
their fruit year of the biennial crop production cycle in 2008, having been in the vegetative sprout
year in 2007. Fields have been under commercial management over the past decade and have
received biennial pruning by mowing for the past several years along with conventional fertilizer,
weed, and disease management practices. Fruit samples were collected by hand-harvesting out of
the 0.50.5 m quadrat, using hand raking. Blueberries were separated from debris including leaves,
grass and weeds for each sample and weighed at the time of harvest. The images were taken using
the AYMMS setup at height of 1.5 m placing the quadrat at the center of each selected data point
in both felds. The quadrat portion of the image was masked out and % BPI was estimated using
the custom software (Figure 3). Calibration was carried out at randomly selected 38 data points
(19 each) in the two wild blueberry felds.
Linear regression was used to calibrate the ripe fruit yield with percentage blue pixels separately
in each feld and then the calibration equation of feld 1 was used to predict fruit yield in feld 2 for
validation of the method. Calibration and validation of regression equations/models, coeffcient of
determination (R
2
) was calculated with SAS (SAS Institute, Cary, N.C.) software. The paired (blue
pixel ratio and fruit yield) data in blueberry plant areas were used to develop and validate the model.

Figure 2: Software interface for AYMMS in Delphi5.0
Figure 2. Software interface for AYMMS in Delphi5.0
Real-time performance test
The performance of the new software and hardware of AYMMS was assessed by surveying the two
felds 0.75 ha and 0.2 ha respectively. Target ground speed, monitored on the main software screen
during the surveys (Figure 2), was 0.5 m/s. Real-time yield mapping was carried out by acquiring
images with AYMMS on the moving FMV at a spacing of 1.1 m. The software was capable to
process the image to estimate the percentage blue pixels (% BPI) for the wild blueberry feld in
real-time. In order to assess the accuracy of AYMMS, we correlated the % BPI of each image with
manually harvested actual fruit yield from the selected quadrates in both felds. The foam marker
was used for guidance to minimize the error caused by overlapping the images. Variations in the
natural sky illumination (sunny or cloudy) did not affect the quality of the image processing result
and consequently the correlation of blue pixels with fruit yield (Zaman et al., 2008). Camera was
set as 1/1000 for exposure and auto for other specifcations including ISO during the mapping
under sunny condition. The Kriging technique was used to interpolate the fruit yield data as estimated
from the quadrat in each feld. The estimated fruit yield of each feld was mapped in ArcView 3.2
GIS. The bare spot map of the blueberry felds were developed with a handheld ProMark3 (Thales
Navigation Inc., ON, Canada) mobile mapper GPS unit.
The blue pixel ratio, representing the percentage of blue pixels in the harvested quadrat region
of each image in both felds was calculated with custom software. Linear regression was used to
calibrate the fruit yield with percentage blue pixels separately in each feld and then the calibration
equation of feld 1 was used to predict fruit yield in feld 2 for validation of the method. Percentage
blue pixels correlated highly signifcantly with manually harvested fruit yield in feld 1 (R
2
=0.897;
P<0.001) and feld 2 (R
2
=0.968; P<0.001) (Figure 4). The correlation between actual and predicted
fruit yield in the second feld (validation) was also highly signifcant (R
2
=0.967; P<0.001) (Figure
5). It is noteworthy that feld 2 (validation) was completely spatially and temporally independent
from feld 1 (calibration), which increases the confdence in these results. The results suggest that
the AYMMS could be used for estimating fruit yield in wild blueberry felds. The slight bias can be
seen in the scatter plots (Figure 5), where fruit yield was over-estimated, and under-estimated. These
biases were probably from cumulative error terms (Total), some of which are listed in Equation 3.
Total
=
Vm
+
Vl
+
B
(3)
Where: = error term; vm = underestimated in the areas where vegetation was more and berries
were hidden under leaves; vi = overestimated where the vegetation was less or negligible and mostly
berries were exposed to the camera; B = error caused by the black colored berries.

Figure 3: Calibration using a quadrat, a) Image with quadrat, b) Masked image, c) BPI image

(a)
(b)
(c)
Figure 3. Calibration using a quadrat: (a) image with quadrat, (b) masked image, (c) BPI image.
The 6,348 georeferenced images were taken on August 15 and 18, 2008 with AYMMS, at a mean
speed of 0.5 m/s, for 4.408 hours to complete the survey of 0.95 ha (0.22 ha/h). The %BPI varied
from 0 (bare spots) to 14.7% and 0 to 10.2% in feld 1 and feld 2, respectively (Figure 4). The
zero blue pixel ratios were due to bare spots or weeds (no blueberry plants) within blueberry felds.
The bare spot areas varied from 30% to 50% of the total feld area and were scattered throughout
the felds (Zaman et al., 2008). Blueberry fruit yield was also highly variable in feld 1 and feld 2,
and ranged from 0 (bare spots) to 5.62 t/ha and 0 to 6.17 t/ha, respectively (Figure 5). The results
showing the substantial variability in fruit yield and presence of unplanted bare spots within
blueberry felds that emphasize the need for site-specifc agrochemical applications to increase
fruit yield, farm proftability, and reduce environmental risks.
The maps of bare spot and fruit yield were placed side by side to examine the relationship between
bare spots and fruit yield (Figure 6). Due to space constraints, only the map of feld 1 is discussed
here (Figure 6). The fruit yield and bare spot maps display that the fruit yield and bare spots in
the feld coincided with each other. Bare spots were located mainly in the boundaries of the feld
and associated with zero or low yield. Low yield was because of presence of negligible amounts
of blueberry plants. The high yielding areas were clustered with healthy blueberry plants and
scattered at the center of the feld. The similar spatial patterns in bare spots and fruit yield within
y = 1.5186x
R
2
= 0.8971
n=19
0
5
10
15
20
25
0 3 6 9 12 15
% BPI
F
r
u
i
t

y
i
e
l
d
,

t
/
h
a
y = 2.1152x
R
2
= 0.9687
n=19
0
5
10
15
20
25
0 3 6 9 12
% BPI
F
r
u
i
t

y
i
e
l
d
,

t
/
h
a

(a) (b)

Figure 4: Fruit yield calibration curve, (a) field 1, (b) field 2
Figure 4. Fruit yield calibration curve, (a) feld 1, (b) feld 2.
R
2
= 0.9670
n=19
0
3
6
9
12
15
18
0 5 10 15 20 25
Actual yield, t/ha
P
r
e
d
i
c
t
e
d

y
i
e
l
d
,

t
/
h
a

Figure 5: Validation of fruit yield estimation model
Figure 5. Validation of fruit yield estimation model.
this grove could be useful to develop prescription maps for variable application of agrochemicals
in the orchards. The practical implication of uniform applications in wild blueberry felds is to over-
fertilize/spray or under-fertilize/spray in large areas. Unnecessary or over-fertilization in both bare
spots and weed patches can deteriorate water quality, promote increased weed growth and reduce
proft. Similarly, over-spraying in just blueberry plant areas and bare spots may affect air quality
and increase production cost. Zaman et al. (2005) saved 40% fertilizer with variable rate (VR)
fertilization as compared to the growers uniform rate in a Florida citrus orchard. Hence, variable
rate application of agrochemicals based on considerable variation in fruit yield, bare spots, and
weed patches could improve farm proftability and reduce environmental impacts.
Conclusions
There was signifcant correlation between percentage blue pixels and actual fruit yield in feld 1
(R
2
=0.90; P<0.001) and feld 2 (R
2
=0.97; P<0.001).The correlation between actual and predicted
fruit yield in feld 2 (validation) also was highly signifcant (R
2
=0.97; P<0.001). Fruit yield maps
showed substantial variation within the both felds. It can be concluded that there is a real potential
to estimate and map fruit yield and detect blueberry plants and bare spots with automated yield
monitoring system within wild blueberry felds. This information could be used to implement site-
specifc management practices within the blueberry felds to optimize productivity while minimizing
the environmental impact of farming operations.
Reference
Annamalai, P., Lee, W.S. and Burks, T., 2004. Color vision systems for estimating citrus yield in real-time.
ASAE Paper No. 043054. St. Joseph, Mich.: ASAE.
Eaton, L.J. 1988. Nitrogen cycling in lowbush blueberry stands. PhD diss. Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada:
Dalhousie University.
Malay, W.J., 2000. Evaluation of a CERES II yield monitor for wild blueberries: Abstract and introduction. In
Spatial Variability and Yield Monitor Evaluation for Carrots and Wild Blueberries, MS Thesis, Dalhousie
University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. pp. 114-115,
Percival, D.C. and Sanderson, K.R., 2004. Main and interactive effects of vegetative-year applications of
nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium fertilizers on the wild blueberry, Small Fruits Review, 3(1-2):105-121.

(a) (b)

Figure 6: Validation of AYMMS, a) yield map for field 1, b) bare spot map, of the study area

1
2
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 Meters
N
E W
S
Bare spot
1
2
Figure 6. Validation of AYMMS: (a) yield map for feld 1, (b) bare spot map, of the study area.
SAS Institute Inc., 1995. Statistical Discovery Software JMP Statistics and Graphics. Copyright 1995 by
SAS Institute Inc. NC, USA.
Swinkels, P., 2007. Personal communication. Production manager, Dough Bragg enterprises, Collingwood,
Nova Scotia, Canada.
Trevett, M.F., 1962. Nutrition and growth of the lowbush blueberry.Bulletin 605. Orono, Maine: Maine
Agricultural Research Station.
Young, C., Everitt, J., Bradford, J. and Murden, D., 2003. Airborne hyperspectral imagery and yield monitoring
data for estimating grain sorghum yield variability, Transactions of the 47(3):915-924.
Zaman, Q.U., Schumann, A.W., and Miller, W.M., 2005. Variable-rate nitrogen application in Florida citrus
based on ultrasonically sensed tree size. Applied Engineering in Agriculture, 21(3):331-335.
Zaman, Q.U., Schumann, A.W., and Shibusawa, S., 2006. Impact of variable-rate fertilization on nitrate leaching
in citrus orchads. In Proc. 8
th
Intl. Conf. on Precision Agric. St. Paul, Minn.: University of Minnesota
Precision Agriculture Center.
Zaman, Q.U., Schumann, A.W., Percival, D.C. and Gordon, R.J., 2008. Estimation of wild blueberry fruit yield
using digital color photography, Trans. of ASABE, 51(5):1539-1544.
Development and frst tests of a farm monitoring system
based on a client-server technology
F. Mazzetto, A. Calcante and F. Salomoni
University of Milan, Department of Agricultural Engineering, via Celoria 2, 20133 Milan, Italy;
fabio.salomoni@unimi.it
Abstract
Its a common knowledge that farm operations monitoring must be considered the starting point to
realize a complete and integrated Precision Agriculture system. Therefore, it is necessary to collect
the actors taking part to the event and the physical effects related to it. For each feld process, it
is essential to know: (a) what is happened; (b) where the event has been carried out; (c) who is
involved in the event; (d) what and how many productive factors have been employed. An approach
that can meet these goals is now offered by the so-called Precision Agriculture, which should
not be considered only as the ability to automatically manage individual mechanized operations,
but as the real attitude to apply advanced forms of farm management. This paper describes the
construction and frst tests of an automatic monitoring system dedicated to farms, based on a client-
server logical with real time data download. To this aim, each farm tractor and/or self-propelled is
equipped with a datalogger with GPS and connected to sensors that can measure main operating
parameters. An internal GPRS modem downloads data on the farm server in real time. The resulting
database is integrated through additional data from weather unit, milking room, level sensors on
slurry storage tank. In this way, the operational component of the Farm Information System (FIS)
is realized, and it allows the total operating and environmental monitoring through the control of
input (slurry, fertilizers, pesticides) and products (crops, milk) fows.
Keywords: operating monitoring, slurry manure distribution, farm information system, feld
dataloggers, precision agriculture
Introduction
Modern agriculture has to face the economic, social and environmental contexts rapidly developing
that require technological innovations primarily to allow (Mazzetto, 2007): (a) the realization of
cropping systems with low environmental impact and low cost, (b) the introduction of advanced
management forms in order to optimize productivity and reduce production costs, (c) the production
of documentation to obtain a complete traceability for consumers and environmental protecting.
It is a common knowledge that farm operations monitoring must be considered the starting point to
realize a complete and integrated PA system. Therefore, it is necessary to collect the actors taking
part to the event and physical effects related to it. For each feld process, it is essential to know:
(a) what is happened; (b) where the event has been carried out; (c) who is involved in the event;
(d) what and how many productive factors have been employed. In modern precision agriculture
a primary issue is to manage agricultural systems environment optimally in order to comply with
the economic and environmental requirements (Wang, 2006).
A better management of organic nutrients can reduce costs associated with synthetic fertilizers,
but it especially allows to provide an objective documentation of the distributed quantities. In
addition, plots have variable yield depending on the soil type and other characteristics, and this also
determines nutrient variables needs (Morris et al., 1999); an approach that can meet these goals
is now offered by the so-called Precision Agriculture (PA), which should not be seen only as the
ability to manage automatically any mechanized operation, but as a real ability to apply advanced
forms of agricultural management.
A typical use of PA is the control and management of production spatial variability according to
site-specifc criteria, especially in reference to the ability to track and automate the distribution rates.
The greatest resistances encountered both abroad and in Italy in technology AP diffusion are
due to the diffculty in the use of information technology in agricultural farms (Mazzetto, 2007).
Certainly, a full and proper use of PA logic can not exclude a prior farm computerizing, which
should be frst provided for the introduction in the farm of advanced technologies that facilitate the
maximum automation in the data collection phases, especially towards the operating monitoring
through the implementation of Field Dataloggers (FDL). While the importance of these principles
has long been recognized among farmers, their practical application has not yet occurred, except
for very limited cases, partly because of technical limitations. In fact, solutions for the management
of each specifc site and user-friendly software suitable for data interpretation have only recently
been commercially available.
The Department of Agricultural Engineering of Milan is involved in the development of farm
monitoring systems from many years. In particular, it faces both hardware and software aspects,
such as the identifcation of the most suitable technological solutions (sensors, communication bus,
positioning systems), and the realization of a database based on the technology of the so called
Field Datalogger (Mazzetto et al., 1997, 2005).
In the recent years, Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) have been under rapid development; they
integrate sensor technology, embedded computing technology, distributed information management
technology and wireless communication technology. The latter includes simple IrDA which uses
infrared light for short-range, point-to-point communications, Wireless Personal Area Network
(WPAN) for short range, point-to-multi-point communications (such as Bluetooth and ZigBee),
mid-range, multi-hop Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN), long-distance cellular phone systems,
such as GSM/GPRS. Thus, it is expected that WSN will commonly be used for applications in
consumer electronics, PC peripherals, home automation, home security, personal healthcare, toys
and games, industrial control and monitoring, asset and inventory tracking, intelligent agriculture,
and so on (Xuemei, 2008). The work described in this paper, has his strength in the client-server
logical with data download through the farm network in real time.
It relieves the farm management from tasks due to data collecting and transfer on support platforms
(memory cards, handhelds), automating a certainly critical and often unreliable stage. In short,
each tractor and/or self-propelled (client) is equipped with a datalogger with GPS and connected
to sensors that can measure main operating parameters. An internal GPRS modem downloads data
in real time on the farm server. The resulting database is integrated by additional data from weather
unit, milking room, level sensors on slurry storage tank.
If, until now, the only wireless applications provide simple information exchange systems (receiver
transmitter devices, mobile phones), the farm extension and the distribution of production structures
on the territory are forcing farmers to adopt systems (Voice + Data) for the monitoring and remote
control of the various farm components, thus achieving a true farm networks (Thysen, 2000).
Deployment of wireless sensors and sensor networks in agriculture and food industry is still at
the beginning stage. Their applications can be classifed into fve categories: (1) environmental
monitoring (weather monitoring, geo-referenced environmental monitoring); (2) precision
agriculture (spatial data collection, variable-rate technology, precision irrigation, supplying data
to farmers); (3) machine and process control (vehicle guidance, machinery management, robotic
control, process control); (4) building and facility automation (greenhouse control, animal-feeding
facilities), and (5) traceability systems (animal identifcation and health monitoring, food packaging,
transportation, food inspection).
In general, a farm network can be considered, according to a geographical classifcation, as a
WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network) or a local area network systems based on wireless (Wi-Fi:
IEEE 802.11) and nodes repeaters that can transfer data and information all over the farm (Vellidis
et al., 2007).
When the enterprise is too extended and, consequently, certain specifc activities fall outside the
WLAN, it is necessary to extend the farm network through the implementation of a higher-level
network (WAN, Wide Area Network) based on GSM (or GPRS, if data transfer is necessary). In
this case you must provide an appropriate gateway for the connection both between the various
farm devices and internet.
If, in order to implement a WAN, GSM and GPRS technologies are more than tested, it is not the
same about WLAN components. In fact, Wi-Fi does not seems, at present, useful to implement a
farm network because of its high complexity, cost, and power demands for transmission. Technology
usually used to realize WPAN (Wireless Personal Area Network) is more interesting; it includes
Bluetooth, UWB (Ultra Wide Band) and ZigBee systems, whose main characteristics are briefy
described and compared in Table 1. Generally, ZigBee, whose standard (802.15.4) was released in
2003, is particularly appropriate to the implementation of WLAN as it permits to cover transmission
range of more than 100 m (up to 500 m in open feld with amplifed antenna) with low energy
consumption. Both Bluetooth and UWB arecharacterized by a short transmission range (<10 m),
and they dont appear, at the time, suitable technologies for a farm network implementation.
In conclusion, a farm net is the combinated result of many increasing level networks, each built and
optimized according to the size and speed of data exchange and the radius of coverage requested.
The system installed at the Farm A. Menozzi, located in Landriano (Pavia -Italy) is based on a mixed
farm network (ZigBee + TCP/IP) connected in real time to a central server. At present, data fows
cover only the operating monitoring, referring in particular to mechanized feld activities (tractors
and self-propelled) and to the measurement of the slurry level in storage tanks.
About the monitoring of spreading activities, solutions based on Tractor-oriented architecture were
used in order to facilitate the establishment of networks for data acquisition more fexible and
modular, and, ultimately, also extensible to all other operational areas (tillage, treatments, harvest,
etc.). This solution, however, requires identifcation systems for coupled machinery in order to
enable the automatic recognition of operations carried out (automatic recognition system). To this
aim, solutions based on ZigBee architecture are used. They are equipped with vibration sensors to
activate data acquisition only when Operating Machines (O.M.) are coupled.
Table 1. Comparison between wireless technologies (AA.VV., 2006).
Feature Wi-Fi Bluetooth ZigBee UWB
Frequency 2.4-5 GHz 2.4 GHz 2.4 GHz 3.1-10.6 GHz
Data rate 11-54 Mbit/s 1 Mbit/s 20-250 kbit/s 100-500 Mbit/s
Range (m) 50-100 10 50-100 10
Net complexity Very complex Very complex Simple Complex
Battery life Hours 1 week >1 year Months
Applications WLAN, data
transfer, Internet
connection, etc.
PC peripherals,
mobile phones
accessories, etc.
Control devices
and environments,
domotic, sensor
networks, medical
equipment, etc.
Telemetry,
pictures and
movies transfer,
etc.
So, each tractor is equipped with a datalogger (Figure 1A) able to acquire: (a) the position and speed
of the vehicle through the GPS receiver, (b) the number of revolutions of the engine, 9c) exhaust
gas temperature (necessary to estimate fuel consumption), (d) the PTO graft.
In order to allow the identifcation of the O.M. when it is coupled to the tractor, each O.M. has a
ZigBee transmitter whose activation is regulated by an accelerometer sensitive to 10
-3
g (Figure
1B). The movement of the machine allows every 20 s the transmission both of a progressive
code and of O.M.s ID (unique).
Each mechanized yard, in fact, is the WLAN part of the farm network. In order to allow the data
download in real time on the central server, each tractor is connected at intervals of 10 seconds
to a TCP / IP network via GPRS modem (maximum speed: 64 kbit/s).
Another system was produced to monitor slurry fows; it uses an ultrasonic sensor to continuously
measure the level in storage tanks (Figure 2A and 2B). The system is powered by the 220 V
electricity network of the farm. Also in this case, the data transmission occurred in real time via
GPRS modem. The data transfer from vehicle and tanks to the central server, therefore, is obtained
by the farm WAN.
On the farm server, the data receiving application includes a software component allowing the
creation of multiple connections on TCP/IP stack. It ensure, on a set port, if there are calls from
different devices; when a vehicle/device is connected to the port, the server enables the connection
and allows the data download. On that port simultaneous connections may be opened up to a
maximum of 128 (the limit is due to the specifc software component).
1

Figure 1 A) Datalogger on tractors. (a) GPS + GPRS modem, (b) ZigBee module, (c) sensors
card. B) ZigBee Transmitter on O.M., (d) accelerometer, (e) lithium battery

Figure 1. (A) Datalogger on tractors. (a) GPS + GPRS modem, (b) ZigBee module, (c) sensors
card. (B) ZigBee Transmitter on O.M., (d) accelerometer, (e) lithium battery.
2

Figure.2 A) Tank level monitoring system. (a) Ultrasonic sensor; (b) GPRS modem;(c) A/D
converter. B) The structure mounted on slurry tanks.

Figure 2. (A) Tank level monitoring system. (a) Ultrasonic sensor; (b) GPRS modem;(c) A/D
converter. (B) The structure mounted on slurry tanks.
The data fow from each connection is managed by the server and data are stored on a local database.
So structured data are ready to be displayed on a map or processed through dedicated software.
Finally, the stable and the weather unit (the Menozzi farm is a station of the Regional Agency for
Environmental Protection), will be connected to the server using the pre-existing Internet wiring.
At present, monitoring systems have been installed on all fve tractors of the farm (power between
30 and 100 kW) and upon the two storage tanks (capacity: 800 m
3
each.), and all O.M. are equipped
with ZigBee code transmitters. Tests are still ongoing, and they are designed to determine: (a) the
reliability of the network connection (both WAN, and Internet), (b) the sensors effciency (both
level and on board tractor sensors), and (c) the correspondence between what is recorded by the
monitoring systems and what really happened, through direct observations of different operations.
The verifcation of hardware and software structures involved two different levels: one, in real time,
relating to the monitoring systems, and another one, fner, for the detailed analysis of the operations
performed. Via Internet remote connection is possible to contact the farm server and monitoring
in real-time the status of different units and/or recording their position on a georeferenced map.
For each registration unit, through remote connection, the download of relevant data is possible,
as well as the detailed analysis on the operations carried out. To this aim some graphical user
interfaces have been developed: (a) the client application FleetMonitoring ver. 2.1.0 that can display
on digital map (e.g. aerial photos georeferenced or Regional Technical Map) the entire layout of
a specifc work (Figure 3A) and establish, through queries to the database, synthesis report with
a high degree of detail reaching the individual feld transaction and mark on a chart the trend of
sensors on board the tractor; (b) the StorEyes ver. 1:02 application that allows to track the level of
slurry in storage tanks and to analyze events of flling and emptying by measuring the in and out
slurry fow (Figure 3B). Through these applications manual records of slurry spreading operations,
conducted during the period between April 2007 and May 2008 (Table 2), were compared to events
recorded by the monitoring system in the same period. The objective of the comparison was the
quality verifcation, on three levels, of data recorded by the monitoring system. The frst crucial
level, is the capability whether or not to detect the events of the removal from slurry storage tanks;
secondly, the comparison was conducted to verify if values obtained calculating the removed
amounts recorded by the system corresponded to the truth; fnally tracks obtained through the
prototypes placed on tractors were analyzed to fnd out if they allow the identifcation of the plots
where distributions occurred.
3

Figure 3. Examples: (A) layout of a spreading on georeferenced aerial photos (B) flow of
slurry out of a storage tank.

Figure 3. Examples: (A) layout of a spreading on georeferenced aerial photos (B) fow of slurry
out of a storage tank.
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.
Twenty-three slurry spreadings activities were manually recorded, in particular, 16 activities (70%)
were correctly recognized as reductions in the levels in storage tanks, while 7 were not recorded
on the server as concentrated in two periods (November 2007 and March 2008) during which
there were serious data transmission problems to the server with consequent loss of information.
Presumably, these seven operations were detected but data were lost during the transfer to the
server, for the reasons described below, and therefore there is not the opportunity to conduct further
analysis on them.
Among the 16 recognized events, in 12 cases data of the amount of slurry taken from tanks reported
by monitoring system matched with those manually recorded (a maximum deviation of 15% was
considered acceptable); in the other four cases, although a decrease in the level was identifed,
there is no correlation between the quantities.
As regards the identifcation of parcels where the spreadings occurred, in 12 cases it was possible
to identify precisely the plot involved, while in the remaining 4, tracks obtained were incomplete
or diffcult to understand.
In summary, 9 out of 16 events (56%) were fully identifed by the monitoring system, and this
allowed, after reported the removal of slurry, to identify both the amount charged and the plot
where the distribution occured.
In 6 cases, however, the spreading activity was certainly reported, but data recorded were not
completed because of the absence of the proper amounts (3 cases) or because the track was not
useful to the recognition of parcel (3 cases).
On one occasion, unfortunately, it has not been possible to obtain any operating detail of the
spreading executed, although the system has clearly identifed the drawing from storage tanks.
From the analysis of the quantities of distributed slurry by the farm in one year (from May, 1 2007
to April, 30 2008, in this case), we note that the deviation between the amount manually recorded
(2,337 m
3
) and the calculated one by the monitoring system (2,190 m
3
) is only 6.7%.
Starting from these values, using a cattle slurry average nitrogen content of 3.5 and knowing the
farm size, 62 ha, the average nitrogen amount distributed per hectare was estimated. It is 132 kg
according to manual relieves, whereas it is 124 kg according to automatically recorded data. Both
in the two cases, the amount of nitrogen distributed is in accordance with current law.
Conclusions
As regards monitoring systems equipped on board tractors and on slurry storage tanks, they are
suffciently reliable. It remains to achieve a further engineering effort to minimize the risk of
failure and/or broken, especially for systems mounted on the vehicles in motion (more subject to
vibration, voltage overload, etc.).
The loss of data described above, although in itself negative, allowed to identify a weakness in the
data transmission system and to implement the necessary technical changes that have undoubtedly
improved its reliability. Currently the farm network appears to be quite stable: problems causing
the loss of data had to be counted against the interruption of the TCP/IP service from the phone
company. In these conditions the data fow to the server was interrupted, dropping, in fact, the
internet connection and the data transmission via GPRS. In order to minimize this problem, memory
buffers were integrated in the monitoring systems; they act as temporary memory storage in case
of core network suspension, and they are emptied when the transmission to the server is restored.
This solution, potentially solves problems causing to the loss of data; it allows to focus the attention
on those events that the server saved, in this way the quality of the information obtained can be
considered satisfactory.
Only in one case (6.25% of total) the information obtained cannot be considered satisfactory, in
fact, although the event of uptake has been precisely identifed, it was not possible to recognize or
where the plot was, nor the quantity taken.
However, the obtained information is high-quality in 56.25% of cases, allowing the identifcation
of any operational details. In all the other events the information obtained was partial but, however,
positive: any event has been recognized, and it has been identifed or the slurry distributed amount
or the parcel involved in the feld operation.
Finally, considering the total quantity of slurry distributed for agronomic uses during one year
(beginning May, 1 2007) the deviation of 6.7%, between the amount based on manually collected
data and those automatically acquired, can be considered satisfactory.
It still remains to complete graphical interfaces for the access to the database and to connect
the weather unit and the computer of the milking room to the farm server, in order to allow the
automatic data download.
Looking ahead, the logical client-server and his ability to customize the type of network basing
on the territorial scale make the proposed architecture very interesting. It is possible to think or
to a network entirely based on wireless technology in small farms, or a mixed network, as in the
case analyzed, up to a huge network that also implements web-services to meet, for example,
environmental monitoring requirements by over-farm control authorities or operating monitoring
for contractors companies.
To this aim the Metamorfosi project is on progress; it uses the above described technologies, and it
has among its objectives the establishment of an information system on a territorial basis in order to
achieve an objective and comprehensive monitoring of the activities of livestock manure spreading.
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agriculture. In: Proceedings 6
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Agri yield management: practical solutions for proftable
and sustainable agriculture based on advanced technology
J. Hadders, J.W.M. Hadders and P. Raatjes
Dacom B.V., P.O. Box 2243, 7801 CE Emmen, the Netherlands; Janneke@dacom.nl
Abstract
The globally increasing demand for food and crops for bio fuels is outpacing the agricultural
production capacity. Farm input costs are related to the ever rising costs of energy, forcing the
economic need to minimize inputs for crop production. Environmental concerns and the availability
of usable irrigation water put pressure on sustainable crop production. Growing more food with
fewer resources poses a great challenge for the agricultural sector. Agri Yield Management (AYM)
systems provide the farmer with the necessary tools to achieve this goal. This paper will explain
how AYM systems can contribute to provide a solution to grow more food with fewer recourses.
This will be done by an explanation of the AYM system developed by Dacom in the Netherlands.
This system makes use of advanced technologies like intelligent sensors, internet and GPS. Software
combines the collected information into practical solutions that supports the farmer in his daily
operations. This AYM system is unique because it integrates multiple aspects of the crop production
such as water, chemicals and fertilizer in relation to the yield. Precision timing and using the right
product has proven to be proftable through the years. Challenges are the real-time collection of
reliable crop environment information and methods for adaptation of these innovative systems by
farmers to change from traditional practices to new AYM methods.
Keywords: sensors, software, arable farming, crops
Introduction
Availability of food always has been a concern for humans. To be less independent from nature, in
an early stage agricultural practices have been developed. The increase of the agricultural production
in the last half century has outpaced the expansion of the world population. Although famines
occur in different places of the world, the per capita average production is suffcient to feed the
world population. The increase in agricultural production, called the frst revolution, was caused
by mechanization, invention of artifcial fertilizer and improvements in varieties.
However the last 10 years, this trend was clearly broken by a leveling off of the food production.
In the frst half of the last century, the world population increased by only 0.9 billion persons. But
from 1950 till today, the world population showed a dramatic increase from about 2.5 billion persons
to about 6 billion. The United Nations predict this trend to go on for at least 50 years. By 2050
the world population will be around 9 billion persons. Continuation of these trends of population
growth and production levels that fall behind create a situation of an absolute global food shortage.
As defned by the United Nations, it is a basic human right to have suffcient and safe food and water.
Availability of food depends on the actual possibility to get food, either by growing it locally or
by buying it at the world market. Parts of the world will always be able to produce an excessive
amount of food to put on the market. Other parts of the world will be able to buy this food to
supplement their own production. But the vulnerable areas for food shortage will increase because
of decreasing local production and often lack of funds. Another threat to the food availability is the
increasing demand for crops for bio fuels.
The predicted food shortage can only be reduced by increasing the production in the typical
agricultural regions. However also much attention should be paid to the vulnerable regions to
secure local grown food to be less dependent on the world market.
The leveling off of the agricultural production is caused by a multitude of factors. In general the
availability of proper farming land and of production circumstances defne the actual production.
Political instability, unavailable proper management, lack of capital to buy seed, fertilizer, crop
protection chemicals and machinery or even the availability of these items cause undesirable
production circumstances. In other regions environmental concerns put pressure on sustainable crop
production. A key component for global food security is the availability of irrigation water. With the
implementation of existing technology and knowledge, it has been proven that substantial amounts
of irrigation water can be saved and therefore increasing the sustainability of the food production.
The basic right to suffcient and safe food and water for the growing global population puts a large
responsibility to all concerned with the production of food.
Growing more food with fewer resources poses a great challenge for the agricultural sector. In order
to achieve this, a second revolution to increase in agricultural production is needed. In this paper we
will explain how Agri Yield Management systems will contribute to achieve the second revolution.
Agri Yield Management
Agri Yield Management systems provide the farmer with the necessary tools for proftable and
sustainable agriculture. The AYM system as developed by Dacom in the Netherlands makes use of
advanced technologies like intelligent sensors, internet and GPS. Software combines the collected
information into practical solutions that supports the farmer in his daily operations. This AYM system
is unique because it integrates multiple aspects of the crop production such as water, chemicals and
fertilizer in relation to the yield. The fowchart in Figure 1 below symbolizes the system.
Precision timing of these agri inputs and using the right product has proven to be proftable
through the years. The system for disease control was evaluated in feld trials around the world and
consistently demonstrated a reduction of chemical inputs. In the Netherlands feld trials conducted
at research station t Kompas over the years 1995 until 2001 resulted in a average reduction of
applications 28% compared to traditional practices while maintaining excellent disease control
(Raatjes, 2004). Also the use of intelligent soil moisture sensors in combination with weather
forecast proved to lead to a much more effcient use of water. Around the world reductions of 49%
of water and 31% yield increase have been shown.

Graph 1: Flow chart Dacom AYM system

Figure 1. Flow chart Dacom AYM system.
Sensor technology
Sensor measurements from weather stations and soil moisture stations from local felds are
important input in real time yield management systems. Hourly collection of reliable and accurate
sensor information is a laborious undertaking. The sensors are usually put in the feld and exposed
to all kinds of climatic conditions and possible mechanical maltreatment. Constant validation of
the produced information is a necessity. The Dacom AYM system handles data of thousands data
collection points with multiple sensors like soil moisture content, temperature, leaf wetness, solar
radiation, rainfall and wind speed and wind direction from locations all around the world. Raw
data is collected through telemetry systems and internet in a central databank. In the control room,
a quality check is applied both automatically and manually by a team of technicians to ensure
reliable data before it is distributed to farmers and advisors. Automated collection of real time crop
data and the development of more intelligent sensors are some of the challenges that lay ahead.
The sensor data is extended with a 10 day hourly weather forecast. This forecast is indispensable to
plan activities ahead as a lot of them need to be taken preventative, but are only needed under certain
conditions. The sensor data from the feld is used as feedback to improve the quality of the weather
forecast. This technique, called Model Output Statistics, have lead to a signifcant improvement of
the forecasting ability of the available general forecasting model. This unique agricultural weather
forecast has improved precision timing of the right product in AYM systems signifcantly.
Software technology
The software provides the linkage between the farmer and all the gathered information. The
farmer will have to record information about his crops: GPS location of the feld, type of crop,
variety, feld activities such as planting, crop protection, fertilization and harvesting. Multiple crop
observations are required to feed the advice models to make optimal recommendations. Currently
most of those observations are entered manually, but other solutions are being sought in Remote
Sensing techniques and crop growth models.
Models
Scientifc knowledge and farmer feedback are the basis of the development of the models that provide
solutions to the growers. The strong feature of AYM systems is that all knowledge concerning one
topic is collected and becomes part of integrated algorithms. The outcome is presented in user-
friendly graphs and comments whereas the complex models run in the background of the system.
Using the software means that the latest scientifc knowledge is applied in practice. This shortens
the learning curve of farmers and advisors tremendously. Whereas understanding the behavior of
the fungal disease Phytopthora infestans in potatoes usually takes several growing seasons a farmer
or advisor can predict critical periods of this disease the moment the AYM system is in operation
and the user is able to operate the software. The time consuming learning curve can be reduced
from years to weeks. Also the latest knowledge from the experts can be integrated and released to
the users each moment, even throughout the growing season. When the farmer retrieves the latest
data from his feld he automatically receives the latest adjustments in the system. Examples are
the latest numbers on effcacy of chemicals or new knowledge about the sexual reproduction of
Phytopthora infestans
Disease models calculate practical, real time advice. Traditionally these models are based on local
conditions with mathematical algorithms called DSVs (Disease Severity Values). These systems are
based on a standard weekly spraying strategy. The interval between two sprayings will be enlarged
or reduced when the number of DSV points are lower or higher. The new generation AYM models
are biological models that simulate the life cycle of the fungus. In addition to the critical periods
that are calculated based on the life cycle of the fungus, spraying advices are related to the degree
of protection of the crop by chemicals and new growth of leaves. As the new generation AYM
models are based on biological and physical laws that apply worldwide and use local weather data
and weather forecast they can be applied worldwide. For example the Dacom Phytophthora model
for potatoes has been successfully applied over more than a decade under conditions ranging from
desert climate to sea climate. Results from 14 trials executed in 7 states in the United States of
America have shown a possible reduction of the application frequency of 46% compared to standard
applications without a signifcant decrease in total yield (Zollner, 2006).
The water consumption of a crop is becoming more and more important as water is getting scarce
in many parts of the world. The AYM system interprets readings of soil moisture sensors in such
a way that the farmer can see if his crop is getting into drought stress or that he is overwatering.
Unique feature of the Dacom irrigation model is that it incorporates the weather forecast. Growers
can look ahead into what will happen with the soil moisture content 5 days ahead. This is the dark
grey area at the right side of Figure 2. The system calculates the amount of millimeters irrigation
needed to fll up the water depletion of the root zone by comparing the historical water consumption
of the crop based on evapotranspiration (ETo) with the forecasted ETo. Evapotranspiration is the
loss of water from a vegetative surface through the combined processes of plant transpiration
and soil evaporation. In practice this results in the applied amount of water to be in line with the
crops needs. Pilot projects in e.g. the Netherlands and Egypt have shown yield increase in winter
wheat up to 31% on the one hand and water savings up to 49% in strawberry on the other hand
(unpublished data).
Application of fertilizer is another factor that largely infuences crop yield and possible wash off
into the environment. Models to simulate nitrogen behavior in the soil have been implemented
in the AYM system to fnd a good balance between application and need of the crop. Factors that
infuence the calculation of the model are crop demands, expected availability out of supplied
fertilizers, organic matter and the soil. New generation models calculate the release of nitrogen as
a result of the mineralization of the different types of organic matter in the soil depending on soil
type, temperature and rainfall. Challenge is to make reliable long term predictions through the
season based on soil characteristics and long term average weather data.

Graph 2: irrigation management module

Figure 2. Irrigation management module.
Insects can do a great deal of damage to crops if they are left uncontrolled. Climate conditions
play a major role in this process. Insect control systems provides a grower with advice regarding
the insects current development stage. The insect models calculated the different development
stages of the life cycle based on so-called Day Degree Units. This allows the user to target the
insecticides exactly when it will have the most effect. The model for the European Corn Borer
insect for instance shows the time window when the larvae will be susceptible so the farmer can
apply the products at that time.
The European Corn Borer model was tested on Prince Edward Island in Canada where during
the 2006 growing season 19 growers, and in 2007 156 growers received notices about the
current development stage of the insect and optimum timing of pesticide applications. Surveys of
participating growers suggested that there was an estimated 8% reduction in number of applications
in the frst year of the project and up to a 35% reduction in the second year (unpublished data).
Currently though, it is only still the forerunner farmers that make use of AYM systems. The challenge
is to develop software that makes more farmers turn away from their traditional practices. Important
in this case is the instruction, education and training of the farmer and his advisor.
Conclusion
The challenge for agriculture is to produce more with less. AYM provides an important contribution
towards the future demand for food. Challenges are the real-time collection of reliable crop
environment information and methods for adaptation of these innovative systems by farmers to
change from traditional practices to new AYM methods.
References
Raatjes, P, Hadders, J, Martin, D and Hinds, H, 2004. Decision support systems in potato production bringing
models to practice. Wageningen Academic Publishers, Wageningen, the Netherlands, 168 pp.
Zollner, T, 2006, Thought for Food: Can Potato Late Blight be controlled without harming public health?. Bard
center for environmental policy, Tivoli, New York, United States of America, page 39 and 41.
Flow behaviour analysis of a RFID-Tracer for traceability of
grain
U. Steinmeier, D. von Hoersten and W. Luecke
Georg-August University Goettingen, Department of Crop Science, Section Agricultural Engineering,
Gutenbergstrasse 33, D-37075 Goettingen, Germany; usteinm@uni-goettingen.de
Abstract
The fow behaviour of RFID tracers, so-called corn dummies, was investigated in a silo on a model
scale using winter wheat. The corn dummies had been constructed to improve the traceability of
bulk goods, particularly with respect to determining the mixing ratio of different cereal batches.
For this experiment, differently coloured batches of wheat were mixed with clearly marked corn
dummies. Subsequently, the batches of wheat with their respective corn dummies were flled
one after another into the experimental silo. The experiment was undertaken with three different
angles of the silo hopper (20, 40 and 70), which led to different fow profles of the wheat. The
sampling occurred stepwise into a sample container placed under the silo outlet. The individual
samples were tested for the presence or absence of the differently coloured batches of wheat and
the different types of corn dummy. From this data, the probability of error of batch determination
was calculated with the aid of a confusion matrix. The probability of error was found to be affected
by hopper angle (less errors with mass fow than with funnel fow) and batch size (2 l vs. 12 l). It
was found that a small probability of error of under 9% could be expected if the sample size (e.g.
12 l) or the concentration of the corn dummies is large enough.
Keywords: silo, hopper, bulk goods
Introduction
Background
The interest concerning information about the composition or origin of raw materials in a product
was for a long time not particularly great. This situation is changing more and more. A study of the
Allensbach Institute has shown that in Germany the publics faith in German agriculture is large
and that the actual origin of a product is playing a greater and greater role in a customers decision
to purchase a product (Agrarheute.com, 2009). In addition, food and animal feed companies have
been considering this subject for a long time and have included it in their quality management
systems under the point Traceability (Botterbrodt, 2004). This is certainly due to the present legal
situation, as in food law traceability has developed into a central facet of consumer protection
(Hahn and Pichhardt, 2004).
The methods and processes utilised by companies as part of their traceability schemes achieve,
in the main, good results; however, there are areas in which more optimisation is desirable. This
need for optimisation mainly affects those products which are dealt with in bulk, such as cereals.
From the harvest onwards, cereals are transported loose and there is often a mixing of different batches
along the transport chain. The presently used traceability systems (e.g. transport documentation
containing a compilation of patterns of the retained samples for every batch or the use of isotope
analyses) have their limits, particularly in the determination of the proportions of a particular
batch within such a mixture (Agroisolap, 2009). A better depiction of the degree of mixing would
be attained using a tracer-based system. With such a method, a tracer is inserted in the cereal at
the time of harvest on the combine harvester and this remains in the product until it is processed.
There are various starting points for the design of such a tracer. One variant would be to produce
an edible tracer and to inscribe this with a label, for example, a bar code (Hirai et al., 2005; Sui et
al., 2007). This method would have the advantage that such edible tracers would not have to be
removed from the cereal before it is processed. Another possibility is the use of a Radio Frequency
Identifcation (RFID) transponder encapsulated in a food-safe resin and to place this in the cereal
while it is being combined. This latter method has the advantage that the RFID transponders have
a high data capacity and are protected well from dust and abrasion by the resin capsule. However,
shortly before processing, the encapsulated RFID transponder would have to be removed from the
cereal (Beplate-Haarstrich et al., 2006a,b; Hornbaker et al,. 2007).
In the Section Agricultural Engineering, different tracers, so-called corn dummies (Figure 1), were
made and tested with respect to their characteristics. During these tests, one type of corn dummy
was found to be the most suitable for use in cereals (Beplate-Haarstrich, 2009). This corn dummy
has virtually the same physical characteristics as a cereal grain.
Objectives
The experiment described here investigated the fow characteristics of the aforementioned corn
dummies in a model silo flled with winter wheat under different flling conditions (hopper angle).
By doing this, it was investigated whether or not different batches in a silo could be adequately
marked with the corn dummies, whether or not the angle of flling affects the fow of the cereals and
corn dummies in the silo, and if the degree of mixing could be determined with such corn dummies.
The fow behaviour of bulk materials in silos can differ greatly. This is of particular importance for
the traceability of cereals. Depending on a silos construction (hopper angle, size of outlet opening
and wall consistency) either a mass fow or a funnel fow can occur. With mass fow, the whole
of the bulk material moves when the silo is emptied; while with a funnel fow, only the material
above the outlet moves. Mass fow silos are desirable for ensuring a low-level degree of mixing,
as in these the cereal batches flled in frst are those which are frst removed. In funnel fow silos,
the different cereal batches are subjected to a high degree of mixing (Schwedes, 2006; Schulze,
2006). This higher degree of mixing with a funnel fow is, however, required for experimental
purposes when looking at the suitability of corn dummies for determining the degree of mixing
of different batches.
Model silos are suited for the investigation of the fow behaviour of bulk materials and are often
used in scientifc studies (Stoffers, 1998; Slominski et al., 2007). For the present experiment, a
model quadratic silo was set up in the Section Agricultural Engineering. Its measurements were
1

Figure 1: RFID transponder (mic3

TAG), corn dummies and grains of
wheat

Figure 1. RFID transponder (mic3

TAG), corn dummies and grains of wheat.
width 500 mm, depth 200 mm and height 2,000 mm (Figure 2). The silos outlet measured 150
mm 200 m (Figure 3).
For the experiment, the silo was flled alternately with a stained batch of wheat and an unstained
batch of wheat. A total of 4 batches of winter wheat (24 kg each) were placed in the silo. Two of
the batches were stained with red food colouring (Figure 2: no. 1 & 3) and two remained unstained
(Figure 2: no. 2 & 4). Four batches were placed in a single silo in order to increase the degree of
mixing of the differently stained wheat batches.
Each individual batch of wheat was mixed with 48 marked corn dummies (i.e. 2 corn dummies/
kg wheat). The corn dummies were marked as stained or unstained accordingly, so that they could
be assigned to a particular batch. The mixing of the corn dummies and the respective wheat batch
2

4
1
2
3
4
1
2
3

Figure 2: Experimental
silo (hopper angle 20)
Figure 2. Experimental silo (hopper angle 20).
3

Figure 3: Silo outflow with two sliders Figure 4: Threefold adjustable
(side view, [mm]) hopper (front view, [mm])
Figure 3. Silo outfow with two sliders (side view, [mm]).
was done in a barrel mixer; the mixing time was 5 minutes. In summary, a total of 48 kg stained
winter wheat and 48 kg unstained winter wheat plus 96 stained corn dummies and 96 unstained
corn dummies were placed in a single experimental silo.
The particle characteristics of the winter wheat and the corn dummies are listed in Table 1. The
degree of standardisation of the wheat-corn dummy mixture was investigated in fve mixing trials
using a chute splitter (Woodcock and Mason, 1995). The results showed that the mean value was
2 corn dummies/kg wheat with a standard deviation of 0.939 corn dummies/kg wheat (Table 2).
The flling of the silo occurred from above from a 35-litre box over the whole width of the silo. This
helped to prevent the formation of a conical pile and so an early mixing of the wheat during flling.
A total of three different hopper angles (20, 40 and 70 to the vertical; Figure 4) were used,
whereby the 20 angle had a mass fow effect and the 40 and 70 angles both induced different
funnel fow profles. A total of three trials were done for each of the hopper angles.
3

Figure 3: Silo outflow with two sliders Figure 4: Threefold adjustable
(side view, [mm]) hopper (front view, [mm])
Figure 4. Threefold adjustable hopper (front view, [mm]).
Table 1. Particle characteristics of the corn dummies and grains of winter wheat (n = 100, =
mean).
Corn dummies Winter wheat
Density (g/cm
3
) 1,378 1,382
Mass (mg) 69.53 55.77
Height (mm) 3 3.14
Width (mm) 4 3.60
Length (mm) 6 6.57
Table 2. Mixing quality of the corn dummies/kg wheat determined over 5 mixing trials.
Minimum Maximum Mean Standard deviation
Corn dummies 0.36 3.59 2.0 0.939
Emptying of the silo occurred through two sliders (Figure 3). The upper slider was opened frst, so
that the wheat could fow into a 2-litre-sized space held closed by the second slider lying underneath.
The sample was then collected, after closing the upper slider, by opening the lower slider. Due to
the size of the space between the sliders, a controlled stepwise emptying of the silo in 2-litre steps
(ca. 1.6 kg wheat) could be undertaken.
The samples were checked visually for the presence of corn dummies and these were removed by
hand. The number of corn dummies and their markings were noted for each sample. In addition,
a visual rating of the sample for the presence or absence of stained or unstained wheat was also
undertaken.
The evaluation of the data was done using a confusion matrix. Such a method provides information
about how suitable corn dummies are for marking a batch of wheat. In this case, the real status of
a batch of wheat in a sample was compared with the results of the search for the respective corn
dummy.
There are four variations for the combination stained wheat and stained corn dummies in the
matrix. The same is true for the unstained wheat and the unstained corn dummies (Tables 3 and
4, respectively). These variations will be described in the following using the stained wheat and
stained corn dummies as an example. This description also applies to the combination unstained
wheat and unstained corn dummies.
Table 3. Confusion matrix of the stained corn dummy search and the real status of the presence
of stained winter wheat with the characteristics (a)-(d).
Real status stained winter wheat in the sample
(actual value)
Stained winter wheat
present
Stained winter wheat
not present
Result of the corn
dummy search
(prediction outcome)
Stained corn dummy
present
True Positive (a) False Positive (b) Type
I error
Stained corn dummy
not present
False Negative (c) Type
II error
True Negative (d)
Table 4. Confusion matrix of the unstained corn dummy search and the real status of the
presence of unstained winter wheat with the characteristics (a)-(d).
Real status unstained winter wheat in the
sample (actual value)
Unstained winter
wheat present
Unstained winter
wheat not present
Result of the corn
dummy search
(prediction outcome)
Unstained corn
dummy present
True Positive (a) False Positive (b) Type
I error
Unstained corn
dummy not present
False Negative (c) Type
II error
True Negative (d)
a. The frst variation describes the case in which stained winter wheat as well as a stained corn
dummy was in the sample. The stained corn dummy indicates the true situation (True Positive).
b. The second variation describes the case in which no stained wheat was in the sample although
there was a stained corn dummy present. The stained corn dummy indicates the false situation
(False Positive or Type 1 error).
c. The third variation describes the case in which stained wheat was present in the sample, but
there was no stained corn dummy. The lack of a corn dummy led to the false conclusion that
no stained winter wheat was in the sample (False Negative or Type 2 error).
d. The fourth and last variation describes the case in which no stained wheat was in the sample and
also no stained corn dummy. Due to the lack of a stained corn dummy, the correct assumption
could be made that no stained winter wheat was present in the sample (True Negative).
The results of the confusion matrix can be expressed coherently as the probability of error (Equation
1). This gives the probability for a false marking of a wheat sample by the corn dummies and is
used here as the measurement for the marking quality of the corn dummies.
Probability of error = (b+c)/(a+b+c+d) (1)
b = False Positive (Type I error)
c = False Negative (Type II error)
a = True Positive
d = True Negative
In order to simulate the effect of increasing the corn dummy concentration on the error of probability,
the six individual samples from a single trial were considered as one. In this way, 10 large 12-litre
samples could be made from the 60 individual 2-litre samples per silo trial. The number of corn
dummies in the large sample if distributed evenly would therefore be 19.2 corn dummies/ sample
instead of the 3.2 found in the 2-litre samples containing roughly 1.6 kg of wheat. The presence or
absence of stained or unstained wheat was determined anew.
Results
First of all, the loss in corn dummies and the total number of individual 2-litre samples was
determined. During the manual search, 23 of the 1,728 corn dummies used in the experiment
were lost (1.33%). The number of individual samples per silo was found to be not constant.
Mathematically, 60 samples were taken, calculated by dividing the total amount of wheat (96 kg) by
the weight of wheat in the space (1.6 kg). The actual number of samples varied, however, between
59 and 64 per silo trial due to a slight variation in the density of the winter wheat. As a result 552
2-litre samples were taken instead of 540.
The results of the probability of error calculations for stained wheat are shown in Table 5 and
those for unstained wheat in Table 6. The probability for an error due to a stained corn dummy
for the 2-litre samples varied between 20% and 39%. However, in the large 12-litre samples, this
value varied between 3% and 9%. In comparison, the probability of error due to an unstained
corn dummy for the unstained wheat in the 2-litre samples varied between 16% and 24%, and in
the 12-litre samples between 3% and 6%.
Looking at the results of the types of error (Tables 7 and 8), it is conspicuous that the total size
of the probability of error is mainly determined by Type 2 errors (False Negative). When all 553
2-litre samples are considered, there are clearly far fewer Type 1 error (False Positive) mistakes
than Type 2. This tendency can be observed also by the 12-litre samples.
The probability of a false conclusion with respect to the type of wheat in a sample increased with
increasing hopper angle (to the vertical), apart from in the 12-litre stained wheat samples (Tables
Table 5. Probability of error for a false conclusion concerning the presence or absence of stained
wheat due to the presence of a stained corn dummy according to hopper angle and sample size.
Equation 1 (b+c)/(a+b+c+d)
Probability of error
Single sample (2 l) 20 angle 20%
40 angle 37%
70 angle 39%
Total 32%
Large sample (12 l) 20 angle 9%
40 angle 9%
70 angle 3%
Total 7%
Table 6. Probability of error for a false conclusion concerning the presence or absence of
unstained wheat due to the presence of an unstained corn dummy according to hopper
angle and sample size.
Equation 1 (b+c)/(a+b+c+d)
Probability of error
Single sample (2 l) 20 angle 16%
40 angle 24%
70 angle 23%
Total 21%
Large sample (12 l) 20 angle 3%
40 angle 3%
70 angle 6%
Total 4%
Table 7. The number of Type 1 and Type 2 errors in stained winter wheat according to hopper
angle and sample size.
Type 1 errors Type 2 errors
Small sample (2 l) 20 0 37
40 2 66
70 2 70
Total (n=553) 4 173
Large sample (12 l) 20 0 3
40 1 2
70 0 1
Total (n=97) 1 6
5 and 6). As can be seen in these tables, the probability of error was certainly greater in the 2-litre
samples than in the 12-litre samples.
Discussion and conclusion
The results of the experiment showed that the hopper angle did have an effect on the error of
probability with it tending to be lower at the smaller angles. This can be explained by the different
fow characteristics of bulk materials at these angles. The 20 hopper angle allows the development
of a mass fow and so reduces the degree of mixing, which in turn reduces the probability of a
false conclusion. In comparison, the funnel fow patterns found at the higher angles led to a greater
degree of mixing and so a greater possibility of a false conclusion. This means that mass fow silos
are an advantage when using corn dummies for tracing purposes.
Better results were also achieved when the concentration of corn dummies was increased as the
probability of error sank clearly from the 2-litre samples to the 12-litre samples for both the stained
and unstained wheat. In the large samples, there were theoretically more than 19 corn dummies/
sample instead of the 3.2 corn dummies per 2-litre sample.
That the corn dummies concentration used in this experiment was too low at 2 corn dummies/kg
for an adequate marking of 1.6 kg of wheat, is also indicated by the large number of Type 2 errors
(False Negative). A Type 2 error occurred when no appropriate corn dummy (stained/unstained) was
present. The small number of Type 1 errors (False Positive) indicates that the fow characteristics
in the experiment were those of normal wheat as a false corn dummy (stained/unstained) would
only have been present in the wheat sample if a high degree of mixing had taken place.
In conclusion, the probability of error in determining a batch of wheat increases markedly with a too
small sample size (2 l) or a too low concentration of corn dummies in the wheat. However, the type
of corn dummy used in this experiment at a high enough concentration in a 12-litre sample would
mean that a false conclusion as to the type of batch would be made with a probability of 9% or less.
Acknowledgements
We acknowledge the support of the Ministry for Science and Culture of Lower Saxony and we
thank all members of the joint project 3 Quality-related plant production under modifed basic-
conditions: mycotoxins in the context of production, quality and processing.
Table 8. The number of Type 1 and Type 2 errors in unstained winter wheat according to
hopper angle and sample size.
Type 1 errors Type 2 errors
Small sample (2 l) 20 2 27
40 0 44
70 0 43
Total (n=553) 2 114
Large sample (12 l) 20 0 1
40 0 1
70 0 2
Total (n=97) 0 4
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Botterbrodt, S., 2004. Qualittsmanagement and Anlagensicherheit. In: Erling, P. (ed.) Handbuch Mehl- and
Schlmllerei. Agrimedia, Bergen, Germany, pp. 447-482.
Hahn, P. and Pichhardt, K., 2004. Lebensmittelsicherheit. Behrs Verlag, Hamburg, Germany, pp. 19-34.
Hirai, Y., Schrock, M.D., Oard, D.L. and Hermann, T., 2005. A proof of concept delivery system for grain
tracing caplets on the combine. ASAE Paper No. 056029, ASAE, St. Joseph, Michigan, USA.
Hornbaker, R. H., Kindratenko, V. and Pointer, D., 2007. Tracking device for grain. U.S. Patent No.: US
7,162,328 B2.
Schulze, D., 2006. Pulver and Schttgter. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg, Germany, pp. 295-310.
Schwedes, J., 2006. Rckverfolgbarkeit und Lagerung von Schttgtern in Silos. In: VDI-Berichte No. 1918
Schttgut frdern and lagern. VDI Verlag, Dsseldorf, Germany, pp. 103-116.
Slominski, C., Niedostatkiewicz, M. and Tejchmann, J., 2007. Application of particle image velocimetry (PIV)
for deformation measurement during granular silo fow. Powder Technology 173; 1-18.
Stoffers, H., 1998. Tests for fow. In: Brown, C. J. and Nielsen. J. (ed.) Silos Fundamentals of theory, behaviour
and design. E & FN Spon, an imprint of Routledge, London, UK, pp. 631-634.
Sui, R., Thomasson, J.A. and Herrmann, T., 2007. Development of Tracers for Grain Tracing System. An
ASABE Meeting Presentation: Written for presentation at the 2007 ASABE Annual International Meeting,
Paper No. 076032, American Society of Agricultural and Biolgical Engineers (ASABE), ASAE, St. Joseph,
Michigan, USA, pp. 1-9.
Woodcock, C.R. and Mason, J.S., 1995. Bulk solids handling An introduction to the practice and technology.
Blackie Academic & Professional, an imprint of Chapman & Hall, Glasgow, NZ.
Section 7
Soil sensing and interpretation of variability
On-the-go measurement of soil gamma radiation
E.H. Loonstra and F.M. van Egmond
The Soil Company, Kadijk 7b, 9747 AT Groningen, the Netherlands; loonstra@soilcompany.com
Abstract
Soils are radioactive by nature. Current technology makes it possible to apply on-the-go gamma ray
sensors to measure the radioactive gamma ray spectrum. This energy spectrum contains information
of several nuclei and the total count rate. The concentration of these nuclei is related to several soil
properties.The relevant nuclei are
40
K (potassium),
232
Th (thorium)
238
U (uranium) and
137
Cs. The
principle of fngerprinting is used to construct calibration curves to model soil properties like clay
content and organic matter. The soil sensor system The Mole is designed to measure the radioactive
nuclei. It features a number of specifc qualities that enable high quality output. The use of standard
spectra for each individual detector combined with Full Spectrum Analysis provides concentrations
of the individual nuclide in the international standard unit Bq/kg. The high resolution top soil maps
derived with the Mole are directly applicable for several end-users. Gamma ray sensors like the
Mole can be used in addition to other currently used proximal soil sensors, as each sensor has its
own specifc qualities and limitations.
Keywords: soil sensor, gamma radiation, high resolution, top soil mapping
Introduction
In general, the use of soil sensors becomes more common. Remote sensing and the use of proximal
soil sensors is applied all around the world. In soil science and agriculture the use of gamma ray
soil sensors is considered to be relatively new. An overview on background, technology and usage
is therefore desirable. After a brief introduction on natural radioactivity this paper will demonstrate
how gamma rays correlate to soil properties. Subsequently, the main technical aspects of the soil
sensor system The Mole will be discussed, as well as the applicability of the results of such a system.
Finally, a comparison is made of gamma ray sensors with other proximal soil sensors.
Radioactive soils
The planet earth consists of a number of layers. The earths outside layer is a relatively thin crust,
divided in the continental crust and the oceanic crust. The crust consists of 3 types of rock, that
is volcanic rock, sedimentary rock and metamorphic rock. Volcanic rock accounts for 95% of
the total crust and stems from liquid magma. Magma originates from deeper layers of the earth,
probably from the outer core, which is liquid. In this layer radioactive trace elements exist which
are transported to the surface during volcanic eruptions thus forming the earths crust. Sedimentary
rock is formed by deposition of weathered rocks that are volcanic or metamorphic by origine.
Metamorphic rock is formed when rocks of any kind are defomed under extreme temperatures
or pressure which typically occur in the deeper parts of the outside layer of the earths crust. This
means that all types of rock that together form the earths crust are radioactive to a certain extent.
The main radioactive trace elements or nuclei that are naturally found in soils are
40
K (potassium),
232
Th (thorium) and
238
U (uranium). Due to nuclear activities of man
137
Cs (caesium) is also
present in the soil on many places. The gamma radiation from these nuclei has a large penetrating
capacity. The atom core of these elements decays with a certain expectation, which is called half
life time. The number of cores that decline each second for each kilogramme is considered a unit,
called Becquerel per kilogramme (Bq/kg). The natural trace elements
40
K,
232
Th and
238
U exist
approximately 10
9
years. Man made elements such as
137
Cs only survive for a couple of decades.
Radioactive materials that decay, like in soils, produce several types of energy. Electromagnetic
waves with a high energy are called gamma radiation. The gamma radiation from soils that reaches
the surface in general stems from 0 to 30-50 centimetres deep. This depends on the bulk density of
the material through which the energy travels. The actual concentrations of the nuclei that originate
from the soil depend among others on parent material, soil forming processes and age. This leads
to the hypothesis that each soil has a unique radioactive fngerprint. A fngerprint is made up of a
certain combination of radioactive trace elements. Measuring the gamma radiation emitted by soils
can thus be considered as collecting fngerprints.
Fingerprinting
As soils are defned by certain soil properties, such as clay content or organic matter content, it is
possible to compare the radiometric fngerprint with the soil properties for calibration purposes
(de Meijer, 1998). This results in mathematical formulae describing the relationship between a
dependent and independent property, for instance
232
Th and clay.
The Soil Company has collected gamma ray and soil property data from several countries. Initially in
the Netherlands it was found that the principle of fngerprinting can be applied for large geographical
areas for physical soil properties such as clay (2 m), loam or sand (50 m), median grain size and
organic matter. This means that once a database with gamma ray measurements and the mentioned
soil properties has been set up it becomes possible to predict the feld variation of mentioned
properties very well with a small number of additional calibration samples and a gamma ray survey.
All radioactive trace elements in the soil play a part in the fngerprinting process regarding physical
soil properties (Loonstra, 2008). The main general correlations are the following. Clay content
is best predicted with
232
Th. It has a general R
2
of 0.75 upto 0.9. The correlation is positive and
basically linear. The variation of loam (or sand) content is well described by the combination of
232
Th and
238
U. It has a comparable R
2
to clay. The R
2
of grain size and
40
K is in general a little bit
lower, but nonetheless good, 0.7 to 0.8 on average.
40
K is negatively correlated to grain size. The
combination of
40
K and
137
Cs is in general very useful for predicting the organic matter content.
Finally, the count rate or Total Counts turns out to be a very useful parameter for distinguishing
soil types, physical disturbances or the presence of non-local parent material. In the following
paragraphs the technology to measure gamma radiation from soil will be discussed.
A soil sensor system for gamma radiation: the Mole
The Mole, manufactured by The Soil Company, is a proximal soil sensor system which is designed
to measure gamma radiation on-the-go (Van Egmond et al., 2008). It comprises a detector, computer,
1

clay = 0.9902Th + 8.1695
R
2
= 0.96
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
232Th in Bq/kg
C
l
a
y

c
o
n
t
e
n
t

i
n

%

Figure 1
232
Th vs. clay content, Sweden

Figure 1.
232
Th vs. clay content, Sweden.
GPS and data logging software. For speeds upto 10 km/h good quality measurements can be
performed with a detector that is made of a 70150 mm CsI crystal coupled to a photomultiplier
unit and a 512 channel Multi Channel Analyser. The detector is wired to a computer via USB
connection, which enables the communication and power supply for the detector. The data logging
software for the Mole is dedicated. This Mole Data Logger (MDL) logs the spectral data together
with the position information that is received from a GPS. Every second data is logged. MDL has
a number of features that help the operator to check the incoming reading during the survey. It is
possible to monitor the energy spectrum and the count rate of the individual nuclei real time. The
system stores the full spectral information to enable post processing of spectral data at a later stage.
Data processing: full spectrum analysis
The Mole system incorporates a new post processing method for the gamma spectra called Full
Spectrum Analysis (FSA). The FSA method utilises virtually all of the information present in the
2

loam = 1.096(U+Th) - 9.1042
R
2
= 0.86
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
0 20 40 60 80 100
U + Th in Bq/kg
l
o
a
m

c
o
n
t
e
n
t

i
n

%

Figure 2
238
U +
232
Th vs. loam content, Germany

Figure 2.
238
U +
232
Th vs. loam content, Germany.
3

M0 = 7E+17K
-6.206
R
2
= 0.72
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
300 350 400 450 500 550
40K in Bq/kg
M
0

Figure 3
40
K vs. grain size, Netherlands

Figure 3.
40
K vs. grain size, the Netherlands.
4

OM = 0.0023K
2
- 0.7717K + 71.734
R
2
= 0.84
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
0.0 50.0 100.0 150.0 200.0 250.0
40K in Bq/kg
O
r
g
a
n
i
c

M
a
t
t
e
r

i
n

%

Figure 4
40
K vs. organic matter, Netherlands

Figure 4.
40
K vs. organic matter, the Netherlands.
measured gamma spectrum, which is different compared to standard Windows method. In Windows,
the activities of the nuclides are found by summing the intensities of the spectrum found in a certain
interval surrounding a peak. In FSA a Chi-squared algorithm is used to ft a set of standard spectra
to the measured spectrum. A standard spectrum is the pure response of a detector system to an one
Bq/kg source of a given radionuclide in a given geometrical setting. As the effciency of crystals
differs, so will the standard spectrum. The ftting procedure yields the multiplication factors needed
to reconstruct the measured spectrum from the standard spectra of the individual nuclides. The
multipliers equal the actual concentrations of the radio nuclides that led to the measured spectrum.
The method is described in detail by Hendriks et al. (2001). Hendriks shows that the uncertainty
in the FSA method is at least a factor 2 lower compared to the Windows method.
The result of the post processing procedure is measured gamma spectrum turned into the
concentrations of the nuclei,
40
K,
232
Th,
238
U and
137
Cs in Bq/kg and the uncertainty of the
concentrations for each measurement point. The count rate is also available. A number of factors
can infuence the quality of outcome. That is the design of the sensor, the environmental conditions
and the operational conditions. Besides the already described choice for post processing method,
the material and size of the crystal will be of infuence on the quality of the measurements too.
Most common materials are NaI, BGO and CsI crystals. Though widely used, NaI crystals are not
the most effcient capturer of gamma radiation. Alternatives are BGO and CsI. BGO has a low
peak resolution, which prohibits use in cases where man-made nuclides are subject of interest. The
material is expensive and prone to temperature instability. CsI is robust compared to NaI and BGO.
The density of CsI is higher than NaI, yielding better effciency, especially for smaller crystal sizes.
More volume results in higher energy effciency.
Environmental conditions can infuence the signal output and therefore the quality. The density
of the medium through which gamma-radiation travels determines the interaction of the radiation
with matter and thus affects the sensor readings. Excluding soil as being the source; water is the
most important external factor in this respect. The amount of water in soil will affect the signal
in such a way that energy loss occurs when water content in soil increases. This leads to lower
measured nuclide concentrations. Monte Carlo simulations show a difference of 16% in nuclide
concentration for completely dry and fully saturated sandy soils (Hendriks, 2002). Another water
related issue is rainfall. With rain radon gas, a product of
238
U, will precipitate. This causes spectral
5

Figure 5 Gamma Ray spectrum

Figure 5. Gamma Ray spectrum.
noise effects. Snow and fog have the same effect to a minor degree. Finally, on earth there is always
radioactive noise present from the galaxy. The advantage of the use of the FSA method is that the
standard spectrum of a detector can be adjusted to the geometric circumstances under which it is
going to be used.
During a survey an operator should be aware of the effects of driving speed and measurement height.
In general, a larger crystal has better energy effciency and is therefore more suitable for high speed.
E.g. a 70150 mm CsI crystal provides qualitative satisfactory output for soil mapping up to 10
km/h. Sample locations, however, are best measured during a longer period of time (3 to 5 minutes).
The measurement height affects the measurement resolution; the lower the sensor, the smaller the
measured area. In addition, Monte Carlo simulations show that the mass of the survey vehicle has
to be taken into account. A large tractor e.g. can lead to spectral shape disruptions of 5 to 10%.
Soil maps derived from gamma ray measurements
The gamma ray measurements can be directly converted into a nuclide maps or they can be translated
in a soil property map via the process of fngerprinting. Depicting the within-feld variation of total
counts and individual nuclei concentrations can be benefciary for several purposes. The total count
for instance is a good discriminator of soil types. It also can provide information on soil disturbances,
whether they are the result of the interaction by man or by nature. Examples are the location of
ancient buildings or of an old creek. When
137
Cs is present in the area, recent disturbances can be
pinpointed with this nuclide. The third direct application of nuclei data is more dynamic. Gamma
ray measurements performed over time can help localizing erosion or seepage affected sites. The
pictures below show a result of soil mapping with a gamma ray sensor (low values are light of
colour, high values dark). The legend is not depicted, but the maps are quantitative by nature.
6

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Figure 6. Total count rate.
7

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394100
49600 49700 49800 49900 50000 50100 50200 50300 50400 50500 50600
393600
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394100

Figure 7.
40
K.
The fngerprinting process is based on the fact that soils have a unique combination of nuclei
concentrations. The fngerprints depend among others on parent material, soil forming processes
and age. With the lab results of physical soil samples gamma ray measurements can be calibrated
to create a soil property map showing the within-feld variation of those soil properties. Sound
correlations exist with soil properties like clay content, organic matter, loam or sand content and
grain size.
Other derived soil maps are nutrient and water related. Gamma ray measurements can be helpful
in mapping within-feld variation of chemical soil properties such as phosphates and potassium.
In addition, the physical soil properties can be used as input for pedo-transfer functions. Using
these functions, water-related properties of a soil can be calculated for an entire region, showing
7

49600 49700 49800 49900 50000 50100 50200 50300 50400 50500 50600
393600
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394100

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7

49600 49700 49800 49900 50000 50100 50200 50300 50400 50500 50600
393600
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49600 49700 49800 49900 50000 50100 50200 50300 50400 50500 50600
393600
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7

49600 49700 49800 49900 50000 50100 50200 50300 50400 50500 50600
393600
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49600 49700 49800 49900 50000 50100 50200 50300 50400 50500 50600
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49600 49700 49800 49900 50000 50100 50200 50300 50400 50500 50600
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Figure 8.
238
U.
Figure 10.
137
Cs.
Figure 9.
232
Th.
the within-feld variation of properties such as permanent welting point, bulk density or saturated
hydraulic conductivity. This information can be used for irrigation purposes for instance.
The maps of the Mole have proven to be benefciary for several types of end-users. In general, all
users have in common that they want to know the within-feld variability of the soil and adjust their
actions upon that variability. The maps have proven to be directly applicable for farmers conducting
precision farming. Examples are precision farming based applications for the use of fertilisers,
planting distance, irrigation, soil improvement and tillage. Breeders of plants are especially interested
in the within-feld variability of soils. It can help them to fnd out how new variaties respond to
certain soil characteristics. The sensor is also useful in locating soil disturbances such as old rivers
or archaeological spots. Or to pinpoint locations within felds that need treatment when agricultural
soil has to be converted nutrient-poor nature. Engineering frms beneft from the technology for
the maintenance and renovation of sport pitches and golf courses.
Comparison with proximal soil sensors
Gamma ray sensors like the Mole differ in some respect to other common-used proximal soil sensors
like electrical and electromagnetic sensors (EM/EC) (Adamchuk, 2004). The main difference stems
from the fact that gamma ray sensors are passive, while EM/EC sensors are based on a signal send/
receive approach. The power of the sender determines how deep the signal goes, whereas radioactive
gamma rays from soil always stem from zero upto 30 to 50 cm depth. Therefore, the way sensor
output is affected by noise, and the way noise can be handled in post-processing procedures, differs.
The output of gamma ray soil sensors is stated in a universal standard unit for the measured nuclei;
i.e. Bq/kg. A standard unit has an absolute zero point and variability is defned in a fxed way. This
allows for data comparison in time and the set up of soil calibration equations (fngerprinting)
for large areas. From the gamma ray energy spectrum information can be derived from at least
5 individual elements. EM/EC sensors provide single output. Finally, EM/EC sensors respond to
different environmental obstacles compared to gamma ray sensors. All metal objects will cause
signal interference for EM/EC sensors. Also matter that is between the sensor and the target soil,
e.g. plants and air, will lead to signal abnormalities. The measured gamma ray energy spectrum is
hardly affected by these factors.
Conclusion
In the trend towards the use of proximal soil sensors gamma ray sensors prove to be a reliable
and valuable addition to currently used sensors. They differ in many ways from EM/EC and can
therefore provide additional information from a specifc soil layer, the top soil. The ability to
construct quantitative calibration curves for several soil properties can be considered as a major
advantage. Further research on the topic of fngerprinting is desired, as gamma ray detectors are
not yet widely applied in soil science and precision agriculture. The results of the applications of
the Mole show that high resolution soil mapping based on gamma ray measurements is benefciary
for different parties involved in soil use.
References
Adamchuk, V.I., J.W. Hummel, M.T. Morgan and S.K. Upadhyaya, 2004. On-the-go soil sensors for precision
farming. Computers and Electronics in Agriculture 44: 71-91.
De Meijer, R.J., 1998. Heavy minerals: from Edelstein to Einstein. Journal of Geochemical Exploration 62:
81-103.
Hendriks, P.H.G.M., J. Limburg and R.J. de Meijer 2001. Full-spectrum analysis of natural gamma ray spectra.
Journal of Environmental Radioactivity 53: 365-380.
Hendriks, P.H.G.M, 2002. Simulatie Standaardspectra ten behoeve van veldmetingen. Medusa Explorations
BV, Groningen.
Loonstra, E.H., 2008. A Mole collecting fngerprints. IAMFE Denmark 2008, Aarhus.
Van Egmond, F.M., E.H. Loonstra and J. Limburg, 2008. Gamma-ray sensor for topsoil mapping: The Mole.
HRDSSM Sydney.
Combined sensor system for mapping soil properties
H.S. Mahmood
1
, W.B. Hoogmoed
1
and E.J. Van Henten
1,2
1
Farm Technology Group, Wageningen UR, P.O. Box 17, 6700 AA Wageningen, the Netherlands;
sultan.mahmood@wur.nl
2
Greenhouse Horticulture, Wageningen UR, P.O. Box 16, 6700 AA Wageningen, the Netherlands
Abstract
There is a growing demand for rapid, accurate and inexpensive methods to estimate soil properties
to be used in precision agriculture. Because the acquisition of fne scale information on the variation
in soil properties by manual soil sampling and conventional laboratory analysis is time consuming,
labour intensive and cost prohibitive. Moreover, simultaneous measurement of several soil physical
and chemical properties has been a desire for many years. The proximal soil sensors such as gamma
ray, EM38 and visible-near infrared are able to measure soil properties in real-time through either
direct contact or at a close range to the soil. However, in certain soil conditions, a single sensor
does not give reliable response for a specifc soil characteristic. For instance, it is diffcult using
-ray sensor alone to distinguish between clay content and gravels as both result in similar strong
signals. EM38 cannot discriminate between sandy soils and gravels as both show similar and low
EC
a
. This paper focuses on a preparatory literature study to a project aimed at developing a combined
sensor system which may contain a gamma ray sensor, an EM38 and a visible-near infrared sensor
to get complementary information on soil properties such as texture, organic matter, pH, nitrogen,
phosphorus and potassium. It is hypothesized that the combined use of these sensors enables one to
make real-time high resolution soil property maps. This high resolution soil information might be
used for site-specifc crop management and provides a research tool to help in understanding feld
scale soil variability. It is expected that results will demonstrate higher effectiveness of combined
sensor systems as compared with the single sensor in its application to investigate various soil
physical and chemical properties in precision agriculture.
Keywords: near-infrared, gamma ray, EM38, data fusion, soil sensing, precision agriculture
Introduction
Spatial heterogeneity in soil physical and chemical properties across the feld produces changes in
potential of soil productivity which comes due to discrepancy in land use, vegetation cover, specifc
feld operations and intense climatic conditions. Precision agriculture technologies could manage
spatial variability within a feld, applying inputs at right place, right time and in right quantity
with an idea of improving the effectiveness, the economic benefts and lessening the adverse
environmental impact of crop production.
There is a growing demand for rapid and predictive soil data to be used in environmental
monitoring, soil quality assessment and precision agriculture (Viscarra Rossel et al., 2006).
Careful characterization of soil attributes is an important step for optimizing crop production.
The acquisition of fne-scale information on the variation of soil properties using manual soil
sampling and conventional laboratory analyses is time consuming and too expensive to capture soil
heterogeneity at the feld scale with the required spatial resolution. Therefore, alternative methods
are being considered to complement or even replace conventional analytical methods for estimation
of different soil properties. From a satellite, the data suffer from inadequate spatial and temporal
resolution (McBratney et al., 2003) and crop residue cover and other limitations of remote sensing
limit the use of aerial and satellite soil imagery. Proximal or ground-based soil sensors have the
ability to rapidly collect inexpensive high-resolution data in real-time, by taking measurements
as frequently as once every second (Viscarra Rossel and McBratney, 1998). Many different types
of proximal sensors are available that utilize a range of techniques to measure soil and vegetative
response. These techniques include, but are not limited to, electromagnetic induction, -radiometry,
near- and mid-infrared spectroscopy, ion selective feld effect transistors, ground penetrating radar
and multi or hyperspectral imagery.
In certain soil conditions like presence of salinity or gravels or in moist soils, a single sensor
does not give reliable response for a specifc soil characteristic. For instance, it is diffcult to
distinguish between clay content and gravels using -ray sensor alone as both result in similar
strong signals (Wong et al., 2008). Also the EM38 cannot discriminate between sandy soils and
gravels as both show similar and low apparent electrical conductivity (EC
a
) and salinity also affects
data interpretation. This limitation could be overcome by the combined use of different sensors
underlying different physical principles that often produce complementary information to eliminate
this ambiguity and unreliability. However, research into an integrated approach to using multiple
sensors is lacking (Taylor et al., 2006), while simultaneous measurement of several soil physical
and chemical properties has been a desire for many years.
The objective of this research is to explore the potential of sensor fusion methods using a visible-
near infrared (VNIR), a y-ray and an EM38 sensor to estimate soil physical and chemical properties
such as soil texture (clay, sand and silt fractions), organic matter (OM), nitrogen (N), phosphorus
(P), potassium (K) and soil pH simultaneously in Netherlands. To get complementary information
on different soil properties using combined sensor system is also the goal of this project. It is
hypothesized that the combined use of these proximal sensors and the potentially complementary
information they produce will improve the accuracy of predictions of various soil properties and
permit their application over a greater range of soil properties, both physical and chemical.
Literature study
Visible-near infrared (VNIR) diffuse refectance spectroscopy
Diffuse refectance spectroscopy in the VNIR part of electromagnetic (EM) spectrum (400-2500
nm) is becoming popular for predictive soil analysis in laboratory as well as on-the-go feld
measurements. This is a rapid, inexpensive, nondestructive and convenient technique (Viscarra
Rossel et al., 2006) and involves no chemical reagents for analysis. The basic principle involved
in VNIR spectroscopy is the absorption of incident light by different chemical bonds, such as C-H
(aliphatic), N-H (amine and amide), O-H (hydroxyl) and C-O (carboxyl) present in soil materials.
The light is absorbed in accordance with the concentration of these materials. NIR refectance
spectra basically contain information about the organic composition of a soil sample. These strong
bonds between light atoms tend to absorb energy at overtones and combinations of fundamental
vibrational bands for each of the chemical bonds. The spectral curves of different reference soils
are shown in Figure 1.
Spectral noise and non linearity are corrected with some pre-processing techniques. Some of the
most commonly used pre-processing techniques include frst and second derivatives, multiplicative
scatter correction, baseline correction, orthogonal signal correction and standard normal variate
transform. After pre-processing, the soil spectra are then calibrated to relate them with soil properties.
The most commonly used calibration methods in literature using multivariate statistical approaches
are multiple linear regression (MLR), stepwise multiple liner regression (SMLR), principal
components analysis (PCA) and partial least square regression (PLSR). Partial least squares is
commonly used in spectroscopic analysis of soils (Viscarra Rossel et al., 2006), as it allows for
a signifcant compression of information, handling of co-linear data sets and some types of non-
linearity. Normally, NIR spectra are used to establish a regression model in which the signifcant
information contained in the spectra is concentrated into a few variables, optimized to produce the
best correlation with the predicted property (Zornoza et al., 2008).
Soil refectance has been used to assess soil physical properties such as texture and chemical
properties such as N, P, K and pH by many researchers. Chang et al. (2001) evaluated the ability
of NIR spectroscopy to predict cation exchange capacity (CEC), sand and silt with good estimation
(r
2
>0.80) while exchangeable K, clay and pH were predicted with less accuracy (r
2
<0.80). He et al.
(2007) predicted soil N, P, K, organic matter and pH contents in a loamy mixed soil in laboratory
using PCA and PLSR techniques. They found a good correlation coeffcient (r>0.90) for N and OM
and relatively poor correlation coeffcient (r<0.70) for soil pH. In another laboratory study, La et
al. (2008) predicted soil physical and chemical properties using NIR spectroscopy and found good
estimates (r
2
>0.80) for texture, organic matter and CEC, but pH, P and K were less well estimated
(r
2
<0.70). Zornoza et al. (2008) found good correlation based on coeffcient of determination
(r
2
>0.90) and ratio of standard deviation of validation set to root mean square error or cross validation
(RPD>3) between NIR spectra and soil organic carbon, kjeldahl nitrogen, soil moisture, CEC and
other biochemical properties in Mediterranean soil using partial least square regression (PLS). In
another study Sudduth et al. (2008) used VNIR diffuse spectroscopy and PLS regression technique
to predict CEC and pH with good estimates while organic matter and other properties were not
well predicted. Some scientist used on-the-go feld spectrometers to measure soil properties. For
instance, Sudduth and Hummel (1993) developed a portable, on-the-go spectrophotometer to acquire
NIR soil refectance data at a number of narrow-band wavelengths, and successfully predicted soil
organic carbon across a range of soil types and moisture contents with a standard error of prediction
(SEP) equal to 0.23%. In a later study, Shibusawa (2003) produced good maps of moisture content,
organic matter, pH and nitrate with his on-the-go VNIR spectrophotometer. Mouazen et al. (2005)
showed promising results for the measurement of some soil properties particularly soil moisture
content with a fbre-type online VNIR spectrophotometer.
Gamma ray spectrometry
Gamma ray spectrometry or radiometric technology is a relatively new soil sensing technique
that measures gamma ray radiation emitted from the natural decay of radioactive isotopes that
are present in all soils (Cook et al., 1996). There are many naturally occurring elements that have
radioactive isotopes, but only potassium (K), uranium (U) and thorium (Th) decay series have
radioisotopes (and associated daughter products) that produce gamma rays of suffcient energy
and intensity to be measured by gamma ray spectrometry. Fifty percent of the observed gamma
rays originate from the top 0.10 m of dry soil and 90% from the top 0.30 m (Taylor et al., 2002).
The source intensity and the source-detector geometry affect observed gamma ray fuence rates.
Many environmental and other effects such as soil moisture, rainfall, vegetation, non-radioactive

Figure 1. Spectral reflectance of reference soils; adapted from Thomasson et al. (2001).

Figure 1. Spectral refectance of reference soils; adapted from Thomasson (2001).
overburden and the distribution of airborne sources of radiation all affect the measured fuence
rates. Each y-ray photon has a discrete energy, and this energy is characteristic of the source isotope.
By measuring the energies of y-ray photons, it is possible to determine the source of the radiation
(IAEA, 2003). Gamma ray spectrometers typically measure 256 channels that comprise an energy
spectrum ranging from 0 to 3 MeV as shown in Figure 2. Radiation not originating from the earths
surface is usually regarded as background, and is removed during data processing. There are
three main sources of background radiation: atmospheric radon (
222
Rn), cosmic background, and
instrument background (IAEA, 2003).
Many researchers used y-rays spectrometry including both air-borne and ground-based techniques
and showed promises for prediction of single or multiple soil attributes. For instance, Wong and
Harper (1999) found a very strong relationship (r
2
=0.90) between y-counts (yK) and both total K
and plant available K, clay, silt and organic carbon using on-ground y-ray spectrometry. Taylor et al.
(2002) identifed a strong linear relationship between airborne y-ray data and soil texture (r
2
=0.71) in
top 10 cm soil and a weak relationship in deeper subsurface (20-30 cm) soil due to signal attenuation.
Pracilio et al. (2006) determined soil texture and plant available potassium using y-ray spectrometry
at three different sites in Australia. They concluded that in suffciently weathered soils, soil texture
and plant available potassium can reliably be predicted with radiometrics. In another study, Viscarra
Rossel et al. (2007) used a proximal, on-the-go y-ray spectrometer and collected hyperspectral y-ray
data consisting of 256 energy bands. They found robust predictions (r
2
>0.74) of clay, coarse sand
and Fe contents in top soil (0-15 cm) layer and pH and course sand in deep soil layer (15-50 cm)
using Bootstrap aggregation with partial least squares regression (bagging-PLSR) to relate y-ray
data to soil data. Gamma ray sensing was also initiated by some commercial companies for rapid
soil sensing. For example, Van Egmond et al. (2008) developed a high resolution gamma ray sensor
(the Mole) to measure various soil physical and chemical properties. They found good correlation
(r
2
>0.70) between measured and predicted soil texture and Mg in Zealand province, Netherlands.
Electromagnetic induction sensing
The apparent electrical conductivity (EC
a
) is an indirect indicator for measuring important soil
properties such as salinity, clay content, bulk density, moisture content and top soil depth. The basic
principle of electromagnetic induction (EMI) sensing involves a transmitter and a receiver coil.
The transmitter, energized with an alternative current, creates a primary and time varying magnetic
feld in soil when put near or on the soil surface. This magnetic feld induces small currents in the
soil, which generate a secondary magnetic feld. The receiver coil responds to both primary and

Figure 2. Typical airborne gamma ray spectrum showing energy windows (IAEA, 2003).

Figure 2. Typical airborne gamma ray spectrum showing energy windows (IAEA, 2003).
secondary magnetic felds. The voltage drop between transmitter and receiver is a function of soil
EC. One of the soil sensors which measure the EC
a
on the basis of EMI is the EM38 (Geonics Ltd.,
Ontario). The working principle of the EM38 is shown in Figure 3. Under non-saline conditions,
EC
a
is a function of temperature, clay content, mineralogy, moisture content and bulk density
(McBratney et al., 2005). Soil EC
a
has become one of the most frequently used measurements to
characterize feld variability for application of precision agriculture (Sudduth et al., 2005) although
the multitude of factors affecting EC
a
is a weakness of the method.
McBride et al. (1990) related EC
a
measurements to exchangeable Ca and Mg and CEC. In another
study during feld measurements in New Mexico, Sheets and Hendrickx (1995) related EC
a
to soil
water content and found a linear relationship between them. Brevik et al. (2006) used the EM38 to
fnd spatial heterogeneity of soil properties and reported signifcant correlations (r
2
=0.76) between
clay content and EC
a
. Mertens et al. (2008) also reported several soil properties correlated directly
or indirectly with the EC
a
.
Combined use of sensors
Predictive soil analysis using different sensors is sometimes more likely to be valuable when used
in combination of two or more sensors that may produce complementary information for some
specifc soil property, improve the accuracy of site-specifc predictions and permit a greater range
of soil properties (Taylor et al., 2006). Based on this idea, Taylor et al. (2008) used a gamma-ray
spectrometer and an EM38 as a dual-sensing system to improve data interpretation. Gamma-ray
spectrometry helped to overcome the inability of current EC
a
based methods to sense soil depth
in a highly weathered sandy soil over cemented gravel. They estimated soil depth, clay and plant
available water storage capacity using dual sensors to overcome the drawback of EM38 sensor
when there are gravels underlying the sandy soil. In another study, Viscarra Rossel et al. (2007)
compared the ability of two geophysical sensors (EM38 and y-ray) to predict some soil properties.
They concluded that a y-ray radiometer produced better predictions in the topsoil than an EMI sensor
while EMI sensor predicted clay content better in the subsoil. However, neither sensor, individually
or combined, produced good fts of soil pH and topsoil P content. There are possibilities to prepare
high-resolution soil property maps using sensor fusion techniques. However, determination of a
wide range of soil physical and chemical properties using combined use of sensors has not been
reported in any research.
Our approach
There have been few attempts to quantitatively assess the specifc soil properties in Australia using
dual gamma ray and electromagnetic induction as complementary sensors (Taylor et al., 2008). But
no research has been conducted to use y-ray, EM induction and refectance sensors as a combined

Figure 3. The principle of EM38

Figure 3. The principle of EM38.
approach for predicting various soil properties simultaneously. Based on the fact that we intend to
use sensors based on quite different or complementary sensing principles, we expect an advantage
of a sensor fusion approach. Therefore, this research is focused on development of a combined use
of fundamentally different sensors (e.g. gamma, EM38 and refectance) to predict various surface
soil physical and chemical properties (e.g. organic matter, texture, N, P, K and soil pH). This is an
essential step if combined sensor system is to be used as a soil property mapping tool in precision
farming and is the main objective of this study. All three sensors may eventually be mounted on
a platform for attaining soil response during feld measurements. VNIR sensor might predict soil
macronutrients (N, P, K, pH, organic matter, etc.) and gamma ray might give us information on
soil texture, plant available K and soil pH. EM38 might also predict soil texture, water content,
carbon content and other properties. Combined use of these sensors would be a good option to get
complementary information on these soil properties. Soil samples from top soil (0-20 cm) will be
taken for conventional laboratory analysis and calibration of the sensors. Multivariate calibration
techniques will be employed to reduce the data contents and relate the spectra of these sensors with
the soil properties (Viscarra Rossel et al., 2007). Pre-processing of the spectra might be performed
to smooth the spectra and improve the signal-to-noise ratio.
Conclusions
There is suffcient evidence in literature that refectance, gamma and EM38 sensors individually
have good potential for soil attribute sensing, though these techniques have not been widely used
for a quantitative estimation. When measuring a particular soil property, a single sensor may not
be able to meet its requirements in a specifc kind of a soil environment. We may therefore; think
to combine several sensors into a measurement system that utilizes the best qualities of each
individual sensor. Thus, we expect that these sensors can complement each other for measuring
specifc soil properties. Can the combined sensor system be a robust, rapid and cost friendly soil
sensing system with the combination of gamma, VNIR and EM38 sensors? Research needs to focus
on this possibility for high-resolution soil sensing approach in future. It is expected that a higher
effectiveness of combined sensor systems as compared with the single sensor in its application to
investigate various soil physical and chemical properties in precision agriculture will be found.
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Reproducibility of different composite sampling schemes
for soil phosphorus
M. Schirrmann
1
, H. Domsch
1
, U. von Wulffen
2
, J. Nieter
3
and O. Zauer
3
1
Leibniz Institute for Agricultural Engineering, Potsdam, Germany; mschirrmann@atb-potsdam.de
2
State Offce of Agriculture Forestry and Horticulture (LLFG), Bernburg, Germany
3
Dawa-Agrar GmbH & Co.KG, Dahlenwarsleben, Germany
Abstract
Different composite sampling schemes for soil phosphorus were tested in a regular grid design. The
aim of the study was to determine the infuence of varying sampling support on the characteristics
of the outcome spatial distribution of phosphorus values. Therefore, a feld study and a geostatistical
simulation study were performed. The results showed a clear effect of sampling area on variability,
spatial autocorrelation and prediction effciency. Recommen-dations for correct sampling were
made from the results.
Keywords: soil sampling, sampling support, spatial autocorrelation, simulation, spatial mapping
Introduction
Soil phosphorus exhibits a high spatial variability in felds due to numerous infuences like
soil chemical processes, soil erosion or fertilisation history. To estimate its spatial distribution
it is common to sample with small sample spacing and high sample size (Lauzon et al., 2005;
Wollenhaupt et al., 1994). This arises due to the short autocorrelated range associated commonly with
soil phosphorus in agricultural soils. In practice, farmers normally do not sample soil phosphorus
with spacingm shorter than 100 m in a grid point sampling approach. To get still reliable information
composite samples are being used consisting of several cores (subsamples) distributed over a distinct
area. Thereby, the sampling support, e.g. the sampling area and the number of soil cores, determines
strongly the reliability of the composite sample. For example, Oliver et al. (1997) proposed a
number of four to six subsamples from an area not larger than 5 m to suppress successfully small
scale variation for a point sampling approach. However, this study is concerned with composite
samples that should represent the entire grid cell. The objective of this study is a comparison of
different practical composite schemes for sampling soil phosphorus within a regular grid design.
We showed the differences among the raw data sets and the effects on spatial autocorrelation. We
characterised the behaviour of the different schemes when used for spatial mapping and tested the
accuracy of the spatial estimate. Finally, we generalised results in a geostatistical simulation study.
Site description and data collection
The study was carried out on a feld of a typical crop farm located northwest of Magdeburg,
Germany (52 25 N, 11 54 E). The farm is situated on the border between the loess landscape of
the Magdeburger Boerde in the south and the Altmark, a glacial drift characterised area, in the north.
In the feld Chernozem soils are predominantly found on glacial till. Soil texture is mostly loamy
with some sandy patches. Due to the loess hills the terrain varies greatly and slopes with gradients
higher than 15% are evident. The recent crop history of this feld is barley, canola and wheat.
Field works had been accomplished within a week in autumn before ploughing. The feld was
divided in 59 grid cells with a cell area of 100100 m. Three different composite layouts were used
with different soil core positions aligned on lines in each grid cell (Figure 1): First, a circle line
in the middle of the cell with 5 m radius (V1), second, a line in the middle of each quarter of the
cell (V2) and, third, a soil core in the middle of each ninth of the cell (V3.1). We repeated the third
design by sampling 10 m apart from the core positions to account for fne scale differences (V3.2).
Thus, positions were most concentrated in the frst design and most uniformly distributed in the
third design. Additionally, we implemented a mass sampling design with a sample spacing of 25
m to approximate the true phosphorus distribution for 16 grid cells. It was used as a validation set.
Sampling was done with a 2.5 cm drill to a depth of 30 cm. Composite samples were mixed
thoroughly before given to a standard laboratory. All sample cores were located with an accuracy
of 1.5 m using GPS with satellite based differential signal. In the laboratory, soil samples were
analysed for plant available phosphorus (P) with double lactate extraction method.
Data analysis
Soil test P values of the composite samples were assigned to the centre of each respective grid cell.
We compared the different composite layouts by correlation analysis using the raw data and by
map similarity using data derived spatial models. Correlation analysis was carried out using the
Spearman rank correlation coeffcient to avoid facing problems with non-normality and outliers.
Furthermore, we computed experimental semivariograms and standardised them for comparison.
An observation of the semivariogram values provides information about the spatial autocorrelation
range and the nugget effect (variation of P values at distances smaller than shortest sampling distance
and/or measurement error). The semivariogram is useful to examine the spatial structure of soil
parameters (Goovaerts, 1997). In order to build spatial models theoretical semivariograms were ftted
to the experimental semivariogram values using a weighted least squares approach. After this the
spatial models were interpolated on a fne grid with a resolution of 2 m
2
. The resulting grids were
compared using a fuzzy numerical approach. The similarity of two values a and b was computed by:
S(a,b) = 1-(|a-b|)/max[|a|,|b|]) S(a,b) = 1; perfect agreement of a and b (1)
S(a,b) = 0; no relationship between a and b
During the cell based comparison also the fuzziness of location was used by letting a cell partly
be defned by the cells found in its neighbourhood. Therefore, we chose an exponential decay
function (RIKS, 2006).
Additionally, we assessed the accuracy of the interpolated grids by comparing them with the
validation sample set using the root mean squared error (RMSE).
Simulation study
To generalise the results a simulation study was performed. We simulated 500 random felds with a
virtual dimension of 10001000 m, with mean=0 and variance=1. Due to computational effciency
we set the smallest unit of the simulated feld to 0.010.01 m. We used a spherical covariance

Figure 1. Types of composite sampling designs used in this study. O and Z form is used in the
simulation study.

Figure 1. Types of composite sampling designs used in this study. O and Z form is used in the
simulation study.
function with an autocorrelated range of 120 m. As simulation method we chose circulant embedding
a fast, Fourier transformation based method with good workability when using fnite support
models (Wood and Chan, 1994).
The felds were divided in cells of 100100 m. From each feld and cell, composite samples were
virtually drawn. Along a circle line and a Z shape sample cores were evenly distributed and combined
with mean (Figure 1). The extent of the sample area was changed from 5 to 45 m in steps of 5 m.
For the circle design we additionally changed the number of sample cores from 2 to 16 in steps of
2. Again, all values were related to the respective cell centre. Experimental semivariogram values
were computed. Ordinary kriging was performed to form a secondary spatial representation of the
underlying random feld from the virtual composite samples. To compare the differences between
the random feld and the spatial models a validation set of 1000 sample points in a regular grid
design were used and the RMSE computed.
Map comparison was done using Map Comparison Kit 3 (RIKS, 2006). The R package gstat version
0.9-57 was used for variogram computation and ordinary kriging while geostatistical simulations
were run using the R-package RandomFields version 1.3.35 (Schlather, 2008).
Field study
In Table 1 summary statistics are given for each variant. The exceptional high standard deviation of
V1 is due to the infuence of two extreme values (30.15, 24.15 mg/100g). Neglecting the infuence
of these values all variants show a weak normal distribution with Shapiro Wilk test on a signifcance
level of P=0.01. Further, the interquartile range (IQR) is clearly decreasing from V1 to V3, showing
that a greater variability is present among the P values when the sampling area is more condensed,
because a smaller amount of information is smoothed.
The correlation matrix is given in Table 2. All variants exhibit a signifcant correlation among each
other (P<0.01) but the strength of relationship is different. As expected V3.1 and V3.2 reveal the
highest correlation, because soil cores of both layouts were sampled with only small displacement.
A mean absolute deviation of 1.2 mg/100 g shows an excellent reproducibility, bearing in mind that
laboratory measurement error adds to the difference. The weakest correlation shows V1 related to
the other schemes. However, although we used a complete different design in size and layout, the
correlation is still relatively strong.
Furthermore, we computed the experimental semivariograms for all variants. They are shown in
Figure 2. Two outliers in V1 were excluded from further calculations due to their strong effect on
the semivariogram. Although sample distance of 100 m is relatively high, all variants reveal some
degree of spatial autocorrelation. Examining the experimental semivariograms it can be seen, that
V2, V3.1 and V3.2 have a more or less identical spatial structure. V1, on the other side, differs by
Table 1. Summary statistics.
Scheme Mean Median SD
a
IQR
b
Curtosis Skew Shapiro Wilk
Test -value
V1
c
7.05/6.34 5.93/5.85 5.14/3.47 5.90/5.44 7.48/2.16 2.19/0.14 <0.001/0.051
V2 6.78 5.14 3.75 5.42 0.18 0.72 0.012
V3.1 7.09 3.75 3.45 5.17 0.49 0.59 0.082
V3.2 7.03 3.48 3.67 4.92 0.76 0.81 0.020
a
Standard deviation,
b
Interquartile range,
c
Computed with and without extreme values.
having a shorter practical range and higher semivariogram values in the frst few lag classes. The
spatial structure is much more condensed in comparison to the other variants, which shows that
the effect of spatial autocorrelation is smaller among these samples. Also, a higher nugget effect is
present in V1 which is caused by the greater variability among the P-values.
The theoretical semivariograms ftted by weighted least squares have a strong similarity among V2,
V3.1 and V3.2 with a practical range of about 280 m while the model of V1 exhibits a small nugget
effect and a range of about 220 m. These models were used with ordinary kriging interpolation
and the results are depicted in Figure 3. The shown maps are classifed in 8 equal classes plus one
open class at the high end. The open class was introduced because of the extreme values in V1. The
comparison shows similar patterns in the variation of the modelled soil phosphorus in all maps.
However, size and form of the features differ slightly among V2, V3.1 and V3.2 and stronger with
V1. Thus, when using a greater sampling area the spatial model has a higher reproducibility. These
fndings are also refected by the map similarity index shown in Table 2.
Table 2. Results of correlation analysis and comparison of interpolated maps.
Spearman rank correlation matrix Map similarity matrix
V1 V2 V3.1 V3.2 V1 V2 V3.1 V3.2
V1 1.00 1.00
V2 0.65 1.00 0.76 1.00
V3.1 0.66 0.80 1.00 0.75 0.81 1.00
V3.2 0.68 0.76 0.90 1.00 0.76 0.80 0.88 1.00

Figure 2. Experimental semivariograms with fitted spatial models by weighted least squares.

Figure 2. Experimental semivariograms with ftted spatial models by weighted least squares.
In addition, the validation shows better prediction accuracy for the variants 3.1, 3.2 and 2 with an
RMSE of 5.1, 5.0 and 5.2 mg/100g compared to V1 with an RMSE of 5.6 mg/100g, respectively.
The different behaviour of V1 arises due to its smaller sampling area. Peaks of the underlying spatial
distribution were not averaged and introduce a higher variability among the sampled P-values. On
the other hand, the larger sampling support of V2, V3.1 and V3.2 leads to a longer autocorrelation
length, because of the smoothing effects of aggregation, which reduces the variability over short
distances (Skien and Blschl, 2006).
Simulation study
The contour plot in Figure 4 summarises the results of the 500 simulation runs and shows the
prediction accuracy in dependence on number of soil cores and sampling area. The greatest error
occurs when very small or very large sampling areas were used. The contour plot shows the optimum
accuracy within sampling areas using an extent of 40 to 50 m. Small sampling areas only provide
little information about the rest of the grid cell and the centre is rarely cases the most representative
area in the cell. On the other hand, when the sampling area is chosen too large, redundancy in the
composite samples of neighbouring grid cells occurs. Also, to reach optimum prediction accuracy
a number of six soil cores are required. A problematic situation appears when a small number of
soil cores with a great extent are used.
In this case, the highest prediction error was observable. The two different shapes of the sampling
area (O and Z) did not infuence the prediction accuracy notably. Concerning this simulation study,
errors were of magnitude 10 smaller than resulting from different sample area. However, a specifc
rise in the RMSE values was determined when the sampling area of the Z-design was largely
extended to the grid borders. Because soil cores within the Z-design span up two lines with a greater
number of subsamples near the border than in the O-design causing a greater effect of redundancy.

Figure 3. Interpolated maps showing the predicted spatial phosphorus distribution with the
different composite schemes used.

Figure 3. Interpolated maps showing the predicted spatial phosphorus distribution with the
different composite schemes used.
The smoothing effect, mentioned in the previous section, can also be examined with the simulation
study and is in agreement with the feld study above (Figure 5). When small sampling areas are
used the variance is high. When we increase the sampling area, the variance becomes lower.
Additionally, a stronger difference between semivariogram class 2 (130 m) and class 3 (200 m)
is noticeable the spatial structure is more pronounced. The latter shows that we will notice a
higher autocorrelation among composite samples with larger support areas. It has to be mentioned
that due to the smoothing effect composite sampling can not provide an exact assessment of feld
variability. When extreme values of the phosphorus distribution are important, sampling designs
with smaller support should be used, preferably with short sample spacing.
Conclusion
This research has been shown that sampling support does have an infuence on the predicted
spatial distribution of soil phosphorus. Choosing a too small sampling area will introduce small
scale variability which is non representative for the entire grid cell. In contrary, when the extent
of the sampling line is too large redundancy with neighbouring grid cells can appear. Both effects
diminish prediction accuracy. Furthermore, we detected larger spatial autocorrelation ranges and an
overall reduction of variance when a greater extent of the sampling area was chosen. This should
be recognised correctly when data is used in statistical analysis of variability. However, spatial
mapping became more reproducible when a greater sampling support was used. Summarising
recommendations for soil phosphorus sampling according to this study: Sampling areas should
be chosen larger than 10% of the grid cell. A minimum number of six subsamples should form a
composite sample with even spacing. Finally, soil cores near the border of the grid cell should be
avoided because of redundancy.

Figure 4. Mean prediction error after 500 simulation runs dependent on number of cores and
size of sampling area (cores positioned along a circle line).
Figure 4. Mean prediction error after 500 simulation runs dependent on number of cores and
size of sampling area (cores positioned along a circle line).
Acknowledgments
Funding for this research was provided by the German environmental foundation Deutsche
Bundesstiftung Umwelt (DBU).
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Figure 5. Mean semivariance after 500 simulation runs using different sampling area extents
with 16 soil cores positioned along a circle line

Figure 5. Mean semivariance after 500 simulation runs using different sampling area extents with
16 soil cores positioned along a circle line.
The capability of non-destructive geophysical methods in
precision agriculture to capture subsoil mechanical strength
G. Hoefer
1
, E. Lck
2
, V. Gundelach
3
, J. Rhlmann
4
and J. Bachmann
1
1
Institute of Soil Science, Leibniz Universitt Hannover, Herrenhuser Str. 2, 30419 Hannover,
Germany; hoefer@ifbk.uni-hannover.de
2
Institute of Geosciences, University of Potsdam, Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 24, 14476 Golm, Germany
3
Department of Ground Geophysics, Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources
(BGR), Stilleweg 2, 30655 Hannover, Germany
4
Department of Plant Nutrition, Institute of Vegetable and Ornamental Crops (IGZ), Theodor-
Echtermeyer-Weg 1, 14979 Grobeeren, Germany
Abstract
To date an easy access to regionalise subsoil compaction on the feld scale has not been realised
with the common soil physical methods. Caused by their own methodical limitation, results can
only be produced in the laboratory but with signifcance limited to the probed soil pit and therefore
presenting only a local state of mechanical strength. Existing feld methods to access this problem
allow simple punctual measurements but are not adequate for a larger spatial resolution. Non-
destructive probes, on the other hand, provide a better spatial resolution but in general do not show
directly the state of mechanical stress. A solution for this problem could to approach the state of
mechanical strength focusing on the stress-at-rest-coeffcient, K
0
, in combination with various
independently measured geophysical values like the apparent electrical conductivity (ECa), the
electrical resistivity (ER) and the electromagnetic radiation (EMR). Results from two experimental
sites located in the loess belt of Northern Germany showed that all geophysical sensors respond
to the higher bulk density and soil water content in the areas of the headland, wheel tracks, and
experimental traffc induced overcompaction with higher electrical conductivity or a change in the
refection. A direct correlation to the depth-specifc Penetrologger results and the aligned change
of the soil stress situation was only possible with the Ground penetrating radar (GPR) and the new
soil sensor system Geophilus electricus. This leads us to the conclusion that the used geophysical
based techniques can be used as a pre-screening tool for the detection of the spatial distribution of
the subsoil mechanical strength at least in loess-derived soils.
Keywords: soil stress situation, subsoil compaction, penetration resistance, soil sensing system,
pre-screening
Introduction
Soil compaction is a well known problem in agricultural farming and especially the subsoil
compaction can cause major problems in cultivation or tillage. This can result in permanent or non-
reversible negative effects for the soil mechanical strength, soil structure, soil texture, soil life etc.,
and results in the worst cases in effects like e.g. enhancement of food events. Negative economical
effects are lower crop yields due to defcient plant growth or e.g. higher gasoline consumption due
to the greater force needed to plough the highly compacted areas. Therefore an easy and quick
access to detect and regionalise subsoil compacted areas can be a key to avoid negative impact like
degradation of soil functions as well as economic losses.
As a matter of fact the access of the spatial distribution of soil compaction on the feld scale still is
an open problem. Conventional soil physical investigations are mainly provided - apart from the
visual study of the plant development by some major indicators for compaction e.g. distribution
of the grain size, air and water permeability, water conductivity, soil bulk density, the mechanical
strength, etc. The problem is that these soil investigations are mainly caused by selective and specifc
measurements done by e.g. drilling cores, soil pits etc. which represent only a punctual or a minor
subarea of the soil and ignore at the same time the spatial variability of soil physical properties.
Even special investigations on the mechanical strength of a soil like the pre-compression stress or
shear stress are dealing with the same problems due to their lab-oriented and minor subareas based
probing range. The more spatial penetration resistance measurements are only a solution for small
research grids (e.g. 1010 m) but are not suitable for larger areas. Lastly all of these conventional
methods to regionalise subsoil mechanical strength are nowadays too work and time consuming
and therefore economically inadequate.
To avoid the named methodical and spatial inadequacies, non-invasive methods like non-destructive
geophysical methods offer a solution. So far the use of these non-invasive/ non-destructive
geophysical based sensors is common in geology, archaeology, and precision farming. Within
precision agriculture these sensors are widely accepted to detect various soil properties like
texture variations by using the apparent electrical conductivity of the soil (Corwin and Lesch
2003, 2005a,b,c). Factors which infuence the apparent electrical conductivity (ECa) in soils are
primarily soil salinity, clay content, actual water content and cation exchange capacity (Durlesser,
1999; Rhoades et al., 1989; Sudduth et al., 2001).
Some probes like the EM38 and the Veris 3100 soil mapping system as widely applied sensors
can provide a better spatial resolution in general and allow a regionalisation for various soil
characteristica (Domsch and Giebel, 2004; Doolittle et al., 2002; Lilienthal et al., 2005; Sudduth
et al., 2003, 2005). The measurement of the ECa with the EM38 and the Veris 3100 is e.g. sensible
with respect to the variation and the thickness of clay layers in the top and subsoil (Doolittle et
al., 1994; Triantaflis and Lesch, 2005; Vitharana et al., 2006) but not for the specifc detection of
depth-dependent material properties (Corwin and Lesch, 2003). Opposite to these sensors the new
Geophilus electricus and the Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) are in addition to the detection
of the variations of the soil material - able to identify a depth related variation of the soil structure,
the bulk density, and the soil water content (Freeland et al., 1998, Inman et al., 2002; Lck and
Rhlmann 2007, 2008a,b).
Therefore we combined conventional minimum-invasive methods e.g. the penetration resistance
measurements (PR) with geophysical non-invasive methods e.g. electromagnetic induction (EMI),
galvanic constant resistivity (GCR), and electromagnetic radiation (EMR) to accomplish a systematic
approach for an interpretation of depth-dependent data with respect to their location in the feld.
To derive reliable data representative for soil mechanical stress from penetration resistance
measurements, a new theoretical approach had to be worked out. Hartge and Bachmann (2004) and
later Horn et al. (2007) proposed a simple, site-specifc analysis for the interpretation of subsoil
mechanical strength and therefore depth-dependent penetration resistance (PR) characteristics.
Results for loess profles showed that the depth-dependent relation of PR for overburden soil can be
described systematically, so that deviations from the non-compacted reference state can be detected.
PR-detectable precompaction increased with duration of land use (Bachmann and Hartge, 2006) or
land-use intensity, i.e. changing from forest soils (reference) to agriculturally used soils. Increasing
compression, e.g. by adding additional temporary loads to the soil surface, leads to a decrease
of the depth-dependent void ratio, which coincides with a mean increase of the supporting grain
contacts. Bachmann and Hartge (2006) further reported that an observed similarity of the readings
indicate that the horizontal stress component is dominant for the vertical penetration resistance as
well as for the shear resistance. Readings from both measurements may be used to represent the
horizontal stress component in order to estimate an equivalent of the stress-at-rest-coeffcient K
0
(while K
0
is the ratio of normal compaction and precompaction). This state of precompaction and
hence as well the soil mechanical strength can be detected by using results of PR measurements.
The underlying assumption is, that the vertical stress component for the lower-most layer assessed
by PR measurements represents the ideal stress situation, i.e. the stress in that depth is uniform in all
directions which is similar to the hydrostatic stress propagation in liquids. The procedure described
by Hartge and Bachmann (2004) proposed that drawing a straight line from the maximum depth
towards the origin of the coordinates in the depth vs. PR plot gives values of the quasi hydrostatic
condition for each depth for a mechanically non-affected normally consolidated soil i.e. values
for the principal stress (
x
) are available for each depth up to the soil surface simply by linear
interpolation. To attribute a hydrostatic stress situation gives a site-specifc and easily defnable base,
which characterises a non-preconsolidated and mechanically undisturbed soil. Deviations from the
ideal (hydrostatic) condition, which serves as the reference for non-compaction, are considered to
represent the depth-dependent compaction state of the soil, i.e. K
0
values >1 indicate compacted
soil layers and K
0
values <1 represent labile loosened layers (Horn et al., 2007).
Using this theoretical background our main objective is to prove if non-destructive geophysical
feld techniques are able to detect inhomogeneities in the feld, which can be used to deduce the
state of soil mechanical strength and within the compaction state of the soil.
The subsoil compaction was assessed by measuring the penetration resistance (PR) with a hand-
driven Penetrologger (Eijkelkamp, Giesbeek, the Netherlands) as a feld reference method. The
measuring range is between 0.00-10.00 MPa with a resolution of 0.01 MPa. Measuring depth is
from the soil surface down to 0.8 m with a vertical resolution of 0.01 m.
Further we explored some soil pits including the above mentioned conventional methods to
confrm the measured PR data. The used non-invasive geophysical techniques are separated by
their methodical background and can be described as follows:
Measurement of the electromagnetic induction (EMI) by EM38
The spatial variability of soil physical properties was assessed by measuring the apparent electrical
conductivity (ECa). The electromagnetic induction meter (EM38 probe) (Geonics, Mississauga,
Canada) induces an electromagnetic feld in the ground with a transmitter coil and measures with a
receiver coil the apparent electrical conductivity of the soil. The EM38 reaches, on average, depths
of exploration of 1.5 meters in the vertical mode and of 0.75 meters in the horizontal dipole mode.
The actual depth depends on the local apparent electrical conductivity of the soil. The measured
quantities are the apparent electrical conductivity (ECa) in milliSiemens per meter (mS/m).
Measurement of the galvanic constant resistivity (GCR) by Veris 3100
The Veris 3100 (Veris Technologies, Salina, USA) as a galvanic contact resistivity meter emits
an alternating voltage into the ground through metal electrodes and measures the resistance. The
system works in a four equally and parallel spaced metal electrodes in a Wenner array which
are inserted 6cm into the soil while the electrodes are replaced by six rotating coulter discs and
pulled by a cart. The measurements are reaching depth sections from 0.00-0.30 m or from 0.00-
0.90 m. Measured is the apparent electrical conductivity (ECa) in milliSiemens per meter (mS/m).
Measurement of the galvanic constant resistivity (GCR) by Geophilus electricus
The Geophilus electricus (University of Potsdam and Institute of Vegetable and Ornamental Crops,
Grobeeren, Germany) as well is a galvanic contact resistivity measurement system. But instead
of four (six) discs parallel in one line, six electrode pairs are pulled behind a tractor. To get a better
ground contact the metal coulter electrodes have metallic spike extensions. The frst electrode pair is
the current electrode and the additional fve electrode pairs are the potential electrodes. The current
electrode pair induces an alternating voltage into the soil while the following electrodes measure the
resulting voltage. This allows to determine the apparent electrical resistance in fve depth sections
with a maximum depth of 1 m. Measures is as well the apparent electrical conductivity (ECa) in
milliSiemens per meter (mS/m).
Measurement of electromagnetic radiation (EMR) by ground penetrating radar (GPR)
The GPR (Geophysical Survey Systems, Salem, USA) uses electromagnetic radiation in the
microwave band (UHF/VHF frequencies) of the radio spectrum and detects the refected signals
from subsurface structures. The transmitting antenna radiates short pulses of the high-frequency
waves in pico seconds or nano seconds into the ground. The wave hits a boundary with a different
dielectric constants and the receiving antenna records variations in the refected return signal. The
diffusion of the waves depend on the structure of the soil which causes the refection, scattering,
diffraction, and transmission of the induced wave. The runtime, phase and amplitude of the refected
wave are logged. The GPR in use is a 400 Mhz antenna. The depth range in this case is about 2 m.
The experimental sites we investigated (Ruthe I+II) are located in Northern Germany, south of
Hannover (52 23 N, 9 44 E) in the German loess belt with an annual precipitation around 650 mm
per year and a mean annual temperature about 9 C. The prevailing soil typ at Ruthe is classifed as
a typical luvisol which is derived from Weichselian loess with a development up to a depth of 1.2
m. Below the loess we found a highly permeable layer of quaternary weichselian sand and gravel
of the near River Leine valley. The texture of the sites is about 10-17% clay, with a maximum of
20% in the B
t
- horizon, 70-80% silt and 10-15% sand content throughout the soil profle. The frst
test feld (Ruthe I) is under agricultural use with different types of cultivation and with a mixture
of crop growing (e.g. wheat or barley) and vegetable growing (e.g. caulifower or cabbage). The
second experimental site in Ruthe (Ruthe II) (with the same climatic, soil, and cultivation conditions)
was traffcked and overburdened with heavy machinery to induce an intense subsoil compaction.
The measurements were done in spring and autumn from 2005 till present. EM38 measurements were
taken at about 10,000 locations on a feld plot size of 4270 m (Ruthe I) and 22144 m (Ruthe II)
with different nodal distances between 0.6 m, 1.0 m, 2.0 m, 3.0 m and 5.0 m. PR values were always
measured at the same locations. Veris measurements were taken in spring 2007, Geophilus electricus
measurements in spring 2008 and GPR measurements in autumn 2006, spring 2007, and 2008.
Results of the PR measurements show that the maximum values are in the depth compartment of
0.30-0.40 m which corresponds with the subsoil compaction beneath the plough layer.
The results of the measurements with the EM38 show a clear structure of the data, indicating areas
with higher absolute values at the headland, the track wheels, and the experimental compacted areas
of the feld due to the intensive traffcking on those domains. The differences in the intensity and
the distribution of the ECa values correlate to the average soil water content at the testing time.
The measurements with the Veris 3100 are similar but with an exception on two smaller areas at
the upper and lower margin of the feld. These appearing hotspots are not detectable with all
other geophysical or mechanical methods in use. Caused by their own methodical restriction the
two geophysical methods are not able to identify the depth of the occurring high ECa values. But
with the penetrologger data as a reference these results show a good correlation to the detected
soil mechanical strength situation.
The Geophilus electricus results show the same results as the EM38 measurements, but additionally
it shows the different conductivity values of the fve depth segments. They confrm the clear result
that in the above mentioned area the section between 0.20-0.40 m has the highest conductivity values.
A comparable result can be identifed by a look at the radargrams. The refections are different
for the headland area and experimentally compacted area caused by the induced chance of the
soil strength. A comparison with Penetrologger data shows for both methods a strong correlation.
Due to technical restrictions of the Penetrologger used, the reference measurement depth is 0.8 m for
all soils. However, if this basic assumption of including only one depth as a reference is considered
as arbitrary, the reliability may be proved by the agreement between the postulated hydrostatic
curve and measured PR at the base of the profle (0.65 to 0.8 m). Deviations are negligible near the
soil surface and increase only slightly with increasing depth except for the highly compacted zone.
However, no deviation occurs if the subsoil below the lower-most readings is normally compacted,
as it is generally found for the subarea with the lowest ECa values.
We detected various subareas according to the state of the mechanical strength in the subsoil, which
affects e.g. bulk density and hydraulic properties of the soil.
The results from the experimental sites showed a strong correlation between penetration resistance
data and the signal of the various geophysical methods, especially in the areas with higher PR
values. This is mainly caused by a good response of the lateral water content in the signifcantly
compacted subsoil between 0.30-0.40 m to all geophysical methods.
Conclusions
Penetration resistance (PR) measurements can be performed quickly with minimal destruction of
the site and the soil structure. It is the only hand-driven feld method to measure soil mechanical
strength directly and in situ. But as a single tool for precision agriculture it is defnitely not suitable
due to its marginal applicability for larger areas respectively scales.
All used geophysical methods were able to fnd differences in the soil bulk density and the soil
water content distribution. Correlations were especially found between the reference method - the
Penetrologger (PR) - and the EM38 (ECa) values, particularly in the depth 0.30-0.40 m, which
generally is the depth increment with the highest penetration resistance. A reasonable agreement
was found also for ECa and the precompaction state of the subsoil, K
0
(PR) and therefore as well
for the mechanical strength. Results show that K
0
(PR) is correlated to ECa. This leads us to the
conclusion that the non-destructive geophysical based EM38 technique can be used for the detection
of subplots with an extreme compaction or a non-compaction state but cannot give the depth or
dimension. The Veris 3100 showed nearly the same results. As well like the EM38, the Veris 3100
is not suitable for depth-dependent measurements.
The refections of the GPR profles and the Geophilus electricus measurements show additionally
to the detection of the soil bulk density and the soil water content distribution, a direct depth-
dependent correlation with the soil stress situation, when related to the PR reference method of
the Penetrologger.
These results lead us to the conclusion that in precision agriculture nearly each of the applied
geophysical based methods and sensors can be used as detectors for subsoil mechanical strength
in loess derived or comparable homogenous soils. Therefore the introduced methodology can be
a useful tool for the pre-screening of subsoil compaction.
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Comparison of different EC-mapping sensors
E. Lueck
1
, U. Spangenberg
1
and J. Ruehlmann
2
1
University of Potsdam, Institute of Geosciences, Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 24, 14476 Golm, Germany;
elueck@geo.uni-potsdam.de
2
Institute of Vegetable and Ornamental Crops Grossbeeren/Erfurt, Theodor-Echtermeyer-Weg,14979
Grossbeeren, Germany
Abstract
Digital Soil Mapping becomes more and more important not only in Precision Farming. In the
past, miscellaneous technologies and sensors, including geophysical techniques were tested to get
information about the spatial variability of the soil properties. Especially the measurement of the
electrical conductivity (EC) may be useful for delineating heterogeneity in soil parameters like
texture, water content as well as fuid conductivity, compaction and organic matter. Conductivity
measurements can be performed either using an electromagnetic method or working with capacitive
or galvanic coupling electrodes. In this context, the EM38 (Geonics, Canada), the Ohmmapper
(Geometrics, USA), the Veris 3100 (Veris technologies, USA) and the ARP (Geocarta, France) are
recently the most popular devices. A new soil mapping system the Geophilus electricus is based on
rolling electrodes moved by a vehicle and combined with a special conductivity instrument as well
with a GPS-system. All existing sensors differ not only concerning the working principle; also the
depth range and the depth sensitivity are different. In this paper, the new sensor Geophilus electricus
is presented. Measurements were performed at different scales and landscapes and they were
compared with existing instruments. The conductivity data were quite similar. Because Geophilus
is capable to measure ECa (apparent electrical conductivity) for fve channels simultaneously, we
get more detailed information also about the vertical structure that means about layers within the
investigated depth range. Additional information about the spectral behaviour not only of EC but
also of the phase shift is useful to characterize soil properties.
Keywords: Geophilus electricus, electrical conductivity, phase shift, spatial heterogeneity, vertical
stratifcation
Introduction
On the one hand, precision farming needs digital soil data with a high spatial resolution and on the
other hand, geophysics offers several methods for the rapid and non-invasive imaging of different soil
properties. Searching for a soil parameter that is easy to measure, the apparent electrical conductivity
(ECa) mapping became popular (Allred et al., 2008). The electrical soil conductivity is infuenced
by soil properties like texture, clay mineralogy, porosity and bulk density, water content, type and
concentration of ions, organic matter content and soil temperature. Therefore, EC may be useful
for delineating management zones (McBratney et al., 2005).
Whereas in the past applied geophysics was conventionally concentrated on a stationary data
collection, the new applications ask for continuously working sensors not only in agriculture but
also in archaeology and for environmental investigations. Different types of sensors are on the
market which give the possibility to image the pattern of apparent electrical conductivity. New
sensors were developed or are under construction. The Geophilus (Lck and Ruehlmann, 2008) is
one of these new instruments.
All conductivity sensors can be classifed according to their working principles or due to the required
contact with the soil. The DC method (direct current) uses four electrodes two electrodes to inject a
current into the soil and two further electrodes to measure the resulting voltage at different distances.
By varying the spacing between the electrodes, the depth range of the measurements can be
infuenced. Different soil horizons can be investigated by measuring simultaneously with more
than four electrodes. DC method delivers absolute values of resistivity without any calibration.
The electromagnetic method uses a combination of two coils. We can determine the electrical
conductivity of the subsoil by comparison of the magnetic feld at the transmitter and at the receiver
soil. The investigated depth range depends mostly on the coil separation within the instrument but
on the working frequency. Whereas electromagnetic devices work without contact with the soil,
galvanic and capacitive coupled electrodes need a good contact. Beside the working principle also
the confguration (geometry of the electrode array or of the coil arrangement, frequencies or time
windows etc) infuences the depth sensitivity of the measurement (Dabas and Tabbagh, 2003;
Sudduth et al., 2003).
Geophysical data can be collected and analyzed to get 2-dimensional information about the spatial
heterogeneity of a defned depth range or to get information about the vertical stratifcation along
one transect or 3-dimensional within a feld. The information about layers is essential to get an
idea about vertical stratifcation, about possible water retaining horizons, about fow paths etc.
Direct current (DC)-method offers the possibility of changing the depth sensitivity by varying the
spacing between the electrodes.
The Geophilus was designed after summarizing practical experiences with the EM38, the Veris
3100, the ARP and the OhmMapper. Geophilus (Figure 1) uses rolling electrodes (constructed
by J. Bigus and I. Hauschild IGZ Grossbeeren) in combination with a special conductivity
instrument developed by T. Radic (Radic 2008). It is capable of measuring complex conductivity
(amplitude and phase shift) in a frequency range between 1 mHz and 1 kHz. Four frequencies and

Figure 1. Schema of GEOPHILUS ELECTRICUS
a) side-view giving the position of data values depending on the used electrodes
b) top-view showing the geometry between the electrodes

Figure 1. Schema of Geophilus electricus. (a) side-view giving the position of data values depending
on the used electrodes. (b) top-view showing the geometry between the electrodes.
fve channels can be measured simultaneously. The resulting spectral information can provide
additional information for an enhanced characterization of materials to remove ambiguity in the
interpretation of conductivity data. Simultaneously, GPS data are recorded for geo-referencing the
electrical measurements.
Geophilus represents a modular construction with changeable dipole width as well as dipole
spacing. Consequently, this fexibility of the system allows enlarging its application range. The
geometry between the electrodes infuences both the depth and the signal to noise ratio. The current
electrode confguration (Figure 1) is an equatorial dipole-dipole array using six channels (1 channel
for current injection and 5 channels for voltage measurements) with 1 m dipole width and 0.5 m
dipole spacing. Figure 2 shows the sensitivity curves for all fve voltage channels modelled after
the formula given by Roy and Apparao (1971). Whereas channel 1 is most sensitive to a depth of
about 0.15 m channel 5 is most infuenced by a depth of about 0.65 m. Increasing dipole spacing
results in a remarkable smoothing of the sensitivity curve. Channel 1 is mostly infuenced by the
upper 0.5 m, 50% of the signal of channel 5 refect the depth range between 0.25 and 1.5 m.
The velocity of the rolling electrode system affects, in combination with the sampling rate, the
spatial resolution within the measured traces. Sampling rate is about one value per second; maximum
velocity should not exceed 15 km/h. Consequently, the sampling interval is between 0.5 and 5 m.
If the distance between the traces is about 18 m more than 100 ha can be daily mapped.
Field experiments
Conductivity mapping was carried out at different seasons of the year and at different sites in
Germany to demonstrate and to evaluate this new system. First of all, detailed investigations were
done in Grossbeeren (15 km south of Berlin) along a profle with known anomalies. At a 200 m long
profle, structures from loam and peat were artifcially embedded in a sandy soil with a well defned
geometry. Conductivity data were collected with the new system and compared with conventional
data received with fxed electrodes and also with EM38 and OhmMapper. The measured ECa values
were inverted and the resulting conductivity depth section was evaluated by comparison with the
known geometry of the structures.
A small (150115 m) feld in Bornim (30 km west of Berlin) is used as a test site for measurements
with a high spatial resolution. At this site, frst ECa mapping was performed in summer 2003. After
proving the stability of conductivity pattern for this location, the site was repeatedly investigated
with several geophysical instruments (EM38, EM38-DD, ARP, Veris 3100 and Geophilus). At

Figure 2 Sensitivity-depth-curves for an equatorial dipole-dipole array with 1 m dipole width
and 0.5 m dipole spacing

Figure 2. Sensitivity-depth-curves for an equatorial dipole-dipole array with 1 m dipole width
and 0.5 m dipole spacing.
certain locations, direct push measurements were done to verify the conductivity depth distribution.
Soil texture of the site is dominated by loamy sand. The landscape was formed by the last ice age.
The measurements in Horstwalde (40 km south of Berlin) demonstrate the additional possibilities
of phase shift data. Horstwalde represents a sandy region which was infuenced by human activities
in the past. Now, it is a fallow covered by grass and moss. A concrete plate is visible at some points
in the eastern part of the site. Magnetic and electromagnetic measurements gave hints on some
pipes within this area. Measurements with Geophilus were carried out and compared with existing
data collected by colleagues of the University of Potsdam.
Results
Measurements with the Geophilus system deliver forty data values per sampling interval: values for
ECa and phase shift for fve depth intervals each measured with four signal frequencies. Whereas
the phase shift depends signifcantly on frequency, the conductivity values differ only slightly. The
best results we obtained using a signal frequency of about 200 Hz. This corresponds well with
frequencies used by ARP and VERIS. The signal frequency of the ARP system is about 220 Hz
and Veris 3100 uses about 150 Hz.
Grossbeeren
The data quality of Geophilus was demonstrated by repeated measurements along several transects.
Measurements were made with varying driving velocities. It can be shown that conductivities are
well reproducible for all channels. However, the signal to noise ratio decreases with increasing
dipole spacing. The current confguration produces a ratio between the measured amplitudes of
about 1:50 (channel 5 compared with channel 1). The amplitude of channel 1 can achieve 2 V in
maximum. That means, the amplitudes of channel 5 are always less than 40 mV. Because of the
weakness of the signal the continuous measurement of the phase shift is much more complicated
and consequently more unstable.
Besides the reproducibility of the signal, the depth sensitivity should be a criterium for the choice
of a sensor. Figure 3 shows the conductivity-depth-section measured at the test site in Grossbeeren
compared with a sketch of the artifcial loamy structure. The differences in soil texture (Table 1)
generate conductivity contrasts which can be measured by electrical methods. All measurements
with fxed electrodes (Wenner, Schlumberger, Dipole-Dipole and equatorial dipole array) were able
to outline the loam while the sharpness of the image differs in dependence on the geometry of the
electrodes. Conventional prospection with a Wenner-array was carried out with 8 levels starting
with a unit electrode spacing of 0.5 m and ending with 4 m. The inverted data up to a depth of 2 m
refect well the inclination and the lower horizon of the loam. To realize a similar lateral resolution,
the Geophilus was moved slowly with a velocity between 1 and 2 km/h. The resultant sampling
interval of about 0.6 m between points causes a similar lateral resolution as was achieved with
the fxed electrodes. With Geophilus, the dip angle of the boundaries can be estimated too. Figure
3C gives the measured data and Figure 3D shows the inverted results. The main structures can be
found in both sections although the results of Geophilus measurements are more noisy compared
to the fxed electrodes. The contrast between sand and loam was also detected in all sections of
the phase shift (not shown here). Figure 3A contains the EM38 data (vertical dipole mode). The
conductive zone can be seen within the data but it is impossible to extract information about the
geometry of the horizon.
Bornim
The conductivity maps for the test site Bornim illustrate some differences of electromagnetic
and DC current method, not only in the depth but also in the sensitivity (Figure 4). ECa maps are
shown for several sensors. Whereas the electromagnetic method (EM38) is much more sensitive for
conductive material, the DC method is more convenient to image high resistive objects. Therefore,
measurements with the EM38 are much more infuenced by metallic objects. The EM38 map
refects different metallic pipes and in the south of the feld a lot of small metal objects. All other
ECa-maps are only slightly infuenced by these structures. The Geophilus data refect the increasing
conductivity with depth. Whereas the frst level does not show signifcant lateral variation, the ffth
channel with its signal maximum at 0.7 m depth pronounces lateral variation in conductivity values.
Veris (Veris technologies, USA) and ARP (Geocarta, France) differ in their depth-sensitivity-curves.
From these curves and consequently from the compared data (not all data are shown here) can
be concluded that the Veris3100 images the upper horizons whereas the ARP is also able to get
information about the stratifcation up to 2 m depth.
Up to now, no data were shown concerning the phase shift. Whereas ECa is well accepted in soil
sciences, the phase shift is not introduced yet. From laboratory studies we know that the phase
measurements refect also information about induced polarization (IP) processes. Usually, IP effects
Table 1. Soil texture for the test site Grossbeeren.
Particle size fraction [%]
Grain size [mm] 0.632.0 0.20.63 0.0630.2 0.020.063 0.00630.02 0.0020.0063 <0.002
Sand 8.8 54.9 22.8 4.1 3.6 3.1 2.7
Loam 3.1 21 28.9 13.1 13.1 12.4 8.4

Figure 3 Conductivity-depth-sections along the reference transect in Grossbeeren
A) Sketch of the situation and results from EM38 measurements
B) EC model obtained with fixed electrodes (Wenner-array)
C) ECa data measured with GEOPHILUS
D) EC model for GEOPHILUS data

Figure 3. Conductivity-depth-sections along the reference transect in Grossbeeren. (A) Sketch of
the situation and results from EM38 measurements. (B) EC model obtained with fxed electrodes
(Wenner-array). (C) ECa data measured with Geophilus. (D) EC model for Geophilus data.
produce phase shifts of less than 1 in sandy soils. Here, we have detected phase shifts of much
larger magnitude with alternating sign indicating that other than IP effects were (additionally)
detected. In the past, phase readings were done with fxed electrodes in the feld. Geophilus brought
out an innovation to measure the phase shift also while continuously moving over the feld. The
practicability of these additional data depends mostly on the current soil conditions. Several effects
can infuence the phase measurements. So far, we produced phase maps refecting differences in soil
salinity and soil compactness at the surface. In combination with metallic pipes, electromagnetic
effects dominate the phase data.
Horstwalde
The test site Horstwalde is suitable to demonstrate the advantage of additional phase shift data.
To get a high spatial accuracy, Geophilus was combined with a high-precision tracking total station
(TTS). The acquisition setup is provided by U. Bniger and J. Tronicke (personal communication).
The spatial resolution was about 1.5 m in both directions. Figure 5 provides few results from this
survey. The ECa maps (Figures 5A, B and C) demonstrate the decreasing conductivity with depth.
Figure 5A shows the results for the frst channel whereas Figures 5B and 5C give the results for
channel 2 and channel 5, respectively. The sandy texture of the soil generates in general very low
ECa values only with a small heterogeneity. A spatial differentiation can be seen best for channel
1. The higher conductivities in the eastern part (Figure 5A) are caused by the concrete plate which
is visible at the surface at several locations. The phase shift data demonstrate the extension of this

Figure 4. Conductivity maps of the test site Bornim measured with the several sensors

Figure 4. Conductivity maps of the test site Bornim measured with the several sensors.
plate as a sharp contrast (Figure 5D, 5E and 5F). Beside this, the phase map is dominated by some
linear lineaments which show rectangular features. Similar structures can be imaged also with
magnetic methods, with EM38 and with ground penetrating radar. It can be assumed that these
features are due to metallic pipes. Electromagnetic coupling will produce the phase shift shown
in the lower line of Figure 5.
Conclusion
Some technical developments are on the way to make conductivity data useable for digital soil
mapping. Most of the existing sensors are capable to get stable ECa information. New sensors are
under construction. The question occurs why different sensors are necessary and how to compare
them. Different criteria can be used to select a sensor:
number of simultaneously measured channels resulting in the number of depth intervals;
stability of the measurements;
measurement of absolute or relative ECa values;
handling and operation of the equipment;
additional information to control the ambiguousness in the interpretation.

Figure 5 Spatial distribution of ECa and phase shift at the test site Horstwalde
From left to right channel 1, channel 2 and channel 5,
Upper line - ECa maps, lower line - maps of phase shift

Figure 5. Spatial distribution of ECa and phase shift at the test site Horstwalde. From left to right
channel 1, channel 2 and channel 5; Upper line ECa maps, lower line maps of phase shift.
The application of a method and a sensor depends not only on the availability but also on the target
of the investigation. Electromagnetic devices dont need heavy technique for support whereas rolling
electrodes can not be moved without a vehicle. However, the penetration depth can be controlled
much easier using DC methods than working with EM technique. Furthermore, DC methods
measure absolute conductivity values without any necessity to calibrate the device at the beginning
of the measurement. The practicability of the systems should also not be neglected. Especially
the Veris3100 can be handled easily while the ARP and also the Geophilus system require some
experience at the moment. Therefore, further work is needed to simplify the operational system
of Geophilus.
All tested sensors were useful to image the lateral variation of electrical conductivity. Differences
in the confguration result in specifc depth sensitivities. ARP and Geophilus are more convenient
to get also a vertical resolution than EM38 or Veris3100.
In the future, we will complete practical experiences in soil mapping on farm scale and we will use
it for further application like prospection of archaeological sites and environmental investigations.
Acknowledgement
In Bornim, Veris3100 and ARP data were collected during former projects. We thank A. Kerkenpass,
M. Dabas and R. Gebbers for their feld work and for the good cooperation in this context during
the last years. Furthermore, we want to thank all colleagues from the University of Potsdam who
have contributed information about the test site in Horstwalde.
References
Allred B.J., Daniels J.J. and Ehsani M.R., 2008. Handbook of Agricultural Geophysics, ISBN 9780849337284,
CRC Press, 410 pp.
Dabas M. and Tabbagh A., 2003. A Comparison of EMI and DC methods used in soil mapping theoretical
considerations for Precision Agriculture. 4
th
Conference on Precision Agriculture. Proceedings, pp 121-127.
Lck E. and Ruehlmann J., 2008. Electrical Conductivity Mapping with GEOPHILUS Electricus, EAGE,
Near Surface Geophysics, 15-17 September 2008, Krakow, CD of proceedings.
McBratney A.B., Minasny B. and Whelan B.M., 2005. Obtaining useful high-resolution soil data from
proximally-sensed electrical conductivity/resistivity (PSEC/R) surveys. 5
th
Conference on Precision
Agriculture, Proceedings, pp. 503-510.
Radic T., 2008. Instrumentelle und auswertemethodische Arbeiten zur Wechselstromgeoelektrik, PhD-thesis,
Technical University Berlin.
Roy A. and Apparao A., 1971. Depth of investigation in direct current methods. Geophyiscs 36, 943-959.
Sudduth K.A., Kitchen N.R., Bollero G.A., Bullock D.G. and Wiebold W.J., 2003. Comparison of Electromagnetic
Induction and Direct Sensing of Soil Electrical Conductivity. Agronomy Journal 95, 472-482.
Comparison of directional semi-variograms for mouldboard
plough and feld cultivator draught
N.B. McLaughlin, S.D. Burtt and D.R. Lapen
Eastern Cereal and Oilseed Research Centre, Research Branch, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada,
960 Carling Ave., Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0C6, Canada; neil.mclaughlin@agr.gc.ca
Abstract
Zones of excessive and potentially yield limiting soil strength can be identifed in tillage implement
draught maps. Spatial draught measurements were made for primary tillage with a mouldboard
plough and tertiary tillage with a feld cultivator operated in perpendicular directions in a clay loam
feld. Draught data were normalized, and directional semi-variograms were calculated parallel
and perpendicular to the direction of travel. Parallel and perpendicular semi-variograms for the
mouldboard plough draught data were almost identical indicating isentropic data. This is in contrast
with earlier work on a long narrow feld where wheel traffc had been in the same direction for many
years, and the perpendicular semi-variogram reached the sill at a much shorter lag distance than
the parallel semi-variogram. The parallel semi-variogram for tertiary tillage with a feld cultivator
was smooth and gradually increased with increasing lag distance following an exponential model.
In contrast, the perpendicular semi-variogram was nearly fat but exhibited a systematic saw tooth
appearance with lag distance corresponding to twice the implement width and was attributed to
feld slope. Coeffcient of variation of the mouldboard plough data was 11% compared to 7% for the
feld cultivator. The analysis suggests that draught data from primary tillage is a better indicator of
small scale spatial variability than draught data for tertiary tillage. Draught data should be corrected
for feld slope before performing detailed spatial analysis.
Keywords: directional semi-variogram, lag distance, soil strength, wheel traffc
Introduction
High soil strength is known to negatively impact plant root growth and crop performance. The
soil cone penetrometer (ASABE, 2004) is widely used for in situ measurement of soil strength in
agriculture. It provides a detailed vertical profle of soil strength, but only for a very small area. Large
numbers of measurements are required to adequately assess variability on a feld scale (Lapen et al.,
2001). Many designs of automated soil cone penetrometers have been reported in the literature with
the common goal of reducing labour input and increasing the number of measurements possible
(Young et al., 2000; Kosugi et al., 2009). Recently, a number of different designs of on-the-go
soil strength measurement systems have been developed consisting of an instrumented tool pulled
through the soil by a tractor (Mouazen et al., 2003; Siefken et al., 2005; Chung et al., 2006).
Previous work in our laboratory has shown some potential in tillage implement draught as an
indicator of soil physical parameters and a predictor of crop yield (McLaughlin et al., 2001; Lapen
et al., 2002). High density draught can be measured in conjunction with a normal tillage operation
with little additional cost. The disadvantage of implement draught measurements is that they are
integrated over the width and operating depth of the implement. It is diffcult to precisely control
operating depth of tillage equipment, and it is well known that tillage implement draught is strongly
affected by operating depth.
Large differences in tillage implement draught are often observed within one machine width in
adjacent passes. These differences are thought to be due in part localized compaction from previous
wheel traffc, and differences in operating depth due to micro topography imparted by ridges and
ruts from previous tillage, wheel traffc and crop rows. Often, feld shape, topography and operator
preference result in traffc patterns in the same general direction year after year and the localized
impact of wheel traffc builds up over time.
Problem areas of high soil strength within a feld need to be delineated so remedial action such as
deep tillage can be taken. Spatial artefacts resulting from the measurement system need to be fltered
out so the true structure of the soil variability can be defned. Some methods in spatial statistics
such as Kridging require prior development of semi-variograms to assess the structure and scale
of spatial variability. Our previous work with directional semi-variograms of mouldboard plough
draught data has shown much smaller lag distances perpendicular than parallel to the direction of
travel (McLaughlin and Lapen, 2007). It is not known how much of this difference is due to surface
microtopography, and how much is due to true directional differences in variability of soil strength.
The objective of this paper is to separate the scale of variability in two directions by analyzing
draught data from two different tillage operations conducted on the same feld but in different
directions. The underlying assumption is that the larger scale variability was the same for both
tillage operations.
Field experiments
Field experiments were conducted in a 30 ha feld at the former Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
Animal Research Centre farm, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada (Lat. 45
o
18 N, Long. 75
o
44 W). The
soils are classifed as Orthic Humic Gleysols (Dalhousie clay-loam) with a moderately fne texture,
and poorly drained. Field topography was gently sloping towards the north-east with mean slope of
less than 0.5%. The feld was tile drained with tiles running in an east-west direction, and spaced
at approximately 15 m.
The feld had been cash cropped for the last decade with a corn-soybean rotation. Farming operations
were similar to those for a commercial cash crop and livestock farm. Liquid manure from the
research centre livestock had been applied with large liquid manure spreaders. Cropping direction
was mostly in the east west direction, but was switched to north-south in the test year. Conventional
tillage practices were followed including fall mouldboard ploughing followed by spring discing and
feld cultivation. Direction of primary tillage and secondary tillage was generally in the direction of
previous the crop rows, but tertiary tillage was either perpendicular or at an angle to primary tillage.
In the test year, the feld was cropped in grain corn with rows in the north south direction. In mid
November, after harvest, the feld was mouldboard ploughed in the north south direction. The
plough was a fve bottom Kverneland semi-mount plough with furrow width set at 45 cm. Total
implement width was 2.3 m, nominal ploughing depth was 17 cm and nominal travel speed was
6.0 km/h. The following spring, the feld was disced in the north-south direction, and cultivated
in the east-west direction with a Kongskilde Triple K feld cultivator. Cultivator width was 6.1 m,
nominal operating depth was 10 cm, and nominal speed was 8.0 km/h. The perpendicular directions
of the two tillage operations provided an opportunity to examine effect of tillage direction on spatial
variability of tillage implement draught.
Draught data for both primary and tertiary tillage were acquired with Agriculture and Agri-Food
Canadas instrumented research tractor (McLaughlin et al., 1993). This tractor was ftted with a
set of sensors and an on-board data logger to enable it to measure and record tractor operational
parameters as the tractor is doing normal feld work. Analog signals from the strain gage based
transducers in the tractor instrumentation were fltered at 10 Hz by integral four pole flters in the
strain gage signal conditioners. Pulse signals from fuel consumption and speed transducers were
accumulated on electronic counters. Draught data were logged at 100 Hz, and GPS position data
were logged at 1.0 Hz.
The tractor high idle was carefully set at 2200 rpm with the tractor stopped at the end of the feld.
The tractor was then set into motion with the implement in the ground and the data logger was
started. Data were logged continuously for the length of the feld, approximately 700 meters in the
north-south direction for mouldboard ploughing, and approximately 400 meters in the east-west
direction for feld cultivating. When the tractor reached the end of the feld, the data logger was
stopped and data were saved on the hard disk. The tractor throttle lever position and the transmission
gear were not adjusted while logging data.
Data analysis
Spatial coordinates of the draught data were calculated from the GPS position data, and the mean
draught was calculated from the 100 draught measurements for each unique GPS position. The
footprint of each unique GPS position is the width of the machine (2.3 m for the mouldboard plough
and 6.1 m for the feld cultivator), and the forward distance travelled in one second (1.7 m for the
mouldboard plough and 2.3 m for the feld cultivator). Mean draught data at each unique GPS
position were treated as primary data in subsequent analyses. The draught data were then mapped
with MapInfo (MapInfo Corp., Troy, NY) to provide a visual representation of the variability of
draught within the feld (Figure 1).
A subset of data was selected from a 300300 m section in the south end of the feld (Figure 1).
This block was well inside the headlands, and soil was reasonably uniform. The feld and tillage
direction was off square and parallelogram test area was used where the east and west borders were

Fig. 1. Spatial maps of mouldboard plough draught (left) and field cultivator draught (right) in
30 ha field. Darker shades represent higher draught values. North is to the top. White
parallelogram represents the 300 x 300 m zone where directional semi-variograms were
calculated.

Figure 1. Spatial maps of mouldboard plough draught (left) and feld cultivator draught (right) in 30
ha feld. Darker shades represent higher draught values. North is to the top. White parallelogram
represents the 300 x 300 m zone where directional semi-variograms were calculated.
parallel to mouldboard ploughing direction, and the north and south borders were parallel to the
tillage direction for the feld cultivator. For each implement, the draught means for each unique GPS
position were normalized by subtracting the grand mean and dividing by the standard deviation of
the data for the respective implement. The normalization process facilitated direct comparison of
data from two different tillage implements.
Directional semi-variograms were calculated parallel and perpendicular to the direction of travel for
both the mouldboard plough and feld cultivator draught data using the VARIOGRAM procedure
in SAS (SAS, 2004). For each tillage implement, the perpendicular semi-variograms were parallel
to the direction of travel for other tillage implement, and vice versa. The two tillage directions
were about seven degrees off perpendicular, and consequently, the direction of the perpendicular
semi-variograms were seven degrees off of true perpendicular. For convenience, the parallel and
perpendicular terms will be used throughout this paper.
GPS coordinates were adjusted slightly to create perfectly straight passes, and a narrow band
width was used to force all data pairs in the parallel semi-variograms to be from the same pass.
Lag distance for the VARIOGRAM procedure was set equal to the implement width. There were
approximately 22,500 and 6,600 draught means in the mouldboard plough and feld cultivator
data sets respectively. Semi-variograms were ftted to the theoretical exponential semi-variogram
model given by Schabenberger and Pierce (2002) using the NLIN procedure in SAS. The sills in
the theoretical semi-variograms were forced to 1.0 since the data had already been normalized by
dividing by the standard deviation. The exponential semi-variogram model is asymptotic to the sill;
the calculated range corresponds to the lag distance where the theoretical semi-variogram reaches
95% of the difference between sill and nugget. Parameters for the theoretical semi-variograms are
given in Table 1 and measured and theoretical semi-variograms are plotted in Figure 2.
Mean draft for the mouldboard plough and feld cultivator was 38.3 and 17.2 kN respectively
refecting differences in primary vs. tertiary tillage, tillage depth, and implement width. Coeffcient
of variation for the feld cultivator data was 7% compared to 11% for the mouldboard plough
indicating much lower relative variability in draught for the feld cultivator. Small scale spatial
features of soil strength within the feld are clearly evident in the mouldboard plough draught map,
but are much more subdued in the feld cultivator draught map (Figure 1). More variability would
be expected in primary tillage with the mouldboard plough since the soil had age hardened over
the growing season and differences in soil structure would affect the mouldboard plough draught.
In contrast, the soil had already been broken with secondary discing before tertiary tillage was
performed with the feld cultivator. Also, the feld cultivator is nearly three times the width of the
mouldboard plough, and the draught is integrated over a much larger area.
Table 1. Parameters for theoretical exponential parallel and perpendicular semi-variograms for
mouldboard plough and feld cultivator draught data. Sill values for all models were forced to
1.0 to refect normalization of the data.
Parameter Mouldboard Plough Field Cultivator
Parallel Perpendicular Parallel Perpendicular
Nugget 0.42 0.45 0.47 0.71
Range (m) 175 163 318 633
The parallel and perpendicular semi-variograms for the mouldboard plough closely resembled each
other with a slightly higher nugget for the perpendicular semi-variogram (Figure 2, Table 1). The
close resemblance of the parallel and perpendicular semi-variograms was in sharp contrast to our
earlier work with a mouldboard plough in a different feld where the perpendicular semi-variogram
reached the sill at a much shorter lag distance than the parallel semi-variogram (McLaughlin and
Lapen, 2007).
The feld in our previous study was long and narrow, 30055 m. It had been farmed in the same
direction for many years, and had been used for research with narrow strip plots for the previous
fve years. The same feld equipment was used for many years, and corn rows and wheel traffc

Fig. 2. Directional semi-variograms of mouldboard plough draught (top) and field
cultivator draught (bottom) parallel and perpendicular to direction of travel.

0.0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0
0 50 100 150
Lag Distance (m)
G
a
m
m
a
Parallel
Perpendicular
Mouldboard Plough Draught
0.0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0
0 50 100 150
Lag Distance (m)
G
a
m
m
a
Perpendicular
Parallel
Field Cultivator Draught
Figure 2. Directional semi-variograms of mouldboard plough draught (top) and feld cultivator
draught (bottom) parallel and perpendicular to direction of travel.
from tillage, planting, and harvesting operations were likely in close proximity to each other in
the different years resulting in localized build up of soil compaction in narrow strips. Some of this
was visible as parallel ruts and ridges running the length of the feld. The unidirectional farming
practices over the previous years were believed to be a major contributor to the differences in
parallel and perpendicular semi-variograms. In contrast, farming practices in the feld for the present
experiment were typical of a commercial cash crop farm. Both tillage and cropping direction varied
over the years resulting in much more random wheel traffc, with no systematic compacted strips.
The parallel semi-variogram for the feld cultivator was smooth with a nugget of 0.47 and
gradually increased with increasing lag distance. Uneven soil surface causes considerable small
scale variability in tillage implement operating depth with corresponding small scale draught
variability which contributed to the rather high nugget. A slight east-west gradient was evident
in the draught map for the feld cultivator (Figure 1), and this gradient would cause the observed
monotonic increase in the spatial correlation with increasing lag distance (Figure 2). Depending on
the application, the data could be de-trended by ftting to a simple polynomial surface; de-trending
was not done in the present analysis.
The perpendicular semi-variogram for the feld cultivator was almost fat with a nugget of 0.71
indicating near white noise. Examination of the feld cultivator draught map (Figure 1) shows no
obvious north-south trend. The feld cultivator perpendicular semi-variogram exhibited a strong
and systematic saw tooth appearance with distance between the points corresponding to twice the
implement width. The feld was cultivated in a serpentine fashion with adjacent passes in opposite
directions. Close examination of the feld cultivator draught map (Figure 1) shows a systematic
alteration between dark and light lines (high and low draught) on adjacent passes. This was attributed
to a slight slope in the feld towards the eastern boundary; adjacent passes heading west and east
were respectively up hill and down hill. Although the slope was barely noticeable, it showed up in
draught measurements. Draught measurements can be easily corrected for feld slope by subtracting
the product of the implement weight and feld slope measured in the direction of travel. Such
correction was not done here but should be done prior to subsequent spatial data analysis.
Conclusions
Draught measurements were made for primary and tertiary tillage with a mouldboard plough
and feld cultivator in the same feld but with tillage in perpendicular directions. Parallel and
perpendicular directional semi-variograms of mouldboard plough draught were almost identical
suggesting that mouldboard plough draught is a reasonable indicator of spatial variability of soil
strength within a feld. This conclusion contradicts our earlier work on a long narrow feld that had
been farmed in the same direction for many years and recently used for narrow strip plots. Large
differences in parallel and perpendicular directional semi-variograms in this feld were attributed to
consistent direction and location of wheel traffc and ridges from tillage machinery, both of which
cause signifcant differences in ploughing depth and draught for adjacent passes.
Spatial features in draught measurements of tertiary tillage with a feld cultivator were much more
subdued than with the mouldboard plough indicating that the primary tillage is much more sensitive
to small scale variability. The feld cultivator perpendicular semi-variogram exhibited a systematic
saw tooth feature which was attributed up hill and down hill direction on adjacent passes, even
though feld slope was barely noticeable. This clearly indicates the need to correct implement
draught for feld slope prior to spatial analysis.
References
ASABE. 2004. ASABE Standard S313.3 Soil Cone Penetrometer. ASABE Standards, St. Joseph, MI:ASABE.
Chung, S.O., Sudduth, K.A. and Hummel, J.W. 2006. Design and validation of an on-the-go soil strength
profle sensor. Transactions of the ASABE. 49(1): 5-14.
Kosugi, K., Yamakawa, Y., Masaoka, N., and Mizuyama, T. 2009. A combined penetrometer-moisture probe
for surveying soil properties of natural hillslopes. Vadose Zone Journal, 8(1):52-63.
Lapen, D.R., Topp, G.C., Hayhoe, H.N., Gregorich, E.G. and Curnoe, W.E. 2001. Stochastic simulation of
soil strength/compaction and assessment of corn yield risk using threshold probability patterns. Geoderma
104: 325-343.
Lapen, D.R., Hayhoe, H.N., Topp, G.C., McLaughlin, N.B., Gregorich, E.G., and Curnoe, W.E., 2002.
Measurement of mouldboard draft: II. Draft-soil property and yield-draft associations. Precision Agriculture.
3(3): 237-257.
McLaughlin, N.B., Heslop, L.C., Buckley, D.J., St.Amour, G.R., Compton, B.A., Jones, A.M. and Van
Bodegom, P. 1993. A general purpose tractor instrumentation and data logging system. Transactions of
the ASAE 36(2): 265-273.
McLaughlin, N.B., Lapen, D.R., Topp, G.C., Hayhoe, H.N. and Gregorich, E.G. 2001. Spatial associations
between mouldboard plough draught, management and corn grain yield. In: Proceedings of the 3
rd

European Conference on Precision Agriculture, eds. G. Grenier and S. Blackmore, Montpellier, France.
Vol. 1, p 437-442.
McLaughlin, N.B. and Lapen, D.R. 2007. Anisotropy in spatial measurements of mouldboard plough draught.
In ed. J. Stafford. Precision Agriculture 07. Papers presented at the 6th European Conference on Precision
Agriculture, Skiathos, Greece, 3-6 June, 2007. Wageningen Academic Publishers, the Netherlands. pp.
103-108.
Mouazen, A.M., Ramon, H. and De Baerdemaeker, J. 2003. Modelling compaction from on-line measurement
of soil properties and sensor draught. Precision Agriculture. 4(2): 203-212.
SAS 2004. Statistical Analysis System, Ver. 9.1. SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC, USA.
Schabenberger, O. and Pierce, F.J. 2002. Contemporary statistical models for the plant and soil sciences. CRC
Press, Boca Raton, FL.
Siefken, R.J., Adamchuk, V.I., Eisenhauer, D.E. and Bashford, L.L. 2005. Mapping soil mechanical resistance
with a multiple blade system. Applied Engineering in Agriculture, 21(1):15-23.
Young, G.D., Adams, B.A. and Topp, G.C. 2000. A portable data collection system for simultaneous cone
penetrometer force and volumetric soil water content measurements. Canadian Journal of Soil Science,
80(1): 23-31.
Mapping traffc patterns for soil compaction studies using
GIS
A.D. Meijer
1
, R.W. Heiniger
2
and C.R. Crozier
1
1
North Carolina State University, Soil Science Department, 207 Research Station Rd., Plymouth,
NC, USA; alan_meijer@ncsu.edu
2
North Carolina State University, Crop Science Department, 207 Research Station Rd., Plymouth,
NC, USA
Abstract
Soil compaction is a common problem in the southeastern United States, and can lead to a host of soil
and plant growth problems. Since one of the main causes of soil compaction is equipment traffc in
felds, the idea of limiting traffc to certain rows can help alleviate the onset of soil compaction. The
objective of this study is to determine the amount of traffc occurring in North Carolina felds and
the effect that the level of traffc (number of vehicle passes) had on soil compaction. GPS was used
to map all traffc on these felds in 2006. Using measurements of tire widths and wheel spacings, a
series of processes in a GIS was performed to generate a map representing the level of traffc that
occurred at each point of the feld. After all feld operations were complete, felds were sampled for
bulk density. Sample locations were based on the number of tire passes that had occurred. Samples
were taken where there had been 0, 1, 2, and 4 passes of equipment tires. Initial results showed that
65-85% of the felds area was tracked at least once. Bulk density ranged from 0.5 to 0.8 g/cm
3
in
the organic soil, and from 1.6 to 1.8 g/cm
3
in the sandy soils. Initial results show that in the organic
soil, areas of the feld that were tracked at least four times had signifcantly higher bulk density
in the 0-10 cm depth than the areas that received no tracks. The study is continuing on research
stations in 2008 and 2009 to better look at the infuence of vehicle traffc on soil bulk density.
Keywords: bulk density, soil properties, traffc pan, soil texture, soil quality
Introduction
Soil compaction has been known to be a serious problem in coastal plain soils for years. Many studies
have described the negative effects of soil compaction on soil structure and plant growth (Barber,
1971; Unger and Kaspar, 1994; Vepraskas, 1994). One of the main causes of soil compaction is
machine traffc in the feld (Hillel, 1980; Naderman, 1990). Other studies have shown that around
80% of soil compaction occurs in the frst pass of a vehicle (Kelly et al., 2004). Also, research has
shown that up to 90% of a felds surface area can be tracked in a given year, when using conventional
tillage practices (DeJonge-Hughes et al., 2001). Few studies have involved the use of GPS to track
vehicles in a feld to actually map the traffc pattern in a crop year.
The objective of this study was to determine the percentage of land area tracked in a given year in
normal cropping systems in eastern NC using GPS; and what affect the amount of traffc had on
soil compaction, as measured by bulk density.
This study was carried out on two farms in the lower coastal plain region of eastern North Carolina,
USA. Fields L1 and L2 were located in Bertie County adjacent to the Roanoke River, while feld
P10 was located in Hyde County, in what as known as the Tidewater region of the lower coastal
plain an area characterized by organic soils.
The soil type at the Bertie County site was predominated by Tarboro loamy sand (Mixed, thermic
Aquic Udipsamment) and Conetoe loamy sand (Loamy, mixed, thermic Arenic Paleudult). These
felds are managed in a corn-peanut-cotton rotation. One of these felds, L1, was strip-tilled and
planted in cotton in 2006, while L2, and was planted in corn after being disked. The soil type in
the Hyde County feld P10 was a Ponzer muck (Loamy, mixed, dysic thermic Terric Midisaprist).
This feld was being managed for organic grain production, and was planted in corn during the
2006 growing season.
Bulk density was measured in each feld to determine the initial conditions at all three sites. Fields
L1 and L2 were sampled in a grid pattern prior to spring feld operations in 2006. Grid size was
approximately one hectare. Soil cores were taken at depths of 0-10 cm, 10-20 cm, 20-30 cm, and
30-40 cm, using an AMS Soil Core Sampler (AMS Inc., American Falls, ID, USA), that had a core
of fve cm in diameter and ten cm in height. These samples were dried in an oven for 24 hours at
105 C, and weighed. Bulk density was calculated by dividing the weight of the sample by the
volume of the sample (corer).
Field P10 is located in the Tidewater region of the lower Coastal Plain. This coastal region is
traditionally known as the blacklands of North Carolina because of the high organic content of
the soils. Altitude above sea level in this region ranges from a one to four meters in this part of the
state. The land here was drained in the early to mid 1900s by clearing the swampland of trees and
the digging of a large system of drainage canals and ditches. Fields in this region are usually very
narrow and long, ranging from 73 to 91 m in width and from 800 to 1,600 m in length. Each feld
is separated from the next by drainage ditches which drain into larger canals. These felds have a
unique history in how they were created that can affect their current management. The stumps and
residue were pulled to the center of each feld where these piles were burned repeatedly until the
woody material was deplenished. The felds were shaped with a crown in the center to enhance
drainage. This resulted in some topsoil being pulled from near the ditch bank towards the center of
the feld. The end result is that the topsoil tends to be deeper near the center of the feld than near
the ditch. Thus, P10 was sampled for bulk density by transecting the feld from ditch bank to ditch
bank taking fve samples across the feld and performing three such transects down the length of
the feld. This was done in an attempt to characterize the differences in bulk density that may be
present due to the creation and shaping of the feld.
All traffc was mapped on all three felds starting after that point. Traffc was mapped by mounting
a Trimble AG132 differential-corrected GPS unit (Trimble, Sunnyvale, CA, USA) to the cab of the
tractor, sprayer, or harvester, and any wheeled equipment towed behind, and recording the path the
vehicle took using SiteMate software (FarmWorks, Hamilton, IN, USA). The data that was recorded
is a vector fle showing the centerline of the path of the farm vehicle. For each event (i.e. a planting
operation), the wheel spacings were recorded as well as tire widths themselves.
Tracks were created using ArcGIS software (ESRI, Redlands, CA, USA) by creating polygons that
accurately refected the coverage of the tire tracks. This was done by creating and manipulating a
series of buffers based on the measurements taken of each machine. If the front and inner rear tires
were inline with each other, they were counted as one track. However, the maximum width of their
combined footprint was used to create the track. This was done for all events for all three felds. A
separate track was created for outside rear tires. By buffering the distance from the centerline to
the outside edge of one set of tires, and subtracting from that, a buffer from the centerline to the
inside edge of the same tire, a portion of the buffer remains, which depicts that actual tire track.
Each track was saved as separate fle and then converted to a grid. Each grid fle consisted of 0.75-
cm
2
cells that covered the area of the feld. If a tire track crossed a cell, the cell received a value of
1. If there was no tire-track that location, the cell received a value of 0. Then, using a process
called Map Algebra; all the events were added together. In this process, the cells all line up and
their values are added together. The result is a grid fle with cells that contain numerical values
equal to the number of tracks that occurred at that particular point. From this fle, the area of the
feld that was tracked, as well as the number of tracks that occurred, was determined.
Bulk density samples were then taken in areas of the feld that received 0, 1, 2, and 4 tracks to see if
the amount of traffc affected bulk density. Fields L1 and L2 were sampled in randomized complete
block where the treatment was the level of traffc, and replicated four times. Each block was a
location in the feld. Samples were only taken from the area of the feld mapped as Conetoe loamy
sand in these felds. At feld P10, the same design was applied to the three sections of the feld;
ditch bank (left and right combined), middle (between the crown and the ditchbank), and crown.
Analysis of variance was performed using PROC GLM in SAS (SAS Institute, Cary, NC, USA).
Pre-season bulk density
Initial bulk density was much greater in L1 and L2 than at P10 (Table 1). Bulk density ranged from
1.43 to 1.65 g/cm
3
at L1 and L2, while ranging from 0.68 to 0.75 g/cm
3
at P10.
At L1 and L2, bulk density increased noticeably between the 0-10 cm depth and the three samples
below. At P10, bulk density actually decreased somewhat below the 0-10 cm depth and then
becoming greater than that at the surface at the 30-40 cm depth.
Traffc mapping
Table 2 shows the different feld events that were mapped for each feld. Since P10 was being
managed for organic grain production, it received more traffc than L2, which was also planted in
corn, but not for organic production.
Signifcant portions of the feld were tracked at least once during the course of the growing season.
In fact, 85% of the feld surface area in P10 was tracked during the course of the season (Figure
1). While also planted in corn, only 65% of L2 was tracked. For L1, 75% of the feld surface area
was tracked. Since P10 was managed for organic corn production and received many more trips
across the feld, it is certainly plausible that a higher percentage of its surface area would be tracked.
The percentage of surface area that received more than one track was calculated as well (Figure
2). Signifcant portions of the felds received more than one track. For example, more than fve
percent of the feld area in L1 was tracked a total of six times. L2 was tracked the least overall, and
therefore showed the least amount of area that was tracked multiple times.
Post-season bulk density
Bulk density measurements made after the growing season were similar to those made in the spring.
Since P10 was divided up into 3 regions, more detail came to light in that feld. Figure 3 shows the
mean bulk density for each feld and depth. Bulk density at L1 and L2 followed a similar pattern
Table 1. Bulk density to 40 cm at all three locations in 2006.
Sample depth (cm) Field (g/cm
3)
P10 L1 L2
0-10 0.753 1.434 1.525
10-20 0.676 1.605 1.613
20-30 0.723 1.655 1.634
30-40 0.896 1.636 1.594
with bulk densities starting at around 1.6 g/cm
3
at the 0-4 inch depth and increasing somewhat to
around 1.75g/cm
3
at the 8-12 inch depth before dropping off slightly one sample deeper. These bulk
densities are in the range of limiting root growth. The pattern of increasing bulk density with depth
is also common. At P10, bulk densities were much lower, as would be expected in an organic soil.
However, there was a distinct difference between the bulk densities of the samples taken from the
ditchbank area of the feld versus those taken from the center or middle of the feld. Bulk densities
in the center of the feld and adjacent to the center (middle) started around 0.7 g/cm
3
at the 0-4
inch depth and decreased some what with depth. In contrast, bulk density at the ditchbank started
a little higher at around 0.8 gm/cm
3
and rose frst a little at the 4-8 inch depth and then increased
steadily with depth. This refects the fact that much of the organic topsoil was moved towards the
center of the feld when the feld was crowned. Thus, near the ditch, the sandier deeper horizons
are much shallower.
Table 2. List of feld events at all sites in 2006.
P10 Hyde County L1 Bertie County L2 Bertie County
Crop: organic corn Crop: cotton (strip till) Crop: corn (conv. till)
Chicken litter application Strip-till Disk
Dynadrive Plant Bed
Field cultivation Roundup-orthene Plant
Plant Herbicide (Sequence) Nitrogen Application
Spring tooth harrow i Pix application i Herbicide (roundup)
Spring tooth harrow ii Nitrogen application Combine
Spring tooth harrow iii Pix application ii
Danish tyne cultivation i Hood spray
Danish tyne cultivation ii Defoliation
Combine Cotton Picker
Auger cart Boll buggy
Total: 11 events Total: 11 events Total: 6 events

0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
P10 L1 L2
Field
F
i
e
l
d

A
r
e
a

(
%
)
Tracked
Untracked

Figure 1. Percentage of field area either trafficked or untrafficked at 3 locations in 2006.

Figure 1. Percentage of feld area either traffcked or untraffcked at 3 locations in 2006.
The effect of traffc (number of passes) was signifcant at some depths in some felds (Table 2). In
P10Middle and L2, there was a signifcant difference in bulk density between the level of tracks
at the 0-4 depth at the alpha = 0.05 and alpha = 0.10 levels respectively. P10Center was found to
have signifcant differences in bulk density at the alpha = 0.10 level. One reason that differences in
bulk density between levels of traffc were not found across the board may be due to the fact that
the felds already exhibited a level of compaction prior to the start of the test. Li et al. (2007) stated
that the feld demonstration of the occurrence and impact of soil compaction is often confounded
by the diffculty of establishing a non-compacted control.
While Table 3 showed that the level of traffc did not affect bulk density in a majority of the
treatments, the effect of location within the feld was signifcant at some depth in most felds (Table
4). This indicates the natural variability in the soil across the feld that resulted in different bulk
densities at each site. Figures 4a and 4b show the only situations where the level of traffc had a
signifcant effect on bulk density. At P10 (Figure 4a), only the areas of the feld tracked four times,
had a signifcantly higher bulk density than the areas tracked only once. At L2 (Figure 4b), it was
the areas tracked two times that had a signifcantly higher bulk density than the areas not tracked
at all. In both cases, the signifcant differences in bulk density occurred in the 0-10 cm depth.

0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Number of Vehicle Passes
P
e
r
c
e
n
t
a
g
e

o
f

F
i
e
l
d

A
r
e
a L1
L2
P10

Figure 2. Percentage of field area covered by x number of vehicle tracks.

Figure 2. Percentage of feld area covered by number of vehicle tracks.

-45
-40
-35
-30
-25
-20
-15
-10
-5
0
0 0.4 0.8 1.2 1.6 2
Bulk Density (g/cm3)
M
e
a
n

s
a
m
p
l
e

d
e
p
t
h

(
c
m
)
L1
L2
P10 Middle
P10 Center
P10 Ditchbank

Figure 3. Bulk Density for all locations and four depths after traffic in 2006. Data for P10
broken out by location within the field. A data point at a mean sample depth of -5cm,
indicates the sample taken from the 0-10cm depth range, etc.

Figure 3. Bulk density for all locations and four depths after traffc in 2006. Data for P10 broken
out by location within the feld. A data point at a mean sample depth of -5 cm, indicates the
sample taken from the 0-10 cm depth range, etc.
Table 3. Summary of -values for testing differences in bulk density amongst levels of traffc.
Field Sample depth (inch)
0-4 4-8 8-12 12-16
L1 0.4029 0.7316 0.7112 0.8266
L2 0.0645* 0.2779 0.414 0.6479
P10Middle 0.0361** 0.5517 0.6321 0.9031
P10Center 0.779 0.6057 0.0877* 0.3603
P10Ditchbank 0.8421 0.2517 0.1694 0.2601
* Indicates signifcance at alpha = 0.10 level.
** Indicates signifcance at alpha = 0.05.
Table 4. Summary of -values for testing differences amongst reps (location) in study felds.
Field Sample depth (inch)
0-4 4-8 8-12 12-16
L1 0.0945* 0.9281 0.4525 0.6699
L2 0.3710 0.1314 0.2714 0.4368
P10Middle 0.0173** 0.0068** 0.1276 0.1509
P10Center 0.0802* 0.0121** 0.3823 0.4191
P10Ditchbank 0.0071** 0.0007** 0.0003** 0.0033**
* Indicates signifcance at alpha = 0.10 level.
** Indicates signifcance at alpha = 0.05.

0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
1.2
1.4
1.6
1.8
0-10 10-20 20-30 30-40
Depth Range (inches)
B
u
l
k

D
e
n
s
i
t
y

(
g
/
c
m
3
)
Tracks = 0
Tracks = 1
Tracks = 2
Tracks = 4
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
1.2
1.4
1.6
1.8
0-10 10-20 20-30 30-40
B
u
l
k

D
e
n
s
i
t
y

(
g
/
c
m
3
)
Tracks = 0
Tracks = 1
Tracks = 2
Tracks = 4
a a
b
a
b b ------ns------ ------ns------ ------ns------
b b
a
a
b
a
------ns------ ------ns------ ------ns------
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
1.2
1.4
1.6
1.8
0-10 10-20 20-30 30-40
B
u
l
k

D
e
n
s
i
t
y

(
g
/
c
m
3
)
Tracks = 0
Tracks = 1
Tracks = 2
Tracks = 4
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
1.2
1.4
1.6
1.8
0-10 10-20 20-30 30-40
B
u
l
k

D
e
n
s
i
t
y

(
g
/
c
m
3
)
Tracks = 0
Tracks = 1
Tracks = 2
Tracks = 4
a a
b
a
b b ------ns------ ------ns------ ------ns------
b b
a
a
b
a
------ns------ ------ns------ ------ns------

Figure 4a (left) and 4b (right). Bulk density for 4 levels of traffic at four depths at P10 and L2
respectively. Within groups of columns, columns with same letter are not statistically
different at a = 0.05 level.

Figure 4 (a left) and (b right). Bulk density for 4 levels of traffc at four depths at P10 and L2
respectively. Within groups of columns, columns with same letter are not statistically different
at alpha = 0.05 level.
Conclusions
Our results show that between 65 and 85% of a felds surface area are covered with tire traffc in
one growing season. The use of GPS data allows for calculation of how much of a felds surface
area is tracked more than once, and can be used to calculate how many passes each part of the
feld received. Theoretically, if it is true that 80% of the soil compaction occurs in the frst pass of
a tire track, it would be good to minimize the traffcked area, such as achieved through controlled
traffc farming. The effect of traffc on bulk density was found to be signifcant at only one depth
at two of the locations. This was most likely due to the fact that no loosening of the soil (i.e.
deep tillage) was performed prior to the start of the test. Thus, the initial bulk density conditions
remained mostly unchanged, unaffected by the traffc at all sites. However, the signifcant change
at the 0-10 cm depth at P10, is suggestive of the increasing proportion of sand in the Ap horizon,
as the organic matter decays over time at this location. With soil compaction being a serious issue
for North Carolina farmers, helping them understand the effects of uncontrolled traffc is critical.
Also, the increased interest in organic farming is creating a need to re-examine sustainable soil
management practices due to the amount of traffc and cultivation it can require. Studies currently
underway in North Carolina are underway to better understand the actual infuence of vehicle traffc
on soil compaction, as well as plant growth and yield.
References
Barber, S.A. 1971. Effect of tillage practice on corn (Zea mays L.) root distribution and morphology. Agronomy
Journal 63:724-725.
DeJong-Hughes, J., J.F. Moncrief, W.B. Voorhees, and J.B. Swan. 2001. Soil compaction: Causes, Effects,
and Control. University of Minnesota Extension. Available at: http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/
cropsystems/DC3115.html.
Hillel, D. 1980. Environmental Soil Physics. Academic Press. San Diego, CA, USA.
Kelly, R., T. Jensen, and Radford B. 2004. Precision Farming in the northern grains region: Soil compaction
and controlled traffc farming. Queensland Government, Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries.
Available at: http://www2.dpi.qld.gov.au/feldcrops/3166.html.
Li, Y.X., J.N. Tullberg, and D.M. Freebairn. 2007. Wheel traffc and tillage effects on runoff and crop yield.
Soil and Tillage Research 97: 282-292.
Naderman, G.C. Jr., 1990. Subsurface Compaction and Subsoiling in North Carolina: An Overview. North
Carolina Agricultural Extension Service. Raleigh, NC, USA.
Unger, P.W. and T.C. Kaspar. 1994. Soil compaction and root growth: A review. Agron J. 86:759-766.
Vepraskas, M.J. 1994. Plant response mechanisms to soil compaction. In: R.E.Wilkinson (ed.). Plant-
environment interactions. Marcel Dekker, Inc., New York, USA. pp. 263-287.
Searching for the cause of variability
J.N. Jukema
1
, K.H. Wijnholds
2
and W. van den Berg
1
1
Applied Plant Research (PPO)Lelystad, Edelhertweg 1 the Netherlands;
jannammen.jukema@wur.nl
2
Applied Plant Research (PPO) Valthermond, Noorderdiep 211, the Netherlands
Abstract
For many years research has been done for the use of remote sensing to establish optimum nitrogen
application rates. Good relations have been found between the need of nitrogen and various
calculated indices. This information can be used to save nitrogen, increase yield and improve the
homogeneity of the harvested crops. Although good relations between the need of nitrogen and
various calculated indices have been found, not all the variation of the crop growth within the
feld is caused by nitrogen. Within the project Perceel Centraal research has been performed to
the causes of variability, charted by aerial imaging, within the feld. The project is located in and
around Valthermond, the Netherlands on sandy- and peaty soils. The variation not only is induced
by nitrogen, but also can be attributed to e.g. drought stress, soil structure, nematodes, organic
matter and mineral content of the soil. Although it is clear that nitrogen was not the only reason
causing the variation within the feld it is one of the main reasons and it can help to reduce variability
based on e.g. organic matter (OM) content. To make the right decisions the biomass maps should
be interpreted frst and then a decision should be made how to handle the feld. It turned out to be
very diffcult and time taking for farmers to fnd out what the reason is of the variability within
their felds. To get the maximum value out of the Vegetation Index (VI) maps the project Perceel
Centraal developed a checklist for cereals, potatoes and sugar beets with which the cause of
the infeld variation can be found easily. After using the checklist the right choices can be made
concerning the optimization of the farmers felds.
Keywords: precision farming, remote sensing, variable rate application, vegetation index
Introduction
The project Perceel Centraal is located in the Netherlands, in the provinces Drenthe and Groningen,
on the peaty and sandy soils. The crops produced in this area are mainly starch potatoes (rotation
1:2), sugar beets (rotation 1:4) and spring barley (rotation 1:4). Farmers in this area have to deal
with a lot of variation within their felds. The challenge for them is to produce a homogeneous
quality product on those heterogeneous felds.
Remote sensing is pointed out as one of the methods which can provide insight in the variability
within a feld. A relative Vegetation Index is calculated based on aerial imaging with an IR-Onlys
camera (715-1,200 nm). This method gives information about the infeld variability but does not
provide the possibility to compare felds with each other. For the scope of the project (searching
for the cause of variability within a feld) only the infeld variability is interesting.
Experience from farmers, working with the vegetation index maps learned that they do recognize
the variability within their felds but that it is hard for them to make (e.g. nitrogen) variable rate
application (VRA) maps based on the vegetation index. Variation can be seen using the vegetation
index but the cause of the variation should be found by scouting the feld. The vegetation index
shows the vitality of the crop, however the variation in vitality can be caused by many factors
like drought, pH, nitrogen, organic matter, etc. Liebigs law of the minimum, tells us that Plant
growth is determined by the one factor that is present at a minimum. Not every spot in the feld
with outlying vegetations index should be equalized by adjusting the nitrogen rate. First should be
found out what causes the deviation of the vegetation index. A second complex factor is that the
relative vegetation index doesnt tell you if the zones with a relative high vegetation index are good
or if they are too high for an optimal yield. To put the relative vegetation index in a perspective
farmers knowledge and feld scouting information is needed.
To help farmers using vegetation indices improving their feld potential a tool should be developed
to guide them through the possible causes of the variability. On the one hand the tool should
provide the farmer in a structured way insight in possible causes, on the other hand the tool should
support the farmer to decide which aids he should use to detect certain causes. When you are not
accustomed to use vegetation index maps you do not know in which direction you should think of as
an explanation of the cause of variability. As mentioned before nitrogen is a very important mineral
for plants and very often is the cause of variation but also phosphor can be the cause or maybe
drought stress caused by soil structure problems. To make it more complex also items on which
you should not think at the frst moment can be responsible for variation like a high concentration
of weeds, a sowing failure or a manure heap at the corner of the feld in the spring of last year.
All these examples underline the importance of a clear guideline which can be used by farmers to
improve the potential yield of their feld and the homogeneity within their feld.
One of the goals within the projects is to develop a checklist for general usage in the feld, if the
cause doesnt show up with that checklist a crop specifc checklist can be used for the crops potato,
sugar beet and cereals.
Methodology
Measuring vegetation index
Within the project Yara LORIS is used to gather information about the variability of the vegetation
within the feld. The vegetation index is based on Aerial imaging with an IR-Onlys camera (715-
1,200 nm). With this bandwidth NDVI could be calculated as following:
NDVI = (NIR RED) / (NIR + RED) (1)
The reasons why LORIS chooses for a relative vegetation index are the following:
atmospheric effects;
clouds;
anisotropic effects;
spectral effects.
Because LORIS uses aerial imaging the surface of one picture is relatively small. To calculate a
reliable NDVI a lot of feld calibrating should be done to calibrate the mentioned topics. To avoid
that, the system works with a relative vegetation index.
A picture of a certain crop should be taken as soon as possible but not before more than 80% of
the ground is covered with crop leaf. A picture shouldnt be taken after a crop is fowering or
blossoming. The pixel size is less than 1 m
2
.
Development checklist
The checklist should be a tool which farmers use in the feld. It should be compact and easy to
carry with you. Most of the causes of variation should be mentioned on the list preferable ordered
from frequently to rarely occurrence.
Crop guidebooks have been studied to flter the diseases, the shortages or abundances of the crop.
Only the causes which show their problems in the vegetation of the crop are selected. Those could
be found by Vegetation maps. Three advisors and two researchers have been interviewed to obtain
advice about the setup of the checklist on the one hand and to gain information about the frequency
of the selected causes on the other hand. This led to a concept checklist which will be tested by
3 advisors and 30 farmers within the project. These users will fll in a survey and based on the
comments a defnitive version will be produced, fnished in the 2
nd
half of 2009.
Set-up feld experiments
In this study four felds are used at the experimental farm t Kompas in Valthermond (the
Netherlands). This experimental farm is part of the Institute for Applied Plant Research of
Wageningen University and Research Centre. The felds are part of the project Perceel Centraal.
The farm is situated on a partly peaty and partly sandy soil type. The four felds are used for four
years so the felds can be followed for a whole crop rotation (Table 1).
The frst step was to fnd out about the variation within the feld concerning yield. Linked to that,
information is gathered to fnd out about the reason of this variation in yield. The LORIS system
divided the feld into 5 zones with equal steps in vegetation index variability and those zones were
sampled by yield and quality during harvest. Along with the yield and quality samples, also soil
samples were taken as well as the vegetation index during the season. Each feld consisted of 40
samples divided into 4 tram lanes. The surface of each feld was 5 hectares, the surface of the
samples depended on the crop; for potato 18 m
2
.
In spring 2007 each feld is measured with the penetro logger on 140 locations. When water reaches
feld capacity the data of the penetro logger gives exact information about the soil resistance which
infuences the growth depht of the roots of the crop. The value at I300 is the depht on which the
roots experience resistance, I500 is the value on which taking root is impossible. The measurements
within this project were not taken at feld capacity so the values should be read as relative values.
Based on the results of the experiments which started in 2006, in 2007 the frst trial felds were
laid down. As a result of the statistical analysis the main reasons causing the variation were found
and solutions were found to neutralize them. The solutions were tested in trial felds on several
places within the feld. The focus of this paper will be at the 2006 potato felds 67A and 69A, the
variability planted on both felds is Seresta.
Statistical analyses were performed using GenStat (Payne et al., 2008). Using GenStat procedure
RSELECT (Goedhart and Thissen, 2008) the multiple regression model was selected that best
predicted the Pay weight on felds 67A and 69A.
Infeld variation
For farmers it is interesting to know how big the variation is within their feld. Especially it is
interesting for them to know the variation in pay weight, that is the parameter which determines
their balance. Table 2 shows the results of 43 yield measurements within each feld.
On both felds maximum pay weight was over 20 ton/ha higher than minimum pay weight with a
standard deviation of 5.9 for feld 67A and 4.8 for feld 69A. These differences within the feld are
Table 1. Crop rotation on the four felds of experimental farm t Kompas.
Year \ Field 67A 69A 70A EK1
2006 potato potato sugar beet spring barley
2007 spring barley sugar beet potato potato
2008 potato potato spring barley sugar beet
2009 sugar beet spring barley potato potato
big enough to trigger farmers fnding out what causes this variation and increase yield on locations
whith lower production or reduce input of e.g. nitrogen on lacations supply is above the economic
optimum. Farmers can earn money if they can cater to these differences by improving the soil,
fne-tune the needed nutrients, etcetera. It is instructive to learn causes of the variation and how to
handle this for increasing the yield level and homogeneity of the harvested crops.
The cause of variation
Knowing that you have a lot of variation within your feld but not knowing what the cause is and
how you could solve it doesnt make farmers happy. If a farmer can see how big the variation is
and that he loses money this way he must have a starting-point how he can improve his situation.
For that a checklist is developed to help them fnding the causes of variation.
In general, over all crops in the rotation the reasons of site specifc growth lag could be found in the
soil (water content, disturbing layers in the ground which limit root growth), fertilization, operations
and remainder like weeds, former ditches or former crops. Specifc to potatoes reasons could be
found in pests and diseases, crop specifc nutrients, etc. (Asscheman et al., 1994).
Based on this information the checklist is developed (Figure 1). Measurements have been done
during the season and during harvest. Those measurements (like soil samples and penetration
resistance) provided enough information to calculate the cause of variation for each particular
feld. The reason for the variation in pay weight on feld 67A could be declared for 66% of the
feld with the formula below:
Pay weight 67A = 37.92 + (0.82 * Org. mat.) (0.15 * NO3-N) + (0.28 * Mg)
The formula teaches us that it is very hard to declare the variation for 100% of the feld. In practical
use for farmers that shouldnt be the goal. The aim is to fnd out what causes the variation the most
as Liebigs law of the minimum tells us that plant growth is determined by the one factor that is
present at a minimum, or translated to this case the one factor that is disturbing growth the most.
For feld 67A organic matter alone accounted for 43% of the variation (Figure 2).
The frst step in the checklist is to fnd out if the variability is big enough to be worthwhile fnding
the cause of variability. If so, the variability can be shown in four different patterns or locations
within the feld. The four patterns or locations are: (a) headland, (b) spots, (c) lanes and (d) splitting.
This split up in patterns or locations provides the farmer insight in the cause of the variability. Is
it a problem in structure, has it to do with pest, diseases or weed? Or is it a technical problem like
fertilizer lanes? Splitting could indicate a difference in preceding crop or in variety. Also the reason
could be found in the feld history (parceling out). The checklists (both the general and the crop
specifc) are downloadable at www.perceelcentraal.nl.
Most of the causes appear to be quite obvious but in practice we have noticed that it is pretty hard
to come to these causes without any help from advisors or without any tools like the checklist.
It helps farmers to discuss the vegetation maps, because discussions hit them on the ideas. This
checklist also will hit them on the ideas.
Table 2. Infeld variation of pay weight 2006 within potato felds.
67A 69A
Minimum (ton/ha) 53.9 61.3
Maximum (ton/ha) 79.6 83.9
Average (ton/ha) 64.7 69.4
Standard deviation 5.9 4.8

Figure 1: General checklist for cause of variability

Figure 1. General checklist for cause of variability.
Correlation between organic matter and Pay weight on field 67A 2006
R
2
= 0,44
50,0
55,0
60,0
65,0
70,0
75,0
80,0
7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25
Organic matter
P
a
y

w
e
i
g
h
t
OM
Lineair (OM)

Graph 1: Correlation between organic matter and Pay weight on field 67A 2006

Figure 2. Correlation between organic matter and Pay weight on feld 67A 2006.
Measurements on a single feld can not be used for extrapolation to other felds is shown in the next
formula of the feld 69A. The crop is also potato and the feld is located near feld 67A. Nevertheless
only 22% of the variability could be declared with the formula below. Organic matter plays a less
important role in this formula as it did in feld 67A.
Pay weight 69A = 68.3 + (0.41 * Org. mat) (18 * EC) + (1.29 * Cu) (0.14 * Zn)
The strongest correlation (R
2
=0.29) between all measured parameters and the fnal yield was
found with the vegetation index of June 2006. This vegetation index correlated (R
2
=0.43) with the
penetration resistance. The reasons for variation in this feld didnt point into a certain direction as
strong as organic matter did to the variation of feld 67A.
Decisions taken, based on the cause of the variability
It takes years to change the organic matter content and with the variability in these felds (8.8-23.6%
for feld 67A) it probably will be a mission impossible. It isnt said that organic matter cant be
improved year by year but that would be an action for the (very) long term. On short term the thing
tot do would be to understand what is going on in felds with this much of difference within the
feld. On places with high organic matter content more mineralized organic nitrogen comes free
during the season (Janssen, 1996). Knowing that, a variable rate of nitrogen would be a solution to
take care of the difference of available nitrogen in the feld during the season. Difference of organic
matter also have infuence on the drought sensitivity during dry weather conditions but the main
focus within this project will be the nitrogen.
Results of the decisions
On feld 67A on three different places which differ to each other in organic matter content (OM) of
the soil, an experiment was laid out with a range of nitrogen rates. Experiment N1 was layed out
on a location with a high OM content, N2 on a location with an average OM content and N3 on a
location with a relatively low OM content. Each experiment contained N rates of 0, 50, 90 and 130
Kg N/ha and were tested in four replications. The results are presented in Figure 3.
The results from Figure 3 prove that nitrogen has a great infuence on the crop growth. With a high
correlation the variance of the VI rises with increasing N-rates. Also the height of OM content has
infuence on the VI. The higher the OM content the higher the VI, the difference between N1, N2
and N3 stays the same whether the N-amount is 0, 50, 90 or 130. By higher mineralization because
of a higher OM content, the crop gets extra nitrogen available during the season which it will use
Correlation Vegetation Index N-amount 67A 2007 Spring barley
R
2
= 0.96
R
2
= 0.98
R
2
= 0.87
40
60
80
100
120
140
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140
N- amount
V
e
g
e
t
a
t
i
o
n

I
n
d
e
x
N1-BIO310507
N2-BIO310507
N3-BIO310507
Poly. (N3-BIO310507)

Graph 2: correlation between VI and N-amount field 67A 2007 Spring barley

Figure 3. Correlation between VI and N-amount feld 67A 2007 Spring barley.
for developing vegetation. The image is taken the 29
th
of April so the results show the crop growth
in the beginning of the season.
Figure 4 shows us the effect of the N-amount under different OM conditions on the yield of the
crop and that is what farmer really are interested for. The months July and August were very rainy
in this area, for that reason one of the repetitions of N1 couldnt be harvested and another repetition
was harvested later then the rest. For N1 only three of the four repetitions are part of the fgure.
The different OM contents have each their own optimum in N-amount for reaching the highest yield.
Also the level of the highest yield is different for each OM zone. In 2007 zones with a low OM
content need extra nitrogen to reach their optimum yield compared to zones with a high OM content.
The correlation between yield and nitrogen increased from N1 to N2 to N3. The zones where the
OM content was lower, the correlations between yield and nitrogen gets higher. The reason for
this is partly that spring barley is a quit diffcult crop when it comes to nitrogen needs. The need
is pretty low and when the available amount of N exceeds the needs of the crop lodging occurs.
Together with lodging the crop is losing part of its kernels. The kernels are produced but it will not
be harvested and that makes that the correlation gets weaker at the higher OM zones of the feld.
Earlier in the season the VI increased with higher N-amounts (Figure 3). A high VI (>100%) seams to
high for reaching the optimal yield. A VI higher than 100% is riskful concerning lodging of the crop.
For barley it is very hard to add nitrogen during the season because of the short growing season.
The nitrogen often comes available to late which will cost yield and will increase the protein level
of the crop. That is not desired by malting industry. The best moment of an (variable) N application
is before the growing season.
Conclusions
This study shows clearly that there is a large difference in yield within a feld of the north east
area of the Netherlands on the peaty and sandy soils. This makes it interesting for farmers to start
looking at the possibilities of precision farming. Using remote sensing can help them to fnd zones
in the feld and to measure the impact of a zone. To fnd out what the cause is of the variability
for the time being feld scouting and soil sampling is necessary. Each feld has its own cause so
extrapolation of the results from a single feld to the felds around it is not an option. A checklist
is a handy help to search for the cause of the variability because a lot of reasons can be found.
When OM content is a main reason, for the long term a farmer could try to increase the OM content
in the zones in which it is relatively low. For the short term a variable rate of nitrogen fertilizer is

Correlation N-amount and yield by different OM content
R
2
= 0.55
R
2
= 0.97
R
2
= 0.72
0
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
6000
7000
0 50 100 150
N-amount (kg/ha)
Y
i
e
l
d

(
k
g
/
h
a
)
KG/HA-N1
KG/HA-N2
KG/HA-N3
Polynoom (KG/HA-N1)
Polynoom (KG/HA-N3)
Polynoom (KG/HA-N2)

Graph 3: Correlation N-amount and yield by different OM content

Figure 4. Correlation N-amount and yield by different OM content.
a good method to compensate the difference of mineralization within the feld. It is not sure yet
if this method is working in dry seasons but as the results show for 2007 it is a very promising
method. The trials should be repeated for several years to fnd out about the reliability of the method.
Acknowledgements
The feld experiments were performed within the project Perceel Centraal, a collaboration
between Agrifrm, Hilbrands Laboratorium (HLB), Institute of Sugar Beet Research (IRS) and the
institute for Applied Plant Research (PPO) in the Netherlands. The project is partly funded by the
Samenwerkingsverband Noord-Nederland (SNN), EZ/Kompas and the ministry of agriculture,
nature and food quality (LNV). Find more information about the project on www.perceelcentraal.
nl and downloads the free checklist.
References
Asscheman, E., Brinkman, H, Bus, C.B. (eds.), 1994. Aardappel ziektenboek. Aaardappelwereld bv, Den
Haag, the Netherlands.
Payne, R.W., Harding, S.A., Murray, D.A., Soutar, D.M., Baird, D.B., Glaser, A.I., Channing, I.C., Welham, S.J.,
Gilmour, A.R., Thompson, R. and Webster, R., 2008. The Guide to GenStat Release 11, Part 2: Statistics.
VSN International, Hemel Hempstead.
Goedhart, P.W. and Thissen, J.T.N.M, 2008. Biometris GenStat Procedure Library Manual, 11th Edition.
Available from www.biometris.nl.
Janssen, B.H., 1996. Nitrogen mineralisation in relation to C:N ration and decomposability of organic materials.
Plant and Soil 181: 39-45.
Clevers, J.G.P.W., 1987. Multispectral aerial photography as a supplemental technique in agricultural research.
Netherlands Journal of Agricultural Science 36: 75-90.
Clevers, J.G.P.W, Jukema, J.N. and Wijnholds, K.H., 2008. Remote sensing-based biomass maps for
an effcient use of fertilizers. Remote sensing-based biomass maps for an effcient use of fertilizers
In: Proceedings 9th International Conference on Precision Agriculture, 20-23 July, Denver, Colorado,
USA. Denver, ICPA, p. 15.
Delineation of site-specifc management zones using
geostatistics and fuzzy clustering analysis
A. Castrignan
1
, F. Guastaferro
1
, D. De Benedetto
1
, A. Moneta
2
, B. Basso
3
, A. Troccoli
4
and M.
Pisante
2
1
CRA-Agronomic Research Institute, via C. Ulpiani 5, 70125 Bari, Italy;
annamaria.castrignano@entecra.it
2Department of Food Science, University of Teramo, Via Lerici, 1 - 64023 Mosciano S.Angelo
(TE), Italy
3
Department of Crop Systems, Forestry and Environmental Sciences, University of Basilicata, Via
Ateneo Lucano, 10- 85100 Potenza, Italy
4
CRA - Cereal Research Centre, S.S. 16 km 675 71100 Foggia, Italy
Abstract
The application of site-specifc techniques and technologies in precision agriculture requires the
identifcation of contiguous homogenous zones within a feld, often referred as management zones
(MZ). The delineation of MZ involves some sort of clustering, however there is not a widely accepted
method. The application of fuzzy set theory to clustering algorithm has allowed researchers to
better account for the continuous variability in natural phenomena. Moreover, the methods based on
nonparametric density estimation can detect clusters of unequal size and dispersion. The objective
of this paper is to compare different procedures of clustering in order to assist researchers and
producers in delineating within- feld management zones. One hundred georeferenced measurements
of soil, radiometric and crop attributes were collected on a 12-ha durum wheat feld in two seasons
in south-east Italy. All variables were interpolated on a 11 m grid using geostatistical techniques
of kriging and cokriging. We compared the following techniques: (1) iterative Self-Organising Data
Analysis Technique (ISODATA); (2) fuzzy c-means method; (3) non-parametric density algorithm.
All the methods produced consistent results, creating the subdivision of the feld into 2 or 3 distinct
classes of suitable size for site-specifc management. The clusters differed mainly in soil textural
properties and crop response. Fuzzy c-means algorithm provides the user with two performance
indices to choose the most appropriate number of clustering for creating MZ. Nonparametric density
algorithm allows to assess the local variation within each cluster.
Keywords: management zone, geostatistics, ISODATA, fuzzy c-means classifcation, nonparametric
density algorithm
Introduction
Spatial and temporal variability of soil properties and weather affect wheat grain yield and quality.
To increase farmer proftability and reduce environmental impact, it is necessary to ft management
practices to spatial variations of soil and crop properties, which is the main objective of Precision
Agriculture. Management Zones (MZ) are defned as subfeld regions or classes within which the
effects of weather, soil properties and management strategies on the crop growth are rather uniform
(Lark, 1998). Different approaches have been developed for determination of these zones and at
present there is no univocally accepted methodology. A number of information layers have then
been used, including biotic, abiotic and climate factors that may affect crop yield. Whatever the
attributes used, there are various ways in which classifcation may be carried out. Cluster analysis
procedures have been effectively used to divide a feld into potential management zones (Stafford
et al., 1998). Though several algorithm options exist, any procedure for generating management
zones is not yet clearly prescribed for the end user. Several GIS or statistical packages contain
the functions necessary for clustering, but producers must be assisted in making decisions for site
specifc management. This paper compares three clustering approaches with different properties
for creating MZ, using quantitative soil and crop information. The Iterative Self-Organizing
Data Analysis Technique (ISODATA) (Tou and Gonzalez, 1974) is one of the most widely used
unsupervised clustering algorithms, that iteratively groups the data points by minimizing the
Euclidean distance (ESRI, 1994). To effectively characterize management zones by mean vectors and
a covariance matrix, ISODATA requires each variable to exhibit a gaussian distribution. Moreover,
better results are obtained if all data exhibit similar variances, which may require additional work
for data preparation. Existing traditional clustering techniques produce clusters that are crisp,
because the cluster which any individual is assigned to is unambiguous and is linked by a legend to
the centroid attributes and their standard deviations. This approach does not fully account for gradual
change, but in most cultivated felds this model of spatial variation is rather artifcial, because soil
and crop may vary smoothly and gradually rather than abruptly. In those conditions it is diffcult
to unambiguously draw the borders of MZ. The application of fuzzy set theory (Burrough, 1989)
to clustering algorithm has allowed researchers to better account for the continuous variability in
natural phenomena. The procedure returns a vector of membership values indicating how closely
each individual resembles each class. For practical reasons, it may be necessary to assign each
individual to a unique class, using the one corresponding to maximum membership, such process
is called defuzzifcation. However, the information represented by the membership values can be
retained to assess the uncertainty with which management zones can be delineated.
Furthermore, several properties in an agricultural feld show spatial dependence at various scales,
therefore it is advisable to use geostatistics to describe spatial variation. Moreover, most clustering
methods, based on least-squares criterion, are biased because they tend to fnd clusters with roughly
the same number of observations or equal variance (Sarle, 1982). Conversely, the methods based on
nonparametric density estimation are the ones with the least bias (Scott, 1992) and more suitable to
delineate subfeld areas of different size and variability. According to such approach, a cluster is
defned as a region surrounding a local maximum of the probability density function or a maximal
connected set of local maxima. The utility of density function estimation derives mainly from the
possibility to characterize borders between management zones and visualize the residual variability
within each zone. The objective of this paper was to compare Iterative Self-Organising Data Analysis
Technique (ISODATA), fuzzy c-means method and non-parametric density algorithm three methods
for giving producers some guidelines in creating management zones.
Study site and attributes
A three-year feld trial on rainfed durum wheat was carried out on a 12-ha feld located in Foggia
(41 27 N, 15 36 E, 90 m above sea level), south-eastern Italy. The soil type is a deep, silty-clay
Vertisol of alluvial origin and the climate is Mediterranean, characterised by hot and dry summers
and rainfall concentrated mostly in the winter months. One hundred georeferenced locations, roughly
evenly distributed on the feld, were selected within the feld according to a procedure which is an
extension of spatial simulated annealing (SSA) for optimization (Van Groenigen et al., 1999). Such
procedure allows for the inclusion of objective weighting factors and use of auxiliary information.
Soil samples were taken up to 0.30-m depth at these locations. Details on the feld sampling and
methodology can be found in Castrignan et al. (2008).
In this paper only the results of the following variables are reported: coarse and fne sand contents
(%), silt (%), clay contents (%), organic matter content (%) determined by the pipette method,
organic matter content by Walkley Black method (Pagliai, 1997; Violante, 2000), aboveground
biomass (g/m
2
) and gluten contents (% dry matter), automatically determined by Near infrared
(NIR) spectroscopy, thermal infrared (IR) temperature, measured with 2955 LCT LICOR IR-Gun
CropTrack on April 2007, and LAI, measured with Portable LAI meter LICOR LAI 2000 on April
2006 and 2007. In this work only the data of the two crop seasons 2005-06 and 2006-07 will be
reported.
Geostatistical techniques
To investigate the multivariate spatial structure of data, a linear model of coregionalization (LMC)
(Castrignan et al., 2000) was ftted to all direct and cross-variograms. The whole data set was split
in 3 subsets: the frst two included soil variables and crop variables (biomass and gluten contents),
respectively; to each subset a LMC was separately ftted; the third data set including IR temperature
and LAI measured in the two seasons, for which a univariate analysis was preferred, because of
their non signifcant correlation with the other variables. Finally, all the variables were interpolated
on a 11 m-grid using the geostatistical techniques of cokriging and kriging (Goovaerts, 1997). All
the geostatistical analyses were performed with ISATIS software package (Geovariances, France,
release 8.05).
Data classifcation techniques
ISODATA (Iterative Self-Organizing Data Analysis Technique) is a clustering algorithm (Tou and
Gonzalez, 1974) which iteratively clusters the pixels by minimizing the Euclidean distance from each
data point to a class mean. This process continues until the number of pixels in each class changes
by less than the selected pixel change threshold or the maximum number of iterations is reached.
Fuzzy c-means classifcation produces a continuous grouping of objects by assigning partial class
membership values, which is to be preferred for grouping properties in the continuum soilplant
atmosphere (Odeh et al., 1992). In the clustering process a weighted within-groups sum of squared
errors objective function, is minimized. The solution is a vector of class membership values for
each individual, which can be defuzzied by assigning the modal class. fuzzy c-means classifcation
was performed using the Management Zone Analysis (MZA) software (Fridgen et al., 2004) and
was repeated for a range of classes (c) between 2 and 6. The optimum c-value was identifed on
the basis of minimizing two indices: the fuzziness performance index (FPI) and the normalized
classifcation entropy (NCE) (Odeh et al., 1992). FPI (0FPI1) is a measure of the degree of
membership sharing among classes (1 indicates a strong sharing of membership, 0 no membership
sharing). NCE (0NCE1) estimates the degree of disorganization in the classifcation (1 indicates
strong disorganization, 0 high organization).
Euclidean distance should be used to calculate the objective function only for statistically
independent variables exhibiting equal variances, a condition rarely met in practice. Therefore,
we used Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to transform the raw values into new orthogonal
variables, standardized to mean 0 and variance 1 for each individual. PCA was performed by using
the FACTOR procedure of SAS/STAT software package (SAS, 2008, release 9.1). Only the frst
principal component which explained most of total variance, were used to calculate the similarities
as measured by Euclidean distance. To divide the feld into a number of clusters without any previous
information about the existence and the number of the groups, an algorithm, based on nonparametric
density estimate was used (Scott, 1992). The approach utilises hyperspherical uniform kernels of
fxed radius, which is a smoothing parameter (R) to be prespecifed and is expressed as a Euclidean
distance. The number of clusters is a function of the smoothing parameter and several different
values of such parameter generally have to be specifed before choosing the optimal number.
The method is not inherently hierarchical, nevertheless, it can do approximate nonparametric
signifcance tests for the number of clusters: an approximate P-value for each cluster is computed
by comparing the estimated maximum density in the cluster with the estimated maximum density
on the cluster boundary. The least signifcant cluster is then repeatedly joined with a neighbouring
cluster until all remaining clusters are signifcant.
As the variables are not measured in comparable units, a standardization was used in this work which
scales all the variables to the same mean 0 and to the same variance 1. The clustering approach
was implemented by using the MODECLUS procedure of the SAS/STAT software package (SAS,
2008, release 9.2).
In order to obtain spatially contiguous clusters, the three clustering algorithms were applied to
the data set of the estimated variables by geostatistics and the coordinates were included in the
attribute space.
Results
The exploratory analysis of the data revealed considerable spatial variation in soil properties and
in crop attributes for each growing season (Castrignan et al., 2008). The temporal variability in
crop production was likely due to differences in total growing season precipitation among the two
years, the season 2006-07 being drier than the season 2005-06. As the variables were not measured
in the same unit and most of them showed sensible shift from the Gaussian distribution, before
performing geostatistical analysis, they were transformed using Gaussian anamorphosis by an
expansion of Hermite polynomials restricted to the frst 30 terms (Castrignan et al., 2008). To take
spatial dependence into account, an isotropic LMC was separately ftted to all variograms of each
one of the two multi-variate data sets, since no signifcant spatial anisotropies were disclosed. For
the soil data set the following basic spatial structures were used: (1) nugget effect; (2) spherical
model with range of 50 m; (3) exponential model with range of 250 m; for the data set of crop
attributes: (1) nugget effect; (2) spherical model with range of 100 m; (3) spherical model with
range of 550 m; for the univariate variograms, LAI in 2006: (1) nugget effect; (2) spherical model
with range of 250 m; LAI in 2007: (1) spherical model with range of 60 m; IR temperature: (1)
Nugget effect, (2) exponential model with range of 300 m.
The spatial maps of the raw variables, obtained by kriging or cokriging on a 1m x 1m square
grid (Castrignan et al., 2008), revealed some distinct spatial patterns and some degree of spatial
association among the different attributes. In regards to the soil properties, the higher content of
clay occured in two distinct zones, south and in the middle part of the feld, whereas the coarse
sand map showed a well defned S-shaped structure in the central part of the feld. In regards to
the crop properties, the most productive and luxuriant sites in the lower regions of the feld were
generally associated with greater values of gluten contents during the crop season 2005-06, whereas
during the season 2006-07 the higher values of gluten were located in the northern part of the feld.
To synthesise this complex multivariate variation in a restricted number of zones the three clustering
approaches were applied to the all estimated variables and the results compared.
Several classifcations were generated with ISODATA method, primarily varying the minimum
and maximum number of classes to defne. Based on previous knowledge of the study area, the
classifcation which produced three broad classes was retained. Examination of cluster means and
standard deviations provides insight into similarities and differences between classes (Table 1a):
the southern portion of the feld (Figure 1a) is characterised by the highest values of clay, LAI and
biomass measured in 2007 and the minimum IR temperature.
On the contrary, the median area is characterised by the highest values of coarse sand, biomass
and LAI measured in 2006. It is then evident how different portions of the feld replied differently
as a function of meteorological path. These observed changes in spatial patterns from one season
to the other one were quite likely due to the interaction of the soil factors with the variability of
climate. The lower part of the feld is actually fner textured and with higher content of organic
matter, then the higher values of biomass and LAI, recorded in this portion of the feld during
the drier season (2006-2007). Such behaviour may be ascribed to higher content of available soil
water. The northern part of the feld is coarser textured with higher IR values recorded on April
2007, which is indicative that the plants were suffering some sort of water or physiological stress.
To reduce the number of variables we applied PCA to the correlation matrix, followed by a rotation
of the components through orthogonal transformation VARIMAX. Only the components with
eigenvalues greater than 1 were used and the fuzzy c-means classifcation procedure was then
applied to the frst fve Principal Components, which explained more than 80% of the total variance.
Grouping data in two classes allowed both FPI and NCE indices to be minimized and the found
Table 1. Descriptive statistics of the Clusters in Isodata Method (a), in Fuzzy c-mean algorithm
(b), in Nonparametric Density algorithm (c).
(a) Isodata method (b) Fuzzy c-mean
algorithm
(c) Nonparametric
density algorithm
Cluster 1 Cluster 2 Cluster 3 Cluster = 1 Cluster = 2 Cluster = 1 Cluster = 2
VARIABLES Mean Std Mean Std Mean Std Mean Std Mean Std Mean Std Mean Std.
bio2006 932.4 85.0 989.2 64.3 768.2 61.6 973.2 79.5 790.8 81.3 973.2 79.5 790.8 81.3
bio2007 554.2 48.4 496.3 39.2 518.4 59.4 528.9 45.8 508.5 61.3 528.9 45.8 508.5 61.3
glut2006 11.1 0.4 11.0 0.2 10.9 0.5 11.03 0.3 10.9 0.5 11.0 0.3 10.9 0.5
glut2007 7.4 0.2 7.5 0.2 7.7 0.2 7.43 0.1 7.8 0.2 7.4 0.1 7.8 0.2
TIapr07 13.3 1.8 18.0 1.3 19.2 0.8 15.7 2.6 19.2 0.7 15.7 2.6 19.2 0.7
LAI2006 3.0 0.4 3.5 0.4 3.0 0.2 3.4 0.5 2.9 0.2 3.4 0.5 2.9 0.2
LAIapril07 1.4 0.2 1.2 0.3 1.2 0.3 1.3 0.3 1.1 0.3 1.3 0.3 1.1 0.3
clay 29.1 4.4 29.0 3.6 25.6 4.9 29.1 4.1 26.1 4.7 29.1 4.1 26.1 4.7
Fine sand 19.8 2.2 19.7 1.9 22.2 3.3 19.8 2.1 21.8 3.2 19.8 2.1 21.8 3.2
Coarse sand 4.6 0.5 5.3 0.8 5.2 0.9 5.0 0.7 5.2 0.9 5.0 0.7 5.2 0.9
silt 46.8 1.7 46.4 2.1 46.6 2.0 46.5 2.0 46.6 1.9 46.5 2.0 46.6 1.9
om 1.9 0.1 1.9 0.1 1.9 0.1 1.9 0.1 1.9 0.1 1.9 0.1 1.9 0.1
Figure 1. Cluster map in ISODATA (a), Fuzzy c-mean (b) and NON PARAMETRIC DENSITY
algorithm.
concordance of the two indices was an indication of the goodness of the classifcation (Fridgen et
al., 2004). The class 1 in fuzzy classifcation (Figure 1b) incorporates the two separate classes, 1
and 2, of ISODATA classifcation (Table 1a) and the attributes means of this cluster were roughly
obtained on averaging the corresponding means of the two ISODATA classes. On the contrary,
the class 2 was quite similar to the class 3 in ISODATA classifcation. The central part of the feld
looked quite similar to class 1 in ISODATA classifcation, but with a larger component of coarse
sand, which explains the different behaviour of the classes 1 and 2 in the two crop seasons. The
class 2 was the most productive and luxuriant zone of the feld in the wetter season (2006-2007)
but became the least productive and luxuriant in the drier season (2005-2006), because of the less
water available in the soil. The central part of the feld represents a transition area and the pixels are
then expected to have signifcant partial membership of the two classes. The smooth classifcations
were visualized using continuous sequence of gray tone to represent the level of membership (Figure
2: only the map for cluster 1 is reported): it is quite evident how the pixels close to the border
between the two clusters share partial memberships. Gradual transition causes the cluster edges to
be indistinct and diffcult to localize the line of demarcation between distinct management zones.
In regards to the third approach, after several trials the smoothing parameter was chosen equal to 2.2,
because it produced the subdivision of the feld into 2 distinct classes of suitable size for uniform
management and realised the best visual accordance with the prior description of the spatial and
temporal variation of the feld.
In Table 1c the means and standard deviations of the attributes for each cluster are reported. The
clusters 1 and 2 do not differ much from the corresponding classes in the fuzzy classifcation.
Figure 2. Membership map of cluster 1.
Table 2. Cluster Statistics of the results of nonparametric density algorithm.
Cluster Frequency Estimated
Density
Mode
Boundary
Frequency
Estimated
Saddle
Density
Mode
Count
Saddle
Count
Ratio Overlap
Count
Approx
-value
1 81435 2.96946 E-6 17753 1.41447 E-6 15383 7327 2.099 0 10
-6
2 57514 2.39734 E-6 20211 2.02712 E-6 12419 10501 1.183 6136 10
-6
The main difference is in the relative size of the two classes: the class 1 was much wider than the
corresponding class 1 in fuzzy classifcation (Figure 1c); therefore, once again the central part
represents the zone with largest uncertainty. However, the examination of the cluster means and
their standard deviations does not say how much the management zones are compact in attribute
space and how local variation occurs within each zone. The main advantages of nonparametric
density approach are giving information on the distribution of the residual variation within each
class and characterizing the borders between the management zones.
As a cluster in this approach is defned as a region surrounding a local maximum (mode) of the
multivariate probability density function, according to Hartigan and Hartigan (1985) there must be a
dip between two clusters. The boundary should follow the bottom of this valley and the maximum
value along the boundary of the density function occurs at a saddle point. A useful parameter
to characterise the nature of the boundary between two clusters is then the ratio, which compares
modal density with saddle density. From the inspection of the Table 2, reporting the main statistics
for each cluster, it is clear that the cluster number 1 is better defned, with the higher mode of the
estimated density. The nature of the cluster boundaries and their fuzzy character are defned by
the last fve columns of the Table 2, where the results of the approximate signifcance test are also
reported. The cluster 1 is more clearly defned, realising the higher values of the mode count and
ratio and the lower value of the saddle count. On the contrary, the cluster 2 looks more muddled,
with a fuzzy character of the boundary verifed by the presence of points in the overlap zone.
The 3D visualization of the density function (Figure 3) helped to understand the differences in the
spatial partition of the feld into two homogeneous zones. The cluster 1 looked better differentiated,
with its higher peaks, whereas the cluster 2 showed many lower local modes. Moreover, the boundary
between the two clusters was not well defned, including several high saddle points. These pieces
of information can assist farmers in adopting site specifc crop and soil management.
Conclusions
This study demonstrated that combining geostatistical interpolation with clustering approaches can
provide useful means for automatically delineating management zones. The classifcation methods
varied in terms of computer time: running on a computer with 2 GB of RAM, ISODATA method
was simpler to perform and very fast (about 5 minutes of CPU time); the fuzzy classifcation took
about 1.5 hours of CPU time, whereas nonparametric density algorithm about 41 minutes of CPU
time. Each classifcation method has its advantages and disadvantages. ISODATA classifcation
provides summary information about classes in a relatively quick manner, but lacks information
about transition zones. Moreover, the type of data distribution must be considered, because a non-
Gaussian distribution of attributes may yield misleading results. The two continuous (fuzzy and non
parametric) classifcations provided local information which may be very useful for site-specifc
management, but were more time-consuming and the graphic results are not as easily interpreted.
The study has also shown that is now possible to use quick, effcient and automated procedures
for creating management zones and for testing the questions of the number of zones to create. The
fnal decision of how many clusters to use, when the two described cluster validity indices are
dissimilar, may require a useful comparison with other alternative approaches.

Figure 3. 3D visualization of multivariate density function
Figure 3. 3D visualization of multivariate density function.
Acknowledgements
The authors wish to thank Dr Newell R. Kitchen and Dr. Scott T. Drummond of USDA-ARS,
Cropping Syst. And Water Quality Res. Unit, Columbia, Mo 65211 for their valuable assistance
in using MZA software.
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Stafford, J.V., R.M. Lark, and H.C. Bolam. 1998. Using yield maps to regionalize felds into potential
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Tou, J.T., and R.C. Gonzalez. 1974. Pattern recognition principles. Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA.
Van Groenigen J.W., Siderius W., Stein A. 1999. Constrained optimisation of soil sampling for minimisation
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Ministry of Agriculture. Franco Angeli, Milan, Italy.
Mapping spatial variation in growing willow using small UAS
A. Rydberg
1
, O. Hagner
2
, P. Aronsson
3
and M. Sderstrm
4
1
JTI-Swedish institute of Agricultural and Environmental Engineering, Box 7033, SE 750 07
Uppsala, Sweden; Anna.Rydberg@jti.se
2
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, SE 901 83 Ume, Sweden
3
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, SE 750 07 Uppsala, Sweden
4
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Box 234, SE 532 23 Skara, Sweden
Abstract
Attempts to reduce consumption of fossil fuels have led to increased use of biofuels. Although
willow generates a high energy exchange and is proftable in relation to many other dedicated energy
crops, there has been relatively low interest among farmers in growing willow. This low interest
is expected to continue unless the proftability of willow growing is considerably increased, either
by signifcantly reducing production costs or by increasing product price. This could be achieved if
growers could guarantee production of a certain quantity and quality at a certain time, which would
require e.g. a method to estimate standing biomass in willow plantations. This study evaluated if
visual interpretation of low altitude aerial photography from a small unmanned aircraft can be used
to detect and map differences in variety, homogeneity, and biomass density in growing willow. It is
the initial part of a larger project to evaluate different remote sensing based methods for estimation
of biomass in growing willow. The ability to accurately map within-feld variability would be very
useful since it enables more effcient stratifed feld sampling techniques to be used. If differences can
be detected by means of visual interpretation it could mandate the development of more advanced
automated image-analysis based tools for quantitative measurements. The results show that it was
possible to map areas with different homogeneity with high spatial precision using the orthophoto
mosaic images generated with the UAS, when considering both spectral and textural information.
It was also possible to differentiate between different varieties of willow using the UAS, provided
that single images were used for spectral differentiation and that the stands were suffciently large.
Keywords: biomass, variety, remote sensing, UAV
Introduction
The low interest among farmers in growing willow is mainly due to the long time between planting
and harvest of willow compared with annual crops. This means a longer time before any income can
be secured and lower fexibility to adjust cropping to fuctuating market prices. This low interest is
expected to continue if the proftability of willow growing is not considerably increased, either by
signifcantly reducing the costs of production or by increasing the price of the harvested product.
This could be achieved if growers could guarantee a product of a certain quantity and quality at
a certain time. However, this would require a method to estimate standing biomass in willow
plantations, among other factors.
From an economic perspective, it is advantageous to know the amount of willow biomass prior to
harvest, in order for the buyer to secure a certain amount of biomass and for the seller to determine
the actual amount sold. From a biological perspective, more effcient methods to evaluate the growth
of willow are needed in order to speed up willow production.
Current estimates of willow biomass mainly rely on measurement of stem diameter, which is then
related empirically to dry mass (DM). For measurements of multi-stem species such as willow, much
time and effort are required for this and there is also a need to include site-, clone- and age-specifc
information. Ens et al. (2008) developed a new method which calculates optical stem density from
vertical digital photographs taken with the sky as the background at predetermined locations and
angles within a plantation during times when the willow is without leaves. The method has been
calibrated empirically to estimate biomass and produced a strong relationship (adjusted r
2
=0.97)
between predicted and actual harvested biomass.
The most common way of estimating biomass from images, however, is to take advantage of
spectral information from the leaves. Hyperspectral image information was used by Mirik et al.
(2005) for estimating total and live biomass of willow among other species and a strong linear
relationship was found between willow biomass and the vegetation indices SRTVI and NDTVI.
In a study by Petersen et al. (2005) in which three willow species were classifed using colour
and colour infrared photography, infrared imagery was least effective in separating plants into
species classes (58.6% accuracy), whereas supervised classifcation of colour images achieved a
classifcation accuracy of 84.6%.
Estimates of willow biomass are not only needed for production purposes, but also in situations
where willow is considered a weed. Because of high between-observer variability and a lack of
standardised protocols, ground-based monitoring of willow biomass for ecological mapping has
proven diffcult. Boyd et al. (2006) evaluated variability associated with collection and analysis
of feld data for a photo-based monitoring technique for willow communities. This technique may
provide a tool for habitat managers interested in monitoring the abundance of willow communities.
Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV)
Acquisition of high resolution images by UAVs has certain advantages over piloted aircraft
operations, including lower costs, improved safety, fexibility in planning and closer proximity to
the target (Rango et al., 2006). Some of the challenges to the effective use of UAVs are restrictive
airspace regulations often limiting operations to within direct line-of-sight at close range (500 m)
and very low altitude (less than 125 m). At present (with the exception of Australia) autonomous
fight beyond visual range is only allowed within restricted airspace requiring a certifed pilot with
instrument rating. In Europe a Joint European legislation for systems weighting below 150 kg is now
progressing rapidly. It is expected that very light UAVs (less than 1.5 kg and low kinetic energy)
will be allowed to operate under somewhat less restrictive rules. The Unmanned Aircraft System
(UAS) used in this study, SmartPlanes SmartOne has been approved in Sweden, Finland, Norway
and Germany to operate up to 300 m altitude and within direct line-of-sight up to a distance of
800 m. It has previously been tested for precision agriculture purposes such as weed detection and
mapping nitrogen and protein content variations in crops (Rydberg et al., 2007).
Suitable classifcation scales for UAV-acquired RGB imagery and the potential to improve the
classifcation of rangelands by incorporating intensity, hue and saturation (HIS) and/or texture
were investigated by Laliberte and Rango (2008). They found that texture measures increased the
classifcation accuracy at nearly all segmentation scales, but the use of RGB+HIS alone resulted
in comparable accuracies at most scales and with considerably less computation time.
Objective
The objective of this study was to access if visual interpretation of low altitude aerial photography
from small unmanned aircraft can be used to detect and map differences in variety, homogeneity,
and biomass density in growing willow. It is the initial part of a larger project to evaluate different
remote sensing based methods for estimation of biomass in growing willow. The ability to accurately
map within-feld variability would be very useful since it enables more effcient stratifed feld
sampling techniques to be used. If differences can be detected by means of visual interpretation
it could mandate the development of more advanced automated image-analysis based tools for
quantitative measurements.
Willow plantation felds
The willow plantations used in the study were established over a period from 1991 to 2004 (Table
1). Numbers and positions of feld samples and feld locations are presented in Figure 1. Variety 78-
112 is a pure Salix viminalis variety. Variety Tora is a bred hybrid of S. viminalis and S. schwerinii,
and variety Orm is a bred of pure S. viminalis. A small area of feld D was planted with variety
Torhild, which is a cross between the varieties Tora and Orm. Variety Gudrun is a bred hybrid of
a Swedish S. dasyclados and a S. burjatica of Russian origin.
Table 1. Description of the commercial willow plantations used in the study.
Plantation/feld Size (ha) Variety/clone Planting year Shoot age (yrs)
A 0.76 78-112 1992 7
C 1.81 78-112 1991 7
D 2.16 Tora (Torhild) 2001 3
E 1.39 Orm 1994 3
F 0.69 Gudrun 2004 4
G 0.83 Gudrun 2004 4
JTI Institutet fr jordbruks- och miljteknik

Figure 1. Left: Willow fields and location of field samples included in the study. Right: The
UAS is hand launched and controlled manually to avoid obstacles. At 50 m altitude the
autopilot is engaged and navigates the aircraft according to the predefined flight route.

Figure 1. Left: Willow felds and location of feld samples included in the study. Right: The UAS
is hand launched and controlled manually to avoid obstacles. At 50 m altitude the autopilot is
engaged and navigates the aircraft according to the predefned fight route.
On-ground biomass estimations
In December 2008, feld measurements of standing biomass and plant height was conducted. In
plantations A, C, D, E and F, between eight and nine sampling plots were systematically laid out
for data collection, while in plantation G only four plots were laid out (Figure 1). Each sampling
plot consisted of a 3.0 m section of a double row of willow. The number of living plants and the
height of the tallest shoot in each plot were measured, and the position of each plot was recorded
using standard GPS.
The standing biomass in each sampling plot was estimated by a combination of destructive and
non-destructive measurements (Teleius, 1998). The shoot diameter at 1.0 m height of each living
shoot was measured using a calliper. For each willow variety a set of 20 shoots was then harvested
in order to determine the allometric relationship between shoot diameter and shoot dry weight
according to Equation 1:
Shoot dry weight= a * diameter
b
(1)
where a and b are parameters obtained through non-linear regression. Each sampling shoot was
cut and the fresh weight was determined in the feld using an electronic balance. A 50 cm section
at the balance point of each shoot was then cut, weighed and dried at 70 C to constant weight.
The percentage dry matter of each 50 cm section was then used for calculating the dry weight
of each sample shoot (Telenius, 1997). By use of Equation 1, the shoot dry weight of each shoot
in each sampling plot was calculated. The standing biomass (dry weight per hectare) of each
plantation was then calculated by multiplying the mean plot dry weight by the total length of plant
rows per hectare in each plantation divided by the length of the sampled double row (i.e. 3.0 m).
The distance between the double rows varied somewhat between the plantations, mainly due to a
change in planting practices during the 1990s, and the mean distance between the double rows in
each plantation was therefore measured.
Image acquisition and processing
A small hand-launched unmanned aircraft, SmartPlanes SmartOne-A (Figure 1) equipped with an
autopilot and a calibrated digital camera was used to systematically acquire imagery of six willow
felds from 200 m altitude on two occasions. These imaging dates were selected to represent the
stage of maximum green spectral refectance from willow leaves (July) and maximum leaf area
(August). Ground control points (GCP) on the ground were sparsely spread around the felds and
their exact location was positioned with Real Time Kinematic-Global Positioning System (RTK-
GPS). The GCPs were white, so as to be easily detected in the aerial images. The system software
was subsequently used to automatically produce orthophoto mosaics with high spatial resolution.
Image interpretation and data analysis
Visual interpretation of the ortho mosaics and individual photos was compared against actual
ground observations obtained in the feld (Figure 2). Spectral signatures from individual photos was
used when analysing the usefulness of colour information for identifying areas with differences in
species and biomass density variation in the felds. RGB-values were calculated into intensity, hue
and saturation (IHS) and the relationship between the saturation and willow density was calculated
for locations around the feld sample locations.
Results
Field measurements
The feld measurements for each feld in the study are presented in Table 2. Fields A, C and D
contained in average more than twice as much biomass as felds E, F, G. The greatest variation in
biomass occurred in felds C and G.
Image information
Spectral differences could be identifed between some of the different varieties included in this
study (Figure 2). Variety Gudrun (felds F & G) differed considerably from the other varieties in
the study, but other varieties could also be differentiated. Within feld D, two different varieties
(Torhild and Tora) had been planted. When the size of the variety plant parts were about the same,
image information could be used to separate the two.
The feld measurements revealed one single double-row of variety Torhild in the Tora variety part
of feld D, and this double-row could not be found in the image information.

Figure 2.Top: UAS image of different willow varieties. The top arrow indicate the viewing
position and direction of the picture taken from the ground. The bottom arrow indicate a
drainage system. Bottom left: Image from the UAS in full resolution. Bottom right: Picture
taken from the ground.
Figure 2. Top: UAS image of different willow varieties. The top arrow indicate the viewing position
and direction of the picture taken from the ground. The bottom arrow indicate a drainage system.
Bottom left: Image from the UAS in full resolution. Bottom right: Picture taken from the ground.

Figure 2.Top: UAS image of different willow varieties. The top arrow indicate the viewing
position and direction of the picture taken from the ground. The bottom arrow indicate a
drainage system. Bottom left: Image from the UAS in full resolution. Bottom right: Picture
taken from the ground.
However, large spectral variations can also be obtained due to different rates of plant development
and such spectral differences were identifed within feld G, where only one willow variety was
present. This feld had large variation in biomass, probably due to varying soil conditions, and thus
resulted in similar spectral differences to those observed between different varieties. Mean values
of saturation showed a fairly good relation to willow mean feld density (Figure 3). However, there
were large variations both within and between felds. The within feld relationship varied between
R
2
=0.0 and R
2
=0.90, where best relationship was found in feld G.
There were clearly visible textural differences between images of felds with varying biomass.
The row structure in the images went from being distinct in felds with relatively low biomass (E),
to less distinct in feld D and not visible at all in feld C, which contained most biomass. The row
structure visibility feature seemed to have a strong relationship to biomass, being less sensitive to
variations in plant age, variety and image conditions. This effect was also visible in feld G, which
had the greatest variation in biomass within one feld.
Table 2. Average and variability (standard deviation) of crop height and biomass density for the
different felds.
Field Crop height (max per plot) Biomass density (tonnes DM/ha)
A 7.6 (0.6) 51.2 (8.0)
C 8.3 (0.6) 60.6 (17.2)
D 8.3 (0.3) 45.3 (12.2)
E 4.8 (0.5) 15.4 (8.0)
F 4.7 (0.5) 10.7 (5.0)
G 4.5 (1.3) 14.9 (9.7)

Saturation versus biomass density
30
35
40
45
50
55
60
65
70
75
80
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
Density (Tonnes DM/Ha)
S
a
t
u
r
a
t
i
o
n
G
A
C
D
E
F

Figure 3. Plot of colour saturation versus biomass density for different varieties. There are
differences between crops with high (Tora,Torhils,78-112) and low (Orm, Gudrun) biomass
density.

Figure 3. Plot of colour saturation versus biomass density for different varieties. There are
differences between crops with high (Tora,Torhils,78-112) and low (Orm, Gudrun) biomass
density.
Discussion
The results showed that it was possible to map areas with different homogeneity using the orthophoto
mosaic images acquired from the UAS, when considering both spectral and textural information.
Colour information varied greatly with different viewing angles and times of fight. This affected
the spectral information in the mosaics, which were not used for quantitative analysis based on
colour alone. However, the mosaics were still useful when it came to examining texture. The high
correspondence between saturation and willow density identifed in feld G, is probably related
to the differentiation in closure of the stand. Vegetation on the ground is more visible in the open
parts, increasing the spectral differences between parts of low and high willow density.
It proved possible to differentiate between different varieties of willow using the UAS, provided that
single images were used for the spectral differentiation and that the stands were suffciently large.
One double-row of a variety incorporated into a stand of a different variety was not large enough
for differentiation. On the other hand, different varieties may provides different spatial structures,
i.e. texture, which together with differences in spectral information could be used simultaneously
when classifying for species.
Information on texture is an important feature of biomass estimation in willow plantations. Texture
can provide information on the homogeneity of the feld and on whether plant establishment has
failed for some reason and there are empty patches (where no willow is growing) in the feld. In this
study, the degree to which the rows could be detected related to the amount of biomass present in
the feld. This information was less sensitive to image acquisition occasion and also seemed to be
less sensitive to variety and plant age. However, the degree of canopy closure may vary between
varieties, although this was not observed in this study. Canopy closure may also reach a saturation
value when no further differences in texture can be detected despite differences in biomass.
Conclusions
It proved possible to differentiate between different varieties and to map areas with different
homogeneity with high precision using the orthophoto mosaics images generated with the UAS.
It was also possible to use spectral information to discriminate between different varieties.
However, due to the fact that large spectral variations can be obtained due to different rates of
plant development and due to variety differences, textural information should be used for a more
robust biomass estimation. Textural information such as row visibility in images seemed to be less
sensitive to varying weather conditions or to differences in plant age and variety.
Future work
In the larger project of which this study is a part, airborne laser scanner data were collected and
will be analysed together with Digital Terrain Models (DTM) obtained using the UAS. One further
image acquisition of the study area will also be made prior to harvest using the UAS. This will
reveal whether the information from bare stems can contribute to the estimation of willow biomass.
The results from the remote sensing techniques will then be compared against the feld data and
evaluated against the actual biomass obtained after harvest. Next step, is to combine the spectral
and texture information in this study, into an automated software for willow biomass classifcation
and quantifcation, possibly also taking willow height into account.
Acknowledgements
This project is founded by the Swedish farmers foundation for agricultural research.
References
Boyd, C.S., Hopkins, K.T. and Svejcar, T.J. 2006. A photo-based monitoring technique for willow communities.
Wildlife Society Bulletin 34(4):1049-1054.
Ens, A., Farrell, R.E. and Blanger, N. 2008. Rapid biomass estimation using optical stem density of willow
(Salix spp.) grown in short rotation. Biomass & Bioenergy (2008): doi:10.1016/j.biombioe.2008.05.012.
Laliberte, A.S. and Rango, A. 2008. Incorporation of texture, intensity, hue, and saturation for rangeland
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International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing, and Spatial Information Sciences: GEOBIA
2008, Aug. 5-8, 2008, Calgary, AB, Vol. XXXVIII-4/C1, 6 pp.
Mirik, M., Norland, J.E., Crabtree, R. L. and Biondim, M.E. 2005. Hyperspectral one-meter-resolution remote
sensing in Yellowstone national park, Wyoming: II. Biomass. Rangeland Ecology Management 58:459-465.
Petersen, S.L., Stringham, T.K. and Laliberte, A.S. 2005. Classifcation of willow species using large-scale
aerial photography. Rangeland Ecology and Management 58:582-587.
Rango, A., Laliberte, A., Steele, C., Herrick, J.E., Bestelmeyer, B., Schmugge, T., Roanhorse, A. and Jenkins,
V. 2006. Using unmanned aerial vehicle for rangelands: Current applications and future potentials.
Environmental Practice 8:159-168.
Rydberg, A., Hagner, O., Sderstrm, M. & Brjesson, T. 2007. Field specifc overview of crops using UAV
(Unmanned Aerial Vehicle). In: S. Blackmore (ed.) Precision Agriculture07. Wageningen Academic
Publishers. pp. 357-364.
Telenius, B.F. 1997. Implications of vertical distribution and within-stand variation in moisture content for
biomass estimations of some willow and hybrid poplar clones. Scandinavian Journal of Forest Research
12: 336-339.
Telenius, B.F. 1998. Assessment of dimensional relations and early production in fast-growing deciduous
tree species. Acta Universitatis Agriculturae Sueciae, Silvestria 50. Dissertation. Swedish University of
Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala. ISBN 91-576-5334-8.
iSOIL: exploring the soil as the basis for sustainable crop
production and precision farming
F.M. van Egmond
1
, A.-K. Nsch
2
, U. Werban
2
, U. Sauer
2
and P. Dietrich
2
1
The Soil Company, Kadijk 7b, 9747 AT Groningen, the Netherlands; egmond@soilcompany.com
2
UFZ, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, Department Monitoring & Exploration
Technologies, Permoserstrasse 15, 04318 Leipzig, Germany; peter.dietrich@ufz.de
Abstract
Precision farming is based on the concept of optimising crop production and increasing proft
margins by taking into account the spatial within-feld variation in soil, soil moisture and other
environmental conditions that infuence crop growth. To be able to adjust crop and soil management
to this natural variation, the type and extent of the variation should be known to the farmer. Ideally
in a format that enables him and his machinery to adapt his crop management to the relevant
variation in such a way that he can optimise his crop production process in an easy and semi-
automated way. This requires reliable and coherent high resolution digital maps of relevant variation
such as soil texture, soil organic matter, soil nutrients, soil moisture, slope, aspect, compaction
(risk) and erosion risk. The focus of the iSOIL project is on improving fast and reliable mapping
of soil properties, soil functions and soil degradation threats. This requires the improvement as
well as the integration of geophysical and spectroscopic measurement techniques in combination
with advanced soil sampling approaches, digital soil mapping and pedophysical approaches. The
outputs of iSOIL encompass methodologies, reliabilities, standards and possibilities for mapping
all the above mentioned and can therefore be of great value to precision agriculture. The project
aims to supply tools and standards for mapping e.g. to precision agriculture end-users to enable
fast, easy and reliable mapping of all relevant soil, hydrological and environmental parameters.
The resulting soil property maps can e.g. be used for precision agriculture applications such as
variable planting distance of potatoes, variable liming and variable fertiliser application. The soil
degradation threats studies, e.g. erosion, compaction and soil organic matter decline can be used
to improve the sustainability of current farming practices to ensure fertile and suffcient quality
lands for crop production in the future.
Keywords: soil sensing, high resolution, digital soil mapping, FP7 EU project
Introduction
At present there is an increasing demand for high-resolution digital soil information by different
stakeholders and for different applications. Precision farming and sustainable crop production and
land use are among these applications, both being identifed by the EU as being very relevant to
European economy now and in the future.
Precision farming is based on the concept of optimising crop production and increasing proft
margins by taking into account the spatial within-feld variation in soil, soil moisture and other
environmental conditions that infuence crop growth. By adjusting crop management to within-feld
differences in crop growth conditions a farmer can increase crop yield, increase crop quality or save
inputs, thus creating a better margin on his crops. Relevant crop growth conditions include soil
physical composition, soil nutrient status, available soil moisture, ambient light conditions, known
or estimated risk at yield threats such as crop and soil-related diseases, compaction and salinisation.
To be able to analyse this natural variation and adjust crop and soil management to it, the type and
extent of the variation should be known to the farmer. Ideally in a format that enables him and his
machinery to adapt his crop management to the relevant variation in such a way that he can optimise
his crop production process in an easy and semi-automated way. This requires among others reliable
and coherent high resolution digital maps of relevant variation. The current soil mapping techniques
can provide high resolution soil-type maps but are very expensive. In general a lot of soil samples
are taken or soil profle descriptions are made. It proves diffcult to translate the soil profle maps
into maps of soil properties that are required by precision farming (McBratney et al., 2003). These
disadvantages create a need for new techniques and methodologies that are cost-effcient, reliable,
digital, at high-resolution, fast and provide maps of soil properties instead of soil types.
Detailed digital soil maps can also be valuable to stakeholders that want to ensure sustainable land
use. Sustainable land use is needed in order to maintain the crop production potential of soils in
Europe and around the world now and in the future. Periodic monitoring is desirable to keep track
on the condition of the soil and to identify possible soil threats. Due to the frequency and surface
area that would be monitored the use of new technology can be benefcial. Soil threats that can
endanger sustainable crop production are identifed by the EU in the Thematic Strategy for Soil
Protection of 2007 (EU, 2009). These include soil degradation, soil erosion, loss of organic matter,
compaction, salinisation, sealing etc. These threats can best be dealt with when the type, location
and extent of the threat are known to the involved policy makers and land users. The large amount
of data collected for soil-monitoring purposes can also be used as input to e.g. soil erosion models,
which can predict or assess potential soil erosion in the future. The output of the models can be
used to either design measures to prevent actual soil erosion or to select areas that are suitable for
specifc land uses.
The increasing need for ensuring food security and soil protection has created the subsequent need
for techniques and methodologies that can provide high-resolution, cost-effective, accurate and
digital soil property maps fast. The need to improve the current soil mapping toolbox has been
recognised by the European Union as a result of the Thematic Strategy for Soil Protection (EU,
2009). As part of the Seventh Framework Programme the EU has issued call ENV.2007.3.1.2.1.
Development and improvement of technologies for data collection in (digital) soil mapping. The
expected impact is described as Improvement of spatial analysis of soils and soil functions, in
relation to indicators for degradation threats. A substantial improvement in technologies for acquiring
soil data is expected in terms of spatial resolution, measurement precision, reliable correlation with
main soil functions and operational/economical feasibility (EU, 2009).
The EU-funded iSOIL project will improve fast and reliable mapping of soil properties, soil functions
and soil degradation threats. The project aims to supply tools and standards for soil mapping e.g.
to precision agriculture end-users to enable fast, easy and reliable mapping of all relevant soil,
hydrological and environmental parameters.
The structure and aims of the iSOIL project together with examples of soil sensing systems that can
provide high resolution digital soil maps for precision agriculture purposes (Adamchuk et al., 2004)
are given in this paper. By discussing the current status of the iSOIL project, the technologies and
expected output during this JIAC session, iSOIL wants to share its ideas and learn more about the
needs and knowledge of precision agricultural and other end-users that may beneft from this project.
iSOIL
The EU-funded iSOIL consortium consists of 19 partners from 9 countries and contains universities,
research organisations and small and medium sized enterprises (Figure 1). The three-year project
started at 1 June 2008 and will fnish at 30 November 2011.
The project is structured in seven work packages (Figure 2). WP1 and WP2 apply the concept of
mobile measuring platforms by integrating existing geophysical, spectroscopic and monitoring
techniques (WP1) and exploring emerging technologies (WP2). WP3 will develop physically
based transfer functions or so called constitutive models to establish site-specifc relations between
geophysical and soil parameters. WP4 will use the pedophysical relations found in WP3 together
with geostatistical methods for Digital Soil Mapping (DSM) to derive digital soil property maps.
Furthermore WP4 will optimise soil sampling schemes for calibration of sensor data in WP1, 2 and
3. WP5 is responsible for validation of the derived techniques and exploring its uses in studying
soil threats. WP6 will formulate guidelines and standardise technologies. WP7 is responsible for
dissemination of the outcome to relevant end-users (WP7).
The anticipated result of the project is a set of target-oriented techniques and guidelines for
economically feasible high-resolution digital soil mapping that can be used for e.g. precision
farming or sustainable land-use. This will comprise a combination of various soil sensing techniques
such as geophysical and spectroscopic sensors together with geostatistical Digital Soil Mapping
techniques. The techniques, concepts and guidelines will be published and presented at regional
and international workshops and conferences throughout the duration of the project.
More information is available on www.isoil.info. To give an impression of the anticipated results
and techniques used in the project an example is described in the following paragraph.

Figure 1. Left: geographical distribution of iSOIL partners. Right: iSOIL partners at kick-off
meeting, September 2008.

Figure 1. Left: geographical distribution of iSOIL partners. Right: iSOIL partners at kick-off
meeting, September 2008.

Figure 2. Relation of the work packages to the overall tasks of the iSOIL project.

Figure 2. Relation of the work packages to the overall tasks of the iSOIL project.
Example
In the development of new and the improvement of existing methods the iSOIL project applies
the concept of mobile measuring platforms by integrating the different techniques. To successfully
apply this sensor fusion approach the performance of the various sensors needs to be known when
used separately or simultaneously. As a frst step towards a fexible and effcient mobile sensing
platform a sensor testing experiment was designed. This experiment is presented here to illustrate
the future results of iSOIL.
The experiment was conducted in November 2008 on fuvial deposits of the Elbe at Rosslau,
Germany. Soil texture ranges from fne sand to heavy clays. A range of soil sensors was applied,
among which are EM38, EM31, EC-log, several gamma ray sensors, susceptibility, magnetics
and TDR. Their separate and combined performance was tested in different combinations and at
different driving speed. In this paper the performance of three gamma ray sensors and two EM38DD
sensors is described.
Gamma-ray sensors
Gamma-ray sensors measure the natural gamma radiation emitted by radioactive daughter decay
of three natural elements Potassium (
40
K), Thorium (
232
Th) and Uranium (
238
U) as well as the
Chernobyl related Caesium (
137
Cs) and the total amount of energy called Total Counts from within
the top 30 cm of the Earths surface. Maps prepared from radiometric surveys provide information
about the soil parent materials as well as soil properties like clay and sand content of the tillage
layer, average grain size and organic matter content.
Both the Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel (CAU) and the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental
Research (UFZ), operate a GF Instruments gamma-ray sensor. These sensors consist of a 4 liter
NaI crystal, wired to a laptop and GPS. The measured gamma ray spectrum is separated into the
different radioactive elements using the Windows method (Grasty et al., 1985). This method sums
the energies measured in and around the characteristic peaks of the different elements. The Soil
Company (SC) operates a gamma-ray soil sensor called the Mole (Loonstra and Van Egmond, 2009).
The Mole consists of a gamma-ray sensor containing a 70150 mm CsI crystal, a GPS and a laptop
for data logging. The measured spectrum is deconvoluted into the four radioactive elements and
Total Counts using the Full Spectrum Analysis (FSA) method (Hendriks, 2001). The FSA method
fts a set of standard spectra to the measured spectrum using a Chi-squared algorythm. A standard
spectrum of a radioactive element is the spectrum measured when the sensor is exposed to 1 Bq/
kg of that element.
Each sensor is connected to its own dGPS and datalogger so GPS dislocation and accuracy
was limited to 30 cm. The support of all gamma-ray sensors was about 5 m
2
due to the chosen
measurement height. Because the uncertainty in GPS location was smaller than the sensor support
the data is not corrected for GPS uncertainty during data analysis. The sensors are mounted on a
tractor or a sled at respectively 3.7 and 13.8 m intervals and driven along the feld in transects at
6 m tramlines (Figure 3).
After comparison of the separate and combined measurements with the gamma sensors (Figure 4),
it can be concluded that the different sensors do not infuence each others readings when applied
in this set-up. The performance of the two NaI sensors is comparable in trend and intensity. The
performance of the CsI sensor when compared to the NaI sensors is by trend similar but the measured
intensities are higher then the data from the NaI sensors. These differences can be attributed to the
different types of crystals used in the sensors and their energy resolution as well as to the differences
in spectrum analysis. When sensing an area with different gamma-ray sensors these differences
should be taken into account.
To be able to evaluate the sensitivity of the sensors to driving speed, measurements were performed at
two velocities; 2 and 4 km/h. The results show that a higher resolution is obtained at lower velocities.
The quality of the data is not affected by driving speed at the measured velocities. It is expected that
quality differences will occur at higher measurement velocities. To ensure the same data quality at
higher velocities or to reduce the noise visible in the data a larger crystal should be used.
EM sensors
EM measurements were performed by both CAU and UFZ utilising EM38DD sensors that are
manufactured by Geonics. Figure 5 shows the vertical dipole plane readings. The intercoil spacing

Figure 3. Combined gamma measurements.

Figure 3. Combined gamma measurements.

Figure 4. Results of gamma measurements at Rosslau, Germany.

Figure 4. Results of gamma measurements at Rosslau, Germany.
is 1 meter, the penetration depth is about 1 meter, and the operating frequency is 14.6 kHz. Both
sensors show nearly equal results at the beginning of the transect but the data disperse later on.
The dispersion might be caused by a slight shift in the transects, different drift of the sensors or a
different calibration. This shows that measurements with and calibration of these sensors has to
be carried out accurately because even small differences in handling can produce different results.
The results show that the quality and trend of the data from the different sensors is comparable
within each sensor type. However, the measured data differ quantitatively. ECa data from different
locations or times are not comparable in a quantitative way. This has to be considered during
interpretation of future data and in monitoring projects. One of the next steps towards sensor fusion
and the development of a mobile sensing platform in WP1 will be to determine how to convert
relative ECa data into absolute ECa data.
Outreach
The transfer of knowledge, technologies and results of iSOIL to potential end-users is one of the
key objectives of the iSOIL framework. A key component of iSOIL will be the development of
guidelines for soil mapping at different scales and environments using a set of various methods for
feld measurements. It is clear that end-users such as constructors, farmers, food companies, water-
boards and regulators have different interests. To meet the interests of potential end-users criteria
such as price, availability, applicability, quality and velocity should be taken into account. The
methods and strategies developed should be convincing for end- users to use the iSOIL methods.
To develop a product that is realistic and useful for end-users, it is important to identify and clarify
the group of potential iSOIL end-users. Therefore the iSOIL consortium consists of different types
of organisations and companies, thus securing that most conditions, desires and criteria of potential
end-users are met. Nonetheless iSOIL wants to be open to ideas and suggestions of potential end-
users to make sure that the expected outcome of the project meets their needs. Representatives
of the iSOIL project will be present at JIAC2009 and can be contacted using the email-addresses
listed in the affliations of this paper. More information about iSOIL can be found at www.isoil.info.
References
McBratney, A.B., Mendonca Santos, M.L. and Minasny, B., 2003. On digital soil mapping. Geoderma 117: 3-52.

Figure 5. Comparison of two EM38DD sensors.

Figure 5. Comparison of two EM38DD sensors.
Adamchuk, V.I., Hummel, J.W., Morgan, M.T. and Upadhyaya S.K., 2004. On-the-go soil sensor for precision
agriculture. Computers and electronics in agriculture 44: 71-91.
European Union, 2009. Thematic Strategy for Soil Protection. Available at http://europa.eu/scadplus/leg/en/
lvb/l28181.htm.
Grasty, R.L., Glynn, J.E. and Grant, J.A., 1985. The analysis of multi-channel airborne gamma-ray spectra.
Geophysics 50: 2611-2620.
Hendriks, P.H.G.M., Limburg, J. and de Meijer, R.J., 2001. Full-spectrum analysis of natural -ray spectra.
Journal of Environmental Radioactivity 53: 365-380.
Loonstra, E.H. and van Egmond, F.M., 2009. On-the-go measurement of soil gamma radiation. In: Van Henten,
E.J., Goense, D. and C. Lokhorst (eds.). Precision Agriculture 09. Wageningen Academic Publishers,
Wageningen, the Netherlands, pp 415-422.
The economic potential of precision farming: an interim
report with regard to nitrogen fertilization
P. Wagner
Farm Management Group, Institute of Agricultural and Nutritional Sciences, Martin-Luther-
University Halle-Wittenberg, 06108 Halle, Germany; peter.wagner@landw.uni-halle.de
Abstract
Utilizing adequate decision rules is the basis for a successful and sustainable agriculture. In the case
of Precision Farming, these rules have to be applied to each sub-feld, in which they determine the
actions to be taken. The economic potential of Precision Farming increases the better the quality of
the decision rules becomes. This paper presents the results of nine different feld trials within three
years where three different Precision Farming fertilization strategies are compared with uniform
feld treatment. The three strategies are a mapping approach, a sensor approach and an approach
based on an artifcial neuronal network. Based on the feld trial results, the economic potential of
site-specifc N-fertilization is evaluated. The most successful fertilization approach is a method
of site-specifc nitrogen fertilization which automatically generates decision rules based on yield-
predicting artifcial neuronal networks. It is the approach which processes the most information
for deducing decision rules.
Keywords: decision rules, artifcial neuronal network, feld trial
Introduction
The availability of automatically generated decision rules is necessary for a better acceptance of
Precision Farming. Furthermore, the better the decision rules are, the higher the economic beneft
of Precision Farming will be. Thus, decision rules play a major role for the acceptance of Precision
Farming technologies. The development of such decision rules is still in its infancy, and as a result,
there is very limited literature on this topic. On the other hand, the missing decision rules have
already been recognized very early as one of the main reasons for not using Precision Farming
technologies (Lowenberg-DeBoer, 1996): One of the key factors limiting adoption of precision
farming technology is the lack of decision support. There is too much data to sort and analyze
manually or mentally, and little software to automate the process. Someone needs to estimate the
surface-generating production function () someone needs to develop the optimization algorithm
that will apply that information to generating next seasons cropping strategy.
To capture the real heterogeneity, various variables will be necessary for deriving site-specifc
fertilization decision rules. In many studies, only a few variables are taken into account when
extracting fertilization recommendations.
For example, by linking electrical soil conductivity (EC) with the yield, Lund, Christy and
Drummond (1999) develop decision rules for the seed sowing rate and nitrogen fertilization that
are dependent on electrical conductivity. However, these rules are too vague for implementation. To
develop the topic further, the same authors recommend combining EC data with other site-specifc
information for extracting decision rules.
EC-data seem to serve as a good basis of input for yield-predicting models: there are high, positive
correlations between EC and yield data. On the other hand, Huang, Kravchenko and Thelen (2005)
found the opposite: Generally, low EC values corresponded to high yield clusters in the studied
felds. If both of the above statements are correct, conditions obviously vary from location to
location.
Historical yield maps are often used for the application of Precision Farming technologies. In
analyzing yield maps over several years, Blackmoore, Godwin and Fountas (2003) found that,
Signifcant spatial variability is evident in most individual yield maps, which were expected to
stabilize into areas of consistent trends after a few years. This can be seen as untrue as the maps
become more homogenous over time. Contrary to Blackmoore et al., (2003) we found a stable
yield pattern over years in our experimental felds (not published yet). Lisso (2003) who uses
aerial image-corrected yield maps for planning site-specifc sowing, fertilization, growth regulator
and fungicide application, reports similar observations (stable yield patterns over time). Again:
conditions obviously vary between locations if both statements are right.
Peters et al. (1999) attempt to create site-specifc nitrogen fertilization strategies. They recognize:
one of the perceived constraints on the adoption of precision farming techniques by farmers
is the lack of readily available, defnitive guidelines on variable rate nitrogen management. They
describe an approach to divert decision rules for nitrogen fertilization with consideration to the
yield potential of different soil types. The trial results are promising, but as yet there are no concrete
decision rules.
Isensee et al. (2000) assume a theoretical model for decision fnding by taking into account yield
potential (soil, water conditions, relief, etc.), weather conditions (soil moisture, nitrogen delivery,
etc.), plant type and other plant growing conditions (crop protection, trace elements, etc.). However,
concrete decision rules have not yet been developed.
Welsh et al. (1999) indicate the necessity of identifying homogenous management zones in which
each zone has its own response function, but they offer no possibilities of accomplishing this.
Wenkel et al. (2001) work out decision rules for site-specifc nitrogen fertilization and also
show, with their modules for site-specifc base fertilization, the application of uniform treatment
recommendations in a site-specifc context. The results of the feld trials are positive. Unfortunately,
the application of these decision rules assumes a prohibitively high site-specifc information level.
Altogether, at the moment there is an unsatisfactory situation concerning practical site-specifc
decision rules for nitrogen fertilization. With partly contradictory statements (considering
conductivity or yield maps) we suspect that there will be no general decision rules for all locations.
However, in regions with the same climatic conditions, there could be the possibility of transferring
these rules from one location to the other.
With this background, self-learning algorithms could possibly solve the problem. With Data
Mining techniques, such an algorithm could be developed. This paper shows the result of such a
development, with a method that can be used independent of the location. Admittedly, it is based
on a high information basis, but it can be transferred to other felds in an automatic manner and
with low costs.
To evaluate the current economic potential of site-specifc nitrogen fertilization based on available
decision rules, on-farm feld trials were carried out. With this approach, it is possible to take all
factors concerned into account, such as the effciency of utilized decision rules, the accuracy of
carrying out the practical farming technique and the heterogeneity of the location. The disadvantage
of this approach is that the results may not be transferred to locations with other conditions of
heterogeneity.
Between 2005 and 2007, nine feld trials (eight different felds) were carried out on two different
farms (~5140N, 1200E and ~5150N, 1155E) located in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, with
uniform feld treatment (UT) and different site-specifc strategies. The size of these nine felds
varied between 34 and 113 hectares (average: 72 ha), and they were subdivided into different
strips, where each strip had a width of two (48 m) or three (72 m) working widths (24 m) of the
fertilizer spreader. Within these strips the different fertilization strategies were carried out with
replications (two to fve replications per feld trial). Fertilization for the uniform feld treatment
was planned by a farmer who had a long experience in winter wheat production at these locations.
Furthermore, three site-specifc management strategies map, sensor and net were carried out.
Table 1 summarizes the different approaches with their decision rules.
With the Map approach, the feld was subdivided into three different yield potential zones. Due
to an inter-year variation of the absolute yield level, the crucial question is how to assign the total
fertilizer amounts. The answer to this question is left to the farmer who has to assign the absolute
amount of fertilizer to the different zones at the three fertilization times. The Sensor approach
delivered decision rules for the second and third fertilizer applications. The frst application is being
carried out according to the uniform feld treatment. With the Net approach, several heterogeneity
indicators are used. The database for the artifcial neuronal net consists of information gained from
sensors measuring apparent electrical conductivity, historical yield, historical fertilizer applications
and in-season measurements such as the REIP (Red Edge Infection Point, measuring the canopy-
refected sunlight) index. With the usage of historical data and in-season information the Net
approach represents a combination of the mapping- and the sensor approach. The Net approach
also considers prices of fertilizer and prices of grain to compute economic optimal decision rules
(the Net approach is described in Wagner et al., 2006, 2007). However, in comparison to the
previously-introduced approaches, this approach is still in its developmental stage. Thus, detailed
cost assessments are not currently available.The climatic conditions within the region of the feld
trials can be characterized as follows: With an average precipitation of 475 mm per year water
limits yield. The average annual temperature is 9 C, the terrain lies between 90 and 100 meters
above sea level and is fat. The felds themselves are of black earth soil, with a soil quality index
between 75 and 90 (0: poor soil, 100: best soil, according to the german soil classifcation scheme).
Weather conditions during the three years vegetation periods were average (growing season 2005)
and had a distinctive lack of precipitation (growing seasons 2006 and 2007). When there was no
Table 1. The three approaches used for site-specifc nitrogen fertilization.
Strategy Used indicators of
heterogeneity
Preparation of the decision rules Source
Map historical yield maps,
historical remote sensing
images of the crops
maturation time
separation of the feld into three
different yield potential zones, using
maximum likelihood classifcation; rules
are missing
Dohmen
(2004)
Sensor light refection
measurements of the
canopy in the red-/ near
infrared spectra
utilization of the red edge infection
point to derive conclusions according
to the nitrogen supply status and the
available biomass of the canopy; use of
nitrogen-increasing trials to determine
the amount of nitrogen
Link
(2002)
Net historical yield maps, EC
data, historical nitrogen
fertilization data, light
refection measurements
of the canopy in the red-/
near infrared spectra
1. training artifcial neural networks
(ANN) with feld trial data to extract
the coherences between site-specifc
data and yield potential
2. yield prediction with the ANN to
determine the economically-optimal
nitrogen amount
Wagner
(2006, 2007)
precipitation, there was a direct consequence on the effciency of nitrogen fertilization: the fertilizer
was not moved to the crop root area. Especially in the trial year 2006, there was no precipitation
between the second and third applications.
The most common yield variation after such feld trials is caused by the heterogeneity of the location
and not by the different management strategies (Castrignan et al., 2005). The challenge of the
evaluation is to achieve an isolated view of the yields variation due to management. Two kinds of
unintentional infuences are conceivable: large scale dependencies (e.g. increasing the soil quality
on one side of the feld and not the other) and small scale dependencies through autocorrelation of
the yield data (Zimmermann and Harville, 1991). Furthermore, different yield monitors of different
combine harvesters also lead to shifts in yield maps.
Mixed linear models were used by employing proc mixed of the SAS software to take these
infuences into account. Detailed information about the feld trial design and the evaluation procedure
is provided by Schneider et al. (2007). For testing yield differences, a confdence level of P<0.05
was chosen (p = probability of no yield differences between two tested strategies). If the yield
differences between uniform treatment and site-specifc management were not signifcant (P0.05),
the yield of the uniform feld treatment was chosen for further investigations.
To evaluate the feld trial results from an economic point of view, in a frst step the nitrogen cost
free revenue (NCfR) was calculated:
NCfR = Revenues Nitrogen Costs (1)
For nitrogen and grain prices, the market prices of each feld trial year in this location were
considered.
Results
Table 2 summarizes the results of the nine different feld trials. The total amount of nitrogen applied
according to uniform feld treatment varied in each year and on both farms between 170 and 180
kg N/ha, except for feld trial 211_2007 (see Table 2), where the second nitrogen application was
saved due to no fertilizer requirements. In the past, this feld received intensive manure applications,
which came from a biogas plant located nearby.
For the different site-specifc strategies, the total nitrogen amount applied is very similar to the
uniform feld treatment range. It is obvious that the applied nitrogen amounts of the Net strategy
were much lower than that of the other strategies, whereas the yields are mostly higher or at least
not considerably lower! This results in a far better N-use-effciency than the uniform feld treatment
shows and should not be underestimated with regard to ecological aspects, especially groundwater
contamination.
To get an impression of how different the strategies act with regard to the N-amounts applied, Table
3 shows the N-amounts to each of the applications. In addition the minimum and maximum for the
precision strategies are indicated.
The Net strategy is the only one which shows a variation in the frst application. Furthermore the
Net strategy seems to be most fexible in spreading the N-amounts.
Table 4 shows the results, sorted according to the different strategies and years. The results are
quite mixed: 2005, which experienced normal growing conditions, shows clear advantages of three
site-specifc strategies compared to uniform feld treatment, one site-specifc strategy ended up quite
similar as the uniform treatment. The following year, 2006, which experienced very dry weather
conditions, exhibits completely different results: only the Net strategy showed positive results.
In the year 2007, which experienced dry but not as dry as 2006 conditions during the growing
season, the Sensor and Net strategies achieve positive results, while the Map approach again
produces mixed results. In the three year timeframe, only the Net strategy can offer both statistically
signifcant yield advantages (2006 and 2007) and nitrogen savings. Both of the other strategies
Table 2. Results of nine nitrogen fertilization feld trials.
Field trial Strategy avg. N-amount
kg/ha
Yield (Y)
t/ha
N-effciency
(kg N / t Y)
NCfR
a
/ha
to UT
c
/ha
350_2005 (63 ha) UT 175 7.19 24.3 583.8
Sensor 182 7.45
b
24.4 579.9 -3.9
Net 148 7.56
b
19.6 598.8 +15.0
432_2005 (93 ha) UT 180 7.63 23.6 664.0
Sensor 117 7.71
b
15.2 698.0 +34.0
Map 148 7.81 19.0 681.0 +17.0
411_2006 (35 ha) UT 180 6.11 29.5 620.5
Sensor 164 5.75
b
28.5 621.8 +1.3
Map 200 5.69 35.1 562.0 -58.5
330_2006 (72 ha) UT 170 5.83 29.2 567.6
Sensor 187 5.67 33.0 529.1 -38.5
Net 142 5.99 23.7 592.8 +25.2
131_2006 (34 ha) UT 170 5.08 33.5 518.2
Net 142 5.02
b
28.3 533.4 +15.2
432_2007 (93 ha) UT 180 5.68 31.7 767.9
Sensor 158 5.71
b
27.7 778.2 +10.3
Map 162 5.39 30.1 732.8 -35.1
631_2007 (113 ha) UT 180 4.60 39.1 605.9
Sensor 144 4.62
b
31.2 622.7 +16.8
Map 160 4.65
b
34.4 615.2 +9.3
Net 136 4.70 28.9 651.9 +46.0
611_2007 (51 ha) UT 169 5.33 31.7 708.5
Sensor 164 5.20
b
31.5 711.4 +2.9
Net 146 5.26
b
27.8 720.5 +12.0
211_2007 (64 ha) UT 120 6.41 18.7 899.2
Net 83 6.50 12.8 932.8 +33.6
a
NCfR: Nitrogen Cost free Revenue.
b
No signifcant yield differences between site-specifc management and uniform feld
treatment were observed. For further calculations of the NCfR, the yield according to the UT
strategy was used.
c
(+) result better than UT; (-) result worse than UT.
Table 3. Nitrogen fertilization amounts of the different strategies.
fertilization
strategy
area
ha
1
st
application 2
nd
application 3
rd
application Sum
kg N/ha
kg N/ha spread
(kg/ha)
kg N/ha spread
(kg/ha)
kg N/ha spread
(kg /ha)
UT 8.4 55 0 60 0 60 0 175
Sensor 11.1 55 0 61 44-80 66 53-80 182
Net 10.6 44 30-60 47 0-70 57 30-70 148
advantages are in the form of nitrogen fertilizer savings. Based on these feld trial results, a ranking
of the three strategies can be made: the best strategy is Net with positive NCfR differences in
comparison to UT in the range of 12 and 46 /ha (six feld trials); next comes the Sensor strategy,
with one negative, three comparable and three positive feld trial results. The Map strategy, with
two positive and two negative results, was worse than UT on average. The more expensive the
fertilizer becomes and the more the prices for grain increase, the more the Net strategy will gain
advantage because this strategy is the only one which shows a much better nitrogen effciency than
all the other strategies.
At this point, the results limited validity has to be mentioned: they are only valid for the examined
locations. Furthermore, no additional costs of site-specifc management have yet been taken into
account. However, it becomes obvious that Precision Farming must not be proftable in every case
and in every year. The success of Precision Farming depends largely on the quality of the approach
and its underlying decision rules.
For a full evaluation of the different strategies, it is necessary to also take into account the additional
costs associated with the strategies. Table 5 shows the various positions. While the Map and
Sensor approaches are already available to farmers, the Net approach at present is still under
development. Thus, the costs for the service provider (Net) are based on assumptions. According
to the annuity method, the annual costs were calculated. A depreciation time of six years and an
interest rate of 6% was used for calculation. Table 4 shows the additional costs for Precision Farming
technology depending on the area where the technology is deployed.
With regard to the average values of table 4 it is obvious that there will be no pay off for the Map
and Sensor approach. Only for Net approach the NCfR is higher than the additional costs for
the Precision Farming technology. The break even point lies between 250 and 500 ha (according
to the costs/ha in Table 5) at 330 ha approximately.
Conclusions
Economic benefts due to precision fertilization cannot be taken for granted. The success depends
on the location, the weather conditions of the year and most of all upon the precision fertilization
Table 4. Detailed results (/ha) of the tree site specifc strategies, each in comparison to UT,
sorted by year (: + beneft; - loss).
Field Trial Map Sensor Net
nitrogen yield NCfR nitrogen yield NCfR nitrogen yield NCfR
350_2005 - - - -3.9 0.0 -3.9 +15.0 0.0 +15.0
432_2005 +17.0 0.0 +17.0 +34.0 0.0 +34.0 - - -
411_2006 -9.1 -49.4 -58.5 +1.3 0.0 +1.3 - - -
330_2006 - - - -19.0 -19.5 -38.5 +6.3 +18.9 +25.2
131_2006 - - - - - - +15.2 0.0 +15.2
432_2007 +8.4 -43.5 -35.1 +10.3 0.0 +10.3 - - -
631_2007 +9.3 0.0 +9.3 +16.8 0.0 +16.8 +20.5 +25.5 +46.0
611_2007 - - - +2.9 0.0 +2.9 +12.0 0.0 +12.0
211_2007 - - - - - - +20.1 +13.5 +33.6
average * -16.8 +3.3 +24.5
* Not representative, only valid for the examined locations and years.
strategy. The most successful fertilization approach is a method of site-specifc nitrogen fertilization
which automatically generates decision rules based on yield-predicting artifcial neuronal networks.
It is the approach which processes the most information for deducing decision rules.
References
Blackmore, S., Godwin and Fountas, 2003. The Analysie of Spatial and Temporal Trends in Yield Map Data
over Six Years. In: Biosystems Engineering, 84(4), 455-466.
Castrignan, A., Buttafuoco, G., Pisante, M. and Vonella, A.V., 2005. How spatial and temporal variability can
affect fertilization trial results. In: Precision Agriculture 07: Proceedings of the 6
th
European Conference
on Precision Agriculture, edited by J.V. Stafford, (Wageningen Academic Publishers, the Netherlands).
pp. 761-768.
Dohmen, B., Wagner, U. and Reh, A., 2004. Bestandesinformation. In: Werner, A. (Ed.): Managementsystem
fr den ortsspezifschen Pfanzenbau Verbundprojekt preagro, Abschlussbericht. Mncheberg. p. 360 f.
Huang, X., Kravchenko, A. and Thelen, K., 2005. Yield Variability in Undulating Fields: Classifcation and
Prediction. In: Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Precision Agriculture, 2004, Minneapolis,
pp. 419-431.
Isensee, E., Thiessen, E., und Engeln, P., 2000. Technik der Stickstoffdngung in der Teilfchenbewirtschaftung.
Institut fr Landwirtschaftliche Verfahrenstechnik. (unpublished working paper).
KTBL (Kuratorium fr Technik und Bauwesen in der Landwirtschaft e.V.), 2004. Betriebsplanung
Landwirtschaft. Darmstadt.
Lisso, H., 2003. GPS-gesttzte Teilfchenbewirtschaftung. RKL-Schrift 4.1.0, 1123-1143.
Table 5. Estimated costs for the three site-specifc fertilization strategies.
Map Sensor Net
Hardware/Software terminal with GPS
(4,800 ), yield
monitor for the
harvest combine
(8,500 ), GIS-
Software (1,500 )
Yara-N-Sensor
with terminal and
installation (22,350
)
Yara-N-Sensor with
terminal and installation
(22,350 ), yield monitor for
the harvest combine (8,500
)
annual costs
1
3,010 4,545 6,274
additional Information - - electrical conductivity
measurements (5 /ha, once
within 6 years)
annual costs
1
- - 1.02 /ha
Service Provider map preparation (2
/ha)
annual system
check (800 )
data processing, decision
rules preparation (2 /ha)
annual system check (800 )
annual costs 2 /ha 800 p.a. 2 /ha + 800 p.a.
cost/ha (area 250 ha) 14.04 21.38 31.31
cost/ha (area 500 ha) 8.02 10.69 17.17
cost/ha (area 1000 ha)
2
5.01 5.35 10.09
1
Calculated according to the annuity method, depreciation time 6 years for hardware and
software, interest rate 6%.
2
The second combine necessary for 1000 ha is not equipped with a yield monitor.
Link, A., Panitzki, M. and Reusch, S., 2002. Hydro N-Sensor: Tractor- Mounted Sensing for Variable N
Fertilization. In: Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Precision Agriculture, Minneapolis,
pp. 1012-1018.
Lowenberg-DeBoer, J., 1996. Precision Farming and the New Information Technology: Implications for
Farm Management, Policy, and Research: Discussion. In: American Journal of Agricultural Economics
78, 1281-1284.
Lund, E.D., Christy, C.D. und Drummond, P.E., 1999. Practical Applications of Soil Electrical Conductivity
Mapping. In: Stafford, J. V.(ed.) Proceedings of the 2nd European Conference on Precision Agriculture
99, Odensee, pp. 771-779.
Peters, M.W., James, I.T., Earl, R. and Godwin, R.J., 1999. Nitrogen Management Strategies for Precision
Farming. In: Stafford, J. V. (ed.) Proceedings of the 2nd European Conference on Precision Agriculture
99, Odensee, pp. 719 - 728.
Schneider, M. and Wagner, P. 2007. Groe Unterschiede - Arbeitszeitbedarf fr die Organisation von Precision
Farming. In: Neue Landwirtschaft 7/2007, Berlin. pp. 21-23,
Wagner, P., Schneider, M. and Weigert, G., 2006. The use of artifcial neural networks to generate decision
rules for site-specifc nitrogen fertilization. In: Proceedings of the 8
th
International Conference on Precision
Agriculture. Minneapolis.
Wagner, P. and Schneider, M., 2007. Economic Benefts of Neural Network_Generated Site_Specifc Decision
Rules for Nitrogen Fertilization. In: Stafford, J.V. (ed.) Precision Agriculture 07. Wageningen Academic
Publishers, the Netherlands, pp. 775-782.
Welsh, J.P., Wood, G.A., Godwin, R.J., Taylor, J.C., Earl, R., Blackmore, B.S., Spoor, G., Thomas, G. and
Carver, M. 1999. Developing Strategies for Spatially Variable Nitrogen Application. In: Stafford, J.V.
(Ed.): Proceedings of the 2nd European Conference on Precision Agriculture 99, Odensee, pp. 729-738.
Wenkel, K.O., Brozio, S. and Gebbers, R. 2001. Development and Evaluation of different Methods for Site-
Specifc Nitrogen Fertilization of Winter Wheat. In: Grenier, G. and Blackmore, S. (ed.) Third European
Conference on Precision Agriculture, pp. 743-745.
Zimmermann, D.L. and Harville, D.A. 1991. A random feld approach to the analysis of feld-plot experiments
and other spatial experiments. In: Biometrics, 47. S. 223-239.
Section 8
Geo statistics and path planning
Optimal path planning for feld operations
J.W. Hofstee
1
, L.E.E.M. Sptjens
2
and H. IJken
1
1
Wageningen University, Farm Technology Group, Bornsesteeg 59, 6708 PD Wageningen,
Netherlands; janwillem.hofstee@wur.nl
2
Agrovision, P.O. Box 755, 7400 AT Deventer, Netherlands
Abstract
Path planning for feld operations becomes more and more important. More work is done by
workers not knowing the feld from experience. A second reason is that in the future more and more
operations will done by autonomous vehicles and they require a path. Path planning for rectangular
felds is rather simple but for more complex shaped felds tools are needed to support the planning
process. GPS developments also enable that more diffcult solutions can be realised in practice.
With Matlab a tool is developed that reads the boundary coordinates of a feld, determines the real
vertices, divides the feld into convex subfelds if necessary, and calculates the costs for different
operating directions to fnd the direction with the lowest costs incurred. Working time is converted
to costs to enable the choice to not operate a part of the feld for some reason, for example too
small in relation to the effort. The tool is tested on some real felds. The results for simple felds
are expected. The most optimal direction is the direction parallel to the longest side of the feld.
For more complex felds that are divided in two or more subfelds the solutions are optimal for the
individual subfelds but the solution for the whole set of subfelds is not necessarily optimal because
for this interactions between subfelds have to be taken into account too. Also, situations where
tramlines are not perpendicular to headlands, resulting in small parts of the feld either operated
twice or not operated at all, have to be taken into account. The developed tool is a good frst start
but has to be elaborated more to be able to handle more complex feld situations and to deliver for
these felds also realistic optimal solutions.
Keywords: obstacles, concave felds, spraying
Introduction
Many farmers in the Netherlands rent each year new felds to grow potatoes or fower bulbs. With
these felds they have no experience from the past and have to do a path planning before starting the
work. Most felds are not rectangular but have non-parallel sides, are L-shaped, or have obstacles
within the feld and it is not always easy to make plan. Contractors face the same problem when
they arrive at the feld of the customer and have to do path planning immediately.
In the future we have to deal with the same problem with autonomous vehicles for feld operations.
They need to have a plan; there is no driver to guide the vehicle over the feld. So there is a need
for a tool for path planning of agricultural operations.
Many factors play a role in path planning for agricultural operations. Stoll (2003) considered
operation strategy, neighbouring area, feld geometry, feld specifc data, machine specifc data,
and terrain relief. He tested all neighbours to decide whether it could be used for turning; the
operation direction was set parallel to the longest side of the feld and the headland turnings were
set accordingly this direction and the neighbour test. He did not take terrain relief into account in
his study because of its complexity. Major factors in the work of Tax et al. (2006) were the slope,
the working direction, and the size of objects in the feld. The slope is important for sliding and
traction (Tax et al., 2006) but is also important in relation to erosion (Stoll, 2003). The working
direction was also chosen by Tax et al. (2006) to be parallel to the longest side of the feld. The
size of objects was related to the width of the tool. For large objects a turning area around them
was created and for small objects an avoidance trajectory was created.
Oksanen and Visala (2007) developed for path planning both a top down and a bottom up strategy.
In the top down strategy complex felds are split into smaller less complex felds with a trapezoidal
shape and merged again when specifc requirements are met. The last step is determining the best
driving direction; for this step heuristics are used. In the bottom up strategy the problem is solved
recursively by following the shapes of the feld edges and not considering them to be straight until
the whole feld is covered. All possible routes along the side of the feld are tested and the most
effcient one is selected.
Tax et al. (2006) defned different areas (working, turning, input and output) and a steering edge.
The latter determines the direction and the path planning is based on that all of the working and
turning area have to be covered, starting in the input area and ending in the output area. Both a
search for the best Hamilton path and geometrical reasoning were used to fnd the optimal path,
using in both cases a minimum cost criterion.
Jin and Tang (2006) developed an algorithm that searches for the optimal decomposition and
coverage direction. Both the feld and the obstacles are described by polygons. The algorithm
decomposes the feld in multiple regions and each region has to be covered by a boustrophedon
path. By recursively applying the algorithm the most optimal coverage method is searched for.
Finally the sub-regions are coupled in an optimal way in a way similar to the Travelling Salesman
Problem, with the entrance and the exit of the feld as restrictions.
Srensen (2004) optimized the driving pattern based on a priori information about the feld, vehicle,
and implements. Optimal routes were determined for the headlands, the main feld, and the sequence
of the operational tasks. The a priori information is transformed to graphical information which is
mapped to a set of paths in terms of a graph work. The search problem is limited to this network
of possible solutions. Optimisation techniques are used to fnd the most optimal path.
Turning on the headlands can take a considerable amount of time. Stoll (2003) calculated the
turning time with the help of the effective working width, the minimal turning radius, the driving
speed and the acceleration of the vehicle in the turning. An additional stop time is added when
there is a change of driving direction during the turn. Bochtis and Vougiakas (2008) distinguished
three different types of turn (loop turn or -turn, the double round corner or -turn, and the switch
back turn or T-turn) and they minimised the non working distance in the feld by applying different
types or turning.
Path planning is not only used in the agricultural framework. Other path planning methods can be
found in problems as foor cleaning, lawn mowing, painting, or robotic demining. However, many
of these solution assume that the robot can move freely and that a spot can be visited more than
once. For agricultural purposes this is irrelevant or even impossible.
The objective of the work described in the paper is the development of a tool for path planning
of feld operations. This tool has to consider the shape of the feld, the available machinery, the
presence of obstacles and the required operations.
The focus of the work in this paper is on spraying of potatoes. Potatoes require several crop protection
actions and the tramlines can be used up to 20 times during the growing season. An optimal path
for this operation is expected to be the most proftable. This also means that other operations as
planting have to be derived from the spraying operation.
The tool is developed with Matlab. It reads the coordinates of the border of the feld. These
coordinates are processed and only the coordinates of real corners (vertices) are kept. Vertices with
an angle between 160 and 200 degrees between both sides are considered to be not a vertex. For
each vertex it also determined whether the vertex is concave or convex.
The tool considers the crop that is grown, the working width of the machine and the corresponding
turning radius, growing or not-growing on headlands, the choice for overlap or non-overlap, and
whether there is a crop free area or not. Velocity is used to calculate the time required for fulflling
the task, which is used to calculate the corresponding costs. The basis of the optimisation is costs;
this also allows to leave small areas uncropped and take into account the corresponding (fnancial)
yield losses.
The tool allows to make also a complete round inside the feld along the border, which is common
practice in spraying a potato crop. The width can be adjusted. In this case the feld is imploded at
all sides by the specifed distance.
Fields are split in smaller felds if there is a need for it. Two reasons to split a feld are: (1) the feld
has one or more concave vertices and (2) the presence of obstacles. The developed tool is based
on that only convex felds are farmed. Although in general felds that have a trapezoidal shape are
the most effcient to farm, it is not required that the subfelds have a trapezoidal shape.
Concave shaped felds are recursively split until only convex felds are left (Figure 1). At the frst
convex corner (2) split lines are projected parallel to each side of the feld, resulting in a certain
number of subfelds as shown in Figure 1. The projected split lines are ordered, starting with // 1-2
and ending with // 1-6. The frst subfeld is the feld with the corners 2, 3, 4, and A. This subfeld is
enlarged by merging it with the subfeld 2-A-B; this merge process is continued until the resulting
subfeld will be convex again. This is the case after merging with the subfeld 2-D-E; this means
that this subfeld is not merged and the resulting subfeld will be 2-3-4-5-D. The procedure will
be repeated for the remaining part of the feld 2-D-6-1 (which is already convex). The procedure

1
6
5
4
3
2
/
/

1
-
6
/
/

2
-
3
/
/

4
-
5
// 3-4
// 5-6
// 1-2
A
B
C
D
E
F

Figure 1 - Typical field and resulting split lines.

Figure 1. Typical feld and resulting split lines.
can be repeated in reverse order, fnally resulting in the two convex felds 1-A-5-6 and 2-3-4-A.
Different types of obstacles can be distinguished. Obstacles can be small or big, low or high, no
go area or rather no go area, and can be in the tramline or besides the tramline. A decision to split
the feld depends also on the type of the obstacle. A small high obstacle not located in the tramline
does not need a split of the feld since the boom of the sprayer can be folded to pass the obstacle.
In addition to the splitting of the felds based on obstacles there should be an optimisation process
to reduce the number of split subfelds by positioning the tramlines on the feld.
Figure 2 shows a feld with an obstacle that requires to split the feld into subfelds. For this feld 14
subfelds that can be merged in different ways to create larger convex subfelds, for example 1-2-3,
4-5-6-7, 9-10-13-14, 8-11 and 12. Each of the resulting combinations has to be tested for optimality.
Different times are assigned to the different turning methods. For potato spraying it is assumed that
the headland is large enough to realise a normal turn. The travel distance to turn is approximated
by one and a half times the working width of the implement; dividing the distance by the working
speed yields the time. The total number of turns is equal to the total number of tramlines minus
one. The total length of the tramlines and the turns yield the total operation length.
Tramline directions are in many situations not perpendicular to the headlands. This results in that
parts of the feld in case of spraying, are sprayed twice or not sprayed at all, depending on the
choice made whether to overlap or not.
The optimal solution is the solution with the lowest total costs. Operations for each subfeld are at
this moment only planned parallel to each side of the subfeld itself; random directions or directions
derived from neighbouring subfelds are not considered. Each of the subfelds is operated in the for
that feld optimal way. For each direction the costs for the operation are calculated. The costs are
based on working speed, total length of the tramlines and the turns, and fxed hourly costs for the
operation; the costs are set to 65 per hour. Working speed and width can be set and depend on the
operation; working width determines the distance between the tramlines and hence also the number
of tramlines and turns. The costs base makes it possible to add costs for overlap or no overlap of
operations, additional travel time, or the decision to not farm small inconvenient subfelds or small
strips when the remaining width after the operations is small compared to the width of the machine.
Finally, all subfelds have to be visited.

Figure 2 - Field with obstacle and possible subfields.

Figure 2. Field with obstacle and possible subfelds.
The developed tool is tested for several real felds. Results for three felds (A, B and C) are presented
in the next section.
Results
Figure 3 and Figure 4 show a feld for which the optimal pattern is calculated for working widths
of 18 m and 24 m. For each feld the headland option is chosen which means that one round inside
the feld is made, followed by tramlines parallel to the sides of the feld until the whole feld is
covered. The tramline made around inside the feld is not shown in the fgures. The resulting costs
for the different options are presented in Table 1. The data show that for both working widths the
costs and the time for the working direction parallel to the sides 1-2 and 3-4 are almost the same
but the values for parallel to side 1-2 is just smaller.
Figure 5 and Figure 6 show the tramlines for Field B for working widths of 18 m and 39 m; the
resulting tramlines for a working width of 24 m are almost the same as for 18 m and are not

Figure 3 - Field A operated in an optimal way a with a working width of 18 meters. Thick lines represent the
tramlines.
1.9675 1.968 1.9685 1.969 1.9695
x
10
5
4.8384
4.8386
4.8388
4.839
4.8392
4.8394
4.8396
4.8398
4.84
4.8402
x
10
5
1
2
3
4
1
2
3
4
Field Route
Figure 3. Field A operated in an optimal way a with a working width of 18 meters. Thick lines
represent the tramlines.

Figure 4 - Field A operated in an optimal way with a working width of 24meters. Thick line represents the
tramlines.

1.9675 1.968 1.9685 1.969 1.9695
x
10
5
4.8384
4.8386
4.8388
4.839
4.8392
4.8394
4.8396
4.8398
4.84
4.8402
x
10
5
1
2
3
4
1
2
3
4
Field Route
Figure 4. Field A operated in an optimal way with a working width of 24 meters. Thick line
represents the tramlines.

Figure 5 Field B split in two subfields and operated in an optimal way with a working width of 18 m. Thick
lines represent the tramlines.
1.9425 1.943 1.9435 1.944 1.9445 1.945 1.9455
x
10
5
4.75
4.7505
4.751
4.7515
4.752
4.7525
x
10
5
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
1 2
3
4
Field Route
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
1
2
3
4
5
6
1
2
3
4
Figure 5. Field B split in two subfelds and operated in an optimal way with a working width of
18 m. Thick lines represent the tramlines.
Table 1. Operation costs for all directions of Field A for working widths of 18 m and 24 m. Bold
fgures are the optimal solution.
Parallel to side
18 metres 24 metres
1-2 2-3 3-4 4-1 1-2 2-3 3-4 4-1
Costs () 15.33 26.16 15.33 26.18 12.77 21.78 12.77 21.76
Time (hour) 0.24 0.40 0.24 0.40 0.20 0.34 0.20 0.33

Figure 6 Field B split in two subfields and operated in an optimal way with a working width of 39 m. Thick
lines represent the tramlines.

1.9425 1.943 1.9435 1.944 1.9445 1.945 1.9455
x
10
5
4.75
4.7505
4.751
4.7515
4.752
4.7525
x
10
5
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
1 2
3
4
Field Route
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
1
2
3
4
5
6
1
2
3
4
Figure 6. Field B split in two subfelds and operated in an optimal way with a working width of
shown. The corresponding costs and times are shown in Tables 2-4. An estimation of the costs for
the situation of one big feld is given in the column One. Figure 6 shows that there is a change
in optimal working direction when the working width increases. The sides refer to the numbers
inside the feld; the actual feld with the tramlines is the subfeld that is left when one round around
the whole is realised.
Figure 7 shows the results for Field C. The corresponding data are in Table 5. The most interesting
is the right subfeld. The most logical direction at frst sight would have been parallel to side 7-6
but the most optimal direction is parallel to side 5-2.
Table 2. Operation costs for all directions of Field B for the left and the right subfeld with a
working width of 18 m. Bold fgures are the optimal solution.
Parallel to side
Left subfeld Right subfeld One
3-1/1-2 2-5 5-4 4-3 3-2 1-2 2-3 3-4 4-1
Costs () 30.08 13.15 28.30 15.03 30.12 33.65 30.10 33.68 45.15
Time (hour) 0.46 0.20 0.44 0.23 0.46 0.52 0.46 0.52 0.69
Parallel to side
3-2/1-2 2-5 5-4 4-3 3-2 1-2 2-3 3-4 4-1
Costs () 20.29 9.64 20.22 9.62 22.96 22.91 21.04 22.90 32.58
Time (hour) 0.31 0.15 0.31 0.15 0.35 0.35 0.32 0.35 0.50
Parallel to side
3-2/1-2 2-5 5-4 4-3 3-2 1-2 2-3 3-4 4-1
Costs () 10.28 3.01 10.16 3.00 27.62 25.97 27.60 25.86 30.62
Time (hour) 0.16 0.05 0.16 0.05 0.42 0.40 0.42 0.40 0.47
Discussion
The results presented before show that for regular convex shaped feld the optimal solution is the
expected solution, usually with the frst tramline parallel to the longest side.
For more complex situations, as for example concave felds that are split in two or more convex
felds, the solutions appear to be not logical. The main reason for this is that the subfelds are managed
individually and not in connection with each other. In for example Figure 5 a more logical solution
would have been for the both the left and the right subfeld a direction parallel to side 3-2 of the left
subfeld or 1-2 of the right subfeld. The total costs then would have been 45.15 euro (compared to
43.25 euro). This is due to that at this moment the tool does not include a penalty for outcomes as
shown in for example Figure 5 which result in a lot of turning in the middle of the feld.
For Field C the optimal solution (parallel to side 2-5) has 3.60 euro less costs than the more logical
solution (parallel to 6-7). The more logical solution has less of situations where the feld is either
not operated or operated twice. This can be due to that there is at this moment no penalty for not
or twice operating an area. When this penalty is included, it can be still true that parallel to side
2-5 is the most optimal solution. If that is the case, it will be clear that the most logical solution is
not always the most optimal solution. Such a tool is therefore also helpful to reconsider the way
Table 5. Operation costs for all directions of Field C for the left and the right subfeld with a
Parallel to side
1-2 2-3 3-4 4-1 2-1 1-7 7-6 6-5 5-2 1-2/5-2
Costs () 6.13 11.57 11.57 4.34 38.10 34.53 32.68 32.72 29.08 35.21
Time (hour) 0.09 0.18 0.18 0.07 0.59 0.53 0.50 0.50 0.48 0.57

Figure 7 - Field C split in two subfields and operated in an optimal way with a working width
of 12 m. Thick lines represent the tramlines.
1.964 1.9645 1.965 1.9655 1.966
x 10
5
4.8354
4.8356
4.8358
4.836
4.8362
4.8364
4.8366
4.8368
4.837
4.8372
x 10
5
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
1
2
3
4
5
Field Route
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
1
2
3
4
Figure 7. Field C split in two subfelds and operated in an optimal way with a working width of
operations are executed and new technologies such as RTK-GPS may enable more optimal solutions
that are in practice more diffcult to realise without these new technologies.
The costs for one big feld are 4 to 6% higher, compared with the optimal solution. The costs for
one big feld are based on that the direction is parallel to the split line of the feld. In some specifc
situations one tramline can be saved but then there will also be some additional costs for the area
not covered or covered twice at the transition between the two subfelds.
At this moment the starting point is that the tramline direction is parallel to one of the sides of
the feld. In the case of two neighbouring subfelds there will always be an operation where the
directions of the tramlines for both subfelds are the same (i.e. parallel to the dividing line between
both subfelds). In case of three or more neighbouring subfelds the direction of the second nearest
neighbour should be considered because this can yield at the end the most optimal solution. Required
for this is that penalties are introduced for non optimal solutions (i.e. solutions with overlap, not
operated areas, or turning inside the feld).
Not implemented yet is the start point for the operation in each subfeld. Choosing appropriate start
points can result in less driving over the feld to operate all subfelds.
Conclusion
We have developed a tool for determining the optimal path for feld operation. However, the tool
is not complete yet. It gives optimal solutions for single convex felds. When felds consist of more
than one subfeld the current optimal solutions are not necessarily the optimal solutions. For this
it is necessary to include also a penalty for operating parts of the feld twice or not at all (when
tramlines are not perpendicular to the headland), and for solutions that require turning inside the
feld around the dividing line of two neighbouring subfeld that are both part of the total feld.
Acknowledgements
This paper is based on the MSc thesis work of Hans IJken. This work is executed in close cooperation with
Agrovision in Wageningen/Deventer, the Netherlands.
References
Bochtis, D.D.and Vougioukas, S.G., 2008. Minimising the non-working distance travelled by machines operating
in a headland feld pattern. Biosystems Engineering 101(1): 1-12.
Jin, J. and Tang, L., 2006. Optimal path planning for arable farming. ASABE Paper 061158, St. Joseph, Mich.:
ASABE.
Oksanen T. and Visala, A., 2007. Path planning algorithms for agricultural machines. Agricultural Engineering
International, The CIGR EJournal, Volume IX.
Srensen, C.G, Bak, T. and Jrgensen,.R.N., 2004. Mission planner for agricultural robotics. [Unpublished
report].
Stoll, A., 2003. Automatic operation planning for GPS-guided machinery. Precision agriculture. Eds Stafford,
J. and Werner, A. Wageningen: Wageningen Academic Publishers, pp. 657-644.
Tax, M., Soures, P., Frayssinet, H. and Cordesses, L., 2006. Path Planning for Complete Coverage with
Agricultural Machines. Field and Service Robotics. Volume 24. Berlin / Heidelberg: Springer, pp. 549-558.
Combined coverage and path planning for feld operations
D.D. Bochtis
1
and T. Oksanen
2
1
Aarhus University, Faculty of Agriculture Sciences, Department of Agricultural Engineering, P.O.
Box 50, 8830 Tjele, Denmark; Dionysis.Bochtis@agrsci.dk
2
Helsinki University of Technology, Department of Automation and Systems Technology, P.O. Box
5500, 02015 TKK, Finland; timo.oksanen@tkk.f
Abstract
Searching an optimal path to cover the whole feld while fulfl certain agricultural feld operation
has been found to be extremely diffcult problem to solve mathematically or algorithmically.
Although the area coverage problem has been studied extensively in the robotics literature, most
of the developed approaches cannot be used for the case of agricultural feld operations due to
the special characteristics inherent in these operations. In this paper, a frst attempt to connect two
complementary approaches on the feld coverage planning for agricultural machines that have
been independently developed is presented. The frst approach, using prediction and exhaustive
search methods, results in the optimum decomposition of a complex-geometry feld into sub-felds
and the optimum driving direction in each feld. The second one, using a heuristic combinatorial
optimization algorithm, results in the optimal sequence that the machine visits the sub-felds and the
optimal traversal sequences of parallel feld tracks for each sub-feld. As an implementation of the
total method, an example of optimal planning for a given feld is given. Based on this preliminary
work, it seems that the resulted combined approach provides a complete method for feld area
coverage planning that is directly applicable to autonomous agricultural machines as well as to a
next generation of navigation-aid and auto-steering systems.
Keywords: autonomous machines, navigation-aid systems, agricultural machines, feld traffc
Introduction
Searching an optimal path to cover the whole feld to fulfl certain agricultural feld operation has
been found to be extremely diffcult problem to solve mathematically or algorithmically. However,
a need for such algorithm or method has been seen during last years as the parallel tracking devices
have become more common in tractors and other agricultural machines.
As it is defned in robotics applications, area coverage planning determines a path that guarantees
that a unit (or a specifc part of it) will pass over every point of the area without overlaps or missed
areas while all obstacles must be avoided. This includes the next three procedures (Huang, 2001):
(1) decomposition of the coverage region into sub-regions, (2) selection of a sequence of those
sub-regions, and fnally (3) generation of a path that covers each sub-region.
Area coverage planning was motivated by applications such as lawn mowing (Huang et al., 1986),
cleaning (Hofner and Schmidt, 1995), mapping unknown environments (Zelinsky et al., 1994),
mine detection (Land and Choset, 1998), etc. The proposed algorithms include off-line algorithms
(Choset and Pignon, 1997) as well as on-line ones (Hert et al., 1996). In Choset (2001) an extensive
presentation of relative algorithms is given. Although the problem has been studied extensively in
the robotics literature, most of the developed approaches cannot be used without modifcation for
agricultural operations because of the special characteristics inherent in these operations.
During the last year, two researches regarding the feld coverage planning for agricultural machines
have been independently presented, which by coincidence are complementary to each other. The
frst approach results in the optimum decomposition of a complex-geometry feld into sub-felds
(blocks) and the optimum driving direction in each feld (Oksanen, 2007). The second one presents
an algorithmic approach towards computing traversal sequences for parallel feld tracks, which
improve the machines feld effciency by minimizing the total non-working distance travelled
(Bochtis, 2008).
In this paper, a frst attempt to connect these two approaches is presented, in order to provide a
complete method for feld area coverage planning directly applicable to autonomous or semi-
autonomous (navigation-aided) agricultural machines. In a frst stage, using prediction and
exhaustive search methods, each feld is divided into blocks and for each one of them the driving
direction is determined. In a second stage, the optimal sequence that the machine visits the sub-felds
is determined and the optimal feld-work pattern is produced for each sub-feld. For this stage, a
combinatorial optimization algorithm was used. This algorithm is based on heuristics operations
and has been developed for the special case of agricultural operations. As an implementation of
the total method, an example of optimal planning for a given feld is given.
Method
First stage: split into simple subfelds
In the frst stage a complex feld is split into blocks that are easy to operate with straight driving
lines or swaths. In this algorithm a greedy selection is used, frst the best block is found, that is
removed from the region and the same algorithm is repeated until the whole feld is split.
In the search of the best block at each step, the best driving direction is searched. In several
possible driving directions so called trapezoidal decomposition is applied in order to split the
region to smallest possible pieces, trapezoids. After trapezoidal decomposition, trapezoids which
can be merged are merged into blocks. The condition for merging includes equal parallel lines and
certain requirements for headland angles. After trapezoidal decomposition and merging, the block
with best effciency is selected as the block, which is removed from the region. The algorithm can
handle also obstacles in feld.
This algorithm also automatically lays headlands. Headlands are only laid at the end of a block if
the swaths end to an edge of the feld. In other cases a headland is not needed. It is also possible to
take account of hills, under drainage and other practical aspects through regions with prohibited
driving directions. These regions are defned inside feld boundaries and for each region an unwanted
range of driving directions is set. This is counted in the selection phase as an obstacle if the driving
direction is in the range. Details of the algorithm can be found in Oksanen, (2007).
Two examples are presented in Figure 1. At the left side a simple feld is presented, this contains
seven blocks and on the right there is a more complex feld with an obstacle, resulting in 30 blocks.
In both cases the result makes sense.
Second stage: optimal track sequence generation
The second stage of the combined method is based on an algorithmic approach towards computing
traversal sequences for parallel feld swaths (tracks), for one or for numerous felds, covered by
one machine or by a feet of them (Bochtis, 2008). This algorithmic approach improves the feld
effciency of the machines, by minimizing the total (in-feld and out-feld) non working traveled
distance. Field coverage is expressed as the traversal of a weighted graph and the problem of fnding
optimal traversal sequences is equivalent to fnding shortest tours in the graph. By doing so, the
problem is associated with a complete undirected graph G={S, E} consisting of a set of nodes, a
set of arcs E, and a traversal cost for each arc a
e
,e {i,j}E. In this graph, a solution is the union
of k cycles whose only intersection is the node corresponding to the initial location of the machine.
Each feld track or swath is represented by two nodes, one for each swath line ending. According
to this representation, if set T={1,2,3,} denotes the arbitrarily ordered set of feld swath indices
(e.g. from left to right), the set of nodes S is written as S={1,2,3,,2|T |}. The nonnegative fnite
cost associated with each arc depends on the pair of nodes that is connected. It could be defned
to be equal to , to zero or to the non-working distance that the agricultural machine has to travel
(e.g. the maneuvers length) while executing a headland turn. For the calculations of the length of
these headland turns, the agricultural machine is considered as a vehicle able to move forward or
backward in an empty plane (assuming that there are no obstacles in the headlands). The shortest
turns resulted from the implementation of the Dubins Theorem and the Reeds-Shepp Theorem for
non-holonomic systems (Triggs, 1993).
The traversal of the graph is subject to the constraint that the tour has to be of minimum total cost
while each node has to be visited exactly once and any sub-tours should be excluded of a feasible
solution. For the solution of the optimization problem a heuristic graph search algorithm was
constructed. The algorithm operates in two stages:
1. The randomization phase, where by choosing the best amongst traditional headland feldwork
patterns, e.g. alternation patterns, continuous patterns (Hunt, 2001), an initial solution is built,
and
2. The improvement phase, where various improvement heuristics are performed based on the
use of local search techniques e.g. Or-opt operation, 2-opt operations and swap operations
(Papadimitriou and Steiglitz, 1998).
Details of the method can be found in Bochtis (2008). An implementation of the algorithm on
conventional machines can be found in Bochtis and Vougioukas (2008) while its implementation
to the mission planning on an autonomous tractor can be found in Bochtis et al. (2009). Figure 2
illustrates a solution from the algorithm implementation in the mission planning of the autonomous
tractor Hako tractor (a description of the tractor can be found in Griepentrog and Blackmore, (2007)).
Case study
The sequential integration of the two algorithms is presented through a case study. For this case a
real feld from Southern Finland was selected (Figure 3). The area of the feld is approximately 1
ha, the working width of machine (for example hitch mounted seed drill) is 2.5 m, minimum turning
radius is 6m, operational driving speed in swaths is 10 km/h, turning speed is 3 km/h, number of
headland swaths is three, so headland width is three times the working width.
The split algorithm results in fve blocks, shown in Figure 3. The area of the largest block is 0.73 ha,
the second largest is 0.17 ha and the third largest 0.084 ha. The rest of the blocks are under 0.001
ha. The result makes sense as the largest block covers most of the feld and it results in long straight
driving lines which provide good effciency for operation. The main body of the particular feld

Figure 1 Result from split into subfields algorithm
Figure 1. Result from split into subfelds algorithm.
consists of the three largest blocks with number of swaths |T
1
|=22, |T
2
|=8, and |T
3
|=9, respectively.
Consequently, the to the main body corresponding graph is composed by three sub-sets e.g.
S

S
i
,

i{1,2,3}
where the number of the nodes included in each subset is given by: |S
i
|=2|T
i
|, i{1,2,3} (Figure 4).
Concerning the operation at the headland area, it was not included in the optimisation procedure
due to the following facts First, the headland area consists of three swaths and there is no meaning
for optimizing the corresponding sequence, and second, the order in which the machine operates
at the headlands is determined by the type of the operation (for example, in harvesting operations
headland area is harvested frst while in the seeding operations headland area is seeded last).
As it is easily understood from the blocks layout, some connections between swaths can be permitted
or not, depending on the machines current moving direction. Let us consider for example, Block 1
and Block 2. If two nodes correspond to the upper endings of two swaths, the connection between

Figure 3 A case field and the split algorithm result.
Figure 2. Agricultural coverage operations in a rectangular feld based on optimal and on
traditional planning.
Figure 3. A case feld and the split algorithm result.

Figure 2 Agricultural coverage operations in a rectangular field based on optimal and on traditional planning.
them is permitted. In contrast, if two nodes correspond to the lower endings of two swaths, the
connection is permitted only if the swaths are elements of the same subset. These restrictions are
automatically taken into account by the algorithm, by assigning an infnite cost to the undesirable
connections. The topology of the permitted connections for the particular feld is depicted in Figure
5, where green arrows depict the permitted transitions between the feld blocks and white and gray
areas, within the sub-sets, designate the two opposite headlands of each feld block.
From the implementation of the optimization algorithm the optimal swath sequence for the given
feld is:
The resulted non-working distance is 1,699.3 m, while the effective distance is 3,125.9 m.
From the swath sequence, it is obvious that the resulted optimal feld-work pattern is not akin
to any traditional pattern. Furthermore, this optimal planning is diversifed from any traditional
planning in the way the machine visits the feld blocks. According to the traditional sense on the
feld operation execution, the driver starts working in a block and moves to the next one only after
the completion of the work in the frst one. In the presented planning, as it is depicted in Figure
6, after operating in swath 20 which belongs to Block 1, the machine is moving to Block 2 where
it operates in two swaths (27 and 23). Following, it returns to Block 1 where whilst operating on
swath 19 it is moving to Block 3.
an infinite cost to the undesirable connections. The topology of the permitted connections for

BLOCK1 BLOCK 2 BLOCK 1
*
BLOCK 3 BLOCK 1 BLO
3 8 2 7 1 6 13 18 12 17 11 16 5 10 15 20 27 23 19 ...
34 39 33 38 32 37 31 36 35 21 26 30 25 29 24 28
=<

BLOCK 1
CK 2
22 14 9 4 >

Figure 4 Problems topology
Figure 4. Problems topology.

Figure 5 Permitted transitions between sub-sets
Figure 5. Permitted transitions between sub-sets.
Conclusions
In this paper, a combined method for feld area coverage planning was presented. At the frst stage
of the method the feld at hand is divided into sub-felds/blocks and for each one of them the driving
direction is determined. In a second stage, the optimal sequence that the machine visits the blocks
is determined and the optimal feld-work pattern is produced for each block. The optimality of
each one of the two individual parts composing the method, has already been presented in past
publications. Nonetheless, a quantitative valuation of the combined algorithmic procedure is an
issue for further research.
The presented method can easily incorporate the cases of multiple-machines, capacitated operations
(where more than one route is required for the completion of the operation) and felds with obstacle
regions. Furthermore, based on the research carried out so far, it seems that such an approach can
constitute the algorithmic base for a next generation of navigation-aid and auto-steering systems,
where the swath and block sequences will be determined algorithmically.
References
Bochtis, D.D., 2008. Planning and Control of a Fleet of Agricultural Machines for Optimal Management of
Field Operations. Ph.D. Thesis, A.U.Th., School of Agriculture, Agriculture Engineering Laboratory.
Bochtis, D.D., and Vougioukas S., 2008. Minimising the Non-working Distance Travelled by Machines
Operating in a Headland Field Pattern. Biosystems Engineering, 101(1): 1-12.
Bochtis, D.D., Vougioukas, S.G., and Griepentrog, H.W., 2009. A Mission Planner for an Autonomous Tractor.
Transactions of ASABE, In press.
Choset, H., 2001. Coverage for robotics - A survey of recent results. Annals of Mathematics and Artifcial
Intelligence, 31:113-126.
Choset, H. and Pignon, P., 1997. Coverage path planning: the boustrophedon cellular decomposition. In
Proceedings of the International Conference on Field and Service Robotics.
Griepentrog, H.W, and Blackmore, B.S., 2007. Autonomous Crop Establishment and Control System. In Proc.
Land-Technik AgEng 2007 - Engineering Solutions for Energy and Food Production, Hanover, Germany,
VDI-Verlag, Duesseldorf, Germany, pp. 175-181.

Figure 6 Part of the resulted optimal planning
Figure 6. Part of the resulted optimal planning.
Hert, S., Tiwari, S., and Lumelsky, V., 1996. A terrain-covering algorithm for an AUV. Autonomous Robots,
3(23):91-119.
Hofner, C., and Schmidt, G., 1995. Path Planning and Guidance Techniques for an Autonomous Cleaning
Mobile Robot. Robotics and Autonomous Systems, 14:199-212.
Huang, Y.Y., Cao, Z.L., and Hall, E.L., 1986. Region flling operations for mobile robot using computer graphics.
In Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Robotics and Automation, pp. 1607-1614.
Huang, W., 2001. Optimal Line-sweep-based Decompositions for Coverage Algorithms. In Proceedings of the
2001 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.
Hunt, D., 2001. Farm Power and Machinery Management. 10th Ed, Iowa State Press, Ames, Iowa.
Land S., and Choset, H., 1998. Coverage path planning for landmine location. In Proc. Third International
Symposium on Technology and the Mine Problem, Monterey, CA.
Oksanen, T., 2007. Path planning algorithms for agricultural feld machines. PhD Thesis, Helsinki University
of Technology Automation, Technology Laboratory, Finland.
Papadimitriou, C.H. and Steiglitz, K., 1998. Combinatorial Optimization. Mineola, New York: Dover
Publications, Inc.
Triggs, B., 1993. Motion Planning for Nonholonomic Vehicles: An Introduction. Workshop on Computer Vision
and Robotics, Newton Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Cambridge, England.
Zelinsky, A., Jarvis, R.A., Byrne, J.C., and Yuta, S., 1994. Planning paths of complete coverage of an
unstructured environment by a mobile robot. International Journal of Robotics Research, 13(4):315.
From sensor values to a map: accuracy of spatial modelling
methods in agricultural machinery works
J. Kaivosoja
MTT Agrifood Research Finland, Plant Production Research, Vakolantie 55, 03400 Vihti, Finland;
jere.kaivosoja@mtt.f
Abstract
Spatial modelling of the farm machinery operations has several steps that can cause errors and
inaccuracies for the modelled maps. Maps are used for precision farming, and the inaccuracies will
have a direct effect on the quality of precision farming. The aim of this study was to determine
and to evaluate the extent of the error factors that have effects on spatial modelling. Most common
feld farming machines including harvesters, seeding machines, harrows, sprayers and spreaders
were examined and analysed from the spatial modelling perspective. Interacting factors were
determined and classifed. The effects of the factors were simulated and determined using simulated
or previously driven and collected feld data. Results were accomplished by incorporating or leaving
out different factors, and also focusing on present common spatial modelling practises. In-depth
studies focused on a combine harvester and a fertilizer spreader. A combine harvester was chosen
because of its popularity in precision farming (PF). The fertilizer spreader was chosen due to most
complicated spatial modelling requirements. This study demonstrates the possible signifcance
of different factors that have an effect on the map generation. At this stage, the model consists
of fve main components: Measurement values, lags in measurement system, dynamic tractor-
implement combination, changing work pattern and interpolation. After the raw data is collected,
the uncorrected lags in the measurement system could change the longitudinal location for several
metres. All the measurement systems will have some uncertainty with the log timing. Dynamic
tractor-implement combination generates more error sources. Uneven feld surface and curved
driving lines urges the need of accurate modelling. Changes in the temporal spatial distribution of
the work are rarely taken account of but generate errors again with curved driving lines and with
variable rate application (VRA) actions. Finally the interpolation can smooth the results or can
also lose important information.
Keywords: spatial modelling, mapping, accuracy
Introduction
Precision farming (PF) is based on the knowledge of in-feld variability. That will require spatial
information from soil measurements and from farm machinery operations. Spatial information or
maps are results of spatial modelling. In PF actions measured feld data go always through spatial
modelling procedures. Modelled maps are exploited e.g. to evaluate PF success or to generate new
PF tasks. Errors, inaccuracies and generalisations in these spatial modelling procedures can cause
systematic errors and can lead to cumulative mistreatments in PF. As an example, Lawrence and
Yule (2007) developed an accurate method for calculating the in feld variation of urea fertilization.
With their tests, the coeffcient of variation was 38.5% with the fertilizer. The problem is similar
with all the different farming machines. Blackmore and Moore (1999) defned different systematic
errors in yield data set. The sum of errors was around 14% when the positioning error was excluded.
A proper spatial modelling could enable more precise farming and could give information about
development needs for the system. A model is needed to fully understand the effect of different
factors in a spatial modelling process.
The aim of this study is to determine and to evaluate the extent of the error factors that have and
effect on spatial modelling. By knowing these factors, development requirements for modelling
and measuring techniques and their relevance can be determined and analysed.
Methodology
For the start, an exploratory research method was chosen. A rough set of objects were determined.
Those objects constructed the frst chain from sensor measurements to a map. After that, empirical
data requirements were defned. The key was to collect such empirical knowledge that is related
to the found defciencies, which mostly were the accuracy of the components. Also the idea was
to select cases that are either critical for PF or diffcult for modelling. Blackmore (1996 and 2003)
compiled the yield mapping in PF and Lawrence and Yule (2005 and 2007) studied the modelling
of fertiliser distribution.
A combine harvester was implemented with an external data collection system so that raw data
were able to be collected alongside with a commercial yield mapping system. Also spatial raw
data collection was made from a spin-disk fertiliser, seeder, sprayer and a harrow. Shaft-angle
measurement was also added to the seeder.
After the empirical data collection, the structure of the system was determined and the frst model
was constructed. Interacting factors were determined and classifed. Results were accomplished by
incorporating or leaving out different factors, and also focusing on present common spatial modelling
practises. Then system analysis method was exploited to validate and to develop the system further.
Specifc cases were used to illustrate the possible accuracy losses with different methods.
Model components
At this stage, the model consists of fve main components: Measurement values, lags in the
measurement system, dynamic tractor-implement combination, changing work pattern and
interpolation.
Measurement values
As the only inputs for the model, sensor and positioning measurements have a critical role. Sensor
measurements are often indirect as they dont usually measure the actual event of interest. The
accuracy of those measuring methods is totally case dependent. In most cases, sensors can log
data more often than what is the logging interval of the whole system. In such cases, the fltering
is possible. Although smoothing and fltering can also be done in the interpolation process,
the measurement system of the sensor should be able to flter errors that are common for the
measurement principle.
As an example of the errors in the measurement principle, we tested correlation between neighbouring
measurements with fxed yield data. A similar approach was used by Noack et al. (2003). In this
study the yield data was logged with 3.5 metre interval (which equals to a cutting table width)
without averaging or fltering but with correcting the location, moisture content and cutting width.
Our random tests indicated much higher correlation with consecutive measurements compared to
parallel measurements. The square of the correlation coeffcient (R
2
) was 0.87 with consecutive
points. At the same time R
2
was only 0.62 with parallel track points with equal distance. When
the distance of consecutive points was extended three times longer, the R
2
was 0.61. This could
indicate that measured grain was mixed within time.
Positioning is mostly done with GPS. The accuracy of different GPS-methods varies from about
2 cm to few metres. Other sensing methods can assist GPS-positioning. Variable rate applications
(VRA) usually work in the GPS-reference system. Although the implements position can be
improved with the other sensing method, the problem stays with the adaptation of the VRA map.
As important as the measurements values are the factors that havent been measured. Some other
sensors could correct the measurements, or they could give new information. In the harvesting tests,
the average overlapping was 8.7%. That will cause an equal error to the yield sum. This measured
result somewhat equals to the drivers tendency to overlap 10% (Nieminen and Sampo, 1993) with
larger working widths.
Lags in the measurement system
Putting together the temporal sensor value and the corresponding location have an effect on the
location of values at the driving direction. Menegatti and Molin (2002) found lag time errors from all
yield monitors they tested. Reitz and Kutzbach (1996) mentioned that this lag can be highly variable.
Lags with sensor data collection are highly case-dependent. Some measurement systems could give
almost an instant result compared to e.g. with combines, where the lag time between detachment
and sensing of the grain could be several seconds.
Positioning methods usually have their own latency, which delays the output of the localisation
data. Smith and Thompson (2003) measured GPS latency and found it to be slightly less than 0.16
seconds for the tested system. Positioning frequency doesnt have a direct link to latency, but the
maximum frequency could give some estimations. With regular feld works, tractor could easily
travel 3 metres between 1 Hz GPS logs. Positioning latency can be eliminated with estimation
methods or with sensor integration.
To eliminate the lags, the timing between several sensors and positioning data has to be done. Figure
1 demonstrates the composition of yield data. Each type of sensor data should be longitudinally
corrected before composition.

Figure 1. Demonstration of the measurement composition

Figure 1. Demonstration of the measurement composition.
Dynamic tractor-implement combination
The positioning unit and the centre point of the temporal work are rarely in the same location at
the same time. It is even impossible with machines like spreader. With straight driving paths, the
difference can usually be fxed linearly. The changing shaft angle, changing working power and
other changes of the combination cause more diffcult errors.
Shaft angle changes depend on the curve radii and the axle distances. With tested seeder, the shaft
angle was mostly less than 10 degrees (Figure 2). With a 5 degree angle, the dislocation of the
work position was 0.5 metres on sideways with about 6 metres long seeder.
Stability of the power transmission and the driving speed has a direct effect for the results. With our
spinning-disk spreader tests, the power take-off (PTO) had a standard deviation of 1.0% during a
regular work, while driving speed had a SD of 5%. Driving speed was controlling the PTO.
With implements that throw their inputs, the horizontal angle between the implement and the ground
surface could play a signifcant role. 10 degree slopes on a feld are not rare and will have an effect
although the angle is usually somewhat eliminated within the implement.
Nrremark (2008) measured the disparity of the sprayer booms end on ISO 5008:2002 test track.
The disparity in a horizontal plane found to be 8943 mm standard deviation when driving at a
speed of 10 km/h.
Changing work pattern
Whilst the dynamic combination presented a launching pad for the inputs, the changing work pattern
deals with spatial distribution changes. After the exact locations and the corresponding amount of
work are known, the interpolation between the measurement values is still required. Besides the
traditional interpolation rules, the observation of the spatial intensity of the work is needed. The
problematic areas are curved driving, VRA adjustments and the changes of a 2-dimensional work
pattern. Also the external variables have a large effect on the pattern. External variables can be the
horizontal angle of implement, wind speed and direction, and the structure of the felds surface.
With the curved driving, the problem is similar to the differential gear problem. With the differential
gear, the inner tyre will spin less than the outer one. If there is a lack of differential gear, the inner
tyre will work harder relative to the area. Again the problem is greater with throwing implements.
Figure 3 illustrates the turning effect with the different types of machines. Results from the combine
harvester can not be divided inside the working width. With most of the implements, simply the inner
circle will be working more intensively. The intensiveness will correspond directly to the arc length
of the inner and outer circle. With implements that sweep or in other words have a 2-dimensional
work pattern, the turning will make the weighting of the work pattern very complicated.

Figure 2. Shaft angle changes during the test drive.

Figure 2. Shaft angle changes during the test drive.
VRA adjustments could also change the work pattern. E.g. it could affect spreading width and
distance. When the work pattern sweeps over the specifed location, the work amount in the
location is a weighted sum of the work patterns profle. Changes within the sweep will change
the temporal weights.
The relative angle of the implement affects also the work pattern. Work pattern can be understood
as a 2-dimensional projection of the spreading model in certain location. Grift and Hofstee (2002)
presented a ballistic model for the spread pattern calculation. Adding the wind speed to a similar
model could give information about the actual wind effect.
Interpolation
After the work pattern is weighted, the spatial interpolation can be started. If the work is already
weighted to several locations in width, there will be a need of triangulation between corresponding
locations. Smoothing can be relevant within the working width.
Parallel track smoothing depends highly on the implement type. With inputting machines, the
parallel tracks should be kept separately. Usually parallel smoothing gives nicer maps, but it will
always lose some information. With processes like harvesting or working depth measurement, the
parallel smoothing is relevant.
Blackmore and Marshall (1996) presented kriging method as a best linear unbiased estimator for
yield modelling and noted that inverse distance method does not have the advantage of minimum
variance. However, kriging estimates require e.g. 12 to 20 neighbouring points (Babak and Deutch,
2008) and that might be irrelevant with some farming machines.
Figure 4 shows differences between different typical surface modelling methods with yield
information on a one test feld. The comparison was made to kriging 1. For all kriged maps, ordinary
kriging method was used. Variogram model was linear, anisotropy angle was 0 (driving lines were
close to 45 degrees), nugget, range and sill were automatically generated by Microimages TNT
mips -program. With other kriging models, changes were made for the search distance and for the
weighting. With the minimum curvature method and the inverse distance method, the weights and
the distance were kept same as with kriging 1. Direct 10 m grid was generated by averaging yield
measurements to 1010 m grids.
Note the standard deviation between results. In average the results from 10 m grid differ more than
20% from kriging-based results. Also within the same modelling method, the fnal results could
vary quite a lot. The averaged yield from the feld was less than 3 t/ha, and the logging interval was
about 3.5 metres. Elevation model and water management could also affect interpolation rules and
they can be added using e.g. fuzzy logic.

Figure 3. Implements work intensity in a circle path.

With implements that sweep or in other words have a 2-dimensional work pattern, the turning
will make the weighting of the work pattern very complicated.
Figure 3. Implements work intensity in a circle path.
Conclusions
This study gives an overview of the factors that have effects on the spatial modelling process and
demonstrates their possible signifcance. Selected components suited well for the model construction
and the modelling process heads logically. At this stage, the model consists of fve main components:
Measurement values, lags in the measurement system, dynamic tractor-implement combination,
changing work pattern and interpolation.
After the raw data is collected, the uncorrected lags in the measurement system could change the
longitudinal location for several metres. All the measurement systems will have some uncertainty
with the log timing. Dynamic tractor-implement combination generates more error sources. Uneven
feld surface and curved driving lines urges the need of accurate modelling. Changes in the temporal
spatial distribution of the work are rarely taken account of, but they generate errors with curved
driving lines and with VRA actions. Finally the interpolation can smooth the results and can also
lose important information. Finding best suited interpolating methods for the different implements
is challenging.
This study revealed many system factors that have to be studied more deeply. Providing faultless
information for PF usage is still far away, but knowing better the effect of the spatial modelling
is a step forward.
References
Babak, O. and Deutch, C.V. 2008. Statistical approach to inverse distance interpolation. Stochastic Environmental
Research & Risk Assessment, Springer-Verlag, 21 pp.
Blackmore, S. and Marshall, C. 1996. Yield Mapping; Errors and Algorithms, in 3rd

International Conference on
Precision Agriculture, edited by Robert, Rust and Larson. (ASA, CSSA, SSSA, Madison, WI 1996), p. 403.
Blackmore, S. and Moore, M. 1999. Remedial Correction of Yield Map Data. Precision Agriculture Journal
1:53-66.

Figure 4. Differences between typical interpolation methods.

Figure 4. Differences between typical interpolation methods.
Blackmore, S. 2003. The role of yield maps in precision farming. Ph.D. Thesis. Cranfeld University, Silsoe,
England.
Grift, T. and Hofstee, J. 2002. Testing an online spread pattern determination sensor on a broadcast fertiliser
spreader, Transactions of the American Society of Agricultural Engineers 45 (3): 561-567.
Lawrence H.G. and Yule, I.J. 2005. Accessing Spreader Performance for Variable Rate Fertiliser Application.
2005 ASAE Annual Meeting, Paper number 051117. St. Joseph, Mich.:ASAE
Lawrence, H.G. and Yule, I.J. 2007. Modelling of fertilizer distribution using measured machine parameters.
Transactions of the ASABE 50(4): 1141-1147.
Menegatti, L.A.A., and Molin, J.P. 2002. Error Analysis on Different Yield Monitors. In Proceedings of the
World Congress of Computers in Agriculture and Natural Resources (13-15, March 2002, Iguacu Falls,
Brazil), ASAE Publication Number 701P0301, pp. 206-211.
Nieminen, T. and Sampo M. 1993. Unmanned vehicles for agricultural and off-highway applications. SAE
Technical Paper Series No 932475. Warrendale, PA:SAE.
Noack, P.O., Muhr, T. and Demmel, M. 2003. An algorithm for automatic detection and elimination of defective
yield data. In: Proceedings of the 4th European Conference on Precision Agriculture, eds.: J Stafford and
A. Werner, Wageningen Academic Publishers, the Netherlands, pp. 445-450.
Nrremark, M. 2008. Estimation of spray distribution from measurements of sprayer boom using GNSS
technology. NJF Seminar 415: Future feld experiments Horsens, Denmark, 8-10 October 2008. NJF Report
4, 5: pp. 21-23. http://www.njf.nu/flebank/fles/20081201$223526$-il$bShcJX913AE684Lx3346.pdf.
Reitz, P. and Kutzbach, H.D. 1996. Investigations on a Particular Yield Mapping System for Combine Harvesters.
Computers and Electronics in Agriculture 14: 137.
Smith, L. and Thomson, S. 2003. GPS position latency determination and ground speed calibration for the
satloc airstar M3. National Agricultural Aviation Association Meeting. Paper No. AA03-009, 11 pp.
Field-scale model of the spatio-temporal vine water status
in a viticulture system
J.A. Taylor
1,2
, B. Tisseyre
2,
C. Acevedo-Opazo
3
and. P. Lagacherie
1
1
INRA UMR LISAH, Bt. 24, 2 Pl. Pierre Viala, Montpellier, 34060, France; taylor@supagro.inra.fr
2
UMR ITAP/Cemagref SupAgro-M, Bt. 21, 2 Pl. Pierre Viala, 34060 Montpellier, France
3
University of Talca, Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias, CITRA, Casilla 747, Talca, Chile
Abstract
The water status of a vine during the season is an important indicator and determinant of fnal
grape quality. Using data collected from temporal measurements of pre-dawn vine water status
from multiple locations over two consecutive seasons, a feld scale spatio-temporal model of vine
water status has been constructed. The model uses climatic variables to temporally model mean
feld values for vine water status, then easily measured vine and soil parameters to model a spatial
error component at any given time. The spatial component signifcantly improved the ft of the
temporal model to the data, especially at higher water stresses when information is more important
for decision making. Spatial patterns associated with management decisions were similar between
the modelled and interpolated data sets. Results are very encouraging and further model development
and refnement will continue to make the model more applicable across different felds and varieties.
Keywords: growing degree days, NDVI, soil electrical resistivity
Introduction
Grape production, particularly grape quality, is strongly infuenced by the level of water stress that
the vine undergoes during production. Optimum quality is usually achieved through imparting some
minor to moderate water stress during the reproductive phase (Dry and Loveys, 1998). However,
too much stress at this stage can be detrimental to production. Consequently, growers, particularly
in irrigated production systems, are very keen to have information both spatial and temporal
on the change in plant water status () in their vineyards. However, this information is diffcult to
obtain due to the cumbersome and expensive nature of directly measuring (Jones, 2007). Direct
measurements are often limited to only a few sites, which gives poor spatial resolution. Many
producers opt to measure the soil moisture potential instead, as a surrogate for plant water potential,
and adjust irrigation according to soil conditions.
Acevedo-Opazo et al. (2007) illustrated a simple spatial model for extrapolating plant water status
() across a vineyard. This was based on a demonstrated linear relationship between a reference
plant water status value (re) at a particular time j (
(re,j)
), and other measured locations (m) in the
feld at the same time (
(m,j)
. In their study, Acevedo-Opazo et al. (2007) had 1 reference site and
48 measurement sites (denoted by the vector
m
). Acevedo-Opazo et al. (2007) hypothesised that
this derived relationship can be used to predict the plant water status at the measurement sites at
some future time, h, from a single reference measurement at time h.
While this demonstrated simple relationship is encouraging, application of the spatial model is
labourious and problematic. Firstly, the spatial model depends on a linear relationship between
re
and
m
. This is not a universal relationship and must be established for each individual site,
even within single blocks. This involves multiple manual measurements of (at both reference
and measurement sites) during the growing season to gather the required data to derive the linear
relationship. Secondly, the model can only be applied to sites that are members of
m
. Predictions
cannot be made at locations where has not been previously measured (the vector of unmeasured
sites is denoted by u), thus
u,h
must be spatially interpolated (e.g. by kriging or nearest neighbour
interpolation) from
m,h
. This imposes limitations on the minimum size and the spatial location of
m
if a map of is the desired outcome. Lastly, the proposed model is also purely a spatial model
and limited to times when a reference measurement is obtained.
There are several potential approaches to constructing a spatio-temporal model (e.g. 3D kriging,
regionalised autoregressive models, Bayesian maximum entropy models). The intention of the
current project is to investigate the suitability and applicability of these and other methods for a
spatio-temporal model of plant water status. As a starting point, a temporal model with a spatial
error correction is presented here. The proposed model utilises a temporal component to estimate
the mean block at a given time h (
h
) then uses a spatial component, derived from crop and
environmental parameters, to spatially correct
h
for every site in the block/vineyard. The derivation
of the temporal and spatial error components will be presented independently before being joined
in the overall model.
Site description
A full description of the site is given in Acevedo et al., 2008. Briefy, the vineyard is located near
Narbonne, southern france. The study sites consist of a 1 ha block of Syrah grapes where 49 sites
were monitored for predawn vine water status () during two growing seasons 2003 (18/06,
26/06, 8/07, 16/07, 23/07, 30/07 and 12/08) and 2004 (09/06, 05/07, 18/08, 23/08, 10/09). Values
of at each site were derived from the mean of three readings. Various other data (both point and
surfaces) have been collected between 1999 and 2007 for the vineyard and are introduced below.
Available spatial data
Three fltered and smoothed aerial NDVI images from July 1999 and June and July 2006 were
extracted onto a 2.5 m square grid. The three NDVI layers were transformed into a relative NDVI
(Equation 1) and then compressed by averaging each grid point to give a mean relative NDVI
(MR-NDVI). In addition point measurements were made at the sample vine sites. A wenner array
was used to measure soil electrical resistivity to 0.5 m and 1 m depth (ER
0.5
and ER
1
respectively)
at each measurement site (n=49) (Figure 1). (NB ER is inversely related to apparent soil electrical
conductivity (EC
a
)). Trunk circumference (TC) and the weight of pruned wood (PW) post-harvest
was also measured at each site. An estimation of the surface area of the canopy (SFE) was made
mid season 2003. All the point (sample site) data was interpolated onto the 2.5 m square grid using
Relative value
0 - 10
10.01 - 20
20.01 - 30
30.01 - 40
40.01 - 50
50.01 - 60
60.01 - 70
70.01 - 80
80.01 - 90
90.01 - 100
$
0 100 50
Metres
ER NDVI Trunk
Circ.

Figure 1: Maps of relative trunk circumference (left), NDVI (middle) and soil electrical
resistivity (right) expressed as relative values for the experimental field. There is a path that
splits the block into a northern and southern section which is retained in the NDVI map
Figure 1. Maps of relative trunk circumference (left), NDVI (middle) and soil electrical resistivity
(right) expressed as relative values for the experimental feld. There is a path that splits the
block into a northern and southern section which is retained in the NDVI map.
ordinary global kriging with Vesper (Minasny et al., 2007). Conversely, the ER and NDVI data
were extracted to each measurement site.
{[NDVI Min(NDVI)]/[Max(NDVI) Min(NDVI)]}*100 (1)
Available temporal data: Daily precipitation, evaporation and temperature (mean, minimum and
maximum) data was available for 2002 to 2004. Cumulative precipitation (P
c
) and evaporation (E
c
)
were recorded daily and the difference (P
c
E
c
), an estimation of cumulative water supply (WS
c
)
at each day calculated. P
c
, E
c
and WS
c
were calculated from November 1
st
from the previous year
till September 30
th
.(the end of the production season). Cumulative growing degree days (GDDs)
were also calculated for the growing season (April 1
st
to Sept 30
th
) using a base temperature of 10
C (Gladstones, 1992).
GDD = [(T
MAX
T
MIN
)/2] - T
BASE
(2)
where T
MAX
and T
MIN
are the maximum and minium daily temperature and T
BASE
is a threshold
temperature below which plants are considered inactive. For vines this is considered to be 10 C.
A (predictive) spatio-temporal model of
The temporal component
In non-irrigated production systems the temporal evolution of is driven by climatic variables
that relate to moisture availability i.e. precipitation, evaporation and transpiration. Figure 2 shows
that the climate for the two years was different. 2004 was hotter (higher GDDs) and had greater
water stress than 2003. There are suffcient GDDS for vine growth in both years (GDD >1,700;
Gladstones, 1992). Plots of the mean feld () vs. WS
c
for each year showed strong linear
responses within years, however the slope and intercept between the two years was very different
(data not shown). A linear regression model was ftted to the combined data from the two years
using WS
c
, GDD and an interaction term. The GDD and interaction term were included to see if
differences in a heat index explained the slope and intercept differences between years. A good ft
(r
2
=0.94, intercept = -0.3, m=0.94) across the two years was found (bearing in mind the climatic
differences between years) (Figure 3).

0
500
1000
1500
2000
-700
-600
-500
-400
-300
-200
-100
0
100
200
300
W
S
c

(
m
m
)
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350
Production Day (1 = November 1st)

Figure 2: Climatic data for the two years showing the growing degree days (left axis and dashed
lines) and cumulative water supply (deficit) (right axis and solid lines). Data for 2003 are grey
lines, 2004 are black lines. Vertical lines indicate start (April 1
st
) and end (Sept 30
th
) of the
growing season.
Figure 2. Climatic data for the two years showing the growing degree days (left axis and dashed
lines) and cumulative water supply (defcit) (right axis and solid lines). Data for 2003 are grey
lines, 2004 are black lines. Vertical lines indicate start (April 1
st
) and end (Sept 30
th
) of the
growing season.
The spatial error component
The temporal relationship provides a good mean prediction for a given date (
h
). The next step is
to spatially assign the mean data within the production system or rather spatially correct the error
between
h
and at each locale (u) in the feld at time h (
(u,h)
).
Previous spatial modelling indicates that information pertaining to canopy and vine size (SFE, TC,
PW) and soil variation (ER) are all predictors of
(u,h)
. Consequently they should be predictors of
the spatial error at a point (
t
-
(u,h)
) denoted
(u,h)
. However, many of these parameters are site-
specifc and their properties are particular to the production system for example TC depends on
vine age whilst PW and SFE will be strongly infuenced by different trellising and management
regimes. The intention of the project, of which this work is a part, is to develop a spatio-temporal
model which is robust enough to be up- or down-scaled and applied across different regions with a
minimum of effort. Previous studies have indicated that the spatial pattern of NDVI imagery and EC
a

(ER) surveys in vineyards tends to be temporally stable even though the absolute value of NDVI and
EC
a
(ER) may change from year to year (Tisseyre et al., 2008). Temporal fuctuations in absolute
values will be infuenced (among another things) by time of acquisition (growth stage), sensor type
and calibration and canopy management in the case of NDVI, and changes in soil moisture, sensor
type and calibration, ground cover and time of collection (particularly seasonal infuences) in the
case of EC
a
(ER). Thus, while absolute values may not be useful in a temporal setting, a relative
value is, as the same locations tend to have higher (or lower) NDVI and EC
a
responses over time.
The spatial correction model uses relative surrogate inputs for canopy size and soil type which
can be rapidly sensed or measured. Thus SFE was replaced by the MR-NDVI and Relative Trunk
Circumference (R-TC) whilst the ER
1
and ER
0.5
were converted into a relative value using equation
1 and averaged (R-ER).
The spatial error (
u
) model can be described as:
(u,h)
= (
t
-
(u,t)
) ~ f(MR-NDVI, R-ER, R-TC) (3)
-1
-0.8
-0.6
-0.4
-0.2
P
r
e
d
i
c
t
e
d

M
e
a
n

P
W
S
-1 -0.8 -0.6 -0.4 -0.2
Mean Field PWS

Figure 3: Regression fit of climatic variables to across two years. Dots indicate 2004 data and
squares 2003 data. (Regression equation is h = 0.888 [-0.00427*GDD
h
] + [0.00686*(WS
c
)
h
] +
0.00000697[(GDD
h
- 1015.6083)*((WS
c
)
h
+ 233.5083)])

Figure 3. Regression ft of climatic variables to across two years. Dots indicate 2004 data and
squares 2003 data. (Regression equation is
h
= 0.888 [-0.00427*GDD ] + [0.00686*(WS
c
) ]
+ 0.00000697[(GDD - 1015.6083)*((WS
c
) + 233.5083)]).
The overall model
An estimation of at a given time and location can therefore be determined by summing the
temporal and spatial error components. From the data (Figure 4), it is known that the variance of
at time t within a feld is related to
t
. Therefore the infuence of the spatial error can be weighted
by a co-effcient related to the expected variance for a given
t
. The weighting function (
) is
also shown in Figure 4.
The spatio-temporal (ST) model can therefore be written as.
(u,t) ~
t
+
*
u
+ (4)
where is the error term
Since the independent variables in the spatial error component are not temporally variable, this
(simple) model will produce the same spatial pattern at each given date. The
coeffcient should
dampen the response of this spatial pattern when is not impacting on vine growth/production.
Validation
Two validations were performed, a global validation and an individual date validation:
Validation A: The combined 2003 and 2004 data was subset randomly into a calibration (80%)
and validation (20%) set. The calibration set was used to generate a linear model to predict using
MR-NDVI, R-ER and R-TC. The model was applied to the validation set and was evaluated
using the r, Lis and RMSE. The performance of the base temporal component (i.e. prediction
of a mean value for the block) and the ST model without the
t
weighting were also evaluated.
Validation B: A leave-one-date out cross validation. Each date of measurement was sequential
removed from the dataset, then the three models, temporal, and ST with and without
were
generated on the remaining data before being validated on the omitted data. The validation
RMSEs were plotted against .
The results from the global model were mapped and compared with maps derived from interpolation
(kriging) of the 49 sample sites. The maps were displayed using threshold values related to vine
irrigation management. The most critical level is -0.4 MPa, below which the vine is considered
under stress.
The statistical results from the Validation A are shown in Figure 5. The predicted maps from the
global calibration are shown in Figure 6. The results from Validation B are shown in Figure 7.
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
V
a
r
i
a
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Figure 4: Relationship between mean and variance of (left) and subsequent weighting
function (
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Figure 4. Relationship between mean and variance of (left) and subsequent weighting function
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The incorporation of the spatial component improved both the general ft (r
2
) and the ft to the 1:1
line (Lis ) compared to the temporal model. The use of the variance weighting factor (
) did
not improve the temporal model in this case.
The threshold maps (Figure 6) from the model (Equation 3) provided similar spatial patterns to
maps derived from interpolation of the raw data. This indicates that the model will be useful for
management. The RMSE from the leave one date out indicated that the temporal model performed
better at low . However the ST model was more effective (lower RMSE) as increased.
From an irrigation or vine management perspective, good information at low is not necessary as
no decision is required when water is non-limiting. Information becomes more valuable as a stress is
applied. The results from the leave-one-date out modelling indicate that a temporal model is suffcient
at the start of the season to predict how is performing. Once approaches the critical level of
-0.4 MPa the spatio-temporal model and predictions of
(u,h)
become more useful for management.

Plant Water Potential
< -0.8
-0.8 - -0.6
-0.6 - -0.4
>0.4
$
0 100 50
Metres
Predicted
Interpolated

Figure 6: Threshold maps for 2004. Top line is the model derived data and the bottom line
interpolated maps. Data is in increasing date of measurement from left to right and shown on the
same scale

Figure 6. Threshold maps for 2004. Top line is the model derived data and the bottom line
interpolated maps. Data is in increasing date of measurement from left to right and shown on
the same scale.

0
0.5
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1.5
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2.5
R
M
S
E
-1 -0.8 -0.6 -0.4 -0.2 0
Mean PWS

Figure 7: RMSE for leave-one-date out analysis vs . Squares indicate the spatio-temporal
model, circles the temporal modelThe model proposed here is a first step in the evolution of a
spatio-temporal model of vine water status. Further adaptation and validation are planned, in
particular approaches to make the spatial error component temporally dynamic using within
season temporal data.
Figure 7. RMSE for leave-one-date out analysis vs. . Squares indicate the spatio-temporal
model, circles the temporal modelThe model proposed here is a frst step in the evolution of
a spatio-temporal model of vine water status. Further adaptation and validation are planned,
in particular approaches to make the spatial error component temporally dynamic using within
season temporal data.
Conclusions
Spatial management of the temporal evolution of vine water stress will help grapegrowers optimise
quality (and quantity) within their systems. A simple temporal model with a spatial correction
component has been proposed and shown to perform better than the stand-alone temporal model.
The patterns derived from the model follow those observed in interpolated maps and are encouraging
for further model development and application.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to acknowledge the assistance of Dr Hernan Odeja and his team at INRA
Pech Rouge during the collection of the data. Dr Taylors work in France is funded by The Agropolis
Foundation.
References
Acevedo-Opazo C., Tisseyre B., Guillaume S. and Ojeda H., 2007. Modelling the spatial variability of the
vine water status at a within feld scale. actes des 15 mes journes du Groupe dEtude des Systmes de
Conduite de la vigne, 1, 237-245.
Acevedo-Opazo C., Tisseyre B., Guillaume S. and Ojeda H., 2008. The potential of high spatial resolution
information to defne within-vineyard zones related to vine water status. Journal of Precision Agriculture,
9, 285-302.
Dry P.R. and Loveys B.R., 1998. Factors infuencing grapevine vigour and the potential for control with partial
rootzone drying. Australian Journal of Grape and Wine Research 4, 140-148.
Gladstones, J.S., 1992. Viticulture and Environment. Winetitles, South Australia.
Jones, H.G., 2007. Monitoring plant and soil water status: established and novel methods revisited and their
relevance to studies of drought tolerance. Journal of Experimental Botany, 58(2), 119-130.
Tisseyre B., Mazzoni C. and Fonta H., 2008. Within-feld temporal stability of some parameters in viticulture:
potential toward a site specifc management. International Journal of wine and vine research, 42(1), 27-39.
Hydropedology and pedotransfer functions
S. Zacharias, D. Altdorff, L. Samaniego-Eguiguren and P. Dietrich
UFZ Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, Dep. Monitoring and Exploration
Technologies, Permoserstrasse 15, 04318 Leipzig, Germany; steffen.zacharias@ufz.de
Abstract
It is an always growing insight in the research and science community that interdisciplinarity and
a perspective related to the landscape scale is necessary if cross-cutting issues like watershed-
management or different agricultural management practices will be examined. To meet the
challenges which result from questions related to soil and water at varying spatial and temporal
scales bridging traditional pedology, hydrology and soil physics as well as other related disciplines
is absolutely necessary. In the last years the new concept of hydropedology the combination
of knowledge and expertise in the felds of pedology, soil physics and hydrology attracts a
wide interest. The Critical Zone Concept as a system concept which covers the subsurface
environment (root zone, vadose zone, groundwater zone) and the land surface including vegetation
as well as surface water bodies provides a sustaining framework for interdisciplinary research on
the terrestrial environment. Simulation models are an important tool in evaluating environmental
effects. In soil science related models the required information are often derived through expensive
laboratory measurements. Often large numbers of samples are needed to cover the temporal and
spatial variability of these properties. Using the relationship between soil hydraulic parameters
and properties, which are easier to measure, pedotransfer functions (PTF) represent an effective
way for model parameterization. Apart from the advantages of PTFs (easy to derive, easy to use,
inexpensive) there are also some problems. So often the representation of soil structure induced
effects is poor. In the presentation advantages and disadvantages of PTF will be discussed. Examples
from the own work represent the use of PTFs in the context of hydrological modelling. A careful
selection or construction of PTFs offers an effective way towards improved model parameterization
and model prediction.
Keywords: critical zone, hydropedology, model parametrization
The critical zone, hydropedology and pedotransfer functions
It is a continually growing insight in the research and science community, that interdisciplinarity and
a landscape related perspective is indispensable if cross-cutting issues like watershed-management
or different agricultural management practices will be examined. All terrestrial environmental
processes (hydrological, geological, meteorological, ecological and anthropological) are coupled
to the pedon. These processes are dominated, in particular by processes at the upper soil zone,
including the land surface with vegetation, rivers, lakes, the root zone, and the deep vadose zone
up to the groundwater zone. The majority of natural and living processes take place at this area,
such as precipitation, groundwater renewal and mass fux as well as human and biological activities
including all categories of land use (e.g. agriculture, urbanizations). Consequently this area has
been defned as the Critical Zone and the National Research Council (NRC, 2001) designated this
area as one of the domineering research areas of the 21
st
century. The Critical Zone Concept as
a system concept provides a sustaining framework for interdisciplinary research on the terrestrial
environment.
The Critical Zone covers the reactive interfaces for most of the bio-geophysical and chemical
interactions among the land surface, the lower atmosphere, the soil, and ground water. Process
understanding at this zone is the key to understand relevant environmental processes and dynamics.
It builds the basis for the development of sustainable water and land resource management. However,
besides natural processes, anthropogenic-driven processes are crucial for the status of the Critical
Zone. Anthropogenic impacts defne the major parts of the soils often more than climatic impacts.
Hence, anthropogenic changes, such as land-use changes and the corresponding increased impact
on water and land resources, need an accurate consideration in current environmental modelling.
To meet the challenges resulting from questions related to soil and water at varying spatial and
temporal scales bridging traditional pedology, hydrology and soil physics as well as other related
disciplines is absolutely necessary. In the last years the new concept of hydropedology (Lin, 2003;
Lin et al., 2006a; Wilding and Lin, 2006) the combination of knowledge and expertise in the
felds of pedology, soil physics and hydrology attracts a wide interest. Many of the conventional
scientifc approaches consider each of these areas separately. However, the strong relationship
and complexity of the processes at this zone demand a broad and collective view at all areas. To
improve the understanding of complex interactions between multiple factors, an interdisciplinary,
interconnected and integrated research is needed.
Many of the current problems in investigations of the critical zone occur during scale transitions
(Lin et al., 2006b; Pachepsky et al., 2001; Pachepsky and Rawls, 2003) The integrated approach of
hydropedology enables a scale-bridging view on soilwater interactions across spatial and temporal
scales. In generally, hydropedology may be understood as way to establish the important missing
link focussing on the interface between hydrosphere and pedosphere.
The development of soil management strategies requires a substantial understanding of the soil-
water-relationships. Simulation models to answer questions related to the soil water balance are an
important scientifc tool. A crucial task in this kind of modelling is the lack of suitable parameters, in
particular data on the soil water retention or hydraulic conductivity. Pedotransfer functions (PTFs)
use relationships between soil properties which are easier to achieve and soil hydraulic parameters.
At a regional scale, up to the watershed scale, the use of PTFs is often the only way to apply the
adequate models. PTFs are an effcient tool to mediate between soil physical process understanding
and hydrological system defnitions. Furthermore, from a hydropedological perspective PTFs offer
an effective way to transfer land use information into the scientifc models.
Agricultural land use and hydrological modelling the use of pedotransfer functions
In the watershed scale there is a close linkage between hydrological processes and impacts of
climate, land use, land use management interventions, and other natural and anthropogenic processes.
Increasing soil sealing and reductions of water retention capacity by different forms of land use
intensify the generation of surface runoff and contribute to increasing fooding events at the catchment
scale. Therefore, decentralised food prevention due to adapted land use in particular of agricultural
land is of special importance for a sustainable watershed management. Due to an adapted agricultural
soil management both the amount of infltrating water and a longer-term retention of water in the
soil can be increased respectively optimized. At this, the management practice of conservation
agriculture can play an important role. Different investigations showed that conservation agriculture
can signifcantly reduce the surface runoff of agricultural land (Akkermann, 2004).
Water retention effects can be achieved both by increasing the infltration capacities of the soil
and a retardation of surface runoff respectively an increase in water retention at the land surface.
Three complexes are of importance:
geomorphological effects (surface roughness, through retention);
impacts of pore structure (pore size distribution, pore continuity); and
impacts of soil aggregate stability (surface sealing).
Land use management can signifcantly affect these components. While comprehensive experiences
in the model parameterisation of land use related geomorphologic aspects are available, there is
an uncertainty in taking other aspects into consideration in precipitation-runoff-models. Numerous
recent studies investigated effects of conservation agriculture on infltration (review in Zimmerling,
2004). While the majority of investigations proved the lower vulnerability for surface sealing
the statements about the effects of pore structure are partially contradictory (Carter et al., 2002;
VandenBygaart et al., 2000).
A quantitatively and qualitatively realistic parameterisation is a precondition for precise illustration
of agricultural land management effects in hydrological models. The following aspects need a
further clarifcation:
impact of conservation agriculture on soil water retention;
quantifcation of surface sealing impact on surface runoff generation; and
quantifcation of macropore impact on infltration.
A project funded by the Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt (Sieker et al., 2008) focussed on
the decentralised food prevention by adapted land use management, in particular the effect of
conservation agriculture. Within that project a pedotransfer concept (Zacharias and Wessolek, 2007)
has been developed and validated which offers a practical way to take into consideration land use
specifc, soil physical characteristics into hydrological modelling.
Conservation agriculture abandons the use of a plough. The reduced cultivation intensity leads to
higher bulk densities in the upper soil horizon. The lower disturbance of the soil and the mulch
cover leads to an increased biological activity (e.g. Zachmann et al., 1987; Katsvairo et al., 2002;
Lamand et al., 2003). Some soil physical properties with impact on the runoff generation are
infuenced by the conservation agriculture practise:
increased stability of soil aggregates, higher mulch coverage lower vulnerability to surface
sealing;
higher bulk density, change pore size distribution changes of water retention and hydraulic
conductivities; and
increased macroporosities increased infltration rates.
A realistic modelling of land use affected hydrological processes requires a comprehensive
understanding and consideration of the relevant process relations. Concerning the runoff generation
different components of different spatial relevance and temporal dynamics can be distinguished.
Table 1 compares the most important processes of runoff generation and the most determining
soil characteristics. Furthermore, the table compares the soil-related parameters and properties
which are needed for a process-based modelling and which are more or less directly affected by
the agricultural management practise.
For dynamical feld scale modelling furthermore the scale dependencies and the spatial-temporal
variability of the soil physical parameters are of importance. Figure 1 shows the results of two rainfall
experiments which were carried out on a ploughed feld plot with a time lag of four weeks. At the frst
experiment the feld was just ploughed and the surface was still unsealed. Due to relative high soil
moisture the vulnerability of the soil aggregates to rain splash was low. The surface sealing started
late and the infltration rates at the end of the experiment were clearly larger compared to the values
measured four weeks later. At the second time the soil moisture at the beginning of the experiment
was much lower and the surface was already sealed. Further factors were the reconsolidation of
the plough horizon and the coupled decrease in the fraction of large pores.
Besides the aspects of surface sealing and macropore effects, the dynamics of the pore size
distribution of agricultural soils due to cultivation or reconsolidation aspects is a determining factor
for the infltration process. PTFs may help to transfer the relevant information into soil hydraulic
relations like soil water retention characteristics or relations of hydraulic conductivity and pressure
heads. The majority of the published PTFs use soil texture, organic matter content and bulk density
as predictors. With respect to the majority of practical cases of hydrological modelling a consistency
of soil texture and organic matter content can be assumed. Despite this the bulk density is a dynamic
soil property that can largely be affected by land use, weathering conditions, or biological activities.
PTFs can be used to implement these dynamics into the hydrological modelling.
At the mesoscale, integrated water resource planning requires, among other things like the
reproduction of the discharge hydrograph, also the estimation of spatio-temporal distribution of
state variables such as soil moisture. Furthermore, the model should be able to take into account
land cover changes and climate as well as management practices. The state-of-the-art with respect
to these issues, however, is not yet satisfactory. Existing, more specifc models suffer from over-
parameterisation, the lack of an effective technique to integrate the spatial heterogeneity of soils,
vegetation, and topography, the non-transferability of model parameters to ungauged basins, and
a considerably large execution time.
A grid-based mesoscale hydrologic model (mHM) (L. Samaniego, unpublished data) was conceived
to address these issues simultaneously. It is based on accepted hydrological conceptualizations and
requires three levels of spatial information: level-2 for the climatic information, level-1 for the state
variables of the model, and level-0 for physiographic input data such as soil textures, land cover,
elevation, and geological formations. Their spatial resolution varies from 1,000-5,000 m, 500-1,000
Table 1. Processes of runoff generation and required but land use affected, soil-related parameters
and properties for modelling.
Runoff process Determining soil characteristics Soil-related parameters and
properties for modelling
Horton overland
fow
Infltration capacity
Soil water content
Pore size distribution
Hydraulic conductivity (saturated
and unsaturated)
Water retention characteristics
Surface runoff due
to sealing
Hydraulic conductivity of the sealed
soil layer
Vulnerability to sealing (stability of
surface soil aggregates, soil water
content, soil cover)
Precipitation intensity
Previous events
Soil cover
Bulk density
Organic matter content
Decrease of surface
runoff due to
macropores
Number, distribution and geometry
of macropores
Overland fow from
saturated areas
Soil water content
Geomorphology
Groundwater distance
Soil layering
Distance to surface waters
and unsaturated)
Subsurface
stormfow
Preferential fowpaths
Groundwater distance and soil
texture (Groundwater ridging)
and unsaturated)
Decrease of surface
runoff along the
fowpath
Precipitation intensity
and unsaturated)
m, and 50-100 m respectively. Model parameters at level-1 are location- and time-dependent. They
are estimated through upscaling operators linking level-0 information with global transfer function
parameters, which, in turn, are found through optimization.
The parametrization of the Genuchten saturated volumetric water content was carried out at level-0
using a PTF proposed by Zacharias et al. (2007). This PTF takes into account the land cover changes
through changes in bulk density of the soil matrix of the frst soil horizon. Other predictors are
the clay and sand content at each soil horizon. An upscaling operator was employed to derive the
corresponding effective parameters for every modelling grid at level-1. The infuence of the macropore
distribution and the degree of virtual sealing induced by tillage practices is currently being tested.
0,00
0,20
0,40
0,60
0,80
1,00
1,20
1,40
1,60
1,80
2,00
30 32 34 36 38 40 42 44 46 48 50
Zeit [min]
I
n
f
i
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t
r
a
t
i
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[
m
m
/
m
i
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Time [min]
I
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f
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t
r
a
t
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n
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[
m
m
/
m
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]

Figure 1: Dynamics of the infiltration rate of ploughed field plots (silt loam,
duration of rainfall simulation: 50 min); experiment 1 (dotted lines):
April 2005, experiment 2 (crossed lines): May 2005
Figure 1. Dynamics of the infltration rate of ploughed feld plots (silt loam, duration of rainfall
simulation: 50 min); experiment 1 (dotted lines): April 2005, experiment 2 (crossed lines): May 2005.
2

Figure 2: Effect of the regionalization technique on the streamflow generation
at Plochingen gauging station (German upper Neckar basin).)
Figure 2. Effect of the regionalization technique on the streamfow generation at Plochingen
gauging station (German upper Neckar basin).
Results obtained for 34 basins located in Germany indicated that this regionalization technique
contributed not only to reduce signifcantly the number of free parameters but also to ensure their
transferability to ungauged basins. The Nash-Sutcliffe Effciency (NSE) of mHM was on average
6% greater than that obtained with the standard HBV model but required 85% less effective
parameters to calibrate. Moreover, uncertainty and leave-on-out cross-validation tests showed that
this technique produced acceptable streamfow predictions in target basins, which were assumed,
ungauged during crossvalidation. Figure 2 compares the effects of regionalization techniques on
the streamfow generation at a selected location. Panels on the left and right depict results obtained
with mHM and the standard HBV model for two typical winter and summer seasons respectively.
Observations are also depicted to visualize the effects of the regionalization technique (Samaniego
et al., 2008). The NSE in the calibration and crossvalidation phases ranged between 0.70 to 0.85
and between 0.55 to 0.75 respectively (see Figure 2). Additionally, soil moisture patterns compared
well against proxies derived from daily MODIS images (NASA).
References
Akkermann, M., 2004. Beurteilung des Einfusses einer angepassten Ackernutzung auf den Hochwasserabfuss.
Hannover, Diss. 2004.
Carter, M.R., Sanderson, J.B., Ivany, J.A. and R.P. White. 2002. Infuence of rotation and tillage on forage
maize productivity, weed species, and soil quality of a fne sandy loam in the coolhumid climate of atlantic
Canada. Soil Tillage Res. 67:85-98.
Katsvairo, T, Cox, W.J., and H. van Es. 2002. Tillage and rotation effects on soil physical properties. Agron
J. 94:299-304.
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Section 9
Precision agriculture in regional modelling
A multi agent simulation approach to assess agronomic
income sources in the North China Plain: case study for
Quzhou County
A. Roth and R. Doluschitz
Department of Computer Applications and Business

Management in Agriculture, Institute of Farm
Management, University of Hohenheim (410C), 70593 Germany; a.roth@uni-hohenheim.de
Abstract
The North China Plain is one of the most important regions of cereal crop production in China.
The current cropping systems provide high yield levels, but these also entail serious environmental
problems like water shortage and considerable losses of nutrients to atmosphere, groundwater and
bodies of water. Future improved cropping systems should therefore guarantee high yields but with
better water- and nutrient-effciency, thus be more sustainable in the long run. In order to achieve
this goal the cultivators must be assisted and provided with assured income sources. In this study,
we develop a modelling approach of agent based entities in order to evaluate spatial aspects of
agronomic incomes for the case study Quzhou. We determined the Multi Agent System approach
to be most suitable for our needs. In this paper, we describe primarily simulated agent based spatial
interactions generating agronomic income.
Keywords: multi agent systems, spatialisation, geographic information systems (GIS)
Introduction and objective
The North China Plain (NCP) covers an area of around 328,000 km
2
and is one of the most important
regions of cereal crop production in China. Three season Wheat and Maize rotations and one season
cotton are the most common cropping systems Liu et al. (2007). The region contributes an amount
of about 50% to the countries wheat production and about one third of maize yields. Crop production
in the NCP was focused in the last decades on increasing yields to meet the growing food demand
accompanied by the limitation of arable land as a result of urbanization rate i.e. of the Beijing
District IRTG (2007). Food production needs can nowadays only be achieved by the optimization
of agricultural management, i.e. fertilizer input, irrigation, improved crop rotations. Hence the
development of future land use system approaches improving these conditions is essential Binder
et al. (2007). This may provide both a high production level as well as protection of resources.
The multidisciplinary collaborative International Research Training Group project IRTG (2007)
Modelling Material Flows and Production Systems for Sustainable Resource Use in Intensifed
Crop Production in the North China Plain, funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)
and the Chinese Ministry of Education, has been launched to detect the potential of adjustments in
cropping systems and to further develop management practices for sustainable resource use and
protection of environmental conditions while assuring a high yield level. One of the 11 subprojects,
whose work is presented here, concentrates on the construction of a modelling framework of
different spatial-temporal scales on one hand to regionalize the detected effects and on the other
hand to simulate changing land use patterns. This paper concentrates on the regionalisation purposes.
Methods
Regionalisation
In the last years, agro-ecosystem simulation activities face increasing regionalization demands of
feld or farm level researches. However, in order to access environmental research, up scaling of
such limited information is crucial. Since the last decade an increasing demand for regionalisation
purposes has been established, see Engel et al. (1999), Heinemann et al. (2002) and Faivre et al.
(2004). Generally, environmental dependencies have to be detected over an area larger than that
for which the simulation or model has been developed. Faivre et al. (2004) call this spatialising a
model. Broader areas can differ largely in soils, climate and management practices. Consequently,
spatialised information of a model can raise serious problems on data requirements and sensitivity.
Firstly, basic concepts, hypotheses and validity domains of any model are derived on the point/
plot scale so spatial and temporal declarations are limited. Secondly, adequate and suffcient data
to run the model on a regional scale is lacking. As a consequence, the overall aim is the linkage
between points or feld based simulation data of a model on one hand. On the other hand to use
capabilities of GIS based approaches to overcome spatial limitations.
Modelling approach
A huge number of software and tools are used in socio-economics and ecosystem modelling. It
is evident to defne a strategy what do we want to simulate and what are the variables we want
to observe. Hence primarily we need to evaluate different approaches on their applicability and
the reliability of expected outcomes. Primarily an investigation of applicability of the concept
of Cellular Automata (CA) by Bahlmann (1993) on province level was undertaken. Furthermore
literature research of similar approaches in recent journal articles was conducted. The aim to use
this approach is based on previous project works on data mining investigations and algorithms re-
usable for CA Model approaches Hogeweg (1988) in order to parameterize transition matrices of
feld based statistical analysis of household survey data. Simulations, e.g. of farmer income have
been planned to be obtained by transition rules for different cell stages. The probabilistic infnity to
create cells even in hierarchical order provides the opportunity to regionalize simulations. However
the pre-evaluation of this approach shows no signifcant spatial relationships among the actors.
Next, we changed our scope and evaluated the applicability of Markov-Chain programs. We gained
a similar result that spatial dependencies were too poor to simulate properly. A promising approach
to our understanding is the Multi Agent System (MAS). MAS Modellers are able to instruct a certain
number of agents acting independently. Moreover MAS provides the environment to explore the
connection between micro-level behaviour of individual and macro-level patterns that occur by
many individuals Wilensky (1999). At frst, we defned agents and different variables determine
agronomic income. We distinguished primarily between economical and ecological variables,
Roth and Doluschitz (2008). In a frst approach we set up a model GIS data base with an agent set
and gradually include economic relevant variables. In future modelling steps, we will also include
ecological variables such as yield.
Multi agent systems
Various Multi Agent modelling attempts have been set up in order to simulate different research
aims. Most common to our research are land-use change, urbanisation and structural change
detection in agriculture modelling approaches, i.e. Loibl et al. (2007), Ettema et al. (2007), Batty
(2005) and Bahlmann (1997). These issues are quite similar to our research and aim to simulate
the formation of farmer income in time and space. The concept of simulating the interactions of
specifc independent agents in space and time has convinced us to use this software. Our aim to
compute aggregated household behaviour on province level can be realised with this software tool.
An additional advantage is the comparability of results of GIS based simulations as a possibility for
calibration validation of outcomes with our partners simulating land use change with the CLUE-S
model, see Veltkamp et al. (2007).
MAS software tool NetLogo and Quzhou province landscape characterisation
NetLogo is a free, cross-platform, multi-capability simulating software Wilensky (1999). It consists
of both a simulating interface as well as a procedure shell (written in JAVA). Hence individually,
specifc program changes might be observed directly via the interface, visualized with the POOL
language. We primarily have to set up the environmental conditions for simulations. Due to our
project own Agro-Environmental Information GIS (AEIS) Bareth et al. (2002) we are capable to
include geo-referenced data on residential areas/households, soil types, infrastructure and water
bodies for Quzhou province. This basic confguration set up the environmental black box or
frontiers our simulation is limited to.
Figure 1 portrays the boundaries of Quzhou County, e.g. its soils, residential areas and infrastructure.
Our aim is to analyze the interactions and reconfguration of arable land on county level to
strengthen environmental and economic pressures. Arable land in the North China Plain is generally
very heterogenic. The average size of farm land plots is calculated at 1.3 ha (Piotrowski, 2009).
Hence we decided to achieve an accurate simulation set by implementing the residential areas in
the zone as agents. By computing single households as specifc agents the programming demand
would properly overcome the output information. Next the activity zone of each agent has been
confgured. Due to the above reason, primarily the model is driven by an abstract, artifcial circular
activity zone (see Figure 2).
Variable declaration
The frst set of agents is artifcially divided into 9 different classes. One class agents are represented
by a certain variable specifcation separating each. These specifcations have been made to observe
the development of agent and variables during simulation. Primarily we separate between two sets
of variables. The frst set (V
1
) are immanent residential variables, such as family size, labour, crops
cultivated (%), area of rented or land let for rent and yield. The other variable set (V
2
) is based

Figure 1 Basic simulation area (Quzhou County) configuration for residential areas, infrastructure, soil
and water

Figure 1. Basic simulation area (Quzhou County) confguration for residential areas, infrastructure,
soil and water.
on the spatial GIS data introduced plus population growth, rate of urbanisation and percentage of
off-farm income.
The agents (residential areas) are fxed in space, but distinguished according to their class; their
specifc zone of here for a frst approach hypothesised activity is spatially simulated only. Interactions
between agents are computed within a certain intersections. Hence agents competing among the
resource land limited to the intersection areas. This approach was chosen to account for recent
political development. Since short time, farmers in the area are allowed to rent or let for rent a
certain amount of acres. To include this development, the variable rent land is defned as
Probability P
rent
=
1
(1)
1 + exp(- j)
where j is the distance to resident, this is a 0-1 function of power introduced to model simulations.
The variable let for rent is defned as
Probability P
let
=
1
(2)
1 + exp(- Xj)
where Xj is the income and will be computed according to the above equation.
Our hypothesis is that as potential income of residential areas increase, the power of agents should
increase as well and compete better with its neighbours.
The external driving factors such as population growth, rate of urbanisation and off-farm income
inherently affect the agents too. Our aim is to observe the competition among the residential areas
by varying the range of effectiveness towards these factors. This led to an improvement of variable
plausibility. An analysis of parameter performance will be conducted after fnalising the model
set up and frst runs. These will be tested statistically on their powerfulness or will be replaced by
other variables.

Figure 2 Agents simulated (residential areas) at Quzhou county and their activity zones

Figure 2. Agents simulated (residential areas) at Quzhou county and their activity zones.
Perspectives
In a next step of our approach, statistical analyses will replace the abstract approach performed so
far. This will then identify the impact of specifc variables towards farmer income and lead us to
more reliable scenarios. Besides, pricing scenarios for various agricultural goods will be introduced.
Potentionally, the crop model DSSAT (Decision Support System for Agricultural Transfer) will be
used to simulate and regionalize water use effciency, fertilizer effciency and yield under iterative
management scenarios. With its GIS extension, AEGIS/WIN provides an ideal analysis tool for
the evaluation of spatial probabilities of future development chains for the above mentioned scope
areas research.
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L. (eds), 2008. The 4th Intern. Conference on Natural Computation Vol. 7., Jinan, China. pp. 434-436.
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Computer-Based Modeling. Northwestern University, Evanston, IL., USA.
Sensitivity to climate change with respect to agriculture
production in Hungary
. Erdlyi
Corvinus University of Budapest, Department of Mathematics and Informatics, Villnyi t 29-43,
H-1118 Budapest, Hungary; eva.erdelyi@uni-corvinus.hu
Abstract
It is evident that global warming is one of the most serious problems we face in the 21
st
century.
Considering the possible changes we have to rise to the challenge in order to prepare for the future.
We examined the effects of climate change on corn and winter wheat, which are the most important
plants in Hungary. We have previously proved that the production risk of these plants has increased.
In this paper we analysed how the length of the phenological phases and production of maize and
winter wheat are expected to change. We used a modelling approach which is a useful tool for the
investigation of the future circumstances without having expensive and long experiments. The
simulations were run by 4M model based on CERES, adapted to Hungarian circumstances. We
used six climate scenarios and the historical meteorological data of their reference period. It can
be stated that, as a result of temperature increase, the starting points of the phenological phases
are expected to shift to earlier dates. Harvesting is predicted to be a day per ten years earlier in the
future. The location of our case studies was Debrecen, which is of big importance in Hungarian
agricultural production. We used the model to identify an adaptive strategy for increasing the yield
with irrigation and changing the sowing date. The results for the two weeks earlier sowing date and
irrigation are very promising, so these could be examples for fnding an adaptation strategy for both
biomass and grain mass quantity increase. There is a wide scientifc consensus that if these changes
continue, signifcant damage to global ecosystems, food production and economies will ensue, so
further interdisciplinary, collaborative research projects are very much needed all over the world.
Keywords: adaptation, climate scenario, modelling, phenology, yield
Introduction
It is evident that climate is changing nowadays. In Hungary, results show that we must count with an
increasing temperature and a decreasing precipitation. Climate and its change determine agricultural
production basically. Information about weather and predicting the potential climate change is of
great importance all over the world. Thinking of sustainability we face several decision problems
in agriculture: analysing the impacts of change and fnding the possible adaptation response are
needed to be investigated. The results have to be spread and applied. There are important questions
about effects on the plant phenology, yield and the adaptation strategies for avoiding the damages.
In this work we have analysed the climate change impacts on corn and winter wheat, the most
cultivated plants in Hungary. Modelling the future climate helps in fnding out the possible impacts
of climate change on agriculture production in many studies all over the world (Barrow and Hulme,
1996, Semenov et al., 1996). The aim of the research was to learn the possible changes and their
effects to the plant phenology and yield as much as possible based on comparative statistical
analyses and crop modelling results. Previously, with a new stochastic dominance criterion, we
have proved that the risk of maize and winter wheat production in four Hungarian counties has
increased independently to the risk aversion of the decision maker (Ladnyi and Erdlyi, 2005,
Erdlyi, 2008b). In search of the reasons, we analyzed the temperature and precipitation needs of
the plant in each phenological phase. We examined using the Klma-KKT software (Szenteleki
et al., 2007) the frequencies of extreme temperature values during the growing season. We have
also analyzed the climate demands of the plant from both quantity and quality aspects (Erdlyi,
2008a). For the comparison we used six climate scenarios (BASE, GFDL2535, GFDL5564, UKHI,
UKLO, UKTR3140) and the historical meteorological data of their reference period 1961-1990.
Using geographical analogues Gal and Horvth (2006) showed that the possible future climate in
Hungary predicted by the scenarios would be similar to the present climate of South-Southeast
Europe. Increased mean annual temperatures in our region, if limited to two or three degrees, can
be generally expected to extend growing season. In case of crops, where phenological phases
depend on accumulated heat units, the phenophases could become shorter. Rising temperatures
may allow earlier sowing dates, enhance crop growth and increase potential crop yield. In this
paper we investigated the effects of climate change on the growing period and the length of the
phenological phases of corn and winter wheat, as the two most widely cultivated plants in Hungary.
We have also analysed how the yield of the plants are expected to change and examined the possible
adaptation strategies, as irrigation and changing the sowing dates. The location of our case studies
was Debrecen, which is of big importance in agricultural production of Hungary.
Weather data. Climate scenarios can be defned as relevant and adequate pictures of how the
climate may look in the future. During our research, we applied the principles defned by IPCC
(Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) and used the most commonly accepted scenarios
presented in international reports (IPCC, 2001), which give predictions for the middle of the century:
scenarios created by Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (USA), GFDL2534 and
GFDL5564;
UKHI and UKLO (high and low-resolution equilibrium) and UKTR (high-resolution transient
climate change experiment) worked out by United Kingdom Meteorological Offce (UKMO);
and
scenario BASE which is the base `line`scenario of climate scenarios with the parameters of
our days.
In this work fve climate scenarios from these General Circulation Models were downscaled to
Debrecen, an important centre of agricultural production in Hungary to provide 30 years of daily
values for temperature, precipitation and solar radiation:
In this work General Circulation Models outputs were downscaled to Debrecen, the basic object
of our calculations. Scenarios UKHI and UKLO show the most drastic change very similar to
the newest scenarios in Prudence database (IPCC, 2007) developed for studies about the end of
this century (Dis et al., 2008), which models predict warming of approximately 6 C or more.
For comparison we applied the historical daily meteorological data from the monitoring database
of OMSZ (Hungarian Meteorological Service) for the reference period of the climate scenarios,
namely the time interval 1961-90.
The simulation results of these meteorological data were used for comparison. In modelling work
it is necessary to use daily data, but also reliable meteorological data (Fodor and Kovcs, 2005)
for reliable results. Hungary is situated in the Carpathian basin with special sensitivity to climate
change (Bartholy et al., 2007). Thats why, regional climate models from the newer global models,
generating meteorological data for the end of the century are still under adaptation (Hornyi, 2006)
and impossible to use.
Crop model. Models have played an important role in scientifc research for a long time. Crop
models simulate the soil-plant-atmosphere system with the help of computers. They can be useful
tools in solving agricultural and environmental protection related problems, so they are effective
tools also for the investigation of future circumstances without the need of having expensive and
long experiments. In our crop model research we used the 4M model (Fodor, 2006), which has been
developed by the Hungarian Agricultural Model Designer Group. It is a daily-step, deterministic
model that simulates the water and nutrient balance of the soil, the soil - plant interactions and the
plant development and growth. It contains several models to describe the physiological interactions
of soil - plant systems and offers a possibility of building up different system models for the
specifc purposes of the users. The CERES model was chosen to be a starting point and the 4M
was adapted to Hungarian conditions using the results of Hungarian scientists and Hungarian soil
data. The simulations were performed for meteorological data given by climate scenarios and the
historical data of their reference period, as weather inputs. We used this model for analysing changes
in the phenology and the yield of the plant due to climate change. We applied it in searching for
adaptation strategy, as well.
Climate change affects agriculture in many direct and indirect ways. We examined the predicted
changes for the vegetation period and the yearly accumulated precipitation amount to highlight the
trends of climate change. Our case study showed that the sum of the temperature averages increases
by time in the past and the scenarios predict even more drastic increase. We give an example for the
yearly accumulated temperature amounts in Figure 1. We use the frst order stochastic dominance
criterion and introduce the distribution functions, because the generated meteorological data is not a
time series. We can see a slow decrease of the accumulated precipitation amounts in the vegetation
period and the scenarios predict slightly smaller values in the future.
Analyzing the observed and the future weather using climate scenarios we see a great variability in
the amount of the precipitation. This means that the increase of the frequencies of extreme weather
events such as droughts and foods is more probable. This is the reason why we intended to learn,
what climate scenarios predict for the most important growing periods of the plants. We examined
the frequencies of extreme temperature values during the growing season (Erdlyi, 2008a). We also
analyzed the effects of changing climate on the growing periods of corn and winter wheat. We can
expect increasing accumulated heat in the vegetation period in the future, so we investigated how the
phenological timing of the plants changes. Considering the extreme temperature values infuencing
the length of the periods of growing, we were interested in how the growing periods starting points
of the plants can be shifted in order to make it of beneft to the production. We used the simulation
method based on the 4M model. Models are very applicable for the description of changes in the
future, for giving hints in improving new plant varieties, which are resistant to probable changes.
In summary it can be said that phenological phases of both plants have shortened and happened

Distribution functions of the yearly accumulated
heat for different climate scenarios
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
3000 4000 5000 6000 7000
yearly accumulated heat
BASE
UKHI
UKLO
UKTR
GF2534
GF5564
DEB6090

Figure 1. Yearly accumulated temperature for different climate scenarios and the
historical data, Debrecen

Figure 1. Yearly accumulated temperature for different climate scenarios and the historical
data, Debrecen.
earlier as a result of temperature increase, for winter wheat especially in the frst period of growing.
Harvesting is predicted to be eight days earlier (in average) in the future which means about one
day in ten years. We present the results for winter wheat by comparing the historical data and the
UKTR scenario (Figure 2).
We have also analyzed the grain development (the last two phenological phases) and grain
mass quantity. Analyzing these results it can be seen not only the shifting of the period of grain
development, but also that climate change has a good infuence on grain mass of the plant. The
results are shown in Figure 3.
The average production is predicted to be higher in the future than before. The coeffcient of
variation is unfortunately also higher than before, which means increasing risk and uncertainty.
It can be said that phenological phases of maize have shortened and happened earlier as a result
of temperature increase, as well for all of the scenarios we have used. Signifcant difference was
detected comparing the simulation results for different climate scenarios. We present the results for
the base line scenario representing the current climate, the UKTR scenario representing the climate
for (2050, ffty years forward) the middle of the century and UKHI generating meteorological data
describing the drastic change what we can expect for the end of the century. The shifting can be
clearly seen for a given example in Figure 4.

2

Phenological timing of wheat for different climate scenarios
17
160
25
13
14
32
14
157
23
14
14
32 emergence
juvenile phase
emergence of the apex
leaf development
apex growth
effective grain-filling,
maturation

Figure 2. Duration of the phenological phases of winter wheat given in days; scenario UKTR
for 2031-40 (outer circle) and its Baseline scenario for 1961-90 (inner circle)

Figure 2. Duration of the phenological phases of winter wheat given in days; scenario UKTR for
2031-40 (outer circle) and its Baseline scenario for 1961-90 (inner circle).

3

Grain development of winter wheat
0
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
-8 -4 0 4 8 12 16 20 24 28
days of the growing period of the historical data
g
r
a
i
n

m
a
s
s

(
k
g
/
h
a
)
UKTR
1961-90

Figure 3. Comparison of the period of grain development and grain mass of
winter wheat for the reference period and the UKTR climate scenario

Figure 3. Comparison of the period of grain development and grain mass of winter wheat for
the reference period and the UKTR climate scenario.
Harvesting is predicted to be eight days earlier (in average) in the future which means about one
day in ten years. Modelling can help us adapting a good strategy in preparing our agriculture for
the future needs.
We decided to analyze the future winter wheat production using a crop model and the same climate
scenarios. In regions where temperatures are near the optimum, under current climatic conditions,
such as those prevalent in Hungary, an increase in temperature and predicted smaller precipitation
amounts would probably lead to decreased yields. Breaking a new ground with Nandor Fodor for
using the 4M model in case of winter wheat, frst we have compared the simulation results of the
reference period 1961-90 and the historical production data (Table 1).
We can conclude that the model operates with small variation and the predicted yield is close to the
measured ones. The application of 4M crop-model is justifed in other national climate change impact
research projects. In the given case study we compared the simulation results of the UKTR3140
scenario with the simulation results of the historical data of reference period 1961-90. Seeing the
predicted values for the two time periods we can conclude, that climate change might be good in
cereal production of Hungary. The simulation result for the climate scenario gives about 18% of
winter wheat yield increase compared to the simulated value with the input of the historical data.
Even on the basis of small standard deviation and coeffcient of variation (CV) values, we can
conclude that the results are very promising.
We have also compared the simulated average maize yield for different climate scenarios (Table
2). It can be seen that the standard deviation and the coeffcients of variation are high.
Considering the uncertainty, we have to concentrate on searching for prevention strategies in
order to avoid the negative effects of the extreme weather events and strategies for improving the

4

Phenological phases of corn for different climate scenarios
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
1 21 41 61 81 101 121 141 161
days in the vegetation period
p
h
e
n
o
l
o
g
i
c
a
l

p
h
a
s
e
s
baseline
middle of the century
end of the century

Figure 4. Shifting of the phenological phases of maize for three different
climate scenarios

Figure 4. Shifting of the phenological phases of maize for three different climate scenarios.
Table 1. Comparing the observed and simulated grain mass of winter wheat, Debrecen region.
grain mass (kg/ha) observed grain mass (kg/ha) predicted
average st.dev. CV average st.dev. CV
1961-90 3,482 1,337.92 0.384 3,265.21 510.62 0.16
UKTR - - - 3,864.73 825.71 0.21
production, if possible. As we have seen, the shortening of the growing periods in the future is
very probable. We used the model for fnding an adaptation strategy for increasing the yield with
changing the sowing date. So we were interested whether we can decrease the production risk or
increase the yield, or not with changing the sowing date. We have compared and examined the
routine one and two weeks earlier and later sowing dates. In case of winter wheat we defned the
basic sowing date in the simulation process for the 20
th
of October, in case of corn for the 25
th
of
April. The 4M model was run for the weather data of the UKTR3140 scenario, for the same location.
Analyzing the results we can see that the average production is predicted to be higher in the future
than before, the same holds for the maximum production in the two weeks earlier case for both
plants. The average yield increase for winter wheat is close to 6% for the two weeks earlier sowing
date. The coeffcient of variation is unfortunately also higher than before, which means increasing
risk and uncertainty, so further examination is needed. We present the results for winter wheat in
Table 3 and for maize on Figure 5.
In summary we can say that the two weeks earlier sowing might be a good adaptation strategy.
This strategy might be good for these plants because their growing period could avoid the most
unfavourable drought condition; enhancement of ripening would be more probable. We have also
analyzed the grain development and grain mass. The duration of the grain ripening is signifcantly
shifting with the sowing dates in case of winter wheat, especially for the two weeks earlier case,
in which the simulation shows the shortest grain development duration.
Next attempt of our research was testing the effcacy of three dripping irrigation systems. We have
used the method of modelling with the 4M model again. For the comparison of the simulation
results we have used the same scenarios as before. When comparing runs without treatment and
runs with two regulations of dripping irrigation systems we found that biomass and grain levels
increased signifcantly in all scenarios. Especially irrigation 530 mm in July had positive effect
on biomass and grain levels. Our results have shown that climate change itself does not increase
much biomass or grain levels, while signifcant increase in yield can be reached by irrigation.
Table 2. Comparing the estimated maize yield for different climate scenarios (kg/ha).
Scenario Base UKHI UKLO UKTR3140 GFDL2534 GFDL5564
Average 9,429.65 5,831.87 9,806.97 7,101.35 7,941.55 10,600.19
St.deviation 2,877.95 2,048.57 2,497.38 2,372.81 2,557.62 2,887.04
CV 0.31 0.35 0.25 0.33 0.32 0.27
Table 3. Comparing the estimated grain mass of winter wheat for different sowing dates,
UKTR3140 scenario, Debrecen (kg/ha).

Sowing date
Grain mass of winter wheat for different sowing dates
two weeks
earlier
one week
earlier
20
th
October one week later two weeks
later
Average 4,086.9 3,865.3 3,864.7 3,880.9 3,844.9
St.dev. 1,137.8 823.4 825.7 828.2 844.4
CV 0.278 0.213 0.214 0.213 0.22
Concluding remarks
In summary we can say that modelling can be well applied in planning adaptation strategies. This
means that we can decrease the uncertainty the change could bring and we can concentrate on how
to beneft from climate change. Using informatics and electronics agricultural production can be
controlled through a complex system, which integrates biological, technological and ecological
factors. The climate change process is onset so, together with the development process of plants is
changing. The starting dates of the phenological phases of plants are valuable indicators of climate
change, because they are sensitive to temperature and easy to observe. Studying the changes of the
length of the phenological phases can help us in the further research of climate change impacts. We
can use the new starting dates for an alternative approach of temperature needs of the plant; we can
check whether they are satisfed in the most important growing periods or not.
The application of regional climate models becomes more and more accepted. It may be the basis
of management plans of the response, prevention and adaptation strategies of given regions. In
applying crop models we are able to do many virtual experiments on very low cost and in very
short time. The results can help scientists in improving new, drought resistant, better quality and
more successfully adaptable species, which can beneft from increasing carbon-dioxide. We have to
make an effort in improving varieties which are not very sensitive to the shortage of their needs. We
intend to point out, that studies about different circumstances in agriculture and interdisciplinary,
collaborative research projects are very much needed. Models can help us in designing experiments
and estimating the present and future characteristics of the investigated system, to prepare ro-
technological advising techniques for plant growers. In order to provide them with adequate tools
in climate change research.
References
Bartholy, J., Pongrcz, R. and Gelyb, Gy., 2007. Regional climate change expected in Hungary for 2071-2100.
Applied Ecology and Environmental Research, 5: 1-17.
Barrow E.M. and Hulme M. 1996: Constructions of scenarios of climate change and climatic variability:
Development of climate change scenarios at a range of scales. In: Harrison P.A.-
Butterfeild, R.E. and Dowing, T.E. (Eds), 1996. Climate change, Climatic Variability and Agriculture in Europa.
An Integratid Assessment. Annual Report 1996. Oxford: Environmental Changa Institute, University of
Oxford. pp. 13-18.

5

Maize production
0
2000
4000
6000
8000
10000
12000
14000
16000
two_earlier one_earlier 25th April one_later two_later
sowing dates
k
g
/
h
a
biomass
grain mass

Figure 4. Comparing the estimated grain mass and biomass of maize for different sowing
dates, UKTR3140 scenario, Debrecen (kg/ha)

Figure 5. Comparing the estimated grain mass and biomass of maize for different sowing dates,
UKTR3140 scenario, Debrecen (kg/ha).
Dis, N., Ferenczy, A., Hufnagel, L. and Szenteleki, K., 2008. Klmaszcenrik sszehasonlt rtkelse
kukorica koszisztma szempontjbl klimatikus profl-indiktorokkal, VIII. Magyar Biometriai s
Biomatematikai Konferencia, Budapest.
Erdlyi, ., 2008a. Winter wheat and climate change: possible impacts and responses, PhD Theses (in
Hungarian), Corvinus University of Budapest.
Erdlyi, ., 2008b. Uncertainty and risk in winter wheat production of Hungary, In: Environmental, Health
And Humanity Issues In The Down Danubian Region: Multidisciplinary Approaches (Eds: Mihailovi
and Miloradov), World Scientifc Publishing Company.
Fodor, N. and Kovcs, G.J., 2005. Sensitivity of crop models to the inaccuracy of meteorological observations.
Physics and Chemistry of the Earth 30:53-58 Elsevier Science, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Fodor, N., 2006. 4M Software for modelling and analysing Cropping Systems. Journal of Universal Computer
Science 12 (9):1196-1207.
Gal, M. and Horvth, L. 2006. Geographical analogies in climate change research, HAICTA, Greece, pp.
840-846.
Hornyi, A., 2006. Dynamical climatological research on regional scales: International and Hungarian review.
In: Weidinger, T. (ed.) 31. Meteorological Scientifc Days Dynamical climatological research on objective
estimation of regional climate change. Hungarian Meteorological Service, Budapest. 62-70. (in Hungarian).
IPCC, 2007. The Fourth Assessment Report Climate Change 2007 Cambridge University Press 2008 ISBN-
13:9780521705974.
IPCC Report on Climate Change, 2001. Working Group II: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability.
Ladnyi M. and Erdlyi . 2005. The increase of risk in maize production detected by a new stochastic effciency
method (in Hungarian), Agrrinformatika 2005 1-6., Debrecen.
Semenov, M.A., Jamieson, P.D., Porter, J.R., Eckersten, H.:, 1996. Modelling the effects of climate change and
climatic variability on crops at the site scale. Wheat. In: Harrison P. A., Butterfeld R. E., Downing T. E.,
(eds): Climate Change, Climatic Variability and Agriculture in Europe. An Integrated Assessment. Annual
Report 1996. Oxford: Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford. pp. 85-92.
Szenteleki, K., Ladnyi, M., Erdlyi, ., Horvth, L., Hufnagel, L., Solymosi, N. and Rvsz, A., 2007.
Introducing the KKT Climate Research Database Management Software EFITA Conference, Glasgow,
2007, CD-ROM.
Rotation and the temporal stability of landscape defned
management zones: a time series analysis
E.M. Pena-Yewtukhiw
1
and J.H. Grove
2
1
Division of Plant and Soil Sciences, West Virginia University, PO Box 6108, Morgantown, West
Virginia 26506-6108, USA; Eugenia.Pena-Yewtukhiw@mail.wvu.edu
2
Plant and Soil Sciences Department, N-122L ASCN, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky
40546-0091, USA
Abstract
Yield and landscape position are used to delineate management zones, but this approach is
confounded by yields weather dependence, causing yield to evidence temporal variability/lack of
yield stability. Management options also infuence yield stability, and among these, crop rotation
is important. Our objective was to describe the infuence of crop rotation on the temporal yield
stability of landscape defned management zones. Corn (Zea mays L.) yield data for two rotations,
monoculture corn (C-C) and corn alternating yearly (W/S-C) with winter wheat (Triticum aestivum
L.)/double-crop soybean (Glycine max L. Merr.), taken in four landscape (shoulder, upper backslope,
lower backslope, footslope) management zones, were obtained from a 21-year rotation study
established near Lexington, Kentucky. Yields were evaluated for spatial and temporal stability by
ANOVA, Spearman rank correlation, and time series analysis, using Box-Jenkins methodology.
The 21-year average yields were lower for C-C (8.32.6 Mg/ha) than for W/S-C (9.62.7 Mg/
ha). A plot of yield versus time for individual landscape zones exhibited slightly positive linear
trend (0.13 Mg/ha/yr) for both rotations. The rank correlations among landscape positions, for
each rotation, were generally high (above 0.80), and rotation choice determined which positions
were most, and least, similar. After removing linear yield trend, Box-Jenkins time series analysis
found that C-C yield exhibited greater temporal lag (less yield stability) than W/S-C yield, though
this trend was not equally true across the four zones. The lag predicting C-C yield was greatest
(5 years) in the upper backslope, while upper backslope and footslope W/S-C yields exhibited
maximal autocorrelation at lags of one to three years in length. These 21-year time series models
indicate that similar management zones would require a minimum of three prior years of yield data
in order to forecast their yield response behavior.
Keywords: yield stability, ARMA models, Spearman rank correlation, corn rotations
Introduction
Management zone establishment generally assumes that agronomic interpretation of yield, soil
property, and landscape topography maps will improve, with greater proft to site-specifc production
practices such as cultivar selection and rates of seed, fertilizer, and pesticides. The most popular
criteria used to delineate management zones of similarity are soil properties (usually soil fertility),
topographic properties, or otherwise defne areas with similar yield/yield response. Yield is the
characteristic most often used to defne management zones, but yields dependence on seasonal
weather, evidenced as temporal variability, can confuse this approach. The term yield stability
includes both spatial and temporal variation, though that defnition can be operational. Areas of
similar yield potential (low, medium or high) might be found in the same geographic location,
over a series of years, though this is often not observed. Lamb et al. (1997) reported that corn grain
yield was not spatially consistent across time; areas of better grain yield were not the same, year
to year, nor were poor production areas.
The importance of temporal variability is manifest in the oft-substantial interaction between
management zones and stochastic factors, and may affect usefulness of those management zones.
Via its stochastic nature, seasonal weather brings risk to production systems. Climate can explain
32 to 83% of yield variation in corn and soybean cropping systems (Yamoah et al., 1998), affecting
yields year-to-year spatial structure (Jaynes and Colvin, 1997). The latter concluded that neither the
deterministic nor the stochastic components to yields spatial structure were temporally stable. The
studies noted above, as well as numerous others not cited, suggest that a felds spatial variability
is not well managed until temporal variation is understood. In the absence of this knowledge,
over-interpretation of one-year yield maps, using these to develop management strategies for next
years crop (or the next season the same crop is grown) is likely. If yield stability is not observed,
site-specifc management recommendations based on yield maps is in jeopardy.
Spatial-temporal yield interactions are not only a consequence of landscape position-microclimate,
but may also be due to other micro-environmental variables like diseases, insects and weeds.
Additionally, agronomic management choices (genetics, irrigation, etc.) also infuence yield stability
(Raun et al., 1993), and crop rotation is an important choice.
Many researchers have observed the benefts of rotation, the rotation effect, on individual crop
species. The effect is increased crop productivity due, at times, to improved nutrition (Varvel,
1994), better weed control (Liebman and Ohno, 1997), or reduced pest incidence (Koenning et
al., 1995; Hendrix et al., 1992). The effect is apparent when nutrition is non-limiting and known
weed, disease and insect pressures are non-existent, indicating that not all causes of the effect are
understood (Crookston et al., 1991). The rotation length required for expression of the beneft to
yield is important. Yamoah et al. (1998) reported that the effect was evident after 2 to 4 years of a
corn/soybean rotation. Porter et al. (1997) concluded that the rotation beneft was lost after 2 years
of continuous corn, though rotation benefted both crop components in a corn/soybean rotation
(Crookston et al., 1991; Porter et al., 1997).
The spatial and temporal dynamics of rotation have been studied. Porter et al. (1997) observed
that rotation was not as benefcial in higher yielding feld areas. Rotation interacts with seasonal
weather, and Peterson and Varvel (1989) reported that the rotation beneft was more evident
with moisture stress. Raun et al. (1993), examining a long-term experiment with several rotation
treatments, found differences in temporal yield stability (year by treatment interactions). Porter
et al. (1998) observed that temporal and spatial variation in the rotation effect depended on crop
species. Their 10-year study found temporal variability to be greater than spatial variability, and
soybean to be relatively less temporally variable than corn. This observation indicates a possible
rotation by space by time interaction.
Analysis of data that extends over space and time has proven challenging, and has been the subject of
a number of statistical approaches. Genotype yield stability, over time and/or space, has commonly
been analyzed using rank correlation. The higher the correlation between years, the more stable the
yield over years (Lamb et al., 1997). The limitations of analysis of variance (e.g. split plot in time)
are often discussed when this approach has been used (Raun et al., 1993). Raun et al. (1993) noted
that their wheat yield stability analysis, performed on an experiment with management treatments
(including rotation) continuously applied to the same area of soil, was confounded by the presence
of inter-annual autocorrelation.
This limitation is avoided by using variography or fractal analysis (Jaynes and Colvin, 1997; Eghball
and Powers, 1995). Jaynes and Colvin (1997) found that spatial-temporal models for describing the
spatial distribution of crop yield potential over multiple years would need to reproduce both the
spatial structure and temporal instability characterized by these data. Using existing yield maps to
design future management zones is a form of yield forecasting.
Forecasting is the product of another approach to modeling temporal yield behavior; time series
analysis. Time series analysis derives the temporal distance (the temporal lag) at which the present
is best related to previous measures of the same event, via a time series model. Yield stability has
been evaluated using time series analysis (Hu and Buyanovsky, 2003; Linden et al., 2000). Hu and
Buyanovsky (2003) related corn yield to precipitation and temperature, while Linden et al. (2000)
related corn stover and grain yields to excessively wet and dry years.
The impact of management choice on yield stability in different feld areas (different landscape
positions), for the purposes of determining the number of years to properly design management
zones, has not been reported. Given that each rotation and landscape position experiences the same
annual weather, the hypothesis of this study is that the temporal behavior of corn yield is different
for different rotation-landscape position combinations. Management zones and/or rotation options
with higher temporal stability will need less time to establish the temporal behavior of corn yield.
Consequently, corn yield is more predictable. As the lag increases, due to higher stochasticity, the
number of previous measures of yield required to forecast a future yield (and delineate a management
zone) also increases, because that yield is inherently less stable. The objective of this study was to
describe the infuence of crop rotation choice on the temporal stability of corn yield for landscape
defned management zones using time series models.
Twenty-one years (1987 to 2007) of corn (Zea mays L.) grain yields from two rotations; monoculture
corn (C-C), and corn alternating yearly (W/S-C) with winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)/double-
crop soybean (Glycine max L. Merr.); were used. The two rotations were part of a larger rotation
study established near Lexington, Kentucky, USA. The rotation study was established in four
replications across a hillslope, with each replication located on an individual landscape position
(shoulder, upper backslope, lower backslope and footslope). The predominant soil series in the study
area is a Maury silt loam (fne, mixed, mesic Typic Paleudalf), developed in loess capped limestone
residuum, with an average slope of 6%. The main soil characteristics differentiating the landscape
positions are topsoil depth and total profle depth, both due to differences in erosion and deposition
processes in this landscape. Each landscape position defned a management zone (Figure 1).
Corn was planted in late April-early May of each year, without prior tillage, and was harvested in
late September-early October. Cultivars changed over the course of the study period, chosen for
their yield potential and superior disease resistance. Weeds were well controlled and crop nutrition
did not affect yield in either rotation. Insecticides were used as needed.
Spearman rank correlation provided a comparative measure of temporal yield stability, among
landscape position/management zones, by rotation (SAS, 1997). The time series analysis consisted
of autoregressive-moving average (ARMA) model development, using Box and Jenkins (1976)
methodology, to understand the temporal impact of rotation within each landscape position/
management zone.
The Box and Jenkins approach causes the data to be ft to the ARMA model in a way that most
assures that residuals are both small and without pattern (residuals are white noise).
Autoregressive (AR) models are commonly used to model univariate time series. An AR model
can be described as:
X
t
= + o
1
X
t-1
+ o
2
X
t-2
+ + o
p
X
t-p
+ A
t
(1)
where X
t
is the time series, A
t
is white noise, o
1
, ,

o
p
are the coeffcients of the model, and is a
parameter related to the mean of the process:

p
= (1- o
i
) (2)

i=1
with denoting the mean. An AR model is a linear regression of the current value in the series
against one or more prior values in the series. The value of p denotes the order of the AR model.
Moving average (MA) models, also commonly used, can be described as:
X
t
= + A
t
-
1
A
t-1
-
2
A
t-2
- -
q
A
t-q
(3)
where X
t
is the time series, is the mean of the series, A
t
is white noise, and
1
, ...,
q
are the
coeffcients of the model. The value of q denotes the order of the MA model.
The analysis assumes that the observed time series, X
t
, is stationary (there is an absence of trend,
causing the mean and variance to be constant), and generally satisfes an ARMA equation of the form:
X
t
- o
1
X
t-1
- ... - o
p
X
t-p
= + A
t
-
1
A
t-1
- ... -
q
A
t-q
(4)
The coeffcients o
1,
..., o
p
, for the AR model, and
1
, ,
q
, for the MA model, are calculated using
the method of Box and Jenkins (1976). It is possible for either p or q to be zero. The approach of
Box and Jenkins (1976) consists of three steps. The frst step is model identifcation, in which the
observed series is transformed (detrended) to meet the stationary assumption. The second step
is model estimation, in which the orders, p and q, indicate the number of different time intervals
(different time lags) that were selected for the estimated model. The corresponding coeffcients
were estimated using the Gaussian maximum likelihood method. The third step is forecasting, in
which the model was used to forecast future values of the observable time. The steps are repeated
Figure 1. (a) Digital elevation map for the study site (m.a.s.l. = meters above sea level); (b)
Diagram of the landscape positions/management zones.
as necessary, to arrive at model that replicates the patterns in the series as closely as possible and,
consequently, produce forecasts that are more accurate. The values for coeffcients and orders
determined for the ARMA models were then evaluated according to our hypothesis/objective.
Average (across the four landscape positions) annual corn yields for C-C were about 15% lower
than for W/S-C (Table 1). The decline in the standard deviation was not proportional, resulting in
a greater coeffcient of variation (CV) for C-C yields. Both average annual corn yield populations
exhibit negative skew, hence some deviation from normality (Table 1). The same rotation effect
was observed by Porter et al. (1997, 1998), Yamoah et al. (1998), and Jaynes and Colvin (1997).
Average (across the two rotations) annual corn yields, for the individual landscape positions, were
8.4, 9.2, 9.0 and 9.3 Mg/ha for shoulder, upper backslope, lower backslope and footslope positions,
respectively. The W/S-C yields were greater than the C-C yields at all landscape positions (not
shown), but the highest yielding landscape position differed between rotations. The greatest C-C
yield was observed in the lower backslope, while the greatest yield in the W/S-C rotation was
found in the footslope. Corn yields at the shoulder position exhibited greater variation, regardless
of rotation (not shown), but W/S-C yields were more consistent in the footslope management zone
(not shown). Jaynes et al. (2003) reported lower corn yield in C-C and C-S rotations for shoulder
positions. Lower corn yields at these positions are believed due to soil properties resulting from
erosion (e.g. less organic matter, shallower topsoil, more skeletal fragments, shallower total profle
depth), resulting in reduced plant available water holding capacity.
The original time series, for both rotations at individual landscape positions (Figure 2), exhibited
a small upward trend (average slope of 0.13 Mg/ha/yr). Eghball and Power (1995) explained the
presence of long-term or deterministic variation (increase in yield independent of rotation) as a
consequence of improvements to the production system via improved crop genetics and increased
and improve management of nutrition and weed and pest control.
Despite differences in corn yield between landscape positions, Spearman rank correlation analysis
confrmed that much of the observed inter-annual yield fuctuation was similar over the feld.
Rank correlations (not shown), by management zone, within a given rotation, were all above 0.80,
which is high. A high rank correlation indicates that the different soil-annual weather combinations
experienced over the years of the experiment affected management zone corn yields in a similar
manner (Lamb et al., 1997).
Table 1. Population statistics for average annual corn yield, by rotation.
Parameter C-C (Mg/ha) W/S-C (Mg/ha)
Mean 8.3
a
9.6
a
Median 9.1 10.6
Standard deviation 2.5 2.6
Skew -0.99 -1.15
Minimum 2.3 2.6
Maximum 11.7 12.9
CV (%)
b
29.9 27.0
a
Signifcantly different at the 95% level of confdence.
b
CV = coeffcient of variation.
The different rotations did result in different rank correlations among management zones (not
shown). With C-C yields, the shoulder and lower backslope exhibited the lowest rank correlation,
and although the yield magnitude was different, the most similar positions, in terms of yield
fuctuations, were the upper backslope and footslope. The C-C yields in the lower backslope were
least consistent with the feld-average, and it is interesting to note that this position gave the highest
yielding C-C crops.
Rank correlation among W/S-C yields exhibited a different pattern (not shown). The shoulder
exhibited a high rank correlation with the lower backslope and a low correlation with the footslope,
opposite that observed for C-C yields. Lower backslope yields also exhibited the lowest rank
correlation with the upper backslope, again opposite that observed for C-C yield. In general, upper
backslope, lower backslope and footslope were more similar, and the shoulder most dissimilar.
When ARMA models were ftted to the detrended yield values, inspection of the plots of
autocorrelation and partial autocorrelation found that all time series models were stationary. Table
2 contains the results of the ARMA model ftting process, and presents the best AR and/or MA
components of the models representing each corn yield-time sequence, including the model order
(the numeral following the model component, e.g. AR1 or MA1). In this study, model order was
either 1 or 2. Table 2 also gives values for the mean (), and AR and MA lag coeffcients. The lag
interval information appears in parenthesis below the coeffcients.

a) b)
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
0 5 10 15 20 25
Y
i
e
l
d
(
M
g
/
h
a
)
Years
CornafterWheat/Soybean
Shoulder
UpperBackslope
LowerBackslope
Footslope
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
0 5 10 15 20 25
Y
i
e
l
d
(
M
g
/
h
a
)
Years
CornafterCorn
Shoulder
UpperBackslope
LowerBackslope
Footslope

Figure 2. Run sequence (time series) for annual yields of: a) corn after corn (C-C) and; b) corn
after wheat/soybean (W/S-C).
.
Figure 2. Run sequence (time series) for annual yields of: (a) corn after corn (C-C) and; (b) corn
after wheat/soybean (W/S-C).
Table 2. ARMA model parameters for each rotation, at each landscape position.
Position C-C (corn after corn) W/S-C (corn after wheat/soybean)
Model AR MA Model AR MA
Shoulder AR1 -0.517 0.592 (lag 3) 0 AR1 -0.550 0.630 (lag 3) 0
Upper backslope AR1
MA1
0.017 0.701 (lag 5) 0.527 (lag 1) AR2 -0.131 -0.593 (lag 1)
-0.485 (lag 2)
0
Lower backslope AR1 -0.222 0.474 (lag 3) 0 AR1 -0.310 0.642 (lag 3) 0
Footslope AR1 0.453 0.626 (lag 3) 0 AR1 -0.044 0.384 (lag 1) 0
Field average AR1
MA1
-0.029 -0.516 (lag 5) 0.527 (lag 4) AR1 -0.398 0.655 (lag 3) 0
With C-C yields, time series analysis found that present yield, at the shoulder, lower backslope,
and footslope positions, was positively related (AR and MA coeffcient) to the yield observed three
years before (Table 2). In the upper backslope, highest yielding for C-C, present yield was positively
related to the yield observed fve years before (Table 2). The greater temporal lag indicates that the
upper backslope was less stable, in this rotation. With W/S-C yields, the analysis again found only
one lag that signifcantly explained future yield behavior (Table 2), except for the upper backslope,
where two lags were required. Present W/S-C yield was related to yield only one to three years
prior; generally shorter lags than those observed for C-C yield. Corn yields in the W/S-C rotation
have been more stable during the 21-year experiment, though this was not equally true across the
four zones. For both rotations, the shoulder and lower backslope exhibited similar temporal yield
behavior, yield autocorrelation at a three-year lag, in both rotations. The W/S-C yields were more
stable than those for C-C in the upper backslope and footslope management zones, with a yield
autocorrelation at lags of only one or two years.
The negative values for do not annul the effect of the positive model outcomes. Although lags
smaller than the largest value could be selected, the analysis found, except in one instance, that there
was only one period (lag) that signifcantly explained future corn yield behavior. When shorter
lag intervals allow estimation of future yield, there is a more stable temporal response, and longer
lag times infer that more data is required to forecast future behaviors. There was a rotation effect
on the temporal stability of management zone yield. Thus, choosing a crop rotation complicates
management zone delineation.
References
Box, G.E.P., and G.M. Jenkins. 1976. Time Series Analysis: Forecasting and Control. Holden-Day, San
Francisco, CA.
Crookston, R.K., J.E. Kurle, P.J. Copeland, J.H. Ford and W.E. Lueschen. 1991. Rotational cropping sequence
affects yield of corn and soybean. Agron. J. 83:108-113.
Eghball, B., and J.E. Power. 1995. Fractal description of temporal yield variability of 10 crops in the United
States. Agron. J. 87:152-156.
Hendrix, J.W., K.J. Jones and W.C. Nesmith. 1992. Control of pathogenic mycorrhizal fungi in maintenance
of soil productivity by crop rotation. J. Prod. Agric. 5:383-386.
Hu, Q., and G. Buyanovsky. 2003. Climate effects on corn yield in Missouri. J. Applied Meteorology. 42:1626-
1635.
Jaynes, D.B., T.C. Kaspar, T.S. Colvin and D.E. James. 2003. Cluster analysis of spatiotemporal corn yield
patterns in an Iowa feld. Agron. J. 95:574-586.
Jaynes, D.B., and T.S. Colvin. 1997. Spatiotemporal variability of corn and soybean yield. Agron. J. 89:30-37.
Koenning, S.R., D.P. Schmitt, K.R. Baker and M.L. Gumpertz. 1995. Impact of crop rotation and tillage system
on Heterodera glycines population density and soybean yield. Plant Dis. 79:282-286.
Lamb, J.A., R. H. Dowdy, J. L. Anderson and G. W. Rehm. 1997. Spatial and temporal stability of corn grain
yields. J. Prod. Agric. 10:410-414.
Liebman, M., and T. Ohno. 1997. Crop rotation and legume effects on weed emergence and growth: Applications
for weed management. In: J.L. Hatfeld et al. (eds). Integrated Weed and Soil Management. Ann Arbor
Press, Chelsea, MI. pp. 181-221.
Linden, D.R., C.E. Clapp and R.H. Dowdy. 2000. Long-term corn grain and stover yields as a function of
tillage and residue removal in east central Minnesota. Soil Till. Res.56:167-174.
Peterson, T.A., and G.E. Varvel. 1989. Crop yield as affected by rotation and N rate: III. Corn. Agron. J.
81:735-738.
Porter, P.M., J.G. Lauer, D.R. Huggins, E.S. Oplinger and R.K. Crookston. 1998. Assessing spatial and temporal
variability of corn and soybean yields. J. Prod. Agric. 11:359-363.
Porter, P.M., J.G. Lauer, W.E. Lueschen, J.H. Ford, T.R. Hoverstad, E.S. Oplinger and R.K. Crookston. 1997.
Environment affects the corn and soybean rotations effect. Agron. J. 89:441-448.
Raun, W.R., H.J. Barreto and R.L. Westerman. 1993. Use of stability analysis for long-term soil fertility
experiments. Agron. J. 85:159-167.
SAS Institute Inc. 1997. SAS/STAT
Software: Changes and enhancements through release 6.12. SAS Institute,

Cary, N.C.
Varvel, G.E. 1994. Rotation and nitrogen fertilization effects on changes in carbon and nitrogen. Agron. J.
86:319-325.
Yamoah, E.E., G.E. Varvel, C.A. Francis and W.J. Waltman. 1998. Weather and management impact on crop
yield variability in rotations. J. Prod. Agric. 11:219-225.
Bioclimatic modelling of the future ranges of crop species:
an analysis of propagated uncertainty
R.J.Corner
1
and M.A. Marinelli
2
1
Department of Spatial Sciences, Curtin University, GPO Box U1987, Western Australia, 6845,
Australia; R.Corner@curtin.edu.au
2
Cooperative Research Centre for Spatial Information, Melbourne, Australia
Abstract
The agriculturally signifcant region of south west Western Australia, has a Mediterranean climate
and its agriculture is currently characterised by the rainfed broad-acre cultivation of cereals and
pulses. The rainfall in this region has been trending downwards over the last 30 years and much
agriculture is already practised close to climatic limits. It is inevitable that under predicted future
trends the range in which crops are grown will need to be reconsidered. One way of simulating this
is with the use of bioclimatic models such as BIOCLIM. BIOCLIM is a probabilistic model that can
be used to investigate and predict species distributions for both native and agricultural species. It is
best used for studying relatively large (subcontinental) areas. The version of BIOCLIM used in this
study uses three basic spatial climatic inputs (monthly maximum and minimum temperature and
precipitation layers) and a dataset describing the current geographic range of the species of interest.
Our work has investigated how uncertainty in the input data propagates through to the estimated
spatial distribution for Field Peas (Pisum sativum), using as current species distribution a dataset of
successful feld plot tests carried out across the study area. In the case of future distribution modelling
the input climate data layers obviously contain uncertainty, diffcult to quantify, which will vary
depending on the climatic modelling and future emission scenarios used. However the uncertainty
in current condition is more readily quantifable and we have identifed two components to it.
Uncertainty propagation was carried out using Monte Carlo methods with up to 4,500 simulations
being run for any scenario. Our results clearly show the effect of uncertainty in the input layers on
the predicted species distribution map. In places the uncertainty signifcantly infuences the fnal
validity of the result.
Keywords: BIOCLIM, species distribution modelling, Pisum sativum, uncertainty propagation
Introduction
It is now recognised that the geographic location of areas in which particular crops are grown in
Australia may need to change in response to changing climate (DAFF, 2006). For example there
has already been discussion in the media of moving our irrigated rice industry to the tropics. The
same is true elsewhere in the world but the situation is of particular interest in states like Western
Australia where much rainfed extensive agriculture is already practised close to the economic and
environmental margins.
Spatial modelling, in the form of bioclimatic models may be used to determine environmental
niches in which species will thrive, both under present and predicted climates. Climatic factors
and data concerning underlying biophysical variables such as soil properties, topography, drainage
etc are signifcant drivers for these various spatial modelling tools. These inputs are typically in the
form of raster surfaces, usually interpolated from sample data. Uncertainty, or error, in these input
surfaces can propagate in a non-linear fashion and radically affect the out-come of the predictions
and recommendations made by the models. (Burrough, 1998)
Work by Heikkinen et al. (2006) has investigated the relative accuracy of a number of bioclimatic
envelope models. In this paper we are concentrating on one particular model, BIOCLIM (Nix,
1986), which belongs to a subset of these models know as climate envelope models (Hijmans and
Graham, 2006). A criticism of these models is that they ignore edaphic effects and consider climate
as the sole driver for the suitability of a particular location for a particular species. This is a very
valid criticism in the study of the distribution of natural vegetation, since edaphic factors cannot in
that case be changed. However we feel that since many edaphic factors, especially those relating to
soil chemistry, are amenable to amelioration we can, when considering crop species, concentrate
on climatic factors alone. Moreover our study concentrates on the effect of the propagation of
uncertainty through the modelling process rather than the validity of the model predictions per se.
Sources of uncertainty
Uncertainty components in input surfaces arise in a number of ways. For variables such as soil
properties they comprise uncertainties in the actual measurements themselves and also uncertainties
due to the creation of surfaces by interpolation from these point observations. These are illustrated
in Figure 1.
For current climatic variables, often used as baseline conditions, the uncertainty sources are (a)
measurement uncertainty, (b) uncertainty due to long-term vs short-term averaging on a changing
trend, (c) uncertainty due to surface interpolation. In the case of future climatic scenarios, these
are compounded by the uncertainty inherent in the climate prediction models themselves. Figure 2
shows the effects of averaging for a rainfall station in the Perth WA region. The long term average
of this rainfall station (1948-2007) is 790 mm. whereas the decadal averages for 1948-57 and 1998-
07 are 845 mm and 738 mm respectively. Maximum and minimum for this period are 1,137 and
488 mm respectively. Simply by using the differences in decadal averaging it could be argued that
any calculation based on a long-term average and purporting to represent Present conditions for
this station will have an error (that is comprise a degree of uncertainty) of 50 mm. Based against
the most recent year only, this would rise to 80 mm or 10%
Estimating propagated uncertainty
The two main ways in which the propagation of uncertainty through models is itself modelled are
the so called Taylor Series method and the Monte Carlo method (Heuvelink, 1998). The former
requires that a model consists of differentiable functions whilst the Monte Carlo method may be
used for any model, even in cases where actual internal workings of the model have not been
published. The frst of these conditions makes it entirely suitable for use with climate envelope
models. In brief, the Monte Carlo method proceeds as follows:

Figure 1: Uncertainty in a spatial variable

Figure 1. Uncertainty in a spatial variable.
A large number of model runs are computed, each one taking as input the usual surfaces appropriate
to the model calculation with the addition, for each surface, of an uncertainty component drawn
randomly from a statistical pool. This statistical pool is usually defned as being normally distributed
with a zero mean and a standard deviation which relates in some way to the known, or estimated,
uncertainty of each data surface. The results of each model run will differ slightly due to this random
uncertainty. They are therefore statistically summarised so that the outputs, after an appropriate
number of runs, are a stable mean, used in place of the usual model output, and the standard deviation
of all the runs, which is taken as an estimate of the propagated uncertainty in the model output.
As indicated above, the study of propagation of uncertainty through models is often carried out
under an assumption that the uncertainty felds are normally distributed. This is frequently not
the case for most measurements in the natural sciences (Oliver et al., 2002). For a non normally
distributed dataset, if we were to assume that our knowledge of uncertainty comprised only a
single estimate ( n%) then the uncertainty distribution will merely be the original non-normal
distribution scaled by n/100.
In our work we have allowed uncertainty to be spatially variable and have assumed that the
maximum input uncertainty at any location may be taken will be equal to 3 standard deviation
for the purposes of defning the uncertainty pool. In addition we have experimented with the use
of non normal distributions. We have done this by generating Gamma distributions using the IDL
software (ITT, 2008). This allows a degree of fexibility since for very large values of gamma this
can be made to approximate a normal distribution. Due to space limitations the results presented
here are only those using a normally distributed uncertainty pool
Software used
The BIOCLIM software, which was developed as a standalone product by the Fenner School of
Environment and Society (ANU, 2008), is also bundled with the free GIS package DIVA-GIS (v.
5.4) (Hijmans et al., 2008). DIVA-GIS was developed with support from inter alia the International
Plant Genetic Resources Institute and the International Potato Centre, and is particularly useful for
mapping and analyzing biodiversity data, such as the distribution of species (Hijmans et al., 2008).
Data requirements
The version of BIOCLIM packaged with DIVA-GIS allows for the use of the 19 bioclimatic
surfaces shown in Table 1. These surfaces may all be derived from the following datasets: monthly
maximum (Tmax.) and minimum temperature (Tmin.), and precipitation (Precip.). The full version
of BIOCLIM, includes solar radiation and moisture data (derived from evaporation) to make up

Figure 2: Uncertainty in a temporal variable

Figure 2. Uncertainty in a temporal variable.
a total of 35 variables. For extensive areas the solar radiation and moisture data are more diffcult
to derive and the moisture data are largely mimicked by the precipitation data layers. Although
BIOCLIM has been effectively used in studies of potential species distribution, under global change
conditions, using carefully chosen subsets of as few as eight of the bioclimatic variables (Beaumont
et al., 2005), we have used all 19 surfaces in this work.
BIOCLIM also requires a point dataset of georeferenced locations at which the species of interest
is know to occur. These are used to develop the environmental envelope. The method is therefore
dependent on presence data only.
The environmental envelope method
The values of each of the 19 bioclimatic surfaces at each of the point data location are used
to develop the statistical distributions of sites where the species of interest is know to occur.
BIOCLIM treats these as multiple one-tailed percentile distributions, that is, it creates a percentile
distribution for each variable so that, for example, the ffth percentile is treated the same as the 95
th

percentile.(Hijmans and Graham, 2006). Then, on a grid cell by grid cell basis, all 19 layers are
examined to determine the lowest percentile value out of the 19. This is regarded as the limiting
variable and the appropriate percentile value is assigned to that grid cell as an estimate of output
favourability. The output maps so produced have a theoretical maximum value for any cell of 50
and are scaled into the range 0-500 from least to most favourable. If the grid cell value for any of the
variables falls outside the percentile distribution, a null value is allocated to the output for that cell.
Method of operation
Study area
The study area comprised the agricultural area of South West Western Australia (Figure 3). Annual
rainfall ranges from 200 mm to 1,200 mm with rainfed broadacre agriculture being practised in
the range 350-700mm.
Datasets used
The basic point input data for our work comprised a dataset of 19 successful feld plot trials for
Field Peas (Pisum sativum), across the study area (Figure 2). The symmetry between the number
of trial sites and the number of bioclimatic layers is entirely coincidental, any number of data
points can be used provided they are suffcient to give a reasonable statistical description of the
environmental envelope.
The climatic datasets used were taken from the WORLDCLIM data described by (Hijmans et al.
2005). The current climate data used was that representing a 50 year average (1950-2000), whilst
Table 1. BIOCLIM input surfaces.
Variable Period
Mean temp annual; wettest, driest, warmest & coldest quarters
Max temp warmest month
Min temp coldest month
Temp seasonality; annual range; mean diurnal range; isothermality
Precipitation annual; seasonality; wettest & driest months; wettest, driest, warmest &
coldest quarters.
the future climate data used were the CSIRO A2a and B2a scenarios for 2050. In all cases spatial
resolution of the data is 30 arc-seconds.
Modelling uncertainty propagation
Prior to running the BIOCLIM software the 19 surfaces must frst be computed from the monthly
averages of Tmin, Tmax and Precip. We coded the relevant Map algebra processes in IDL, following
algorithms described in Arc Macro Language on the WORLDCLIM website and it was at this stage
of the processing that the uncertainties were incorporated into the data.
Uncertainties due to long term averaging and due to the effects of sampling and interpolation have
been identifed for examination here. As the WORLDCLIM dataset is developed from the data of
the Global Historical Climatology Network (NOAA, 2008) the original data from that source were
obtained and, for each meteorological station in the area of interest, an estimate of error due to
long-term averaging in each of the basic input variables was determined. These point error estimates
were then converted to surfaces using spline interpolation techniques. Estimates of error due to
interpolation of the original WORLDCLIM data have only published in graphical form (Hijmans
et al., 2005) and we therefore visually estimated values for the study area from that publication.
The 19 data layers were then passed into a command line version of DIVA as a single run in the
Monte Carlo simulation process. For the scenarios described below, 4,500 individual runs were
made resulting in two summarised output map layers per scenario.
Scenarios evaluated
The current potential favourability for Field Pea cultivation was determined, together with its associated
uncertainty. Since we have no way of quantifying the uncertainty in the future climate predictions
the process was run for each of the CSIRO predictions, on the assumption each could be correct, and
the difference between the two was taken as an indication of the uncertainty in future predictions
of Field Pea geographical range. All outputs were scaled relative to current potential favourability.

Figure 3: Study area showing annual rainfall and trial sites
Figure 3. Study area showing annual rainfall and trial sites.
The A2a and B2a climate scenarios represent different future worlds (IPCC, 2000). To summarise
them, both assume regionalised solutions to economic and social development, but A2a assumes
a less environmentally conscious world (Zhang and Nearing, 2005)
Results
The results can be presented in a number of ways and are shown here in map form with a numerical
summary. Figure 4 shows the current potential extent of feld pea cultivation and the favourability
within that extent, together with the difference between the A2a and B2a scenarios, representing a
quantifcation of the uncertainty in future predictions.
Figure 5 shows the ratio between the uncertainty in favourability due to current climate uncertainty
and the difference between the two future predictions
Discussion
Figure 5 illustrates the relative magnitudes of uncertainty in a prediction of future favourability for
Field Peas from two sources. These are the uncertainty in present day climate averages and an
estimate of future uncertainty due to our current lack of knowledge of which IPCC scenario will
apply in 2050 as well as how that will really affect the climate of 2050. It may be seen that an average
of 44% of the overall uncertainty in the total prediction is composed simply of uncertainty about
exactly what our current climate is. In some parts of the study area the current climate uncertainty
actually exceeds the future uncertainty. This puts our lack of knowledge about future climate into
a perspective relating it to current uncertainty.
Conclusions
It has been shown that the Monte Carlo methods may be effectively used to model the propagation
of uncertainty through a climatic envelope model. Furthermore the method is able to quantify that
propagated uncertainty as a percentage of the model output. This enables an analysis of the sensitivity
of such a model to its various inputs and hence can help to determine which input variables need
high levels of quality control. The fact that the results suggest that the outputs of climatic envelope
models contain a high degree of uncertainty should not be seen as suggesting that the models are
fawed, or that an exercise in determining the potential future range of species is futile. Rather it
should be seen as an indication that considerable care is needed in the determination of the input
variables to such exercises.

Figure 4: Result from two typical model runs
Figure 4. Result from two typical model runs.
References
ANU., 2008. BIOCLIM, Fenner School of Environment and Society. Available at: http://fennerschool.anu.
edu.au/publications/software/.
Beaumont, L.J., L. Hughes and Poulsen, M., 2005. Predicting species distributions: use of climatic parameters
in BIOCLIM and its impact on predictions of species current and future distributions. Ecological Modelling
186(2): 251-270.
Burrough, P. A. and McDonnell R. A., 1998. Principles of Geographic Information Systems, 2nd Ed. (Paperback)
Oxford, OUP.
DAFF, 2006. National Agriculture and Climate Change action plan 2006-2009. Department of Agriculture
Fisheries and Forestry. Canberra.
Heikkinen, R.K., Luoto, M., Araujo, M.B., Virkkala, R., Thuiller, W. and Sykes, M.T., 2006. Methods and
uncertainties in bioclimatic envelope modelling under climate change. Progress in Physical Geography
30(6): 751-777.
Heuvelink, G.B.M., 1998. Error Propagation in Environmental Modelling with GIS, Taylor & Francis.
Hijmans, R.J., Cameron, S.E., Parra, J.L., Jones, P.G. and Jarvis A., 2005. Very high resolution interpolated
climate surfaces for global land areas. International Journal of Climatology 25: 1965-1978.
Hijmans, R.J. and Graham C.H., 2006. The ability of climate envelope models to predict the effect of climate
change on species distributions. Global Change Biology 12: 2227-2281.
Hijmans, R.J., Jarvis, A. and. OBrien, R.A, 2008. DIVA-GIS v 5.4. Available at: http://www.diva-gis.org/
IPCC, 2000. Special Report on Emissions Scenarios. Available at: http://www.grida.no/publications/other/
ipcc_sr/
ITT, 2008. IDL: The Data Visualization & Analysis Platform. Available at: http://www.ittvis.com/index.asp.

Figure 5: Comparison between the effects of present and future uncertainty
Figure 5. Comparison between the effects of present and future uncertainty.
Nix, H., 1986. A biogeographic analysis of Australian Elapid Snakes. In R. Longmore(Ed.). Atlas of Elapid
Snakes of Australia. Australian Government Publishing Service: Canberra, pp. 4-15.
NOAA, 2008. Global Historical Climatology Network (GHCN-Monthly) data base, Available at: http://www.
ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/ghcn-monthly/index.php.
Oliver, M.A., Loveland, P.J., Frogbrook, Z.L., Webster, R. and McGrath, S.P., 2002. Statistical and geostatistical
analysis of the National Soil Inventory of England and Wales. Technical Report, Project SP0124, United
Kingdom Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, London, 167 pp.
Zhang, X.C. and Nearing, M.A, 2005. Impact of climate change on soil erosion, runoff, and wheat productivity
in central Oklahoma. Catena 61: 185-195.
Section 10
Cooperation of robots
A framework for motion coordination of small teams of
agricultural robots
S.G. Vougioukas
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Department of Agricultural Engineering, 54124 Thessaloniki,
Greece; bougis@agro.auth.gr
Abstract
This paper presents a control framework for coordinating teams of tractor-robots operating in the
same feld. The framework supports master-slave and peer-to-peer modes of operation. It is based
on a distributed control approach, where each robot is equipped with its own nonlinear model
predictive tracking controller. Each controller minimises the tracking error along a fnite horizon
and thus provides accurate tracking. When necessary, it also avoids collisions with nearby vehicles
by altering the path velocity profle or the paths geometry. To do this, it uses information about the
motion trajectories of all other vehicles which may interfere with its own projected motion. The
communication requirements of this approach along with the computational complexity of model
predictive control limit the application of this framework to small robot teams consisting of a few
vehicles. Simulation experiments verifed that the proposed distributed control scheme can be used
for accurate, coordinated path tracking. Further research is required concerning its robustness in
the presence of disturbances and its stability in the presence of communication delays.
Keywords: distributed control, predictive control, tracking
Introduction
The increasing need for fnancially competitive and environmentally sustainable agricultural
production, combined with a decreasing workforce in the entire agricultural section are the major
thrusts towards incorporating information technologies, automation and robotics in the production
process. A lot of effort has been made towards developing autonomous robots for agricultural
operations like spraying, harvesting, etc. The incorporation of robots in many real-world agricultural
production processes will require the cooperation and coordination of more than one autonomous
machine. For example, robotic vegetable harvesting in a greenhouse would require the cooperation
of specialised autonomous harvesting robots with robotic carriers which will move the harvested
produce towards a collecting point for further processing.
This paper addresses the problem of coordinated motion control for agricultural robotic vehicles.
It proposes a common framework for two major modes of coordination: master-slave, where one
machine (master) specifes the motion characteristics of one or more machines (slaves) and peer-
to-peer, where each machine follows its own path while avoiding collisions with other machines.
An example of a master-slave operation is on-the-go unloading during grain harvesting where an
autonomous combine harvester (master) specifes the motion of an unloading truck (slave). An
example of peer-to-peer operation is collision avoidance during turning at the headlands of a feld
in which many robotic vehicles are operating concurrently.
Master-slave is necessarily a centralised control scheme, whereas peer-to-peer is best suited for
distributed control. Noguchi et al. (2004) have proposed a master-slave architecture for two robots
performing farm operations. The master commands the slaves to either follow a path parallel to it
at a fxed distance from it or go to a certain point along any path, as long as it does not collide
with the master. Collision avoidance was achieved by a risk function based on the master-slave
distance, which was included in the velocity and steering laws of the slave. Other centralised
approaches include path following with a virtual leader (Egerstedt and Hu, 2001), kinetic shaping
(Belta and Kumar, 2004) and path coordination, where the robots paths are fxed and only their
velocity profles must be computed to avoid collisions (LaValle and Hutchinson, 1998; Simeon et
al., 2002). Distributed, peer-to-peer type approaches are popular in the formation control literature
and range from behaviour-based focking (Balch and Arkin, 1998; Reif and Wang, 1999) to receding
horizon control (Dunbar and Murray, 2006).
Nonlinear model predictive trajectory tracking
The proposed motion coordination framework is based on model predictive control. Each robotic
vehicle is equipped with its own Nonlinear Model Predictive Tracking (NMPT) controller, which
issues steering and velocity commands. Such a tracking controller has been developed previously
(Vougioukas, 2006). Let R vehicles operate in a feld. The rth vehicles motion is described by a
discrete state equation be of the form:
(1)
Where
r
x
k
R
n
is its state vector and
r
u
k
R
m
its control vector. For example
r
x
k
may contain
the rth robots position and orientation (and higher order derivatives for dynamic models) and
r
u
k
the velocity and steering commands. We assume that the true state of the r
th
vehicle is known
(e.g. by a full state observer without error). The state and control vectors are subject to bounding
constraints of the form:
(2)
Let
r
x
k
d
, k = 0,1,....N be a desired state trajectory and be the tracking error between
the actual and the desired trajectory at the kth step. The basic idea behind Nonlinear Model Predictive
Tracking (NMPT) is to solve at every time step k a fnite-horizon optimal control problem and
compute an optimal M-step-ahead control sequence u
*
k,M
which minimizes a cost function J
r
:
(3)
For tracking purposes the cost function may penalize deviations from the last desired state of the
fnite horizon and the tracking error and the control effort along the optimizing horizon:
(4)
where all the cost matrices
r
Q are positive-defnite.
The rth vehicles planned optimal trajectory can be computed by using the optimal control
r
u
*
k,M

sequence in Equation 1 and can be written as:

* * r * r *
, 1 1
[ ... ]
r r
k M k k k M + + +
= x x x x (5)

Of course, external and internal disturbances (including model errors) would render the
application of the open loop control sequence
*
,
r
k M
u useless. Therefore, only the first element
* r
k
u of the computed control
*
,
r
k M
u sequence is applied as input to the rth robot at time k. At
the next sample k+1 the robot will have moved to a new state
1 +
r
k
x which differs from the
predicted state due to disturbances and model errors. The optimization problem is solved
again at every time step, until the system reaches its goal state
r d
N
x . In the general case, the
NMPT optimization can only be solved numerically. Different numerical methods can be
used (Betts, 1998) ranging from simple gradient descent to state of the art direct transcription
with sparse Sequential Quadratic Programming.

Motion Coordination framework

For the purposes of coordination the NMPT controller of each robot is extended to
incorporate information about the computed motion trajectories of other robots. This way the
NMPT can alter its own velocity profile, or even deviate from its desired path in the presence
of other vehicles interfering with it. This can be achieved if each robot broadcasts at each time
instant its computed trajectory - which includes its current state - over a high speed Wireless
Local Area Network (WLAN). It is also assumed that at any time instant j within the
optimizing horizon ( 1 k j k M + + ), the rth vehicle can compute the minimum
distance
min
( , )
r q
j j
D x x between itself and the qth vehicle, 1,..., q R = andq r . When this
distance is large compared to the size of the vehicles, the Euclidian distance
2
|| ||
r q
j j
x x between the vehicles could also be used.

The issues of coordination and collision avoidance of the rth vehicle with other machines can
be addressed simultaneously by incorporating inside the summation of the cost function
r
J , a
penalty term of the form:

( )
1
min
( )
( , )
=
=
+
R
q r
j
r q
q
j j
q r
C
V
D

x
x x
(6)

where is a small positive real number, C
r
>0 and >1. This term is essentially an obstacle
avoidance potential function (Khatib, 1986), where the role of the obstacles is played by the
moving vehicles. It penalizes the proximity of the rth robot with all other robots in its vicinity,
along its entire control horizon. The constant regulates how sharply the potential drops as
the distance becomes larger. The constant dominates the cost term is, when the distance is
almost zero. Since such a configuration must not be allowed, must be very small. Finally,
the constant C
r
is a term which weighs the contribution of the qth vehicle in the total penalty.

To summarise, the rth vehicles trajectory at each time instant k as it is computed by its
NMPT - is practically defined by the internal quantities M,
r d
k
x ,
min max
,
r r
x x ,
min max
,
r r
u u ,
,
r r
e u
Q Q , and by the external quantities C
q
and
*
,
q
k M
x of all the other vehicles included in the
penalty term of equation(6). In our proposed framework we define for the rth robot a

(5)
Of course, external and internal disturbances (including model errors) would render the application
of the open loop control sequence
r
u
*
k,M
useless. Therefore, only the frst element
r
u
*
k
of the computed
control
r
u
*
k,M
sequence is applied as input to the rth robot at time k. At the next sample k+1 the robot
will have moved to a new state
r
x
k+1
which differs from the predicted state due to disturbances and
model errors. The optimization problem is solved again at every time step, until the system reaches
its goal state
r
x
d
N
. In the general case, the NMPT optimization can only be solved numerically.
Different numerical methods can be used (Betts, 1998) ranging from simple gradient descent to
state of the art direct transcription with sparse Sequential Quadratic Programming.

path parallel to it - at a fixed distance from it - or go to a certain point along any path, as long
as it does not collide with the master. Collision avoidance was achieved by a risk function
based on the master-slave distance, which was included in the velocity and steering laws of
the slave. Other centralised approaches include path following with a virtual leader (Egerstedt
and Hu, 2001), kinetic shaping (Belta and Kumar, 2004) and path coordination, where the
robots paths are fixed and only their velocity profiles must be computed to avoid collisions
(LaValle and Hutchinson, 1998; Simeon, et al., 2002). Distributed, peer-to-peer type
approaches are popular in the formation control literature and range from behaviour-based
flocking (Balch and Arkin, 1998; Reif and Wang, 1999) to receding horizon control (Dunbar
and Murray, 2006).


The proposed motion coordination framework is based on model predictive control. Each
robotic vehicle is equipped with its own Nonlinear Model Predictive Tracking (NMPT)
controller, which issues steering and velocity commands. Such a tracking controller has been
developed previously (Vougioukas, 2006). Let R vehicles operate in a field. The rth vehicles
motion is described by a discrete state equation be of the form:

1
( , ) , 0
+
=
r r r
k r k k
k x f x u (1)

where
r n
k
R x is its state vector and
r m
k
R u its control vector. For example
r
k
x may
contain the rth robots position and orientation (and higher order derivatives for dynamic
models) and
r
k
u the velocity and steering commands. We assume that the true state of the rth
vehicle is known (e.g., by a full state observer without error). The state and control vectors are
subject to bounding constraints of the form:

min max min max
,
r r r r r r
k k
x x x u u u (2)
Let , = 0,1,...
r d
k
k N x be a desired state trajectory and =
r r r d
k k k
e x x be the tracking error
between the actual and the desired trajectory at the kth step. The basic idea behind Nonlinear
Model Predictive Tracking (NMPT) is to solve at every time step k a finite-horizon optimal
control problem and compute an optimal M-step-ahead control sequence
*
, k M
u which
minimizes a cost function J
r
:

1
* * * *
, 1
, ,...,
[ ... ] arg min
+ +
+ +
= =
r r r
k k k M
r r r r
k M k k k M r
J
u u u
u u u u (3)
For tracking purposes the cost function may penalize deviations from the last desired state of
the finite horizon and the tracking error and the control effort along the optimizing horizon:

min( , )
r
1 1
=
+
+ + + +
=
+ +
N k M
T r r T r T r r T r T r r
r k M e k M j e j j u j
j k
J e Q e e Q e u Q u (4)

r
Q are positive-definite.
*
,
r
k M
u sequence in equation (1) and can be written as:

and Murray, 2006).



1
( , ) , 0
+
=
r r r
k r k k
k x f x u (1)

where
r n
k
r m
k
r
k
x may
models) and
r
k

min max min max
,
r r r r r r
k k
x x x u u u (2)
Let , = 0,1,...
r d
k
r r r d
k k k
*
, k M
u which
r
:

1
* * * *
, 1
, ,...,
[ ... ] arg min
+ +
+ +
= =
r r r
k k k M
r r r r
k M k k k M r
J
u u u
u u u u (3)

min( , )
r
1 1
=
+
+ + + +
=
+ +
N k M
j k

r
*
,
r
k M

and Murray, 2006).



1
( , ) , 0
+
=
r r r
k r k k
k x f x u (1)

where
r n
k
r m
k
r
k
x may
models) and
r
k

min max min max
,
r r r r r r
k k
x x x u u u (2)
Let , = 0,1,...
r d
k
r r r d
k k k
*
, k M
u which
r
:

1
* * * *
, 1
, ,...,
[ ... ] arg min
+ +
+ +
= =
r r r
k k k M
r r r r
k M k k k M r
J
u u u
u u u u (3)

min( , )
r
1 1
=
+
+ + + +
=
+ +
N k M
j k

r
*
,
r
k M

and Murray, 2006).



1
( , ) , 0
+
=
r r r
k r k k
k x f x u (1)

where
r n
k
r m
k
r
k
x may
models) and
r
k

min max min max
,
r r r r r r
k k
x x x u u u (2)
Let , = 0,1,...
r d
k
r r r d
k k k
*
, k M
u which
r
:

1
* * * *
, 1
, ,...,
[ ... ] arg min
+ +
+ +
= =
r r r
k k k M
r r r r
k M k k k M r
J
u u u
u u u u (3)

min( , )
r
1 1
=
+
+ + + +
=
+ +
N k M
j k

r
*
,
r
k M

and Murray, 2006).



1
( , ) , 0
+
=
r r r
k r k k
k x f x u (1)

where
r n
k
r m
k
r
k
x may
models) and
r
k

min max min max
,
r r r r r r
k k
x x x u u u (2)
Let , = 0,1,...
r d
k
r r r d
k k k
*
, k M
u which
r
:

1
* * * *
, 1
, ,...,
[ ... ] arg min
+ +
+ +
= =
r r r
k k k M
r r r r
k M k k k M r
J
u u u
u u u u (3)

min( , )
r
1 1
=
+
+ + + +
=
+ +
N k M
j k

r
*
,
r
k M
Motion coordination framework
For the purposes of coordination the NMPT controller of each robot is extended to incorporate
information about the computed motion trajectories of other robots. This way the NMPT can alter
its own velocity profle, or even deviate from its desired path in the presence of other vehicles
interfering with it. This can be achieved if each robot broadcasts at each time instant its computed
trajectory - which includes its current state - over a high speed Wireless Local Area Network
(WLAN). It is also assumed that at any time instant j within the optimizing horizon (k j k+M+1),
the rth vehicle can compute the minimum distance D
min
(
r
x
j
,
q
x
j
) between itself and the q
th
vehicle,
q=1,,R and qr. When this distance is large compared to the size of the vehicles, the Euclidian
distance ||
r
x
j
-
q
x
j
||
2
between the vehicles could also be used.
The issues of coordination and collision avoidance of the rth vehicle with other machines can be
addressed simultaneously by incorporating inside the summation of the cost function
y
J, a penalty
term of the form:

(6)
r
>0 and >1. This term is essentially an obstacle avoidance
potential function (Khatib, 1986), where the role of the obstacles is played by the moving vehicles.
It penalizes the proximity of the rth robot with all other robots in its vicinity, along its entire
control horizon. The constant regulates how sharply the potential drops as the distance becomes
larger. The constant dominates the cost term is, when the distance is almost zero. Since such a
confguration must not be allowed, must be very small. Finally, the constant C
r
is a term which
weighs the contribution of the q
th
vehicle in the total penalty.
To summarise, the r
th
vehicles trajectory at each time instant k as it is computed by its NMPT is
practically defned by the internal quantities M,
r
x
d
k
,
r
x
min
,
r
x
max
,
r
u
min
,
r
u
max
,
r
Q
e,

r
Q
u
, and by the
external quantities C
q
and
q
x
*
k,M
of all the other vehicles included in the penalty term of Equation
6. In our proposed framework we defne for the rth robot a working-set W
r
={M,
r
x
d
k
,
r
x
min
,
r
x
max
,
r
u
min
,
r
u
max
,
r
Q
e
,
r
Q
u
, C
r
} which contains all the internal quantities.
Master-slave operation
In this operation mode one robot is a master and a group of robots are its slaves. The master
doesnt incorporate in its NMPT the trajectories of the slaves. This means that the master will not
alter its motion to avoid colliding, or to coordinate with other robots. This is done by setting all
external weights C
q
in its cost function to zero. During master-slave operation the master controls
its own working set. However, the master is allowed to change the working set W
q
of any slave-
robot participating in its team in any way that suits the task. Any such change must make sense
physically, operationally and computationally. For example, an actuators limit cannot be undone,
but an artifcial lower limit can be set, which in effect may result in a larger turning radius (steering
angle bound), or slower motion (speed bound). Also, all cost matrices have to remain positive
defnite, desired trajectories must be continuous; the control horizon must be positive, etc.
Clearly, such a generic framework can accommodate different types of coordinated-cooperative
motion. For example, commanding a slave to go to a certain location in the feld, to stay still, or
to follow the master can be accomplished by setting the slaves desired trajectory appropriately.
Furthermore, certain behaviour can be achieved in different ways. For example, the master may
command a slave to move slower either by decreasing its desired velocity, or by increasing its cost
matrix
r
Q
u,
or by lowering its maximum velocity.

* * r * r *
, 1 1
[ ... ]
r r
k M k k k M + + +
= x x x x (5)

Of course, external and internal disturbances (including model errors) would render the
application of the open loop control sequence
*
,
r
k M
u useless. Therefore, only the first element
* r
k
u of the computed control
*
,
r
k M
u sequence is applied as input to the rth robot at time k. At
the next sample k+1 the robot will have moved to a new state
1 +
r
k
x which differs from the
predicted state due to disturbances and model errors. The optimization problem is solved
again at every time step, until the system reaches its goal state
r d
N
x . In the general case, the
NMPT optimization can only be solved numerically. Different numerical methods can be
used (Betts, 1998) ranging from simple gradient descent to state of the art direct transcription
with sparse Sequential Quadratic Programming.

Motion Coordination framework

For the purposes of coordination the NMPT controller of each robot is extended to
incorporate information about the computed motion trajectories of other robots. This way the
NMPT can alter its own velocity profile, or even deviate from its desired path in the presence
of other vehicles interfering with it. This can be achieved if each robot broadcasts at each time
instant its computed trajectory - which includes its current state - over a high speed Wireless
Local Area Network (WLAN). It is also assumed that at any time instant j within the
optimizing horizon ( 1 k j k M + + ), the rth vehicle can compute the minimum
distance
min
( , )
r q
j j
D x x between itself and the qth vehicle, 1,..., q R = andq r . When this
distance is large compared to the size of the vehicles, the Euclidian distance
2
|| ||
r q
j j
x x between the vehicles could also be used.

The issues of coordination and collision avoidance of the rth vehicle with other machines can
be addressed simultaneously by incorporating inside the summation of the cost function
r
J , a
penalty term of the form:

( )
1
min
( )
( , )
=
=
+
R
q r
j
r q
q
j j
q r
C
V
D

x
x x
(6)

r
>0 and >1. This term is essentially an obstacle
avoidance potential function (Khatib, 1986), where the role of the obstacles is played by the
moving vehicles. It penalizes the proximity of the rth robot with all other robots in its vicinity,
along its entire control horizon. The constant regulates how sharply the potential drops as
the distance becomes larger. The constant dominates the cost term is, when the distance is
almost zero. Since such a configuration must not be allowed, must be very small. Finally,
the constant C
r
is a term which weighs the contribution of the qth vehicle in the total penalty.

To summarise, the rth vehicles trajectory at each time instant k as it is computed by its
NMPT - is practically defined by the internal quantities M,
r d
k
x ,
min max
,
r r
x x ,
min max
,
r r
u u ,
,
r r
e u
Q Q , and by the external quantities C
q
and
*
,
q
k M
x of all the other vehicles included in the
penalty term of equation(6). In our proposed framework we define for the rth robot a
Peer-to-peer operation
In this mode of operation each robot sets and controls its own working set and executes its own
NMPT controller. Note that by setting its own weight C
r
, the r
th
robot infuences the effect that
its own motion has on other machines. Effectively, this weight can be thought of as rank or
importance of the machine. The weight-term is useful in situations where it makes sense for a
machine to have precedence over another machine. For example, when two robots are in a collision
course, it makes sense from an energy - and possibly soil compaction - point of view for the heavier
robot to deviate much less from its path. Such a coordinated solution can be achieved by the NMPT
controllers of the two robots, if the heavier robot has a bigger weight than the lighter one.
Experimental results
In this section, a series of simulation experiments are performed in order to show the simplicity as
well as the effciency of the proposed framework for coordinated motion. The simulation software
was implemented in C++. In the experiments all the elements of all cost matrices were set to zero,
except for q
e
(1,1)= q
e
(2,2)=400 (distance error costs) and q
e
(3,3)=40 (orientation error cost). The
velocity errors were penalized less, with q
e
(5,5)=10, because path accuracy was considered more
important. The potential function constants were determined via trial and error and were set to =3,
=10
-4
, and C=4.0. The NMPT horizon of all vehicles was M=65 points, i.e. 6.5 seconds in the
future. Each NMPT was solved using a gradient descent algorithm which was allowed to execute
for 1000 iterations; larger iteration-limits did not improve the solutions. In both experiments each
new control computation required roughly 600 ms on an Intel Pentium D, 2.80 GHz CPU using
bounding box collision checking.
Vehicle model
We consider the motion of a rear-wheel-drive vehicle in the plane with Ackermann forward
steering (Figure 1). The velocity vector v has its origin at P and lies along the direction of motion;
its magnitude v is the vehicles linear velocity. The vehicles orientation is given by , the angle
between the positive x-axis and v. The two front wheels are equivalent to a single virtual wheel
located at mid-distance between the actual wheels; the same holds for the rear wheels. The vehicle
is then simplifed into a bicycle (Figure 2). Let x and y be the UTM coordinates of the vehicles rear
wheel axle mid-point P=[x,y]
T
. The vehicles wheelbase is L and the front wheel steering angle is .
The high level NMPT controller relies on a simple kinematic model which assumes pure rolling
without slipping for all wheels and 1
st
order dynamic models for steering and speed control which
are implemented by suitable low-level controllers (Vougioukas, 2006):

Fig. 1. Car model.

Figure 1. Car model.
(7)
From the NMPT point of view the vehicle is described by Equation 7, the system state is
x=[x y o v]
T
and the control consists of the desired velocity and steering angle setpoints, u=[u
v
u
o
]
T
. In all experiments the vehicles were identical, with wheelbase L=2.4 m,
max
=60
and v
max
=
1 m/s; the sampling period dt=100 ms. The steering systems time-lag was set equal to t
o
=0.15 s,
and the velocity time-lag to t
v
= 1 s.
Experiment 1: slave follows master
In this experiment the master robot commands one slave robot to travel along a path parallel to
its own path. More specifcally, the slaves desired position must be at a distance of 3 m from the
master, at an angle of -90
o
relative to the masters heading (to its right). It must also have the same
heading as the master. This scenario models on-the-go unloading during grain harvesting where
an autonomous combine harvester (master) specifes the motion of an unloading truck (slave). In
the particular experiment the master started at relative coordinates 2, 0 (m) with orientation 90
o

(North). The slave started at 6, 0 (m) with orientation 45
o
. Thus, a position error of 1 m and an
orientation error of 90
o
were introduced at the initial pose. The paths were 200 points long and the
masters desired velocity was 0.5m/s.
Figure 3 shows the entire motion every 5 frames. Figure 4 shows the slaves velocity and steering
profles. Notice that initially (frst 70 points) the slave turns right in order to align itself with the
master, and also it slows down almost to a halt to wait for the master and thus reduce its distance
to the desired 3 m. The slave moves on the outer part of the turn and therefore it needs to cover a
larger distance than the master in the same time interval. This is the reason why the slave speeds
up after N=60. Figure 5 shows the distance and heading errors between the master and the slave.
These errors converge to zero despite the large initial errors.
Experiment 2: Path deformation for collision avoidance
In this experiment two vehicles were moving on the same 300-point -shaped path with sharp 90
o

orientation discontinuities, in opposite directions. The starting position of vehicle 1 at coordinates
0, 0 (m) is the goal position of vehicle 2 and the start of vehicle 2 at 7.5, 0 (m) is the goal of
vehicle 1. This is a scenario that could arise during a headland turn and simple velocity adjustments
cannot result in collision avoidance. The vehicles must deviate from their planned trajectories. Two
different scenarios were executed: a master-slave and a peer-to-peer.

required roughly 600 ms on an Intel Pentium D, 2.80 GHz CPU using bounding box
collision checking.

Vehicle Model

We consider the motion of a rear-wheel-drive vehicle in the plane with Ackermann forward
steering (Fig. 1). The velocity vector v has its origin at P and lies along the direction of
motion; its magnitude v is the vehicles linear velocity. The vehicles orientation is given by
, the angle between the positive x-axis and v. The two front wheels are equivalent to a single
virtual wheel located at mid-distance between the actual wheels; the same holds for the rear
wheels. The vehicle is then simplified into a bicycle (Fig. 2). Let x and y be the UTM
coordinates of the vehicles rear wheel axle mid-point [ ]
T
x y = P . The vehicles wheelbase is
L and the front wheel steering angle is .

Fig. 1. Car model.

Fig. 2. Bicycle model

The high level NMPT controller relies on a simple kinematic model which assumes pure
rolling without slipping for all wheels and 1
st
order dynamic models for steering and speed
control which are implemented by suitable low-level controllers (Vougioukas, 2006):

tan
cos , sin ,
1 1 1 1
,
= = =
= + = +
&
& &
&
&
v
v v
x v y v v
L
u v v u

(7)

From the NMPT point of view the vehicle is described by equation (7), the system state is
T
[ ] x y v = x and the control consists of the desired velocity and steering angle
setpoints,
T
[ ]
v
u u
= u . In all experiments the vehicles were identical, with wheelbase L=2.4 m,
max
=60
and v
max
= 1 m/s; the sampling period dt=100 ms. The steering systems time-lag was
set equal to 0.15
= s, and the velocity time-lag to 1

v
= s.

Experiment 1: slave follows master

In this experiment the master robot commands one slave robot to travel along a path parallel
to its own path. More specifically, the slaves desired position must be at a distance of 3m
from the master, at an angle of -90
o
relative to the masters heading (to its right). It must also
have the same heading as the master. This scenario models on-the-go unloading during grain

Fig. 2. Bicycle model

Figure 2. Bicycle model.
Figure 6 shows the resulting paths for the two vehicles during peer-to-peer operation and Figure
7 shows a number of frames from the simulated motion of the vehicles while they are turning to
avoid colliding into each other.
Figure 8 shows the paths when vehicle-1 is the master and vehicle-2 is the slave. Clearly, vehicle-1
follows its desired path as if it were alone, whereas vehicle-2 is forced to deviate from its desired
path to avoid the collision.

Fig. 3. Motion frames for master-slave following parallel paths.

Figure 3. Motion frames for master-slave following parallel paths.

Fig. 4. Slaves velocity and steering profiles
Figure 4. Slaves velocity and steering profles.

Fig. 5. Slaves position and heading errors

Figure 5. Slaves position and heading errors.

Fig. 6. Peer-to-peer collision avoidance paths.

Figure 6. Peer-to-peer collision avoidance paths.

Fig. 7. Motion frames (N=120 to 160)

Figure 7. Motion frames (N=120 to 160).
Conclusions
In both simulation experiments that were presented the desired trajectories were followed successfully
and any collisions between the vehicles were avoided. More experiments were performed and the
distributed NMPT control worked well in all of them. However, signifcant effort was required
initially to select proper values for the various parameters of the algorithm. This was done via trial
and error.
The computational cost seems to be a problem for real-time control. A signifcant proportion of time
is used by the minimum distance computation function. In agricultural operation in non-cluttered
environments a Euclidean distance approximation would reduce signifcantly this time.
Another promising solution to the speed problem could be the use of advanced numerical techniques
for the optimization, such as direct transcription with sparse Sequential Quadratic Programming.

Fig. 8. Master-slave collision avoidance

Figure 8. Master-slave collision avoidance.

Fig. 9. Motion frames (N=150 to 180).

Figure 9. Motion frames (N=150 to 180).
It is expected that the communication requirements of this approach along with the computational
complexity of model predictive control will limit the application of this framework to small
robot teams consisting of a few vehicles. Overall, distributed NMPT seems to offer a promising
approach for coordinating small teams of robots for agricultural applications. Further research is
required concerning its robustness in the presence of disturbances and its stability in the presence
of communication delays.
References
Balch, T. and Arkin, R., 1998. Behavior-based formation control for multirobot teams. IEEE Transactions on
Robotics and Automation. 14(6): 926-939.
Belta, C. and Kumar, V., 2004. Optimal Motion Generation for Groups of Robots: A Geometric Approach.
Journal of Mechanical Design. 126: 63-71.
Betts, J., 1998. Survey of Numerical Methods for Trajectory Optimization. Journal of Guidance, Control, and
Dynamics. (21)2:193-207.
Dunbar, W. and Murray, R., 2006. Distributed receding horizon control for multi-vehicle formation stabilization.
Automatica, 42(4):549-558.
Egerstedt, M., Hu, X. and Stotsky, A. 2001. Control of mobile platforms using a virtual vehicle approach.
IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control. 46: 1777-1782.
Khatib, O., 1986. Real-Time Obstacle Avoidance for Manipulators and Mobile Robots. The International
Journal of Robotics Research, (5)1: 90-98.
LaValle S. and S. Hutchinson 1998. Optimal motion planning for multiple robots having independent goals.
IEEE Transactions on Robotics and Automation, 14(6): 912-925.
Noguchi, N., Will, J., Reid, J. and Zhang, Q., 2004. Development of a masterslave robot system for farm
operations. Computers and Electronics in Agriculture 44: 1-19.
Reif, J. and Wang, H. 1999. Social potential felds: A distributed behavioral control for autonomous robots,
Robotics and Autonomous Systems. 27: 171-194.
Simeon, T., Leroy, S. and J.-P. Laumond 2002. Path coordination for multiple mobile robots: A resolution-
complete algorithm. IEEE Transactions on Robotics and Automation, 18(1): 42-49.
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In: Proceedings of the 3rd Automation Technology for Off-Road Equipment (ATOE) Conference, Editors:
M. Rothmund, M. Ehrl, H. Auernhammer, Bonn, Germany, pp. 183-189.
Model-based loading of agricultural trailers
G. Happich, H.-H. Harms and T. Lang
Technical University of Braunschweig, Institute of Agricultural Machinery and Fluid Power, Langer
Kamp 19a, 38106 Braunschweig, Germany; g.happich@tu-bs.de
Abstract
There is a trend in agricultural engineering towards high-performance harvesting machines with
growing operating width and throughput. As much as performance and throughput are rising, the
transportation units, usually tractor-pulled trailers, are characterized by increasing transportation
volume.If harvesting and transport are combined in parallel operation (e.g. self-propelled forage
harvester), the driver of the harvesting machine as well as the driver of the transport unit has to pay
a high degree of attention to the loading process. Losses of harvesting goods caused by missing
the trailer have to be kept at a minimum. The complete transport volume should be utilized and
collisions between the involved machines have to be avoided. Overloading processes with large-
scaled machinery often imply that the visibility into the transportation unit is severely limited. In
a former project a forage harvester had been used as the prototype for developing a GPS-based
position control of the spout. The main aim of this research project is to develop and analyse several
model based loading strategies exemplifed on a forage harvester and a corresponding transport
unit. The model based loading means an enhancement of the automation of the loading process.
First objective of this research project is the development of a software model of the heap of bulk
goods during the overloading process. Basal analysis of heaps of agricultural goods like grass and
maize silage are essential. By combining the software model, the space model of the transportation
unit and the throughput, the current status of loading is predictable and different loading strategies
can be spotted, tested and scrutinized with regard to effciency and the facilitation of work.
Keywords: spout control, precision overloading, bulk heap software model, GPS-based position
control, non-numerical simulation
Intoduction
Following a common trend in agricultural engineering harvesting machines are getting bigger in size
and weight as well as working width and throughput are rising. Increasing machine size normally
causes higher fnancial investments and relatively high operating costs. To generate a maximum
of harvesting proft, harvesting machines as well as any other high performance machine have
to be run at:
the most effcient confguration as possible;
a high amount of operating time per harvesting period.
If harvesting and transport are combined in parallel operation, the overloading process is of another
particular importance for the effciency of the whole harvesting process. Constant vigilance and high
concentration is required from the driver in order to avoid losses, overflling or collisions between
the vehicles. The higher the working speeds and the larger the trailer dimensions, the more these
demands increase (Wallmann et al., 2002).
For this reason, the automation potential during the parallel overloading process is being investigated
at the Technical University of Braunschweig. The Institute for Agricultural Machinery and Fluid
Power (ILF) and the Institute for Controlling Technology (IfR) together developed an overloading
assistance system for this purpose.
Overloading in parallel operation
The overloading process in parallel operation implies several diffculties. Firstly, both drivers - of the
tractor and of the harvesting machine have to work in a well coordinated team. Machine collisions
must be obviated in order to avoid machinery and process stops or a complete machine breakdown.
Therefore they have to pay high attention on their driving path and overloading process. Regarding
the normal arrangement of the cockpit of a tractor and a harvesting machine, the driving path is
in front of the machines, but the overloading process normally happens backwards to the drivers.
That means, every time they increase their attention to the overloading process, their attention to
their driving direction goes down.
Secondly, due to the increasing dimensions of agricultural machinery, it is getting more diffcult
to take insight into the transportation unit. As Figure 1 shows, neither the driver of the tractor
nor the driver of the harvesting machine has full insight into the units. Therefore they have to
act on experted knowledge. Especially when the harvesting machine has to be run during night,
the concentration on the overloading process decreases the performance of the whole harvesting
process (Wallmann et al., 2002).
Assistant System for the Overloading Process (ASUEL)
At the Institute of Agricultural Machinery and Fluid Power in Braunschweig an assistant system,
called ASUEL, had been developed during the last four years. The prototype allows a closed loop
loading position control of the spout of a forage harvester.
As depicted in Figure 2, four GPS-receivers are on the roof of the harvester, and the remaining
three ones are placed upon the tractor. The raw position signals (as NMEA-strings) are computed
in an industrial PC placed on the harvester. Because of the minor distance between harvester and
tractor the inherent deviation of the raw position signals are very equal for all receivers and can
be eliminated via software. The precision of the relative positions of the vehicles is in the cm
range, while the failure in absolute position is of secondary importance and is within the range of
standard-GPS-precision (SPS).
1

Figure 1: Self propelled forage harvester and tractor-transport unit
Figure 1. Self propelled forage harvester and tractor-transport unit.
On the harvester a dSpace-PC is used to compute the closed loop control of the loading point. Via
the ControlDesk software every position in the tumbril can be defned as the aim of the crop-stream,
while the dSpace controls the appropriate spout position via a Matlab/SIMULIK-model so that the
stream hits the position.
The System works within the given parameters. The spout control allows a position accuracy up
to 50 cm. A more exact aiming of the crop-stream is possible but the hydraulic actors of the spout
would need too much of the hydraulic energy. As a consequence the proper function of the whole
harvester would be endangered.
To implement the automation of the spout and the overloading process, the observing of the loading
state must be part of the closed loop control. The research on a visual sensor for the loading state
in the trailer has shown, that the agricultural environment decreased the performance of the used
camear systems. The disturbing infuence of the changing in lighting conditions as well as the
wafting crop particles are very unwieldy. Because of that, another research project started to develop
model based loading and loading strategies.
Model based loading strategies
Model based loading strategies are the consequent contiuance of developing an automated assistence
system for the overloading process. The time related loading strategies described previously has
two main problems:
The continual flling is only possible until the load reaches the top of the trailer walls.
Due to the contiual change of the loading point the degree of physical stress either for the tractor
driver or the harvester driver is unacceptable.
Additionally the achievement of the highest density had not been taken into account.
Main idea of a not time related loading strategy is to take the loading situation into account.
Regarding to the problems in visual detection of the flling status and due to the fact, that data
logging and electronical assistance is gaining acceptance in agricultural engineering, the loading
status ought to be emulated throughput related.
Set up of the new model based overloading technology
Main components of model based overloading system are parts of the ASUEL-system like the
determining of the relative position and the closed loop loading point control. The system is being
2

Figure 2: Set up of the ASUEL assistance system

Figure 2. Set up of the ASUEL assistance system.
supplemented by throughput-related loading strategies. Due to the relative orientation of the vehicles
and the effective setting of the spout the actual loading point can be calculated. With a potentiometer
the distance between the intake rollers is measured. The throughput volume is forecasted by taking
the geometrie of the intake channel into account. The trailer can be devided into several discrete
volume spaces. By generating set points the discrete spaces are to be flled up to the maximum
load of the trailer. Regarding to the throughput and the effective loading position a softwaremodel
estimates the loading state inside the trailer, until it is flled at maximum rate (Figure 3).
Set up of feld trials
Within the research project model based loading strategies several feld trials are divided by their
main focus. Firstly, feld trials are used to acquire references of bulk heaps for the software model.
Secondly, feld trials have the focus of scrutinizing the software model as well as the loading
strategies with regards to precision, effciency and facilitation of work. Due to the fact that the
development and appraisal of both, the software model and the loading strategies, are still in an
experimental state, these feld trials will not be described in this paper.
Acquiring references of bulk heaps via feld trials
Main aspect of the feld trials during the frst and the second harvesting season is the acquiring of
references for the software model of the bulk heaps. Therefore several trials are made as well in
grass silage as in maize silage. During the frst year the focus had been on the forming of only one
discrete heap within the trailer. The infuence of the direction of the incoming crop stream was
one main, varied parameter. Other trials are used to give an overview of the interacting of discrete
bulk heaps:
which bulk heap is in front;
which bulk heap is build up frst (it is predictable, that building up the frst heap in front and
the second heap beyond forms an other loading state than the other way around);
the distance between the discrete bulk heaps;
The crop fow and the gradient of the second heap along the slope of a frst heap.
Figure 4 shows the different aspects of the heap interaction.
The bulk heaps are measured via laser scanning. A laser scanner (Co. SICK) is fxed on a structure
on the front loader of a tractor. Along the trailer length the laser is measuring 2D surface lines at
a rate about 2 Hz. While the trailer is moving perpendicular to the scanned lines, the 2D surface
fgures are cumulated to a 3D surface model. By the known size of the trailer, its length, width, and
3

Figure 3: Set up of model based overloading

Figure 3. Set up of model based overloading.
the height of both of the trailer walls and the loading area, the volume of the loading is calculated. In
the 3D fgure of the loading several parameters of the heap can be shown, e.g. the gradient. Figure 5
gives an overview of the measurement set up and an example of a MATLAB-calculated heap shape.
This kind of measurement has two systematic problems. The frst one is the distance of the laser
scans, means the scanning rate. The form of the heaps can be heavily distorted, i.e. if two scans
are made beside one heap apex, only a plateau is calculated and both volume and gradient can not
be considered correctly in the heap measurement. Secondly, due to the fact, that the orientation of
the trailer to the laser scanner is done eye-controlled, the orientation angle between scanner and
trailer varies. Actually a scanning rate at about 5 to 8 Hz is intended and the Software calculating
the 3D loading volume will be improved. First attempts are very promising.
Development of bulk heap software models
Main aim of this research project is the development of software models to describe bulk heap
of agricultural goods. Therefore exemplary heaps of silage crops maize as well as grass - are
examined in feld trials as references. The all important parameters which have to be implemented
in the software model are:
the gradient at least in four orientations;
4

Figure 4: Interaction of heap due to the loading state

Figure 4. Interaction of heap due to the loading state.
5

Figure 5: Set up of the surface measurement in field trials and calculated shape

Figure 5. Set up of the surface measurement in feld trials and calculated shape.
the form (geometrical);
the build up, means the temporal assembly of one heap;
The interaction between several heaps.
Modelling the form of bulk heaps via CFD and DEM techniques will not take place during the
research. As Schulze (Schulze, 2002) ascertained, the less homogeneous bulk material is, the more
inhomogeneous is the inner friction force. Hence to that, modelling or even approaching the load of
a trailer via DEM needs an enormous amount of computing power, which normally is not available
on agricultural mobile machinery. In this research project the inherent physical effects like friction
and balances of forces have not been taken into account.
Considering the other parameters there are three main approaches in programming the software
model. In the following the approaches are described generally, the detailed description of the
implementation goes beyond the scope of this paper. In all of them the geometrical assembly of
the bulk heaps is the all-important aspect.
Elementary mathematically 3D functions
One is the geometrical approach via elementary mathematical 3D surface functions, for example
ellipsoids, hyperboloids or hyperbolic paraboloids. The greatest advantage is that the elementary
geometrical functions are easily implemented into program code, as well as they are easy to
be exchanged or varied. But 3D elementary functions like listed above can not include the real
infuences on bulk heaps. It is indeed possible to combine elementary 3D functions with assessed
2D or 3D matrices, which adjust either the temporary assembly itself as well as the effective loading
state. As shown above, the interaction between loaded material and actual loading process must
be taken into account.
Geometrical assembly approaches
The other approach to approximate the bulk heaps is to clone the loading process, for example
by virtual flling incremental volume spaces or defning 3D matrices. The defnition is to be
approximated either in recursive or in iterative programming techniques.
In General the recursive program structure in comparison to iterative structure is more compact,
easier to implement and hence to that easy to change and to adapt. Recursive programming implies
that functions are defned in terms of themselves. Main average of recursion is the possibility of
defning an infnite set of objects by a fnite statement, means an infnite number of computations
can be described by a fnite program. To use recursive programming techniques the programming
problem must be dividable into problems and sub-problems of the same type. Due to the extensive
memory access of recursive program structures, recursive approaches normally are relatively slow
and need a high amount of computing power. The number of recursive function calls until return
applies is called the depth of a recursive function or the depth of the function tree. The deeper and
more complex the function tree, the more computing power is needed.
Considering the assembly of bulk heaps the allocation of crop along the slope is approximately
the same at any time and incremental point, therefore recursive programming is a convenient tool
of developing a bulk heap software model.
Using recursion the program progress as well as the return is defned by the recursive function itself.
Iterative program structure is more complex, due to the fact that all computations means every
step in program progress must be described iteratively. On the contrary iterative programs do not
need the computing power that recursion need, iterative solving is generally faster than recursive.
Table 1 gives an estimation of the usability of the presented modelling structures.
Conclusion
An auxiliary system for overloading agricultural goods in parallel process with the components
relative position calculation by GPS, closed loop loading point control and a driver guide system
had been developed at the University of Braunschweig. The functionality of the auxiliary system
has been confrmed in harvesting tests during the last four years.
The consecutive investigation of the automation potential of the overloading process implied the
research on overloading strategies. Therefore a new research project started in 2007 to investigate
model based loading strategies in parallel operation. During this project software models have to
be developed describing the assembly of bulk heaps under infuence of agricultural environment,
trailer movement, etc. Focusing on both shape and assembly reference measurements of bulk heaps
are being taken in feld trials. At the moment research is being done on the infuences of crop stream
vector and bulk heap assembly, varying the loading set point on the slope as well as the length of
the stream. The development of the bulk heap models has been advanced, so that loading strategies
can be implemented as soon as possible.
Acknowledgements
The project Model-based loading control of agricultural trailer has been made possible and is
supported by funding from the DFG (German Research Society) and the support of Co. Claas,
through the provision of a combine harvester. The support in GPS Technology is carried out in a
co-operation with the IfR and Co. geo++.
References
Schulze, D., 2002. Flieeigenschaften von Schuettguetern mit faser- und plaettchenfrmigen Partikeln.
Schuettgut 8 (6), 538-546.
Wallmann, G. und H.-H. Harms, 2002. Assistenzsystem zur Ueberladung landwirtschaftlicher Gueter.
Landtechnik 57 (6), 352-353.
Table 1. Rating of bulk heap model approaches.
computing
power needed
computing
time
program
complexity
possible precision
of approach
elementary 3D function low very low very low low
recursive assembly related high very high average very high
iterative assembly related average low very high very high
Procedures of soil farming allowing to reduce compaction
M. Kroulk
1
, T. Loch
1
, Z. Kvz
1
and V. Proek
2
1
Department of Agricultural Machines, Technical Faculty, Czech University of Agriculture in
Prague, Kamycka 129, 165 21, Prague, Czech Republic; kroulik@tf.czu.cz
2
Department of Machinery Utilization, Technical Faculty, Czech University of Agriculture in
Prague, Kamycka 129, 165 21, Prague, Czech Republic
Abstract
Evaluation of new technologies in agricultural machinery guidance is very important and can
help producers choose the right equipment for their applications. At present, comparison between
different guidance systems has been typically based on the amount of a guidance error (i.e. deviation
of the vehicle from the desired path). Accuracy of a distance between two adjacent passages, it
means the precise pass-to-pass continuation of a particular operation in a feld, when using satellite
navigation depends on many factors. For instance received DGPS signal accuracy, the steering
system precisions of the whole tractor-tool unit as well as human factor are the most important
ones. Without using the satellite navigation during a feld job, a tendency to passes overlapping
was found out. It means that the real width of a machine passage was smaller than full machines
working width (pass-to-pass overlapping) due to the operators poor pass-to-pass continuation
estimation. Working width was the most infuential factor in this case. Generally, it is possible
to say that the GPS based navigation systems utilization is possible for almost all mechanized
feld operations. Nowadays, new possible applications of those systems are dealt with, regarding
mainly soil protection from erosion and compaction. Machinery passages in a feld are for current
agriculture practices inevitable but their ordering is usually random. Concerning total feld area
affected by machinery passages, the following facts were found out during comparison of three
different farming systems. The system with ploughing showed up to 88.2% of total area covered with
wheel passages (counting all operations in the feld during one year), conservation tillage system
showed 65.2% of the area affected and no-till system revealed 42.7% of the area run by machinery
wheels. To sum up the results, the experiment revealed enormous intensity of agriculture machinery
passes in felds which could be a potential risk for good soil conditions. Following from that, the
navigation and better accuracy of machinery passages in felds can help in further development of
system for soil compaction protection.
Keywords: guidance systems, controlled traffc farming, GPS
Introduction
At the present time, when the emphasis is placed on intelligent and sustainable farming methods,
satellite navigation for agricultural machinery becomes one of the tools for this modern farming.
Machinery manufacturers, mainly tractor and harvester producers offer several variants for automatic
steering and navigation. Guidance systems gradually replace disk markers on seeders, foam markers
on sprayers or completely substitute tramlines and solve the problem of precise continuing between
two adjacent passages when spreading mineral fertilizers. Further, those systems are used for precise
feld jobs such as stubble ploughing, primary tillage, seedbed preparation and also harvesting.
Besides operating and supervising the implements, the guidance of the vehicle demands a high
level of concentration from a driver. In particular, steering is tiring and monotonous in large felds.
A frequent problem is omission or overlap between two adjacent tracks with broad implements.
Glare or darkness can cause additional deterioration of working conditions. Automatic steering
supports the operator so that he can point his attention to the main functions of the machinery. Due
to this reason, automatic control of agricultural vehicles is gaining more importance, especially
automation of vehicle guidance (Stoll and Kutzbach, 2000). Several authors such as Dunn et al.
(2006), Han et al. (2004), Stoll and Kutzbach (2000), Debain et al. (2000), and Cordesses (2000)
mention in their papers general benefts following from using guidance systems. The summary of
them is as follows:
reduction in drivers fatigue: guidance systems reduce the effort associated with maintaining
accurate vehicle paths;
reduction in costs: accuracy is increased by reducing skip (omissions) and double-up (repeated
application-overlaps) between neighbouring passages in the feld;
increase in productivity: higher operating speeds are possible;
improved quality: the driver can focus attention elsewhere to ensure better quality;
improved safety;
less impact on the environment;
possibility for work at night and when visibility is poor.
Many different types of technologies such as ground based sensing systems (Hague et al., 2000),
laser systems (Chateau, 2000), vision-based machine guidance systems (Han et al., 2004; Debain et
al., 2000), and GPS (Ehsani et al., 2002; Karimi, 2006) have been attempted for use in navigation of
agricultural vehicles. GPS-based navigation systems are the only navigation technologies that have
become commercially available for navigation of farm vehicles (Batte and Ehsani, 2006). DGPS
technology has introduced many possibilities for better input management by enabling growers
and farmers to apply the right amount of input at the right location. As a result, DGPS technology
has made the precision agriculture concept more appealing to the agricultural community (Ehsani
et al., 2002).
The accuracy of the mentioned systems could be measured from meters up to even millimetres.
This range of accuracy is caused by different types of receiving GPS signal corrections (a) and
secondly by degree of automation of the steering system (b).
a. Requirements concerning working accuracy for agriculture are quite high in the range of
centimetres. For that reason it is insuffcient to use only autonomous GPS signals, and it is
necessary to receive corrections differential signals.
b. There are two types of GPS-based guidance systems; GPS guidance-aided systems and fully
automated or hands-free GPS guidance systems that actually steer the tractor with the driver
only supervising it (Batte and Ehsani, 2006).
Berglund and Buick (2005) also point out that it is necessary to distinguish between two different
levels of accuracy called Year-to-Year and Pass-to-Pass.
Controlled traffc farming (CTF).
Using of GPS in common agricultural practice especially for positioning in the feld has been a
milestone for modern agriculture systems and precision farming which is based on precise operations
performance (Sparovek and Schnug, 2001). Only ftting a tractor with GPS receiver and recorder
can help with detection of places with repeated overpasses in the feld (Yule et al. 1999, Richards
2000). However, GPS is not the only one tool for getting more precise operations and practice
precision farming system (Cox, 2002). The use of a technology named controlled traffc may
minimize or eliminate the need for deep tillage or subsoiling, since CTF is based on maintaining
the same wheel lane for several years (Hadas et al., 1990). The CTF was primarily suggested since
soil compaction caused by heavy agricultural machinery has become an acknowledged problem in
reducing agricultural yields. Compacting the soil by traffc reduces the soil infltrability, hydraulic
conductivity, porosity, and aeration and increases bulk density and impedance for root exploration
(Gan-Mor and Clark, 2001; Radford et al., 2007). McPhee et al. (1995) states that up to 30% of
tractor engine power can be wasted due to absorption into soil as soil compaction which increases
pulling force demand by 25%. So, fxing the exact place for machinery wheel tracks and therefore
permanent separation of machinery tramlines from other places (places without any contact with
tyres) would represent a signifcant instrument for reducing energy consumption for tillage. Tullberg
(2000) mentions the increase of the energy consumption for tillage due to previous tyre overpasses
on soil in the range between 25 and 40%. He also adds that half of a tractor engine power could
be wasted due to soil loosening after preceding machinery overpasses. In another words this half
of an engine power contributes to soil degradation.
When using CTF, it is possible to say that time savings as well as material inputs savings can be up
to 10% or even 20%. Benefts following from CTF can be also found in the area of water cycle in
soil. Li et al. (2004) discovered that total water runoff from the feld, where CTF had been applied,
was by 68 mm (36%) lower in comparison with a standardly treated feld. Runoff from the feld
with no-till system and CTF was lower even by 93 mm (47.2%) compared with a conventionally
tilled feld without CTF using.
It is necessary to say that the right orientation of the vehicle tracks with respect to a feld slope is
really important (Tullberg, 2001).
Contour farming, controlled traffc and sub-surface drip-irrigation are technologies where the
centimetre accuracy is essential for the commercial application and the high investment is thus
clearly justifed (Gan-Mor and Clark, 2001).
The purpose of this work is to evaluate the accuracy of currently used guidance systems for
agricultural machines. Real pass-to-pass errors (missings and overlaps) in a feld were measured.
Furthermore, intensity of machinery passages, percentage of wheeled area and repeated passes in
felds were monitored.
In this paper, we specifcally focus on data gathered from using an agricultural guidance system
based on Global Positioning Systems (GPS) to ensure maximum feld job accuracy. Eight different
systems with various differential signal type were evaluated in this study. Equipment and elements of
Trimble Company (variants 1 to 8) and guidance system of John Deere Company with a differential
signal SF2 (variants 9 and 10) were used for our measurements. Variants 11 to 15 were without
any navigation and were also included into data evaluation. Detailed overview of all variants
measured is in Table 1.
The measurements were carried out under normal feld conditions in an even feld without any
obstacles in line of vision. Measured values were obtained with help of a laser rangefnder by
means of so called matrix method. This matrix method for measuring the pass-to-pass accuracy
is called pass-to-pass method. The principle is the measurement of the distance between axes
or tyre tracks of two neighbouring passages (Beel, 2000). This method is possible to use directly
after the unit passage if the tyre tracks or other identifcation marks (for instance tramline marks)
are clearly visible.
For each experiment run and further statistical evaluation of the pass-to-pass accuracy 36 values
were obtained in the following way. Firstly, 7 passes with the tractor-implement unit were done
in a consecutive continuous way next to each other. These passes were consequently possible to
evaluate concerning measuring their real widths (overlaps or missings taken into account and real job
performed by one single pass was counted). Distances between tyre tracks of neighbouring passages
were measured, thus 6 values of real widths were obtained. Further, another 6 measurements of tyre
tracks distance were carried out in the axial direction at a distance from the previous measurement
equal to the designed working width of the implement. This procedure was repeated completely
six times. Always the deviations between the real width performed in the feld and the implement
working width were counted.
Evaluation of the number and frequency of agricultural machinery passages across a feld.
DGPS receivers with a position recorder and with logging time of 2 s were used for monitoring of
machinery entries and all passages across a feld.
All feld operations and all other machinery and vehicles running across selected felds were
monitored during one year. Also different tillage variants were evaluated, namely conventional
system with ploughing, conservation tillage and as well as no-till system. Trajectories for every
single machine which were present in the monitored feld were made from the GPS position recorder.
Then, the area passed over by the machine tyres were counted from the tyre type, tyre width and
wheel spacing. For better evaluation and comparison between different tillage variants, 1 ha of a
particular feld was chosen as a representative square with one long side of 100 m.
Table 1. Overview of evaluated guidance variants.
Guidance
variants
Work stages Operating
width /setting
Guidance type Differential
signal type
W
i
t
h

g
u
i
d
a
n
c
e
1 Tractor JD 8520
Seeder Horsch
8 m / 8 m Autopilot system RTK
2 Tractor Fendt 924
Disc tiller Lemken
6 m / 5.95 m Autopilot system Omnistar XP
3 Tractor JD 8520
Seeder Horsch
8 m / 7.95 m Autopilot system Omnistar HP
4 Tractor CASE CVX 1190
Sprayer Mamut
24 m / 23.75 mAssisted steering system
EZ-Steer
Omnistar HP
5 Tractor Steyer 9230
Slicker
8 m / 7.75 m Assisted steering system
EZ-Steer
Egnos
6 Tractor Steyer 9230
Slicker
8 m / 7.80 m Assisted steering system
EZ-Steer
Omnistar XP
7 Self-propelled sprayer
Tecnoma Laser 400
36 m / 35.6 Manual lightbar guidance
Trimble AgGPS PSO 21
Omnistar VBS
8 Tractor JD 6820
Sprayer Vicon RotaFlow
24 m / 23.8 m Manual lightbar guidance
Trimble EZ-Guide Plus
Egnos
9 Tractor JD
Sprayer
30 m/ 29.9 m Autopilot system
JD AutoTrac
SF 2
10 Tractor JD
Sprayer
30 m/ 29.9 m Autopilot system
JD AutoTrac
SF 2
W
i
t
h
o
u
t

g
u
i
d
a
n
c
e
11 Tractor Fendt 924
Disc tiller Lemken
6 m / - Driver - experience
8 year
By estimation
of driver
12 Tractor JD 8320
Disc tiller Strom
5 year
By estimation
of driver
13 Tractor Zetor 9540
Sprayer HARDI Twin Air
6 year
By estimation
of driver
14 Tractor Zetor 10540
Sprayer HARDI Twin Air
13 year
Foam marker
15 Tractor New Holland TE 88
Seeder Accord MT 6
5 year
Marker
Software used
MS Offce Word, Excel, Access and ArcGIS 9.2 with its accessories and additional packages was
used for further data processing and the evaluation. Statistica Cz 8.0 version was used for a detailed
statistical analysis.
The pass-to-pass accuracy when using satellite navigation depends on many factors. First, if
the principle of vehicle guidance is assisted or fully automated, the human steering factor can
be excluded as possible error point. When using this kind of guidance systems, a driver is only
concentrated on the frst run and turning over on headlands. The second factor is the accuracy of
navigation system in itself. This point can be divided into the accuracy of receiving DGPS signal
(or possibly RTK signal) and the accuracy of the steering system of a vehicle. The third factor
is the whole unit tractor-implement. A tractor with an implement moving on a slope in a feld in
contour lines direction is a problem case, because the implement is not working exactly identically
with the tractor direction, or to say otherwise, with its axis. Despite the fact that the tractor can be
equipped with a slope compensation system, the implement could have a tendency for turning aside.
All those factors together determine the fnal accuracy of satellite navigation used in practice.
Table 2 shows a basic statistical overview on deviations for our measurements. The statistical
characteristics illustrate the variability of the measured values together with the maximum and
minimum value measured.
All variants with navigation, except variants 5 and 7, showed a mean error value very close to 0.
The best results with the lowest errors had the navigation using RTK signal.
Variants 2, 3, 9 and 10 also demonstrated lower deviations concerning desired direction and area
of machines passage. In those cases, not only differential signal type but also the vehicle steering
system had a great effect on good feld job accuracy. Direct control of vehicle by means of automated
steering system had very quick response to desired changes in direction and therefore very good
accuracy.
The benefts of satellite navigation proves most signifcant differences between variants 2 and 11;
meaning variants with and without navigation when performing the same operation.
Table 2. Statistical overview of pass-to-pass errors (m) for all variants measured.
Guidance variants
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Mean 0.00 -0.01 -0.01 -0.04 -0.11 -0.03 0.36 -0.10 -0.01 0.00 0.17 0.20 0.43 0.09 0.17
Median 0.01 0.00 -0.02 -0.04 -0.13 -0.03 0.35 -0.01 -0.02 0.00 0.15 0.18 0.79 0.18 0.16
Standard
deviation
0.03 0.05 0.06 0.12 0.13 0.07 0.16 0.21 0.05 0.04 0.08 0.11 0.94 0.61 0.04
Skew -0.47 -0.64 0.67 0.20 0.14 0.09 0.28 -0.78 0.27 0.10 -0.72 0.83 -0.10 -0.87 0.59
Difference
min-max
0.12 0.16 0.25 0.49 0.51 0.24 0.60 0.67 0.16 0.18 0.44 0.48 3.10 2.29 0.19
Minimum -0.07 -0.11 -0.10 -0.26 -0.37 -0.15 0.09 -0.52 -0.08 -0.08 -0.10 -0.02 -1.10 -1.27 0.09
Maximum 0.05 0.05 0.15 0.23 0.14 0.09 0.69 0.15 0.08 0.10 0.34 0.46 2.00 1.02 0.28
It is possible to see a lower level of accuracy in variants 4, 5 and 6 where the assisted steering system
was used. In comparison with the fully automated steering, the assisted steering has signifcantly
longer reaction time to change in the desired direction.
Variant 5 was evaluated as the least accurate of the group of variants with assisted steering. This
was probably due to poor quality of the Egnos signal which is generally not very stable according
to our experience. The worst results showed variants 7 and 8 due to the human factor which is
necessary to control those guidance systems.
Variants without any navigation system resulted in a positive mean value of errors, which means
that the implement overlapped the preceding passage during the feld job.
It was shown that also working width has a signifcant infuence on the accuracy of feld job. This
fact can be very clearly seen on the variant with sprayer (18 m working width) and with disc tiller
(6 m working width). The driver with the tiller was able to continue the next passage more precisely
than the one with the sprayer. The sprayer performed with better accuracy using a foam marker.
Also better results in variant 15 were achieved by means of a disc marker but despite this fact the
overlap was still 0.17 m in average. Graphic representation of errors distribution is shown in Figure 1.
Three different tillage systems were evaluated concerning the intensity of machinery passages across
felds. Tyres tracks and the area run over by the tyres were observed in three representative squares
selected from each tillage variant with the acreage 1 ha. All machinery entries and movements in
the evaluated feld during one year were included into the analysis (Table 3).
The results showed that 88.2% of the total feld area was run over with a machine at least once a
year, when using conventional tillage, and 65.2% and 42.7% of the total feld area were run-over
when using conservation tillage and direct seeding respectively. It was calculated that 96.7% of
covered area was run-over repeatedly for conventional tillage, 31.0% for conservation tillage and
only 9.2% for direct seeding. When using double tyre mounting in the variant with conventional
tillage (only during tillage, seedbed preparation and seeding), the area affected by tyres increased
to 96% and 144% was the area with repeated passages.
Soil compaction by machinery traffc in agriculture is a well recognised problem in many parts of
the world (Hkansson et al., 1988; Hkansson 1990; Horn and Fleige 2003; Chan et al., 2006). The
extent of the soil compaction is a function of soil type and water content, vehicle weight, speed,
ground contact pressure and number of passes, and their interactions with cropping frequency
and farming practices (Ball and Ritchie, 1999; Chamen et al., 2003; Chan et al., 2006; Radford et

Figure 1. Graphical overview on errors for all variants measured.

Figure 1. Graphical overview on errors for all measured variants.
al.. 2007). Compacted soil by machinery tyres is not only a problem of one year or a season. It is
possible to fnd undesired compaction and changed soil structure even during several following years.
It is necessary to add that soil moisture is very important feature when evaluating vulnerability of
soil to compaction. It is known that wet soil as well as loose soil is more susceptible to compaction
in comparison to dry and more dense soil. For that reason, some feld operations can be more
dangerous for soils, such as spring tillage or harvesting of very late crops in autumn. Also irrigated
felds and very intensively utilised felds are vulnerable to soil compaction. Thus, following from
the previously stated and from our measurements, the less intensity of feld operations, the less
loading the soil with machinery passages. As it is possible to see in Table 3, repeated passages,
which cause even worse effect to soil, also play a very important role.
Introduction and utilization of control of traffc farming with precisely set tyre tracks could be a
tool for minimising of soil compaction risk.
The greatest beneft from CTF systems is obtained when all machinery including the leader (i.e.
the harvester) is matched to same wheel base. Technical solutions of having the same tyre or belt
spacing on all machines used in the feld could be a main obstacle for common utilization of CTF.
On the other hand, the CTF system is possible to use without strictly following this condition.
The only one exception appeared to be with combine harvesters. So, only one machine could be
acceptable to make passages in a slightly different way. The percentage of wheeled area in a feld
Table 3. Frequency of agricultural machinery passages across a feld.
Conventional system
with ploughing
O
p
e
r
a
t
i
n
g

w
i
d
t
h

(
m
)
R
u
n
-
o
v
e
r

(
%
)
Conservation tillage
O
p
e
r
a
t
i
n
g

w
i
d
t
h

(
m
)
R
u
n
-
o
v
e
r

(
%
)
Direct seeding
O
p
e
r
a
t
i
n
g

w
i
d
t
h

(
m
)
R
u
n
-
o
v
e
r

(
%
)
Stubble breaking 6 18.9 Stubble breaking 8 23.0 Desiccation 36 2.67
Liquid manure
application
12 9.1 Desiccation 36 2.67 Seeding 8 20.2
Ploughing 44.6 Shallow tillage 8 21.4 Protection,
fertilization
(spraying rows)
36 2.81
Presowing preparation 10 32 Seeding 8 20.2 Harvest 6.1 25.2
Seeding 6 19.2 Protection,
fertilization
(spraying rows)
36 2.81 Grain disposal 0.9
Protection, fertilization
(spraying rows)
24 2.5 Harvest 6.1 25.2
Harvest 7.5 21.7 Grain disposal 0.9
Grain disposal 3.9
Straw ballers press 13.5
Straw bales disposal 3.9
Run-over (total) (%) 88.2 65.2 42.7
Repeatedly run-over (%) 96.7 31.0 9.2
when using CTF will be considerably lower comparing to current practice. However, wheeled area
is dependent on machines working width and size of a feld. For instance Li Hong Wen et al. (2000)
showed in his work that feld with CTF showed only 20% wheeled feld surface.
Conclusions
The fnal navigation accuracy and therefore its utilization with signifcant benefts is dependent
on several factors. The deciding factor appears to be the differential signal type. A second very
important factor is the design of the control system for steering.
The evaluation of feld operation errors concerning pass-to-pass accuracy when using navigation
proved their decrease and therefore better job effcacy. When the steering was dependent on the
drivers action, the mean value of the error always showed the overlapping of passages. Also working
width of an implement plays an important role for good accuracy achieving.
To summarize the results of number and frequency of agricultural machinery passages across a feld
the following statements can be written. The results showed considerable high number of tyres
contacts with soil using conventional tillage technologies with ploughing. Also high numbers of
repeatedly run-over areas were detected there. Conservation tillage and no-tillage technologies had
signifcantly lower number of machinery passes.
Acknowledgements
Supported by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic, Project No. MSM
604 6070905 and by the Ministry of Agriculture of the Czech Republic, Project No. QH 92105.
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Section 11
Guidance and machine performance
Parallel guidance system for tractor-trailer system with
active joint
J. Backman, T. Oksanen and A. Visala
5500, 02015 TKK, Finland; juha.backman@tkk.f
Abstract
Parallel tracking or auto guidance systems are becoming common in tractors. Auto guidance systems
with accurate positioning allow driving very accurately in straight driving lines. If the driving
lines include curves, however, it is mathematically much harder to keep the shortest distance to
the adjacent driving line constant. And it becomes even harder if the vehicle is a tractor-trailer and
a certain point in the trailer has to follow the curve. If the feld has slopes, the trailer necessarily
does not follow the kinematical route and more measurements are required to compensate for
the error. In this paper a developed path tracking system is presented. An ISO 11783 compatible
tractor was used together with a towed combine seed drill. The drawbar of the seed drill was
customized by adding a hydraulically controlled joint. The measurements used in navigation were:
a RTK-GPS receiver in the tractor, a laser scanner in the seed drill to detect previous swath, and
attitude estimation from the inertial and magnetometer measurements. Two different algorithms
were developed: a simple one which is based solely on tractor navigation with direct laser scanner
based drawbar control; and an advanced one which is based on nonlinear Model Predictive Control
(MPC). In MPC approach, a full kinematic model of the tractor-trailer system with active joint is
utilized and the laser scanner measurement is in an auxiliary state. For testing purposes a simulator
was also developed. The active joint in the trailer drawbar was found to be valuable as the response
from control to error is much quicker than from front wheel control. The laser scanner was found
to be reliable to detect an edge of the previous swath when the produced small furrow at the edge
is clear. The model predictive control also worked nicely and gave a smoother control curve than
traditional control algorithms without affecting the response and settling time.
Keywords: navigation, path tracking, model predictive control, kinematics, agriculture
Introduction
In agricultural guidance systems the basic idea of path tracking has been to take some point of the
followed path at a defned distance ahead of the tractor and to calculate the steering angle which
would lead the tractor to that point. The idea is essentially the same, despite the algorithms, for
how the control value is calculated. These algorithms do not take into account the position of
the implement in general. The idea of this research is to try to keep both tractor and trailer in the
followed path. Also because there are two controllable degrees of freedoms in the system, the
problem statement becomes a multivariable control problem. Model Predictive Control (MPC) is
a good choice for this kind of purpose. With that it is also possible to take into account more points
along the followed path.
The test confguration consisted of a standard tractor and towed trailer. The tractor was a Valtra T190,
with added ISOBUS (ISO 11783) Class 3 facilities. The trailer was a Junkkari Maestro 3000 seed
drill, with also added ISOBUS facilities. The drawbar of the seed drill was also modifed for this
research by supplementing an extra controllable joint. This joint gives an extra degree of freedom
for controlling the position of the seed drill. This test confguration is illustrated in Figure 1.
The structure of navigation system
The navigation system can be divided roughly into three parts: path planning, path tracking and
actuator control. In this paper, the focus is on path tracking and the other parts receive less detailed
attention.
Basic path planning algorithm
Path planning is a challenging task as such. In this research, the adjacent driving line is used for two
simple reasons: the limited measurement range of the laser scanner and ease of implementation.
A laser scanner can measure land-marks accurately only two meters distance in both directions.
This limits the usage of local positioning to only the adjacent driving lines. Also in the global
positioning system, the path to be tracked is gained from the recorded GPS-positions of the trailer.
The positions are shifted amount of one machine width away from already sowed area in order to
gain the new adjacent driving line. More advanced path planning algorithms are considered, for
example, in Oksanen (2007).
Path tracking algorithms
The purpose of path tracking algorithms is to keep a vehicle on the desired route. In this research
there were two different types of path tracking algorithms developed: a Target Point algorithm
and a MPC-based algorithm. The developed Target Point algorithm is similar to the Pure-pursuit
algorithm developed by Amidi (1990). In addition to Amidis algorithm, an integration term was
used to boost up steering in strict curves. Another similar type tracking algorithm is, for example,
the Vector-pursuit algorithm (Wit et al., 2004).
As the basic path tracking algorithm did not cover the control of the active joint, the control values
were calculated in a geometric manner from the distance to the path measured by the laser scanner.
The transformation formula from the distance (L) to the desired joint angle (y
new
) is in Equation 1.
new
= sin
-1
(sin() + L/c) (1)
where variable c is the length of the drawbar and y is current joint angle measurement. It is noticeable
that this transform does not take account of either the GPS-position or the recorded path. In this way,
the system consists of two separate path tracking algorithms; a local positioning based algorithm
for the trailer and a global positioning based algorithm for the tractor.
MPC-based algorithms are completely different, utilizing the followed path along a broader length,
not just a single point like the previously mentioned algorithms. They can also give control values

Figure 1 Test equipments in field.
Figure 1. Test equipments in feld.
to several actuators simultaneously. The usage of real time MPC algorithms is becoming possible
due to the development of the computational resources of computers. Lately, several researchers
(Lenain et al., 2005; Vougioukas, 2007) have used MPC for path tracking problems. In their research,
however, there has been only one controlled variable: the steering angle of the front wheels of the
tractor; and the position of the trailer is not considered.
Actuators
The ISOBUS defnes the control interface of the steering angle. Control messages consist of
curvature values so the implementation of the wheel angle controller is at lower level and stays
at the responsibility of the tractor manufacturer. The navigation system gives setpoint values for
this controller.
There are specifed messages to control the hydraulic valve in the ISOBUS, but the control of the
active joint is not considered. Therefore, the navigation system must include a low level controller
which controls the valve of the hydraulic cylinders of the joint. The implemented controller was a
standard PID-controller which uses the difference of desired and measured joint angle as an input
value. With this controller the active joint worked in a way similar to a front wheel steering.
Localization
In this research, the tractor position was measured with a Trimble 7400MSi RTK-GPS receiver.
It produces position measurements fve times per seconds and horizontal accuracy is stated to be
three centimetres. If the number of available satellites drops below fve, however, the accuracy
dramatically reduces. A Trimble 5700 VRS-GPS was used as a reference measurement for the trailer
position. It was not used for any control purposes. Attitude estimation from inertial, magnetometer
and GPS measurements was gained with the help of an Unscented Kalman flter. As mentioned
before, in addition to the global positioning system based on RTK-GPS, also a local positioning
system based on laser scanner is also utilized.
Model predictive control
The function of Model Predictive Control is based on predicting future changes in the states of
the controlled model. Together with predicting, MPC also tries to fnd an optimal solution for the
control problem. Optimality is judged from the quadratic cost function.
The prediction model is in Equation 2.
x(k+1) = Ax(k) + B
u
u(k) + B
v
v(k) + B
d
d(k)
y
m
(k) = C
m
x(k) + D
vm
v(k) + D
dm
d(k) (2)
y
u
(k) = C
u
x(k) + D
vu
v(k) + D
du
d(k)
Where x is the process state vector, u the control vector, v the measured disturbances vector, the
unmeasured disturbances vector, y
m
the measured outputs vector and y
u
the unmeasured outputs
vector. The cost function is defned in Equation 3.
(3)
Where the y vector consist of y
m
and y
u
, r is the target vector and Q, R
u
and R
u
are positive
semidefnite square-matrices consisting weights. Variable is a slack variable, which is used to
loosen the limits in state constraints. Constraints are in Equation 4.
where x is the process state vector, u the control vector, v the measured disturbances vector,
d the unmeasured disturbances vector,
m
y the measured outputs vector and
u
y the
unmeasured outputs vector. The cost function is defined in Equation 3.
[ ] [ ] (
[ ] [ ])
2
1
0
) ( ) | ( ) ( ) | (
) | ( ) | (
) 1 ( ) | 1 ( ) 1 ( ) | 1 ( ) , (

+ + + + + +
+ + +
+ + + + + + + + =

=
i k u k i k u i k u k i k u
k i k u k i k u
i k r k i k y i k r k i k y u J
target
T
target
T
p
i
T
u
u
R
R
Q
,
(3)
Where the y vector consist of
m
y and
u
y , r is the target vector and Q,
u
R and
u
R are
positive semidefinite square-matrices consisting weights. Variable is a slack variable,
which is used to loosen the limits in state constraints. Constraints are in Equation 4.
+ + +
+ +
+ +

0
) ( ) ( ) | 1 ( ) ( ) (
) ( ) ( ) | ( ) ( ) (
) ( ) ( ) | ( ) ( ) (
max max min min
max max min min
max max min min

i V i y k i k y i V i y
i V i u k i k u i V i u
y y
u u
u u
,
(4)
where the vectors
min
u ,
max
u ,
min
u ,
max
u ,
min
y and
max
y are minimum and maximum values
of the controls, control changes and measurements respectively.
u
V
min
,
u
V
max
,
u
V

min
,
u
V

max
,
y
V
min

and
y
V
max
are the loosening parameters for the minimum and maximum values.
Because the cost function is a quadratic type, the solution of the optimization problem is
gained from the QP-solver (Quadratic Programming). This is automatically done by the
Matlab Model Predictive Control Toolbox. (Bemporad et. al., 2008)
4 Kinematic model of tractor-trailer system
As mentioned in the previous chapter, MPC requires an exact model of the controlled system.
In this case, the model of the controlled system is the kinematic model of the tractor-trailer
combination. In derivation of the kinematic model, it is assumed that the ground is ideal and
sliding does not occur. With these assumptions, the kinematic model can be easily derived
from two sets of constraints. The first set of constraints connects together the global positions
of the centre point of the front ) , (
F F
y x and rear ) , (
R R
y x axles, the connection point of the
drawbar ) , (
C C
y x , the point of the controlled joint ) , (
D D
y x , the centre point of the seed drill
) , (
E E
y x and the position of the laser scanner ) , (
L L
y x . These constraints are in Equation 5.
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
+ =
+ =
) sin(
) cos(
) sin(
) cos(
) sin(
) cos(
) sin(
) cos(
) sin(
) cos(

l y y
l x x
d y y
d x x
c y y
c x x
b y y
b x x
a y y
a x x
D L
D L
D E
D E
C D
C D
R C
R C
R F
R F
,
(5)
where a is the wheelbase, b is the distance from the rear axle to the connection point of the
drawbar, c is the length of the drawbar, d is the distance from the drawbar joint to the centre
(4)
where the vectors u
min
, u
max
, u
min
, u
max
, y
min
and

y
max
are minimum and maximum values of the
controls, control changes and measurements respectively. V
u
min
, V
u
max
, V
u
min
, V
u
max
, V
y
min
and V
y
max
are
the loosening parameters for the minimum and maximum values.
Because the cost function is a quadratic type, the solution of the optimization problem is gained
from the QP-solver (Quadratic Programming). This is automatically done by the Matlab Model
Predictive Control Toolbox (Bemporad et al., 2008).
Kinematic model of tractor-trailer system
As mentioned in the previous chapter, MPC requires an exact model of the controlled system. In this
case, the model of the controlled system is the kinematic model of the tractor-trailer combination. In
derivation of the kinematic model, it is assumed that the ground is ideal and sliding does not occur.
With these assumptions, the kinematic model can be easily derived from two sets of constraints.
The frst set of constraints connects together the global positions of the centre point of the front (x
F
,
y
F
) and rear (x
R
, y
R
) axles, the connection point of the drawbar (x
C
, y
C
), the point of the controlled
joint (x
D
y
D
), the centre point of the seed drill (x
E
, y
E
) and the position of the laser scanner (x
L
, y
L
).
These constraints are in Equation 5.
(5)
Where a is the wheelbase, b is the distance from the rear axle to the connection point of the drawbar,
c is the length of the drawbar, d is the distance from the drawbar joint to the centre point of the
seed drill, l is the distance from the drawbar joint to the laser scanner, is the tractor heading, is
the angle between tractor and the drawbar and is the angle of the controlled joint. These above
mentioned positions and parameters are also depicted in Figure 2.
The second set of constraints includes the assumption that sliding does not occur. In other words,
movement perpendicular to the heading is zero and movement of the rear axle along the heading
direction equals the velocity of the tractor. These constraints are in Equation 6.
(6)
Where s denotes the time derivative of the variable s, L is the distance to the followed path measured
by the laser scanner and is the angle of the front wheels.
The centre point of the tractor rear axle, tractor heading, angle between the tractor and the drawbar
and the distance to the followed path are considered to be the state variables. The steering angle
of the front wheels and the angle of the controlled joint are considered to be control variables. The
velocity of the tractor is considered to be a measured disturbance because it is controlled manually
m
u
y the
[ ] [ ] (
[ ] [ ])
2
1
0
) ( ) | ( ) ( ) | (
) | ( ) | (
) 1 ( ) | 1 ( ) 1 ( ) | 1 ( ) , (

+ + + + + +
+ + +
+ + + + + + + + =

=
k i k u k i k u
target
T
target
T
p
i
T
u
u
R
R
Q
,
(3)
m
y and
u
u
R and
u
R are
+ + +
+ +
+ +

0
) ( ) ( ) | 1 ( ) ( ) (
) ( ) ( ) | ( ) ( ) (
) ( ) ( ) | ( ) ( ) (
max max min min
max max min min
max max min min

y y
u u
u u
,
(4)
where the vectors
min
u ,
max
u ,
min
u ,
max
u ,
min
y and
max
u
V
min
,
u
V
max
,
u
V

min
,
u
V

max
,
y
V
min

and
y
V
max
F F
y x and rear ) , (
R R
drawbar ) , (
C C
D D
) , (
E E
L L
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
+ =
+ =
) sin(
) cos(
) sin(
) cos(
) sin(
) cos(
) sin(
) cos(
) sin(
) cos(

l y y
l x x
d y y
d x x
c y y
c x x
b y y
b x x
a y y
a x x
D L
D L
D E
D E
C D
C D
R C
R C
R F
R F
,
(5)
m
u
y the
[ ] [ ] (
[ ] [ ])
2
1
0
) ( ) | ( ) ( ) | (
) | ( ) | (
) 1 ( ) | 1 ( ) 1 ( ) | 1 ( ) , (

+ + + + + +
+ + +
+ + + + + + + + =

=
k i k u k i k u
target
T
target
T
p
i
T
u
u
R
R
Q
,
(3)
m
y and
u
u
R and
u
R are
+ + +
+ +
+ +

0
) ( ) ( ) | 1 ( ) ( ) (
) ( ) ( ) | ( ) ( ) (
) ( ) ( ) | ( ) ( ) (
max max min min
max max min min
max max min min

y y
u u
u u
,
(4)
where the vectors
min
u ,
max
u ,
min
u ,
max
u ,
min
y and
max
u
V
min
,
u
V
max
,
u
V

min
,
u
V

max
,
y
V
min

and
y
V
max
F F
y x and rear ) , (
R R
drawbar ) , (
C C
D D
) , (
E E
L L
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
+ =
+ =
) sin(
) cos(
) sin(
) cos(
) sin(
) cos(
) sin(
) cos(
) sin(
) cos(

l y y
l x x
d y y
d x x
c y y
c x x
b y y
b x x
a y y
a x x
D L
D L
D E
D E
C D
C D
R C
R C
R F
R F
,
(5)
point of the seed drill, l is the distance from the drawbar joint to the laser scanner, is the
tractor heading, is the angle between tractor and the drawbar and is the angle of the
controlled joint. These above mentioned positions and parameters are also depicted in
Figure 2.

Figure 2 Variables and parameters of the kinematic model.
The second set of constraints includes the assumption that sliding does not occur. In other
words, movement perpendicular to the heading is zero and movement of the rear axle along
the heading direction equals the velocity of the tractor. These constraints are in Equation 6.
+ =
= +
= + + +
= +
= +
) cos( ) sin(
0 ) cos( ) sin(
0 ) cos( ) sin(
0 ) cos( ) sin(
) sin( ) cos(

L L
E E
F F
R R
R R
y x L
y x
y x
y x
v y x
& &
&
& &
& &
& &
& &
,
(6)
where s& denotes the time derivative of the variable s , L is the distance to the followed path
measured by the laser scanner and is the angle of the front wheels.
The centre point of the tractor rear axle, tractor heading, angle between the tractor and the
drawbar and the distance to the followed path are considered to be the state variables. The
steering angle of the front wheels and the angle of the controlled joint are considered to be
control variables. The velocity of the tractor is considered to be a measured disturbance
because it is controlled manually in this research. The state equations are derived from the
two sets of given constraints in Equation 5 and Equation 6. The results are in Equation 7.
+
+ +
=
+
+ + + + +
=
=
=
=
) cos( (
) ) cos( ))) tan( ) sin( cos( )( sin( )) tan( ) cos( ) sin( )( (cos( )( (
)) cos( (
) tan( )) cos( ) cos( ( ) sin(
) tan(
) sin(
) cos(
c d a
ac b a b a v l d
L
c d a
ad b c d v av
a
v
v y
v x
R
R
&
&
&
&
&
&
&
(7)
in this research. The state equations are derived from the two sets of given constraints in Equation
5 and 6. The results are in Equation 7.

(7)
These state equations are highly nonlinear and, therefore, they must be linearized about an operating
point in order to gain the linear state space model as in Equation 1. It turned out that the linearization
and QP-solver reinitialization with the MPC Toolbox takes about three times longer than the control
cycle time. Therefore, linearization is done only if the tractor heading is changed remarkably. In
this research, linearization was done if the tractor heading was changed 45 degrees.
Laser scanner measurement handling
The seed drill marks its route on the feld with a small plough which is mounted in the following
harrow and is located rear left corner of the seed drill. The produced furrow is approximately 5
cm deep and 15 cm wide in dry ground and in wet ground even smaller. The furrow is located at
the edge of the swath and it will be covered by the adjacent driving line. As seen in Figure 3, the
furrow is not much larger than natural roughness in the feld so any additional coverer is not needed.
The laser scanner is mounted one meter above the ground in the front right corner of the seed
drill. The scanning direction is perpendicular to the ground and driving direction. In this research
a Sick LMS221 2D laser scanner was used. It scans a 180 degree area with one degree resolution
77 times per second.
At frst, the laser scanner measurements are transformed from polar coordinates to rectangular
coordinates. From this the supposed ground level is found by ftting the frst degree polynomial
to the neighbourhood of last found mark position by minimizing the Mean Square Error (MSE).
The instantaneous mark position is found by ftting the mark prototype to the residuals again by
point of the seed drill, l is the distance from the drawbar joint to the laser scanner, is the
tractor heading, is the angle between tractor and the drawbar and is the angle of the
controlled joint. These above mentioned positions and parameters are also depicted in
Figure 2.

The second set of constraints includes the assumption that sliding does not occur. In other
words, movement perpendicular to the heading is zero and movement of the rear axle along
the heading direction equals the velocity of the tractor. These constraints are in Equation 6.
+ =
= +
= + + +
= +
= +
) cos( ) sin(
0 ) cos( ) sin(
0 ) cos( ) sin(
0 ) cos( ) sin(
) sin( ) cos(

L L
E E
F F
R R
R R
y x L
y x
y x
y x
v y x
& &
&
& &
& &
& &
& &
,
(6)
where s& denotes the time derivative of the variable s , L is the distance to the followed path
measured by the laser scanner and is the angle of the front wheels.
The centre point of the tractor rear axle, tractor heading, angle between the tractor and the
drawbar and the distance to the followed path are considered to be the state variables. The
steering angle of the front wheels and the angle of the controlled joint are considered to be
control variables. The velocity of the tractor is considered to be a measured disturbance
because it is controlled manually in this research. The state equations are derived from the
two sets of given constraints in Equation 5 and Equation 6. The results are in Equation 7.
+
+ +
=
+
+ + + + +
=
=
=
=
) cos( (
) ) cos( ))) tan( ) sin( cos( )( sin( )) tan( ) cos( ) sin( )( (cos( )( (
)) cos( (
) tan( )) cos( ) cos( ( ) sin(
) tan(
) sin(
) cos(
c d a
ac b a b a v l d
L
c d a
ad b c d v av
a
v
v y
v x
R
R
&
&
&
&
&
&
&
(7)

Figure 2. Variables and parameters of the kinematic model.
minimizing the MSE error. The found positions are fltered by a fve sample averaging flter which
leaves the leftmost and the rightmost measurements out. This reduces noise and prevents outliers
from affecting the control. In Figure 3, the feld profle and ftted ground level together with the
mark prototype is drawn.
Results
The frst tests were performed in a simulator where the kinematic model was utilized and noises
were modelled. Final tuning was done under feld conditions. The prediction horizon of the MPC
algorithm was 60 steps and the control horizon was fve steps, but the same control value was kept
for three consecutive time steps so the control horizon was in total 15 time steps long. A single time
step was 100 milliseconds long which was the same as the control cycle time of both algorithms. The
followed point in the Target Point algorithm was four meters ahead of the front axle of the tractor.
The laser scanner worked surprisingly well and distance to the followed path was recognized
reliably 80% of the time. Sometimes the tractor front wheels went over the mark furrow and the
mark was destroyed. Unfortunately, this happened mainly in tight curves where local positioning
is required most. With a wider seed drill these events would be much more uncommon and the
recognizing percent even better.
The developed path tracking algorithms were compared in four different cases. Tests were similar
to those from Roth et al. (2002). These four different cases were: straight line following test, step
response test, real world test and tight curve following test.
The frst test straight line following, did not shown much difference between the tested
algorithms. The following accuracy was almost as good as positioning accuracy with the standard
deviation of the errors being smaller than 10 cm.
The second test step response, was realized by starting the navigation system at the desired
speed when the tractor was manually driven two and a half meters beside the followed path. The
function in the Equation 8 was ftted to the error values to gain some statistical information.
the mark was destroyed. Unfortunately, this happened mainly in tight curves where local
positioning is required most. With a wider seed drill these events would be much more
uncommon and the recognizing percent even better.
The developed path tracking algorithms were compared in four different cases. Tests were
similar to those from Roth et al. (2002). These four different cases were: straight line
following test, step response test, real world test and tight curve following test.
The first test - straight line following, did not shown much difference between the tested
algorithms. The following accuracy was almost as good as positioning accuracy with the
standard deviation of the errors being smaller than 10 cm.
The second test - step response, was realized by starting the navigation system at the desired
speed when the tractor was manually driven two and a half meters beside the followed path.
The function in the Equation 8 was fitted to the error values to gain some statistical
information.
1 0
) cos( ) exp( y t t y y + =
,
(8)
where t is time since the discontinuity, is the exponential decay constant and is the
oscillation frequency (Roth et al., 2002). Some of the results are listed in Table 1.
Table 1 Results from the second test at 8 km/h speed.
Tractor Trailer
Method v (km/h) (s) (s
-1
)

(s) (s
-1
)

MPC 8 3.05 0.45 100 3.03 0.54 149
TargetPoint + active joint 8 4.37 0.78 130 2.98 0.73 190
TargetPoint 8 4.90 0.59 149 2.81 0.44 203

It can be seen in the results that the MPC algorithm is slightly faster to settle down to a new
path than the Target Point algorithm. Nevertheless, changes in the control values were
smoother as seen in Figure 4. This is due to the overshooting of the Target Point algorithm.
The same kind of results were achieved also with different speeds and step sizes.

Figure 4 Control values of steering and joint angles using MPC and Target Point algorithms in step response test.
(8)
Where t is time since the discontinuity, is the exponential decay constant and is the oscillation
frequency (Roth et al., 2002). Some of the results are listed in Table 1.
It can be seen in the results that the MPC algorithm is slightly faster to settle down to a new path
than the Target Point algorithm. Nevertheless, changes in the control values were smoother as seen
in Figure 4. This is due to the overshooting of the Target Point algorithm. The same kind of results
were achieved also with different speeds and step sizes.
The third test real world test, consisted of several variable sizes curves. The results using either
MPC or Target Point algorithms were again similar. If active joint was not used, however, the
error was much larger than with if the active joint was used. Especially in the last test tight curve

Figure 3 Laser scanner measurements and fitted mark prototype, note that the scales of x- and y-axis are different.
Figure 3. Laser scanner measurements and ftted mark prototype, note that the scales of x- and
y-axis are different.
test, where path curvature was changed smoothly from a nine meter radius to a 20 meter radius,
the trailer straightened curves being almost one meter distance to the followed path. In the same
tests using active joint, the error was 0.40 m at most.
Conclusions
A navigation system with global and local positioning systems was developed. The global positioning
system was based on RTK-GPS and the local positioning system was based on a laser scanner and
driving marks on the feld. The MPC based algorithm was implemented for path tracking purposes.
Furthermore, a traditional path tracking algorithm was implemented together with a direct laser
scanner based drawbar control for comparison.
The functionality was tested in four different types of feld test. An active joint proved to be valuable
and the MPC based algorithm produced a smoother control curve and was still able to be as effective
as traditional control algorithms. The beneft of MPC is a capability to prepare for future changes
in the followed path and a capability to control multiple devices.
Still further development is needed to achieve more precise path following. Also, the kinematic
model needs to be enlarged to include the dynamics of actuators. With the help of true Nonlinear
Model Predictive Control, the navigation system would also achieve better results.
References
Amidi, O., 1990. Integrated Mobile Robot Control. Carnegie Mellon University. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 39 pp.
Table 1. Results from the second test at 8 km/h speed.
Method (km/h) Tractor Trailer
(s) u (s
-1
) Z|j (s) u (s
-1
) Z|j
MPC 8 3.05 0.45 100 3.03 0.54 149
TargetPoint + active joint 8 4.37 0.78 130 2.98 0.73 190
TargetPoint 8 4.90 0.59 149 2.81 0.44 203

Figure 4 Control values of steering and joint angles using MPC and Target Point algorithms in step response test.
Figure 4. Control values of steering and joint angles using MPC and Target Point algorithms
in step response test.
Bemporad, A, Morari, M and Ricker, N. L., 2008. Model Predictive Control Toolbox 2 Users Guide. The
MathWorks, Inc. 248 pp.
Lenain, R., Thuilot, B., Cariou, C. and Martinet, P., 2005. Model Predictive Control for Vehicle Guidance in
Presence of Sliding: Application to Farm Vehicle Path Tracking. In: ICRA Proceedings of the 2005 IEEE
International Conference on Robotics and Automation. Barcelona, Spain, pp. 885-890.
Oksanen, T., 2007. Path planning algorithms for agricultural feld machines. Helsinki University of Technology,
Espoo, Finland, 110 pp.
Roth, S.A and Batavia, P.H., 2002. Evaluating Path Tracker Performance for Outdoor Mobile Robots.
Automation Technology for Off-Road Equipment. 10 pp.
Vougioukas, S.G., 2007. Reactive Trajectory Tracking for Mobile Robots based on Non Linear Model Predictive
Control. In: ICRA Proceedings of the 2007 IEEE International Conference of Robotics and Automation.
Roma, Italy, pp. 3074-3079.
Wit, J., Crane III, C.D., Armstrong, D., 2004. Autonomous Ground Vehicle Path Tracking. Journal of Robotic
Systems 21: 439-449, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
A vision-guided mobile robot for precision agriculture
S. Ericson
1
and B. strand
2
1
University of Skvde, Box 408, 54128 Skvde, Sweden; stefan.ericson@his.se
2
Halmstad University, Box 823, 30118 Halmstad, Sweden; bjorn.astrand@ide.hh.se
Abstract
In this paper we have developed a mobile robot which is able to perform crop-scale operations
using vision as only sensor. The system consists of a row-following system and a visual odometry
system. The row following system captures images from a front looking camera on the robot and
the crop rows are extracted using Hough transform. Both distance to the rows and heading angle
is provided which both are used to control the steering. The visual odometry system uses two
cameras in a stereo setup pointing perpendicular to the ground. This system measures the travelled
distance by measuring the ground movement and compensates for height variation. Experiments
are performed on an artifcial feld due to the season. The result shows that the visual odometry
has accuracy varying between 0.7% and 2.1% of travelled distance.
Keywords: visual odometry, row following
Introduction
The precision of the position measurement determines what tasks an autonomous feld robot can
perform. High precision systems can perform crop scale operations, while low precision systems
can operate on a section of a feld. Tasks like precision spraying or mechanical weed control require
high precision of the measurement relative the crop. These systems can gain of using relative
measurements instead of absolute. Since many agricultural felds are structured by rows, these can
be used for navigation. The line between treated and untreated area can be used for following when
ploughing and harvesting operations are performed. In the case of crops that are sowed in rows like
potatoes or sugar-beets these rows can be followed for weed control and harvesting.
The most common used sensor for mobile agricultural robots is a global navigation satellite
system, GNSS (Lechner and Baumann, 2000). A cheap GPS receiver provides a position accuracy
of 30m. Enhanced GPS sensors based on carrier phase technology (RTK GPS) provides position
accuracy of a few centimetres, at a high rate, up to 20Hz. However, it requires a local reference
sensor nearby the moving sensor. The RTK GPS sensor is used on commercially autopilot systems
for tractors and harvesting machines. An evaluation of one of these systems shows a position
accuracy of approximately o=2.2 cm on fat soil (Gan-Mor et al., 2007). A drawback of this sensor
is that it suffers from drop outs. It also has a long setup time before it can deliver accurate position
measurements. The GPS system provides a global position which can be used to know where on
the feld the robot is located or location on row if a RTK GPS is used. In situations where higher
accuracy is needed for crop-scale operations this measurement needs to be complemented with a
sensor measuring the relative distance to the plants. This is due to the fact that the global position has
to relate to a map which also contains an error and that the environment is dynamic at close range.
Another method is to use a computer vision system. The camera is a very powerful sensor, and the
challenge is to extract the information of interest from the images. Most image processing requires
a lot of computational power, but the rapid development of computers has made it possible to solve
more advanced task. It has the potential to become a very cheap sensor in the future. This is shown
in the cell phone development where one or two cameras can be found.
Today there are several autonomous agricultural vehicles that navigate using a row-following system.
In (strand and Baerveldt, 2002) the authors use it for mechanical weed control of sugar-beet.
They use a camera mounted in the front of the robot, where lines from the images are extracted
using Hough transform and used in a control algorithm. The accuracy reported was down to 6 mm
standard deviation of the orthogonal distance to the row depending on crop size. Others (Hague and
Tillet, 2001) and (Tillett et al., 2002) use a flter approach to detect the crop rows, also for guiding
an implement for mechanical weed control in sugar beet. They reported an accuracy of 16 mm.
Further, systems for guidance have been reported where regression is used for the row detection
(Billingsley and Schoenfsch, 1996). The accuracy obtain was 20 mm. A similar approach is used
by Sogaard and Olsen (2003), where a weighted linear regression is used to fnd rows, but without
segmentation. The row position could be estimated to 6-12 mm, depending on crop size.
The Demeter system (Pilarski et al., 2002) is a speed rower using both RTK GPS and machine
vision. The GPS system only provides position while the machine vision system has algorithms for
shadow compensation, end of row detection and obstacle detection. Average tracking error from
the GPS was 4-6 cm and from the vision system 5-30 cm.
More recent implementation of a row-following algorithm has been done in (Leemans and Destain,
2007), where it is used for controlling a precision seed drill. They use a modifed Hough transform
to detect previous saw rows in soil. The result reported was 23 mm. Another row detection system
is presented in (Bakker et al., 2008). They also use Hough transform to detect rows of sugar beets
with mean error at 22 mm.
This paper contributes with a method of navigating a mobile robot on an agricultural feld using
vision only. The objective with this paper is to show a method to provide a good local position
relatively the crops. This position can be used for performing tasks as mechanical weeding and
other operations close to the crops.
Material and method
The experimental platform
The mobile robot is developed based on an electrical wheel chair for outdoor use, a Permobil exterior
90, Figure 1. The Permobil is a four-wheeled mobile robot with electrical steering and back-wheel
drive. It has a top speed of approximately 15 km/h and a claimed range of 30 km (unmodifed).
It is modifed with sensors, computers and a new control system for autonomous drive. A block
diagram of the computer and sensor setup is shown in Figure 2.
There are three on-board computers connected in a network, a main computer running navigation
software and two image processing computers. The main computer has integrated touch screen for
monitoring and human interaction. One of the image processing computers is connector to a front
looking cameras and the other computer is connected to two down-looking cameras. The image

Figure 1 Experimental platform, a modified Permobil exterior 90

Figure 1. Experimental platform, a modifed Permobil exterior 90.
processing computers are equipped with an Intel Core2Duo 1,73 GHz and 3 Gb RAM. The main
computer is a Roper 12-05ps. A control box (Permobil Controller, Figure 2) has been build based
on an Atmel AtMega128 to communicate between the Permobil hardware and the main computer.
Further the robot has magnetical encoders mounted on the back driving wheel axis for position data
and velocity control of the wheels. There is also space for optional sensors such as measurement
of steering angle but this is not implemented yet. However, the Permobil provides a close loop
control of steering angle, which is used.
There are three cameras on the robot, two for the visual odometry system and one for the row
following system. The visual odometry cameras are placed behind the back wheel in a box pointing
perpendicular to the ground. The row-following camera is mounted on a metal stand 1.4 meter
above the ground, tilted 15 towards the ground. Figure 3 shows the modifed Permobil. The camera
used is a MV BlueFOX-120aC USB camera which can provide a frame rate of 100 frames/sec.
All computers are running Ubuntu Linux 7.04 and Player (Gerkey et al., 2003). Custom drivers
(server) have been developed for player that includes image acquisition, image processing and
position calculation. These drivers are implemented using C++ and OpenCV (Bradski and Kaehler,
2008) to provide real time performance. All computers are running one server each and the main
computer is also running a client. This client collects sensor data from all the servers and provides
navigation control by setting the speed and steering references to the Permobil controller.
Robot control and sensor model
The robot is represented by an Ackermann model. Figure 4 shows the model of the robot on a
feld of structured rows. The measured properties are distance to row (s) and heading () from the
row-following system and travelled distance from the visual odometry system. The steering angle
() are controlled by method described in (Sotelo, 2003).

Figure 2. Hardware setup

Figure 2. Hardware setup.
Visual odometry
In (Ericson and strand, 2007) algorithms for visual odometry are evaluated. It shows that
normalized correlation provides good result as long as there is texture enough to detect motion and
maximum speed is not violated. This algorithm is developed further to deal with the uneven terrain
expected on an agricultural feld (Ericson and strand, 2008). It uses stereo cameras to calculate
the height of the cameras. The travelled distance is measured by two consecutive frames and
compensated for height variation. The error on a test track was less than 0.6% on 700 mm distance.
This algorithm is implemented and runs on one of image processing computers. The speed of this
computer vision system determines the maximum speed on the robot during test. This confguration
provides a low speed system, but with the fexibility to change algorithm. The frame rate is 30 frames/
second. Sharp images are provided by using a short exposure time (5 s). Controlled illumination
is obtained with lamps connected to a dimmer. The triggering of the cameras is crucial to obtain

Figure 3. Modified Permobil during experiments.

Figure 3. Modifed Permobil during experiments.

Figure 4. Robot model
Figure 4. Robot model.
the height information. A real time controller in one of the cameras is programmed to send a trig
pulse to all cameras. In this way all cameras are trigged at the same time.
To increase the analyze speed a part of the image is acquired on the camera. Full resolution is
640480, but only a window of 101101 is extracted from both images where the matching window
is the 5151 pixels in the centre. In these tests the lens used gives approximately the resolution
of 1 pixel/mm, and hence a 4141 mm area is evaluated. It is important that this area has texture
enough to provide a good match. By varying the clearance to the ground and processing speed,
higher resolution can easily be obtained, at the cost of maximum speed.
Row-following
The row-following system uses Hough transform to detect lines on an agricultural feld using the
front looking camera (strand and Baerveldt, 2005). The captured images are converted to binary
image by frst extracting the colour of interest and then apply a threshold.
The threshold has to be adjusted so only the rows are detected. Only points on the ground are of
interest so all points at and above the horizon can be ignored. The Hough transform is applied
directly in the s- plane to obtain the distance to the row (s) and heading angle (). Valid lines have
a heading within 10 degrees from the rows and distance within one meter. Two lines are detected
which are used as reference for the steering control. The other rows on the feld are not used directly
for the steering control other than they contribute to the ground-plane estimation.
Experiments and results
Experiments are performed on an artifcial feld to evaluate the performance of the sensors and the
closed loop position controller. The feld is simulated by placing red poker chips in two straight
rows on a lawn with a distance of 1 meter between the rows. Grass is a representative texture for
the visual odometry and the poker chips represent the crops. The reason for not using a real feld
is the lack of colour separation during the winter. The red colour is found by using Equation 1.
E = 2R G - B (1)
where E is a greyscale image;
R, G, B represents the colour channel red, green and blue.
The robot is placed at the beginning of the rows and it is programmed to go autonomous a specifed
distance, in this case 10 meters, measured by the visual odometry. The steering is controlled only
by row-following system, while the speed is set to 25 cm/s. It is important to keep the speed below
the maximum speed allowed for the visual odometry. When the visual odometry measures the end
position the robot stops. The error is measured manually with a scale to the end position of the
robot. This gives the accumulated error of the visual odometry for the 10 meter.
Figure 5 shows images from the row following system. Figure 5a shows the test feld as seen
from the image. Figure 5b is the binary image obtained after colour extraction and thresholding.
Finally, Figure 5c shows the Hough space in s--plane. Each intersection represents one of the
two lines. These are located at approximately = 0 and s = -350 mm and s = 400 mm. The actual
row distance is 1 meter, and the difference is due to calibration error.
The result of three different test runs on the same track is shown in Table 1. The measurement from
the visual odometry is presented as measured distance along the row (y-direction). The result shows
that the position is overestimated which can depend on calibration error.
A plot of the distance each frame measured by the visual odometry is shown in Figure 6. The frame
rate is 30 Hz and the fgure shows that the speed is between 6-10 mm/frame. This corresponds
to a speed of 0.18-0.30 m/s. The variation depends on the uneven terrain. The sum of all this
measurements gives the total distance 10,631 mm (test 3), and calculated error is 0.7%.
Conclusions and further work
These experiments are frst system trials of combining visual odometry with a row following system.
The result shows that the precision of the system is promising. During these test the distance was
overestimated with 0.7% and 2.1% error. This is enough for crop scale operations. Further work
is to do more real feld experiments. A more extensive calibration has to be done and the variance
of the error has to be measured. Then this value can be used in a Kalman flter, where data from
other available sensors can contribute to a better position estimation.

a) b)
s (mm)
a
l
f
a

(
d
e
g
r
e
e
)
Hough space
-1000 -800 -600 -400 -200 0 200 400 600 800 1000
-10
-5
0
5
10

c)

Figure 5. a) Captured colour image, b) Binary image after thresholding, c) Hough space in s-
-plane

Figure 5. (a) Captured colour image, (b) binary image after thresholding, (c) Hough space in
s--plane.
Table 1. Result of autonomous drive 10 m.
Test Measured distance by visual odometry (mm) Measured position by scale y (%) Error (%)
1 11,132 11,280 1.3
2 10,913 11,150 2.1
3 10,631 10,550 0.7
References
Anonymous. Permobil, http://www.permobil.com/
Bakker, T., Wouters, H., Asselt, K., Bontsema, J., Tang, L., Mller, J. and Straten, G., 2008. A vision based
row detection system for sugar beet, Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, 60:87-95.
Billingsley, J. and Schoenfsch, M., 1996. The successful development of a vision guidance system for
agriculture, Computers and Electronics in Agriculture 16:147-163.
Bradski, G. and Kaehler, A. 2008. Learning OpenCV, OReally Media Inc., USA, pp. 555.
Ericson, S. and strand, B., 2007. Algorithms for Visual Odometry in Outdoor Field Environment, In:
Proceedings of 13th IASTED International Conference Robotics and Applications, Wrzburg, Germany,
pp 287-292.
Gan-Mor, S., Clark, R.L. and Upchurch, B.L., 2007. Implement lateral position accuracy under RTK-GPS
tractor guidance. Computers and Electronics in Agriculture 59:31-38.
Gerkey, B., Vaughan, R.T. and Howard, A., 2003. The Player/Stage Project: Tools for Multi-Robot and
Distributed Sensor Systems. In: Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Advanced Robotics,
Coimbra, Portugal, pp. 317-323.
Hague, T. and Tillet, N.D., 2001. A bandpass flter approach to crop row location and tracking. Mechatronics
11:1-12.
Lechner, W. and Baumann, S., 2000. Global navigation satellite systems. Computers and Electronics in
Agriculture 25:67-85.
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0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800 2000
-2
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
Measured distance per sample at 30 frames/sec
frame
d
y

(
m
m
)

Figure 6. Measured distance from visual odometry system per frame, i. e. speed in y-direction

Figure 6. Measured distance from visual odometry system per frame, i.e. speed in y-direction.
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Mechatronics 15:251-269.
An imaging system to characterise the mechanical
behaviour of fertilisers in the context of centrifugal
spreading
S. Villette
1
, E. Piron
2
, R. Martin
1
and C. Ge
1
1
ENESAD, UP GAP, 26, bd Dr Petitjean, BP 87999, 21079 Dijon Cedex, France;
s.villette@enesad.fr
2
Cemagref, Les Palaquins, 03150 Montoldre, France
Abstract
In the context of fertiliser centrifugal spreading, numerous mechanical models demonstrate that
the acceleration on the spinning disc depends on the friction coeffcient of the fertiliser against the
vane. Nevertheless, when the dynamic friction coeffcient is measured with traditional methods,
the values do not refect the fertiliser behaviour differences. In this study, the friction coeffcient
of the fertiliser is deduced from a mechanical model of the motion of the particles on a spinning
disc which requires the measurement of the outlet angle of the particles (i.e. when they leave the
disc). The outlet angle is extracted from an image of the fertiliser particle trajectories in the vicinity
of the spinning disc. Values obtained for three fertilisers (ammonium nitrate, NPK and KCl) are
compared. The infuence of the disc confguration, the vane profle and the rotational speed is
addressed. Results demonstrate that the method can be used to obtain a relative classifcation of
fertilisers. We suggest to call equivalent friction coeffcient the value obtained with this method
since it corresponds to the dynamic friction coeffcient of a fctive single particle which would have
a pure-sliding motion on the vane and which would have the same behaviour that the real fertiliser
particles regarding the ejection. This paves the way to establish a normalized method in order to
perform a fertiliser typology with respect to real spreading behaviour.
Keywords: friction coeffcient, mechanical model
Introduction
In Europe, the application of mineral fertilisers is mainly performed by centrifugal spreaders because
of their robustness, their simplicity and their low cost. The quality of the deposit pattern is known to
be sensitive to many parameters including fertiliser physical properties and machine characteristics.
Thus, the setting of the spreader with respect to the mechanical behaviour of the fertiliser is crucial
for the quality of the spreading. Because of diffculties in adjusting the machines, major differences
in the quality of the spread pattern deposition are observed in the feld and numerous studies have
reported the lack of fertiliser uniformity. Nowadays, economic and environmental considerations
call for improvements in the quality of fertiliser spreading. Moreover, in the context of precision
farming, variable rate applications require a perfect control of the spread pattern to avoid inadequate
overlapping. Since autonomous feedback systems for automatic uniformity control are complex
to design and are not available yet, there is a need to better characterize and model the process of
centrifugal spreading. This process consists of two main stages: the motion of the fertiliser particles
on the spreader and the ballistic fight of the particles.
In this study, we assess a new method to solve the problem of characterising the fertiliser behaviour
on the vane by deducing the dynamic friction coeffcient from a mechanical model and an imaging
system combined to a spinning disc.
Literature review
Various models have been proposed to describe the motion of the fertiliser particles on the vane of
a spinning disc by taking into account interactions between the vane and a single particle (Patterson
and Reece, 1962; Cunningham, 1963; Hofstee, 1995; Olieslagers, 1997; Villette et al., 2005) or
also interactions between the particles (Van Liedekerke, 2006). Each approach demonstrates
that the dynamic friction coeffcient DFC of the fertiliser on the vane has a great infuence in the
spreading process.
Two approaches can be distinguished for the friction coeffcient measurement. The frst approach
consists of direct measurements of the physical dynamic or static friction coeffcient using
experimental devices designed to produce a pure sliding of the fertiliser particles. These methods
are based on the use of inclined plates, rotating plates or shear apparatus. The second approach
consists of indirect measurements using experimental devices designed to observe the centrifugal
spreading process and deduce the friction coeffcient from a mechanical model of the particle motion.
Hofstee and Huisman (1990) summarized results obtained by several researchers using various
methods to measure the friction coeffcient between fertilisers and structural surfaces. They showed
that major differences were found between the values obtained by different researchers for one and
the same fertiliser type. For all fertilisers, values ranged approximately from 0.2 to 0.7. Hofstee
(1992) used a rotating plate on which a fertiliser particle was placed to slide on the disc surface.
The DFC was deduced from the force that was required to keep the particle in the same position
on the plate. The values, obtained for six different fertilisers, were ranged from 0.33 to 0.45 in the
case of a stainless steel plate. Aphale et al. (2003) glued fertiliser particles to a small block and
placed the block on a plate. They tilted the plate until the block began to slide and they deduced the
static friction coeffcient from the plate angle. The method was not accurate since, for nine fertiliser
types, all values were close to 0.5. Using a custom modifed rheometer, Mermillod-Blondin (2005)
measured the dynamic friction coeffcient of eight fertilisers. For the most part of the fertilisers,
results were signifcantly dependent on the normal force applied on the particles. Concerning
ammonium nitrate, potassium chloride (KCl) and NPK, the dynamic friction coeffcients were
estimated to be 0.59, 0.53 and 0.51 respectively.
Depending on the measurement method, it appears that results are signifcantly different. Moreover,
in most of the cases, fertilisers that are known to have a different behaviour on a centrifugal spreading
disc (ammonium nitrate and KCl for example), are not correctly distinguished by the traditional
measurement of their DFC.
Therefore, to obtain realistic values according to the centrifugal spreading process, some authors
suggested to use indirect measurements and chose to deduce the DFC from the behaviour of the
fertiliser during a centrifugal acceleration.
Thus, taking into account a mechanical model (Villette et al., 2005) for the motion of fertiliser
particles on a spinning disc, Villette (2005) deduced the DFC values from the outlet angles of
the particles when they leave the disc. The outlet angles were measured using a specifc image
processing technique applied on motion blurred images acquired in the vicinity of a spinning disc.
In the case of a fat disc equipped with U-profled straight vanes, the DFC values deduced from
the images were approximately 0.17 for ammonium nitrate, 0.20 for NPK and 0.38 for KCl. In a
similar approach, Grift et al. (2006) used an optical device (Grift and Hofstee, 1997) placed in the
vicinity of the spreading disc to deduce the DFC values from the outlet velocity of the particles. In
the case of a fat disc equipped with straight radial vanes, the authors obtained 0.36 for the DFC of
urea fertiliser. In order to study individual particles, Kweon et al. (2007) designed a spinning-tube
equipped with three photo-interrupters to detect the particle passage. Using this device, the DFC
was deduced from the time interval associated with the particle travelling 121 mm along the tube.
The optical system used by the authors provides not only the travelling time of the particle but
also its diameter. Using this method, the mean DFC was estimated to 0.44 for KCl and 0.31 for
ammonium nitrate when the rotational velocity of the tube was 800 rpm.
Indirect measurement methods appear to be suitable approaches to characterise and distinguish
fertilisers with respect to their mechanical behaviour in the context of centrifugal spreading.
Nevertheless, as particle-particle and particle-vane interactions are complex, it is of particular
interest to study the infuence of the spreading situation (disc confguration, vane profle, rotational
speed) on the estimation of the dynamic friction coeffcient.
Theoretical considerations
The mechanical model
This study focuses on particles sliding along the vane of a spinning disc whose angular speed is
assumed to be constant. The physical forces which act upon the particles are gravity, reaction forces
of the vane walls and friction force. Interactions between particle, rolling cases or bouncing are
not taken into account. Considering these hypotheses, Villette et al. (2005) established the motion
equation of the particles for a concave disc equipped with backward or forward pitched vanes with
U-profle. They also established the ratio r
RT
of the horizontal radial component v
R
of the velocity
to the horizontal tangential component v
T
of the velocity when the particle leaves the disc. The
ratio is as follows:
(1)
where: l
vane
is the length of the vane, r
vane
is the radius of the vane, is the dynamic friction
coeffcient DFC of the fertiliser particles against the vane, O is the vertical angle of the vane, r
p
is
the pitch radius of the vane, and K are coeffcients.
In the case of U-profle vanes, and K are established as follows:
(2)
where: u is the rotational speed and g is the gravitational acceleration.
Using the same methodology, we demonstrated that the expression of r
RT
, and K is as follows
in the case of V-profle vanes:
(3)
(4)
where = 1/sin and y is the vertical angle of each wall of the V-profle vane.
Since r
RT
is defned as the ratio of the radial and tangential components of the outlet velocity, r
RT

is linked to the outlet angle
out
as follows:
(5)
Thus, when the disc confguration is known, the DFC can be deduced from Equations 1, 2 and 5 in
the case of U-profle vanes and Equations 3, 4 and 5 in the case of V-profle vanes.
Theoretical infuence of the dynamic friction coeffcient
Considering the previous mechanical model, the horizontal outlet angle decreases when the
friction coeffcient increases. This means that the outlet velocity magnitude v decreases with the
friction coeffcient . Looking at the vertical component of the velocity vector, it also appears that
associated with the particle travelling 121 mm along the tube. The optical system used by the
authors provides not only the travelling time of the particle but also its diameter. Using this
method, the mean DFC was estimated to 0.44 for KCl and 0.31 for ammonium nitrate when
the rotational velocity of the tube was 800 rpm.
Indirect measurement methods appear to be suitable approaches to characterise and
distinguish fertilisers with respect to their mechanical behaviour in the context of centrifugal
spreading. Nevertheless, as particle-particle and particle-vane interactions are complex, it is of
particular interest to study the influence of the spreading situation (disc configuration, vane
profile, rotational speed) on the estimation of the dynamic friction coefficient.



This study focuses on particles sliding along the vane of a spinning disc whose angular speed
is assumed to be constant. The physical forces which act upon the particles are gravity,
reaction forces of the vane walls and friction force. Interactions between particle, rolling cases
or bouncing are not taken into account. Considering these hypotheses, Villette et al. (2005)
established the motion equation of the particles for a concave disc equipped with backward or
forward pitched vanes with U-profile. They also established the ratio r
RT
of the horizontal
radial component
R
v of the velocity to the horizontal tangential component
T
v of the velocity
when the particle leaves the disc. The ratio is as follows:

2
2
( )( cos ) cos
( )( cos ) cos
vane vane R
RT
T vane vane p
l K l v
r
v r l K r

= =

(1)
where: l
vane
vane
coefficient DFC of the fertiliser particles against the vane, is the vertical angle of the vane,
r
p
is the pitch radius of the vane, and K are coefficients.
In the case of U-profile vanes, and K are established as follows:

2
2
cos sin
cos (cos sin )
p
g g r
K

+
=
; cos sin ) 1 ( cos

2 2
+ = (2)
where: is the rotational speed and g is the gravitational acceleration.
RT
, and K is as
follows in the case of V-profile vanes:

2
2
( )( cos ) cos
( )( cos ) cos
vane vane
RT
vane vane p
l K l
r
r l K r

=

(3)

2
2 2
sin
cos
p
g r
K

= ;
2
cos ( ) 1 = + (4)
where
1
sin
= and is the vertical angle of each wall of the V-profile vane.

Since r
RT
is defined as the ratio of the radial and tangential components of the outlet velocity,
r
RT
out
as follows:
tan( )
RT out
r =

(5)
Thus, when the disc configuration is known, the DFC can be deduced from Equations (1), (2)
and (5) in the case of U-profile vanes and Equations (3), (4) and (5) in the case of V-profile
vanes.




RT
of the horizontal
radial component
R
T
v of the velocity

2
2
( )( cos ) cos
( )( cos ) cos
vane vane R
RT
T vane vane p
l K l v
r
v r l K r

= =

(1)
where: l
vane
vane
r
p

2
2
cos sin
cos (cos sin )
p
g g r
K

+
=
; cos sin ) 1 ( cos

2 2
+ = (2)
RT
, and K is as

2
2
( )( cos ) cos
( )( cos ) cos
vane vane
RT
vane vane p
l K l
r
r l K r

=

(3)

2
2 2
sin
cos
p
g r
K

= ;
2
cos ( ) 1 = + (4)
where
1
sin

Since r
RT
r
RT
out
as follows:
tan( )
RT out
r =

(5)
vanes.




RT
of the horizontal
radial component
R
T
v of the velocity

2
2
( )( cos ) cos
( )( cos ) cos
vane vane R
RT
T vane vane p
l K l v
r
v r l K r

= =

(1)
where: l
vane
vane
r
p

2
2
cos sin
cos (cos sin )
p
g g r
K

+
=
; cos sin ) 1 ( cos

2 2
+ = (2)
RT
, and K is as

2
2
( )( cos ) cos
( )( cos ) cos
vane vane
RT
vane vane p
l K l
r
r l K r

=

(3)

2
2 2
sin
cos
p
g r
K

= ;
2
cos ( ) 1 = + (4)
where
1
sin

Since r
RT
r
RT
out
as follows:
tan( )
RT out
r =

(5)
vanes.




RT
of the horizontal
radial component
R
T
v of the velocity

2
2
( )( cos ) cos
( )( cos ) cos
vane vane R
RT
T vane vane p
l K l v
r
v r l K r

= =

(1)
where: l
vane
vane
r
p

2
2
cos sin
cos (cos sin )
p
g g r
K

+
=
; cos sin ) 1 ( cos

2 2
+ = (2)
RT
, and K is as

2
2
( )( cos ) cos
( )( cos ) cos
vane vane
RT
vane vane p
l K l
r
r l K r

=

(3)

2
2 2
sin
cos
p
g r
K

= ;
2
cos ( ) 1 = + (4)
where
1
sin

Since r
RT
r
RT
out
as follows:
tan( )
RT out
r =

(5)
vanes.

the vertical outlet angle O
out
decreases with the friction coeffcient. The combined effects of the
magnitude decrease and the vertical angle decrease, adversely affects the initial conditions of the
ballistic fight. This involves lower spreading widths without taking into account the effect of the
drag coeffcient of the particle in the air during the fight.
Concerning the angular distribution of the fertiliser fow around the disc, the travel time of the
particles on the vane increases with the friction coeffcient. Consequently, the rotating angle of the
disc between the time when the particle is taken up by the vane and the time when the particle is
ejected at the extremity of the vane increases with the friction coeffcient.
Moreover, since the outlet angle decreases when the friction coeffcient increases, the angular
location of the fertiliser deposition pattern on the ground is all the more affected by increasing the
mean angle of the pattern deposition with respect to the angular location of the feeding point of
the fertiliser on the disc.
Mechanical arrangement
This study is carried out under lab conditions using a home-made experimental arrangement made
up of elements similar to those found in a traditional centrifugal spreader. The disc was driven by
a asynchronous AC motor and a programmable power supply. Fertiliser granules are stored in a
hopper at the bottom of which a shutter sets the fertiliser fow. Under the shutter, a delivery chute
adjusts the feeding point of the granules onto the disc (Figure 1).
Imaging arrangement
An imaging system (camera and spotlights) was developed to image the trajectories followed
by the fertiliser particles in the vicinity of a spinning disc. The monochrome digital camera
(10081018 pixels) is placed vertically at approximately 1 m above the granule output fow
(Figure 1). The camera is equipped with an 8.5-mm-focal-length lens which provides a feld of
view of approximately 11 m
2
to capture a wide angular range of spreading. The camera axis is set
parallel to the vertical spinning disc axle. Traditional spotlights are used to illuminate the granules
lengthways during their motion at the beginning of their ballistic fight. The camera exposure is set
long enough (e.g. 35 ms) so that fertiliser particles appear as streaks across motion blurred images
(Figure 2) called spreading images.
Image processing
In order to extract unbiased metric information from spreading images, they are frst undistorted
by using pinhole camera and lens distortion models. For each image acquisition confguration,

Figure 1: Experimental arrangement

Figure 1. Experimental arrangement.
the meter per pixel conversion factor f
conv
is determined. Moreover, the location on the CCD of
the projection point A
im
of the intersection point between the disc axle and the ejection plane (i.e.
the horizontal plane defned by the ejection point at the extremity of the vane) is computed. The
location of this point in the image is of particular interest because the apparent outlet angle
out_im

measured in the image for a specifc trajectory is deduced from the distance p
T
between this point
and the trajectory axis in the image. As a matter of fact, characterising each trajectory identifed
in an image using the angle-radius description of a line (
T
, p
T
) with respect to A
im
, the apparent
outlet angle
out_im
is simply obtained as follows, whatever the vane location:
(6)
An original method based on an optimised Hough transform (Villette et al., 2006) was developed
to automatically identify a large number of particle trajectories and to measure their horizontal
outlet angle
out
, not only in the case of horizontal motion but also in the case of three dimensional
motion (Villette et al., 2008). The method combines a geometric approach of the image acquisition
and mechanical knowledge derived from the model presented in the previous section. This image
processing method is detailed in Villette et al. (2008). The main advantage of this image processing is
to provide the measurement of the unbiased horizontal outlet angle
out
for each identifed trajectory
in the image whatever the disc confguration (fat or concave discs).
Results
Tests have been carried out to explore the variation of the DFC regarding the fertiliser type, the
infuence of vane or disc confgurations and the infuence of the disc rotational speed.
Variation of the friction coeffcient regarding the fertiliser type
The friction coeffcient values obtained for three fertilisers and a specifc disc confguration (r
vane

= 325 mm; radial vanes, U-profle; O = 0) are compared in Table 1. For this test, the rotational
speed was set to 800 rpm which is in the range of common spinning disc speeds (from 700 to 1000
rpm) for usual centrifugal spreaders. It appears that fertilisers can be distinguished by measuring
their dynamic friction coeffcient since the value is highly dependent on the fertiliser type.
Note that the difference between the value obtained with KCl and the values obtained for ammonium
nitrate or NPK is greater than the difference observed between ammonium nitrate and NPK. This
is probably explained by the shape of the particles which are irregular and angular in the case of
KCl and rounded in the case of Ammonium nitrate and NPK.
flight. The camera exposure is set long enough (e.g. 35 ms) so that fertiliser particles appear
as streaks across motion blurred images (Figure 2) called spreading images.

Image processing

In order to extract unbiased metric information from spreading images, they are first
undistorted by using pinhole camera and lens distortion models. For each image acquisition
configuration, the meter per pixel conversion factor f
conv
is determined. Moreover, the location
on the CCD of the projection point A
im
of the intersection point between the disc axle and the
ejection plane (i.e. the horizontal plane defined by the ejection point at the extremity of the
vane) is computed. The location of this point in the image is of particular interest because the
apparent outlet angle
out_im
measured in the image for a specific trajectory is deduced from
the distance
T
between this point and the trajectory axis in the image. As a matter of fact,
characterising each trajectory identified in an image using the angle-radius description of a
line (
T
,
T
) with respect to A
im
, the apparent outlet angle
out_im
is simply obtained as follows,
whatever the vane location:

_
arccos
T conv
out im
vane
f
r

=

(6)
An original method based on an optimised Hough transform (Villette et al., 2006) was
developed to automatically identify a large number of particle trajectories and to measure
their horizontal outlet angle
out
, not only in the case of horizontal motion but also in the case
of three dimensional motion (Villette et al., 2008). The method combines a geometric
approach of the image acquisition and mechanical knowledge derived from the model
presented in the previous section. This image processing method is detailed in Villette et al.
(2008). The main advantage of this image processing is to provide the measurement of the
unbiased horizontal outlet angle
out
for each identified trajectory in the image whatever the
disc configuration (flat or concave discs).

Results

Tests have been carried out to explore the variation of the DFC regarding the fertiliser type,
the influence of vane or disc configurations and the influence of the disc rotational speed.

Variation of the friction coefficient regarding the fertiliser type

The friction coefficient values obtained for three fertilisers and a specific disc configuration
(r
vane
= 325 mm; radial vanes, U-profile; = 0) are compared in table 1. For this test, the
rotational speed was set to 800 rpm which is in the range of common spinning disc speeds
(from 700 to 1000 rpm) for usual centrifugal spreaders. It appears that fertilisers can be
distinguished by measuring their dynamic friction coefficient since the value is highly
dependent on the fertiliser type.

Table 1: Mean value ( ) and standard deviation (

) of the dynamic friction coefficient.
Ammonium nitrate NPK KCl

0.16 0.04 0.20 0.04 0.39 0.06

Figure 2: Motion blurred image (
_ out im
is the apparent outlet angle)

Figure 2. Motion blurred image (
out_im
is the apparent outlet angle).
Infuence of the disc confguration
Table 2 presents the DFC values and the outlet angle obtained with KCl for various disc confgurations
and vane profles (u = 800 rpm; = 30 for V-profle). Changes in the confgurations provide major
differences in the outlet angle of the fertiliser. The DFC values deduced from the mechanical model
established for U- and V-profles of the vanes do not show important variations. Nevertheless, the
DFC value is not perfectly constant for KCl whatever the disc and vane confgurations.
Infuence of the rotational speed
Figure 3 shows the mean value and the error bar (2
u
) of the DFC obtained for various confgurations
and various rotational speeds with ammonium nitrate (r
vane
= 363 mm; U-profle; r
p
= 46 mm; O =
5.81): NPK (r
vane
= 325 mm; U-profle; r
p
= 0 mm; O = 0) and KCl (r
vane
= 400 mm; V-profle; r
p

= -24 mm; O = 0). The fgure shows that the DCF value globally decrease when the rotational speed
increases. This observation is in accordance with experimental results obtained by Hofstee (1992).
Discussion
The results, obtained by using an imaging system (camera and spotlights) combined with a spinning
disc in order to determine the DFC of fertilisers, demonstrate that it is possible to classify the
fertiliser with respect to their behaviour on the vane and therefore with respect to their spreading
characteristics.
In this study, the dynamic friction coeffcient of the fertiliser on the vane is derived from the
value of
out
and the expression of r
RT
. As the friction coeffcient is not directly measured with
traditional physical device such as tribometer, but deduced from a mechanical model, we suggest
to call equivalent friction coeffcient EFC the value determined using this method. This equivalent
value corresponds to the friction coeffcient value of a fctive single particle which would have a
Table 1. Mean value () and standard deviation ( ) of the dynamic friction coeffcient.
Ammonium nitrate NPK KCl
o
u
o
u
o
u
0.16 0.04 0.20 0.04 0.39 0.06
Table 2. Mean value () and standard deviation ( ) of the DFC and mean value of the outlet
angle (out) for KCl with respect to various disc confgurations ( : radius of the vane, : pitch
radius of the vane, O: vertical angle of the vane) and two vane profles.
r
vane
r
p
Vane profle O out
u
391 mm -24 mm V 10.7 26.5 0.32 0.03
400 mm -24 mm V 0 26.8 0.32 0.03
400 mm 0 mm U 0 35.1 0.36 0.05
392 mm 0 mm U 10.7 34.5 0.32 0.05
400 mm 50 mm U 0 38.6 0.35 0.07
pure-sliding motion on the vane and which would have the same behaviour that the real fertiliser
particles regarding the ejection parameters (i.e. the horizontal outlet angle).
This EFC is not a pure physical parameter but results from the pure dynamic friction coeffcient,
the interactions between the particles, the shape and the size of the particles. By integrating the
combined infuences of these complex interactions it provides a useful classifcation criteria to
distinguish fertilisers according to their spreading properties. Thus, the method distinguishes
fertilisers that are not or not so clearly distinguished using traditional approaches (Hofstee, 1992;
Aphale et al., 2003; Mermillod-Blondin, 2005).
When the method is carried out with various disc confgurations, the EFC does not remain constant
rigorously. Moreover, from the three tested fertilisers, the EFC appears to decrease when the
rotational speed increases. Consequently, it seems not possible to determine an absolute value
for the EFC whatever the disc or vane confgurations and the rotational speed. Nevertheless, the
relative classifcation of the fertilisers is maintained for each disc confguration or rotational speed.
Note that the values presented in Table 1, Table 2 and Figure 3 cannot be directly compared since
the tests were not carried out the same day and especially fertiliser humidity may have been different
during the experiments.
Conclusion
The study demonstrates that the use of a spinning disc combined with an imaging system providing
motion-blurred images is an interesting way to draw up a relative classifcation of fertilisers, based
upon their equivalent friction coeffcient ECF. Since this parameter depends on the global behaviour
of the fertiliser particles on the vanes during the centrifugal acceleration, it is of particular interest
in distinguishing fertilisers regarding their spreading properties. Nevertheless, the EFC values,
deduced from the mechanical models used in this study, are affected by the disc rotational speed,
the disc confguration and the vane profle. Consequently, it appears that a normalized method
(with a specifc disc confguration and rotational speed) has to be chosen in order to perform a
fertiliser typology. This is a prerequisite to the effcient use of experimental models in order to: (1)
help the operators in the setting of their machines when the fertiliser is not found in the spreading
charts; (2) reduce the number of calibration tests that are necessary to draw up setting tables for
the machines; (3) develop on-the-go uniformity control sensors and feedback loops to adapt the

Figure 3: Mean value and error bar (2

) of the DFC with respect to the disc rotational speed
for KCl (o), NPK () and ammonium nitrate ().

Figure 3. Mean value and error bar (2 ) of the DFC with respect to the disc rotational speed
for KCl (o), NPK (A) and ammonium nitrate ().
spreading pattern to the feld conditions in real time as presently proposed by some centrifugal
spreader manufacturers.
References
Aphale, A., Bolander, N., Park, J., Shaw, L., Svec, J. and Wassgren. C., 2003. Granular fertiliser particle
dynamics on and off spinner spreader. Biosystems Engineering, 85(3): 319-329.
Cunningham, F.M., 1963. Performance characteristics of bulk spreaders for granular fertilizer. Transactions
of the ASAE, 6(2): 108-114.
Grift, T.E. and Hofstee, J.W., 1997. Measurement of velocity and diameter of individual fertilizer particles by
an optical method. Journal of Agricultural Engineering Research, 66: 235-238.
Grift, T.E., Kweon, G., Hofstee, J.W., Piron, E. and Villette, S., 2006. Dynamic friction coeffcient measurement
of granular fertiliser particles. Biosystems Engineering, 95(4): 507-515.
Hofstee, J.W. and Huisman, W., 1990. Handling and spreading of fertilizers: Part 1, Physical properties of
fertilizer in relation to particle motion. Journal of Agricultural Engineering Research, 47(4): 213-234.
Hofstee, J.W., 1992. Handling and spreading of fertilizers: Part 2, Physical properties of fertilizer, measuring
methods and data. Journal of Agricultural Engineering Research, 53: 141-162.
Hofstee, J.W., 1995. Handling and spreading of fertilizers: Part 5, The spinning disc type fertilizer spreader.
Journal of Agricultural Engineering Research, 62: 143-162.
Kweon, G., Grift, T.E. and Miclet D., 2007. A spinning tube device for dynamic friction coeffcient measurement
of granular fertiliser particles. Biosystems Engineering, 97: 145-152.
Mermillod-Blondin, L., 2005. Etude du coeffcient de frottement dynamique des grains dengrais dans
lpandage. [Dynamic friction coeffcient study of fertiliser particles for spreading], Cemagref report, 48pp.
Olieslagers, R., 1997. Fertilizer distribution modelling for centrifugal spreader design. PhD Thesis, nr. 341,
aan de faculteit der landbouwwetenschappen, K.U. Leuven, Belgium.
Patterson, D.E. and Reece, A.R., 1962. The theory of the centrifugal distributor. I: Motion on the disc, near-
centre feed. Journal of Agricultural Engineering Research, 7(3): 232-240.
Van Liedekerke, P., Tijskens, E., Dintwa, E., Ramon, H., 2006. A discrete element model for simulation of
a spinning disc fertilizer spreader. Proceedings of the Second International Symposium on Centrifugal
Fertiliser Spreading, 24-25 October 2006, Montoldre, France, C1-C8.
Villette, S., 2005. Centrifugal fertiliser spreading: determination of the outlet velocity using motion blurred
images. Proceedings of the First International Symposium on Centrifugal Fertiliser Spreading, 15-16
September 2005, Leuven, Belgium.
Villette, S., Cointault, F. Piron, E., Chopinet, B. and Paindavoine, M., 2008. Simple imaging system to measure
velocity and improve the quality of fertilizer spreading in agriculture. Journal of Electronic Imaging,
17(3), Article no. 031109.
Villette, S., Cointault, F., Chopinet, B. and Paindavoine, M., 2006. Optimizing Hough transform for fertilizer
spreading optical control. Optical Engineering 45(02), Article no. 027006.
Villette, S., Cointault, F., Piron, E. and Chopinet, B., 2005. Centrifugal spreading: an analytical model for the
motion of fertiliser particles on a spinning disc. Biosystems Engineering, 92(2): 157-164.
Villette, S., Piron, E., Cointault, F. and Chopinet, B., 2008. Centrifugal spreading of fertiliser: deducing three-
dimensional velocities from horizontal outlet angles using computer vision. Biosystems Engineering,
99(4): 496-507.
New high speed image acquisition system and image
processing techniques for fertiliser granule trajectory
determination
B. Hijazi
1
, F. Cointault
1
, J. Dubois
2
, S. Villette
1
, J. Vangeyte
3
, F. Yang
2
and M. Paindavoine
2
1
ENESAD, UP GAP, 26, Bd Dr Petitjean, BP 87999, 21079 Dijon Cedex, France; b.hijazi@enesad.fr
2
Le2i Laboratory, UMR CNRS 5158, University of Burgundy, BP 47870, 21078 Dijon Cedex, France
3
ILVO, T&V, Agrotechniek, Burg. Van Gansberghelaan 115, 9820 Merelbeke, Belgium
Abstract
Since the beginning of the 90s, the problem of the environment became crucial, particularly in term
of soil fertiliser use. In Europe, approximately 85% of fertiliser are distributed using centrifugal
spreader, due to their relative low cost, simplicity and robustness. Numerous research have been
done on the understanding of the spreading process from the vane to the soil, using optical or
imaging systems. In order to predict the fertiliser deposition on the soil using a ballistic fight model,
several parameters need to be determined, notably the velocity of the granules (about 35 m/s) when
they leave the spinning disc. This paper presents improvements of previous high speed imaging
systems developed at Enesad and ILVO Institute. New stroboscopic approach is frst proposed using
power-Leds located 1m height around the digital camera, which avoid the problem of illumination
changing due to fashes which could not have exactly the same characteristics. This apparatus is
piloted with a FPGA card specifcally dedicated to our application. Multiexposure images acquired
are then treated with Gabor flters method, alternative to previous method based on Markov Random
Fields (MRFs). Results obtained on simple and synthetic images are very good but the frst tests on
real images of ejected granules give no signifcant information due to the particular motion of the
fertiliser, bound to centrifugal force and small displacement. The use of specifc intercorrelation
method allows us to obtain quite similar results to the use of MRFs technique, with the need of a
motion initialisation. We are currently comparing the two previous methods in different ejection
cases. We have however proved that the special motion of the fertiliser granules could not be
determined with classical motion estimation methods.
Keywords: Gabor flters, motion estimation, intercorrelation, fertiliser granules
Introduction
On average across Europe the amount of fertiliser applied is approximately twice the need for
current crop production (Mulligan et al., 2006), ensuring potential great yield but also involving
over-fertilisation harmful for the environment. This establishment is also valuable in France. To
reduce the fertiliser quantity with no yield losses, research have to be done to improve the control
of the fertiliser repartition into the feld. The quality of this previous parameter depends on many
factors, such as construction and calibration of the machinery, particle types and properties, feld
conditions, etc. To control the spreading pattern, the current systems require in-feld setup of
collection trays, removing collected material from each tray, weighing of the contents, input of the
weights into a computer program, and printing the output. This method is tedious, laborious, and
the correct adjustment of the spreader is moreover generally not verifed by the farmers. Even if
only closed loop regulation systems with appropriate sensors to control the fertiliser distribution
would allow an accurate management of the local fertilisation rate, only few precision fertilisation
equipments are available on the market today, and none of them are able to accurately control the
spreading pattern.
Previous system based on optical method (Grift and Hofstee, 1997) has been developed to estimate
the spatial distribution on the ground by calculating the ballistics of the particles from their initial
conditions of fight (velocity, direction), their properties and geometrical parameters (topography,
height and tilt of the discs, etc.). However, this system provides only information for one individual
granule not for all the fow, and various problems have to be solved to test the method in real
conditions.
Alternative techniques to high speed cameras have been also developed (Cointault and Vangeyte,
2005) combining a high resolution monochrom slow speed CCD digital camera in conjunction with
a strobe system which differ from one another on various points such as the feld of view (1 m
2
or
1010 cm
2
), the illumination system (fashes or Leds), the image processing (motion estimation or
local recognition), etc. Therefore, a co-operative research appeared necessary and began in 2006
between Enesad and ILVO Institute to improve the techniques, to propose a unique device capable
of characterising the fertilisers, to establish a typology of products (behaviour, friction resistance,
ejection characteristics, etc.), and fnally to compare the results with simple image processing
techniques developed at Enesad (Villette et al., 2007). This last one is derived from the one described
above and is based on simplifed hardware and faster processing algorithms. Nonetheless, it does not
allow at present to determine the fertiliser angular distribution, the granulometry of the fertiliser, etc.
The present paper frst describes the limits of the previous high speed image acquisition system and
the improvements done on the stroboscopic illumination, before to focus specifcally on the image
processing. The frst results obtained on different images (synthesis images and granule images)
with the new motion estimation methods implemented based on Gabor flters and intercorrelation
are presented which allows a discussion about the best image processing solution. First comparisons
with MRFs method are given, which allow to propose some work prospectives for such this project.
High speed image acquisition of fertiliser granules
Illumination
To accurately control the illumination of the scene, we need a specifc lighting system with the
following characteristics: high luminosity power, robustness, automated command, low cost. First
tests on the luminosity power necessary have shown that the use of 4 spotlights of 200 W each
furnishes around 10,000 lux at the spinning disc level (distance of 20 cm between the spotlights
and the luxmeter). In these conditions, when using our camera at 1m height, the fertiliser granules
are overexposured. To be sure to clearly see the granules at this distance with no overexposure,
around 1000 lux appear suffcient, because we use power-Leds in a stroboscopic confguration.
Moreover, the stroboscopic system must be able to function at high frequencies to decrease the
displacement of the granules, with a fash duration of 20 s.
The current stroboscops used are conceived on the same principle than the photographic fashes: the
unloading of a condenser through a transformer produces a luminous fash for which the duration
and the intensity depend on the characteristics of the electronics used. The intensities and voltages
available in a such system wear the electronics components, which limit the life-duration of the
fashes (around 10,000 fashes). Moreover, in a classical stroboscop, the frequency of the working
is limited by the recycling time, diffcult to modify. The best stroboscops currently available have
a frequency of 1,000 Hz and cannot then cover the application range envisaged.
After several illumination tests, it appears that the use of power-Leds could be a well alternative
to the previous illumination systems. Their development since the last fve-years and their relative
low cost allowed us to begin our experiments with white power-Leds of 3 W. The piloting of such
this system is done with a FPGA card allowing to modify easily the illumination characteristics
(several modes: sequence or single fash with different parameters such as illumination time, inter-
fash time and eventually inter-sequence fash). The whole system is provided in Figure 1 together
with the stroboscop functioning sequence.
The output are multiple, from 1 to 32 fashes, with a typical use of 8 fashes, to allow the use of
Gabor flters method needing at least 7 images for the treatment. An external sensor triggers the
image acquisition with the passage of the vane, to obtain a synchronisation with the fertiliser
fow. To fnd the best location of the power-Leds that gives an homogeneous illumination, a study
characterising the illumination distribution of power-Leds has been done with two students of the
Enesad (Jaton and Biryukov, personal communication, 2008).
A mathematical model of the illumination of one Led placed 1 meter above the feld of view (height
of the camera) has been established frst. Since the illumination is symmetric, its value can be
calculated on concentric circles using the following polynomial approximation:
(1)
with (Xc, Yc) the position of the orthogonal projection of the centre of Led, (Xi,Yi) the position of
the point where the illumination is calculated and k
j
the coeffcient of the j
th
of polynomial.
To have an homogeneous illumination on a surface of 1 m
2
, we used a grid of Leds and we calculated
the mean illumination (Vangeyte et al., 2008). In addition, the theoretical angle spread of granule
is 180 but, in practice, the interesting ejection angle is only of 120. Thus, the lighting sources
have to illuminate a similar angle. The way investigated for the illumination system tied to the
characterisation of the power-Leds to quantify which quantity of luminosity is available for each
of them. After several tests, the best location of the Leds is furnished in Figure 2, with an average
illumination of 51.18 lux.
The lighting arrangement does not depend of a particular spreader since it is placed one meter
above the spreader. To obtain enough illumination at this height (1000 Lux), 20 power-Leds have
then to be used, located around the camera. The study on the best arrangement for the 20 Leds is
currently under investigations, and results will be provided at the conference.
Fertiliser motion estimation with Gabor flters and intercorrelation methods
Motion estimation techniques
The studies of the motion in image processing can be decomposed on three main activities: detection,
analysis and estimation. For this last one, different parameters have to be evaluated such as types of
detected movements, techniques developed, size of the detected objects, length of the displacements,
management of the illumination problem, tests done (on synthesis or real images). In centrifugal
spreading, the previous characteristics are: size of the granules (5 mm), motion discontinuity, effect
of the centrifugal force, etc. The very large displacements in pixels/image of the fertiliser granules
cannot be detected by using directly the classical methods like Markov Random Fields (MRFs)
such as illumination time, inter-flash time and eventually inter-sequence flash). The whole
system is provided on figure 1 together with the stroboscop functioning sequence.

Figure 1. The whole stroboscopic command and functioning sequence.

The output are multiple, from 1 to 32 flashes, with a typical use of 8 flashes, to allow the use
of Gabor filters method needing at least 7 images for the treatment. An external sensor
triggers the image acquisition with the passage of the vane, to obtain a synchronisation with
the fertiliser flow. To find the best location of the power-Leds that gives an homogeneous
illumination, a study characterising the illumination distribution of power-Leds has been done
with two students of the Enesad (Jaton and Biryukov, personal communication, 2008).
A mathematical model of the illumination of one Led placed 1 meter above the field of view
(height of the camera) has been established first. Since the illumination is symmetric, its value
can be calculated on concentric circles using the following polynomial approximation:
( ) ( )
+ =
7
1
) 7 (
2 2
j
j
i i j i
Y Yc X Xc k E (1)
with (Xc ,Yc) the position of the orthogonal projection of the centre of Led, (Xi,Yi) the
position of the point where the illumination is calculated and k
j
the coefficient of the j
th
of
polynomial.
To have an homogeneous illumination on a surface of 1m, we used a grid of Leds and we
calculated the mean illumination (Vangeyte et al., 2008). In addition, the theoretical angle
spread of granule is 180 but, in practice, the interesting ejection angle is only of 120. Thus,
the lighting sources have to illuminate a similar angle. The way investigated for the
illumination system tied to the characterisation of the power-Leds to quantify which quantity
of luminosity is available for each of them. After several tests, the best location of the Leds is
furnished on the figure 2, with an average illumination of 51,18 lux.

Figure 2. Best illumination of the field of view with four power-Leds (Jaton and Byriukov).
cm
cm


(Cointault et al., 2002), even if we obtain a vectorial feld describing the displacement of each point
between two successive images. Indeed, the maximum displacement which can be detected is very
small (<3 pixels/image) and can produce some errors for our applications. Because a local motion
estimation is researched, frst possibility is to use Gabor flters (Bruno and Pellerin, 2000), or to
use a combination of spatio-frequential methods. These flters, used in triad of controlled flters,
have the double advantage to eliminate the modelling and minimisation steps of the MRFs. In a
second way, the intercorrelation techniques could be used, because it is recognized as a reference
for motion estimation.
Gabor flters for motion estimation
Gabor flters (Equation 2) are well-known to determine different features (Hong-Guang et al., 2004)
in images and in motion estimation or target tracking.
(2)
Adelson and Bergen in 1985 have pointed out that image motion is characterised by orientation
in space-time. We can then assume that the 2D power spectrum is null in the all space except in
the plane:
(3)
Thus, using a spatiotemporal flter we can determinate the slope of the non null energy plane and
the velocity components u and v. Heeger in 1987 has proposed a method which sampled the space
of spatiotemporal frequencies by 3D Gabor flters and then has used a minimising technique to
determinate the non null energy plane slope. Based on Heeger works, Spinei has proposed a motion
estimation method with triad of Gabor flters (Spinei et al., 1998). He used the energy response
of Gabor flters expressed in function of the velocity components in the direction of the spatial
modulation and in the perpendicular direction. Thus the velocity is calculated directly from the
energy response of the three Gabor flters that have the same standard deviations
s
and
t,
and
placed on the same spatial frequency f
d0
, each one having a different temporal frequency f
t0
=+0.25;
0; -0.25 (Figure 3a). In practice, the non null energy plane is not uniform since the image contrast
is generally different according to the directions, which causes important errors of estimation.
Spinei has then proposed a four 1D direction estimation ( = 0, /4, /2, and 3/4) (Figure 3b).

above the spreader. To obtain enough illumination at this height (1 000 Lux), 20 power-Leds
have then to be used, located around the camera. The study on the best arrangement for the 20
Leds is currently under investigations, and results will be provided at the conference.

Fertiliser motion estimation with Gabor filters and intercorrelation methods
The studies of the motion in image processing can be decomposed on three main activities:
detection, analysis and estimation. For this last one, different parameters have to be evaluated
such as types of detected movements, techniques developed, size of the detected objects,
length of the displacements, management of the illumination problem, tests done (on
synthesis or real images). In centrifugal spreading, the previous characteristics are: size of the
granules (5 mm), motion discontinuity, effect of the centrifugal force .... The very large
displacements in pixels/image of the fertiliser granules cannot be detected by using directly
the classical methods like Markov Random Fields (MRFs) (Cointault et al., 2002), even if we
obtain a vectorial field describing the displacement of each point between two successive
images. Indeed, the maximum displacement which can be detected is very small (< 3
pixels/image) and can produce some errors for our applications. Because a local motion
estimation is researched, first possibility is to use Gabor filters (Bruno and Pellerin, 2000), or
to use a combination of spatio-frequential methods. These filters, used in triad of controlled
filters, have the double advantage to eliminate the modelling and minimisation steps of the
MRFs. In a second way, the intercorrelation techniques could be used, because it is
recognized as a reference for motion estimation.

Gabor filters for motion estimation
Gabor filters (q. 2) are well-known to determine different features (Hong-Guang et al., 2004)
{ } ) ( 2 cos )
2 2 2
( exp
2
1
) , , (
0 0 0
2
2
2
2
2
2
t f y f x f
t y x
t y x g
t y x
y y x t y x
+ +
+ + =

(2)
Adelson and Bergen in 1985 have pointed out that image motion is characterised by
orientation in space-time. We can then assume that the 2D power spectrum is null in the all
space except in the plane:
0 = + +
t y x
f vf uf (3)
Thus, using a spatiotemporal filter we can determinate the slope of the non null energy plane
and the velocity components u and v. Heeger in 1987 has proposed a method which sampled
the space of spatiotemporal frequencies by 3D Gabor filters and then has used a minimising
technique to determinate the non null energy plane slope. Based on Heeger works, Spinei has
proposed a motion estimation method with triad of Gabor filters (Spinei et al., 1998). He used
the energy response of Gabor filters expressed in function of the velocity components in the
direction of the spatial modulation and in the perpendicular direction. Thus the velocity is
calculated directly from the energy response of the three Gabor filters that have the same
standard deviations
s
and
t
, and placed on the same spatial frequency f
d0
, each one having a
different temporal frequency f
t0
=+0,25; 0; -0,25 (figure 3.a). In practice, the non null energy
plane is not uniform since the image contrast is generally different according to the directions,
which causes important errors of estimation. Spinei has then proposed a four 1D direction
estimation ( = 0, /4, /2, et 3/4) (figure 3.b).

above the spreader. To obtain enough illumination at this height (1 000 Lux), 20 power-Leds
have then to be used, located around the camera. The study on the best arrangement for the 20
Leds is currently under investigations, and results will be provided at the conference.

Fertiliser motion estimation with Gabor filters and intercorrelation methods
The studies of the motion in image processing can be decomposed on three main activities:
detection, analysis and estimation. For this last one, different parameters have to be evaluated
such as types of detected movements, techniques developed, size of the detected objects,
length of the displacements, management of the illumination problem, tests done (on
synthesis or real images). In centrifugal spreading, the previous characteristics are: size of the
granules (5 mm), motion discontinuity, effect of the centrifugal force .... The very large
displacements in pixels/image of the fertiliser granules cannot be detected by using directly
the classical methods like Markov Random Fields (MRFs) (Cointault et al., 2002), even if we
obtain a vectorial field describing the displacement of each point between two successive
images. Indeed, the maximum displacement which can be detected is very small (< 3
pixels/image) and can produce some errors for our applications. Because a local motion
estimation is researched, first possibility is to use Gabor filters (Bruno and Pellerin, 2000), or
to use a combination of spatio-frequential methods. These filters, used in triad of controlled
filters, have the double advantage to eliminate the modelling and minimisation steps of the
MRFs. In a second way, the intercorrelation techniques could be used, because it is
recognized as a reference for motion estimation.

Gabor filters for motion estimation
Gabor filters (q. 2) are well-known to determine different features (Hong-Guang et al., 2004)
{ } ) ( 2 cos )
2 2 2
( exp
2
1
) , , (
0 0 0
2
2
2
2
2
2
t f y f x f
t y x
t y x g
t y x
y y x t y x
+ +
+ + =

(2)
Adelson and Bergen in 1985 have pointed out that image motion is characterised by
orientation in space-time. We can then assume that the 2D power spectrum is null in the all
space except in the plane:
0 = + +
t y x
f vf uf (3)
Thus, using a spatiotemporal filter we can determinate the slope of the non null energy plane
and the velocity components u and v. Heeger in 1987 has proposed a method which sampled
the space of spatiotemporal frequencies by 3D Gabor filters and then has used a minimising
technique to determinate the non null energy plane slope. Based on Heeger works, Spinei has
proposed a motion estimation method with triad of Gabor filters (Spinei et al., 1998). He used
the energy response of Gabor filters expressed in function of the velocity components in the
direction of the spatial modulation and in the perpendicular direction. Thus the velocity is
calculated directly from the energy response of the three Gabor filters that have the same
standard deviations
s
and
t
, and placed on the same spatial frequency f
d0
, each one having a
different temporal frequency f
t0
=+0,25; 0; -0,25 (figure 3.a). In practice, the non null energy
plane is not uniform since the image contrast is generally different according to the directions,
which causes important errors of estimation. Spinei has then proposed a four 1D direction
estimation ( = 0, /4, /2, et 3/4) (figure 3.b).

Figure 2. Best illumination of the field of view with four power-Leds (Jaton and Byriukov).

cm
cm
Figure 2. Best illumination of the feld of view with four power-Leds (fgure by Jaton and Byriukov).
In addition, to expand the velocity range, a multi-resolution representation of image sequences is
used. So for each level of multiresolution pyramid, the images are sub-sampled that reduces, on
each level, the displacement to estimate by factor two.
Gabor flters method appears then very interesting to avoid the illumination problems and the
initialisation step of the previous technique.
Intercorrelation method
The intercorrelation method is based on the correlation between a block in successive images. The
similarity between blocks is given by the difference between luminosities of blocks using the Sum
of Absolute Difference (SAD).
Although this method is well-known and can be seen as a reference for motion estimation, it only
gives interesting results for purely translation and rotation movements. The specifc motion of the
granules implies that we improve the standard methodology by using an estimation in two successive
steps: the frst one provides the whole displacement of each fertiliser throw and the second one
refnes the previous results with local motion estimation.
The velocity vectors obtained for real fertiliser images are close to real velocities determined
manually for a few granules, but they are all oriented in a same direction, which does not correspond
to the reality because the fertiliser throws are submitted to centrifugal effect, involving different
motions for the granules depending on their location into the throws. One of the solutions envisaged
was then to cut the throws in several areas, and after, to estimate for each of them a whole velocity.
The number of areas to study depends on a previous analysis of the radius of curvature of each throw.
During this project, Gabor flters have been tested on two types of image sequences: synthesis
images and real images of fertiliser granules (Hijazi et al., 2008). The synthesis images present a
simple horizontal motion of a rectangle, that we textured by adding a white noise.
We implemented Spineis method using Heeger values for the 3D Gabor flters standard variations:
t
= 1 and
x
=
y
=
s
=2,4. First we used synthesis image sequences based on two rectangles 2020
pixels with left to right and up to down motion, and both with 1 pixel displacement. The motion
estimation with Gabor flters is not effectuated between two successive images but with a sequence
of 7 successive images. To validate the results we have to compare the sizes of the object at the frst

Figure 3. a) Triad of 3D Gabor filters in the plane (fd, ft). b) Four triads of 3D Gabor filters in the plane (fx, fy)
(A. Spinei).

Figure 3. (a) Triad of 3D Gabor flters in the plane (f
d
, f
t
). (b) Four triads of 3D Gabor flters in
the plane (f
x
, f
y
) (Figure by Spinei 1998).
and the seventh image. In Figure 4, the size of the squares is 27 pixels: compared to the 20 pixels
of the initial squares, we have a displacement of 7 pixels for 7 images, that is a displacement of 1
pixel/image, as defned previously. The results are thus satisfying even if there are some vectors
out of the rectangle sides, due to the DOG (Difference Of Gaussians) flter used in the technique.
Moreover, in order to test the multiresolution technique and since the size of objects in images
infuence the results because of the sub-sampling, we added additional tests, always with synthesis
images (Figure 5).
As we shown on the Figure 5a, the resulting velocity vectors of the high resolution images are
aberrant, even if the results are a little better for the frst level of resolution of the pyramid. Since,
the displacement of the granules is around 70 pixels, we used the previous multiresolution technique
which gives however no signifcant results. The use of Gabor flters gives very satisfying results
for small motion displacement (<3 pixels par image) but no signifcant results for our specifc
application, for which the displacement is very large.
Moreover, the use of multiresolution technique is inappropriate due to the loss of information on
the granules at each level of pyramid. To prove that the results with Gabor flters are dependent of
the size of the objects in motion, we have simulated granule images with great size, and evaluated
the displacement (Figure 6). With this approach, more pyramid levels can be implemented and the
motion of the object can be determined accurately.
The similarity of the granules, their special motion and the variation of illumination can explain
the problems in the motion estimation. In fact, the granules have a lift motion so their shape and
illumination change from one image to another in the sequence, that makes the possibility of fnding
another block that have a smaller cost more probable.

Figure 4. Velocity vector fields, obtained by Gabor filters, for two rectangles of 20x20 pixels.

Figure 4. Velocity vector felds, obtained by Gabor flters, for two rectangles of 20x20 pixels.

Figure 5. Velocity vector field of 15x15 rectangle size in 4 pixels horizontal displacement per image: a) for the
pyramid level 0, b) pyramid level 1 and c) for the pyramid level 2.

a) b) c)
Figure 5. Velocity vector feld of 1515 rectangle size in 4 pixels horizontal displacement per
image: (a) for the pyramid level 0, (b) pyramid level 1 and (c) for the pyramid level 2.
The use of the intercorrelation method, as an alternative to Gabor flters, is a solution we tested,
for comparison with results obtained using MRFs technique. The velocity vector felds determined,
for the same images, with Gabor flters, intercorrelation and MRFs methods are shown in Figure 7.
When comparing results on velocity vector felds between MRFs, intercorrelation technique and
Gabor flters, it appears that, for the moment, a technique combining a theoretical modelling of
granule distribution or an approximation of the right motion and the MRFs or the intercorrelation
gives the best results in term of motion estimation.
For more precision, we give frst error percentages for both methods (intercorrelation and MRFs)
(Table 1) on 65 samples of real velocity values determined manually.
The error rate of the intercorrelation method is thus higher than that of MRFs, particularly due to the
overlapping between areas used for intercorrelation technique. Accurate comparisons, using images
with different kinds of fertilisers ejected with different velocities are currently under investigations,
together with the deepening of the Gabor flters method by representing their spectrum and the

Figure 6. The evaluation of the displacement of a great object with great motion.

Figure 6. The evaluation of the displacement of a great object with great motion.

Figure 7. Velocity vector fields for granules with Gabor filters (left), intercorrelation (middle) and MRFs (right).

Figure 7. Velocity vector felds for granules with Gabor flters (left), intercorrelation (middle)
and MRFs (right).
Table 1. Percentage of error for MRFs and intercorrelation methods.
Intercorrelation MRFs
Horizontal error Vertical error Horizontal error Vertical error
12.9% 12.5% 4.84% 6.25%
non null energy plane in 3D space to visualise their behaviour by changing the parameters of the
Gabor flters and the velocity values. Dynamic model, such as deformable models (McInerney
and Terzopoulos, 1996) or methods based on specifc image attributes such as contours could also
provide us accurate prior information.
Finally, 2D information are not suffcient to characterise all the spreading parameters; so a 3D image
acquisition system based on stereoscopy combined with motion estimation method appears to be
necessary to improve the knowledge about fertiliser behaviour at the ejection but also to give us
accurate information on fertiliser angular distribution and fertiliser granulometry. A comparison of
the results obtained with this system in development will be done with stereoscopic PIV method
tested in the Mechanics Laboratory of Lille.
Conclusion
In this paper we frst reminded briefy the previous works done on the understanding of the whole
centrifugal spreading process, especially for the determination of the fertiliser granule parameters
at the ejection. A specifc high speed imaging device was conceived, jointly with image processing
based on motion estimation methods, and the present paper has focused on the improvements we
performed on the imaging system.
First, to avoid invariance of luminance between two successive images, we developed a new
stroboscopic system based on power-Leds and we determined their number to obtain suffcient
illumination at 1 m height. Their arrangement around the camera is however under investigation.
Secondly, new motion estimation method based on Gabor flters has been adapted for our application
and the specifc motion of the granules. The results on synthesis images are very satisfying, compared
to the results on granule images. The use of a two steps estimation appears then as the best solution
for motion estimation of fertiliser granules. We are also currently improving the intercorrelation
method in order to have a better estimation specially in the intersection area between zones in
parallel with the modifcation of the Gabor flters technique.
To conclude, this project is the frst part of a more global project, dealing with the development
of 3D image processing techniques and 3D image acquisition system for the determination of all
the spreading parameters (angular distribution, granulometry ) allowing to predict a fertiliser
repartition on the ground.
Aknowledgments
The authors thank Richard Martin, Gal Jaton and Alexey Byriukov for the illumination study and
the conception of the new stroboscope.
References
Adelson, E.H and Bergen, J.R. 1985. Spatiotemporal energy models for the perception of motion. Journal of
the Optical Society of America, 2, 284-299.
Bruno, E. and Pellerin, D. 2000. Robust motion estimation using spatial gabor flters. In: EUPSICO 2000
European signal processing conference No10, Ed. G. Moncef and K. Paulti, Tampere, Finlande pp. 1465-
1468.
Cointault, F., Paindavoine, M. and Sarrazin, P. 2002. Fast imaging system for particle projection analysis:
application to fertilizer centrifugal spreading. Measurement Science and Technology (13), Institute of
Physics Publishing, pp. 1087-1093.
Cointault, F. and Vangeyte, J. 2005. Development of low cost high speed photographic imaging systems to
measure outlet velocity of fertilizer granules during spreading. In: International Fertiliser Society Meeting,
London, UK, 14 April.
Grift, T.E. and Hofstee, J.W. 1997. Measurement of Velocity and Diameter of Individual Fertilizer Particles
by an Optical Method. Journal of Agricultural Engineering Research, 66(3):235-238.
Heeger, D. 1987. Model for the extraction of image fow. Journal of the Optical Society of America, 4, 1455-
1471.
Hijazi, B., Cointault, F., Yang, F. and Paindavoine, M. 2008. High Speed Motion Estimation of Fertilizer
Granules with Gabor Filters. In: ICHSIP (28th International Congress on High Speed Imaging and
Photonics) Proceedings, Canberra, Australia, 9-14 Novembre 2008.
Hong-Guang, S., Yu-Xue, P. and Yun-Feng, Z. 2004. APSO based Gabor wavelet feature extraction method.
In: Proceedings of 2004 International Conference on Machine Learning and Cybernetics, Vol. 6, Issue,
26-29 Aug. 2004, pp. 3888 3893.
McInerney, T. and Terzopoulos, D. 1996. Deformable Models in Medical Image Analysis: A Survey. Medical
Image Analysis, 1(2):91-108.
Mulligan, D, Bouraoui, F., Grizzetti, B., Aloe, A. and Dusart, J. 2006. An Atlas of Pan-European Data for
Investigating the Fate of Agrochemicals in Terrestrial Ecosystems. Available at: http://ies.jrc.cec.eu.int/
fleadmin/Documentation/Highlight/FATE_Atlas_compressed.pdf (25-Aug-08).
Spinei, A., Pellerin, D. and Herault, J. 1998. Spatiotemporal energy-based method for velocity estimation.
Signal processing, Vol. 65, pp. 347-362.
Vangeyte, J., Cointault, F., Dubois, J., Baert, J. and Clerc, C. 2008. New high-speed imaging system for
fertilizer granule characterization at the ejection. In: International Conference on Agricultural Engineering
& Industry Exhibition (Ageng08), Hersonissos, Crete Greece, 23-26 June 2008.
Villette, S., Cointault, F., Piron, E., Chopinet, B. and Paindavoine, M. 2007. A simple imaging system to
measure velocity and improve the quality of fertilizer spreading in agriculture. Journal of Electronic
imaging. Vol. 17(3), pp. 1109-1119.
Section 12
Crop modelling
Simulating the physiological dynamics of winter wheat after
grazing
M.T. Harrison
1,2
, J.R. Evans
2
and A.D. Moore
1
1
CSIRO Plant Industry, GPO Box 1600, Canberra ACT 2601, Australia
2
The Australian National University, Research School of Biological Sciences, GPO Box 475,
Canberra ACT 2601, Australia
Abstract
Winter wheat can be grown for the dual purposes of livestock grazing and grain production. The
development of cultivars capable of producing large quantities of both herbage and grain has recently
increased the adoption of this farming practice in Australia. The objectives of this study were to
(1) develop a model capable of accurately simulating the regrowth and grain production of winter
wheat after grazing, and (2) apply the model to determine the primary mechanisms controlling crop
growth rates after grazing. An existing crop model, SUCROS2 was extended with a defoliation
subroutine. Dry matter accumulation was modifed from leaf photosynthesis to a canopy radiation-
use effciency approach. Grazing was simulated as a reduction in shoot biomass and leaf area
index. The proportion of shoot removed was weighted towards leaf biomass. Carbon allocation
patterns following defoliation were shifted in favour of shoots and leaves, thus tending to restore
genetically-determined target root-shoot and leaf-shoot ratios. The model was calibrated using
soil water, leaf, stem and kernel biomass measurements taken during an experiment conducted near
Canberra, Australia. Simulations produced reliable estimates of leaf and stem biomass, however
kernel biomass was underestimated when the crop was grazed. Simulated cumulative water use was
greater than that observed for a period after grazing. This study revealed two main insights. First,
compared to ungrazed wheat, grazed crops remained greener for longer, allowing them to continue
growing much later in the season. Second, grazing delayed soil water use, allowing growth rates
of grazed crops to exceed those of ungrazed crops. This occurred in late spring during a period
of water stress, even though the leaf area and light interception of the grazed wheat was less than
that of the ungrazed.
Keywords: model, SUCROS2, water, grain, defoliation
Introduction
During its vegetative stages, winter wheat can be grazed for a moderate length of time by livestock.
Animals are generally removed prior to stem elongation so the crop canopy can recover, allowing
grain to be harvested at maturity. This practice supplies a valuable source of green fodder when
the availability and growth rates of other pastures are low, particularly during colder months.
Provided grazing is conducted at moderate intensities whilst wheat is vegetative, defoliation may
even increase grain yields relative to those of ungrazed crops (e.g. Dove et al., 2002). The factors
underlying such yield increases have been attributed to reduced lodging or a conservation of soil
water (Christiansen et al., 1989; Virgona et al., 2006). For example, Virgona et al. (2006) observed
that soil water conserved during grazing later led to greater availability of soil water during grain
flling, and thus higher grain yields. The changes in crop microclimate caused by grazing are
dynamic, multifaceted interactions. A greater understanding of these interactions, such as their
effects on crop growth rates, will ultimately lead to development of better grazing management
guidelines, and thus greater proftability.
Whilst there is a multiplicity of variables involved in dual-purpose farming systems, they may be
classifed into two distinct groups. The frst is the driving or climatic variables, which cannot (yet!)
be controlled by farmers. The second is the management variables, which are governed directly
by farmer decisions. The timing of sowing or irrigation, the cultivar selected and the quantity of
nitrogen fertiliser applied are but a few examples. Further complexity arises if a crop is to be grazed,
with decisions regarding the timing, intensity and rotational strategy having signifcant impacts on
crop regrowth, grain yield and economic viability. Since time and resource constraints limit the
number of permutations of such variables that can be tested experimentally in the feld, a modelling
approach is required. This not only allows simulation of greater numbers of alternative grazing
scenarios, it also provides an inexpensive tool for hypothesis testing. Modelling the interaction
between foliage removal and regrowth also enables exploration of (1) the mechanisms limiting crop
growth after grazing, and (2) the differential growth responses caused by environmental variation.
Numerous crop and pasture models have been developed in the past, encompassing a broad variety
of approaches for systems modelling at different scales and with different purposes (see reviews
by Bryant and Snow (2008) and van Ittersum (2003)). Such models may be geared towards either
simulation of crop growth, development and grain yield, or herbage and livestock production after
pasture grazing. There are only two existing wheat-grazing models in the literature (Rodriguez et
al., 1990; Zhang et al., 2008). These models were designed to quantify the economic trade-offs
between beef and wheat grain production or to analyse grazing management decisions under weather
uncertainty. Neither model has been used to investigate the physiological dynamics or the changes
that occur in crop microclimate after grazing. The objective of this study was thus two-fold. The
frst was to derive a model (WHTGRAZ) that accurately simulated the dynamics of wheat growth
and grain yield after grazing. The second was to identify the primary biological and abiotic factors
governing crop growth during and after grazing.
Experimental data
The experiment was conducted on the CSIRO Ginninderra Experiment Station near Canberra.
On March 21
st
2007, winter wheat (cv. Mackellar) was sown at 100 kg/ha with 110 kg/ha of
diammonium phosphate fertiliser. Emergence was recorded on April 1
st
. The rainfall measured on
site during 2007 was 547 mm, below the annual average of 619 mm. There was a dry period between
July 9
th
and October 26
th
, with only 36 mm of rainfall compared to the 203 mm average for the
July-October period. Grazing treatments were based on representative farming systems, including
a light grazing intensity (33.7 dry sheep equivalents (DSE)/ha) for a short or long period (light
short (LS, 31 d) or light long (LL, 62 d)) and a heavy grazing intensity for a short period (heavy
short (HS, 67.3 DSE/ha for 31 d)). The experiment was a completely randomised block design, with
three replicates of each treatment. 18 month-old Merino sheep grazed crops between June 18
th
and
July 19
th
or August 19
th
in the short and long treatments, respectively. Observations showed that no
apical meristems were removed by grazing. On each sampling date, 1.44 m
2
of shoot biomass was
cut at ground level in each plot. Subsamples were separated into leaf lamina, stem and senescent
biomass. Grain was harvested on December 12
th
. All samples were dried at 70
o
C for 48 h before
weighing. Neutron probe counts to a depth of 1.8 m were taken every three weeks and converted
to volumetric soil water measurements using a linear calibration curve.
Model derivation, calibration and validation
WHTGRAZ was based on the SUCROS2 crop model (Van Keulen et al., 1997), then adapted with
a defoliation subroutine. To reduce the number of parameter estimates required and thus implicit
uncertainty, growth simulation was modifed from a leaf CO
2
-light response to a canopy radiation-
use effciency (RUE) approach. A survey of previous winter wheat experiments revealed that wheat
had an average RUE of 2.7 g shoot dry matter per MJ of intercepted photosynthetically active
radiation, under non-limiting conditions. This value was used as the potential RUE in WHTGRAZ,
being reduced by water and/or temperature stresses. Intercepted radiation was calculated using
Beers Law. The rate of leaf area expansion during the maturation phase (GLAI, m
2
/m
2
/d) was
calculated using
(1)
Where: SMRF = soil moisture reduction factor (actual/potential transpiration, 0-1, dimensionless);
TRF = temperature reduction factor (0-1, dimensionless);
RGR = maximum relative growth rate of leaf area (0.07/d);
LAI = previous days leaf area index (m
2
leaf/m
2
ground);
DVS = developmental stage (0 at emergence, 1 at anthesis, 2 at maturity);
GRAZLV = rate of leaf dry matter removed by grazing (g leaves/m
2
ground/d); and
WLV = previous days total dry weight of leaves (g leaves/m
2
ground).
Equation 1 was derived so that the rate of leaf area expansion was independent of leaf biomass, thus
avoiding circularity errors between light interception and biomass growth (Meinke et al., 1998). The
frst term in parenthesis has been adapted from the FASSET model (Olesen et al., 2002), allowing
GLAI to decrease to zero soon after anthesis. The computation of GLAI during the juvenile phase
(DVS<0.3) and leaf area senescence were not modifed from the routines described in SUCROS2.
Daily fractions of assimilate partitioned to leaves, stems and roots follow independent, predefned
allocation patterns similar to those outlined in SUCROS2. The daily shoot removed by grazing was
calculated using the dry matter intake function developed in GRAZPLAN (Freer et al., 1998), and
was weighted towards leaves as opposed to stems. GRAZLV was determined using the weighting
function and the current proportion of leaf to shoot biomass. Carbon allocation patterns following
defoliation were shifted in favour of shoots as opposed to roots, and leaves as opposed to stems,
similar to approach in GRAZPLAN (Moore et al., 1997). This subroutine was teleonomic; such
that assimilate was partitioned in order to restore genetically-determined target root-shoot or leaf-
shoot ratios. Simulated water use was calculated as the sum of actual (cf. potential) evaporation
and transpiration, runoff, drainage and canopy rainfall interception. Target ratios were taken to be
those simulated for the ungrazed crop. Model calibration was carried out using volumetric soil
water, leaf, stem and kernel biomass measurements taken during the ungrazed experiment. Carbon
allocation patterns were calibrated according to observed partitioning after grazing. Aside from this,
default parameter values were used for the grazed crop without further calibration. WHTGRAZ
was programmed in MATLAB 7.4.0 (R2007a).
Results
Simulation of ungrazed wheat
Table 1 shows the root mean square error normalised by the mean (RMSEs), slopes, intercepts and
R
2
values of the linear regressions of observed against predicted values for the ungrazed crop. The
soil moisture contents were well predicted during the measurement period, and the LAI and shoot
biomass predictions were reasonable. All linear regressions of observed against predicted values
had slopes and intercepts that were not signifcantly different from one and zero, respectively. The
model accounted for around 90% of the observed variation in soil moisture content, LAI and shoot
dry matter. These results suggest that the model has good predictive capability in simulating the
growth of ungrazed wheat.
canopy radiation-use efficiency (RUE) approach. A survey of previous winter wheat
experiments revealed that wheat had an average RUE of 2.7 g shoot dry matter per MJ of
intercepted photosynthetically active radiation, under non-limiting conditions. This value was
used as the potential RUE in WHTGRAZ, being reduced by water and/or temperature
stresses. Intercepted radiation was calculated using Beers Law. The rate of leaf area
expansion during the maturation phase (GLAI, m
2
/m
2
/d) was calculated using

+
=
WLV
LAI
GRAZLV
DVS 1
1
LAI RGR TRF SMRF GLAI
10
(1)

SMRF = soil moisture reduction factor (actual/potential transpiration, 0-1, dimensionless)
TRF = temperature reduction factor (0-1, dimensionless)
RGR = maximum relative growth rate of leaf area (0.07/d)
LAI = previous days leaf area index (m
2
leaf/m
2
ground)
DVS = developmental stage (0 at emergence, 1 at anthesis, 2 at maturity)
GRAZLV = rate of leaf dry matter removed by grazing (g leaves/m
2
ground/d), and
WLV = previous days total dry weight of leaves (g leaves/m
2
ground)

Equation 1 was derived so that the rate of leaf area expansion was independent of leaf
biomass, thus avoiding circularity errors between light interception and biomass growth
(Meinke et al. 1998). The first term in parenthesis has been adapted from the FASSET model
(Olesen et al. 2002), allowing GLAI to decrease to zero soon after anthesis. The computation
of GLAI during the juvenile phase (DVS < 0.3) and leaf area senescence were not modified
from the routines described in SUCROS2. Daily fractions of assimilate partitioned to leaves,
stems and roots follow independent, predefined allocation patterns similar to those outlined in
SUCROS2. The daily shoot removed by grazing was calculated using the dry matter intake
function developed in GRAZPLAN (Freer et al. 1998), and was weighted towards leaves as
opposed to stems. GRAZLV was determined using the weighting function and the current
proportion of leaf to shoot biomass. Carbon allocation patterns following defoliation were
shifted in favour of shoots as opposed to roots, and leaves as opposed to stems, similar to
approach in GRAZPLAN (Moore et al. 1997). This subroutine was teleonomic; such that
assimilate was partitioned in order to restore genetically-determined target root-shoot or
leaf-shoot ratios. Simulated water use was calculated as the sum of actual (cf. potential)
evaporation and transpiration, runoff, drainage and canopy rainfall interception. Target ratios
were taken to be those simulated for the ungrazed crop. Model calibration was carried out
using volumetric soil water, leaf, stem and kernel biomass measurements taken during the
ungrazed experiment. Carbon allocation patterns were calibrated according to observed
partitioning after grazing. Aside from this, default parameter values were used for the grazed
crop without further calibration. WHTGRAZ was programmed in MATLAB 7.4.0 (R2007a).

3 Results
3.1 Simulation of ungrazed wheat
Table 1 shows the root mean square error normalised by the mean (RMSEs), slopes,
intercepts and R
2
values of the linear regressions of observed against predicted values for the
ungrazed crop. The soil moisture contents were well predicted during the measurement
period, and the LAI and shoot biomass predictions were reasonable. All linear regressions of
observed against predicted values had slopes and intercepts that were not significantly
different from one and zero, respectively. The model accounted for around 90% of the
observed variation in soil moisture content, LAI and shoot dry matter. These results suggest
that the model has good predictive capability in simulating the growth of ungrazed wheat.
Effect of grazing on the simulated time course of leaf and stem dry matter
The time course of leaf, stem and kernel dry matter development of the ungrazed crop was closely
simulated by the model, although stem biomass was generally overestimated after anthesis (Figure
1). In order to gain a true appreciation of the effect of grazing on crop growth, the effect of the
most severe grazing treatment (HS) was studied. Both the timing and magnitude of the grazing
induced reduction in leaf dry matter was well simulated, but the model tended to overestimate
the stem dry matter in the month following grazing (Figure 1). A linear regression of all observed
versus predicted leaf and stem dry matter values of the HS treatment had slope and intercept values
that were not signifcantly different from a 1:1 line passing through the origin. Up to 94% of the
proportion of the observed variation in leaf and stem dry matter was accounted for by the model.
Effect of grazing on the fnal shoot and kernel biomass
The shoot biomass components at crop maturity were well predicted by the model, usually falling
within or close to the observed values one standard error of the mean (Table 2). Simulated fnal
shoot biomass in the control was greater than the observed values due to an overestimation of leaf
dry matter (Figure 1). Final shoot biomass was overestimated in the LL grazing treatment due to
overestimates in both fnal leaf and stem dry matter. Although kernel yield was well simulated in
Table 1. Assessment of model performance in the ungrazed crop simulation.
Parameter RMSE
a
Slope
b
Intercept
b
R
2 b
Soil moisture content 0.08 0.92 0.02 0.91
Leaf area index 0.15 0.97 0.09 0.87
Shoot dry matter 0.25 0.92 20.0 0.92
a
RMSE is the root mean square error expressed as a proportion of the mean of observed
data.
b
Calculated using linear regressions that were ftted to observed versus predicted data.

Grazing
Month, 2007
S
h
o
o
t

d
r
y

m
a
t
t
e
r

(
g

m
-
2
)

May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
Leaf
Stem
Kernel
Leaf
Stem
Kernel

Grazing
Month, 2007
May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

Figure 1 Observed (points) and simulated (lines) leaf, stem and kernel dry matter.
Arrows indicate dates of anthesis and physiological maturity, respectively.

Figure 1. Observed (points) and simulated (lines) leaf, stem and kernel dry matter. Arrows
indicate dates of anthesis and physiological maturity, respectively.
the ungrazed case, the model did not satisfactorily predict kernel growth or yield of grazed crops
(Table 2). In the feld, increasing the severity or duration of grazing caused reductions in observed
shoot biomass at crop maturity, but not always observed kernel biomass. Indeed, there were no
signifcant differences in measured grain yields between any of the treatments (LSD
0.05
= 119 g/
m
2
). In the simulations, however, increasing the intensity or duration of grazing always reduced
grain yields (Table 2).
Effect of grazing on total dry matter growth rates
An analysis of the simulation has shown that in the post-grazing-anthesis period, grazed crops
initially had lower growth rates, but when growth rates of ungrazed crops diminished, those of grazed
crops continued to increase and remained higher. To illustrate, the simulated average respective
growth rates of the ungrazed and the HS treatments were 8.7 and 5.8 g/m
2
/d between July 19
th
and
September 21
st
. However, between September 22
nd
and October 18
th
when rainfall was lacking,
these growth rates were 4.0 and 10.6 g/m
2
/d, respectively.
Averaged over the entire post-grazing-anthesis period, the simulated net growth rates of the ungrazed
and HS treatments were 7.3 and 7.2 g/m
2
/d, respectively.
Effect of grazing on soil water use
Differences in the measured cumulative water use in the top 1.2 m of soil began to manifest
themselves soon after the initiation of grazing, although the time course of water use of the LS
treatment remained similar to that of the ungrazed crop throughout the season (Figure 2). This result
was expected, since the LS treatment did not have a signifcant effect on the fnal shoot biomass
(Table 2). The effect of grazing on observed soil water use became more obvious when either the
intensity or duration of grazing was increased. At the end of July, the HS and LL treatments had
respectively used only 11 and 4 mm less water than the control. By October 11
th
, these differences
had increased to 19 and 23 mm respectively. After anthesis on October 18
th
, these differences
narrowed and there was little difference between cumulative water used at physiological maturity
(Figure 2). In the simulations, cumulative water use was generally greater than that observed. The
model also predicted that the delay in water use due to grazing occurred earlier than observed.
Indeed, treatment differences in simulated soil water use had virtually disappeared by anthesis, in
contrast to observations, which showed that the HS and LL treatments had conserved approximately
18 mm more water than the control. However, the simulations did predict that the cumulative water
use of all treatments were similar by the end of the growing season, as occurred in reality.
Table 2. Observed ( standard error of the mean) and simulated shoot and kernel dry matter
of each grazing treatment at crop maturity.
Treatment Shoot biomass (g/m
2
) Grain yield (g/m
2
)
Observed ( SE) Simulated Observed ( SE) Simulated
Ungrazed 1,036 (25) 1,229 361 (15) 361
Light short 1,062 (81) 1,099 407 (50) 311
Heavy short 922 (83) 895 397 (48) 261
Light long 801 (116) 912 365 (52) 276
Discussion
The time course of shoot growth was well simulated when the crop was not grazed, as was growth
up to the beginning of kernel flling in the HS treatment. However, further improvement is necessary
to the growth subroutine when the crop is grazed, so that (1) stem biomass is better simulated
immediately after grazing, and (2) kernel growth is greater. The simulated reduction in kernel
biomass contrasted with the observed grain yields, which were not statistically different between
treatments. This phenomenon, as well as that of grain yields increasing as a result of grazing, has
also been observed in previous grazing experiments (e.g. Christiansen et al., 1989). Growth rates
of grazed crops in the post-grazing, pre-anthesis period were initially lower than those of ungrazed
crops, but later became much greater such that the average growth rates over the period between the
end of grazing and anthesis were nearly identical. Growth rates before anthesis were thus not the
cause of the underestimated kernel weight. A closer inspection revealed that the differences were in
fact due to the quantity of stem biomass at anthesis. Since the control had amassed a greater quantity
of stem dry matter before anthesis (643 cf. 461 g/m
2
, Figure 1), more assimilate was available for
retranslocation. To summarise, the primary cause of the simulated differences in kernel dry matter
between grazing treatments was not due to growth rates before or after anthesis; rather, it was due
to the amount of stem dry matter and thus assimilate available for retranslocation.
This observation leads to a new conceptual insight regarding observed kernel growth after grazing.
If the reduction in stem dry matter between anthesis and maturity is assumed to represent the
quantity of retranslocated assimilate, then grazed and ungrazed crops retranslocated similar amounts
of assimilate, as shown in Figure 1. However, because observed grain yields were not reduced by
grazing, this means that kernel growth of grazed crops relied more on current photosynthesis as
Anthesis
Maturity
Month, 2007
C
u
m
u
l
a
t
i
v
e

w
a
t
e
r

u
s
e

(
m
m
)

Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
Ungrazed
Light short
Heavy short
Light long
Ungrazed
Light short
Heavy short
Light long

Figure 2 Observed (points) and simulated (lines) cumulative water use from the
uppermost 1.2 m of soil. The short grazing treatments were conducted over the first shaded
region and the light long grazing treatment was conducted over both shaded regions. The
figure is plotted from the start of all grazing treatments.

Figure 2. Observed (points) and simulated (lines) cumulative water use from the uppermost 1.2
m of soil. The short grazing treatments were conducted over the frst shaded region and the
light long grazing treatment was conducted over both shaded regions. The fgure is plotted
from the start of all grazing treatments.
opposed to assimilate retranslocation for kernel growth. This insight can be further justifed from
feld observations that grazed crops had greater proportions of green leaves than ungrazed crops
until much later in the season, even after anthesis (for the September 17
th
-November 12
th
period,
the proportions of green leaf dry matter declined from 0.75 to 0.65 in the control and from 0.99
to 0.73 in the HS treatments, respectively). Since the observed grain yields were not signifcantly
different but the shoot biomasses were signifcantly reduced by grazing, the ratios of kernel to shoot
biomass (the harvest indices) of grazed treatments were greater than those of ungrazed treatments
(0.38-0.46 compared to 0.35 for the ungrazed treatment). On the other hand, all simulated harvest
indices were around 0.29, implying that the model did not adequately increase the harvest indices
after grazing.
To determine why the growth rates of the grazed crops were greater than those of ungrazed crops
in the period between September 22
nd
and October 18
th
, we examined the changes in cumulative
water use. Figure 2 verifes that near the end of September, the water use of the ungrazed treatment
slowed dramatically, in contrast to that of the grazing treatments, which continually increased. We
therefore attribute the increased growth rates of grazed crops in years of limited spring rainfall
to be a consequence of greater soil water use, or alternatively, reduced water stress. Thus, for a
period between the end of grazing and anthesis, the reduced canopy leaf area and subsequent light
interception led to the unapparent result of increased growth rates in grazed crops.
The simulation of cumulative soil water use requires further development. The question that emerges
from Figure 2 is whether the simulated over-extraction of soil water was a result of problematic
simulation in water supply or evaporative demand. A circumstance in which the latter could be true
would occur when the simulated reduction in leaf area was less than that observed. However, the
simulated reduction in LAI due to grazing was not underestimated at any time during the season,
so the problem is not likely to be evaporative demand. Another circumstance that would cause the
simulated soil water use to be higher than that observed would occur when soil moisture that was
conserved by a reduction in transpiration was more than cancelled out by an equivalent increase
in soil evaporation. Indeed, it is true that simulated soil evaporation increases when leaf area is
reduced, offsetting some of the water savings gained through reduced transpiration. This is the
direct cause of the simulated cumulative water use in the grazing treatments equalling those of the
controls at anthesis.
The simulated over-extraction of soil water use of the control and grazing treatments could also
be caused by a problem in water supply. Research conducted on pasture grasses has shown that
following defoliation, the rate of root elongation often slows and may cease altogether under severe
or frequent cutting events (Donaghy and Fulkerson, 1998). An examination of the simulated time
course of rooting depth in this study revealed that grazing did not have a signifcant infuence on
the modelled rate of root elongation or total root depth. If grazing actually inhibited root elongation
rates, the crop could be potentially limited in water supply, particularly if upper layers were near
wilting point and more water was stored in deeper layers. At present, root elongation rates are
decoupled from root biomass in WHTGRAZ, so variation in carbon allocation patterns caused by
grazing can only affect root biomass, not extension rates. The uninhibited root extension in the model
may therefore allow roots access to deeper soil moisture that would otherwise be unavailable to the
crop, therefore increasing water use. This subroutine is another area for future model improvement.
We intend to link root growth to phenology, so that delays in development such as those observed
after grazing (e.g. Virgona et al., 2006) will also constrain root elongation rates.
Like all modelling exercises, one must question the degree to which simulated data matches that
observed. Figure 2 implies that the model overestimates cumulative water use, yet this may actually
be an artefact of errors in neutron probe measurements. Further, the calculation of cumulative water
use is susceptible to compounding measurement errors. Small errors made at the beginning of the
season can result in large errors at the end. To avoid such errors, the model soil moisture budget
was calibrated using volumetric moisture content (Table 1), rather than cumulative soil water use
(Figure 2) or total water stored in the profle.
Conclusions
Overall, the development of and predictions from the WHTGRAZ crop grazing model appear
promising. The preliminary simulations conducted in this study have shown that WHTGRAZ is
capable of realistic, accurate simulation of winter wheat regrowth after grazing. More importantly,
these simulations revealed two novel perceptions regarding the mechanisms underlying wheat
regrowth after defoliation. The frst was that grazed crops were capable of remaining greener for
longer periods, therefore producing assimilates much later in the season. The second insight was
that wheat growth rates after grazing were initially reduced due to a reduction in leaf area, but later
increased as a result of soil water conservation.
References
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Agricultural Research 51, 349-363.
Christiansen S, Svejcar T and Phillips WA, 1989. Spring and fall cattle grazing effects on components and
total grain-yield of winter-wheat. Agronomy Journal 81, 145-150.
Donaghy DJ and Fulkerson WJ, 1998. Priority for allocation of water-soluble carbohydrate reserves during
regrowth of Lolium perenne. Grass and Forage Science 53, 211-218.
Dove H, Holst PJ, Stanley DF and Flint PW, 2002. Grazing value of dual-purpose wheats for young sheep.
Animal Production in Australia 24, 53-56.
Freer M, Moore AD and Donnelly JR, 1998. GRAZPLAN: Decision support systems for Australian grazing
Enterprises - II. The animal biology model for feed intake, production and reproduction and the GrazFeed
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Goudriaan, J and van Keulen, H (Eds.) Quantitative Approaches in Systems Analysis. Wageningen Academic
Publishers, the Netherlands.
Meinke H, Hammer GL, van Keulen H and Rabbinge R, 1998a. Improving wheat simulation capabilitiesin
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enterprises. 3. Pasture growth and soil moisture submodels, and the GrassGro DSS.Agricultural Systems
55, 535-582.
Olesen JE, Petersen BM, Berntsen J, Hansen S, Jamieson PD and Thomsen AG, 2002. Comparison ofmethods
for simulating effects of nitrogen on green area index and dry matter growth in winter wheat. Field Crops
Research 74, 131-149.
Rodriguez A, Trapp JN, Walker OL and Bernardo DJ, 1990. A wheat grazing systems model for the United-
States Southern Plains. 1. Model description and performance. Agricultural Systems 33, 41-59.
Van Ittersum MK, Leffelaar PA, van Keulen H, Kropff MJ, Bastiaans L and Goudriaan J, 2003. On approaches
and applications of the Wageningen crop models. European Journal of Agronomy 18, 201-234.
Van Keulen H, Goudriaan J, Stroosnijder L, Lantinga EA and van Laar HH, 1997. Crop growth modelfor
water-limited conditions (SUCROS2). In SUCROS97: Simulation of crop growth forpotential and water-
limited production situations, as applied to spring wheat.V Laar, HH. (ed.).
Virgona JM, Gummer FAJ and Angus JF, 2006. Effects of grazing on wheat growth, yield, development, water
use, and nitrogen use. Australian Journal of Agricultural Research 57,1307-1319.
Zhang XC, Phillips WA, Garbrecht JD, Steiner JL and Hunt LA, 2008. A wheat grazing model forsimulating
grain and beef production: Part I - Model development. Agronomy Journal 100, 1242-1247.
Modelling competition for below-ground resources and
light within a winter pea (Pisum sativum L.) wheat (Triticum
aestivum L.) intercrop (Azodyn-InterCrop): towards a
decision making oriented-tool
P. Malagoli
1
, C. Naudin
1
, G. Goulevant
1
, M. Sester
1
, G. Corre-Hellou
1
, M.-H. Jeuffroy
2
1
Laboratoire dEcophysiologie Vgtale et Agrocologie, Ecole Suprieure dAgriculture, 55 rue
Rabelais, BP 30748, 49007 Angers Cedex 01, France; p.malagoli@groupe-esa.com
2
INRA UMR 211 Agronomie INRA AgroParisTech, BP 01, 78850 Thiverval-Grignon, France
Abstract
Grain legume-cereal intercrops allow a gain of productivity grown along the growth cycle on the
same piece of land under low input (of which nitrogen (N) fertilizers) levels. This is partly due to
a better use of soil nitrogen (larger available soil N per plant for cereal N uptake and an increased
contribution of N fxation for pea nutrition) under combinations (species and crop management
systems) fully optimized within a given soil and climate environment. Modeling is a powerful tool
to explore a wide range of combinations. It can be further used as a decision making oriented-tool
provided below-ground resources and light sharing is satisfactorily simulated. Our work aimed at
designing a new dynamic intercrop growth model (Azodyn Inter-Crop (IC)) based upon Azodyn
for wheat and Afsol for pea. Nitrogen and water partitioning between species is frstly driven by
nitrogen and water demand of each species. When intercrop demand is larger than soil supply then
water and N acquisition is limited by root exploration, soil nutrient supply and N taken up by the
companion species as it concurrently depletes available below-ground resources. The functional
root layer concept allows to account for advantage towards species with a faster root penetration
rate. Leaf area expansion is driven by daily satisfaction of N demand, itself computed through an
adapted version of N dilution curve to intercrop growth. Light sharing depends on leaf area index
(LAI) growth and leaf properties (refectance, leaf angle) of each species. Model outputs show
Azodyn-IC can satisfactorily simulate N taken up, LAI, light interception effciency and crop
growth of each sole- and intercropped species along the growth cycle leading to realistic yields for
the applied N fertilizer rates. It also emphasizes competition for light and below-ground resources
within intercrops is tightly and dynamically linked within intercrop.
Keywords: cereals, legumes, mixture, growth, simulation
Introduction
Intercropping consists of growing simultaneously two or more species on the same piece of land. This
cropping system results in a more effcient use of available resources (such as soil water and nitrogen)
by intercrops than sole crops (see Malzieux et al., 2008 for a review). It has been extensively
reported in spring pea-barley (Jensen, 1996a; Corre-Hellou et al., 2006) and spring pea-wheat
(Ghaley et al., 2005) intercrops. This advantage can be mainly explained by the complementary use
of N (N derived from soil N uptake or from N
2
fxation) in intercrops. Cereals have an earlier date
of emergence, a higher demand for nitrogen and a faster root penetration than pea (Corre-Hellou
and Crozat, 2005). Accordingly they have a competitive advantage to take below-ground resources
(water and nitrogen) up early in the growth cycle. This advantage is strengthened by the fact (1)
cereal plant density is half of sole-cropped cereals into replacement intercropping system and (2)
grain legumes massively acquire N through atmospheric N fxation (47% of total N uptake in sole
crop up to 91% for pea grown with spring barley; Corre-Hellou et al., 2006). Competition for N
with cereals under intercropped design leads pea to rely more on N
2
fxation. Moreover, some extra
plant-plant mechanisms may also occur to provide additional N to cereals (Jensen, 1996b). Pea N
acquisition is restricted as long as nodule number is not large enough and nodules are not operational.
Meanwhile, wheat LAI growth is thus faster and wheat shoot can compete more effciently for
light acquisition leading to a faster crop growth. When nodule activity starts functioning then pea
is assumed not to be N starved so that N demand is always fulflled by N
2
fxation. Accordingly
wheat crop takes beneft of a larger soil N supply (through a larger root system, lower wheat
plant density and larger available inorganic soil N). Thus species intercropping clearly results in
increased yields along with lower nitrogen inputs. It is also of great importance to forecast to what
extent crop management systems can shape yield of each intercrop species and quality parameter
values (protein contents in wheat grain for example). Numerous studies have been undertaken to
investigate the best combination of crop management practices needed to reach production goals,
maximizing complementarity and reducing competition between species (Hauggaard-Nielsen et
al., 2006; Jensen, 1996a; Ghaley et al., 2005; Corre-Hellou et al., 2006, 2007). However it is time-
consuming to carry out experiments crossing every species to every crop practices. Modelling can
be helpful to screen all combinations and fne-tune varietycrop practices ones that are the most
suited to reach production goals. This work aims at building a dynamic winter pea-wheat intercrop
model based upon a wheat (Azodyn; Jeuffroy and Recous, 1999) and a pea (Afsol; Vocanson, 2006)
growth model. Coupling these two models needed to pay attention for below-ground resources
sharing (through a new soil layer concept) interrelating to light interception through LAI growth.
Such a model will be further useable to simulate effects of different crop management combinations
(plant density, date of sowing, date and rate of N fertilizers, for instance).
Model description
This daily time step intercrop model (Azodyn-IC) is derived from Azodyn (Jeuffroy and Recous,
1999) and Afsol (Vocanson, 2006) models. Azodyn has been extensively described and validated
under a wide range of crop management, climatic and soil environment conditions (Jeuffroy and
Recous, 1999; David et al., 2005; Barbottin et al., 2006). Afsol is based upon a similar structure
to Azodyn, even though specifc up-or down- regulations were applied to nutrient acquisition
(N
2
fxation, namely) and growth processes in different ways according to wheat or pea crops
(Vocanson, 2006).
For both species, crop growth is defned according to Monteiths equation:
(1)
where DM(d) is the dry matter increase at day d (kg/ha): Rg(d) is the incoming global radiation
at day d (MJ/m
2
):
c
is the climatic effciency (0.48):
i
is the light interception effciency by each
species (%):
b
is the radiation use effciency (kg DM/MJ). Radiation use effciency is under the
control of (1) crop N status, (2) temperature, (3) water defcit and (4) species phenology.
Leaf area index is linearly correlated to crop critical nitrogen contents for each species:
(2)
where LAI
d
is the leaf area index (m
2
leaf area/m
2
soil surface): D is the slope (m
2
leaf area/kg
N): QNc is the critical nitrogen content at day d calculated through the N dilution curve for each
species (kg N/m
2
soil surface).
Soil nitrogen balance module is detailed in Jeuffroy and Recous (1999). Available Soil Nitrogen
(ASN; kg/ha) at day d is calculated as follows:
(3)
2
explained by the complementary use of N (N derived from soil N uptake or from N
2
fixation)
in intercrops. Cereals have an earlier date of emergence, a higher demand for nitrogen and a
faster root penetration than pea (Corre-Hellou and Crozat, 2005). Accordingly they have a
competitive advantage to take below-ground resources (water and nitrogen) up early in the
growth cycle. This advantage is strengthened by the fact (i) cereal plant density is half of sole-
cropped cereals into replacement intercropping system and (ii) grain legumes massively
acquire N through atmospheric N fixation (47% of total N uptake in sole crop up to 91% for
pea grown with spring barley; Corre-Hellou et al., 2006). Competition for N with cereals
under intercropped design leads pea to rely more on N
2
fixation. Moreover, some extra plant-
plant mechanisms may also occur to provide additional N to cereals (Jensen, 1996b). Pea N
acquisition is restricted as long as nodule number is not large enough and nodules are not
operational. Meanwhile, wheat LAI growth is thus faster and wheat shoot can compete more
efficiently for light acquisition leading to a faster crop growth. When nodule activity starts
functioning then pea is assumed not to be N starved so that N demand is always fulfilled by
N
2
fixation. Accordingly wheat crop takes benefit of a larger soil N supply (through a larger
root system, lower wheat plant density and larger available inorganic soil N). Thus species
intercropping clearly results in increased yields along with lower nitrogen inputs. It is also of
great importance to forecast to what extent crop management systems can shape yield of each
intercrop species and quality parameter values (protein contents in wheat grain for example).
Numerous studies have been undertaken to investigate the best combination of crop
management practices needed to reach production goals, maximizing complementarity and
reducing competition between species (Hauggaard-Nielsen et al., 2006; Jensen, 1996a;
Ghaley et al., 2005; Corre-Hellou et al., 2006, 2007). However it is time-consuming to carry
out experiments crossing every species to every crop practices. Modelling can be helpful to
screen all combinations and fine-tune varietycrop practices ones that are the most suited to
reach production goals. This work aims at building a dynamic winter pea-wheat intercrop
model based upon a wheat (Azodyn; Jeuffroy and Recous, 1999) and a pea (Afisol;
Vocanson, 2006) growth model. Coupling these two models needed to pay attention for
below-ground resources sharing (through a new soil layer concept) interrelating to light
interception through LAI growth. Such a model will be further useable to simulate effects of
different crop management combinations (plant density, date of sowing, date and rate of N
fertilizers, for instance).

Model description
This daily time step intercrop model (Azodyn-IC) is derived from Azodyn (Jeuffroy and
Recous, 1999) and Afisol (Vocanson, 2006) models. Azodyn has been extensively described
and validated under a wide range of crop management, climatic and soil environment
conditions (Jeuffroy and Recous, 1999; David et al., 2005; Barbottin et al., 2006). Afisol is
based upon a similar structure to Azodyn, even though specific up-or down- regulations were
applied to nutrient acquisition (N
2
fixation, namely) and growth processes in different ways
according to wheat or pea crops (Vocanson, 2006).
For both species, crop growth is defined according to Monteiths equation :

b i c g
(d) R DM(d) = (1)
3
where DM(d) is the dry matter increase at day d (kg/ha) ; Rg(d) is the incoming global
radiation at day d (MJ/m
2
) ;
c
is the climatic efficiency (0.48) ;
i
is the light interception
efficiency by each species (%) ;
b
is the radiation use efficiency (kg DM/MJ). Radiation use
efficiency is under the control of (i) crop N status, (ii) temperature, (iii) water deficit and (iv)
species phenology.

d d
QNc D LAI = (2)
where LAI
d
2
leaf area/m
2
soil surface) ; D is the slope (m
2
leaf
area/kg N) ; QNc is the critical nitrogen content at day d calculated through the N dilution
curve for each species (kg N/m
2
soil surface).
Soil nitrogen balance module is detailed in Jeuffroy and Recous (1999). Available Soil
Nitrogen (ASN; kg/ha) at day d is calculated as follows:

d 1 - d d d d d d
U Li F Mh Mw Mr ASN + + + + = (3)
where Mr, Mw and Mh are mineralized N derived from crop residues, organic waste and
humus (kg/ha), respectively, F is inorganic N fertilizer derived-input (kg/ha), Li is N
lixiviated to the observed layer from the above layer at day d-1 (kg/ha), U is N taken up by
the intercrop (kg/ha). Mineralization only occurs within ploughed layer (30 cm). Soil N
outputs are (i) N taken up by intercrop and (ii) N lixiviation during the growth cycle. N
lixiviation is estimated on the basis of water leaching according to Burns equation (Burns et
al., 1974). Unavailable soil N amount for crop N uptake is set to 20 kg N/ha. N supply also
relies on the root elongation rate by each species. Thus three soil layers were defined as roots
of each species elongate along the soil profile: one layer contains elongating roots from both
crops (L2) whereas the below layer is only colonized by roots of one or another species (L1).
As long as intercrop roots do not reach the maximum root length a third layer containing no
root (L0) is also considered. This approach allows to simulate competition for below-ground
resources when both crop roots colonized the same soil layer under resource deficiency. The
species with the faster root growth rate can take nitrogen or water up to match its
requirements from L1 when water or nitrogen demand is not satisfied in L2. Thus it assumes
this species takes benefit of a faster root penetration rate so that it can fulfill its water or
nitrogen requirement. Accordingly the model accounts for the competitive advantage towards
the fast root growth rate species. Under non limiting soil N conditions N taken up by each
species is driven by N demand. Maximal N dilution curves determined for wheat (Justes et
al., 1994) and pea (Ney et al., 1997) were used to account for maximal N accumulation into
crops. As suggested by Cruz and Soussana (1997), critical nitrogen content (expressed as a
nitrogen percentage of shoot dry matter (%N)) in each species is determined by accounting
for both pea and wheat dry matters (DM) when each species is sown at half density
(compared to a sole crop set-up) in a replacement set-up:

b
p w
) DM (DM a %N

+ = (4)
where a (kg/ha) and b (unitless) are parameters of the N dilution curves for each species.
However N uptake is limited by a maximum N uptake rate for each species. For wheat, N
uptake is only governed by N transport system activity, associated regulations and soil N
3
where DM(d) is the dry matter increase at day d (kg/ha) ; Rg(d) is the incoming global
radiation at day d (MJ/m
2
) ;
c
is the climatic efficiency (0.48) ;
i
is the light interception
efficiency by each species (%) ;
b
is the radiation use efficiency (kg DM/MJ). Radiation use
efficiency is under the control of (i) crop N status, (ii) temperature, (iii) water deficit and (iv)
species phenology.

d d
QNc D LAI = (2)
where LAI
d
2
leaf area/m
2
soil surface) ; D is the slope (m
2
leaf
area/kg N) ; QNc is the critical nitrogen content at day d calculated through the N dilution
curve for each species (kg N/m
2
soil surface).
Soil nitrogen balance module is detailed in Jeuffroy and Recous (1999). Available Soil
Nitrogen (ASN; kg/ha) at day d is calculated as follows:

d 1 - d d d d d d
U Li F Mh Mw Mr ASN + + + + = (3)
where Mr, Mw and Mh are mineralized N derived from crop residues, organic waste and
humus (kg/ha), respectively, F is inorganic N fertilizer derived-input (kg/ha), Li is N
lixiviated to the observed layer from the above layer at day d-1 (kg/ha), U is N taken up by
the intercrop (kg/ha). Mineralization only occurs within ploughed layer (30 cm). Soil N
outputs are (i) N taken up by intercrop and (ii) N lixiviation during the growth cycle. N
lixiviation is estimated on the basis of water leaching according to Burns equation (Burns et
al., 1974). Unavailable soil N amount for crop N uptake is set to 20 kg N/ha. N supply also
relies on the root elongation rate by each species. Thus three soil layers were defined as roots
of each species elongate along the soil profile: one layer contains elongating roots from both
crops (L2) whereas the below layer is only colonized by roots of one or another species (L1).
As long as intercrop roots do not reach the maximum root length a third layer containing no
root (L0) is also considered. This approach allows to simulate competition for below-ground
resources when both crop roots colonized the same soil layer under resource deficiency. The
species with the faster root growth rate can take nitrogen or water up to match its
requirements from L1 when water or nitrogen demand is not satisfied in L2. Thus it assumes
this species takes benefit of a faster root penetration rate so that it can fulfill its water or
nitrogen requirement. Accordingly the model accounts for the competitive advantage towards
the fast root growth rate species. Under non limiting soil N conditions N taken up by each
species is driven by N demand. Maximal N dilution curves determined for wheat (Justes et
al., 1994) and pea (Ney et al., 1997) were used to account for maximal N accumulation into
crops. As suggested by Cruz and Soussana (1997), critical nitrogen content (expressed as a
nitrogen percentage of shoot dry matter (%N)) in each species is determined by accounting
for both pea and wheat dry matters (DM) when each species is sown at half density
(compared to a sole crop set-up) in a replacement set-up:

b
p w
) DM (DM a %N

+ = (4)
where a (kg/ha) and b (unitless) are parameters of the N dilution curves for each species.
However N uptake is limited by a maximum N uptake rate for each species. For wheat, N
uptake is only governed by N transport system activity, associated regulations and soil N
where Mr, Mw and Mh are mineralized N derived from crop residues, organic waste and humus
(kg/ha), respectively, F is inorganic N fertilizer derived-input (kg/ha), Li is N lixiviated to the
observed layer from the above layer at day d-1 (kg/ha), U is N taken up by the intercrop (kg/ha).
Mineralization only occurs within ploughed layer (30 cm). Soil N outputs are (1) N taken up by
intercrop and (2) N lixiviation during the growth cycle. N lixiviation is estimated on the basis of
water leaching according to Burns equation (Burns et al., 1974). Unavailable soil N amount for
crop N uptake is set to 20 kg N/ha. N supply also relies on the root elongation rate by each species.
Thus three soil layers were defned as roots of each species elongate along the soil profle: one layer
contains elongating roots from both crops (L2) whereas the below layer is only colonized by roots
of one or another species (L1). As long as intercrop roots do not reach the maximum root length a
third layer containing no root (L0) is also considered. This approach allows to simulate competition
for below-ground resources when both crop roots colonized the same soil layer under resource
defciency. The species with the faster root growth rate can take nitrogen or water up to match
its requirements from L1 when water or nitrogen demand is not satisfed in L2. Thus it assumes
this species takes beneft of a faster root penetration rate so that it can fulfll its water or nitrogen
requirement. Accordingly the model accounts for the competitive advantage towards the fast root
growth rate species. Under non limiting soil N conditions N taken up by each species is driven by
N demand. Maximal N dilution curves determined for wheat (Justes et al., 1994) and pea (Ney
et al., 1997) were used to account for maximal N accumulation into crops. As suggested by Cruz
and Soussana (1997), critical nitrogen content (expressed as a nitrogen percentage of shoot dry
matter (%N)) in each species is determined by accounting for both pea and wheat dry matters (DM)
when each species is sown at half density (compared to a sole crop set-up) in a replacement set-up:
%N=a(DM
w
+ DM
p
)
-b
(4)
where a (kg/ha) and b (unitless) are parameters of the N dilution curves for each species. However
N uptake is limited by a maximum N uptake rate for each species. For wheat, N uptake is only
governed by N transport system activity, associated regulations and soil N concentrations. By
contrast N acquired by pea mainly derived from atmospheric N (Ndfa). For pea, N taken up by
roots from soil N pool is therefore calculated as the difference between N demand (from N dilution
curve) and N accumulated from N
2
fxation. As shown by Voisin et al. (2002) and Corre-Hellou
et al. (2006), N amounts derived from air depend on (1) inorganic nitrogen amounts surrounding
root nodules, (2) water defcit and (3) shoot-to-root carbon allocation. All these regulations were
included into the model.
Given contrasted leaf properties, specifc extinction coeffcient values (k) for wheat (w) and pea
(p) were included into the light sharing equation. Probability that incoming PAR is not intercepted
by intercrop canopy (P
0
) is defned by the below equation:
(5)
where k is the extinction coeffcient (unitless) for each species and LAI is the leaf area index (m
2

leaf area/m
2
soil surface). Interception effciency of each species is then calculated according to
Tsubo and Walker (2002) as follows:
(6)
With (7)
where
imax w/p
is the maximum interception effciency for either wheat (w) or (p).
4
concentrations. By contrast N acquired by pea mainly derived from atmospheric N (Ndfa).
For pea, N taken up by roots from soil N pool is therefore calculated as the difference
between N demand (from N dilution curve) and N accumulated from N
2
fixation. As shown
by Voisin et al. (2002) and Corre-Hellou et al. (2006), N amounts derived from air depend on
(i) inorganic nitrogen amounts surrounding root nodules, (ii) water deficit and (iii) shoot-to-
root carbon allocation. All these regulations were included into the model.
Given contrasted leaf properties, specific extinction coefficient values (k) for wheat (w) and
pea (p) were included into the light sharing equation. Probability that incoming PAR is not
intercepted by intercrop canopy (P
0
) is defined by the below equation:

) LAI k LAI -(k
0
p p w w
e P
+
= (5)
where k is the extinction coefficient (unitless) for each species and LAI is the leaf area index
(m
2
leaf area/m
2
soil surface). Interception efficiency of each species is then calculated
according to Tsubo and Walker (2002) as follows:
R ) P (1
0 imax w/p iw/p
= (6)
with
p p w w
w/p w/p
LAI k LAI k
LAI k
R
+

= (7)
where
imax w/p
is the maximum interception efficiency for either wheat (w) or (p).

Experimental design
Data used for model validation were obtained from field experiments carried out in France at
La Jaillire (4726N, 057W) in 2008. Winter pea and wheat were either sole- or
intercropped according to a replacement design (i.e. each species were sown half the density
of sole crop when intercropped). A range of N fertilizer rates (from 0 to 185 kg N. ha
-1
) was
applied from tillering stage to the end of flowering stage of wheat as liquid ammonium
nitrate. Sole crop densities were 260 and 80 plants/m
2
for wheat and pea, respectively. Rates
and dates of N fertilizer application are detailed in Figure 1 and 2 for sole- and intercropped
designs, respectively. Dynamic assessment of the amount of nitrogen derived from air (Ndfa)
in pea plants required the use of
15
N-labelled fertilizer (NH
4
15
NO
3
) in fertilized areas. Soil
nitrogen contents, LAI, crop nitrogen and crop above-ground dry matters of each species were
monitored monthly along the growth cycle until harvest (except between sowing and the end
of the winter). Soil nitrate and ammonium contents were measured after KCl extraction by
standard colorimetric methods. Soil and crop measurements provide observed data.

Results and conclusion
Dynamics of N taken up, LAI, crop growth and soil N amounts under sole-cropped species
(Figure 1)
When no fertilizer is added, model outputs show good agreement with observed data along
the growth cycle (Figure 1A, C, E, G). No data were collected from sowing to the end-of-
winter date. Although it is not possible to assess the ability of the model to dynamically and
4
2
fixation. As shown
0

) LAI k LAI -(k
0
p p w w
e P
+
= (5)
(m
2
leaf area/m
2
R ) P (1
0 imax w/p iw/p
= (6)
with
p p w w
w/p w/p
LAI k LAI k
LAI k
R
+

= (7)
where
imax w/p

Experimental design
-1
) was
2
15
4
15
NO
3

(Figure 1)
4
2
fixation. As shown
0

) LAI k LAI -(k
0
p p w w
e P
+
= (5)
(m
2
leaf area/m
2
R ) P (1
0 imax w/p iw/p
= (6)
with
p p w w
w/p w/p
LAI k LAI k
LAI k
R
+

= (7)
where
imax w/p

Experimental design
-1
) was
2
15
4
15
NO
3

(Figure 1)
Experimental design
Data used for model validation were obtained from feld experiments carried out in France at
La Jaillire (4726N, 057W) in 2008. Winter pea and wheat were either sole- or intercropped
according to a replacement design (i.e. each species were sown half the density of sole crop when
intercropped). A range of N fertilizer rates (from 0 to 185 kg N./ha) was applied from tillering stage
to the end of fowering stage of wheat as liquid ammonium nitrate. Sole crop densities were 260
and 80 plants/m
2
for wheat and pea, respectively. Rates and dates of N fertilizer application are
detailed in Figure 1 and 2 for sole- and intercropped designs, respectively. Dynamic assessment
of the amount of nitrogen derived from air (Ndfa) in pea plants required the use of
15
N-labelled
fertilizer (NH
4
15
NO
3
) in fertilized areas. Soil nitrogen contents, LAI, crop nitrogen and crop
above-ground dry matters of each species were monitored monthly along the growth cycle until
harvest (except between sowing and the end of the winter). Soil nitrate and ammonium contents
were measured after KCl extraction by standard colorimetric methods. Soil and crop measurements
provide observed data.
When no fertilizer is added, model outputs show good agreement with observed data along the
growth cycle (Figure 1A, C, E, G). No data were collected from sowing to the end-of- winter date.
Although it is not possible to assess the ability of the model to dynamically and plant nutrient cycling
and crop growth during the autumn-winter period, model outputs accurately match harvested data
for all of the monitored variables at the end-of-the winter date. N taken up by each species was
satisfactorily predicted from the end-of-winter date to harvest (Figure 1A). Simulated wheat N
uptake was slightly overestimated at the beginning of March, concomitantly to a fast depletion of
simulated soil N (Figure 1G). This explains the larger N amount accumulated by wheat at harvest
as simulated N accumulation slope parallels observed accumulated N after March. Azodyn IC can
effciently take into account a different way of N nutrition as larger total N amounts accumulated by
pea crop were keenly simulated all along the crop cycle (Figure 1A). It also emphasizes N derived
fxation was overestimated during the grain flling. LAI growth simulated by Azodyn-IC matches
well measured data during the vegetative period (Figure 1C). It thus points out the relationship
between the LAI expansion and the satisfaction of N demand (through NNI (Nitrogen Nutrition
Index)) is robust. A yellow:green leaf dry matter ratio was determined in both species from the
start of grain flling. An equation was ftted to these data and then introduced into Azodyn-IC to
describe leaf senescence in pea whereas leaf senescence in wheat is linked to N remobilization from
vegetative tissues. No LAI was monitored so it is diffcult to assess the accuracy of the model to
simulate LAI during the grain flling. However, crop growth was satisfactorily simulated for both
species, even though pea dry matter was overestimated at the end of the cycle (Figure 1E). When
N fertilizers are applied, Azodyn-IC is responsive to increased soil N available to wheat crop,
whatever the observed variable (Figure 1B, D, F, H).
Dynamics of N taken up, LAI, crop growth and soil N amounts under inter-cropped species
In spite of an underestimation of N taken up by wheat at the end of the growth cycle, model outputs
show that N accumulation by each inter-cropped species is well simulated by Azodyn-IC, whatever
the N input level (Figure 2A, B, C). This result strengthens the assumption that soil N sharing is
mainly driven by N demand of each species. It also suggests the model is accurate enough to take
into account existence of different ecological niches for nitrogen acquisition (i.e. soil N vs. air
N
2
, competitive advantage to reach faster a larger available soil inorganic N amount). Simulated
N amounts derived from symbiotic nitrogen fxation in pea were all the more underestimated that
1
0
100
200
300
400
1/10 1/11 1/12 1/1 1/2 1/3 1/4 1/5 1/6 1/7
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
1/10 1/11 1/12 1/1 1/2 1/3 1/4 1/5 1/6 1/7
0
5000
10000
15000
20000
25000
1/10 1/11 1/12 1/1 1/2 1/3 1/4 1/5 1/6 1/7
0
50
100
150
200
1/10 1/11 1/12 1/1 1/2 1/3 1/4 1/5 1/6 1/7
0
50
100
150
200
1/10 1/11 1/12 1/1 1/2 1/3 1/4 1/5 1/6 1/7
0
5000
10000
15000
20000
25000
1/10 1/11 1/12 1/1 1/2 1/3 1/4 1/5 1/6 1/7
0
100
200
300
400
1/10 1/11 1/12 1/1 1/2 1/3 1/4 1/5 1/6 1/7
C
r
o
p

n
i
t
r
o
g
e
n

(
k
g

N
/
h
a
)
zwheat
{Pea
N derived from air
- N + N
45 kg N. ha
-1
U 185 kg N. ha
-1
L
A
I

(
m
2
/
m
2
)
D
r
y

m
a
t
t
e
r
(
k
g
/
h
a
)
Date after sowing
Date after sowing
45
80 65 40
DS
S1
DF
H
S
o
i
l
n
i
t
r
o
g
e
n
(
k
g
/
h
a
)
A B
C D
E
F
G H
45 kg N. ha
-1
U 185 kg N. ha
-1
45 kg N. ha
-1
U 185 kg N. ha
-1
45 kg N. ha
-1
U 185 kg N. ha
-1
zwheat
{Pea
zwheat
{Pea
zwheat
{Pea
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
1/10 1/11 1/12 1/1 1/2 1/3 1/4 1/5 1/6 1/7

Figure 1: Time-course of measured (symbol) and simulated (line) crop nitrogen taken up (kg N/ha), leaf area
index (LAI; m
2
/m
2
), crop dry matter (kg/ha) and soil inorganic N (0-90 cm) (kg/ha) during the growth cycle in
sole-cropped wheat and pea under various N fertilizer levels (0 kg N/ha (-N; filled and empty circles for wheat
and pea, respectively); 45 kg N/ha (filled squares) and 185 kgN/ha for wheat only (empty triangles)). Arrows
correspond to N fertilizer application dates. N fertilizer rates are mentioned above arrows when required. N
derived from fixation in pea is presented as empty diamond-shaped symbols (dashed line). Bars are standard
deviations when larger than the symbol. Wheat key-stages are presented into plot E. DS: date of sowing; S1:
spike 1 cm stage; DF, date of flowering; H: harvest.
Figure 1. Time-course of measured (symbol) and simulated (line) crop nitrogen taken up (kg N/
ha), leaf area index (LAI; m
2
/m
2
), crop dry matter (kg/ha) and soil inorganic N (0-90 cm) (kg/ha)
during the growth cycle in sole-cropped wheat and pea under various N fertilizer levels (0 kg
N/ha (-N; flled and empty circles for wheat and pea, respectively); 45 kg N/ha (flled squares)
and 185 kgN/ha for wheat only (empty triangles)). Arrows correspond to N fertilizer application
dates. N fertilizer rates are mentioned above arrows when required. N derived from fxation in
pea is presented as empty diamond-shaped symbols (dashed line). Bars are standard deviations
when larger than the symbol. Wheat key-stages are presented into plot E. DS: date of sowing;
S1: spike 1 cm stage; DF, date of fowering; H: harvest.
2
0
50
100
150
200
1/10 1/11 1/12 1/1 1/2 1/3 1/4 1/5 1/6 1/7
C
r
o
p

n
i
t
r
o
g
e
n

(
k
g

N
/
h
a
)
Date after sowing
0 kg N. ha
-1
{Pea
Ndfa
zwheat
0
50
100
150
200
1/10 1/11 1/12 1/1 1/2 1/3 1/4 1/5 1/6 1/7
0
50
100
150
200
1/10 1/11 1/12 1/1 1/2 1/3 1/4 1/5 1/6 1/7
{Pea
Ndfa
zwheat
{Pea
Ndfa
zwheat
90 kg N. ha
-1
45 kg N. ha
-1
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
1/10 1/11 1/12 1/1 1/2 1/3 1/4 1/5 1/6 1/7
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
1/10 1/11 1/12 1/1 1/2 1/3 1/4 1/5 1/6 1/7
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
1/10 1/11 1/12 1/1 1/2 1/3 1/4 1/5 1/6 1/7
L
A
I

(
m
2
/
m
2
)
{ pea
zwheat
{ pea
zwheat
{ pea
zwheat
0
5000
10000
15000
20000
25000
1/10 1/11 1/12 1/1 1/2 1/3 1/4 1/5 1/6 1/7
0
5000
10000
15000
20000
25000
1/10 1/11 1/12 1/1 1/2 1/3 1/4 1/5 1/6 1/7
0
5000
10000
15000
20000
25000
1/10 1/11 1/12 1/1 1/2 1/3 1/4 1/5 1/6 1/7
D
r
y

m
a
t
t
e
r

(
k
g
/
h
a
)
0
50
100
150
200
1/10 1/11 1/12 1/1 1/2 1/3 1/4 1/5 1/6 1/7
0
50
100
150
200
1/10 1/11 1/12 1/1 1/2 1/3 1/4 1/5 1/6 1/7
0
50
100
150
200
1/10 1/11 1/12 1/1 1/2 1/3 1/4 1/5 1/6 1/7
S
o
i
l

n
i
t
r
o
g
e
n

(
k
g
/

h
a
)
Date after sowing Date after sowing
{ pea
zwheat
{ pea
zwheat
{ pea
zwheat
{ pea
zwheat
{ pea
zwheat
{ pea
zwheat
A B C
D E F
G H I
J K L

Figure 2: Time-course of measured (symbol) and simulated (line) crop nitrogen taken up (kg N/ha), leaf area
index (LAI; m
2
/m
2
), crop dry matter (kg/ha) and soil inorganic N (0-90cm) (kg/ha) during the growth cycle in
inter-cropped wheat and pea under various N fertilizer levels (0 kg N/ha, 45 kg N/ha and 90 kg N/ha). Arrows
correspond to N fertilizer application dates. N derived from fixation in pea (Ndfa) is presented as empty
diamond-shaped symbol (dashed line). Bars are standard deviations when larger than the symbol.
Figure 2. Time-course of measured (symbol) and simulated (line) crop nitrogen taken up (kg
N/ha), leaf area index (LAI; m
2
/m
2
), crop dry matter (kg/ha) and soil inorganic N (0-90cm) (kg/
ha) during the growth cycle in inter-cropped wheat and pea under various N fertilizer levels
(0 kg N/ha, 45 kg N/ha and 90 kg N/ha). Arrows correspond to N fertilizer application dates.
N derived from fxation in pea (Ndfa) is presented as empty diamond-shaped symbol (dashed
line). Bars are standard deviations when larger than the symbol.
applied N fertilizer rates increased. This might be due to an overwhelmingly inhibitory effect of
soil inorganic nitrogen on nodule activity. Current experiments are under progress to examine to
what extent symbiotic N fxation can recover after N input application at different crop stages
during the growth cycle. Finally, it highlights that soil water and nitrogen supply modules within
the model are reliable and coordinated to simulate an adequate nitrogen supply along the growth
cycle (Figure 2J, K, L). Time-course of measured LAI shows that wheat LAI is all the larger that N
fertilizer rate increases (Figure 2D, E, F). The model is responsive to N application as it simulates
realistic wheat to pea LAI ratio (i.e. competition for light interception between wheat and pea)
during the vegetative period leading to inversion of LAI values to the beneft of wheat. Eventually,
dry matters accumulated by each species were satisfactorily predicted for all N treatments (Figure
2G, H, I). It particularly accounts for the increased dominance of wheat along with the N input
rate increase. All these outputs taken together support (1) the mixed approach of N dilution curve
suggested by Cruz and Soussana (1997) to defne N demand, (2) the relationship between leaf area
expansion and the NNI (Corre-Hellou et al., 2006) and (3) light sharing through a basic approach
relying on LAI and leaf properties of each species within pea-wheat intercrop. They strongly tight
the links between belowground resources and light sharing within cereals-legumes intercrops. As
the model mainly relies on N dynamics within the soil-plant system, it also emphasizes that this
element is critical. It can then be usefully handled as valuable tool to manage intercrop yield and
proportion of each species at harvest depending on targeted yields. Azodyn-IC simulations crossing
crop managements (N fertilizer rates, application timing, sowing density and sowing date, namely)
are currently under progress.
References
Burns, I.G., 1974. A model for predicting the redistribution of salts applied to fallow soils after excess rainfall
or evaporation. Journal of Soil Science 25: 165-178.
Barbottin, A., Le Bail, M. and Jeuffroy, M.-H., 2006. The Azodyn crop model as a decision support tool for
choosing cultivars. Agronomy Sustainable Development 26: 107-115.
Corre-Hellou, G. and Crozat, Y., 2005. N
2
fxation and N supply in organic pea (Pisum sativum L.) cropping
systems as affected by weeds and peaweevil (Sitona lineatus L.). European Journal of Agronomy 22:
449-458.
Corre-Hellou, G., Fustec, J. and Crozat, Y., 2006. Interspecifc Competition for soil N and its interaction with
N
2
fxation, leaf expansion and crop growth in pea-barley intercrops. Plant and Soil 282: 195-208.
Corre-Hellou, G., Brisson, N., Launay, M., Fustec, J. and Crozat, Y., 2007. Effect of root depth penetration on
soil nitrogen competitive interactions and dry matter production in pea-barley intercrops given different
soil nitrogen supplies. Field Crops Research 103: 76-85.
Cruz P. and Soussana J.-F., 1997. Mixed crops. In Lemaire, G. (ed.) Diagnosis of the Nitrogen Status in Crops.
Springer Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg, pp. 131-144.
David, C., Jeuffroy, M.-H., Laurent, M., Mangin, M. and Meynard, J.M., 2005. The assessment of AZODYN-
ORG model for managing nitrogen fertilization of organic winter wheat. Europen Journal of Agronomy
23: 225-242.
Ghaley, B., Hauggaard-Nielsen, H., Hogh-Jensen, H. and Jensen, E., 2005. Intercropping of Wheat and Pea as
Infuenced by Nitrogen Fertilization. Nutrient Cycling in Agroecosystems 73: 201-212.
Hauggaard-Nielsen, H., Andersen, M.K., Jrnsgaard, B. and Jensen, E.S., 2006. Density and relative frequency
effects on competitive interactions and resource use in pea-barley intercrops. Field Crops Research 95:
256-267.
Jensen, E.S., 1996a. Grain yield, symbiotic N
2
fxation and interspecifc competition for inorganic N in pea-
barley intercrops. Plant and Soil 182: 25-38.
Jensen, E.S., 1996b. Barley uptake of N deposited in the rhizosphere of associated feld pea. Soil Biological
Biochemistry 28: 159-168.
Jeuffroy, M.-H. and Recous, S., 1999. Azodyn: a simple model simulating the date of nitrogen defciency for
decision support in wheat fertilization. European Journal of Agronomy 10: 129-144.
Justes, E., Mary, B., Meynard, J.-M., Machet, J.-M. and Thelier-Huch, L., 1994. Determination of a critical
nitrogen dilution curve for winter wheat crops. Annals of Botany 74: 397-407.
Malzieux, E., Y. Crozat, C. Dupraz, M. Laurans, D. Makowski, H. Ozier-Lafontaine, B. Rapidel, S. de
Tourdonnet and Valantin-Morison, M., 2008. Mixing plant species in cropping systems: concepts, tools
and models. A review. Agronomy Sustainable Development 28: 1-20.
Ney, B., Dor, T. and Sagan, M., 1997. Grain legumes, In: G. Lemaire, ed. Diagnosis of the nitrogen status
in crops. Springer. pp. 107-118.
Tsubo, M. and Walker, S., 2002. A model of radiation interception and use by a maize-bean intercrop canopy.
Agricultural. Meteorolgy 110: 203-215.
Vocanson, V., 2006. Evaluation ex ante dinnovations varitales en pois dhiver (Pisum sativum L.): approche
par modlisation au niveau de la parcelle et de lexploitation agricole. Ph. D. manuscript, Institut National
Agronomique Paris-Grignon, 293 p.
Voisin, A.S., Salon, C., Munier-Jolain, N.G. and Ney, B., 2002. Quantitative effects of soil nitrate, growth
potential and phenology on symbiotic nitrogen fxation of pea (Pisum sativum L.). Plant and Soil 243: 31-42.
Predicting yields and protein content of lupin/cereal forage
crops in organic farming
W.M. Azo, G.P.F. Lane, W.P. Davies. and N.D. Cannon
The Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester, Gloucestershire GL7 6JS, United Kingdom
Abstract
Spring sown forage lupins and lupin/cereal bi-crops are postulated as being suitable for organic
wholecrop forage. The Conductance model is proposed as an aid to the evaluation of suitable
potential crop combinations. Spaced plant measurements and feld trials are described on organic
land at RAC Harnhill Manor Farm Cirencester UK which gave high yields of wholecrop forage.
The Conductance Model was used to make good predictions of the likely yield and quality of such
combinations.
Keywords: conductance model, bi-crop combinations, lupins, yield, organic forage
Introduction
The cost-effective production of nutritious, home-grown forages containing high levels of energy
and good quality protein is increasingly important for organic farmers seeking alternatives to grass
and clovers. Spring sown lupins offer good yields of highly digestible protein, but are inconsistent
in performance on UK farms. Combined with appropriate cereals, however, lupins and other forage
legumes can offer an attractive option for good quality protein and energy rich forage for organic
farmers.
The Conductance model (Aikman and Scaife, 1993) has been successfully used to predict growth
of various horticultural crops with both uniform and different height leaf canopies (Aikman and
Benjamin, 1994). More recently it has been successfully applied to agricultural forages such as
forage peas (Pisum sativa) undersown with red clover (Trifolium pratense) and lucerne (Medicago
sativa) (Koivisto, 2002) and to bi-crops of maize (Zea mais) and forage soya beans (Glycine max)
(Sawyer, 2007).
Cereal/ legume bicropping
Many studies have demonstrated enhanced yield and quality from such systems (Anil et al., 1998).
Palmason et al., (1992) reported positive effects of bi-cropping on forage yields. McKenzie and
Spaner (1998) observed greater yields of lupin/oat (Avena sativa) mixtures than pure stands of oats.
Carruthers et al., (2000) observed that the crude protein content of maize-lupin and maize-soybean
bi-crops increased over the mono-crop maize. Froidmont and Leterme, (2004) also noted that the
quality of maize silage was improved by adding lupin. Chapko et al. (1991) reported decreases in
the neutral detergent fbre (NDF) and acid detergent fbre (ADF) contents in the cereal component
from legume/cereal mixtures compared with the sole crop cereal.
The main aim of the study described here was the investigation of the suitability of spring sown
lupins to form bi-crops with a range of spring sown cereals and to produce reasonable yields of
high quality forage in an organic farming context. The Conductance model was evaluated as an
aid to this process and, in particular, as a way of establishing the suitability of individual cultivars
and of optimizing their sowing densities in bi-crop combinations.
The conductance model
The use of mathematical models as tools for predicting the interaction of species under the same
or different management regimes, is increasing. Many such models have dealt with crop- weed
interactions (Kropff and Lotz, 1992) or the interactions of intercropping two or more crop species
together (Baumann, 2002). Many models are computationally complex and require extensive
parameterization, thus limiting their adoption and successful use in many cases (Kropff and Lotz,
1992).
In contrast, the Conductance model is attractive since it requires only a limited number of easily
determined parameter values to predict the growth of plants in both single and dual species scenarios
(Aikman and Scaife, 1993). The model describes competition between plants by considering the
space occupied by the crown zones (the area of the smallest circle to encompass all the foliage
of the plant when viewed from above) of plants, and consequently their light interception. The
model does not attempt to simulate seedling establishment however (Aikman and Benjamin, 1994)
and simulations of growth and competition are dependent on estimates of the weights of plants at
emergence to provide initiation values. Operation of the model is based on individual plant data,
where leaf area is presumed to be a time independent function of plant dry weight, and growth is
determined to be purely the product of intercepted light and the conversion effciency of light into
dry matter (Park et al., 2001).
Experimental site
Field trials were conducted in 2005 and 2006 on land registered with the Soil Association, for
organic production, on the Royal Agricultural Colleges Harnhill Manor farm near Cirencester,
which is situated at 51
o
42N latitude, 01
o
59 W longitude at an altitude of 135 m above sea level.
The 2005 and 2006 sites were adjacent to one another and almost identical. Previous cropping on
the site was an organic perennial ryegrass/clover sward. The feld was fallowed (apart from the
feld trials area) in 2005. The soil texture of the experimental area was determined by mechanical
analysis to be clay loam (38.7% sand, 27.7% clay and 26.7% silt) with an organic matter content
ranging from 4.3-5.8% and with a pH range of 6.08 to 6.83. The phosphorus content was within
the range of 7 to 15 mg/kg of soil while the potassium ranged from 230 to 250 ppm. The site was
ploughed in the autumn of 2004, power harrowed and rolled in March 2005 to create a fne and
even seed bed, and again after autumn ploughing, on an adjacent site in March 2006. Wet soil
conditions precluded early drilling treatments in 2005 but trials were successfully established at
two dates during March and April of 2006.
Predation by crows (Corvus corone), rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) and deer (Dama dama) was
a constant problem on the site in both years and negatively affected the value of some of the data.
Measures taken to reduce predation (with varying degrees of success) included the protection of
germinating seedlings with agricultural feece and the deployment of electrifed rabbit netting and
electric fencing. Weeds, mainly charlock (Sinapis arvensis) and docks (Rumex spp.) were allowed
to grow freely within the trial plots. Before sowing, in both years, all lupin seeds were inoculated
with a Bradyrhizobium lupinii inoculant Legume fx (Legume Technology Ltd).
The solar radiation values used in the Conductance model computations were calculated from hours
of bright sunshine recorded at the weather station of the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester, UK.
Establishment, harvesting and data recording of spaced plants
The operation of the Conductance model was enabled by establishing a series of spaced plants
which were harvested on a weekly basis in 2005 and 2006. This data was used to predict the growth
of lupin and cereal crops and to inform the investigations of bi-cropping.
Seeds (certifed according to organic standards) of the three main agricultural lupin species (Lupinus
albus, L. luteus and L. angustifolius) used in the UK and a range of spring cereals were sown in
rows 1 m apart and with 1m spaces between plants, on the 25th of April 2005 and on 24
th
March
and 24
th
April 2006. Six seeds were sown at each station and later thinned to single seedlings.
Each row was replicated three times. Some species and cultivars were rejected following the 2005
experiments and the following were grown in both seasons:
white lupin (L. albus) cv. Dieta; blue lupin (L. angustifolius) cv. Bora; yellow lupin (L. luteus) cv
Amber; spring wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cv. Paragon; spring triticale (Tritcosecale. Wittmack)
cv. Logo.
The frst harvests were made on the 20
th
of June 2005, and 5
th
of May 2006, and subsequent harvests
taken on a weekly basis. At each harvest one plant was selected randomly from each replicate. Before
harvest, two white L shaped cards, on one of which was a 55 cm coloured card for calibration,
were placed to form a square beneath the plant to cover the soil surface, while providing a white
background for photography. Digital images were then recorded and the plants harvested at ground
level with a laboratory knife.
The harvested samples from the spaced plants were taken to the laboratory and leaves separated
from stems, pods and ears. Digital images of the leaves were taken by means of a camera attached
to a computer, and the total leaf area of each plant measured using the procedure for measuring
areas in the Aequitas computer software (Dynamic Data Link Ltd., Cambridge UK). From the
downloaded digital images taken in the feld and using Aequitas, the following measurement were
made: the area of the ground covered by the plant when viewed from above and the diameter of
the smallest circle to encompass all of the leaves.
The diameters were then used to calculate the area of the smallest circle, which represented the
crown zone area of each plant. The whole of each plant was oven dried at 100 C for 24 hours
to constant weight and weighed to determine the plant dry weight. Dried plants were milled to
pass through a1mm sieve using the laboratory mill (Glen Creston Ltd.) and samples stored for
subsequent chemical analysis.
Values of the leaf area, ground cover and crown zone area and dry weight of the spaced plants
were log
e
transformed to render the variance independent of the means. Linear regressions were
performed between the dry weights and leaf areas, and between dry weights and crown zone areas
for each species. The signifcance of each relationship was determined by the Analysis of Variance
(ANOVA) procedure in Genstat Version 9 (VSN Ltd).
Linear regressions performed between the log
e
transformed values of the plant dry weight (w) and
leaf area (a
l
) and between the plant dry weight (w) and crown zone area (a
z
) enabled the calculation
of a series of allometric constants termed A, , F and where:
a
l
= Fw
and a
z
= Aw
(1)
The extinction coeffcient (k) was calculated from the observed values of the leaf area (a
l
), ground
cover (a
g
) and crown zone area (a
z
) for each species for the two years as follows:
k= - a
z
/ a
l
* log
e
(1-(a
g
/ a
z
)) (2)
The conversion effciency (b) of solar radiation (S) to plant dry weight was calculated by ftting
the isolated plant dry weights into the equation for calculating absolute growth rate (dw/dt) where:
dw/dt = b*S* a
z
[1-exp (-k* a
l
/ a
z
)] (3)
Optimum values of b for each species were calculated for each year.
Regressions were performed using Microsoft Excel and Genstat version 9 (VSN Ltd), while
values of b were determined by means of the fminsearch function in MATLAB release 14 (The
Mathworks). The plant dry weights, calculated parameters (A, , F, , k and b) and crude protein
(CP) values of the spaced plants for both years were ftted into the Conductance model (Aikman
and Scaife, 1993) to predict dry matter and crude protein yields with time.
Establishment, harvesting and data recording of bi-crops
Replicated feld trials incorporating mono- and bi-crop combinations of the three lupin species
together with a range of spring cereals were established in 2005 and 2006. Following the 2005
experiences with both spaced plants and feld trials it was decided in 2006 to concentrate on the
species and cultivars which had appeared most successful in the previous year, namely white lupin
(L. albus) cv. Dieta spring wheat (T. aestivum L.) cv. Paragon and spring triticale (Tritcosecale
Wittmack) cv. Logo. The 2006 trial only is reported here.
The trial was conducted within a randomised block design. There were two main blocks (1142
m) to which were assigned the sowing date treatments (early drilling on the 24
th
March and late
drilling on the 24
th
April). Within the main blocks were two sub-blocks (542 m) divided into plots
of 52 m. Bi-crop mixtures of different densities and mono-crops of the main constituents were
then randomly assigned to these plots. The bi-crop treatments consisted of 25/250, 37.5/125 and
12.5/375 seeds/m
2
respectively, of cvs. Dieta/Paragon and Dieta/Logo. Harvesting was carried out
using 2525 cm quadrats and four different areas within each plot were harvested at random on
each harvest date. The early drilled treatments were harvested at 88, 102,116 and 130 days after
sowing, while the later drilled were harvested at 84, 98, 112 and 126 days. The total dry matter
yield and the yields of individual components were determined from samples at each harvest and
dried samples ground sequentially through the Glen Creston mill to pass through a 1mm sieve.
Crude protein was determined using the Kjeldahl method described by AOAC (1990). The DM
and crude protein yields obtained from this trial were then compared with those predicted by the
Conductance model using the spaced plant data.
Results
Results of spaced plant measurements
The linear relationships between the natural logarithms (Ln) of leaf area and plant dry weight (d w)
for the main species and varieties measured over two years and used to inform the Conductance
model, are set out in Table 1.
Table 1. The r
2
and signifcance levels for the regressions between the leaf area and plant dry
weight and between crown zone area and plant dry weight for the species and varieties grown
as spaced plants in 2005 and 2006.
Species Variety Year n Ln leaf area/plant d w Ln crown zone/plant d w
r
2
Signifcance r
2
Signifcance
L. albus Dieta 2005/6 66 0.81 ** 0.82 **
Bora 2005 30 0.95 ** 0.83 **
L. luteus Amber 2005 30 0.95 ** 0.91 **
Spring wheat Paragon 2006 36 0.82 ** 0.88 **
Spring triticale Logo 2005/6 66 0.90 ** 0.78 **
** = signifcant <0.01.
Results of feld trials
The dry matter yields of bi-crop combinations of Dieta / Paragon and Dieta / Logo tested at varying
densities and drilling dates of 24
th
March (early) and 24
th
April (late) in 2006, are represented
in Figures 1 and 2.
The data show signifcant (P<0.01) linear relationships between the predicted and observed DM
yields. The general trend for Dieta / Paragon treatments was over-prediction, except for Dieta as
a mono-crop (Figure 1). The Dieta / Logo treatments showed predictions that were closer to the
actual yields (Figure 2). Bi-crop combinations were observed to produce higher yields than Dieta,
Paragon or Logo grown alone. At the latest harvest dates for early drilling the 25/250 seeds /m
2

treatment gave the best yields for the Dieta / Paragon (Figure 1) and the Dieta /Logo (Figure 2)
Table 2. The r
2
and signifcance levels for the regressions between crude protein and plant dry
weight of spring lupins and cereals grown in 2005 and 2006.
Species Variety Year n r
2
Signifcance
L. albus Dieta 2005 30 0.780 **
2006 36 0.857 **
L. angustifolius Bora 2005 30 0.926 **
L. luteus Amber 2005 30 0.945 **
Spring wheat Paragon 2005 30 0.817 **
2006 36 0.453 ns
Spring triticale Logo 2005 30 0.234 ns
2006 36 0.432 ns
** = signifcant <0.01; ns = not signifcant.

0.00
5.00
10.00
15.00
20.00
25.00
88 102 116 130 84 98 112 126
days after sowing
D
M

y
i
e
l
d

(
t

h
a
-
1
)
50/0 predicted
50/0 actual
37.5/125 predicted
37.5/125 actual
25/250 predicted
25/250 actual
12.5/375 predicted
12.5/375 actual
0/500 predicted
0/500 actual
Early Late
Dieta/Paragon seeding
rates

Figure 1 Relationship between DM yield (t ha
-1
) and time in days after sowing for Dieta /
Paragon as bi-crops of varying densities sown on two dates in 2006. r
2
=0.61 (early) and r
2
=
0.74 (late) for the regressions, significant at P<0.01.
Figure 1 Relationship between DM yield (t/ha) and time in days after sowing for Dieta / Paragon
as bi-crops of varying densities sown on two dates in 2006. r
2
=0.61 (early) and r
2
= 0.74 (late)
for the regressions, signifcant at <0.01.
combinations. The data indicated that there were signifcant (P<0.05) differences between the
drilling date treatments. Higher yields were obtained from drilling early. The best combinations at
the late drilling were 25/250 seeds/m
2
for Dieta / Paragon and 12.5/375 for Dieta / Logo.
Crude protein yields for the 2006 trials are depicted in Figures 3 and 4. The trend was over-
prediction for the Dieta / Paragon treatments. There were no signifcant differences in the protein
yields between mono-crop Dieta and Dieta/ Paragon combinations at 37.5/125 and 25/250 seeds/m
2

(Figure 3). The trend was different for the Dieta /Logo combinations (Figure 4) where the model
under-predicted much of the CP yield. The 25/250 and 37.5/125 seeds/m
2
combinations gave the
best CP yields at both sowing dates.

0.00
5.00
10.00
15.00
20.00
25.00
88 102 116 130 84 98 112 126
Days after sowing
D
M

y
i
e
l
d

(
t

h
a
-
1
)
50/0 predicted
50/0 actual
37.5/125 predicted
37.5/125 actual
25/250 predicted
25/250 actual
12.5/375 predicted
12.5/375 actual
0/500 predicted
0/500 actual
Early Late
Dieta/Logo seeding
rates

Figure 2 Relationship between DM yield (t ha
-1
) and time in days after sowing for Dieta /
Logo as bi-crops of varying densities sown on two dates in 2006. r
2
=0.61 (early) and r
2
= 0.65
(late) for the regressions, significant at P<0.01.

Figure 2 Relationship between DM yield (t/ha) and ime in days after sowing for Dieta / Logo as
bi-crops of varying densities sown on two dates in 2006. r
2
=0.61 (early) and r
2
= 0.65 (late) for
the regressions, signifcant at <0.01.

0.00
0.50
1.00
1.50
2.00
2.50
3.00
3.50
4.00
88 102 116 130 84 98 112 126
Days after sowing
C
r
u
d
e

p
r
o
t
e
i
n

y
i
e
l
d

(
t

h
a
-
1
)
50/0 predicted
50/0 actual
37.5/125 predicted
37.5/125 actuual
25/250 predicted
25/250 actual
12.5/375 predicted
12.5/375 actual
0/500 predicted
0/500 actual
Early Late
Dieta/Paragon seeding rates

Figure 3 Relationship between crude protein(t ha
-1
) yield with time in days after sowing for
Dieta / Paragon bi-cropped at varying densities, sown on two dates in 2006. r
2
= 0.66 and
0.72 for the regressions significant at P<0.01.

Figure 3. Relationship between crude protein (t/ha) yield with time in days after sowing for
Dieta / Paragon bi-cropped at varying densities, sown on two dates in 2006. r
2
= 0.66 and 0.72
for the regressions signifcant at <0.01.
Discussion
The spaced plant studies showed strong relationships between the leaf area and crown zone area
and plant dry weights and, for the cultivars taken forward for further investigation in 2006 the
regressions were signifcant (P<0.01). There were fair agreements between the predicted and
observed plant weights for all the cultivars studied. The trend was an over-prediction during the early
stages of growth, under-prediction as the plants matured and then over-prediction again as ageing
and senescence began. The over-predictions observed in the later stages of growth could be due to
senescence. Aikman and Scaife (1993) noted that the model did not take into account maturation
and senescence, and therefore could not be expected to extrapolate through to mature crop stages.
There were very strong (P<0.01) linear relationships between the crude protein content and plant
dry weight for all the lupin species, but not for all the cereals except Paragon (spring wheat) in
2005. Paragon, being a high quality variety (NABIM Group 1 NABIM 2009) could be expected
to accumulate more protein than the others.
Bi-crop combinations with the white lupin types were predicted to produce higher yields than
combinations with the other two types. The photo- and morphogenic responses observed in this
study for the different crops offer an explanation for these fndings. The white lupin types and the
cereals showed marked internode elongation as exhibited by taller plants, and therefore probably
had a competitive advantage over the yellow and blue lupin types in a bi-crop situation.
Figures 1 and 2 show the actual crop combinations and DM yields achieved against the Conductance
model predictions in 2006. Regression analysis showed good agreement (P<0.01) in all cases.
The actual yield levels recorded in some instances appeared very high (especially for an organic
situation) and 15-20 t DM/ha appears exceptional. However, small plots often show yields that are
10-15% above yields under practical growing conditions.
Figures 3 and 4 indicate the change in CP yield with time for early and late sown crops in 2006.
For the early sown crops the indication is that harvesting at around 130 day or slightly earlier was
optimum for CP yield. For the late sown crops there was some indication that ceasing harvest at
126 days may have been slightly premature and that further accumulation of CP may have occurred.
It can be concluded that the Conductance model is capable of producing fair predictions of the
dry matter yields of the three species of lupins and the spring cereals cited. It is also capable of

0.00
0.50
1.00
1.50
2.00
2.50
3.00
3.50
4.00
88 102 116 130 84 98 112 126
Days after sowing
c
r
u
d
e

p
r
o
t
e
i
n

y
i
e
l
d

(
t

h
a
-
1
) 50/0 predicted
50/0 actual
37.5/125 predicted
37.5/125 actuual
25/250 predicted
25/250 actual
12.5/375 predicted
12.5/375 actual
0/500 predicted
0/500 actual
Early Late
Dieta/Logo seeding rates

Figure 4 Relationship between crude protein(t ha
-1
) yield with time in days after sowing for
Dieta / Logo bi-cropped at varying densities, sown on two dates in 2006. r
2
= 0.52 and 0.51
respectively for the regressions significant at P<0.01

Figure 4. Relationship between crude protein (t/ha) yield with time in days after sowing for
Dieta / Logo bi-cropped at varying densities, sown on two dates in 2006. r
2
= 0.52 and 0.51
respectively for the regressions signifcant at <0.01
producing fair predictions of the protein yields of the lupin species and of bi-crops with substantial
lupin contents.
References
Anil L., Park, J. Phipps R.H., and Miller F.A., 1998. Temperate intercropping of cereals for forage: A review
of the potential for growth and utilization with particular reference to the UK. Grass Forage Science.
53:301-317.
AOAC, 1990. Offcial methods of analysis 15edn Arlinton VA, USA Association of Offcial Analytical Chemists.
Aikman, D.P. and Scaife A., 1993. Modeling growth under varying environmental conditions in a uniform
canopy. Annals of Botany 72:485-492.
Aikman, D. P. and Benjamin L.R., 1994. A model for plant and crop growth, allowing for competition for
light by the use of potential and restricted projected crown zone areas. Annals of Botany.73: 185-194.
Baumann, D.T., Bastiaans L., Goudriaan J., van Laar H.H., and Kropff M.J., 2002. Analysis crop yield and plant
quality in intercropping system using an eco-physiological model for interplant competition. Agricultural
Systems. 73:173-203.
Carruthers, K., Prithiviraj B., Fe Q., Cloutier D., Martin R,C., and Smith D,L., 2000. Intercropping corn with
soybean, lupin and forages: silage yield and quality. Journal of Agronomy and Crop Science. 185:177-185.
Chapko, L.B., Brinkman M.A., and Albrecht K.A., 1991. Oat, Oat-pea, barley, and barley-pea for forage yield,
forage quality and alfalfa establishment. Journal of production Agriculture. 4: 486-491.
Froidmont, E. and Leterme P., 2004. La valorisation des propteagineaux dans lalikmentation du batail. Available
from http://www.fsagx.ac.be/zt/publications/10e%20carrefour/Froidmont.pdf.
NABIM, 2009. NABIM Wheat Guide Available from http://www.hgca.com/document.aspx?fn=load&media_
id=5027&publicationId=240
Koivisto, J.M., 2002. Semi-leafess peas: a cover crop for establishing Lucerne or red clover. PhD.Thesis.
Coventry University UK.
Mckenzie, D.B and Spaner D, 1998. White Lupin: An alternative to pea in oats-legume forage mixtures grown
in Newfoundland. Canadian Journal of Animal Science. 79:43-47.
Kropff, M.J. and Lotz L.A.P., 1992. System approaches to quality crop weed interactions and their application
in weed management. Agricultural -systems. 40:265-282.
Palmason, F., Danso S.K.A., and Hardarson G., 1992. Nitrogen accumulation of sole and mixed stands of
sweet-blue lupins (Lupinus angustifolius), ryegrass and oat. Plant and soil. 142:135-142.
Park, S.E., Benjamin L.R. Aikman D.P., and Watkinson A.R., 2001. Predicting the growth interactions between
plants in mixed species stand using a simple mechanistic model. Annals of Botany. 87:523-536.
Sawyer, C.A., 2007. Forage soybeans- a potential new home-grown protein source for livestock feed in the
UK. PhD thesis. Coventry University UK.
Crop modelling based on the principle of maximum plant
productivity
J. Kadaja, T. Saue and P. Viil
Estonian Research Institute of Agriculture, Teaduse 13, Saku, Estonia; jyri.kadaja@eria.ee
Abstract
The methodology based on the principle of maximum plant productivity allows to observe and model
the maximum production and yields under different limiting factors divided into agroecological
groups: in general, into biological, meteorological, soil, and agrotechnical groups. According to the
concept of reference yields, the categories of potential yield (PY), meteorologically possible yield
(MPY), practically possible yield (PPY), and commercial yield (CY) are observed, respectively.
This set of yield categories provides an ecology-based yield reference system with each of these
categories representing a certain kind of ecological resources for plant growth expressed in yield
units. This approach has been implemented in a potato crop model POMOD. The analysis of MPY,
stating agrometeorological resources in yield units, was carried out using a 108 year long data series
in Tartu, Estonia. No mean climatic change was observed in MPY series, but there has occurred
an increase in variability since 1980s. The lowest yields in the series, below 30 t/ha, are related to
excessively wet years, whereas the MPY values between 30 and 40 t/ha tend to be affected by dry
conditions. Based on the MPY category, a method for probabilistic forecast of agrometeorological
and agroclimatic resources is proposed. In Tartu, the climatic probabilistic forecast is not a symmetric
one. The MPY values slightly above average are prevalent. Dispersion of the seasonal forecasts
for 2008 decreases more rapidly for early variety.
Keywords: agrometeorological resources, potato, probabilistic forecast, variability, yield
Introduction
The complex infuence of environmental conditions on crop yield, its variability and changes, is an
essential tool from several aspects, such as seasonal and long-term yield forecasting, assessment
of past conditions and the regions suitability for production, selection of alternative crops and
varieties, and so on.
The methodology based on the principle of maximum plant productivity introduced by H. Tooming
(1967, 1970, 1993) is stating that the adaptation processes in a plant (predominantly on evolutionary
scale) and plant community (on seasonal scale) are directed towards providing the maximum
possible net photosynthesis productivity in the existing environmental conditions it allows to
observe and model the maximum production and yields under different limiting factors divided into
agroecological groups (in general, into biological, meteorological, soil, and agrotechnical groups).
According to the concept of reference yields (Tooming, 1984; Zhukovsky et al. 1989), these groups
are included in the model separately, step by step, starting from optimal conditions for the plant
community. The main categories of reference yields are, in descending order, potential yield (PY),
meteorologically possible yield (MPY), practically possible yield (PPY), and commercial yield (CY).
This set of yield categories provides us with an ecology-based reference system for comparison
and analysis of different yield values obtained from feld trials as well as from model experiments.
Additionally, each of these categories represents a certain kind of ecological resources for plant
growth expressed in yield units. PY, expressing the solar radiation resources in yield units, is the
maximum yield of the given species or variety possible under the existing conditions of solar
radiation, with all the other environmental factors considered to be not limiting. MPY is the
maximum yield conceivable under the existing irradiance and meteorological conditions, with
optimal soil fertility and agrotechnology. MPY represents agrometeorological resources, for
prolonged periods agroclimatic resources, in yield units. PPY, the maximum yield achievable
under the existing meteorological and soil conditions, considers soil tilling to be optimal and the
infuence of plant diseases, pests and weeds to be absent. This category characterises soil resources
of the particular locality. CY takes into account all the factors limiting the production process and
the crop yield in real feld conditions.
This approach is realized in a dynamic potato crop model POMOD (Sepp and Tooming, 1991;
Kadaja and Tooming, 2004), which, in its present state, enables to compute PY and MPY.
An application of crop models is perfroming yield forecasts. By nature, the yield of an agricultural
crop is indefnite until its maturity, and the degree of this indefniteness is mostly determined by the
time interval and variability of undefned environmental conditions. Therefore, giving probabilistic
yield forecasts has essential advantages compared to the categorical ones, providing the users with
an awareness of the potential range of risks and potential benefts. In the 1980s, the probabilistic
approach to the agrometeorological yield forecast was introduced by Zhukovsky and Uskov (1984),
Sepp (1988), Kuchar (1989); this method was defned more accurately and concisely in the common
publications of Zhukovsky, Sepp and Tooming (Zhukovsky et al., 1989, 1990).
The probabilistic yield forecast works on the principle that crop production is calculated, using real
weather data up to the forecast moment and forward different meteorological realizations, defned
either by weather conditions of previous years (Sepp, 1988; Zhukovsky et al., 1989, 1990), generated
weather data (Zhukovsky et al., 1992; Dubrovsky at al., 2002), or ensembles of seasonal weather
forecasts (Cantelaube and Terres, 2005; Challinor et al., 2005). Here, based on the MPY category,
a method for climatic and seasonal probabilistic forecast, i.e. the forecast of agrometeorological
resources, is proposed.
The objective of this paper is to give an overview of the variability of agrometeorological resources
for potato cultivation and probabilistic forecast results computed by the model POMOD using 108
year long meteorological series in Tartu, Estonia, and a comparison of these results for early and
late varieties.
The model is parameterised for late variety Anti based on the feld experiments at Saku (N 5917;
E 2437) in 20012004 (Kadaja, 2004) and at Kuusiku (N 5859; E 2442) in 20052007, and
early variety Maret at Saku in 20052006.
The analysis of variability of agrometeorological resources and computing of probabilistic yield
forecast was carried out by data series recorded in Tartu-Travere meteorological station from 1901
to 2007 (up to 1996, near Tartu N 581800 E 264348, and from 1997 onwards at Travere N
581550, E 262742). Daily data of temperature, precipitation and global radiation were used.
As direct measurements of global radiation are available only from 1954 onwards, the missing daily
sums were calculated from sunshine duration, using regression equations established separately
for every month. The planting time of potato is determined by the permanent rise of temperature
above 8 C or by the fall of soil moisture below feld capacity in the spring. Yet planting may be
delayed by late night frosts 2 C, if the model fnds that these may damage the potato shoots.
The end of growth in the autumn is stated by the permanent drop of temperature below 7 C or by
the frst night frost 2 C. The data of soil water content or arrival of feld capacity in the spring
were collected from the reports of agrometeorological network. For the earlier period (up to the
end of the 1940s) and for some last years when the agrometeorological network was not working,
the fall of soil moisture below feld capacity was derived on the basis of meteorological data of the
stations. Onward, throughout the growing period, soil water content is calculated by the model.
Hydrological parameters of Albeluvisol (WRB), sandy silt loam, the soil prevalent for the locality,
were applied (Kitse, 1978).
As an example, the calculations of probabilistic forecasts of meteorologically possible yield were
carried out for 2008. This growing season began with a dry period up to the mid of June, which was
balanced by above normal precipitation in the second half of June. Conditions were favourable in
July and rather wet in August. Forecasts were compiled for four dates: 31 May, 30 June, 31 July
and 31 August. Up to these dates, the model computes by the real data of 2008, proceeding 107
times from this state by meteorological data of different previous years.
MPY and its variability
For the late variety Anti, the long-term mean MPY value, which describes the climatic resources
for plant growth, is 55.7 t/ha (1.23 kg dry matter per m
2
). The mean MPY value of the early variety
Maret is 45.0 t/ha (0.99 kg/m
2
). Any signifcant trends of MPY were not observed (Figure 1a.).
The most frequently represented values for Anti are situated around 60 t/ha, for Maret in the
interval 4550 t/ha (Figure 1b). The distribution of MPY is relatively peaked compared with normal
distribution, kurtosis is 0.94 for Maret and 0.80 for Anti. The skewness of the distributions is
negative, 0.96 for Maret and 0.98 for Anti, indicating quite strong asymmetric tail extending
towards low values. A shift 3.0 t/ha of average from median 58.7t/ha is noticeable for Anti, and
only 1.1 t/ha in the case of Maret.
As a rule, MPY of Anti is higher than MPY of Maret. Opposite situation is realised in a few
cases with extremely wet conditions. As excessive soil moisture fgures in our conditions mostly
in the later part of growing season, it affects late variety more strongly. In general, the lowest MPY
in the series below 30 t/ha are related to the excessively wet years, 1928, 1985 and 1998, whereas
the MPY values between 30 and 40 t/ha are mostly affected by dry conditions.
The late variety Anti demonstrated a greater variation in MPY. The standard deviation throughout
the whole period is 11.0 t/ha for Anti and 7.4 t/ha for Maret. However, the variability is quite
different in the different intervals of the periods. Running standard deviation, calculated over the
21-year interval, changes about two times (Figure 2). More stable periods occurred in the second
decade and in the beginning of the second half of the last century, for Anti especially in the end
of the 1960s and in the beginning of the 1970s. The instability of MPY was higher in the 1920s
and 1930s and increased abruptly from the beginning of the 1980s causing signifcant trends in
running course of standard deviation. For the early variety Maret, the standard deviation of the

Maret: y = 0.0119x + 21.9
R
2
= 0.0026
Anti: y = -0.0137x + 82.4
R
2
= 0.0015
0
20
40
60
80
1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000
Year
M
P
Y
,

t
/
h
a
Maret Anti
0 10 20 30
0
20
40
60
80
Frequency
Maret Anti

Figure 1. Series (a) and distribution over classes of 5 t/ha (b) of meteorologically possible
yields (MPY) of the early potato variety Maret and the late variety Anti computed on the
basis of data from Tartu meteorological station.

Figure 1. Series (a) and distribution over classes of 5 t/ha (b) of meteorologically possible yields
(MPY) of the early potato variety Maret and the late variety Anti computed on the basis of
data from Tartu meteorological station.
MPY increased from 6.4 t/ha in 1901-1980 to 9.6 t/ha in 1981-2008 (P<0.01 by F-test); for Anti,
the change from 10.0 to 13.4 t/ha (P<0.05) was recorded.
In a previous work (Saue and Kadaja, 2009) we have suggested MPY as an indicator for climate
change and variability that can describe the impact of complex meteorological conditions better than
single meteorological factors. Therefore, it can be concluded that in the inland part of Estonia the
climatic conditions during the growing period have grown more unstable than these were earlier.
Extreme years as well as years with well-balanced meteorological conditions have increased in
frequency.
Probabilistic forecast
The distribution of MPY series itself can be interpreted as climatic probabilistic forecast of
agrometeorological resources, given in yield units before planting date for the observed location.
But better than by a conventional distribution diagram (Figure 1b) or curve, the probabilistic forecast
can be illustrated by cumulative distribution giving maximum probability to the smallest (it is the
most highly assured yield) and minimum probability to the highest yield (Figure 3).
In Tartu, the climatic probabilistic forecast is asymmetric; the MPY values slightly above average
prevail. The span of yields below median is markedly wider than of above. Primarily, the climatic
probabilistic yield forecast is characteristic of the location, allowing comparison of different regions
for their favourableness and risks for growing a crop or a variety from the long-term perspective.

Anti: y = 0.0191x - 26.8
R
2
= 0.065 P < 0.05
Maret: y = 0.0358x - 63.1
R
2
= 0.307 P < 0.01
0
5
10
15
1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000
Year
S
t
a
n
d
a
r
d

d
e
v
i
a
t
i
o
n
,

t
/
h
a
Anti
Maret

Figure 2. Courses of running standard deviations calculated over 21-year intervals. Thinner
line in the beginning and end describes the extension of curves using shortening intervals.

Figure 2. Courses of running standard deviations calculated over 21-year intervals. Thinner line
in the beginning and end describes the extension of curves using shortening intervals.

0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
0 20 40 60 80
MPY
C
u
m
u
l
a
t
i
v
e

d
i
s
t
r
i
b
u
t
i
o
n
Anti
Maret

Figure 3. Cumulative distribution of MPY climatic probabilistic forecast of
agrometeorological resources for potato varieties Maret and Anti in Tartu region on the
basis of data from 1901 to 2008.

Figure 3. Cumulative distribution of MPY climatic probabilistic forecast of agrometeorological
resources for potato varieties Maret and Anti in Tartu region on the basis of data from 1901
to 2008.
The ensembles of probabilistic forecasts of MPY for 2008 (Figure 4) indicate in general an increase
of forecasted yield, excepted the forecast on 31 August, while weather conditions in August
cropped the share of the higher yields. Range of yield forecasted, characterised by the fnal width
of the ensemble, is wider for the late variety Anti, as it was for climatic forecast (Figure 3). The
differences in standard deviations between late and early varieties increase from month to month,
being 1.3, 1.6, 2.9 and 7.2 times, correspondingly, in the ends of months from May to August.
Considering the shorter growing period of early variety, the quicker convergence of forecast is
anticipated. However, for Anti in extreme years, as observed in a previous paper (Kadaja et al.,
2009), the convergence was a more rapid one.
Generally speaking, despite of a dry spring and heavy rainfall in August, the weather was quite
favourable for potato. Already in the end of May the probabilistic forecast exceeded the climatic
forecast (Figure 5). The most considerable improvement of forecast occurred in June, also in July.
Excessively wet conditions in August mostly decreased the possibility to get high yields. The
subsequent conditions in September were not good, the fnal value of MPY was lower than the
mean value of the 31 August forecast.
Conclusions
The principle of maximum plant productivity, and the concept of reference yields derived from it,
allow to model the maximum production and yields under different groups of limiting agroecological
factors. A yield category of reference yields, denoting the yield conceivable for the given species or
variety under the existing irradiance and meteorological conditions with optimal soil fertility and
agrotechnology, called meteorologically possible yield (MPY), expresses the agrometeorological
resources for growing the particular crop. The model POMOD enables to compute MPY for potato
crop. The calculated 108-year long time series of MPY for the early potato variety Maret and late
variety Anti demonstrate that there is no signifcant trend in the MPY values, but an increase in
variability exists, mostly from the eighties of the last century.

Maret
Forecast day 31.05.2008
0.0
0.4
0.8
1.2
1.6
30.05 30.06 31.07 31.08 1.10
M
P
Y

(
k
g

d
r
y

m
a
t
t
e
r

p
e
r

m

2
)
Maret
0.0
0.4
0.8
1.2
1.6
30.05 30.06 31.07 31.08 1.10
Maret
0.0
0.4
0.8
1.2
1.6
30.05 30.06 31.07 31.08 1.10
Maret
0.0
0.4
0.8
1.2
1.6
30.05 30.06 31.07 31.08 1.10
Anti
0.0
0.4
0.8
1.2
1.6
30.05 30.06 31.07 31.08 1.10
Date (day, month)
M
P
Y

(
k
g

d
r
y

m
a
t
t
e
r

p
e
r

m

2
)
Anti
0.0
0.4
0.8
1.2
1.6
30.05 30.06 31.07 31.08 1.10
Date (day, month)
Anti
0.0
0.4
0.8
1.2
1.6
30.05 30.06 31.07 31.08 1.10
Date (day, month)
Anti
0.0
0.4
0.8
1.2
1.6
30.05 30.06 31.07 31.08 1.10
Date (day, month)

Figure 4. Ensembles of yield accumulation trajectories computed for different forecast dates
for the early variety Maret and the late variety Anti.

Figure 4. Ensembles of yield accumulation trajectories computed for different forecast dates for
the early variety Maret and the late variety Anti.
MPY gives an opportunity to compile the forecast of agrometeorological resources in yield units.
Probabilistic type of forecasts is preferable, as these provide the users with an awareness of the
potential range of risks and benefts, not offered by any categorical forecast. Cumulative distribution
curve is one of the best illustrative forms of the probabilistic forecasts. Long-term distribution of
MPY gives climatic probabilistic forecast characterising the agroclimatic resources of the locality,
and can be applied in planning land use and production in the future. In Tartu, the probabilistic
forecast of agroclimatic resources, calculated on the basis of 108-year data series, is not a symmetric
one, having quite strong asymmetric tail towards low values and high frequency slightly above
average. Climatic forecast as well as probabilistic forecasts for 2008, presented as an example in this
paper, have higher dispersions in the case of a late variety compared to an early one. This difference
between late and early varieties increased when the forecast date was shifted to a later time.
Acknowledgements
This study was funded by the Estonian Science Foundation grant No. 6092.
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0 20 40 60 80
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1
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2

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Automatic working depth control for seed drill using ISO
11783 compatible tractor
P. Suomi
1
, T. Oksanen
2
, A. Ojanne
1
, J. Kalmari
2
, R. Linkolehto
1
and F. Teye
1
1
MTT Agrifood Research Finland, Plant Production Research, Vakolantie 55 03400 VIHTI, Finland;
pasi.suomi@mtt.f
2
Helsinki University of Technology (TKK), Department of Automation and Systems Technology,
P.O. Box 5500, 02015 TKK, Finland
Abstract
The reliability of feld work documentation and the functionality of PA systems set critical
requirements for the instrumentation of agricultural implements. Precision agricultural machinery
should be easy to use and operated without the need for automatic online controls that are map-
based. The aim of the study was to develop automatic depth control system for a drill using an
ISOBUS compatible tractor. In this paper, the instrumentation, the depth control model, and the
control system of a prototype combine drill is described. A preliminary survey was carried out to
choose sensors for the instrumentation of working depth control in a Junkkari Maestro 3000 combine
drill. In the frst phase of the research, a reliable measurement system based on multiple sensors
was developed. A working depth model was then developed for the control of seeding depth. The
control commands to hydraulic valves were transmitted using ISO 11783 network. In the second
phase, all the sensors were calibrated indoors on a concrete foor. Field trials and measurements
were carried out in during the fnal phase. For validating the theoretical model, the real depth of
seeds was obtained from the soil profle by slicing after the germination of seeds. In the feld tests
automatic working depth control achieved accuracy of 8 mm.
Keywords: control system, networked control, sensors, working depth, estimation, feld tests, ISO
11783, ISOBUS
Introduction
Reliability of feld work documentation and the functionality of precision agricultural (PA) systems
set critical requirements in the instrumentation of agricultural implements. PA machinery should be
easy to use and if possible, automated should work using real-time measurements performed online.
Information and communication technology (ICT) assisted PA is the key technology to fulfll these
demands (Auernhammer, 2003; McBrantney et al., 2005). Embedding of electronics into mobile
agricultural equipment has helped to enhance the functionality, effciency and environmental
compatibility of machines (Stone et al., 2008). An intelligent user friendly function of PA machinery
plays a very important role in future researches. To reduce machine drivers workload during driving
and for more accurate realisation of feld tasks, functions such as automatic depth control systems
are needed. Different kinds of depth control systems have been developed and studied in the past.
Moutzen et al. (2004) used soil wheel Linear Variable Differential Transformer (LVDT) sensors
to determine the height of the machine frame form the soil level. According their study, soil wheel
sensors can be used in felds covered with stubble and, plant residue where the ultrasonic sensors
incorrectly measure the height of the equipments frame from the soil surface. Adamchuk et al.
(2004) used ultrasonic sensors for determining tillage depth. Saeys et al. (2007 and 2008) develop
depth control system for shallow manure injection into soils. In their system, ultrasonic sensors were
used to measure the distance between the injector frame and the soil surface. However, automatic
working depth control for drills, which utilizes tractors hydraulic valves via standardized ISO
11783 network with an ISO 11783 (ISOBUS) class 3 tractor, has not yet been documented.
The aim of this study was to develop an automatic depth control system for a drill using an ISO
11783 class 3 compatible tractor. To achieve this aim, an accurate and reliable online measuring
system, and a working depth model for determining seeding depth was developed. Furthermore,
an automatic depth control feature was developed for the electronic controller unit of the drill. The
functionality of the depth control system was also evaluated.
Seed drill and tractor combination
For testing the automatic seeding depth control system, a Junkkari Maestro 3000 combine drill and
a Valtra T190 ISOBUS compatible tractor were used. In the Junkkari Maestro 3000 combine drill,
toothed wedge roller coulters (with weighing force of 6 to 140 kg) were used for both seeding and
local fertilizing. Sowing depth is adjusted by changing the length of the lift cylinders. When lowering
the machine into the sowing position, the weight is relayed to the coulters with the springs. The
separately weighted bearing wheels divide the machines weight evenly over the entire sowing width.
Sensors and measurement system
Location of sensors in the measurement system is given in Figure 1. Soil surface were measured
using two soil wheels installed with rotary position sensors (Positek P502.30AJ) and two ultrasonic
rangers (Siemens 3RG6113-3BF00 and Pil P43-F4V-2D-1C0-180E). The rotary position sensors
were used to measure the changes in the angle between the soil wheel frame and the body of the
drill. The drill has 32 coulters in all. Counting from the left, blade sensors (Blade 60 mm from Gill
sensors Ltd) were installed on the 5
th
, 12
th
and 27
th
coulters to measure the angle changes between
the frame of the coulters and the body of the drill. Two ultrasonic rangers were installed in front
of the ffth coulter. In addition, a measuring wheel was installed in front of the 5
th
and 27
th
coulter
(Figure 1). The position of the lift cylinder was also measured using a blade sensor. All the sensors
were confgured for optimal measuring ranges.
Panasonic Toughbook CF-18 and National Instruments Usb-6009 data card were used for data
collection. Measurement programming was carried out using LabView 8.0. A measurement
frequency of 50 Hz was used during feld trials. Trimble 5700 RTK-GPS receiver accuracy of 2
cm was used for position measurements. The GPS receiver was positioned at the middle of the
1

Figure 1. Position of sensors used in the depth control and measurement system of the drill.
Figure 1. Position of sensors used in the depth control and measurement system of the drill.
working width, and mounted on top of the drill to coincide with the front coulters. This position
is labelled as the ZERO-point in Figure 1. This positioning procedure enabled the localization of
the seed rows during the feld tests. Position correction for the sensors used in the depth control
system is shown in Figure 1.
Sensor calibration
All the sensors were calibrated indoors on a concrete foor. Both the tractor and the drill were
elevated 100 mm from concrete foor. Then the lift cylinder was open 24 mm. This position of the
lift cylinder was the reference calibration position of the drill. The position of the foor was the
calibration level and the 100 mm elevated position represented zero drilling depth position when
no drilling was taking place. The sensors were calibrated for a range of 0-100 mm representing
the drill working depth, 100-120 mm representing crop residue and soil lumps. To determine the
relationship between the measured signals from sensors and the distance from the foor, slides of
plywood were placed step by step under the coulters, the measuring wheels, and the ultrasonic
sensors. In the calibration, a third degree polynomial function was used for each measurement.
Third degree polynomial is described as:
C = aV + bV + cV + d (1)
where V is the explanatory variable (output voltage from the sensors, volts) and C is the dependent
variable (height from foor, mm), and a, b, c and d are parametric constants.
When the drill was at the calibration position it was totally horizontal. However, when the height of
the lift cylinder was changed from the calibration position, the drills orientation changed, therefore
an inclination correction factor between the soil wheels and the coulters was needed (Equation 2).
In the preliminary feld trials, it was observed that measurements from the ultrasonic rangers
underestimated the distance between the soil and body of drill. Crops, crop residue and lumps
of soil caused inaccuracies in the ultrasonic rangers, resulting in measurements lying outside the
range the model. Saeys et al. (2007) used ultrasonic rangers in their depth control system but they
implemented the rangers behind the coulters to minimise interference of crop and lumps of soil. The
preliminary trials in this research showed that it was not possible to implement ultrasonic rangers
in front or behind the coulters of the Junkkari maestro 3000 combine drill.
Working depth model
Data obtained from the sensors during the preliminary feld trial were used for developing the
working depth model. In the preliminary feld trials spring wheat was sown to seeding depths of
30 and 40 mm. Before the trials, all the sensors were calibrated as described before. A low pass
flter was used to eliminate noise signals from the raw measurements. In addition, the locations of
all measurements were synchronized to the position of the front coulters to make estimation of the
model more accurate (Figure 1).
The relationship between the measured signals from the sensors and distance from the calibration
level (100 mm below tractor and drill) observed during the calibration was used in the working
depth model as the virtual position. The working depth model is presented in Equation 2. In the
model, the distance difference from the soil wheels (M
i
) and the coulters (C
i
) to the calibration level
were used (Figure 2). When the position of the lift cylinder changes from the calibration position,
the inclination correction factor (I) affects the estimation of working depth. Correction factor (H)
for systematic error was included in the equation. The correction factor catered systematic errors
observed during feld trials as a result of soil properties such as softness of the soil. The control
system was built such that, the systematic correction factor could be easily changed using the user
interface (ISO 11783 virtual terminal) of the drill. The working depth is determined as:
WD = M
i
- C
i
+ I + H (2)
Where:
WD = working depth in mm;
M
i
= average measurements of soil wheels from the calibration level in mm;
C
i
= average measurements of coulters from the calibration level in mm;
I = inclination correction factor between the measuring wheel and the coulter in mm;
H = correction factor for systematic error in mm.
Depth control system
The working depth is controlled by changing the height between the drill and the supporting wheels
by adjusting the lift cylinder; as the force to coulters depends on the height through the supporting
springs. Information from the 6 sensors and the developed working depth model is used to calculate
the working depth in the control system in real time.
The developed working depth measurement system, the model and the control system were used in
the drills IECU. The control system of the drill was ISO 11783 compatible. The prototype control
system was based on a miniature-PC (VIA Epia), a USB-CAN adapter and a Labjack I/O board. In
the developed control system prototype no extra hydraulic valves were installed on the implement,
but the ISO 11783 class 3 tractors hydraulic valves were used over the network.
In the control system, two feedback controllers were used in cascade manner. The inner controller
is for mechatronics; it controlled the opening of the lift cylinder using a PD-controller. In outer
loop, the PI-controller commanded the set point of the lift cylinder controller. Inner controller was
tuned using data based system identifcation (frst order dynamics + lag + delay) and tuning rules
for integrating the processes (Eriksson et al., 2009).
Field validations
In frst phase, the prototype drill with the new depth control system was evaluated in the spring
2008 at Kirjava feld (60 25 N, 24 19 E) in Southern Finland. The test feld was harrowed evenly
to a depth of about 20 mm. Malt barley was then sown to seeding depths of 20, 30, 40 and 50 mm.
In addition, a manual test run (with the lift cylinder at the calibration position) was performed.
The second test phase during autumn 2008 focused on the validation of the measurement system
and working depth model in the Rinne feld (62 27 N, 24 21 E) in Southern Finland. The test
feld was harrowed to a depth of 60 mm to improve the homogeneity of the soil structure. Winter
wheat was sown to seeding depths of 20, 30, 40 and 50 mm. Also manual tests run (lift cylinder in
calibration position) were performed. During both feld trial phases, similar measurement setups
were used. Five test runs were carried out during the feld trials. A driving speed of 10 km/h was
2

Zero drilling depth position
Calibration level (floor)
Real wheels
Front
coulters
Soil
wheels
Lift cylinder
Rear
coulters
i M
i C I

Figure 2. Position of measurement wheels and coulters from the calibration level, and model
parameters. M is distance from the soil wheel to the calibration level, C distance from the
coulter to the calibration level, and I is the inclination correction factor.
Figure 2. Position of measurement wheels and coulters from the calibration level, and model
parameters. is distance from the soil wheel to the calibration level, distance from the coulter
to the calibration level, and is the inclination correction factor.
used. The measurement frequency was 50 Hz and working depths were determined at intervals of
56 mm. Malt barley and winter wheat were sown using a seeding rate of 240 kg/ha. The distance
between the seed rows was 13 mm. By using a measuring frequency of 50 Hz, the reliability of
synchronization between the signals from the sensors and seed position was assured.
Two cross-line positions perpendicular to the seeding rows were located using the GPS positioning
from drill. Due to the effect of tire tracks left after the cross-line position determination, the
measurement of the real seed depth by hand was moved 2 m away from the cross-line (Figure 3).
On each seeding row, the real seed depth was measured for a 2 m length.
For validating the theoretical model and the depth control system, the real depth of seeds measured
by hand was used as the reference. Depths of seeds were analyzed from the rows where the 5
th

coulter of the drill had sown. Seeding depth was determined by hand as the distance from the soil
surface to the seed (Figure 4). Shoots were taken from the soil by hand site-specifcally and the
distance between seed and soil surface measured using a measuring rule (Figure 4). Shoots were
uprooted in small groups of 3 to 5 plants at intervals of 100 mm totaling 20 samples per site.
Validation of the depth control system
The correction factor during the feld trials for systematic error was zero. A plot of the real depth
of seeds and estimated working depth model for the manual, 30 mm and 40 mm test runs as a
function of the travel distance is shown in Figure 5. The estimated working depth grew deeper
3

Figure 3. Locations where the real seed depths were determined.

Figure 3. Locations where the real seed depths were determined.
4

Figure 4. Determination of real seeding dept by hand.
during the manual test drive. Even though the Kirjava feld was very even, it seemed that the soil
type was not the same over the feld. In test runs 30 mm and 40 mm the depth control maintained
the required seeding depth. When the drill worked in softer soils, the depth control adjusted the
lift cylinder position according to the estimation of the depth control model. Large variation was,
however, observed for the real depths of the seeds. According the feld tests (Figure 5) automatic
working depth control achieved accuracies of 8 mm. According the Figure 5, the real depths of
seeds were deeper than the bottom of the coulters in softer soils. This was attributed to the fact that
in softer soil, the coulters had enough force to split up soil particles so that seeds were able to go
deeper to the bottom of the coulter.
Validation of the measuring system and the working depth model
Autumn 2008 was remarkably wet in Finland therefore part of the Rinne test feld where the real
depth of seeds were to be measured was under to water. Finally one replicate of real depth of seeds
from the each test runs were measured. Results from test run (30 mm seeding depth) as a function
of the travel distance (total travel distance 32 m) are shown in Figure 6. Figure 6 also shows the
plot of the real working depth measured by hand where the 5
th
coulter seeded. The solid lines show
the seeding depth estimated by the model using all the sensor information. The dotted line shows
the seeding depth estimated from the sensors attached to the 5
th
coulter on the drill.
Table 1 shows the results of the working depths at 2 m measured by hand, estimated by the model,
and the average over the whole 32 m driving distance. For the 2 m cross-line location, the depth
model achieved an accuracy of 5 mm in the 20 to 40 mm seeding depth test runs. When target
depth was 50 mm real depths of seed were deeper than the coulters bottom like in validation of
depth control system (see previous paragraph). It seems that there was the same phenomenon like
in Kirjava feld. Coulters have enough force to splits soil particles up so seeds may go deeper than
bottom of the coulter. Even when the test feld was harrowed to 60 mm it seems that in the test run
50 mm coulters did not have enough weight to realize the target depth even though the position of
the lift cylinder was at bare minimum (0 mm).
6
site-specifically and the distance between seed and soil surface measured using a measuring
rule (Figure 4). Shoots were uprooted in small groups of 3 to 5 plants at intervals of 100 mm
totaling 20 samples per site.

3 Results and discussion
3.1 Validation of the depth control system
The correction factor during the field trials for systematic error was zero. A plot of the real
depth of seeds and estimated working depth model for the manual, 30 mm and 40 mm test
runs as a function of the travel distance is shown in Figure 5. The estimated working depth
grew deeper during the manual test drive. Even though the Kirjava field was very even, it
seemed that the soil type was not the same over the field. In test runs 30 mm and 40 mm the
depth control maintained the required seeding depth. When the drill worked in softer soils, the
depth control adjusted the lift cylinder position according to the estimation of the depth
control model. Large variation was, however, observed for the real depths of the seeds.
According the field tests (Figure 5) automatic working depth control achieved accuracies of
8 mm. According the Figure 5, the real depths of seeds were deeper than the bottom of the
coulters in softer soils. This was attributed to the fact that in softer soil, the coulters had
enough force to split up soil particles so that seeds were able to go deeper to the bottom of the
coulter.

Figure 5. Results of test for the control system, (a) results of the manual test run, (b) and (c)
results from test runs 30 mm and 40 mm. Solid line describes position of the lift cylinder. Dot
Figure 5. Results of test for the control system, (a) results of the manual test run, (b) and (c)
results from test runs 30 mm and 40 mm. Solid line describes position of the lift cylinder. Dot
lines describe working depth estimated by the model. Square plots represent real depths of seeds.
Conclusions
The following conclusions were obtained from the study:
Working depth model were developed for the ECU of drill. The dynamic behaviour of the depth
control system varies during drilling. Differences in soil type and structure were the main cause
of variation.
The automatic working depth control for seed drill was developed. ISO 11783 compatible tractor
prototype drill combination was used and demonstrated successfully in feld trials. Hydraulics of
tractor was commanded by ECU of the drill.
According the feld tests (Figure 5) automatic working depth control achieved accuracies of 8 mm.
According the feld test (Table 1), the working depth model descried the real depth of seeds to an
accuracy of 5 mm.
7
lines describe working depth estimated by the model. Square plots represent real depths of
seeds.

3.2 Validation of the measuring system and the working depth model
Autumn 2008 was remarkably wet in Finland therefore part of the Rinne test field where the
real depth of seeds were to be measured was under to water. Finally one replicate of real
depth of seeds from the each test runs were measured. Results from test run (30 mm seeding
depth) as a function of the travel distance (total travel distance 32 m) are shown in Figure 6.
Figure 6 also shows the plot of the real working depth measured by hand where the 5
th
coulter
seeded. The solid lines show the seeding depth estimated by the model using all the sensor
information. The dotted line shows the seeding depth estimated from the sensors attached to
the 5
th
coulter on the drill.
Table 1 shows the results of the working depths at 2 m measured by hand, estimated by the
model, and the average over the whole 32 m driving distance. For the 2 m cross-line location,
the depth model achieved an accuracy of 5 mm in the 20 to 40 mm seeding depth test runs.
When target depth was 50 mm real depths of seed were deeper than the coulters bottom like in
validation of depth control system (Chapter 3.1). It seems that there was the same
phenomenon like in Kirjava field. Coulters have enough force to splits soil particles up so
seeds may go deeper than bottom of the coulter. Even when the test field was harrowed to 60
mm it seems that in the test run 50 mm coulters did not have enough weight to realize the
target depth even though the position of the lift cylinder was at bare minimum (0 mm).

Figure 6. Seeding depth estimated by model (solid) and measured by hand (square) at a
seeding depth of 30 mm. Dot line is the seeding depth estimated by the model using 5
th

coulters measurements.
Table 1. Results from the field trial of validation of the measuring system and working depth
model.
Measurement at cross-line (2 m) Measurement at driving row (32 m)
Real depths of seeds Working depth Working depth
Test run measured by hand, mm estimated by model, mm estimated by model, mm
50 mm av. 40.5 36.4 38.5
50 mm sd. 4.6 0.8 4.0
40 mm av. 33.9 34.1 36.8
40 mm sd. 4.2 0.9 2.9
30 mm av. 21.0 25.6 27.7
30 mm sd. 2.9 1.7 4.9
20 mm av. 17.1 16.5 20.6
Figure 6. Seeding depth estimated by model (solid) and measured by hand (square) at a seeding
depth of 30 mm. Dot line is the seeding depth estimated by the model using 5
th
coulters
measurements.
Table 1. Results from the feld trial of validation of the measuring system and working depth
model.
Test run Measurement at cross-line (2 m) Measurement at driving row
(32 m)
Real depths of seeds
measured by hand, mm
Working depth
estimated by model, mm
Working depth
estimated by model, mm
50 mm av. 40.5 36.4 38.5
50 mm sd. 4.6 0.8 4.0
40 mm av. 33.9 34.1 36.8
40 mm sd. 4.2 0.9 2.9
30 mm av. 21.0 25.6 27.7
30 mm sd. 2.9 1.7 4.9
20 mm av. 17.1 16.5 20.6
20 mm sd. 2.0 2.8 5.3
man av. 36.7 39.7 39.1
man sd. 4.6 2.0 3.9
Based on the variation in soil type on the feld, correction factor observed due to the sinking of the
soil wheel was sometimes required. Therefore the model consist parameter H for systematic error
that was possible to update through the user interface (ISO 11783 virtual terminal) of the drill.
References
Adamchuk, V.I, Skotnikov, A.V., Speichinger, J.D. and Kocher, M.F. 2004. Development of an Instrumented
Deep-Tillage Implement for Sensing of Soil Mechanical Resistance. Transaction of the ASAE, 47(6):
1913-1919.
Auernhammer, H. 2003. The Role of Mechatronics in Crop Product Traceability. Agricultural Engineering
International: the CIGR Journal of Scientifc Research and Development. Invited Overview Paper. Vol. IV.
October, 2002. Presented at the Club of Bologna meeting, July 27, 2002. Chicago, IL., USA.
Eriksson, L., Oksanen, T. and Mikkola, K. 2009. PID Controller Tuning Rules for Integrating Processes
with Varying Time-Delays. Journal of the Franklin Institute, in Press, Elsevier, doi:10.1016/j.
jfranklin.2009.01.003.
Mouazen, A.M., Anthonis. J., Saeys. W. and Ramon. H. 2004. An automatic depth control system for on-line
measurement of spatial variation in soil compaction, part 1: sensor design for measurement of frame height
variation from soil surface. Biosystems Engineering, 89(2): 139-150.
McBratney, A., Whelan, B. and Ancev, T. 2004. Future Directions of Precision Agriculture. Precision Agriculture,
6, 723, 2005, Invited paper, 7th International Conference on Precision Agriculture, Minneapolis, USA,
July 2004.
Saeys, W., Engelen, K., Ramon, H. and Anthonis, J. 2007. An automatic depth control systems for shallow
manure injection, part 1: modelling of the depth control system. Biosystems Engineering, 98: 146-154,
doi:10.1016/j.biosystemseng.2007.06.002.
Saeys, W., Wallays, C., Engelen, K., Ramon, H. and Anthonis, J. 2008 An automatic depth control systems for
shallow slurry injection, part 2: Control design and feld validation. Biosystems Engineering, 99: 161-170,
doi:10.1016/j.biosystemseng.2007.10.011.
Stone, M.L., Benneweis, R.K. and Bergeijk, J. Van. 2008. Evolution of Electronics for mobile Agricultural
Equipment. Transaction of the ASABE 51(2): 385-390.
A supply/demand, single-organ crop growth model
I. Seginer
1
and M. Gent
2
1
Civil and Environmental Engineering, Technion, IIT, 32000 Haifa, Israel;
segineri@tx.technion.ac.il
2
Forestry & Horticulture, Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, New Haven CT 06504-
1106, USA
Abstract
Traditional crop growth models assign all available carbohydrates (CHO) to growth, thus making
photosynthesis the only growth limiting factor. In practice, other factors, such as low temperature
and scarcity of nutrients or water, may be limiting the assimilation (synthesis) of substrates into
structural tissue. Structural growth may, therefore, be viewed as depending on the balance between
the supply of CHO by photosynthesis and the demand for CHO to be assimilated into new tissue.
The objective of this study is to modify the traditional model by including low temperature as a
factor which limits the demand for CHO. This would explain the observed accumulation of non-
structural CHO at low temperatures. Denoting supply and demand of CHO on a daily basis by
and , structural growth of a vegetative crop, S, may be estimated by S=min{, }. This produces
structural growth as a function of temperature which is ascending and convex (downwards) in the
low temperature range (demand limitation) and descending and concave in the high temperature
range (supply limitation). Maximum growth is obtained at the intersection of the two regimes,
where the crop is said to be balanced. The balance point moves towards higher temperatures
when the photosynthetic rate increases, as is often observed. Surplus CHO ( - ) is partly stored
as non-structural material, which adds to the dry mass, but not to structural tissue. Comparison
of model predictions with growth and CHO data of young tomato plants, shows a fair agreement.
Keywords: structural growth, law of the minimum, temperature response
Traditional daily-step model
Daily-step crop-growth simulation models are traditionally of the form
(1)
(Dayan et al., 1993: 153), where the integral signs are shorthand notation to indicate accumulation
over the daily cycle, S is daily growth, is gross photosynthesis rate (corrected for photorespiration),
is the rate of maintenance respiration, and is the conversion effciency from carbon in
carbohydrates (CHO) to carbon in the tissue. Furthermore, I is light fux above the canopy, C is
carbon dioxide concentration in the air, T is air temperature, and M is crop size.
Alternatively, Equation 1 may be written as a carbon balance
(2)
Where is the rate of assimilation of CHO and nutrients into new structural tissue (synonymous
to structural growth), and is the rate of growth-respiration. Growth respiration is commonly
considered to be proportional to structural growth, namely
(3)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
} 21
22
23
24
25

I. Seginer
1
and M. Gent
2

1
Civil and Environmental Engineering, Technion, IIT, 32000 Haifa, Israel. E-mail:
2
Forestry & Horticulture, Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, New Haven CT
06504-1106, USA

Abstract

Traditional crop growth models assign all available carbohydrates (CHO) to growth, thus
making photosynthesis the only growth limiting factor. In practice, other factors, such as low
temperature and scarcity of nutrients or water, may be limiting the assimilation (synthesis) of
substrates into structural tissue. Structural growth may, therefore, be viewed as depending on
the balance between the supply of CHO by photosynthesis and the demand for CHO to be
assimilated into new tissue. The objective of this study is to modify the traditional model by
including low temperature as a factor which limits the demand for CHO. This would explain
the observed accumulation of non-structural CHO at low temperatures. Denoting supply and
demand of CHO on a daily basis by and , structural growth of a vegetative crop, S, may
be estimated by . This produces structural growth as a function of temperature
which is ascending and convex (downwards) in the low temperature range (demand
limitation) and descending and concave in the high temperature range (supply limitation).
Maximum growth is obtained at the intersection of the two regimes, where the crop is said to
be balanced. The balance point moves towards higher temperatures when the photosynthetic
rate increases, as is often observed. Surplus CHO (

{ S , min =
) is partly stored as non-structural
material, which adds to the dry mass, but not to structural tissue. Comparison of model
predictions with growth and CHO data of young tomato plants, shows a fair agreement.
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
} 36
37
38


1. Traditional daily-step model


, (1) { } { } {
=

d d
M T M T C I M T C I , , , , , , , S

(Dayan et al., 1993, p 153), where the integral signs are shorthand notation to indicate
accumulation over the daily cycle, is daily growth, S is gross photosynthesis rate
(corrected for photorespiration),
39
is the rate of maintenance respiration, and is the
conversion efficiency from carbon in carbohydrates (CHO) to carbon in the tissue.
Furthermore,
40
41
I is light flux above the canopy, C is carbon dioxide concentration in the air, 42
T is air temperature, and M is crop size. 43
44
45
46
47
48

Alternatively, Equation (1) may be written as a carbon balance

, (2) { } { } { } { } 0 , , , , , , , , , , =

d d d d
M T C I M T C I M T M T C I

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
} 21
22
23
24
25

I. Seginer
1
and M. Gent
2

1
Civil and Environmental Engineering, Technion, IIT, 32000 Haifa, Israel. E-mail:
2
Forestry & Horticulture, Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, New Haven CT
06504-1106, USA

Abstract

Traditional crop growth models assign all available carbohydrates (CHO) to growth, thus
making photosynthesis the only growth limiting factor. In practice, other factors, such as low
temperature and scarcity of nutrients or water, may be limiting the assimilation (synthesis) of
substrates into structural tissue. Structural growth may, therefore, be viewed as depending on
the balance between the supply of CHO by photosynthesis and the demand for CHO to be
assimilated into new tissue. The objective of this study is to modify the traditional model by
including low temperature as a factor which limits the demand for CHO. This would explain
the observed accumulation of non-structural CHO at low temperatures. Denoting supply and
demand of CHO on a daily basis by and , structural growth of a vegetative crop, S, may
be estimated by . This produces structural growth as a function of temperature
which is ascending and convex (downwards) in the low temperature range (demand
limitation) and descending and concave in the high temperature range (supply limitation).
Maximum growth is obtained at the intersection of the two regimes, where the crop is said to
be balanced. The balance point moves towards higher temperatures when the photosynthetic
rate increases, as is often observed. Surplus CHO (

{ S , min =
) is partly stored as non-structural
material, which adds to the dry mass, but not to structural tissue. Comparison of model
predictions with growth and CHO data of young tomato plants, shows a fair agreement.
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
} 36
37
38


1. Traditional daily-step model


, (1) { } { } {
=

d d
M T M T C I M T C I , , , , , , , S

(Dayan et al., 1993, p 153), where the integral signs are shorthand notation to indicate
accumulation over the daily cycle, is daily growth, S is gross photosynthesis rate
(corrected for photorespiration),
39
is the rate of maintenance respiration, and is the
conversion efficiency from carbon in carbohydrates (CHO) to carbon in the tissue.
Furthermore,
40
41
I is light flux above the canopy, C is carbon dioxide concentration in the air, 42
T is air temperature, and M is crop size. 43
44
45
46
47
48

Alternatively, Equation (1) may be written as a carbon balance

, (2) { } { } { } { } 0 , , , , , , , , , , =

d d d d
M T C I M T C I M T M T C I

2
where is the rate of assimilation of CHO and nutrients into new structural tissue
(synonymous to structural growth), and is the rate of growth-respiration. Growth
respiration is commonly considered to be proportional to structural growth, namely
49
50
51
52

=
1
. (3) 53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75

Equation (2) is appropriate for cases where the supply of CHO via photosynthesis is the
growth-limiting factor. It is not appropriate, however, where the limiting factor to structural
growth is the assimilation rate. The assimilation potential may be termed the crop demand for
CHO, and it may be limited by any number of factors, including small size of the growing
organs, low temperature, scarcity of nutrients and shortage of water. If the limiting condition
persists, the surplus of unassimilated CHO is either stopped from being produced
(photosynthesis inhibition), or accumulated somewhere in the crop.

To accommodate cases where structural growth is limited by CHO demand, the traditional
model (Equation (1)) needs to be modified. To this end a non-structural CHO storage is
added, distinct from structural tissue. The development of the new model starts by
considering instantaneous supply and demand of CHO, leading to a modified daily-step
model.

2. Instantaneous carbohydrate supply and demand

In the short term (hours), changes in the CHO pool cannot be ignored, since during daytime
the supply of CHO by photosynthesis is usually higher than the ability of the crop to
assimilate, and vice versa at night. As a result, starch and sugars accumulate from dawn to
dusk and are at least partially depleted by next morning (Shatters and West, 1995).

While of the first (bracketed) term of Equation (2) may be used to describe the
instantaneous supply of CHO, of the second term does not represent the demand, which
may be higher or lower than the supply. The instantaneous supply is, therefore, as in the
original formulation
76
77
78
79
80
}
+

{ } { M T M T C I , , , , , (4) 81
82
83
84

while the demand is formulated as

{ } { } { M T
M T M T ,
1
1
, ,
= + } 85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
, (5)

where and are the instantaneous CHO supply and demand, and the capped symbols
indicate potential rates. Note that potential growth, , unlike actual growth, , is independent
of the rate of photosynthesis. It only depends on temperature and on crop size.

Several assumptions may be introduced to simplify the general expressions of Equations (4)
and (5). Equation (4) may be written as

, (6) { } } { } { } { } , { M f T m M f T h C I p
m p
=

where p and are, specific (per sunlit area) gross photosynthesis and maintenance
respiration, respectively, is a light interception function, is a scaling function for crop
size, and h is a temperature correction factor, normalized to one at the optimal temperature
m 96
97
98
p
f
m
f
Equation 2 is appropriate for cases where the supply of CHO via photosynthesis is the growth-
limiting factor. It is not appropriate, however, where the limiting factor to structural growth is
the assimilation rate. The assimilation potential may be termed the crop demand for CHO, and
it may be limited by any number of factors, including small size of the growing organs, low
temperature, scarcity of nutrients and shortage of water. If the limiting condition persists, the
surplus of unassimilated CHO is either stopped from being produced (photosynthesis inhibition),
or accumulated somewhere in the crop.
To accommodate cases where structural growth is limited by CHO demand, the traditional model
(Equation 1) needs to be modifed. To this end a non-structural CHO storage is added, distinct from
structural tissue. The development of the new model starts by considering instantaneous supply
and demand of CHO, leading to a modifed daily-step model.
Instantaneous carbohydrate supply and demand
In the short term (hours), changes in the CHO pool cannot be ignored, since during daytime the
supply of CHO by photosynthesis is usually higher than the ability of the crop to assimilate, and
vice versa at night. As a result, starch and sugars accumulate from dawn to dusk and are at least
partially depleted by next morning (Shatters and West, 1995).
While - of the frst (bracketed) term of Equation 2 may be used to describe the instantaneous
supply of CHO, + of the second term does not represent the demand, which may be higher or
lower than the supply. The instantaneous supply is, therefore, as in the original formulation
(4)
(5)
Where and are the instantaneous CHO supply and demand, and the capped symbols indicate
potential rates. Note that potential growth, , unlike actual growth, , is independent of the rate of
photosynthesis. It only depends on temperature and on crop size.
Several assumptions may be introduced to simplify the general expressions of Equations 4 and 5.
Equation 4 may be written as
(6)
Where p and m are, specifc (per sunlit area) gross photosynthesis and maintenance respiration,
respectively,
p
is a light interception function,
m
is a scaling function for crop size, and h is a
temperature correction factor, normalized to one at the optimal temperature for photosynthesis.
Maintenance respiration, m {T}, is often modelled as increasing exponentially with temperature
(Arrhenius equation), typically doubling every about 10 C. Here we use the expression
(7)
where m
0
is the maintenance respiration at 0 C, and Q
m
is the factor by which maintenance
respiration increases over a 10K difference (Q
10
). The temperature response of photosynthesis
in C
3
plants is usually given as a concave (inverted) parabola (e.g. Verdoodt et al., 2004). In this
study we assume
(8)
Where T
0
is the optimal temperature, and T
d
(in K) is the distance from the optimum where the
loss is a fraction I
d
of the maximum gross photosynthesis. Regarding
p
, it is often formulated as
2
49
50
51
52

=
1
. (3) 53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75


model.



76
77
78
79
80
}
+

{ } { M T M T C I , , , , , (4) 81
82
83
84


{ } { } { M T
M T M T ,
1
1
, ,
= + } 85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
, (5)



, (6) { } } { } { } { } , { M f T m M f T h C I p
m p
=

m 96
97
98
p
f
m
f
2
49
50
51
52

=
1
. (3) 53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75


model.



76
77
78
79
80
}
+

{ } { M T M T C I , , , , , (4) 81
82
83
84


{ } { } { M T
M T M T ,
1
1
, ,
= + } 85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
, (5)



, (6) { } } { } { } { } , { M f T m M f T h C I p
m p
=

m 96
97
98
p
f
m
f
2
49
50
51
52

=
1
. (3) 53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75


model.



76
77
78
79
80
}
+

{ } { M T M T C I , , , , , (4) 81
82
83
84


{ } { } { M T
M T M T ,
1
1
, ,
= + } 85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
, (5)



, (6) { } } { } { } { } , { M f T m M f T h C I p
m p
=

m 96
97
98
p
f
m
f
3
for photosynthesis. 99
100
101
102
103
104

Maintenance respiration, , is often modelled as increasing exponentially with
temperature (Arrhenius equation), typically doubling every about 10
o
C. Here we use the
expression
} { T m

{ }
= T
Q
m T m
m
o
10
ln
exp } { , (7) 105
106
107
108
109
110
111

where is the maintenance respiration at 0
o
C, and is the factor by which maintenance
10
in C
3
plants is usually given as a concave (inverted) parabola (e.g., Verdoodt et al., 2004). In
this study we assume
o
m
m
Q

{ } ( )( )
2 2
/ 1
o d d
T T T l T h = , (8) 112
113
114
115

where is the optimal temperature, and (in K) is the distance from the optimum where
the loss is a fraction of the maximum gross photosynthesis. Regarding , it is often
formulated as an increasing asymptotic function of
o
T
d
T
d
l
p
f
M , approaching 1 at complete ground
cover (e.g. van Keulen et al, 1982), while is often made proportional to
116
m
f M (e.g., Thornley
and France, 2007, Equation 9.76). For small, spaced plants, however, based on Seginer
(2003), it may be assumed that
117
118
119
120
} 121
122
123
124
125

, (9) { } { } { M f M f M f
m p
= =

where , like , is an increasing asymptotic function of the size of the crop. With
this simplification, Equation (6) becomes
} {M f } {M f
p

{ } [ ] } { } { } , { M f T m T h C I p = . (10) 126
127
128
129

The demand, Equation (5), may now be expressed in a similar fashion, as

[ ] { } { } M f T g
M f T g T s
1
1
} { } { } {

= + = , (11) 130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148

where is potential structural growth rate per sunlit area, and is the associated growth
respiration rate, which is assumed to increase exponentially with temperature. is the
same scaling function for crop size as in Equation (10). Note that, in the relevant temperature
ranges, as the temperature increases, the supply term decreases, due to increased maintenance
respiration (Equation (10)), while the demand term (Equation (11)) increases due to increased
growth respiration.
s g
{ } M f

3. Daily growth

In standard simulations, and are accumulated over the daily cycle, and the totals, and
, are then used to estimate daily growth. A situation where consistently is typical
where solar radiation is low and temperature is (relatively) high, such as in greenhouses in
winter. The other case, , often not considered in traditional modelling (Dayan et al.,
1993), is at the focus of this study, and will be considered below.
<
>

The idea of a single limiting factor is expressed by Liebigs law of the minimum (e.g., Paris,
1992). While originally applied to nutrient limitation, it could be extended to other
3
100
101
102
103
104

o
C. Here we use the
expression
} { T m

{ }
= T
Q
m T m
m
o
10
ln
exp } { , (7) 105
106
107
108
109
110
111

o
10
in C
3
o
m
m
Q

{ } ( )( )
2 2
/ 1
o d d
T T T l T h = , (8) 112
113
114
115

o
T
d
T
d
l
p
f
116
m
f M (e.g., Thornley
117
118
119
120
} 121
122
123
124
125

, (9) { } { } { M f M f M f
m p
= =

} {M f } {M f
p

{ } [ ] } { } { } , { M f T m T h C I p = . (10) 126
127
128
129


[ ] { } { } M f T g
M f T g T s
1
1
} { } { } {

= + = , (11) 130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148

growth respiration.
s g
{ } M f

3. Daily growth

<
>

an increasing asymptotic function of M, approaching 1 at complete ground cover (e.g. Van Keulen
et al., 1982), while
m
is often made proportional to M (e.g. Thornley and France, 2007, Equation
9.76). For small, spaced plants, however, based on Seginer (2003), it may be assumed that
(9)
where {M}, like
p
{M}, is an increasing asymptotic function of the size of the crop. With this
simplifcation, Equation 6 becomes
(10)
The demand, Equation 5, may now be expressed in a similar fashion, as
(11)
where s is potential structural growth rate per sunlit area, and g is the associated growth respiration
rate, which is assumed to increase exponentially with temperature. {M} is the same scaling function
for crop size as in Equation 10. Note that, in the relevant temperature ranges, as the temperature
increases, the supply term decreases, due to increased maintenance respiration (Equation 10), while
the demand term (Equation 11) increases due to increased growth respiration.
Daily growth
In standard simulations, and are accumulated over the daily cycle, and the totals, and ,
are then used to estimate daily growth. A situation where consistently < is typical where solar
radiation is low and temperature is (relatively) high, such as in greenhouses in winter. The other
case, >, often not considered in traditional modelling (Dayan et al., 1993), is at the focus of this
study, and will be considered below.
The idea of a single limiting factor is expressed by Liebigs law of the minimum (e.g. Paris, 1992).
While originally applied to nutrient limitation, it could be extended to other infuencing factors,
such as supply and demand of CHO in the present case. Thus, one could express the daily increment
of structural growth, S, as
(12)
referred to as the minimum scheme. An alternative form of the interaction between the infuencing
factors may be their product (Paris, 1992)
(13)
referred to as the product scheme. Overall, both growth formulations are concave (downwards) as
a function of temperature.
The product scheme has been applied by Johnson and Thornley (1987), who used a CN term to
predict growth, and by Gent and Enoch (1983), who developed a multiplicative function of non-
structural carbon (representing supply) and respiration rate (representing demand). The minimum
scheme (Equation 12) is often used in studies on the partitioning of CHO to several competing
sink organs (Marcelis et al., 1998; Heuvelink, 1999).
In this study the minimum scheme (Equation 12) is preferred for its simplicity. When , the daily
structural growth increment, controlled by and based on Equation 10, is given by
(supply-limited growth) (14)
3
100
101
102
103
104

o
C. Here we use the
expression
} { T m

{ }
= T
Q
m T m
m
o
10
ln
exp } { , (7) 105
106
107
108
109
110
111

o
10
in C
3
o
m
m
Q

{ } ( )( )
2 2
/ 1
o d d
T T T l T h = , (8) 112
113
114
115

o
T
d
T
d
l
p
f
116
m
f M (e.g., Thornley
117
118
119
120
} 121
122
123
124
125

, (9) { } { } { M f M f M f
m p
= =

} {M f } {M f
p

{ } [ ] } { } { } , { M f T m T h C I p = . (10) 126
127
128
129


[ ] { } { } M f T g
M f T g T s
1
1
} { } { } {

= + = , (11) 130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148

growth respiration.
s g
{ } M f

3. Daily growth

<
>

3
100
101
102
103
104

o
C. Here we use the
expression
} { T m

{ }
= T
Q
m T m
m
o
10
ln
exp } { , (7) 105
106
107
108
109
110
111

o
10
in C
3
o
m
m
Q

{ } ( )( )
2 2
/ 1
o d d
T T T l T h = , (8) 112
113
114
115

o
T
d
T
d
l
p
f
116
m
f M (e.g., Thornley
117
118
119
120
} 121
122
123
124
125

, (9) { } { } { M f M f M f
m p
= =

} {M f } {M f
p

{ } [ ] } { } { } , { M f T m T h C I p = . (10) 126
127
128
129


[ ] { } { } M f T g
M f T g T s
1
1
} { } { } {

= + = , (11) 130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148

growth respiration.
s g
{ } M f

3. Daily growth

<
>

3
100
101
102
103
104

o
C. Here we use the
expression
} { T m

{ }
= T
Q
m T m
m
o
10
ln
exp } { , (7) 105
106
107
108
109
110
111

o
10
in C
3
o
m
m
Q

{ } ( )( )
2 2
/ 1
o d d
T T T l T h = , (8) 112
113
114
115

o
T
d
T
d
l
p
f
116
m
f M (e.g., Thornley
117
118
119
120
} 121
122
123
124
125

, (9) { } { } { M f M f M f
m p
= =

} {M f } {M f
p

{ } [ ] } { } { } , { M f T m T h C I p = . (10) 126
127
128
129


[ ] { } { } M f T g
M f T g T s
1
1
} { } { } {

= + = , (11) 130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148

growth respiration.
s g
{ } M f

3. Daily growth

<
>

4
influencing factors, such as supply and demand of CHO in the present case. Thus, one could
express the daily increment of structural growth, , as
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
S

, (12) { } S , min

referred to as the minimum scheme. An alternative form of the interaction between the
influencing factors may be their product (Paris, 1992)

, (13) S
referred to as the product scheme. Overall, both growth formulations are concave
(downwards) as a function of temperature.

The product scheme has been applied by Johnson and Thornley (1987), who used a CN
term to predict growth, and by Gent and Enoch (1983), who developed a multiplicative
function of non-structural carbon (representing supply) and respiration rate (representing
demand). The minimum scheme (Equation (12)) is often used in studies on the partitioning of
CHO to several competing sink organs (Marcelis et al., 1998; Heuvelink, 1999).
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174

In this study the minimum scheme (Equation (12)) is preferred for its simplicity. When
, the daily structural growth increment, controlled by and based on Equation (10), is
given by

, (supply-limited growth) (14) { } { } { }

=

d d
} { } , { , , , T m T h C I p M f M T C I S

which is analogous to Equation (1). When , a simple modelling scheme would be to
reduce CHO production (inhibit photosynthesis) by a fraction
>
1 of the surplus ( ),
and allocate the rest, , to passive storage. Structural growth, based on Equation (11)
becomes
175
176
177
178

{ } { }
=
d
} {
1
, T g M f
M T S , (demand-limited growth) (15) 179

180
181
182

and non-structural CHO is stored at a daily rate of

{ } { } { }
=

d d d
} {
1
1
} { } , { , , , T g
T m T h C I p M f M T C I R . (demand-limited growth) (16) 183

184
185
186
187
188
189

The proposed model consists of the last three equations.

4. Temperature effect

Gross photosynthesis, as well as respiration, are functions of temperature. Given a certain
crop size ( M ), Equation (15), for , is an ascending, convex (downwards) function of
temperature, while Equation (14), for
> 190
, is a descending, concave function of
temperature. The ascending branch is a function of temperature alone (independent of
photosynthetic activity), while the descending branch is shifted upwards with increasing
photosynthesis ( ). This will be illustrated in Figures 1 and 2, below.
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
p

At the temperature where , Equations (14) and (15) predict the same structural growth,
and the various terms are related as
=

4
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
S

, (12) { } S , min


, (13) S

162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174

given by


=

d d
} { } , { , , , T m T h C I p M f M T C I S

>
becomes
175
176
177
178

{ } { }
=
d
} {
1
, T g M f

180
181
182


{ } { } { }
=

d d d
} {
1
1
} { } , { , , , T g

184
185
186
187
188
189



> 190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
p

=

4
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
S

, (12) { } S , min


, (13) S

162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174

given by


=

d d
} { } , { , , , T m T h C I p M f M T C I S

>
becomes
175
176
177
178

{ } { }
=
d
} {
1
, T g M f

180
181
182


{ } { } { }
=

d d d
} {
1
1
} { } , { , , , T g

184
185
186
187
188
189



> 190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
p

=

which is analogous to Equation 1. When > , a simple modelling scheme would be to reduce
CHO production (inhibit photosynthesis) by a fraction 1- of the surplus (), and allocate the
rest, , to passive storage. Structural growth, based on Equation 11 becomes
(demand-limited growth) (15)
(demand-limited growth) (16)
Temperature effect
Gross photosynthesis, as well as respiration, are functions of temperature. Given a certain crop size
(M), Equation 15, for >, is an ascending, convex (downwards) function of temperature, while
Equation 14, for , is a descending, concave function of temperature. The ascending branch
is a function of temperature alone (independent of photosynthetic activity), while the descending
branch is shifted upwards with increasing photosynthesis (p). This will be illustrated in Figures 1
and 2, below.
At the temperature where =, Equations 14 and 15 predict the same structural growth, and the
various terms are related as
(17)
The crop is then said to be at functional equilibrium (Brouwer, 1983) or balanced (Seginer,
2004), and growth rate is at its maximum (for a given level of light and carbon dioxide). At higher
4
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
S

, (12) { } S , min


, (13) S

162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174

given by


=

d d
} { } , { , , , T m T h C I p M f M T C I S

>
becomes
175
176
177
178

{ } { }
=
d
} {
1
, T g M f

180
181
182


{ } { } { }
=

d d d
} {
1
1
} { } , { , , , T g

184
185
186
187
188
189



> 190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
p

=

4
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
S

, (12) { } S , min


, (13) S

162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174

given by


=

d d
} { } , { , , , T m T h C I p M f M T C I S

>
becomes
175
176
177
178

{ } { }
=
d
} {
1
, T g M f

180
181
182


{ } { } { }
=

d d d
} {
1
1
} { } , { , , , T g

184
185
186
187
188
189



> 190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
p

=

5
( ) { } ( )

= } { } , { 1 } { T m T h C I p T g . (17) 199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210

2004), and growth rate is at its maximum (for a given level of light and carbon dioxide). At
higher light (and/or CO
2
) levels (and hence a higher descending branch), the maximum point
shifts to higher temperatures, as is already well established experimentally (e.g., Stlfelt,
1937). Furthermore, the experimental results indicate an exponential dependence of the
maximum growth rate on temperature, with Q
10
of around 3 to 5. As the maxima lie on the
ascending branch (as well as on the descending one), the same response to temperature,
namely (Equation (15)), should apply to the maxima and to the demand-limited growth.
Here we use the expression
} { T g

{ }
= T
Q
g T g
g
o
10
ln
exp } { , (18) 211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228

where is growth respiration at 0
o
C, and is the factor by which growth respiration
increases over a 10K difference (Q
10
).
o
g
g
Q

Calculated structural and total dry matter growth (Equations (14), (15) and (16)), are shown
schematically in Figures 1 and 2 as a function of temperature and photosynthesis level. The
ordinates represent normalized (relative) growth rate and hence the effect of the crop size
factor, , common to all three model equations, may be ignored. { } M f

The schematic Figure 1 is constructed in the following manner: Assuming light saturation, a
normalized parabolic gross-photosynthesis function, with a maximum of 1.0 at 18
o
C, is
calculated (top curve). The curvature of the parabola is such that at a distance of 5K from
the optimal temperature the loss of gross photosynthesis is 10%. Next, maintenance
respiration is estimated to be 10% at 20
o
C and doubling every 10
o
C (Q
10
=2). Subtracting
maintenance respiration from gross photosynthesis, CHO supply is obtained. When growth is
limited by CHO supply (high temperatures), the supply is divided between structural growth
and growth respiration as 0.7/0.3. Demand-limited structural growth is calculated as 0.7/0.3 of
growth respiration, which is assumed to quadruple every 10
o
C (Q
10
4, from literature) and

multiplied by a factor that balances the crop at 20
o
C. Structural growth over the whole
temperature range is the lowest curve of Figure 1, composed of two branches (with opposite
curvatures), meeting at 20
o
C. Finally, we indicate the amount of CHO stored assuming there
is no inhibition of photosynthesis,
229
230
231
232
1 = . As , this curve approaches the demand-
limited structural-growth curve, while changing from concave to convex.
0 233
234
235
236

The total number of parameters of this simple model is 9. Two of these, and , are explicit
in Equations (14), (15) and (16), and the expressions for

{ } T h
, { I p
(Equation (8)),
(Equation (7)) and (Equation (18)), contain two additional parameters each ( and
; and ; and , respectively). Finally, the value of , is also required.
} { T m
2
d
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
} { T g
o
g
/
d
T l
o
T
o
m
m
Q
g
Q } C

The lower panel of Figure 2 shows total dry matter growth as a function of temperature for
three light levels, selected to produce crop balancing at 2
o
C intervals (16, 18 and 20
o
C).
The top curve is for light saturation, as in Figure 1. The descending branches (on the right)
describe supply-limited structural growth (no CHO surplus). The ascending branches (left)
describe total growth, including growth of non-structural CHO, assuming =25%. The ratio
1
1
2
Figure 1: Schematic effect of temperature on daily gross photosynthesis, 3
maintenance respiration, growth respiration, structural growth and CHO long-term 4
storage growth. Balanced growth is at 20
o
C. 5
Figure 1. Schematic effect of temperature on daily gross photosynthesis, maintenance respiration,
growth respiration, structural growth and CHO long-term storage growth. Balanced growth
is at 20 C.
light (and/or CO
2
) levels (and hence a higher descending branch), the maximum point shifts to
higher temperatures, as is already well established experimentally (e.g. Stlfelt, 1937). Furthermore,
the experimental results indicate an exponential dependence of the maximum growth rate on
temperature, with Q
10
of around 3 to 5. As the maxima lie on the ascending branch (as well as on
the descending one), the same response to temperature, namely g{T} (Equation 15), should apply
to the maxima and to the demand-limited growth. Here we use the expression
(18)
where g
0
is growth respiration at 0 C, and Q
g
is the factor by which growth respiration increases
over a 10K difference (Q
10
).
Calculated structural and total dry matter growth (Equations 14, 15 and 16), are shown schematically
in Figures 1 and 2 as a function of temperature and photosynthesis level. The ordinates represent
normalized (relative) growth rate and hence the effect of the crop size factor, {M}, common to
all three model equations, may be ignored.
C, is calculated
(top curve). The curvature of the parabola is such that at a distance of 5K from the optimal
temperature the loss of gross photosynthesis is 10%. Next, maintenance respiration is estimated
to be 10% at 20 C and doubling every 10

C (Q
10
=2). Subtracting maintenance respiration from
gross photosynthesis, CHO supply is obtained. When growth is limited by CHO supply (high
temperatures), the supply is divided between structural growth and growth respiration as 0.7/0.3.
Demand-limited structural growth is calculated as 0.7/0.3 of growth respiration, which is assumed
to quadruple every 10

C (Q
10
=
~
4, from literature) and multiplied by a factor that balances the
crop at 20 C. Structural growth over the whole temperature range is the lowest curve of Figure 1,
composed of two branches (with opposite curvatures), meeting at 20 C. Finally, we indicate the
5
( ) { } ( )

= } { } , { 1 } { T m T h C I p T g . (17) 199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210

2004), and growth rate is at its maximum (for a given level of light and carbon dioxide). At
higher light (and/or CO
2
) levels (and hence a higher descending branch), the maximum point
shifts to higher temperatures, as is already well established experimentally (e.g., Stlfelt,
1937). Furthermore, the experimental results indicate an exponential dependence of the
maximum growth rate on temperature, with Q
10
of around 3 to 5. As the maxima lie on the
ascending branch (as well as on the descending one), the same response to temperature,
namely (Equation (15)), should apply to the maxima and to the demand-limited growth.
Here we use the expression
} { T g

{ }
= T
Q
g T g
g
o
10
ln
exp } { , (18) 211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228

where is growth respiration at 0
o
C, and is the factor by which growth respiration
increases over a 10K difference (Q
10
).
o
g
g
Q

Calculated structural and total dry matter growth (Equations (14), (15) and (16)), are shown
schematically in Figures 1 and 2 as a function of temperature and photosynthesis level. The
ordinates represent normalized (relative) growth rate and hence the effect of the crop size
factor, , common to all three model equations, may be ignored. { } M f

o
C, is
calculated (top curve). The curvature of the parabola is such that at a distance of 5K from
the optimal temperature the loss of gross photosynthesis is 10%. Next, maintenance
respiration is estimated to be 10% at 20
o
C and doubling every 10
o
C (Q
10
=2). Subtracting
maintenance respiration from gross photosynthesis, CHO supply is obtained. When growth is
limited by CHO supply (high temperatures), the supply is divided between structural growth
and growth respiration as 0.7/0.3. Demand-limited structural growth is calculated as 0.7/0.3 of
growth respiration, which is assumed to quadruple every 10
o
C (Q
10
4, from literature) and

multiplied by a factor that balances the crop at 20
o
C. Structural growth over the whole
temperature range is the lowest curve of Figure 1, composed of two branches (with opposite
curvatures), meeting at 20
o
C. Finally, we indicate the amount of CHO stored assuming there
is no inhibition of photosynthesis,
229
230
231
232
1 = . As , this curve approaches the demand-
limited structural-growth curve, while changing from concave to convex.
0 233
234
235
236

The total number of parameters of this simple model is 9. Two of these, and , are explicit
in Equations (14), (15) and (16), and the expressions for

{ } T h
, { I p
(Equation (8)),
(Equation (7)) and (Equation (18)), contain two additional parameters each ( and
; and ; and , respectively). Finally, the value of , is also required.
} { T m
2
d
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
} { T g
o
g
/
d
T l
o
T
o
m
m
Q
g
Q } C

The lower panel of Figure 2 shows total dry matter growth as a function of temperature for
three light levels, selected to produce crop balancing at 2
o
C intervals (16, 18 and 20
o
C).
The top curve is for light saturation, as in Figure 1. The descending branches (on the right)
describe supply-limited structural growth (no CHO surplus). The ascending branches (left)
describe total growth, including growth of non-structural CHO, assuming =25%. The ratio
2
6
7
8
Figure 2: Schematic effect of photosynthesis rate (three levels) on daily structural 9
growth (lower panel, right ordinate) and on the ratio of non-structural to structural 10
material (upper panel, left ordinate). 11
Figure 2. Schematic effect of photosynthesis rate (three levels) on daily structural growth (lower
panel, right ordinate) and on the ratio of non-structural to structural material (upper panel,
left ordinate).
amount of CHO stored assuming there is no inhibition of photosynthesis, =1. As 0, this curve
approaches the demand-limited structural-growth curve, while changing from concave to convex.
The total number of parameters of this simple model is 9. Two of these, and , are explicit in
Equations 14, 15 and 16, and the expressions for h{T} (Equation 8), m{T} (Equation 7 and g{T}
(Equation 18), contain two additional parameters each (I
d
/T
d
2
and T
0
; m
0
and Q
m
; g
0
and Q
g
,
respectively). Finally, the value of p{I,C}, is also required.
The lower panel of Figure 2 shows total dry matter growth as a function of temperature for three
light levels, selected to produce crop balancing at 2 C intervals (16, 18 and 20 C). The top curve
is for light saturation, as in Figure 1. The descending branches (on the right) describe supply-limited
structural growth (no CHO surplus). The ascending branches (left) describe total growth, including
growth of non-structural CHO, assuming =25%. The ratio of non structural to structural growth
is shown in the upper panel. Above the balancing temperature this ratio is zero (no CHO surplus)
and below it the ratio increases as the temperature decreases.
Comparison with data
Data sets to test the model in a comprehensive manner could not be found. However, one data set
for young tomato plants in growth chambers (Gent, 1986) may be utilized to test if the ideas of the
model are at least plausible. The parameters of the model have been ftted by inspection, since fne
tuning is not justifed at this stage. The results are presented in Figure 3.
The most interesting result concerns the ratio of non-structural to structural dry matter. The observed
values where supply-limited growth is expected (higher than balancing temperatures), are low
and do not vary with temperature. They increase dramatically as the temperature decreases in the
demand-limitation region, just as predicted by the model. The ft overall is fair.
3
12
13
14
15
Figure 3: Model predictions compared with data of Gent (1986) for growth of small tomato 16
plants. Dry-matter relative growth rate (RGR) on lower panel and right ordinate. Ratio of non- 17
structural to structural growth on upper panel and left ordinate. Empty markers for high light 18
level and filled markers for low light level. 19
20
Figure 3. Model predictions compared with data of Gent (1986) for growth of small tomato
plants. Dry-matter relative growth rate (RGR) on lower panel and right ordinate. Ratio of non-
structural to structural growth on upper panel and left ordinate. Empty markers for high light
level and flled markers for low light level.
Summary and conclusion
In traditional growth models (Equation 1), growth is always limited by carbohydrate supply via
photosynthesis. The new model, borrowing previously established concepts, considers, in addition, a
carbohydrate demand term, which at low temperatures may become the growth limiting factor. The
augmentation of the original model is parsimonious and the main payoffs are the separate estimation
of structural and non-structural growth and the automatic increase of the optimal temperature at
higher light and carbon dioxide levels.
The model has been calibrated to estimate the effect of temperature on dry-matter growth and
on the ratio of non-structural to structural dry matter of tomato seedlings, with fair results. As
always, however, alternative models may produce similar fts to this limited data set. Moreover,
essential elements of the model, such as the response of gross-photosynthesis to temperature, or
the curvatures of the demand-limited and supply-limited portions of the growth response, could
not be properly tested.
Regarding the choice between the minimum scheme, S min{, }, and the product scheme, S
, a much more intensive set of data, covering many combinations of light and temperature,
is required. The minimum scheme is more parsimonious, and in contrast with models based on
the simple product scheme, allows growth at high temperatures even if no CHO surplus remains
at the end of the daily cycle.
References
Brouwer, R., 1983. Functional equilibrium: sense or nonsense? Netherlands Journal of Agricultural Science
31: 335-348.
Dayan, E., van Keulen, H., Jones, J.W., Zipori, I., Shmuel, D. and Challa, H., 1993. Development, calibration
and validation of a greenhouse tomato growth model: I. Description of the model. Agricultural Systems
43:145-163.
Gent, M.P.N. and Enoch, H.Z., 1983. Temperature Dependence of Vegetative Growth and Dark Respiration:
A Mathematical Model. Plant Physiology, 71:562-567.
Gent, M.P.N., 1986. Carbohydrate Level and Growth of Tomato Plants. II. The effect of irradiance and
temperature. Plant Physiology, 81:1075-1079.
Heuvelink, E., 1999. Evaluation of a dynamic simulation model for tomato crop growth and development.
Annals of Botany 83: 413-422.
Johnson IR, and Thornley, JHM., 1987. A model of shoot:root partitioning with optimal growth. Annals of
Botany 60:133-142.
Marcelis, L.F.M., Heuvelink, E. and Goudriaan, J., 1998. Modelling biomass production and yield of
horticultural crops: a review. Scientia Horticulturae 74:83-111.
Paris, Q., 1992. The return of von Liebigs law of the minimum. Agronomy Journal, 84(6): 1040-1046.
Seginer, I., 2003. A dynamic model for nitrogen-stressed lettuce. Annals of Botany 91:623-635.
Seginer, I., 2004. Equilibrium and balanced growth of a vegetative crop. Annals of Botany 93:127-139.
Shatters, R.G. Jr. and West, S.H., 1995. Response of Digitaria decumbens leaf carbohydrate levels and glucan
degrading enzymes to chilling night temperature. Crop Science. 35(2):516-523.
Stlfelt, M.G., 1937. Der Gasaustausch der Moose. Planta 27:30-60.
Thornley, J.H.M. and France, J., 2007. Mathematical models in agriculture: quantitative methods for the plant,
animal and ecological sciences. CABI, Wallingford, UK.
Van Keulen, H., Penning de Vries, F.W.T. and Drees, E.M., 1982. A summary model for crop growth. In:
Simulation of plant growth and crop production; Penning de Vries, F.W.T. and van Laar, H.H., Eds.
Wageningen Centre for Agricultural Publishing and Documentation (Pudoc). Pp. 87-97.
Verdoodt, A., van Ranst, E. and Ye, L., 2004. Daily Simulation of Potential Dry Matter Production of Annual
Field Crops in Tropical Environments. Agronomy Journal 96:1739-1753.
Prediction of within feld cotton yield losses caused by the
southern root-knot nematode with the cropping system
model-CROPGRO-cotton
B. Ortiz
1
, G. Hoogenboom
2
, G. Vellidis
3
, K. Boote
4
and C. Perry
3
1
Agronomy and Soils Department, 204 Extension Hall, Auburn University, USA;
bortiz@auburn.edu; bvortiz@uga.edu
2
Biological and Agricultural Engineering Department, 165 Gordon Fultral Court, University of
Georgia, Griffn, GA 30223-1731 USA; gerrit@uga.edu
3
Biological and Agricultural Engineering Department, P.O. Box 748, University of Georgia, Tifton,
GA, 31743, USA; yiorgos@uga.edu
4
Agronomy Department, P.O. Box 110500, University of Florida, Gainsville, Florida 32611-
0500,USA; kjboote@uf.edu
5
Biological and Agricultural Engineering Department, P.O. Box 748, University of Georgia, Tifton,
GA, 31743, USA; cperry@uga.edu
Abstract
Cotton yield losses due to pests and diseases, especially those due to the Southern Root-Knot
nematode (RKN), have increased from around 1.5% in the 1950s to 4.4% in 2000 across the U.S.
Cotton Belt. Understanding the impact of RKN as it relates to local environmental conditions, such as
soil texture, on cotton growth and development could improve management. Our goal was to predict
yield losses for a producers feld that was characterized by three management zones (MZ) with
different risk levels for RKN damage. The impact of RKN parasitism on cotton yield was simulated
with the CSM-CROPGRO-Cotton Model. The model was adapted to simulate RKN damage using
two strategies: (1) RKN acting as sink of soluble assimilate, and (2) RKN inducing a reduction of
root length per root mass and root density. The model was modifed with data collected in 2007 from
an experiment evaluating RKN parasitism and drought stress. The average mid-season population
by zone was entered into the model to remove assimilates on a daily basis. The reduction of root
length per unit mass was implemented by modifying the root length to weight crop factor. After
modifcation of the model, it was applied to predict differences in yield (seed plus lint) losses for
three MZ of a producers feld for the 2006 season. The simulations indicated that cotton yield was
highly impacted by RKN population. Yield decreased by an average of 793 kg/ha (22% reduction)
in the zone that had the highest RKN population compared to the zone that had the lowest RKN
population. In general, the simulated values followed the same trend as the observed values. The
results showed that CSM-CROPGRO-Cotton model, after adaptation for RKN specifc effects on
the rate of assimilate consumption and the root length to weight ratio, can be used to simulate yield
losses due to RKN under the conditions of a commercial feld.
Keywords: cotton, modeling, management zones, nematodes, spatial variation, yield
Introduction
Southern root-knot nematode [Meloidogine incognita (Kofoid & White) Chitwood] (RKN) has
affected cotton production in the U.S. Cotton Belt since the last three decades. In 2007 in Georgia,
which is the third largest upland cotton producer state, losses due to nematodes of which 75% was
associated with RKN, totaled $50.2 million (UGA, 2007). The galls or root-knots developed in the
cotton root system as a result of RKN parasitism are considered as metabolic sinks of assimilates
(CH
2
O) (McClure, 1977; Williamson and Gleason, 2003) generating a change in partitioning
which is expressed as a reduction on above-ground cotton biomass. Chemical nematicides are
commonly applied at uniform rates to control RKN population density. However, previous research
has shown that a differential control of RKN population by management zones (MZ) could result
in more effcient nematode suppression, yield improvements, and an increase in profts (Wolcott,
2007; Ortiz et al., 2008). Therefore, if the potential impact of nematodes on management zones at
cotton felds can be assessed before planting, especially for cotton-cotton rotations, a site-specifc
management (SSM) could be successfully implemented and/or still improved which may results
on benefts to the farmer and the environment.
The Cropping System Model (CSM)-CROPGRO-Cotton model, which is part of the suite of crop
simulation models that encompass the Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer
DSSAT (Jones et al., 2003; Hoogenboom et al., 2004), have been used to simulate growth and
yield under different weather, soil, management conditions as well as the impact of pest/diseases.
According to Boote et al. (1983), pests can be classifed as stand reducers, photosynthetic rate
reducers, leaf senescence accelerators, light stealers, tissue consumers, assimilate sappers, and
tugor reducers. These types of damage and their effects can be simulated with CSM by coupling
population density or specifc damage type, expressed in percentage or rate basis, to state variables
such as leaf, stem, seed, shell, or root mass, LAI, as well as photosynthetic rate or rate of tissue
senescence (Batchelor et al., 1992). Although RKN damage has not been simulated before with
CROPGRO-Cotton model, Boote et al. (1983) simulated the reduction of water uptake from
damaged roots by soybean cyst nematode (SCN) through an increment of carbon allocation to
roots using the CROPGRO-Soybean model. The CROPGRO-Soybean model was used also to
quantify the effects of SCN on soybean yield (Paz et al., 2001; Fallick et al., 2002). Fallick et al.
(2002) developed and evaluated a monomolecular function for coupling damage of various levels
of SCN population to daily photosynthesis and root water uptake of soybean. The impact of RKN
population densities on different cotton plant components and the interaction with different soil
types and weather especially under the environmental conditions of the southeastern U.S. are still
not well understood. Therefore, using modeling strategies previously tested by Ortiz (2008) to
account for RKN damage, the objective of this study was to predict yield losses on a producers
feld having three MZ with different risk levels for RKN damage.
Study feld description and data collection
A cotton feld of 20 ha in size, located in an intensely row-cropped region of southern Georgia,
USA, was selected for this study. Ortiz et al. (2007) had previously identifed three MZ for RKN
population in this feld, which were delineated through fuzzy clustering of various surrogate data
for soil texture. The surrogate data for soil texture included in the MZ delineation were: terrain
elevation and slope, apparent soil electrical conductivity (EC
a
), and bare soil spectral refectance.
Each zone has a different risk level for RKN damage, which was defned according to the occurrence
of high RKN population and soil texture properties promoting RKN occurrence and reproduction for
each zone (Figure 1). The feld was planted on May 18, 2006 at a 91 cm row spacing with cultivar
Delta & Pineland (DPL) 555 Boll-Guard
, Round-Up-Ready
. The preceding winter crop was rye

which was planted in the fall of 2005 and harvested prior to planting of cotton. The RKN population
throughout the feld was assessed by collecting soil samples for RKN-J2 at the center of a 50 x
50 m grid (0.25 ha cell size) superimposed over the feld. Soil samples were collected three times
during the growing season: 75, 110, and 167 days after planting (DAP). Nematode counts, extracted
from 100 cm
3
of each soil sample, were then converted into population on a soil volume basis.
Model calibration
Model calibration was necessary to develop appropriate response functions for simulating growth
and development of a specifc cultivar grown under specifc conditions. The calibration was
performed using data collected from an experiment conducted in southern Georgia during 2007
to study the differences in cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) biomass and yield caused by high
population of RKN and the interaction RKN population-drought stress. This experiment had a
split-plot design with six replications in which three drought stress treatments (low, medium, and
high) were assigned to the main plots and two fumigation levels (nonfumigated and fumigated)
were assigned to the sub plots. The model was calibrated using data from the control treatment (low
drought stress-fumigation) over six replications. The soil water-holding characteristic required by the
model [Drained upper limit (DUL), lower limit of plant water available (LL), and saturated upper
limit (SAT)] were adjusted based on soil water content data for simulating the local conditions.
Sensitivity analyses for phenology dates as well as biomass components (LAI, leaf weight, stem-
periole weight), yield (seed plus lint cotton weight) and yield components (boll weight, bolls/
m
2
, seed/m
2
) were conducted to estimate the appropriate values of the cultivar coeffcients that
minimized the root mean square error (RMSE) between the simulated and observed values of
the control treatment. A modifcation of the soil fertility factor (SLPF) was also considered when
calibrating biomass accumulation, as this factor affects crop growth rate through a modifcation
of daily canopy photosynthesic rate. Model calibration was also performed by taking into account
the weather conditions occurred during the growing season as well as management practices such
us fertilization and irrigation
Modeling RKN damage
The impact of RKN on cotton plants was accounted for in the CSM-CROPGRO-Cotton model
by: (1) coupling RKN population density to remove daily assimilate [g(CH
2
O)/m2/d]

available
for growth and respiration, and (2) reducing the root length per root weight. These modeling
strategies were evaluated by Ortiz (2008) using the data and relationships derived from the 2007
experiment. The rate of assimilate consumption by RKN under the conditions of southern Georgia
was derived using the 2007 data. This rate was identifed through sensitivity analyses with the low
drought stress-nonfumigated treatment which attempted to reduce the error between simulated
and observed biomass, bolls, and seed cotton weight. Some adjustment of the cultivar coeffcients
1

Figure 1. RKN management zones for a producers field (Zone 1 = Low risk, Zone 2 =
Moderate risk, Zone 3 = High risk for RKN damage).
Figure 1. RKN management zones for a producers feld (Zone 1 = Low risk, Zone 2 = Moderate
risk, Zone 3 = High risk for RKN damage).
were necessary after the rate of assimilate consumption was set to improve the predicted values
of cotton yield (seed plus lint) and boll weight at harvest. After the model was adjusted to account
for RKN damage, the RKN modeling strategies were evaluated using data collected from the same
experiment in 2001. The high accuracy of the model predicting yield under the conditions of high
RKN and high drought, -1.7% deviation from the observed values, give confdence for testing the
model under producers conditions.
In order to account for RKN damage for each MZ, the daily changes of RKN-J2 population were
calculated by the model from interpolation of the within zone average of RKN-J2 population
collected three times during the growing season. In this study, it was assumed that each RKN-J2
count reduces the same amount of assimilates. In the CSM-CROPGRO-Cotton model, a reduction
in the root length per unit root weight (RFAC1) as a consequence of RKN damage will lead to
a decrease of plant extractable soil water, root density over the soil profle (RLINIT) and new
root growth. Therefore, processes such us nutrients uptake, water fow to above ground biomass,
transpiration, and growth among others will be impacted resulting in a decrease of yield and total
biomass. Because the assimilate consumption depends on the population of RKN-J2 extracted
from the soil after root damage has been caused, reductions in leaf biomass that occurred early
during the growing season may not be entirely accounted for. Therefore, the reductions in root
mass and root density through modifcations of the RFAC1 could account for early symptoms of
low LAI and vegetative biomass by RKN damage. Different values of RFAC1 were identifed
through sensitivity analyses with non fumigated treatments under low, medium and severe water
stress which attempted to reduce the error between simulated and observed maximum LAI values
as well as the time series of LAI.
Statistical methods for performance assessment
The deviation of predicted biomass at harvest, maximum LAI, and cotton yield from the observed
values were evaluated using two type of statistical properties: (1) root mean square error (RMSE),
and (2) percentage prediction deviation PD (%), (Willmott, 1982). RMSE, and PD (%), were
computed using Equations 1 and 2 as follows:
RMSE = (1)
PD (%) = (2)
where N is the number of observed values, P
i
and O
i
are the predicted and observed values for the ith
data pair, P
i
= P
i
- O and O
i
= O
i
- O; with O as the mean of the observed values. When evaluating
the performance of the simulations, the closer the RMSE to 0, the better the agreement between
simulated and observed values. Model over predictions were also detected when PD values were
positive contrasting with under predictions in which PD had negative values.
For the producers feld, the differences between the management zones were mainly related to
the soil type and RKN population density. Zone 1, with the lowest risk for RKN damage, had an
Albany sandy soil (poorly drained in the subsoil); and zones 2 and 3 with moderate and high risk
levels, respectively, had a Kershaw sandy soil (excessively drained). A similar soil fertility factor
of 0.86 was used for both soils. The differences in RKN population between the zones (dots in
Figure 2), resulted in different amounts of assimilated consumed by RKN as well as differences
in the reduction of root length per unit mass modeled by modifying the RFAC1 factor. The same
rate of assimilate consumption derived from the model calibration with the experimental 2007
The deviation of predicted biomass at harvest, maximum LAI, and cotton yield from the
observed values were evaluated using two type of statistical properties: (i) root mean
square error (RMSE), and (ii) percentage prediction deviation PD (%), (Willmott, 1982).
RMSE, and PD (%), were computed using equations 1 and 2 as follows:

RMSE = (1), PD (%) = ( )
5 0
1
2 1
.
n
i
i i
O P N

100

i
i i
P
O P
(2)

i
and O
i
are the predicted and observed
values for the ith data pair, P
i
= O P
i
and O
i
= O O
i
; with O as the mean of the
observed values. When evaluating the performance of the simulations, the closer the
RMSE to 0, the better the agreement between simulated and observed values. Model over
predictions were also detected when PD values were positive contrasting with under
predictions in which PD had negative values.


For the producers field, the differences between the management zones were mainly
related to the soil type and RKN population density. Zone 1, with the lowest risk for
RKN damage, had an Albany sandy soil (poorly drained in the subsoil); and zones 2 and
3 with moderate and high risk levels, respectively, had a Kershaw sandy soil (excessively
drained). A similar soil fertility factor of 0.86 was used for both soils. The differences in
RKN population between the zones (dots in figure 2), resulted in different amounts of
assimilated consumed by RKN as well as differences in the reduction of root length per
unit mass modeled by modifying the RFAC1 factor. The same rate of assimilate
consumption derived from the model calibration with the experimental 2007 data [0.0008
g(CH
2
O) RKN-J2
-1
d
-1
] was used to simulate the levels of consumption by zone (Figure
2). The highest amount of assimilates allocated to the roots was observed for zone 3
compared to zone 1, which had the lowest amount of assimilate consumption. The
RFAC1 values selected for the simulation of RKN damage were based on the population
levels of RKN observed for the different management zones. Because the management
zones also had low, medium and high RKN populations, the three RFAC1 values (17000,
11000, and 8600 cm root g
-1
, respectively) used for the 2007 experimental plots were
applied to the zones.

The model simulation indicated that cotton yield (seed cotton weight) was impacted
highly by the RKN population. Yield decreased by an average of 793 kg ha
-1
(22%
reduction) in the zone that had the highest RKN population (zone 3) compared to the
zone that had the lowest RKN population (zone 1) (Table 1, Figure 3). Although zones 2
and 3 had the same soil type, there was a difference in cotton yield of 225 kg ha
-1
which
could be related with high amount of assimilate removed by the high RKN population
located in zone 3.

5
The deviation of predicted biomass at harvest, maximum LAI, and cotton yield from the
observed values were evaluated using two type of statistical properties: (i) root mean
square error (RMSE), and (ii) percentage prediction deviation PD (%), (Willmott, 1982).
RMSE, and PD (%), were computed using equations 1 and 2 as follows:

RMSE = (1), PD (%) = ( )
5 0
1
2 1
.
n
i
i i
O P N

100

i
i i
P
O P
(2)

i
and O
i
are the predicted and observed
values for the ith data pair, P
i
= O P
i
and O
i
= O O
i
; with O as the mean of the
observed values. When evaluating the performance of the simulations, the closer the
RMSE to 0, the better the agreement between simulated and observed values. Model over
predictions were also detected when PD values were positive contrasting with under
predictions in which PD had negative values.


For the producers field, the differences between the management zones were mainly
related to the soil type and RKN population density. Zone 1, with the lowest risk for
RKN damage, had an Albany sandy soil (poorly drained in the subsoil); and zones 2 and
3 with moderate and high risk levels, respectively, had a Kershaw sandy soil (excessively
drained). A similar soil fertility factor of 0.86 was used for both soils. The differences in
RKN population between the zones (dots in figure 2), resulted in different amounts of
assimilated consumed by RKN as well as differences in the reduction of root length per
unit mass modeled by modifying the RFAC1 factor. The same rate of assimilate
consumption derived from the model calibration with the experimental 2007 data [0.0008
g(CH
2
O) RKN-J2
-1
d
-1
] was used to simulate the levels of consumption by zone (Figure
2). The highest amount of assimilates allocated to the roots was observed for zone 3
compared to zone 1, which had the lowest amount of assimilate consumption. The
RFAC1 values selected for the simulation of RKN damage were based on the population
levels of RKN observed for the different management zones. Because the management
zones also had low, medium and high RKN populations, the three RFAC1 values (17000,
11000, and 8600 cm root g
-1
, respectively) used for the 2007 experimental plots were
applied to the zones.

The model simulation indicated that cotton yield (seed cotton weight) was impacted
highly by the RKN population. Yield decreased by an average of 793 kg ha
-1
(22%
reduction) in the zone that had the highest RKN population (zone 3) compared to the
zone that had the lowest RKN population (zone 1) (Table 1, Figure 3). Although zones 2
and 3 had the same soil type, there was a difference in cotton yield of 225 kg ha
-1
which
could be related with high amount of assimilate removed by the high RKN population
located in zone 3.

5
data [0.0008 g(CH
2
O)/RKN-J2/d] was used to simulate the levels of consumption by zone (Figure
2). The highest amount of assimilates allocated to the roots was observed for zone 3 compared
to zone 1, which had the lowest amount of assimilate consumption. The RFAC1 values selected
for the simulation of RKN damage were based on the population levels of RKN observed for the
different management zones. Because the management zones also had low, medium and high RKN
populations, the three RFAC1 values (17,000, 11,000, and 8,600 cm root/g, respectively) used for
the 2007 experimental plots were applied to the zones.
The model simulation indicated that cotton yield (seed cotton weight) was impacted highly by the
RKN population. Yield decreased by an average of 793 kg/ha (22% reduction) in the zone that had
the highest RKN population (zone 3) compared to the zone that had the lowest RKN population
(zone 1) (Table 1, Figure 3). Although zones 2 and 3 had the same soil type, there was a difference
in cotton yield of 225 kg/ha

which could be related with high amount of assimilate removed by the
high RKN population located in zone 3.
Cotton yield was overpredicted for all the management zones with PD values of 7.0%, 3.0% and
15.1% for zones 1, 2, and 3, respectively. However, the simulated values followed the same trend
as the observed value. The results showed that the rate of assimilate consumption and the RFAC1
values derived from model calibration can be used to simulate yield losses due to nematodes under
the conditions of a commercial feld.
Conclusions
The two hypotheses to account for RKN damage were successfully tested and implemented for
simulating cotton yield for zones that have a high risk for a high population of RKN. The frst
hypothesis considered RKN as a sink of soluble assimilates targeted reductions in biomass and
yield components (bolls and seed cotton). The second hypothesis accounts for reductions in root
2

0
1
2
3
4
5
0 30 60 90 120 150
Days after planting
D
a
i
l
y

a
s
s
i
m
i
l
a
t
e

r
e
d
u
c
t
i
o
n

[
g
(
C
H
2
O
)

m
-
2

d
-
1
]
0
50000
100000
150000
200000
250000
300000
350000
400000
R
K
N
-
J
2

1
5
0
0
0
0

c
m
-
3

o
f

s
o
i
l
Zone 1
Zone 2
Zone 3
RKN-Zone 1
RKN-Zone 2
RKN-Zone 3

Figure 2. Differences in RKN-J2 population density (dots) (right vertical axis) and daily
assimilate removal (lines) (left vertical axis) simulated with the CSM-CROPGRO-Cotton
model for the three management zones [low risk (Zone 1), moderate risk (Zone 2), and
high risk for RKN damage (Zone 3)] at the producers field.

Figure 2. Differences in RKN-J2 population density (dots) (right vertical axis) and daily assimilate
removal (lines) (left vertical axis) simulated with the CSM-CROPGRO-Cotton model for the
three management zones [low risk (Zone 1), moderate risk (Zone 2), and high risk for RKN
damage (Zone 3)] at the producers feld.
length per unit mass due to RKN parasitism allowed the simulations of LAI under different levels of
RKN population. Once the RKN effects were accounted for in the CSM-CROPGRO-Cotton model,
the simulated values for cotton yield at each zone followed the same trend as the observed values.
The relative yield difference between the zones was similar for the observed and simulated values.
Yield decreased by an average of 793 kg/ha (22% reduction) in the zone that had the highest RKN
population (zone 3) compared to the zone that had the lowest RKN population (zone 1). The CSM-
CROPGRO-Cotton model seemed a promissory tool to be able to simulated relative differences
among management zones that have different RKN risk levels delineated for the conditions of a
producers feld. Future research should involve the identifcation and implementation of other
methods to improve prediction of RKN damage. This could include the addition of disease progress
functions to better simulate within season changes in RKN population and its effect on growth and
yield. Additionally, there is a need for additional evaluation of the model under other conditions
of cultivar, soil and weather in order to establish the levels of risk for high population of nematode
and defne the most appropriate management strategies.
Table 1. Simulated and observed average cotton yield at harvest for the three management zones
in 2006 for the producers feld in Georgia, USA.
Zone
a
Cotton yield (kg/ha)
b
Simulated Observed
c
PD (%)
d
1 3,566 3,316 7.0
2 2,998 2,909 3.0
3 2,773 2,354 15.1
a
Zone 1 = Low risk, Zone 2 = Moderate risk, Zone 3 = High risk for RKN damage.
b
Seed cotton weight is equivalent to seed plus lint weight.
c
Observed average value of the yield data within each zone.
d
Percentage prediction deviation.
3

0
1000
2000
3000
4000
0 30 60 90 120 150
Days after planting
S
e
e
d

p
l
u
s

l
i
n
t

w
e
i
g
h
t

(
k
g

h
a
-
1
)
Zone 1
Zone 2
Zone 3

Figure 3. Simulated seed plus lint weight (cotton yield) in 2006 for the three management
zones [low risk (Zone 1), moderate risk (Zone 2), and high risk for RKN damage (Zone
3)] at the producers field.

Figure 3. Simulated seed plus lint weight (cotton yield) in 2006 for the three management zones
[low risk (Zone 1), moderate risk (Zone 2), and high risk for RKN damage (Zone 3)] at the
producers feld.
Acknowledgments
This research was partially supported by grants from Cotton Incorporated and the Georgia Cotton
Commission and the Flint River Water Planning and Policy Center for supporting this work. We
also thank Dr. Cecilia Tojo Soler for assistance with different aspects related with the operation
of DSSAT v4.0.
References
Batchelor, W.D., J.W. Jones, and K.J. Boote. 1992. Assessing pest and disease damage with DSSAT.
Agrotechnology Transfer 16: 1-8.
Boote, K J., J.W. Jones, J.W. Mishoe, and R.D. Berger. 1983. Coupling pest to growth simulators to predict
yield reductions. Phytopathology 73:1581-1587.
Fallick, J.B., W.D. Batchelor, G.L. Tylka, T.L. Niblack, and J.O. Paz. 2002. Coupling soybean cyst nematode
damage to CROPGRO Soybean. Transactions of ASAE 45: 433-441.
Hoogenboom, G., J.W. Jones, P.W. Wilkens, C.H. Porter, W.D. Batchelor, L.A. Hunt, K.J. Boote, U. Singh,
O. Uryasev, W.T. Bowen, A.J. Gijsman, A.S. Du Toit, J.W. White and G.Y. Tsuji. 2004. Decision Support
System for Agrotechnology Transfer. Ver. 4.0. Honolulu, HI.:University of Hawaii.
Jones, J.W., G. Hoogenboom, C.H. Porter, K.J. Boote, W.D. Batchelor, L.A. Hunt, P.W. Wilkens, U. Singh,
A.J. Gijsman, and J.T. Ritchie. 2003. DSSAT Cropping System Model. European Journal of Agronomy.
18:235-265.
McClure, M.A. 1977. Meloidogyne incognita: A metabolic sink. Journal of Nematology. 9: 88-90.
Ortiz, B.V., D.G. Sullivan, C. Perry, G. Vellidis, L. Seymour, and K. Rucker. 2007. Delineation of management
zones for site specifc management of parasitic nematodes using geostatistical analysis of measured feld
characteristics. In: Stafford, J., and A.Werner (ed.) Proceedings of Sixth European Conference of Precision
Agriculture (6ECPA).
Ortiz, B.V., C. Perry, D.G. Sullivan, R.C. Kemerait, A. Ziehl, R. Davis, G. Vellidis, and K. Rucker. 2008.
Evaluation of Variable Rate of Nematicides on Cotton According to Nematode Risk Zones. In: National
Cotton Council (ed) Proceedings of the 2008 Beltwide Cotton Conference. January 9-11 Nashville, TN.
Ortiz, B.V. 2008. Study of the variability of southern root knot nematode (Meloidogine Incognita) and their
impact on cotton yield productivity. PhD diss. Athnes, GA.: University of Georgia, Department of Biological
andAgricultural Engineering.
Paz, J.O., W.D. Batchelor, G.L. Tylka, and R.G. Hartzler. 2001. A modeling approach to quantify the effects
of spatial soybean yield limiting factors. Transactions of ASAE 44: 1329-1334.
UGA, 2007. Georgia plant disease loss estimate. Cooperative Extension. Athens, GA: University of Georgia.
Available at: http://pubs.caes.uga.edu/caespubs/pubs/PDF/SB41-10.pdf. Accessed 23 August 2008.
Williamson, V.M., and C.A. Gleason. 2003. Plant-nematode interactions. Current Opinion in Plant Biology
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Willmott, C.J. 1982. Some comments on the evaluation of the model performance. Bulletin of the American
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Use of geographic information systems (GIS) in crop
protection warning service
T. Zeuner and B. Kleinhenz
ZEPP Central Institution for Decision Support Systems in Crop Protection, Rdesheimerstr. 60-
68, D-55545 Bad Kreuznach, Germany; zeuner@zepp.info; kleinhenz@zepp.info
Abstract
One of the important aims of the Governmental Crop Protection Services (GCPS) in Germany is
to reduce spraying intensity and to guarantee an environmentally friendly and economical crop
protection strategy. ZEPP is the central institution in Germany responsible for the development
of methods in order to give an optimal control of plant diseases and pests. So far more than 40
met. data-based models were developed, most of which are introduced into practice. This study
shows how to obtain results with higher accuracy for disease and pest simulation models by using
Geographic Information Systems (GIS). The infuence of elevation, slope and aspect on met. data
were interpolated with GIS methods and the results were used as input for simulation models. The
output of these models will be presented as spatial risk maps in which areas of maximum risk of
the disease are displayed. The modern presentation methods of GIS will furthermore promote the
use of the system by farmers.
Keywords: interpolation, GIS, temperature, relative humidity, risk maps, plant disease model
Introduction
During the last 40 years a number of weather based forecasting models have been developed for the
control of plant diseases and pest attacks (Kleinhenz and Jrg, 2000). Several forecasting models
have been established and introduced into practice to support the decisions in the control of diseases
in Germany (Kluge and Gutsche, 1984; Gutsche, 1999; Gutsche et al., 1999; Kleinhenz and Jrg,
1999; Kleinhenz and Jrg, 2000; Roberg et al., 2001; Hansen et al., 2002). In some agricultural
areas, however, the distance between met. stations is more than 60 km. Thus forecasting models did
not give satisfying results for plots located at such large distances to met. stations (Zeuner, 2007).
With the help of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) a plot specifc classifcation of met. data
will be calculated. To reach this aim, complex statistical interpolation methods are used (Zeuner
2007). These calculated spatial input parameters for the current disease forecasting models should
help to get satisfying forecasting results for areas between two or more distant met. stations. With
the use of GIS, daily spatial risk maps will be created in which the spatial and the temporal process
of frst appearance and regional development are documented. These risk maps may lead to a
reduction of fungicide intensity and give best control.
In this study the new method to calculate the input parameters for forecasting models with GIS is
validated on the frst appearance of potato Late Blight. The models SIMBLIGHT1 and SIMPHYT1
predict the frst appearance for Late Blight and are in practical use (Kleinhenz et al., 2007). While
SIMPHYT1 depends on a statistical approach forecast, the result of SIMBLIGHT1 basis on the
current infection pressure and could be displayed in three classes (Figure 1). The results will be
presented as spatial maps and graphs showing the Late Blight risk. Figure 1 and 2 show the difference
between the current and the new risk maps in Germany as simulated by the model SIMBLIGHT1.
SIMBLIGHT1 calculates infection risk of Late Blight is shown in three infection classes symbolized
by different colours. Risk maps will be implemented into an internet application to provide a
comfortable access to the system for farmers and advisers (see also Endler and Roehrig, 2009).

Figure 1: Current SIMBLIGHT1 presentation. The prognosis results are shown at the met. station's location
with coloured cloud symbols.

Figure 1. Current SIMBLIGHT1 presentation. The prognosis results are shown at the met.
stations location with coloured cloud symbols.

Figure 2: The new presentation of a spatial risk map for Late Blight as simulated by
SIMBLIGHT1.

Figure 2. The new presentation of a spatial risk map for Late Blight as simulated by SIMBLIGHT1.
Workfow
The following steps have to be taken to reach the aim of building spatial risk maps:
Step 1: data management;
Step 2: interpolation of met. data;
Step 3: calculation of the forecasting model using the results of the interpolation;
Step 4: display of the results as a risk map.
Step 1 deal with data management. First hourly met. data are imported from a weather database
which are necessary for the forecasting models SIMPHYT1, SIMPHYT3 and SIMBLIGHT1.
Then a geographic reference is providing to the met. data because the weather database is not a
georeferenced. Thereafter that it is necessary to prepare the data base which is needed to characterise
the met. data for interpolation. Step 2 is the main and the most diffcult step. Different kinds of
interpolation methods are compared to identify a method which gives the best results in interpolating
met. data. Step 3 uses the interpolated met. data as input parameters to calculate the forecasting
models (Figure 3). The last step is to connect the results to an internet application in which spatial
information is displayed as a risk map of the frst appearance and later on the daily infection risk
of Late Blight for Germany (see also Endler and Roehrig, 2009).
Data base
Met. data: The met. data are collected by 570 automatic met. stations all over Germany (Figure
1), operated by the German Meteorological Service (DWD) and by the GCPS. The stations are at
least equipped with sensors for measuring temperature, relative humidity, precipitation and global
radiation. All data are tested of plausibility and stored in a database called AGMEDAWIN (Keil
and Kleinhenz, 2007).
Geodata: A digital elevation model (dem) published by Behrens and Scholten (2002) was used
to obtain all necessary information about the relief. The dem describes the landscape as a three-
dimensional grid. It represents the earths surface through digitally stored x, y, z values, where

Figure 3: Infrastructure to calculate risk maps.

met.
data
geo-
data
step1
step 3
step 4
combine with
GIS
Interpolation
Calculation of forecasting models
with interpolated input parameters
Presentation of results
step 2
Figure 3. Infrastructure to calculate risk maps.
the x and y values specify the horizontal position and z-value of the vertical height of the grid cell
(Bill, 1999). With the help of mathematical, statistical methods, it is possible to calculate follow
products from the dem. These derivatives are, for example, slope, slope direction, slope, or slope
edges. The dem and various derivations from the dem provide as basis for the characterization of
the meteorological parameters.
Spatial join: In order to store the results of interpolation, a grid was laid out over Germany. At
present, the GCPS uses about 570 met. stations to represent agriculturally used area of Germany
(some 200,000 km
2
), that is on average one met. station per 350 km
2
. With the new GIS method,
a grid cell has a size of one km
2
and after interpolation is represented by a virtual met. station
(Liebig and Mummenthey, 2002).
Interpolation method
Two groups of methods have been tested to fnd the best interpolation method for met. data.
First, there are the deterministic interpolation methods, e.g. Inverse Distance Weighted (IDW,
nearest neighbour method) and Spline Interpolation (SI) which are based on distance analyses.
These methods were compared to geostatistical interpolation methods like Kriging and Multiple
Regression (MR) which use mathematical and statistical procedures.
MR is an interpolation method that allows simultaneous testing and modelling of multiple
independent variables. MR is a highly general and therefore very fexible data analysis system. It
is used whenever a quantitative variable, the dependent variable, is to be studied as a function of, or
in relation to, any factors of interest, i.e. the independent variables (Javis et al., 2002; Cohen et al.,
2003). So parameters that have an infuence on temperature and relative humidity, e.g. elevation,
slope, aspect, can be tested simultaneously. MR uses matrix multiplication and only variables with
a defned minimum infuence will be included into the model. The result of MR is a formula (x =
const + A
1
*const
1
+ A
2
*const
2
+ A
3
*const
3
++ A
x
*const) which allows to calculate a parameter
set for each grid cell from which independent variables are known (Javis, 2002; Zeuner, 2007;
Mense-Stefan, 2005).
Interpolation of temperature and relative humidity
The frst calculations with the four interpolation methods showed that deterministic interpolation
methods were not suitable. IDW and SI have been rejected due to the fact that differences in
elevation are not accounted for, because the elevation has been identifed as a major factor for
interpolation of considered meteorological parameters. Although producing similarly good results,
the method Kriging was not able to produce as fast calculation times as compared to MR. So it
was also rejected because the performance is also very important to produce daily risk maps in the
internet. So method MR was chosen and the results are shown in the following.
To validate the results of the interpolation, 13 met. stations were not used in the interpolation
process. After that the deviation between calculated values and measured data of these stations
was compared. The period of time of this study was from January to August in the years 2003 to
2006. For all stations, MR was able to calculate results with highest accuracy (Table 1). In all cases
considered, the coeffcient of determination (CoD) ranged between 96 and 99% for temperature
and 92 and 96% for relative humidity. For all 13 met. stations, the mean deviation for temperature
was less than 0.1 C and for relative humidity less than 0.6% as calculated with MR. The absolute
maximum and minimum for the temperature was less than 4.7 C and for the relative humidity less
than 32.6%. In addition, the data have been tested on signifcance between calculated and measured
data using a t-test. The test indicated that for all stations the differences between the calculated
and measured values were at random. The method MR gave plausible results, so this method was
chosen to interpolate met. data to be used as input for the forecasting models.
Forecasting models
Results of the forecasting models SIMBLIGHT1 and SIMPHYT1 running on calculated met. data
were validated against a set of feld data collected between 2000 and 2007 in Germany. A model
result was defned as correct when the date of the frst appearance given by one of the models was
earlier than the date of the frst outbreak observed in feld. In Figures 4 to 8 the results of this study
is displayed in box-whisker-plots. The results of the model with interpolated input are denoted with
a v and those with measured input with a m.
More than 90% of all calculations have been classifed as correct whereas in 2002 less than 60%
correct calculations were made. This is due to a high amount of precipitation during the spring and
summer months in 2002. The various data sets yielded a similar percentage of correct results. In
all years, the mean deviation of the model results with v were gave better results with respect to
the frst appearance of Late Blight found in feld compared to results with m. For example in the
year 2001 the mean results of SIMBLIGHT1 v showed a fve to eight days higher accuracy than
the calculations based on data measured by a distant met. station. In all other years the results for
mean deviation were similar.
Table 1. Deviation between calculated values and measured data with MR.
Year 2003 2004 2005 2006 2003 2004 2005 2006
Parameter temperature [C] relative humidity [%]
CoD 96% 96% 99% 98% 94% 96% 95% 92%
Mean deviation 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.1 0.3 0.1 0.1 -0.6
Maximum 4.4 4.1 4.3 4.7 19.6 32.6 21.6 21.2
Minimum -3.8 -4.5 -4.5 -4.1 -18.9 -21.9 -22.8 -22.8
t-test n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s. n.s.
n.s. = not signifcant.
n = 92,160 hours/year.

Figure 4: Box-Whisker-Plots of differences between the first appearances of late blight in the field and the
model result of SIMBLIGHT1-v-m and SIMPHYT1-v-m in Germany in 2001.

-60 -40 -20 0 20 40 60 80
deviation in days
SIMBLIGHT1-v
SIMPHYT1-v
SIMPHYT1-m
SIMBLIGHT1-m
n = 76
Figure 4. Box-Whisker-Plots of differences between the frst appearances of late blight in the
feld and the model result of SIMBLIGHT1-v-m and SIMPHYT1-v-m in Germany in 2001.
The largest differences between the minimum and maximum deviation (range) were shown by
SIMBLIGHT1 in 2002. The range of SIMBLIGHT1 m exceeded that of SIMBLIGHT1 v by
more than 30 days. In all other years and also with the model SIMPHYT1, the range of results with
v was 5 to 20 days less compared to m. The results show that calculations based on interpolated
data have a higher accuracy in comparison to feld data for Late Blight because of their spatial index.
Through this a detailed defnition of the frst treatment is possible, this effects in high effciency.
To use other forecasting models, more meteorological input data play an important role. So it is
necessary to analyse if MR is also able to calculate parameters such as soil temperature, leaf wetness
or precipitation with high accuracy. With soil temperature this method seems to be successful. But
for leaf wetness and precipitation it is not useful because of regional variations of precipitation
especially in the summer months. For these parameters, other sources have to be found, so e.g.


-60 -40 -20 0 20 40 60 80
deviation in days
SIMBLIGHT1-v
SIMPHYT1-v
SIMPHYT1-m
SIMBLIGHT1-m
n = 24


-60 -40 -20 0 20 40 60 80
deviation in days
SIMBLIGHT1-v
SIMPHYT1-v
SIMPHYT1-m
SIMBLIGHT1-m
n = 155
radar measurement of the DWD could be used to classify precipitation. This is tested in another
project by ZEPP (see Jung and Kleinhenz, 2009).
Perspectives
By the combination of forecasting models for plant diseases and the analyses and interpolation
methods based on GIS, a signifcant advance in advice to farmers can be realized. GIS methods
will help to obtain more detailed calculations and results with higher accuracy and validity than
before. Spatial maps will show hot spots of maximum risk which will make the results of forecasting
models easier to understand and to interpret. This gets the decision support a step closer to the aim
of a reduced pesticide use and an economical and environmental friendly crop protection strategy.


-60 -40 -20 0 20 40 60 80
SIMBLIGHT1-v
SIMPHYT1-v
SIMPHYT1-m
SIMBLIGHT1-m
deviation in days
n = 110

Figure 8: Box-Whisker-Plots of differences between the first appearances of late blight in the field and the model
result of SIMBLIGHT1-v-m and SIMPHYT1-v-m in Germany in 2006.

-60 -40 -20 0 20 40 60 80
deviation in days
SIMBLIGHT1-v
SIMPHYT1-v
SIMPHYT1-m
SIMBLIGHT1-m
n = 180
The results and methods of this study will initiate the introduction of risk maps in crop protection
warning service. The internet platform www.isip.de is currently implementing a web GIS application
to make use of the new methods. The new components will comply with all relevant standards
(OGC, INSPIRE) to ensure interoperability with other geoservices (see Endler and Roehrig, 2009).
GIS presentation methods will make DSS results easier to understand and will lead to a higher
acceptance of warning systems by farmers.
Acknowledgements
This project was funded by the German Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer
Protection (BMELV) via the Federal Institution of Agriculture and Food (BLE) within the
programme to promote innovation.
References
Bill, R., 1999. Grundlagen der Geo-Informationssysteme.- Band 1: Hardware, Software, Daten Herbert
Wichmann Verlag, Heidelberg.
Blthgen, J. and Weischet, W., 1982. Allgemeine Klimageographie, Walter de Gruyter, 3. Aufage.
Cohen, J., Cohen, P., West, S. and Aiken, L., 2003. Applied Multiple Regression/correlation Analysis for the
Behavioural Sciences, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, ISBN 0805822232.
Endler, M. and Roehrig, M., 2009. Improving decision support in plant production with GIS. In: JIAC2009
Book of abstracts. Wageningen Academic Publishers, the Netherlands, pp. 192.
Gutsche, V., 1999. Das Modell SIMPHYT 3 zur Berechnung des witterungsbedingten Epidemiedruckes der
Krautfule der Kartoffel (Phytophthora infestans (Mont.) de Bary). Nachrichtenbl. Deut. Pfanzenschutzd.
51(7): 169-175.
Gutsche, V., Jrg, E. and Kleinhenz, B., 1999. Phytophthora - Prognose mit SIMPHYT III. Kartoffelbau
50(4): 128-130.
Hansen, J.G., Kleinhenz, B., Jrg, E., Wander, J.G.N., 2002. Results of validation trials of Phytophthora DSSs
in Europe, 2001. Sixth Workshop of European network for development of an integrated control strategy
of potato late blight. PPO-Spezial Report Nr. 8, 304, 231-242.
Jung, J. and Kleinhenz, B., 2009. Use of RADAR measured precipitation data in disease forecast model. In:
JIAC2009 Book of abstracts. Wageningen Academic Publishers, the Netherlands, pp. 306.
Kleinhenz, B., Falke, K., Kakau, J. and Rossberg, D., 2007. SIMBLIGHT1 - A new model to predict frst
occurrence of potato late blight. Bulletin OEPP/EPPO Bulletin(37): 1-5.
Kleinhenz, B. and Jrg, E., 1999. Validation of SIMPHYT I/II - A decision support system for late blight control
in Germany. Workshop on the European network for development of an integrated control strategy of
potato late blight. Schepers, H. and Bouma, E., Uppsala, Sweden, 1999, PAV-Special Report, 5, 115-128.
Kleinhenz, B. and Jrg, E., 2000. Results of Validation Trials of Phytophthora DSS in Europa in 1999. Workshop
on the European network for development of an integrated control strategy of potato late blight. Schepers,
H., Oostende, Belgium, 2000, PAV-Special Report, 6, 180-190.
Kluge, E. and Gutsche, V., 1984. Untersuchungen zum Einfu des Braunfulebefalls der Pfanzkartoffelknollen
auf das Erstauftreten der Krautfule (Phytophthora infestans (Mont) de Bary) mittels SIMPHYT I. Arch.
Phytopathol. Pfanzenschutz, Berlin 20(5): 361-369.
Roberg, D., Gutsche, V. and Kleinhenz, B., 2001. Prognose von Phytophthora infestans mit den SIMPHYT
Modellen. Gesunde Pfanzen 53(2): 37-43.
Zeuner, T., 2007. Landwirtschaftliche Schaderregerprognose mit Hilfe von geographischen Informationssystemen.
Doktorarbeit, Geographisches Institut, Mainz, Johannes Gutenberg Universitt - Mainz, http://ubm.opus.
hbz-nrw.de/frontdoor.php?source_opus=1549.
Plant-specifc and canopy density spraying to control fungal
diseases in bed-grown crops
J.C. van de Zande
1
, V.T.J.M. Achten
1
, H.T.A.M. Schepers
2
, A. van der Lans
3
, J.M.G.P. Michielsen
1
,
H. Stallinga
1
and P. van Velde
1
1
Wageningen UR, Plant Research International, P.O. Box 16, 6700 AA Wageningen, the Netherlands
2
Wageningen UR, Applied Plant Research (AGV), P.O. Box 420, 8200 AK Lelystad, the Netherlands
3
Wageningen UR, Applied Plant Research, Research Unit Flower Bulbs, P.O. Box 85, 2160 AB
Lisse, the Netherlands
Abstract
Matching spray volume to crop canopy sizes and shapes can reduce the use of plant protection
products, thus reducing operational costs and environmental pollution. Developments on crop
adapted spraying for fungal control are highlighted in arable crop spraying. A plant-specifc variable
volume precision sprayer, guided by foliage shape and volume (canopy density sprayer; CDS) was
developed for bed-grown crops to apply fungicides. Sensor selection to quantify crop canopy and
spray techniques to apply variable dose rates are evaluated based on laboratory measurements.
Sensor-nozzle combination delay time was determined for the different nozzle settings and
combinations. Optimal sensor-nozzle distances could be determined to specify sprayer design.
Based on the laboratory experience a prototype CDS sprayer was built using either a Weed-IT
or a GreenSeeker sensor to detect plant place (fuorescence) or size (refectance). Variable rate
application was either done with a pulse width modulation nozzle or a Lechler VarioSelect switchable
four-nozzle body. Spray volume could be changed from 50-550 l/ha in 16 steps. Spray deposition,
biological effcacy and agrochemical use reduction were evaluated in a fower bulb and a potato
crop during feld measurements using a prototype CDS sprayer. Spray volume savings of a prototype
plant-specifc sprayer are shown to be more than 75% in early late blight (Phytophthora infestans)
control spraying in potatoes. In fower bulbs (lily) it was shown that in fre blight (Botrytis spp.)
control on average spray volume could be reduced by 45%. In a potato crop biological effcacy was
maintained at the same good level as of a conventional spraying. In a fower bulb crop biological
effcacy of the CDS was lower than of conventional spraying, which means that spray strategy and
dose algorithms need further research.
Keywords: crop development, sensor, spray technique, spray distribution, spray volume, biological
effcacy
Introduction
In crop spraying the goal is to achieve a uniform spray deposition all over the crop canopy structure
or soil surface. Losses to the soil underneath the crop and outside the feld, through spray drift are to
be minimised. It is known that sprayer settings are important for spray distribution in crop canopy.
Matching spray volume and direction to crop size and shape can reduce chemical application,
thus reducing operational costs and environmental pollution. Manual or sensor actuated sprayers
have shown potential reductions in agrochemical use of 30% and more. Sensors quantifying crop
parameters such as quantity of biomass and photosynthesis activity are already commercially
available. Sensors to evaluate the plant stress (MLHD, 2004; Polder, 2004) or spectral analysis of the
crop canopy parameters (Bravo et al., 2003; Schut, 2003; Vrindts et al., 2003; Scotford and Miller,
2004) open the potential for more target oriented spraying in crop protection. Spray systems treating
individual plants based on fuorescence (Rometron, Weed-IT) as used on pavements (Kempenaar
et al., 2006) or canopy refection information (Ntech, GreenSeeker) used for fertilising are already
developed. Precise application techniques recently developed able to vary dose rates are obtained
by Pulse Width Modulation nozzles (Weed-IT) and multi-nozzle holders (Lechler VarioSelect) with
switchable number of nozzles varying in fow rate (Dammer and Ehlert, 2006); respectively in a
continuous (50-300 l/ha) and a stepwise way (50-600 l/ha in 16 steps). Based on these possibilities
we can achieve smaller units of treatment in the feld. In spraying crop protection products this will
lead from a full boom width treatment to section wise and even nozzle wise variable applications.
This paper describes an example in which the different elements of precision farming are combined
in a Canopy Density Sprayer (CDS) for bed-grown crops like fower bulbs and potatoes which is
under development (Zande et al., 2005).
A Canopy Density Sprayer (CDS) for bed-grown crops like fower bulbs and potatoes is under
development. This CDS prototype spraying system combines detailed crop information (fuorescence
and spectral refectance) with very accurate application techniques. The system sprays only when
there are crop plants under the spraying nozzle(s) (Figure 1). When leaves emerge from the soil only
the leaves are sprayed: the sprayer operates as a patch sprayer. When the crop develops it forms
rows and the CDS becomes a band sprayer. When the crop canopy covers the whole bed, only the
bed will be sprayed but not the paths in between. When the crop develops to its maximum height
(fowering) spray volume will be adapted to crop height or total leaf area to cover total leaf area
uniformly. Expected reductions in agrochemical use vary from 25% in the full-developed canopy
to more than 90% in the initial leaf stage based on crop growth development evaluations during
the growing season of fower bulb crops grown on beds (Zande et al., 2008).
Canopy adapted spraying systems are momentarily tested in prototype versions in potato and
fower bulb crops to apply fungicides against late blight in an early potato crop and fre blight in
a lily fower bulb crop.
Plant-specifc spraying against late blight in potatoes
The frst experiments with plant-specifc spraying against late blight in potatoes were done in
autumn 2007 (WUR-PPO experimental farm, Lelystad) and were repeated in the 2008 growing
season. In this experiment it was shown how much chemicals can be saved by switching on and
off nozzles when spraying against late blight (Phytophthora infestans) and whether biological
effcacy remained comparable with conventional application methods. A prototype using Weed IT
sensor-spray elements was built for this purpose enabling the spray to be placed in 10 cm bands
and 5 cm length direction accuracy. The machine was prepared to work at a width of 2.25 m, on

JIAC, Wageningen, The Netherlands
6,7,8 July 2009

1

plant
row bed
plant
row bed

Figure 1. Schematic presentation of the development of a Canopy Density Sprayer for bed
grown crops

Figure 1. Schematic presentation of the development of a Canopy Density Sprayer for bed
grown crops.
the top of 3 potato ridges (Figure 2). The conventional spraying machine (Figure 3) used TeeJet
XR11004 nozzles (3 bar spray pressure) at 50 cm nozzle spacing applying a spray volume of 300
l/ha (5 km/h). Boom height between the soil and the crop canopy was 75 cm. The fungicide applied
(Shirlan) was made as a tank mix in a jerry can and placed on a Spider 15 balance with an accuracy
of ten grams. The amount of spray volume used was determined by weighing the jerry can with
the chemicals before and after every treated feld (2.2510m). The average used dosage (l/ha) of
every feld was compared to that used in conventional spraying.
The experiment contained seven treatments; untreated plus six treatments sprayed with Shirlan
(fuazinam) to protect the crop against late blight (Phytophthora infestans). Fields were sprayed
with both conventional and Weed-IT spray techniques at dose rates of 75% (0.3 l/ha) and 25% (0.1
l/ha) of recommended dose (0.4 l/ha).
After the treatments, leaves were picked to analyze them in the laboratory for protection against
late blight. The leaves were inoculated with a few drops of a Phytophthora spore suspension and
Phytophthora development on the leaves was visually evaluated after 6 days.
Plant specifc and canopy refection dependent spraying against fre blight in fower bulbs
In the fower bulb crop lilly a prototype CDS sprayer (Figure 4) was used to apply the fungicide
Allure (1.6 l/ha) in a plant specifc way using Weed-IT elements and a canopy density way using a

6,7,8 July 2009

2

Figure 2 Pulse Width Modulation nozzles
Figure 2. Pulse width modulation nozzles.

6,7,8 July 2009

3

Figure 3 Conventional sprayer applying 300 l/ha

Figure 3. Conventional sprayer applying 300 l/ha.
SensiSpray (Zande et al., 2009) element of 1.5 m wide working width. Maximum dose rates were
varied between full dose and half dose by adapting tank mix concentration. In the Weed-IT sprayer
TeeJet 400067 fat fan nozzles were used with a nozzle spacing of 0.10 m. Individual plants were
sprayed based on the Weed-IT green sensor. The SensiSpray sprayer was equipped with Lechler
VarioSelect nozzle bodies at 0.50 m spacing containing 4 Lechler ID9001 venturi fat fan nozzles,
able to switch and therefore apply spray volumes in steps of 130, 260, 390 and 520 l/ha depending
on the measured NDVI of the Greenseeker sensor. For the conventional application one of the
nozzles of each VarioSelect nozzlebody was replaced with a TeeJet XR11004 fat fan nozzle. All
systems operated at 3 bar spray pressure. Driving speed was for the conventional and SensiSpray
applications 3.6 km/h and for the Weed-IT 3.0 km/h, thereby all applying around 530 l/ha.
During the growing season crop protection against fre blight (Botrytis spp.) was done with weekly
scheduled fungicide applications of the conventional, Weed-IT and SensiSpray spray techniques at two
maximum dose rates (4 replications). Used spray volume per individual feld (1.57 m) was quantifed
by weighing the sprayed amount on the sprayer. Fire blight (Botrytis spp.) infection was monitored
during the growing season using a 0-10 scale. 10 means no infection, 9 is 5% of plants infected, 6
means 40% of plants infected, and 0 a means complete desiccated crop, with no green area left.
Results
Field test of a CDS sprayer in potato leaf blight control
First experiments of late planted potatoes in autumn 2007 showed that the measured quantity of
sprayed volume during applications on the different dates varied between 75% and 84%.These
savings coincided with measured crop coverage of soil surface. No difference in protection against
late blight was found between the spray techniques and dose rates, except for the Weed-IT 75% dose
on October 23 which was signifcantly lower than the other techniques. From these frst experiments
it was concluded that individual plant spraying gave equal good protection against late blight with
use of less than 25% of the standard applied amount of fungicide.
In the 2008 experiments early season sprayings resulted in a reduction of sprayed volume of the
Weed-IT application of between 25% and more than 50% for individual sprayings (Figure 5)
compared to the conventional applications.
Measured spray deposition on plant canopy differed for the Weed-IT application from the
conventional spraying as average spray deposition was lower (Table 1). However variation between
depositits on plant parts related to the switching of the nozzles of the Weed-IT showed no larger

6,7,8 July 2009

4

Figure 4. Prototype Canopy Density Sprayer for bed grown crops used in a lilly crop; left in
early growth stage still individual plants; right in late growth stage with fully covered bed.

Figure 4. Prototype Canopy Density Sprayer for bed grown crops used in a lilly crop; left in early
growth stage still individual plants; right in late growth stage with fully covered bed.
variation than of the conventional spraying. Spray deposit on soil surface was lower for the Weed-
IT spray system as expected.
In late blight control during early sprayings there was no difference in biological effcacy between
conventional and Weed-IT sprayings for the 75% dose (Table 2). At frst instance the 25% dose had a
lower protection level for both applications techniques. After two additional sprayings the difference
in protection level was less for the conventional spraying but still clear for both dose rates of the
Weed-IT sprayings. This suggests that there is a higher risk with the plant-specifc spraying, which
probably is related to the difference in spray deposit. Further research is needed on this subject.
Field test of a CDS sprayer in fre blight control in lily
The prototype CDS sprayer equipped both with a Weed-IT and a SensiSpray spray boom was in
2008 used for a season long spraying of fungicides against fre blight (Botrytis spp.) in a lily crop.
The canopy related dosing of both systems was active throughout the season. For all applications
between early June and mid August spray volume reduction (Figure 6) for the Weed-IT system
was between 40% and 55% compared to conventional application (530 l/ha). The two late August

6,7,8 July 2009

5
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
5-jun 12-jun 19-jun 26-jun
u
s
e

r
e
d
u
c
t
i
o
n

[
%
]
75% dose
25% dose

Figure 5. Use reduction of fungicide (% compared to conventional) in early potato late blight
control using a Weed-IT sprayer for plant specific application

Figure 5. Use reduction of fungicide (% compared to conventional) in early potato late blight
control using a Weed-IT sprayer for plant specifc application.
Table 1. Spray deposition (l/cm
2
) for conventional and plant specifc Weed-IT application of
fungicides in potatoes early in the season on different places of the plant, top of plant canopy
and soil surface underneath.
Spray technique Spray deposition [l/cm
2
]
On plant Above
crop
canopy
Soil surface
front centre left right back sum Top ridge Between ridge
Conventional 0.89 1.00 0.82 0.78 0.72 0.85 1.34 0.55 1.08
Weed-IT 0.65 0.78 0.65 0.46 0.62 0.63 0.36 0.40 0.49
sprayings could not be done because no green tissue was left. The SensiSpray system resulted
only in around 10% reduction in spray volume during early season sprayings. This because of the
set NDVI (GreenSeeker) and dose relation (spray volume) algorithm which was inappropriate for
the lily crop development. Also at last sprayings in August there was an increase in spray volume
reduction because of a decrease of green leaf tissue at the end of the season. This desiccation of
the lily crop was however more for both the Weed-IT as the SensiSpray applications than for the
conventional applications.
Spray deposition (l/cm
2
) in the lily crop was measured early July when crop height and soil
coverage was maximum. On top of the canopy there was little difference between the spray
techniques (Figure 7). In the middle leaf level the Weed-IT had a higher sprayer deposition than the
conventional spraying and the SensiSpray (being lowest). At the lowest leaf level spray deposition
of the Weed-IT and the conventional spraying were comparable and of the SensiSpray lowest.
Table 2. Protection against late blight (Phytophthora infestans) expressed as % infected potato
leaf area for conventional and Weed-IT plant specifc application of 75% and 25% of advised
dose (0.4 l/ha) of Shirlan at early season spraying dates.
Objects Infected leaf area (%)
5-jun 12-jun 19-jun 26-jun
Untreated 99.7 98.6 97.8 99.1
Conv 75% 12.1 13.9 3.4 0.6
Conv 25% 22.9 29.8 5.8 3.1
Weed-IT 75% 20.0 14.5 3.8 1.6
Weed-IT 25% 23.4 29.5 10.8 7.4
lsd0.05 6.8 7.1 3.8 2.8

6,7,8 July 2009

6
-10
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
10 jun 17 jun 25 jun 1 jul 16-jul 23-jul 30-jul 6-aug 14-aug 26-aug
s
p
r
a
y

v
o
l
u
m
e

r
e
d
u
c
t
i
o
n

[
%
]
Weed-IT SensiSpray

Figure 6. Spray volume reduction (% compared to conventional 530 l/ha) for Weed-IT and
SensiSpray CDS spray techniques during the 2008 growing season of a lily crop

Figure 6. Spray volume reduction (% compared to conventional 530 l/ha) for Weed-IT and
SensiSpray CDS spray techniques during the 2008 growing season of a lily crop.
Biological effcacy was evaluated throughout the growing season. First detection of fre blight was
late July in all objects (Table 3). In the Weed-IT and SensiSpray felds there was a rapid decline in
green area because of fre blight infestation. This resulted in the end at harvest time also in lower
average bulb weights, especially of the SensiSpray system. As the dose-spray volume algorithm of
the SensiSpray was used throughout the season it is now discussed whether it should be adapted
in order to improve spray deposition depending on growth stage and GreenSeeker NDVI signal.
This is subject for further research.
Discussion
Canopy Density Spraying on bed-grown crops, like potatoes and fower bulbs, have shown a potential
reduction in PPP use, especially with frst sprayings of the crop early in the growth season. Also when

6,7,8 July 2009

7
0.5
0.3
0.7
1.1
0.9
1.5
2.9
2.6
2.8
0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5
conventional
SensiSpray
Weed-IT
spray deposition [ul/cm2]
top
middle
lower

Figure 7. Spray deposition (l/cm
2
) in a lily crop divided in top, middle and bottom leaf
layers for a conventional spraying, and Weed-IT and SensiSpray CDS spray techniques

Figure 7. Spray deposition (l/cm
2
) in a lily crop divided in top, middle and bottom leaf layers
for a conventional spraying, and Weed-IT and SensiSpray CDS spray techniques.
Table 3. Protection against fre blight ( spp.) expressed as scale infected lily leaf area for
conventional, SensiSpray and Weed-IT plant specifc application of 100% and 50% of advised
dose (1.6 l/ha) of Allure at last season spraying dates and relative bulb yield.
Spray technique Dose allure
1.6 l/ha
Fire blight development Relative bulb
yield [% of 2]
25-jun 23-jul 14-aug 26-aug
Control
n
o

d
i
s
e
a
s
e
9.8 1.8 0.0 77
Conventional 100% 9.8 8.5 6.8 100
Conventional 50% 9.8 8.8 7.5 97
Weed-IT 100% 9.8 6.5 2.0 89
Weed-IT 50% 9.8 7.3 4.0 87
SensiSpray 100% 9.8 7.8 5.5 51
SensiSpray 50% 9.8 8.0 6.8 50
the crop covers soil surface completely but still develops in crop height and leaf mass, a reduction
in PPP is possible maintaining biological effcacy. Further development of Canopy Density Spray
systems and more target oriented sprayings can be realised when diseases are detected before visual
appearance. Sensor evaluation shows potential in this direction. The evaluation of combinations
of sensor and spray systems on the market show that some steps are still to be made before a good
working Canopy Density Spray system is fully operational in practice (Zande et al., 2008). First
feld tests of a prototype plant-specifc fungicide application with a CDS-prototype (Weed-IT)
show a reduction of 75-84% in agrochemical use for the frst 3 fungicide applications maintaining a
good protection against late blight in potato. Potato plants were still individually standing and crop
coverage during these applications was around 30%. In lily fower bulb spraying use reductions
were obtained between 10-50%. However biological effcacy of CDS spraying decreased compared
to conventional spraying. Algorithm development to put better relations between crop refection
measurements and required dose are suggested for further research.
Acknowledgements
Research presented in this paper is part of a project fnanced by the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture,
Nature and Food safety (LNV), and the EU-project ENDURE. Homburg Machinehandel and
Rometron are acknowledged for providing sensors and spray equipment and assisting in the
development of the prototype CDS sprayer. People of the experimental farms of WUR-PPO in
Lelystad and Lisse are thanked for their work in the feld.
References
Bravo C, Moshou D, West J, McCartney A and Ramon H, 2003. Early disease detection in wheat felds using
spectral refectance. Biosystems Engineering 84(2): 137-145.
Dammer KH and Ehlert D, 2006. Variable-rate fungicide spraying in cereals using a plant cover sensor.
Kempenaar C, Groeneveld RMW and Uffng AJM. 2006. Evaluation of Weed IT model 2006 MKII: spray
volume and dose response tests. Plant Research International, Note 418, Wageningen.
MLHD, 2004. Minimum Lethal Herbicide Dose, MLHD online; manual for the herbicide dose calculation
module V2.0. Opticrop, Plant Research International, Wageningen. http://mlhd.opticrop.nl/.
Polder G, 2004. Spectral imaging for measuring biochemicals in plant material. PhD Thesis Wageningen
Agricultural University, Wageningen. 150pp.
Schut AGT, 2003. Imaging spectroscopy for characterization of grass swards. PhD Thesis Wageningen
University, Wageningen, the Netherlands. 264pp.
Scotford I.M. and P.C.H. Miller, 2004. Combination of spectral refectance and ultrasonic sensing to monitor
the growth of winter wheat. Biosystems Engineering 87(1): 27-38.
Van de Zande JC and Achten VTJM, 2005. Precision agriculture in plant protection technique. Annual Review
of Agricultural Engineering 4(1):217-228.
Van de Zande JC, Achten VTJM, Michielsen JMGP, Wenneker M and Koster, AThJ, 2008. Towards more
target oriented crop protection. International advances in pesticide application. Aspects of Applied Biology
84:245-252.
Van de Zande, J.C., V.T.J.M. Achten, C. Kempenaar, J.M.G.P. Michielsen, D. van der Schans, J. de Boer, H.
Stallinga, P. van Velde and B. Verwijs, 2009. SensiSpray: site-specifc precise dosing of pesticides by on-
line sensing. In: Van Henten, E.J., Goense and D. Lokhorst, C. (eds). Precision Agriculture 09. Wageningen
Academic Publishers, the Netherlands, pp. 785-792.
Vrindts E, Reyniers M, Darius P, DeBaerdemaeker J, Gilot M, Sadaoui Y, Frankinet M, Hanquet B and Destain
M-F, 2003. Analysis of soil and crop properties for precision agriculture for winter wheat. Biosystems
Engineering 85(2): 141-152.
Section 13
Precision application
Robotic control of broad-leaved dock
F.K. van Evert
1
, J. Samsom
2
, G. Polder
1
, M. Vijn
3
, H.-J. van Dooren
4
, E.J.J. Lamaker
5
, G.W.A.M.
van der Heijden
1
, C. Kempenaar
1
, A.J.A. van der Zalm
1
and L.A.P. Lotz
1
1
Plant Research International, PO Box 16, 6700 AA Wageningen, the Netherlands;
frits.vanevert@wur.nl
2
Gagelweg 1, 3648 AV Wilnis, the Netherlands
3
LaMi, PO Box 80300, 3508 TH Utrecht: current address: Applied Plant Research, P.O. Box 167,
6700 AD Wageningen, the Netherlands
4
Animal Sciences Group, PO Box 65, 8200 AB Lelystad, the Netherlands
5
Wageningen University and Research Centre, Wageningen, the Netherlands
Abstract
Broad-leaved dock (Rumex obtusifolius L.) is a common and troublesome grassland weed with a
wide geographic distribution. In organic farming, the best option to control the weed is manual
removal of the plants. In this report we describe the development and frst tests of a robot to detect
and control broad-leaved dock. An analysis of requirements led to the construction of a diesel-
powered frame of 1.251.11 m to which four independently driven wheels are attached. Weeds
are detected with a downward-looking camera that provides full-colour images with a resolution
of 1.5 mm per pixel. Image processing is based on Fourier analysis of sub-images (tiles) of 88
pixels. Weeds are controlled using the method proposed by Austrian farmer F. Riesenhuber. This
method consists of a chopper with a single 0.20 m blade that rotates around a vertical axis at 1,500
rpm and is pushed into the ground at the location of the weed. In feld tests the robot was run at 0.5
m/s. Under favourable conditions, more than 90% of weeds were detected and positioning of the
chopper occurred with adequate precision. The time required to position and operate the chopper
was determined to be 12 s. Approx. 25% of controlled weeds exhibited regrowth. We conclude that
our robot provides an attractive alternative to manual removal of broad-leaved dock.
Keywords: Rumex obtusifolius L., organic farming, machine vision
Introduction
Broad-leaved dock (Rumex obtusifolius L.) is a common and troublesome weed with a wide
geographic distribution (Cavers and Harper, 1964). If broad-leaved dock is not controlled, it will
reach a high population density and reduce grass yield by 10 to 40% (Courtney, 1985). The weed is
readily consumed by livestock but its nutritive value is less than that of grass (Oswald and Haggar,
1983). Land that is free of broad-leaved dock can be newly infested when manure containing viable
seeds is spread on the land, by spreading the sludge that is produced when drainage canals are
dredged, and through seeds in bird droppings.
In conventional farming, the weed is normally controlled by using the selective herbicide MCPA
(2-methyl-4-chlorophenoxyacetic acid). In organic farming no pesticides are used and broad-leaved
dock must be controlled by removing plants or destroying them, possibly in combination with
grassland renewal and rotation with a grain crop (Van Middelkoop et al., 2005). Manual removal of
the plants may require several hundreds of hours per year on a single farm (Edith Finke, agricultural
advisor, DLV, personal communication). Frequent cutting alone is insuffcient to prevent broad-
leaved dock from spreading (Niggli et al., 1993). A review of non-chemical means to control
broad-leaved dock is given by Bond et al. (2007).
Robots have been proposed by many workers to reduce the cost and increase the focus of agricultural
operations (e.g. Blackmore et al., 2005). Automatic detection of broad-leaved dock has been
studied by eatovi (2008), Holpp et al. (2008), Gebhardt and Khbauch (2007), Gebhardt et al.
(2006), and Drr et al. (2004). Various methods to control broad-leaved dock have been suggested:
mechanical destruction (Bhm and Finze, 2004; Finze and Bhm, 2004), microwaves (Drr et al.,
2004; Latsch et al., 1999), and cultural measures (Van Middelkoop et al., 2005). Navigation on
agricultural felds has been studied by Bakker et al. (2006), Vougioukas et al. (2006), and Reid et
al. (2000), among others.
The objective of this paper is to describe a robot to detect and control broad-leaved dock. We address
the current state of the project as well as the elements of the project that contributed to its success.
Design and construction of the robot, and preliminary experiments
Conversations with farmers indicated that a robot would be deemed useful if it can remove 70% of
broad-leaved dock plants. We based our method of weed removal on that of Riesenhuber (Bhm and
Finze, 2004; Van Eekeren and Jansonius, 2005). It has been reported that with this method 20-40%
of removed weeds exhibit regrowth (Finze and Bhm, 2004), thus this method seems acceptable.
The Riesenhuber method requires a robot which has a fairly large power source and the mass of
the robot needs to be suffciently large to be able to push the weeder into the ground. Broad-leaved
dock often occurs in patches, whereas a pasture may contain patches as well as individual plants.
Thus, the robot will have to search the entire pasture. Pastures are typically free of obstacles and
tight manoeuvring is not required. The robot will have to be capable of many hours of continuous
operation and must thus carry a large energy store. The work rate is not critical, because weeds
can be detected and controlled from late April to October.
The above considerations led to the design presented in Figure 1. The robots base consists of a rigid
frame of 1.25 1.11 m to which four independently driven wheels are attached. We implemented
skid steering in order to keep construction light and to keep costs down. Power is provided by a
36 kW Kubota (Kubota Corp., Osaka, Japan) diesel engine.
A schema of the main components of the robot is given in Figure 2. Hydraulics are controlled by
a six-fold proportional valve block connected to a Programmable Logic Controller (PLC; Ecomat
100, IFM Electronics GmbH, Essen, Germany). The PLC receives inputs from incremental encoders
1

Figure 1. Robot to detect and control broad-leaved dock. The GPS antenna is not shown,
but has been mounted near the camera.
Figure 1. Robot to detect and control broad-leaved dock. The GPS antenna is not shown, but
has been mounted near the camera.
mounted on the front wheels, from a remote control receiver, and from the PC that provides overall
control of the system. The wheel encoders are used to regulate the robots driving speed. The
encoder counts are input to separate PID controllers for the left and right wheels. The PC provides
overall control of the system and functions as a pre-processor of the signals from the GPS receiver
and the vision system.
The vision system consists of a camera attached to a boom in front of the robot. The cameras feld
of view extends from the position of the weeder forward. The camera is a Marlin F201C (Allied
Vision Technologies GmbH, Stadtroda, Germany) and the lens is a Cinegon 8 mm (Schneider
Optische Werke GmbH, Bad Kreuznach, Germany). The camera is mounted at a height of 1.6 m,
resulting in a viewing area on the ground of approx. 1.20.9 m. Images are taken at 2 fps with a
resolution of 1,6001,200 pixels, resulting in a resolution of approx. 1.5 mm on the ground per pixel.
Path following
For the purpose of detecting and removing broad-leaved dock in a pasture, it is suffcient that the
robot follows a pre-defned path; autonomous path planning is not required. We use a dual-frequency
GPS/GLONASS receiver (AsteRx2, Septentrio, Leuven, Belgium) to determine the robots position.
RTK precision is obtained by using correction signals from a commercial network of base stations.
Path following is achieved using a PID controller.
Weed detection
Broad-leaved dock plants are detected using machine vision with a method developed earlier (Polder
et al., 2007; Van Evert et al., 2009). The method is based on the observation that grass leaves are
long and narrow (several mm), whereas the leaves of broad-leaved dock are at least an order of
magnitude wider. Consequently, an image with grass contains more color and intensity transitions
than an image with broad-leaved weed (Figure 3). Van Evert et al. (2009) reported that they were
able to detect 89% of weeds in their data set.
As the robot moves towards a weed, that weed will typically appear in several successive frames.
Also, more than one weed may appear in a single frame. Weeds are tracked from frame to frame
through nearest-neighbour matching; the robots speed is taken into account.
We have conducted preliminary tests to determine the accuracy of weed detection by taking the
robot to a number of different pastures and observing its performance. Detection works well when
broad-leaved dock plants are solitary and their growth form is a well-defned rosette; when ambient
light is stable over time; and when the grass in which the weeds grow is short and untrampled.
Broad-leaved dock is very variable in appearance. In early growth, it consists of a tight bunch of
leaves with the taproot located in the center. In later growth, it may consist of two or more leaves
on long stems, which appear to the algorithm as separate plants. When the grass is long, its leaves
fall on top of each other and the texture becomes similar to that of broad-leaved dock; similarly, an

Figure 2. The main components of the robot and their interactions. Arrows denote flow of
information or control.
and right wheels. The PC provides overall control of the system and functions as a pre-
processor of the signals from the GPS receiver and the vision system.
The vision system consists of a camera attached to a boom in front of the robot. The cameras
field of view extends from the position of the weeder forward. The camera is a Marlin F201C
(Allied Vision Technologies GmbH, Stadtroda, Germany) and the lens is a Cinegon 8 mm
(Schneider Optische Werke GmbH, Bad Kreuznach, Germany). The camera is mounted at a
height of 1.6 m, resulting in a viewing area on the ground of approx. 1.2 x 0.9 m. Images are
taken at 2 fps with a resolution of 1600 x 1200 pixels, resulting in a resolution of approx. 1.5
mm on the ground per pixel.
Path following
For the purpose of detecting and removing broad-leaved dock in a pasture, it is sufficient that
the robot follows a pre-defined path; autonomous path planning is not required. We use a
dual-frequency GPS/GLONASS receiver (AsteRx2, Septentrio, Leuven, Belgium) to
determine the robots position. RTK precision is obtained by using correction signals from a
commercial network of base stations. Path following is achieved using a PID controller.
Weed detection
Broad-leaved dock plants are detected using machine vision with a method developed earlier
(Polder et al., 2007; Van Evert et al., 2009). The method is based on the observation that
grass leaves are long and narrow (several mm), whereas the leaves of broad-leaved dock are
at least an order of magnitude wider. Consequently, an image with grass contains more color
and intensity transitions than an image with broad-leaved weed (Fig. 3). Van Evert et al.
(2009) reported that they were able to detect 89% of weeds in their data set.
As the robot moves towards a weed, that weed will typically appear in several successive
frames. Also, more than one weed may appear in a single frame. Weeds are tracked from
frame to frame through nearest-neighbour matching; the robots speed is taken into account.
We have conducted preliminary tests to determine the accuracy of weed detection by taking
the robot to a number of different pastures and observing its performance. Detection works
well when broad-leaved dock plants are solitary and their growth form is a well-defined
rosette; when ambient light is stable over time; and when the grass in which the weeds grow
is short and untrampled. Broad-leaved dock is very variable in appearance. In early growth, it
consists of a tight bunch of leaves with the taproot located in the center. In later growth, it
may consist of two or more leaves on long stems, which appear to the algorithm as separate
plants. When the grass is long, its leaves fall on top of each other and the texture becomes
similar to that of broad-leaved dock; similarly, an image of trampled grass does not show the
color transitions on which the weed detection algorithm is based. The effect of shadows is
removed adequately with the algorithm of (Marchant et al., 2004).
3
Figure 2. The main components of the robot and their interactions. Arrows denote fow of
information or control.
image of trampled grass does not show the color transitions on which the weed detection algorithm
is based. The effect of shadows is removed adequately with the algorithm of Marchant et al. (2004).
Weed control
We based weed control on the vertical rod weeder proposed by Austrian farmer F. Riesenhuber
and which was described and evaluated by Finze and Bhm (2004). Our implementation consists
of a single 0.20 m blade that rotates around a vertical axis and is pushed into the ground at the
location of the weed. The size of the blade ensures that adequate weed control is achieved even
when positioning is off by several cm.
An important feature of the weeder is the cylindrical cover which keeps the soil that is dug up in
a mound on top of the hole. When the loose soil settles, it reflls the hole. The weeder is powered
by a high-speed hydrostatic motor capable of rotating at 1,500 rpm. At this speed, the weed and its
taproot are cut into small pieces. Regrowth from small pieces of taproot is possible, yet experiments
have indicated that 60-80% of weeds destroyed in this way fail to regrow (Bhm and Finze, 2004;
Bhm and Verschwele, 2004). The weeder is raised and lowered by a hydraulic cylinder. The weeder
assembly can be moved along a rail that is fastened to the front of the vehicle. The rail can be
folded for transport; when extended, it allows the weeder to move laterally over a distance of 2 m.
The following method is employed to position the weeder over a weed. The robot drives at a
constant speed while searching for weeds. When a weed is detected, speed is maintained until the
calculated center of the weed is located exactly under the path that the weeder can follow along its
rail, at which point in time the robots speed is instantly reduced to 0. Next, the weeder is moved
laterally along its rail until the center of the weeder is aligned with the calculated center of the
weed. Lateral movement is directed by determining a mapping from the position in the cameras
feld of view to the corresponding lateral position of the weeder.
The accuracy of positioning on real weeds was tested on 9 September 2008, on a dairy farm near
Wilnis. We selected 27 weeds. We positioned the robot at approximately 2 m from each weed and
then started it. The robot was run at 0.5 m/s. We interrupted the weeding action before it destroyed
the weed and measured the distance from the weeds taproot to the center of the weeder. This
measurement combines the positioning error and the weed detection error. For the 27 measurents,
the mean error was 0.085 m with standard deviation 0.049 m; full results are shown in Figure 4.
3

A B C D E

Figure 3. Image processing to detect broad-leaved dock. A color image (A; 1.2 m x 0.9 m)
is taken with a downward-looking camera. The resolution of this image is 1.5 mm per
pixel. Shadows are removed by transforming to a monochrome image using the method of
Marchant et al. (2004). The resulting image is divided into sub-images (tiles) of 8x8 pixels
and each tile is subjected to two-dimensional Fourier analysis. The power of the Fourier
spectrum for all spatial frequencies above zero is a measure for the probability that the
image tile shows a weed (Van Evert et al., 2009). Following Fourier analysis (B), a
threshold is applied to identify the pixels which likely lie on a weed (C). Weed-pixels that
are not close to other weed-pixels are removed from the image (D). Then, clusters of
adjacent weed-pixels are joined through a morphological closing operation; any remaining
object is considered to represent a weed (E). The centroid of each object is taken as the
location of the taproot of the detected weed.
Figure 3. Image processing to detect broad-leaved dock. A color image (A; 1.20.9 m) is taken
with a downward-looking camera. The resolution of this image is 1.5 mm per pixel. Shadows are
removed by transforming to a monochrome image using the method of Marchant (2004).
The resulting image is divided into sub-images (tiles) of 88 pixels and each tile is subjected to
two-dimensional Fourier analysis. The power of the Fourier spectrum for all spatial frequencies
above zero is a measure for the probability that the image tile shows a weed (Van Evert
2009). Following Fourier analysis (B), a threshold is applied to identify the pixels which likely
lie on a weed (C). Weed-pixels that are not close to other weed-pixels are removed from the
image (D). Then, clusters of adjacent weed-pixels are joined through a morphological closing
operation; any remaining object is considered to represent a weed (E). The centroid of each
object is taken as the location of the taproot of the detected weed.
The time required to position and operate the weeder was determined to be approximately 12 s.
Field effectiveness of the weed control method was tested on two sites. On 5 August 2008, weeds
were destroyed in a peat soil pasture on a dairy farm near Wilnis. On 19 September 2008 weeds
were destroyed in a clay soil pasture on a dairy farm near Harlingen. At each site, 100 solitary
weeds were selected. Solitary weeds were chosen to ensure that any subsequent regrowth could not
be from roots of adjacent weed plants. The weeder was manually positioned such that the center of
the weeder was directly above the weeds taproot. Then the weeder was manually engaged and the
weed destroyed. Each location was identifed with a numbered marker. Approximately one month
after the weeds had been controlled, the locations were examined. In Wilnis the locations were
examined on 10 September 2008, in Harlingen the locations were examined on 15 October 2008. At
each site, we determined the number of locations in which a broad-leaved dock plant was growing.
The pasture in Wilnis was used for grazing after the weeds had been controlled and due to trampling
by cattle we were only able to fnd 64 of the 100 locations. Overall, we found regrowth of broad-
leaved dock in 40 out of 164 (24%) locations after one month. The locations ranged in appearance
from black soil to overgrown with grass. In a few locations a small broad-leaved dock plant could
clearly be seen regrowing from a piece of root. Because we did not want to disturb the locations,
we could in most cases not determine whether a weed was growing from seed or regrowing from
a piece of root.
Control
Control of the robot is divided in a high-level part dealing with path following, image processing
and decisions, and a low-level part for reading sensors and control of the hydraulics. The high-level
part runs on a PC, while the low-level part runs on the PLC. Communication between PC and PLC
4

Figure 4. Cumulative probability of the error in locating the taproot of broad-leaved dock
plants. The error is defined as the distance (m) between the center of the weeder and the
human-determined position of the taproot, measured experimentally with the robot
described in this paper, and is due to a combination of the algorithm and the mechanical
positioning of the robot and the weeder.
Figure 4. Cumulative probability of the error in locating the taproot of broad-leaved dock plants.
The error is defned as the distance (m) between the center of the weeder and the human-
determined position of the taproot, measured experimentally with the robot described in this
paper, and is due to a combination of the algorithm and the mechanical positioning of the robot
and the weeder.
is realized through a wired serial connection and consists of commands sent from the PC to the
PLC, and of data about speed, distance traveled, and current state sent from the PLC to the PC.
Discussion
The major scientifc challenge involved detection of broad-leaved dock. Fortunately, this is a
relatively straight-forward problem because of the clear textural contrast between broad-leaved
dock and grass. We used the vision-based method of Van Evert, et al. (2009). The method works
best in short, untrampled grass and when broad-leaved dock is growing in rosette form. These
conditions typically occur 1-3 weeks after the grass has been cut, indicating that this would be the
preferred time to use the robot. When several plants are growing in close proximity, our algorithm
may detect this as one plant. This weakness must be addressed in further work. There is also scope
to refne the weed detection method by using wavelets (Mallat, 1999; Schut and Ketelaars, 2003)
or by combining vision with a range camera (Holpp et al., 2008).
Required accuracy of the robot is not high. Interviews with the study group farmers revealed that
robot performance would be considered satisfactory even if no more than 70% of the weeds were
destroyed. The attitude to false-positives (detection of a weed where there isnt one) was similarly
relaxed: a cow in a playful mood also causes as much damage to the grass as a robot that punches
an unnecessary hole.
Successful removal of a weed requires, frst, that it is detected, and second, that it doesnt grow
back after having been destroyed. We intend to add to the robot a mechanism to sow grass seed at
each location where a weed has been destroyed. Grass growing from the seed will compete with
broad-leaved dock plants and reduce the survival rate of the weed.
We were able to reduce navigation requirements to a simple path following problem because in
grass the robot can drive anywhere. Obstacle avoidance has not yet been implemented but can be
addressed through distance sensors.
The technical demands placed on our actuator could be met. The design of a simple instrument
was available. Safety is a concern with autonomous equipment. The robot will be used mostly
in polders reclaimed land where pastures are separated from the road by water-flled drainage
ditches. This reduces the risk of the robot escaping from the feld and addresses one of the most
serious safety concerns.
Currently the operating width of our robot is 1.2 m, but this will be increased to 2 m by replacing
the current lens with a lens with a larger opening angle. Then, at a speed of 0.5 m/s, the robots
work rate will be 1 m
2
/s, which means that traversing one hectare would take on the order of 3
hours. The amount of time required for destruction of weeds depends on the number of weeds per
hectare. If we assume a moderate density of 1000 weeds/hectare, removing these (at 10-12 s per
plant) would require approximately 4 hours. An indicative number for the work rate of the robot
is thus 7 hours/hectare. Given that a typical dairy farm in the Netherlands is between 50 and 100
hectare, that not all land is infested with broad-leaved dock, that the weed need be controlled only
once a year, and that the robot could work from May until October, it follows that several farms
could share the use of one robot.
The introduction of robotics into farming holds great promise in terms of cost reduction, increased
focus and reducing the dependency on the availability of labor. Nevertheless, even an innovation
that provides a clear beneft may fail to be adopted (Rogers, 1995), possibly because it provides
a service that is not in demand (Jorgensen et al., 2008). A recommendation to avoid adoption
failure of a new technology is to form a coalition of key actors with converging interest who are
willing to pool their resources to achieve a common goal (Cramb, 2000). Indeed, this is how the
work described here has proceeded. The work was started after a representative of a study group
of organic dairy farmers approached researchers of Wageningen UR in 2005. The members of the
study group had unanimously identifed broad-leaved dock as the most immediate problem in the
operation of their farms. The study group identifed stakeholders and approached them for funding,
in addition to the funds they were able to invest themselves. Thus, from the start, the project was
well-embedded with the farmers who will eventually use the robot.
Conclusion
We have developed a prototype robot to detect and control broad-leaved dock in grass. First
experiments on aspects of the system indicate that navigation by means of path following, detection
of broad-leaved dock, and control of broad-leaved dock all work satisfactorily. Detection of broad-
leaved dock works best when the grass is short and untrampled and when the weeds are growing in
rosette form. Further work is needed to improve detection of the weed and to determine performance
of the whole system under a variety of conditions.
Acknowledgements
This work was partially funded with contributions from the Department of Agriculture, LaMi, and
Leader+. We are grateful to the members of study group Biologisch Utrecht-West, and especially
to Mr. Soede, Secretary, for their enthusiasm and support. We are indebted to the following
people: Edith Finke, for discussions about the experiences with the study group; Anne Koekkoek,
for permission to perform an experiment on his farm; Bert van Alfen, Henk Schilder and Edwin
Bleumer, for their help with some of the experiments; and Jan Meuleman, for his seasoned advice
with regard to the vision system.
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in het project Bioveem. [Control of broad-leaved dock in organic grassland in the Bioveem project].
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autonomous agricultural vehicles. Precision Agriculture 7:361-377.
First prototype of an automated rotary hoe for mechanical
weeding of the intra-row area in row crops and vegetables
Z. Gobor
1
, P. Schulze Lammers
2
and G. Wendl
1
1
Bavarian State Research Center for Agriculture, Institute for Agricultural Engineering and Animal
Husbandry, Vttinger Str. 36, 85354 Freising, Germany; zoltan.gobor@lf.bayern.de
2
Institute of Agricultural Engineering, Technology of Crop Farming, Nussallee 5, 53115 Bonn,
Germany
Abstract
A prototype of a hoeing tool for mechanical weeding of the intra-row area in row crops like sugar beet
and vegetables based on single plant detection was developed and evaluated. For the detection of a
test plants centre-position, a simplifed methodology based on the spectral characteristics combined
with the context information of the planting pattern was developed and tested. The prototype was
realised using a servo motor providing rotational speed adjustment of the hoeing tool according
to the forward speed of the carrier, intra-row distance between plants and observed position of the
arms. Experiments under laboratory conditions were conducted to check the accuracy and behaviour
of the hoeing tool. Tests have proved that an uncultivated area big enough to avoid damaging of
the plants can be left around the plants during the intra-row weeding with the developed system.
Keywords: intra-row weeding, plant detection, weeding robot
Introduction
Sustainable development of the agricultural production of crops and vegetables should be based
on decreased application of agrochemicals for weed control. It is known that EU Regulation
2092/91 already thoroughly bans the weeding methods with agrochemicals in organic production.
Accordingly, the input of manual labour in general, and especially for weed control, is in relation
to the conventional production undoubtedly higher in organic farming (Clark et al., 1999). Taking
into consideration these facts it is clear that further research and development inter alia needs to be
addressed to alternative methods of pest control which are economically competitive with pesticides,
to new techniques of physical weed control and on development of self propelled weeding robots
(Fogelberg, 2001).
Mechanical weed control techniques are an alternative and supplement to chemical weeding
methods, frequently utilised in row crops like sugar beet and vegetables. The newest inter-row
hoeing systems equipped with sophisticated guidance can cover approximately 80% of the feld
(Griepentrog et al., 2007). Unfortunately, the weeds occurring in the remaining area between
(intra-row) and around the crop plants (close-to-crop) have a much bigger infuence on the plant
development and yield (Heisel et al., 2002). The mechanisation of the intra-row area cultivation
is a complex task and its success depends on the realisation of the following tasks: (a) detection
and distinction of the crop and weed plants providing information about their exact position; (b)
construction and design of accurate weeding systems fully adaptable to different crop and vegetable
sowing patterns and (c) development of autonomous guided vehicles able to carry the weeding
tool and supply it with energy.
The presented project was focused on the design of a prototype of the tool for mechanical weed
control of the intra-row area in row crops and vegetables based on the single plant detection.
Although the detection of a single plant was not the primary goal a simplifed interim solution
was developed to provide necessary signals for controlling algorithm of the weeding tool. Plant
detection is a delicate research area and concerning its importance it is realistic to expect that
commercial systems will occur on the market in nearby future, because of the continuous progress.
In the meantime it is important to analyse and improve the mechanical part o weeding implements
considering the weeding trajectories, weeding accuracy and adaptability. The improvement needs
to be oriented toward universal intra-row weeding tool based on the single plant detection, which
can be used in different plant spacing systems, different plant intra-row distances and growth stages.
Detection of the single plant position
Following the basic requirement, which is accurate detection of the plant centre position in real
time, a method based on non-selective detection of green-coloured objects, with an industrial RGB
fbre optic sensor connected to an RGB digital fbre optic amplifer was chosen. To increase the
reliability of the plant detection, the information about the objects along the row line, their height
and refectance were traced with a high-power defnite-refective area selection laser sensor. The
additional support information for plant detection was based on the fact that plants as objects are
higher than the level of the soil surface. Exceptions can occure only immediately after emerging
when plants can have the same size as soil clumps. The RGB sensor and the laser sensor were
mounted on a joint carrier behind one another with a distance of 50 mm, providing reliable work
without overlapping in the feld of view of both sensors. The sensor carrier was mounted on a
tool frame allowing accurate following of the soil surface to keep the constant distance between
the sensors and the soil surface. Accurate detection of the forward position was necessary for the
appropriate assignment of the relative coordinates to every single plant and it was established by a
standard incremental encoder mounted on a supplementary wheel moving together with the carrier
vehicle. The signals from the sensors were acquired with a mobile computer through a plug and
play multifunctional USB data acquisition board. The software solution for the data acquisition,
plant position detection and control of the hoeing tool in real time was realised with LabVIEW 8.
The algorithm for the detection of the plant centre position combines the context information of the
planting pattern data with the spectral and typical geometrical characteristics of the crop plant (Gobor,
2007). Before detection can be started, features like average distance between plants, sampling
distance, size of the searching area, minimum size (diameter) of the plant which will be identifed
as a crop plant and maximal error inside the plant area need to be given as inputs in the algorithm.
Experiments were conducted in a soil bin which is two metres wide and nine metres long, providing
the possibility to drive the carrier over the soil surface through several crop rows positioned parallel
to each other. The simulation of the plants in 4- to 6-leaf stage has been done using artifcial plants
with a diameter ranging between 30 and 50 mm.
To confrm the applicability of the detection system, experiments were conducted in laboratory
conditions. The main objective of these experiments was the estimation of the plants centre-position
in different illumination conditions and comparison of the estimated values with the measured
positions of the plants.
Concept and virtual prototype of the hoeing tool
Several strategies of weeding inside the crop row were brainstormed and the idea of the system
which emulates the manual hoeing motions under the soil surface was chosen. A carrier with three
or more integrated arms is placed above the crop row with the ability to rotate around a horizontal
axis parallel to the crop row. The axis is attached to the servo motor shaft whose rotational speed is
accurately calculated according to the forward speed of the carrier vehicle, the intra-row distance
between plants and the observed position of the arms between every two estimated plant positions.
A virtual prototype, which is a comprehensive 3D model capable of interacting with a virtual
environment, was created for the testing of functional aspects of the mechanism. The virtual
prototype of the hoeing tool provided a possibility to rapidly evaluate multiple design alternatives
early in the design process, as well as to test and refne the digital prototype until the optimal system
performance was achieved. Another beneft was the use of multiple simulation scenarios, which
have been evaluated simultaneously. The main contribution realised with the virtual prototype
was the calculation of the hoeing trajectories for chosen scenarios and different adjustment of the
hoeing tool (Gobor and Schulze Lammers, 2007).
Physical prototype of the hoeing tool
Following the comprehensive analysis of the results observed with the virtual prototype, the
physical prototype of the hoeing tool consisting of three arm holders with one arm on each
designed to work in laboratory conditions was built. According to the high accuracy and dynamics
required for controlling of the hoeing tool an electrical servo drive was chosen. To determine the
maximum and nominal torque, experiments under the feld conditions were conducted. It was also
a possibility to confrm that the designed construction can withstand the maximum load. During
the experiments it was observed that soil type, previous tillage, roughness of the soil surface, soil
moisture, forward speed of the carrier, rotational speed of the hoeing tool, number of arms, as also
the hoeing depth have signifcant infuence on the torque. The worst case scenario was chosen to
ensure that the resulting prototype will be able to work in all conditions and a value of 350 Nm
as a nominal torque and a 60 r/min as a nominal rotational speed were taken for the calculation.
It was observed that for an arm length of 550 mm with implemented duckfoot knives, a rotational
speed of 30 r/min provides enough energy to cut the weeds. A rotational speed over 80 r/min can
originate throwing of the soil from the cultivated row towards the neighbouring row. For another
type of direct weeding implement different from the duckfoot knives, higher speeds could be applied
because of the reduced contact between the tool and the soil.
The combination of the data acquisition board and signal conditioning unit previously used for plant
detection was used for speed control of the servo drive as an external controller. For calculation of
the rotational speed it is necessary to estimate the relative distance between the hoeing tool and the
plant which need to be hoed, to save the information about the latest forward speed, latest angular
position of the hoeing tool and latest rotational speed. In the controlling algorithm one correction of
the rotation speed on the distance equal to the average distance of the sowing pattern was scheduled.
After the drive for the hoeing tool was chosen and the controlling algorithm was elaborated, a
test bench which allowed an evaluation of the prototype for intra-row weed control was built. A
movable carrier for the servo system with attached hoeing tool was constructed over the described
soil bin. The carrier vehicle was attached with steel ropes through a driving pulley to an electro
motor providing its forward-backward positioning over the soil box with a speed adjustable in
range between 0.1-0.4 m/s.
Detection of the single plants
As mentioned before, the presented methodology for detection of the plant centre position should be
observed as an interim solution based on a simplifed system using spectral and typical geometrical
characteristics of plants combined with the context information of the planting pattern.
The conducted experiments showed that the centre positions estimated with the RGB sensor for
a set of test plants deviate from the exact measured position up to 24 mm in daylight, 31 mm
in the darkness and 23 mm by artifcial illumination. The accuracy of the laser sensor was also
tested and the maximum deviation from the exact measured position was 13 mm in daylight, 25
mm in the darkness and 12 mm by artifcial illumination. The distribution of the deviation of the
estimated centre position with the RGB and laser sensors from the measured position is presented
in the Figure 1.
The main shortage of the presented system is that both sensors require ad-hoc parameter adjustment
before the measurement, to provide fair plant detection. For a broad usage of the system, parameter
adjustments need to be automated.
The sensors utilised during the tests are intended for industrial application. It needs to be confrmed
that intensive application under feld conditions will not cause negative infuence on their stable
work. The digital RGB sensor uses a light emitter with a spot diameter of 4.5 mm. For reliable
detection the system needs to be improved to cover an area at least as wide as the laser sensor. This
could be done by parallel implementation of several sensors.
Although the system has shortages the experimental results showed that the combination of the RGB
sensor and laser sensor can be used for accurate detection of the plant centre position independently
from illumination conditions.
Analysis of the hoeing tool conducted with the virtual prototype
One of the main characteristics of the hoeing tool is the modular design and adjustability, which
means that it could be quickly adapted to different hoeing scenarios. The modularity can be expressed
through different number of arm holders which can be attached to the disk-shaped carrier. The
attached number of arm holders can vary between one and four. Arm holders have three design
variants with one, two or three holders forming forearms on which upper arms are connected through
a slider and a hinge joint. On this way the total diameter of the hoeing tool and the angular position
of the arms can be adjusted in relation to the plane perpendicular to the rotation axis in which the
arm holder is placed. A design variant of the arm holder with two forearms, possible integration of
the arm holders into the hoeing tool assembly and the frst prototype are presented in the Figure 2.
A tool for direct soil cultivation needs be connected to the end of the upper arm. As basic cultivation
tools 60-mm wide duckfoot knives are anticipated, but other tools (tines or torsion weeders) can
also be easily implemented.
With the virtual prototype it was possible to demonstrate the benefts of the modular design and the
adjustability potentials of the hoeing tool. A hoeing scenario in which the hoeing tool consisting
of three sections (arm holders) with three forearms on each (fr=front, mi=middle and re=rear)
cultivates a virtual plant row with the intra-row distance between the plants equal to 300 mm and
three cuts between each two plants is presented in the Figure 3. The segments of the trajectories
in the soil are highlighted.

Figure 1 Distribution of the deviation of the estimated centre positions
Figure 1. Distribution of the deviation of the estimated centre positions.
The exact angular position of the hoeing tool depends on the relative forward position of the hoeing
tool, the intra-row distance between plants and the required number of cuts between each two plants.
For a similar hoeing scenario in which the intra-row distance between the plants has a different
value, the result would be a change in the trajectory helix. For a smaller intra-row distance the
helix will shrink and for a bigger intra-row distance the helix will stretch. With such adaptation of
the trajectory the applicability of the system in felds with different intra-row distances between
plants can be demonstrated.
Another hoeing scenario in which the hoeing tool consisting of four sections (arm holders) with
one forearm on each cultivates a virtual plant row with the intra-row distance between the plants
equal to 200 mm and two cuts between each two plants is presented in the Figure 4. Trajectories
of the arms are marked with numbers from 1 to 4 corresponding to duckfoot knives and segments
in the soil are highlighted.
The scenario with two cuts could be used for example in case if a bigger uncultivated area needs to
be left around the plants. A further aspect of the hoeing tool adjustment which needs to be discussed
is the angular position of the arms. The main advantage is that a small angular change provides the

Figure 2 a) Design variant of the arm holder with two forearms, b) Hoeing tool assembly
with 12 arms, c) Prototype of the hoeing tool (1 - arm holder with three arms, 2 plant
detection unit)
Figure 2. (a) Design variant of the arm holder with two forearms. (b) Hoeing tool assembly with 12
arms. (c) Prototype of the hoeing tool (1 - arm holder with three arms, 2 plant detection unit).

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Figure 3 Hoeing trajectories of the hoeing tool with nine arms in a row with 300 mm intra-
row distance between plants (arm length 440 mm, angular position of all arms adjusted to 0,
- position of the plant)
Figure 3. Hoeing trajectories of the hoeing tool with nine arms in a row with 300 mm intra-row
distance between plants (arm length 440 mm, angular position of all arms adjusted to 0 +=
position of the plant).
possibility of controlling the distance between consecutive cuts of each section and on that way the
size of the uncultivated area. Also, the adjustment of the angular position of the arms affects the
penetration order of the duckfoot knives in relation to the z-axis. With such a rearranged system,
arms cultivating the close-to-crop area always have an obtuse angle in relation to the soil surface,
which means that they are shifted from the plants leaves. That allows cultivation of plants with
bigger leaves as well as cultivation closer to the plant without causing damage on the leaf system.
After the virtual prototyping process yielded a design that appears robust and meets all the design
objectives, a physical prototype was built to validate the data from the computer model and to
ensure about the applicable in real conditions.
Testing of the physical prototype
According to the control algorithm in the hoeing strategy with three cuts between plants and a hoeing
system with three arms, the frst cut needs to be done with the duckfoot knife number two and its
optimal placement is the middle position between two plants, the second cut with the duckfoot
knife number three and its optimal placement is the front side of the plant and the third cut with
the duckfoot knife number one and its optimal placement is the rear side of the plant.
The accuracy of the hoeing system was evaluated by measuring the distances between the trajectories
of the hoeing tool blades in the soil and the nearest plant centre-position. The analysis was divided
to a measurement of the duckfoot knife trajectories approaching the plants from the front side and
duckfoot knife trajectories approaching the plants from the rear side. The hoeing trajectories of the
duckfoot knives one and three in the soil were transformed to a relative distance from the origin
of the coordinate system corresponding to the plant centre position. The results of the experiments
conducted with a constant forward speed, a hoeing depth of 15 mm, an arm length of 495 mm and
an average distance between plants of 200 mm are presented in Figure 5a, and with acceleration
and deceleration in Figure 5b. It needs to be emphasised that the distance between plants was not
exactly 200 mm, but randomly disposed from 170 to 230 mm.
In the experiment with constant speed, the cuts had an expressive trend around the plant centre
position, keeping an uncultivated area around plants with a diameter at least equal to dp= 50 mm.

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Figure 4 Hoeing trajectories of the hoeing tool with four arms providing two cuts between
following plants in a row with 200 mm intra-row distance between plants (arm length 440
mm, angular position of arms adjusted to: duckfoot1= 20, duckfoot2= -20, duckfoot3= 20,
duckfoot4= -20, - position of the plant)
Figure 4. Hoeing trajectories of the hoeing tool with four arms providing two cuts between
following plants in a row with 200 mm intra-row distance between plants (arm length 440
mm, angular position of arms adjusted to: duckfoot1= 20, duckfoot2= -20, duckfoot3= 20,
duckfoot4= -20, +=position of the plant).
Cuts of duckfoot knife 3 are ranged from 25 to 80 mm, while cuts of duckfoot knife 1 are ranged
between 40 and 85 mm. Around 91% of the cuts of duckfoot knife 3 were normally distributed
inside the area distanced from the plant centre position between 30 and 55 mm, while 90% of the
cuts done by duckfoot knife 1 were ranged between 60 and 90 mm with normal distribution. The
cuts made with duckfoot knife number 1 look like shifted from the plant. This adjustment was
done intentionally to avoid contact between the arm (duckfoot holder) and foliage system because
of asymmetric shape of the duckfoot knives. The results of the experiments with acceleration and
deceleration of the forward speed shows that cuts have a trend around the plant centre position
more fuzzy than in the experiment with constant forward speed and the smallest uncultivated area
was dp= 32 mm. Cuts of duckfoot knife 3 are ranged from 16 to 70 mm, while the cuts done by
duckfoot knife 1 were ranged between 40 and 105 mm with normal distribution. Around 97% of
the cuts of duckfoot knife 3 were normally distributed inside the area distanced from the plant
centre-position between 15 and 60 mm, while around 90% of the cuts done by duckfoot knife 1
were ranged between 50 and 90 mm with normal distribution.
Conclusions
The presented concept of the intra-row hoeing tool due to its modular design and adjustability
has suffcient degrees of freedom to be adapted for cultivation of different crop species, different
plant intra-row distances and plant growth stages. Accurate detection of the plants centre-position
is required for effective weeding. With the combination of the RGB and laser sensor the detection
of the centre-position of the test objects was possible and it was used as an interim solution in the
experiments in laboratory conditions. The experimental results indicate that an uncultivated area big
enough to avoid damaging of the plants can be left around the plants during the intra-row weeding
with the developed system if forward speed of the system stays constant or there is an non-intensive
forward speed change. Experiments have to be conducted to test the system under feld conditions.

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Figure 5 Distribution of the cuts under the soil surface transformed to a relative distance from
the plant centre-position () for duckfoot number 3 () and duckfoot number 1 () a) for
experiments with constant forward speed b) experiments with acceleration and deceleration of
the forward speed
Figure 5. Distribution of the cuts under the soil surface transformed to a relative distance from
the plant centre-position (+) for duckfoot number 3 () and duckfoot number 1 (). (a) For
experiments with constant forward speed; (b) Experiments with acceleration and deceleration
of the forward speed.
Acknowledgements
This project was funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), as a part of the training group
Graduiertenkolleg 722.
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low-input, and conventional farming systems in Californias Sacramento Valley. American Journal of
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Fogelberg, F. 2001. Research on pest control and pesticide reduction in Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands
- ongoing work and new ideas for the future. Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. p.29.
Gobor, Z., and Schulze Lammers, P. 2007. Prototype of a rotary hoe for intra-row weeding. Proceedings of
Papers on CD-ROM. 12th IFToMM World Congress, Besanon (France), June18-21. 2007.
Gobor, Z. 2007. Development of a novel mechatronic system for mechanical weed control of the intra-row
area in row crops based on detection of single plants and adequate controlling of the hoeing tool in real-
time. Forschungsbericht Agrartechnik VDI (VDI-MEG) vol. 464. Institut fr Landtechnik, Rheinsche
Fridrich-Wilhelms-Universitt Bonn (Germany). p.151.
Griepentrog, H.W., Nrremark, M., Nielsen, J. and Soriano Ibarra, J. 2007. Autonomous inter-row hoeing using
GPS based side-shift control. In: Agricultural Engineering International - The CIGR Ejournal, Volume IX
(July), Manuscript ATOE 07 005.
Heisel T., Andreasen C. and Streibig J. C. 2002. Sugar beet yield response to competition from Sinapis arvensis
or Lolium perenne growing at three different distances from the beet and removed at various times during
early growth. Weed Research, 42: 406-413.
Auto-boom control to avoid spraying pre-defned areas
J. Mickelker
1,2
and S.A. Svensson
1
1
Department of Agriculture Farming Systems, Technology and Product Quality, Swedish University
of Agricultural Sciences, Sundsvgen 14, 230 53 Alnarp, Sweden
2
Present adress: Datavxt AB, Hedkers Steri 3, 467 95 Grstorp, Sweden, jmi@datavaxt.se
Abstract
Buffer zones are used to protect sensitive areas, within or close to a feld, from pesticide treatment.
GNSS-based machine control could be a helpful tool to reduce the environmental risks at pesticide
application by improving the management of these buffer zones. The objectives of this study were to
develop and evaluate a sprayer system with automatic boom control. A commercial controller was
used with two different sprayers in the project: a conventional sprayer with 24 m boom and seven
sections, and a sprayer with six meter boom and individual nozzle control. The accuracy of these
sprayers were tested with different delay settings and GPS-receivers. The conventional sprayer was
used on a farm, spraying more than 2,000 ha, to get experience from practical problems and benefts
with an auto-boom controller. If the controller can handle feld boundaries, the system could reduce
the environmental risks but map management could be an issue. Avoidance of double-application
reduces the amount of pesticides used, although it normally implies only a few percent of the total
use. Still, this reduction could be enough to make an auto-boom controller proftable for the farmer.
Keywords: GPS, controller, boundary, buffer zone, precision spraying
Introduction
Use of non-sprayed buffer zones is a widely used method to protect sensitive objects within or
adjacent to felds treated with pesticides. These buffer zones should protect the objects from pesticide
residues caused by spray drift and leakage. The use of untreated buffer zones has been mandatory
for Swedish farmers since 1997. For example, recommended minimum safe distances to sensitive
areas for spray situations are 12 m to wells, 6 m to streams, ponds or lakes, and 1 m to ditches and
drainage wells. Wind-related buffer zones are dependent on prevailing weather conditions. Ground-
related buffer zones depend on fxed parameters as e.g. ground slope. Thus, wind-related buffer
zones can change rapidly but ground-related are fxed from year to year (Nilsson and Svensson,
2005). National surveys have shown that buffer zones are not always respected and that there is a
need to improve the protection of sensitive objects (NUI, 2002).
On a typical sprayer, all nozzles on a section of the boom are either on or off. A higher resolution in
sprayer control would reduce the untreated area but still be able to respect the buffer zones. Meron
et al. (2003) showed how each nozzle and fan outlet of an orchard sprayer could be controlled with
high precision to adapt spraying to the foliage. The shape of the trees was defned in a Geographic
Information System (GIS). High resolution in spraying could reduce pesticide use signifcantly,
which implies reduced risk for the environment and reduced costs for the farmer (Batte and Ehsani,
2006; Dillon et al., 2007).
The objectives of this study were to develop and evaluate a system that automatically could shut
off single nozzles along the spray boom to avoid pre-defned areas in the feld. Such a system could
improve management of buffer zones, reduce the risk for mistakes and improve record keeping
from spraying activities.
The frst part of the project was to develop a list of requirements that an auto-boom system with
functions for environmental protection should handle. At the time of project start, there were
commercial controllers that could fulfl parts of the requirements involved in the project. The project
group decided not to develop a new system, but instead to act within the ongoing development
at commercial manufacturers. Thus the study could focus more on evaluation of the system and
management of data.
A commercial spray controller, Legacy 6000 (Teejet Technologies, IL, USA) with its BoomPilot
function, could consider pre-defned areas by using the feld boundary features. Legacy 6000 is
a Controlled-Area Network (CAN bus) system designed to be used for a wide range of precision
agricultural tasks. For sprayer control, a console, a Dual-Control Module (DCM), a Switch-Function
Module (SFM) and a CAN Switchbox were used.
Description of function: In the Legacy software, the operator has to defne the properties of the
sprayer, e.g. number of sections, width for each section, distance from GPS-receiver to boom and
valve delays. With coordinates from the GPS, the software can determine the driving direction and
location of the spray boom. The applied area is recorded to a documentation fle. Data collection
interval can be set to 1, 5 or 10 seconds. When the auto-boom function is engaged, the position of
the boom is compared to both a record fle and a boundary fle to decide whether to spray or not.
Since the spray boom is divided in sections, the operator has to decide whether to avoid overlaps
or gaps when the sprayer enters an area that is not to be sprayed. The auto-boom function can be
confgured in three different modes: 0%, 50% or 100%, referring to fraction of section width that
has to cover the applied area (or be outside a feld boundary) before the section will shut off.
During 2006 and 2007, the system was used in practice on a conventional trailed sprayer with a
24 m boom and 7 boom sections. The Legacy system was connected to the valves and sensors
on the sprayer through the junction box normally used with a Teejet 844-E controller. A AgGPS
332 GPS-receiver (Trimble Navigation Ltd, CA, USA), which is a differential GPS (DGPS)
with either EGNOS or Coast Guard Beacon correction signal, was used for positioning. This
sprayer confguration is referred to as the Conventional Auto-Boom sprayer (CAB) in this paper.
Experiences from mapping and spraying were documented. Also the accuracy of the system was
studied in an experiment using a video recorder and analysis of the video frame by frame (Figure
1). Different delay settings and boundary shapes were used (see Table 1). Note that at the time of
these measurements, it was not possible to use separate delay settings for on and off. In the newer
versions and in the following measurements, it was possible to have different settings for the
delay. Results were communicated with several manufacturers of sprayer controllers to improve
development of coming products.

Figure 1. Measurements with the conventional sprayer (CAB). Playing the video frame by
frame made it possible to calculate the distance from where the boom starts to spray, to the
field boundary (stick with white cloth).

Figure 1. Measurements with the conventional sprayer (CAB). Playing the video frame by frame
made it possible to calculate the distance from where the boom starts to spray, to the feld
boundary (stick with white cloth).
For the 2008 season, a small sprayer with a 6 m boom and individual nozzle control with 12 nozzles
was constructed. The CAN had to be expanded with another Switch-Function Module and a second
CAN Switchbox, since each module could control up to 10 sections. A 12 V solenoid valve (ASCO
Valves Inc, NJ, USA) was mounted to each nozzle holder. This sprayer confguration is referred
to as the Individual Nozzle Control sprayer (INC) in this paper. With this sprayer, the study of
accuracy focused on small circular buffer zones, e.g. close to drainage wells, referred to as the
reference boundary with radius 1.5 m. Spraying was done on an asphalt surface during a sunny day,
leaving wet and dark marks when nozzles were activated. The whole buffer zone was photographed
directly after spraying, and the pictures were later analysed manually to determine the accuracy of
the sprayer. The distance from centre to reference boundary and the distance from centre to edge
between sprayed and unsprayed were recorded in eight different directions. Different delay settings,
radius of mapped boundary, spray nozzles and GPS receivers were used (see appendix). A Trimble
AgGPS 432 was used to achieve real-time kinematic (RTK) GPS.
To defne areas not to be sprayed, a digital map was created. The feld boundaries were mapped with
an RTK GPS, which delivered data as coordinates of points in a text fle. This text fle was converted
to a point shape fle, using ArcGIS (ESRI). The software Teejet Fieldware Tools was used to draw
polygons by snapping to the points, imported from the shape fle. Each polygon was defned as an
interior or exterior boundary. For each feld (totally 59 felds and 408 hectares) a boundary fle was
created. Alternative methods to create boundary fles were compared to this RTK based method.
Screen digitalisation from aerial photographs was one method. With the second alternative method,
boundaries were logged automatically during spraying the outer lap in the feld. Comparison was
done by a number of manual distance measurements in Fieldware Tools.
An algorithm for calculating the double-sprayed area has been developed in the project (J.
Mickelker, unpublished data). Calculations of double-sprayed areas for all the mapped felds in the
project have served as a base to develop a simplifed tool that can be used by farmers and advisors
to determine the advantages with more accurate sprayer control.
Results
Requirements for an auto-boom controller with environmental protection features were summarized
as below. These requirements were communicated with manufacturers of sprayer controllers, but
were also used as criteria when acquiring the auto-boom controller to the project. Not all of the
requirements could be fulflled by the Legacy 6000.
Automatic control of boom sections or individual nozzles.
Avoid unnecessary overlap, i.e. not more overlap than is necessary to avoid gaps (Figure 2a).
Possible to defne areas in the software and control nozzles to avoid spraying these areas
(Figure 2b).
Create a record of the application.
Use standardized data format for transfer of data between controller and other devices, e.g.
PC. Standardized data format could be e.g. ESRI Shape and transfer could be done with USB,
PCMCIA or wireless connection.
The CAB sprayer was used in practice on a farm during parts of the growing season 2006 and
2007 spraying more than 2,000 hectares and gave the farmer and the researchers some experiences
with use of the Legacy 6000. First of all, the installation and confguration of a more advanced
controller involved more work than a conventional controller installation. Since there was no
Legacy 6000 installed and used in Sweden before, support for the system was limited. English
manuals and menus were diffcult for the Swedish farmer to use. Auto-boom function also involved
a more complex start-up routine than a regular sprayer. The farmer experienced that the automatic
system was more accurate than manual control, even if it was hard to notice any reduced pesticide
usage. Of course, use of foam markers was unnecessary. The possibility of spraying at night with
maintained accuracy was also a positive experience. Problems could sometimes occur due to lost
positioning, but it was re-acquired almost immediately.
Legacy 6000 did not have the option of defning the position of the boom on the trailed sprayer
correctly, but instead handled the sprayer as if it was mounted to the tractor. This, together with
the delay settings, could be the reason why the sprayer sometimes activated the outer boom section
when turning on headlands. If a boundary map was used, this problem was eliminated.
The method for determination of the accuracy of the CAB sprayer was developed and tested during
the measurements, which explains why the number of measurements (N) are not equal for all
confgurations. The resolution with the video analysis was 15 pictures per second, i.e. approximately
0.11 m at 1.66 m/s. Table 1 shows the results and the different confgurations that were used.
Six different confgurations were tested with the INC sprayer (see appendix) and each confguration
was repeated ten times. Driving speed was approximately 1.66 m/s. The results are presented in
Table 2.
The alternative methods to create feld boundaries were easier to execute than the RTK method.
The average deviations from the RTK boundary were negative with both screen digitalisation and
automatic logging, which mean that the alternative boundaries were closer to the centre of the feld
(Table 3). Mapping of small objects, i.e. wells, were also more diffcult with automatic logging

Figure 2. For maximum environmental benefit, the auto-boom system should be able to
minimize overlap and gaps (a) but avoid pre-define areas (b).

Figure 2. For maximum environmental beneft, the auto-boom system should be able to minimize
overlap and gaps (a) but avoid pre-defne areas (b).
Table 1. Results from measurements with the conventional sprayer (CAB).
Mapped boundary OFF ON Speed
(m/s)
Average
1

(m)
St.dev.
(m)
N Average
1

(m)
St.dev.
(m)
N
Straight (90) boundary, delay 1.5 s +1.66 0.55 21 -1.13 0.51 22 1.66
Angled (45) boundary, delay 1.5 s +0.03 0.45 4 +5.21 2.45 4 1.66
Circular zone (R=2m), delay 0.7 s +0.66 0.25 8 -1.09 0.33 8 1.66
Circular zone (R=2m), delay 1.4 s -0.45 0.51 9 -1.92 0.30 9 1.66
Circular zone (R=2m), turning sprayer,
delay 0.7s
-0.08 0.40 4 -0.92 0.42 4 2.0
2
1
Positive values indicates after the boundary, negative before boundary.
2
Speed of the center of the boom section.
and screen digitalisation. The pixel size of the aerial photos that were used for screen digitalisation
corresponded to 1 m square on the ground.
Double-application can be divided into three different groups, according to the reason for overlapping.
One reason is unparallel or wrong space between tramlines, another is delay when connecting to
the headland and the third is wedge-shaped felds. Calculations of the double-sprayed area due to
wedge-shaped felds in each of the 59 felds were used to create a simplifed model, which dont
consider shape but only feld size and boom width. A simplifed model for the delay-overlap was
calculated in the same way. The models were used to create a tool on the Internet, which farmers
could use to make their own farm specifc calculations.
Discussion
Auto-boom functionality offers the driver a higher level of control. Instead of manual control of
the boom, the driver can focus on other tasks and decisions. The record fle shows the sprayed and
untreated area to the driver and makes planning of time and pesticide amount easier. More complex
confguration and handling of documentation fles is the price to pay for this additional control.
More user-friendly control systems and information management is a task for the manufacturers
in this area to improve. No commercial system of today could fulfl all of the requirements that
were specifed in the project. Many models did not handle feld boundaries, but considered only
double-application. If boundaries were used, the overlap settings were normally equal for both
Table 2. Results from measurements with individual nozzle control (INC).
Confguration (see appendix) OFF ON
Average
1
(m) St.dev (m) Average
1
(m) St.dev. (m)
I +0.69 0.37 +0.51 0.42
II +0.33 0.33 +0.85 0.25
III +0.19 0.41 -0.31 0.37
IV +0.97 0.29 +0.40 0.36
V +0.65 0.60 +0.42 0.55
VI +2.00 0.41 +1.66 0.27
1
Positive values indicates after the boundary, negative before boundary.
Table 3. Difference between feld boundaries created with a RTK GPS and the alternative methods
Method Screen digitalisation
from aerial photo
Automatic logging
when spraying frst lap
Number of measurements 22 41
Average (m) -0.57
3
-0.59
3
St. dev. (m) 1.19 0.89
3
Negative values indicates that the alternative boundary in closer to the feld centre than the
RTK boundary.
boundaries and already applied areas. The environmental protection could be improved by adding
an extra buffer to the feld boundaries, but this will in many cases result in to much untreated crop.
Measurements of accuracy were done with rather simple methods. The resolution of 0.11 m was
small by comparison with the standard deviation of the CAB sprayer. Average standard deviation
was 0.41 m, if the outlier activation (ON) at angled boundary (2.45 m) is excluded. What happened
at this situation is not clear, but loss of satellite signal could be one explanation since there were
only four measurements within a short time period. The method was found to be suffciently precise
for the situation. But if the standard deviation would be in the same size as the resolution of the
method, e.g. if a more accurate spray system was tested, one would also need more precise methods.
It is mainly the standard deviation that is interesting concerning the accuracy of the sprayer. The
average distance from activation or deactivation to boundary could to some extent be adjusted by
the settings of the controller. A limitation in some controllers may be that it isnt possible to use
negative values for delays, e.g. in the Legacy controller.
It was sometimes hard to make a distinct decision in the analysis of the photographs from
measurements with the INC sprayer, since the edge between sprayed and unsprayed was diffuse. The
two-dimensional result from the analysis was hard to present in a compact way, but the graphics in
Appendix gives a good overview of the result. The method of determining accuracy that was used
was found inappropriate if there was a drift in the positioning system, which was the case for the
EGNOS correction (settings VI). The average standard deviation for all measurements with RTK
GPS (settings I to IV) was 0.35 m and the average for Beacon correction (settings V) was 0.58 m.
The difference (0.23 m) corresponds to the expected difference in receiver accuracy (Figure 3),
even though it probably could be higher with Beacon in some situations. Additional buffer of 0.5 m
(setting II with radius 2 m mapped boundary) was not enough to avoid spraying within the reference
boundary. The infuence of different spray quality was too small to be detected by this method.
The creation of boundary maps with the alternative methods was less accurate than with the RTK
receiver. Since the mapping only has to be done once, the cost for mapping could be divided into
many years of use. If mapping could be done at the same time as soil mapping etc, the additional
cost for boundary mapping could be reduced. Also note that an error at mapping will be added to
the error at application (Figure 3). The advice would be to use a high accuracy for mapping, and
then adapt accuracy for the demands of the application.
The running costs for pesticides could decrease with automatic boom control and navigation
control of the sprayer, since double-application is reduced. This should be compared to the fxed
costs involved in the investment for an advanced control system. Thus, this is more proftable for
bigger farms or contractors. It is still hard do to general calculations since double-application is
of more concern with smaller felds and very dependent of the manual system to compare with.
The simplifed models could be a useful tool for farmers to do calculations for their own situation.

Figure 3. Different sources of error add to the total accuracy of the application system.

Figure 3. Different sources of error add to the total accuracy of the application system.
Conclusion
Automatic boom control for sprayers can be used to protect sensitive areas, within or adjacent to
felds, from pesticide application. Investment in such control system could also be proftable for
the farmer, since it can reduce unnecessary double-application. Many of the advantages with auto-
boom control could be obtained with a conventional sprayer with a limited number of sections.
References
Batte, M.T. and Ehsani, M.R., 2006. The economics of precision guidance with auto-boom control for farmer-
owned agricultural sprayers. Computers and Electronics in Agriculture 53, pp. 28-44.
Dillon, C.R., Shearer, S., Fulton, J. and Pitla, S., 2007. Improved proftability via enhanced resolution of variable
rate application management in grain crop production. In: Precision Agriculture `07, Proceedings at the
6
th
European Conference in Precision Agriculture, 3-6 Juni, Skiathos, Greece, pp. 819-825.
Meron, M., van de Zande, J., van Zuydam, R., Heijne, B., Shragai, M., Liberman, J., Hetzroni, A., Andersen,
P.G. and Shimborsky, E., 2003. Tree shape and folige volume guided precision orchard sprayer the
PRECISPRAY FP5 project. In: J.V. Stafford (ed.) Precision Agriculture. Wageningen Academic Publishers,
the Netherlands, pp. 411-416.
Nilsson, E. and Svensson, S.A., 2005. Buffer zones when using plant protection products a Swedish approach.
(The Polish) Annual Review of Agricultural Engineering, Papers from the International Conference:
Environmentally Friendly Spray Application Techniques, 4-6 October, 2004, Warsaw, Poland, pp. 143-150.
NUI. 2002. Survey of Swedish Agriculture, autumn 2002. In Swedish: Omnibusunderskningen Sveriges
Lantbruk, hsten 2002. NUI Business Research Institute.
Appendix: Graphical presentation of results with individual nozzle control
Mapped boundary is the size of the pre-defned area that shouldnt be sprayed. DGPS corresponds
to the source of correction of the positioning system. ON and OFF delays are the delays of the
sprayer valves and nozzles indicates the different spray nozzles that were used.

Image processing algorithms for a selective vineyard robotic
sprayer
R. Berenstein
1, 4
, O. Ben Shahar
2
, A. Shapiro
3
, A. Bechar
4
and Y. Edan
1
1
Department of Industrial Engineering & Management, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev,
Israel; berensti@bgu.ac.il
2
Department of Computer Science, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel
3
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel
4
Institute of Agricultural Engineering, Agricultural Research Organization, Israel
Abstract
This paper presents image processing algorithms for a selective robotic sprayer in vineyards. Two
types of machine vision algorithms were developed to directly spray grape clusters and foliage.
The frst algorithm is based on the difference in the distribution of edges between the foliage and
the grape clusters. The second detection algorithm uses a decision tree algorithm for separating
the grape clusters from the background based on a training dataset from 100 images. Both image
processing algorithms were tested on data from movies acquired in vineyards during the growing
season of 2008. Results indicate high reliability of both foliage detection and grape clusters
detection. Preliminary results show 90% percent accuracy of grape clusters detection, leading to
30% reduction in the use of pesticides.
Keywords: precision agriculture, edge detection, decision tree, machine learning
Introduction
The use of pesticides is an integral part of modern agriculture. However, wrong use or over use of
pesticides is dangerous for the environment, for humans, and for the plant. Chemically-polluted
runoff from felds cause contaminated surface and ground waters (Pimental and Lehman, 1993;
Tardiff, 1992), and violate ecological balance (Maor, 1993). In addition, it causes medical hazards
with approximately 20,000 workers dying from exposure every year (WHO, 1990; Kishi et al., 1995;
Pimental et al., 1992; Rosenstock et al., 1991). Due to the environmental and medical hazards and
to increasing environmental awareness, there is an immediate need to reduce the use of chemical
pesticides in agriculture to a minimum.
Grape cultivation is the most common growth in Israel (Central Bureau of Statistic, 2007) and as
such, any reduction in pesticide application will lead to major pesticide savings. Today, vineyards
are sprayed homogenously along the vineyard rows, without considering areas with low foliage
density or gaps between the different trees. Estimates indicate that 10%-30% of pesticide agent can
be reduced by using smart sprayers focused towards foliage only (Ganzelmeier, 2006).
This paper is part of a larger project aiming to design, build, and test an autonomous, site-specifc
spraying robot for vineyards. The paper focuses on the image processing phase and deals with two
types of spraying pesticide techniques: spraying the foliage and spraying the grape clusters. Today,
spraying the foliage is done by using a spraying boom which covers the entire height of the foliage
(Ministry of Environmental Protection, 2006). The spraying boom is dragged along the row and
sprays the entire foliage without considering gaps between trees or the varying density of foliage.
While foliage spraying is done unselectively, spraying the grape clusters is done in one of two
ways. Often, a human carries a portable sprayer and sprays the grape clusters individually. This
operation is very time and human labor consuming. Alternatively, grape clusters can be sprayed
unselectively by adjusting a sprayer boom to the height of the grapes, usually from 50cm to 100cm
above ground. Then, the spraying boom is dragged along the row and sprays the entire grape clusters
strip. This type of spraying technique wastes a lot of spraying agent and pollutes the environment.
While selective spraying has other incentives also, reducing the use of pesticide is one of them. Here
we argue that such savings can be achieved in both the foliage spraying process and in the grape
clusters spraying. In particular, we wish to detect gaps between trees in order to reduce pesticides
during foliage spraying, and detect grape clusters for selective spraying. A spraying robot equipped
with these detection capabilities and a pan\tilt head with a spraying nozzle would be able to spray
selectively and precisely, saving signifcant amount of spraying material.
It should be mentioned that autonomous robotic sprayers have already been proposed and studied.
Yuichi (2006) developed a robotic sprayer for vineyards that has the ability to navigate automatically
in the vineyard and spray pesticide uniformly on the foliage. Sammons et al. (2005) developed a
pesticide spraying robot for greenhouses that moves on greenhouses steam pipes that are used for
temperature control. Nishiwaki et al. (2004) developed an automatic weed sprayer for rice felds,
which uses an adjustable spraying nozzle and machine vision algorithms to fnd the rice rows and
to adjust the sprayer nozzle to regions between the rice rows. Another selective weed sprayer was
developed to classify between weeds and plant using artifcial neural networks Zheng et al. (2005).
Image processing algorithms
In this paper we present two types of image processing algorithms: a Foliage Detection Algorithm
(FDA) and a Grape clusters Detection Algorithm (GDA).
The FDA is based on the fact that the foliage color is green. After capturing the image, two flters
operate on it; one is for removing white pixels (sky, sun, etc.) and the other is to trace the green
pixels. These flters are combined to produce the foliage image (Figures 1-3).
Two GDAs were developed. The frst GDA is based on the difference of edge distribution between
the grape clusters and the foliage. The algorithm was created by examining images from the vineyard
and noticing that image regions of grape clusters contain more edges that those found in foliage
regions. The GDA is therefore built from three main stages (Figure 4-7); FDA, edge detection, and
thresholding the high edge from the low edge areas.
The second GDA is based on a decision tree algorithm. First, the color image is represented in both
the usual RGB representation and the perceptually motivated HSV (Hue, Saturation, and Intensity)
representation. Then, supervised patches taken from the grape areas and the foliage areas are used
to extract the following parameters from each of the R,G,B,H,S,V channels: mean value, standard
Figure 1. FDA block diagram.
deviation, and the mean and standard deviation of the gradient magnitude. Using three patch sizes,
we therefore extract 72 different parameters from each image (Table 1) and a total of 1708 samples
of these parameters were extracted from the entire image collection. The decision tree was then
trained and constructed from these sampled using Matlab
Statistics Toolbox.
Figure 2. Captured image.
Figure 3. Foliage image.
Figure 4. GDA1 block diagram.
Once the decision tree is constructed, it can be used for classifcation: the same parameters that
were extracted during the learning process are extracted from the given image around each pixel,
and then the pixel is classifed to grape or non-grape using the decision tree (Figure 8-11).
Methods
The camera (IDS Inc. uEye USB video camera with a Wide VGA [752480] resolution) was
attached to a custom built towing cart specially designed for the image sampling (Figure 12). The
Figure 6. Edges image.
Figure 7. Final image.
cart imitates the movement of a wheeled vehicle so as to ensure the images taken using the cart
are as similar as possible to images from moving wheeled robot. The camera was connected to a
DELL
Core2 computer. Images were sampled using Matlab
Image Acquisition Toolbox and saved

for offine processing. Field experiments were conducted along the growing season of 2008 (mid
April till end of July). With an interval of two weeks between experiments, the cart was dragged
through the vineyard row and images were taken and stored on the computer. The dragging speed
of the cart was between 4~5 km/h, a speed that imitates the speed of a human farmer who sprays.
To obtain a high variety of grape and foliage images, the experiments were performed in two different
vineyards, one with green grapes and the other with red grapes. A total of 16 movies were sampled.
Table 1. Decision tree parameters.
mask diameter = 21 mask diameter = 15 mask diameter = 11
mean standard
deviation
mean standard
deviation
mean standard
deviation
Image Gradient
image
Image Gradient
image
Image Gradient
image
Image Gradient
image
Image Gradient
image
Image Gradient
image
R
,
G
,
B
H
,
S
,V
R
,
G
,
B
H
,
S
,V
R
,
G
,
B
H
,
S
,V
R
,
G
,
B
H
,
S
,V
R
,
G
,
B
H
,
S
,V
R
,
G
,
B
H
,
S
,V
R
,
G
,
B
H
,
S
,V
R
,
G
,
B
H
,
S
,V
R
,
G
,
B
H
,
S
,V
R
,
G
,
B
H
,
S
,V
R
,
G
,
B
H
,
S
,V
R
,
G
,
B
H
,
S
,V
Figure 8. GDA2 block diagram.
100 random images were extracted from these movies and the grape clusters area was marked
manually in each image. This set of images was used to evaluate the machine vision algorithms.
Algorithm evaluation
The machine vision algorithms were evaluated by comparing the results of the Grape Detection
Algorithms (GDA) to manually marked grape clusters area. Two parameters were evaluated: the
detection percentage of the marked area and the percent of material that will be saved as a result
of using these machine vision algorithms as compared to spraying the whole area.
Figure 13 demonstrates the frst parameters evaluation. The fgure is divided into four different
colors, white, bright gray, dark gray and black corresponding to the true grape areas that the algorithm
found (True-True TT), the true grape areas that the algorithm did not fnd (False-True FT), the
Figure 10. Index image.
Figure 11. Final image.
Figure 12. Experimental towing cart.
areas that the algorithm marked as grape but was foliage (True-False TF) and the foliage area that
the algorithm marked as foliage (False- False FF). The percent of TT was the main parameter for
the algorithm evaluation because of its important infuence on the quality of the grape spraying.
The percentage reduction of spraying material was evaluated by comparing to the current spraying
method in which the farmer sprays a strip of 50[cm] which contains most of the grape clusters
(represented in Figure 14 as the dark gray and white areas). Comparison between this strip and the
white area in Figure 14 yields the percentage of saved pesticides.
The detection evaluation parameters (TT, TF, FT, FF) were optimized. Optimization was conducted
by changing the infuencing variables in the algorithm and setting the range of each of these
variables. Every possible combination of the different variables in the range was tested on a set of
100 representative images. For each combination, the mean of the detection quality and the mean
of the reduction of pesticides were calculated. The optimization of one variable (threshold value)
is shown in Figure 15, where each point represents a different threshold value and the resulting
detection quality and pesticide reduction. For example, if the farmer requires 80% grape detection,
using the different curves (Figures 15 and 16), it is possible to fnd which parameters to use and
what will be the pesticide reduction rate for this detection rate.
Figure 13. Comparison between marked and machine vision detection.
Figure 14. Comparison between targeted spraying and traditional spraying.
Results
Both Grape Detection Algorithms (GDA), showed high ability to detect grape clusters in the
vineyard environment. The edge based GDA show ability to detect up to 90% of the grape clusters
with a standard deviation of 12. The Decision Tree based GDA show ability to detect up to 85% of
the grape clusters with a standard deviation of 15. Up to 30% of pesticides can be reduced when
using the edge base GDA and 25% of pesticides can be reduced when using decision tree GDA.
The processing time of the edge based GDA algorithms is 0.65 s and the processing time of the
decision tree based GDA is 1.43 s.
Conclusions
Machine vision algorithms resulted in high detections of grape clusters which can lead to signifcant
reduction of pesticides in vineyards. Thirty percent of the pesticide material can be reduced while
detecting and spraying 90% of the grape clusters. Reduction of 25% of pesticide can be achieved
when using GDA based on a decision tree algorithm. It is possible that creating a decision tree
from larger datasets will produce better detection results. The machine vision algorithms were
tested on images from commercial vineyards while sampling a variety of grape species. Due to
that, the future robotic sprayer will not be limited to certain species. In order to implement these
algorithms on an operational robotic sprayer, the algorithm processing time should not exceed 1
second for each image (assuming an average driving speed of 5 km/h). The frst GDA processing
Figure 15. Grape detection (edge based).
Figure 16. Grape detection (decision tree).
time is 0.65s and therefore can be used in real-time machine vision. The second GDA processing
time exceeds 1s and therefore is not applicable in its current confguration.
Acknowledgements
This research was partially supported by the Paul Ivanier Center for Robotics Research and
Production Management, and the Rabbi W. Gunther Plaut Chair in Manufacturing Engineering,
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.
References
Blasco, J, Aleixos N, M, Roger J, Rabatel G, and Molto E. 2002. Robotic Weed Control using Machine Vision.
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Breiman, L., Bickel, P., Chambers, J. and Graybill, F., 1984. Classifcation And Regression Trees. Monterey:
Wadsworth & Brooks.
Ganzelmeier H. 2006. Plant protection and plant cultivation. Agricultural Engineering Yearbook, Editors:
Harms and Meier, Land wirtschaft sverlag, Muenster, page 109.
Kishi, M., N. Hirschhorn, M. Qjajadisastra, L. N. Satterlee, S. Strowman and R. Dilts 1995. Relationship
of Pesticide Spraying to Signs and Symptoms in Indonesian Farmers. Scandinavian Journal of Work &
Environmental Health 21: 124-133.
Ministry of Environmental Protection, 2006. Pesticide Control. Available at: http://www.sviva.gov.il/bin/en.j
sp?enPage=BlankPage&enDisplay=view&enDispWhat=Zone&enDispWho=hadbara&enZone=hadbara.
Nishiwaki, K., Amaha, K., Otani, R., 2004. Development of nozzle positioning system for precision sprayer.
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Organic Trade Association 2007. 2004 Manufacturer Survey: organic product sales show strong growth. http://
www.ota.com/news/press/141.html.
Pimental, D. and D. Lehman (ed.) 1993. The Pesticide Question: Environment, Economics, and Ethics. New
York: Chapman and Hall.
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Bioscience 42, 750-760.
Quinlan, J.R. 1986. Induction of Decision Trees. Sydney: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Rosenstock, L., M. Keifer, W. E. Daniell, R. McConnell and K. Claypoole 1991. Chronic Central Nervous
System Effects of Acute Organophosphate Pesticide Intoxication. Lancet 338: 223-227.
Tardiff, R.G. (ed.) 1992. Methods to Assess Adverse Effects of Pesticides on Non-Target Organisms. New
York: John Wiley and Sons.
World Health Organization (WHO) 1990. Public Health Impact of Pesticides Used in Agriculture, 1990. World
Health Organization: New York, USA.
Yuichi, O., Naoshi, K., Mitsuji, M., and Sakae, S., Spraying Robot for Grape Production. In: S. Yuta, H. Asama,
S. Thrun, E. Prassler and T. Tsubouchi (Eds.) Field and Service Robotics, Recent Advances in Reserch and
Applications, FSR 2003, Lake Yamanaka, Japan, 14-16 July 2003. Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics
24, Springer, Berlin, Germany, pp. 539-548.
Assessing the potential of automatic section control
T.S. Stombaugh
1
, R.S. Zandonadi
1
and C.R. Dillon
2
1
Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering, University of Kentucky, USA
2
Agricultural Economics, University of Kentucky, USA
Abstract
One of the newest innovations in Precision Agriculture is automatic section control for application
equipment. Automatic section control systems will continuously record the areas of a feld that
have been covered during a feld operation and then automatically turn on and off sub-sections of a
machine to prevent double coverage of previously treated areas. Research on a cooperator farm in
Kentucky, USA has shown potential savings of as much as 25% in very oddly-shaped felds using
automatic section control. On the other hand, potential savings in rectangular felds would be almost
zero. Accordingly, larger machine or section widths will cause overlapped areas to increase. To
make an informed decision about purchasing and implementing the technology, producers need to
know the potential savings for a given feld shape. This paper describes a software tool that can be
used to evaluate the percentage of a feld that would be overlapped for different boom section sizes.
Keywords: computational tool, double coverage, precision agriculture equipment, section control
Introduction
As production agriculture operations have grown in size and competitiveness, the agricultural
equipment industry has followed the trend by providing larger and faster machines to satisfy
producer demand. At the same time, technologies for feld task improvement have been developed
allowing more detailed crop input management and more effcient feld operations. Many of the
technologies developed to address these issues are GPS-based, and can be quite expensive and
relatively complicated to use. Because of the high cost and complexity, a producers decision of
whether to adopt these technologies has become more diffcult. It often takes more management
effort to fully utilize the potential of the technologies.
One of the newest innovations in Precision Agriculture is automatic section control for application
equipment. Automatic section control systems will continuously record the areas of a feld that
have been covered during a feld operation based on a GPS position and then automatically turn
on and off sub-sections of the machine to prevent double coverage of previously treated areas.
Research on a cooperator farm in Kentucky, USA has shown potential savings of as much as 25%
in very oddly-shaped felds using automatic section control. On the other hand, potential savings
in rectangular felds would be almost zero. Likewise, larger machine or section widths will cause
overlapped areas to increase.
Dillon et al. (2007) conducted a proftability analysis on three irregular felds in the central Kentucky
area that had been sprayed using an automatic section control system. The treated area was manually
computed based on the data recorded by the system and compared to the area that would have been
treated if the sprayer had not been utilizing automatic section control. The reductions of the treated
area due to the automatic section control system in the three felds were 26.3%, 17.6% and 16.4%.
Economic analyses have proven that the benefts of automatic section control increase with the
increase of farm size and especially in areas with presence of waterways, drainage ditches and
similar obstructions (Batte and Ehsani, 2006). However, the scenarios for their analyses were
hypothetically created in order to compute the overlapped areas and distance traveled. Moreover,
if a producer wants to make a decision about adopting auto-section control given their particular
feld conditions and application equipment, they need to have a quantitative estimate of the potential
impacts of the technology. Currently there are no simple tools available to producers to provide
these quantitative analyses.
Objective
The goal of this project was to develop a computational method and subsequent software tool for
estimating the overlapped area in a particular feld as it is affected by machine width and width of
the controlled sections of that machine.
The software tool was developed using MatLab and its Mapping Toolbox. The inputs to the
program were a feld boundary in a shape fle format with projected coordinates, the implement
width and the step increments in which the controlled section should vary. The feld boundary used
by the program would actually be a buffered area within the actual feld boundary to account for
headland trips around the outside of the feld, which is common practice in many management
systems. An assumption was made that the headland trips would not be overlapped with each other,
but coverage swaths would overlap into these headlands. The outputs from the program included a
plot of the percentage of overlapped area versus the width of the controlled section of the implement
as well as an image showing the feld boundary with the single and double covered areas.
The pattern used to generate the feld coverage was a straight parallel path. The model assumed that
there were no lateral overlaps or skips between the parallel swaths. The overlapped areas occurred
only due to headland encroachment and point row areas. Also, isolated obstacles and non-navigable
boundaries were not considered at this step of the development due to the fact that overlapped area
around an obstacle would change considerably depending on the path that the operator decided to
follow while avoiding the obstacle. Although methods defning an effcient path around obstacles
can be found in the literature (Liu and Palmer, 1989), its implementation was left for future studies.
Given two parametric parallel lines that defned the edges of a swath, all vertices of the feld boundary
polygon that fell within a particular swath were identifed. Then lines orthogonal to the swath lines
passing through each vertex within the swath region were constructed (Figure 1). The orthogonal
lines were sorted based on Northing offset. The intersection of two consecutive orthogonal lines
with the swath lines formed a rectangle, which should be either totally or partially included in the
boundary of the feld. Using the polygon Boolean operation function, the portions of the rectangle
that fell inside and outside the feld boundary were computed. For instance, if the area of a rectangle
that intersected the feld polygon was the same as the area of the original rectangle, the rectangle
was considered totally included in the feld polygon and, consequently, would be a single covered
area. Otherwise, the rectangle would be partially included in the feld polygon. In this case, the
intersecting region was separated from the original rectangle and that portion of the area was
considered as a single covered area while the rest of the area was considered double covered. This
process was repeated for every rectangle bounded by two adjacent orthogonal lines along each
swath of the feld and the area of each region was computed and stored. In the example presented
in Figure 2, four rectangles were identifed throughout the swath. One rectangle was completely
inside the feld boundary; therefore, it was only single covered. The other three rectangles contained
both single and double covered areas.
Notice that the number of iterations of the algorithm was dependent on the number of vertices
of the feld polygon. In order to reduce the number of data points on the feld boundary, a simple
flter method was implemented. One of the purposes of the fltering process was to eliminate self
intersecting segments of the polygon, caused for example, by reversing the equipment direction
while GPS data were being collected on feld boundaries. The other purpose was to reduce the
number of data points without considerably changing the shape or area of the feld polygon. The
fltering was accomplished by computing the inclination angle of each segment of the polygon
boundary. Then, for a given window of data points, if all the segment angles were within a given
angle tolerance with respect to the frst point, only the frst point was kept; otherwise, the frst
point to fall outside of the angle tolerance was marked to initiate a new sequence of data points.
In order to test and demonstrate the algorithm, nine irregular feld boundaries of Kentucky farming
land were evaluated (Figure 3). The respective feld areas were 21.5, 24.5, 16.0, 17.1, 13.0, 18.8,
39.6, 24.7, and 9.4 ha. A 27-m wide implement was assumed with the smallest controllable section
width, of 0.5m. The area computations were executed considering the total width divided into
sections that resulted in eight different section control confgurations: 1, 2, 3, 6, 9, 18, 27 and 54
(individual row) sections corresponding to a controlled width of 27, 13.5, 9, 4.5, 3, 1.5, 1 and 0.5
meters, respectively. The angle in which the parallel paths were generated was varied from 0 to 175
degrees in steps of 5 degrees to evaluate the infuence of the path orientation on the overlapped areas.
Since there were eight different section widths evaluated and each path pattern was rotated from
0 to 175 degrees, there were 288 different coverage patterns evaluated for each feld. The simplest
Figure 1. Identifcation of boundary vertices within a swath and construction of orthogonal lines
through each of those vertices.
Figure 2. Example of identifcation of single and double covered areas using rectangles constructed
from swath and feld boundary features.
feld boundary was Field 1 with 48 vertices after the fltering process, and on a typical PC computer,
the analysis took approximately 20 minutes to process one coverage generation for the 0.5 m
section width. More complicated boundaries such as Field 8, with 158 vertices after fltering, took
approximately 35 minutes for the 0.5 m section width.
The results were split in two categories: double coverage due to path rotation for the maximum and
minimum controlled section width, and double coverage due to section control.
Path rotation
The results of the double coverage due to path rotation are presented in Table 1. The maximum
and minimum values presented are relative to the orientation in which the maximum and minimum
double coverage areas were computed. For the smoother boundaries such as Fields 1, 4 and 5,
the path orientation that resulted in minimum or maximum double coverage tended to be similar
across the different section controlled width, whereas for the more complicated shapes, the path
orientation varied depending on the width of the controlled section.
An interesting fnding on the simpler feld boundaries was that the minimum double coverage path
orientation did not coincide with the most intuitive path orientation (the longest straight edge of
the feld) one would normally pick to cover the feld. The examples presented in Figure 4 illustrate
the results obtained for Fields 1 and 4 where the minimum and maximum double coverage path
orientations are presented for whole boom control.
An important point to note is that the number of turn maneuvers required on the minimum double
coverage path pattern was higher than the maximum double coverage. For instance, 25 swaths were
Figure 3. Field boundaries used to evaluate the overlap calculation algorithm.
Table 1. Results of the percentage area double coverage due to the path rotation.
Field Area (ha) Percentage double coverage due to path rotation
27 m width section 0.5 m width section
maximum minimum maximum minimum
1 21.5 12.5 5.0 0.2 0.1
2 24.5 15.4 7.9 0.5 0.2
3 16.0 17.0 12.6 0.4 0.3
4 17.1 15.9 7.5 0.3 0.2
5 13.0 15.4 7.3 0.4 0.2
6 18.8 20.6 14.7 0.4 0.3
7 39.6 17.3 9.7 0.3 0.2
8 24.7 17.3 13.2 0.9 0.3
9 9.4 29.8 17.8 1.0 0.4
Figure 4. Path orientations causing minimum (A) and maximum (B) double coverage for Field 1
and minimum (C) and maximum (D) double coverage for Field 4.
needed to cover Field 1 with the 30
o
orientation whereas 17 swaths were suffcient with the 125
o

pattern (Figure 4A and B). This will obviously infuence the overall machine feld effciency, and
it becomes an optimization problem to evaluate the tradeoff between compromising feld machine
effciency and application error. With the section control resolution narrowed to the individual
row level, the maximum double coverage area for Field 1 is 0.2% instead of 12.5%, and one could
easily choose the orientation that requires fewer swaths.
Section control width
The results obtained by varying the width of the controlled section of the equipment are presented
in Table 2. The data were split into double coverage percentage obtained from the path pattern
orientation that resulted in the maximum double coverage and the path pattern orientation that
resulted in the minimum double coverage. As expected, the reduction of the double coverage area
is considerably high especially for the most irregularly shaped felds. Further, the orientation path
that most closely represented the predominant orientation of the common operation patterns in each
feld was summarized in Table 3. For Fields 1, 2, 4 and 5, it was easy to observe a predominant
orientation on the travel trajectory by looking at the GPS coordinates collected during a feld task.
For the other felds, approximations of row orientations were used based on inspection of aerial
photography.
Notice that even for smoother feld boundaries (e.g. Fields 4 and 5), the reduction of the double
coverage area was notable. This reduction over the several operations executed throughout the season
could yield a substantial cost reduction. Of course, even the smoothest boundaries considered in this
study were far from being an ideal rectangular or square shaped feld where the double coverage
area due to point rows and headland encroachment would be minimal.
For every feld boundary analyzed, the program generated a plot of the percentage of double
coverage area according to the controlled section width of the equipment. The results obtained with
the feld boundaries 1, 7, and 9 are presented in Figure 5. These plots will give the user an ability
to identify a specifc breakpoint within the range of the number of controllable sections as that is
balanced against the cost of the equipment.
Table 2. Results obtained by varying the width of the controlled section of the equipment.
Field Aarea
(ha)
% Double coverage due to section control
% Double coverage area obtained at
the maximum double coverage path
orientation
% Double coverage area obtained at
the minimum double coverage path
orientation
27 m width
section
0.5 m width
section
27 m width
section
0.5 m width
section
1 21.5 12.5 0.2 5.0 0.1
2 24.5 15.4 0.5 7.9 0.2
3 16.0 17.0 0.4 12.6 0.3
4 17.1 15.9 0.3 7.5 0.2
5 13.0 15.4 0.4 7.3 0.2
6 18.8 20.6 0.4 14.7 0.3
7 39.6 17.3 0.3 9.7 0.2
8 24.7 17.3 0.9 13.2 0.3
9 9.4 29.8 1.0 17.8 0.4
Conclusions
The analytical tool developed in this study was able to provide a quantitative estimate of the double
coverage of inputs that would occur because of limited resolution of machine section control width
and path orientation on different feld shapes. It showed clearly the potential savings in inputs that
could be achieved with the implementation of automatic section control technology for a particular
feld. It was also used to illustrate that fact that path orientation can have a profound impact on input
errors due to point rows and headland encroachment, and that there could be a confict between the
optimum orientation for input use effciency and machine feld effciency.
Table 3. Results obtained with the closest orientation path pattern to the real feld operation
path orientation.
Field Area (ha) % Double coverage area considering a typical path pattern orientation
27 m width section 0.5 m width section
1 21.5 9.1 0.2
2 24.5 13.7 0.3
3 16.0 15.5 0.3
4 17.1 15.4 0.3
5 13.0 12.5 0.3
6 18.8 17.3 0.4
7 39.6 16.8 0.3
8 24.7 16.5 0.3
9 9.4 27.0 0.5
Figure 5. Estimated double coverage area according to the width of the controlled section of
the equipment for Fields 1, 7, and 9.
References
Batte, M.T. and M.R. Ehsani. 2006. The economics of precision guidance with auto-boom control for farmer-
owned agricultural sprayers. Computers and Electronics in Agriculture 53(2006) 28-44.
Dillon C.R., Shearer S., Fulton J. and Pitla S. 2007. Improved proftability via enhanced resolution of variable
rate application management in grain crop production. In: Precision Agriculture 07. J. Stafford, ed.,
Wageningen Academic Publisher, the Netherlands. pp. 819-825.
Liu G. and Palmer R.J. 1989. Effcient Field Courses Around an Obstacle. Journal of Agricultural Engineering
Research, 44, 87-95.
Performance of auto-boom control for agricultural sprayers
J.P. Molin, E.F. Reynaldo, F.P. Povh and J.V. Salvi
University of So Paulo, Rural Engineering Department, Av. Pdua Dias, 11, 13418-900 Piracicaba,
SP, Brazil; jpmolin@esalq.usp.br
Abstract
Auto-boom controllers have recently surged and are dedicated to sprayers to provide both guidance
and to control sprayer sections or individual nozzles. The use of those devices is based on a feld
boundary and internal overlapping georeferenced by a GNSS receiver. If the GNSS receivers
accuracy is limited, the equipment will not offer the amount of savings in chemicals and in
environmental mitigation. Based on that a procedure was developed for measuring the impact of
different GPS signals and the effect of forward speed and feld boundary shapes. The feld borders
were saved on the auto-boom memory and as the vehicle crossed the border at each treatment and
the time of turning on or off the boom sections was detected by a pressure sensor on the nozzle.
An infrared sensor detected the exact moment of the boom crossing the border. The CV was high
for the lower forward speed and frmware assisted GPS signal. It also tended to be higher on feld
entrance than on exits of the feld. The control system does not perform the same when entering
and when exiting the feld, showing that on the exits the time intervals are higher for lower speeds.
Results indicated taht especially the setting for stopping spraying, which is speed dependent, must be
varied according to the travel speed. The distance errors from the target line reached the maximum
of about 8 m on the 60
o
entrance and exit angle, independent of the GPS signal.
Keywords: automated application, spraying control, GNSS
Introduction
Auxiliary guidance systems like light bars and the auto guidance systems have been intensively
adopted by farmers. Parallel to those the spraying technology has evolved with the development of
controllers initially for speed variability compensation, and lately for variable rate control. Steps
on this evolution have been represented by the integration of those devices and one of them is
the auto-boom control, dedicated to sprayers to provide both guidance and to control individual
sprayer sections or individual nozzles for opening and closing at the best exact time of entrance
or exit of an agricultural feld. The use of those devices is based on a feld boundary and internal
overlapping, georeferenced by a GNSS receiver. If its accuracy is limited, the equipment will
not offer the amount of savings in chemicals and in environmental mitigation. Other factors that
contribute to this accuracy are especially related to the interaction between the hydraulics of the
boom sprayer circuit and the electronics of the controller.
Local demands in Brazil and other similar regions in the World have to do with the lack of public
GNSS augmentation signals and the dilemma between satellite private signals and RTK technology.
Both represent an extra expenditure to farmers when deciding to adopt a new technology based on
GNSS. Precision Agriculture has evolved, especially on the use of variable rate fertilizers and lime.
In the early 2000 decade light bars were intensively adopted on spraying and solids spreading and
recently the use of auto guidance systems have received great attention in crops like sugar cane,
no-till grains and citrus.
The use of auto-boom controllers is largely applicable in several crops and conditions but is more
intensively used on no-till grain and fbre crops. Their proposed benefts are well established
and known (Shuller, 2006; Timothy and Scott, 2001; Rietz et al., 1998). Nevertheless the real
performance of such equipments is dependent of external factors, especially the GNSS signal and
its accuracy. Recently some studies have discussed it (Batte and Ehsani, 2006).
Local conditions and the existence of equipments confgurations strongly dependent of GNSS
accuracy make it necessary to study and prove the real benefts of its introduction in the local
production systems and to defne the actual parameters for the best setup when the feld entrance
and exit time is crucial for a good result and beneft. Based on that the present work aimed to
develop and use a procedure for measuring the impact of different GPS signals and compared the
effect of speed and feld boundary shapes simulating different entrance and exit angles in a feld.
The objective was to measure the exact time of opening and closing the most external nozzle of
each side of the boom related to the moment it crossed the feld boundary.
The vehicle used is a self-propelled spray machine with a 24.5 m spray boom width separated in
eight sections (Uniport 2500 Star
, Maq. Agric. Jacto S.A.), and was equipped with an electronic

controller (Trimble AgGPS
EZ-Boom 2010). The command module is directly connected to the

electric valves responsible for the opening and closing of each section. When solicited the controller
acts closing the sections that apply the chemical treatments and automatically the alleviating valve
of the command opens alleviating the system pressure, assuring the fow to return to the reservoir,
avoiding mechanical problems due to system raising pressure. The process occurs on the opposite
way when opening. The monitor (Trimble EZ-Guide
500) was used to insert data and to manage

the system. It is equipped with an AgGPS 332 GPS receiver.
A data logger Lynx, ADS-2000, 32 channels with maximum logging frequency of 1kHz was used
logging at 200 Hz, considered suffcient for the variables under study and the data was stored on
a notebook. For monitoring the spraying nozzles pressure, two pressure transducers (Wika, C-10)
with 0-24 bar spectrum and 1 ms response time were used. They were installed at the last boom
nozzle in both sides of the bar.
To measure the exact time of feld boundary entrance or exit of each of the extreme boom nozzles,
two receptor/emitter photodiodes were installed (Sense, OR6K-30GI70-A2) with time response of
20 ms. The photodiodes were activated by the refectance signal of refective strips of 0.2 m width
and 2.0 m length, exactly over the feld boundary. The strips were disposed according to the feld
boundary angles and the refected signal determined the exact time of crossing the border. The
forward speed of the vehicle was determined by a radar (Philips Automotive Electronics, RGSS-
201) installed under the vehicle body at 1.0 m height from the soil.
The GPS signals tested were RTK with the local station at about 100 m from the testing site, Omnistar
VBS and no augmentation signal, using only the internal fltering of the receiver frmware. The
frst can be considered as the best positioning option in terms of accuracy, but it has a considerable
acquisition cost. The second offers an intermediate accuracy and requires an annual fee. The
third one is intensively used on light bars; it offers a reasonable parallelism precision but it is not
repeatable at long periods of time.
The benefts of opening and closing the boom nozzles one by one or section by section is
recommended on entrance and exit of the agricultural feld but also on internal feld obstructions
like trees and other non cultivated spots. The target tested forward speeds were 1.7, 5.0 and 8.3
m/s (6, 18 and 30 km/h) even so they are not normally achievable at the end of the feld, prior and
after manoeuvring. The shapes of feld boundary were simulated by entrances or exits at 0, 45
and 60 related to the boom entrance (Figure 1).
The GPS antenna was fxed and centralized over the cabin, at 3.70 m above the ground and 6.20 m
ahead of the sprayer boom. The lead in time setting is used to compensate for the delay between
activating spray and the spray actually beginning to be applied, and the off delay setting is used
equivalent of the lead in setting, but applies when the sprayer stops spraying. The times used
were +1 and -1 second for the two settings, respectively for lead in and off delay, according to
the manufacturer; an allowable overlap of 99% was used.
The spray nozzles used were hydraulic fat, model Jacto 110-SF-02, with an angle of 110, spaced
0.5 m, totaling 48 nozzles. The application volume was 60 l/ha for all speeds, varying just the
pressure (8.27, 6.21 and 4.83 bar for the speeds 1.66, 5.00 and 8.33 m/s, respectively).
The test track was located in the testing facility of Maq. Agric. Jacto S.A., Pompia, Brazil (2207S
and 5015W). The test track was allocated using an optic mechanical topographic theodolite (CST
56-SCT1) with the track following northwest southwest and the vehicle traveled on both directions.
As the data were collected in analogical format, based on electrical pulses, the manipulation was
done using the software AqDados 7.0 and AqDAnalysis 7.0 (Lynx Tecnologia Eletrnica Ltda)
to convert it to digital fgures. After removing the noise data the time which the external section
opens or closes was defned by the deduction of section valve time minus the time which the boom
crossed the feld boundary, from the photodiode (Equation 1). If the time value was negative the
section valve opened before the section crossed the feld boundary and if the value was positive,
it opened after crossing the feld boundary.
T
o
(or T
c
) = T
s
T
p
(1)
where:
T
o
opening time (s);
T
c
closing time (s);
T
s
section valve time (s);
T
p
photodiode time (s).
To obtain the times for starting and fnishing the spraying, for the 45 and 60 entrance and exit angles
the procedure is a little trickier than that because of the angle of the boom and the starting signal has
to be based on the frst photodiode that crosses the border line. The geometrical projection of the
time across the boom is based on that, but the time is dependent on the speed of each replication.
Opening and closing time refers to start and stop spraying of the external spraying nozzles. All the
nozzles were equipped with non-drip valves with 0.8 bar of pressure.
The results are presented as times for start and stop spraying. The coeffcients of variation (CV) are
presented on Table 1 and express the variability of response for opening and closing times among
three replications on alternated directions along the tests. It is observed that the CV was high for
some of the treatments, especially for the lower forward speed and frmware assisted GPS signal.
There is no clear reason for that, except the internal setup parameters. It also tended to be higher
on feld entrance than on exit. Nevertheless some considerable CV values are shown also for VBS
and for RTK. It looks like the horizontal fexibility and consequent movement of the boom may
Figure 1. Test track: (red) 0 angle, (green) 45 angle and (blue) 60 angle.
perhaps affect the sensor position, being a source of uncertainty not related to the electronic and
hydraulic control system. The calculated CV varied from 1.60 to 106.64% for the 1.66 m/s speed,
while for the other speeds the CV varied from 1.47 to 25.15%, representing a high variation in
response times, mainly for the low forward speed.
The real forward speeds (Table 2) also varied and were not reached, especially on the higher level.
At the target speed of 5.00 m/s

treatment the real speeds varied between 4.78 and 4.89 m/s and at the
highest (8.33 m/s) the values varied between 7.83 and 8.03 m/s, but the distances were calculated
based on the real forward speeds.
As observed in Figure 2, for the GPS signal only assisted by frmware, at 1.66 m/s speed the nozzle
opened about 3 s after the sprayer has crossed the feld boundary, meaning that there was a failure
in the application. Transformed into distance errors, the lower speed (1.66 m/s) on starting spaying
Table 1. Coeffcients of variation (%) of start and stop spraying times (sec.) for the forward
speeds, GPS signals and entrance (opening) and exit (closing) feld angles for both boom sides.
Angle GPS signal Target speed
(m/s)
Coeffcients of variation (%)
Left Right
Opening Closing Opening Closing
0 Firmware 1.7 106.6 66.6 75.2 26.1
5.0 14.0 17.0 12.7 13.5
8.3 5.2 7.3 2.5 6.3
VBS 1.7 13.3 24.7 13.4 9.4
5.0 7.1 8.1 4.6 4.3
8.3 7.0 9.1 11.1 7.5
RTK 1.7 7.9 7.6 2.8 11.5
5.0 7.8 6.1 5.4 7.4
8.3 6.2 5.5 5.6 4.0
45 Firmware 1.7 85.9 33.0 90.5 47.2
5.0 25.1 13.1 24.5 13.9
8.3 22.9 24.7 17.2 11.0
VBS 1.7 46.6 20.6 35.0 26.2
5.0 15.4 6.1 12.0 11.3
8.3 7.7 6.4 9.7 2.7
RTK 1.7 11.3 2.8 6.1 5.1
5.0 5.7 2.1 3.4 5.3
8.3 4.0 3.7 7.4 3.6
60 Firmware 1.7 78.4 41.2 140.9 43.3
5.0 17.1 11.4 19.6 12.0
8.3 7.0 10.9 5.5 6.4
VBS 1.7 56.3 23.2 61.9 22.7
5.0 11.7 11.3 9.8 13.8
8.3 14.2 17.2 16.1 9.2
RTK 1.7 32.9 1.6 8.4 8.8
5.0 16.1 1.5 11.6 2.4
8.3 11.7 3.9 8.4 5.1
was of 5.3 m after the target location; for the higher speed (8.33 m/s) it resulted on similar values,
between 5.15 and 5.65 m (Table 2), but before (negative) the target location.
The high forward speed is not feasible on the borders, but will happen on internal non cultivated
spots, where the error will be magnifed. Besides that it is clear that the controller responded opening
the section just before the sprayer got into the feld boundary, and closing just after going out of the
feld, with a minimum of precaution preventing skips and benefting the excesses.
Using the VBS signal (Figure 3) it can be noticed that for the same 0 angle there was a better
approximation to the ideal times of opening and closing the sections. Again, when transformed
into distance errors, the higher speed (8.33 m/s) resulted on 4.57 to 5.61 m before (negative) the
target location for starting spraying.
Table 2. Distance errors (m) as function of measured forward speeds for start and stop spraying
for the GPS signals and entrance and exit feld angles for both boom sides.
Angle GPS signal Real speed
(m/s)
Error distances (m)
Left Right
Opening Closing Opening Closing
0 Firmware 1.78 5.30 5.31 1.23 1.18
4.87 -4.42 -4.64 1.48 1.18
8.03 -5.15 -5.65 1.47 1.57
VBS 1.72 -1.38 -1.45 1.07 0.18
4.89 -2.63 -2.57 1.46 0.70
8.05 -4.57 -5.61 2.43 1.99
RTK 1.72 -0.69 -1.52 0.53 0.77
4.89 -3.79 -3.07 1.94 1.68
8.01 -5.68 -5.49 2.56 2.76
45 Firmware 1.73 -1.91 -2.14 3.05 2.62
4.79 -1.44 -2.37 5.62 5.46
7.85 -7.75 -2.91 2.46 3.53
VBS 1.75 -0.65 -0.65 4.13 3.68
4.78 -3.54 -3.30 4.34 3.24
7.88 -4.19 -5.72 5.96 5.75
RTK 1.73 -0.34 -1.24 3.98 3.61
4.79 -2.50 -2.58 5.27 4.08
7.83 -3.72 -4.93 6.49 5.52
60 Firmware 1.74 -1.90 -3.02 4.64 3.47
4.78 -2.18 -3.02 6.63 3.47
7.90 -4.51 -6.17 7.27 6.77
VBS 1.73 -2.02 -2.99 4.88 3.78
4.79 -1.46 -3.75 7.97 6.01
7.86 -5.16 -7.02 5.97 5.84
RTK 1.75 -1.73 -1.55 5.95 4.82
4.79 -2.25 -4.09 6.79 5.11
7.83 -3.72 -5.48 7.72 5.01
For the RTK GPS system (Figure 4) the response improved, with similar times among the different
forward speeds. The CV for the 0
o
angle entrance remained in almost all conditions, below 10%.
The distance errors for the higher speed (8.33 m/s) where again at 5.68 and 5.49 m before (negative)
the target location for starting spraying, showing that the challenge is how to control it precisely
on high speeds.
Figure 2. Start and stop spraying times (sec.) for 0
o
entrance and exit angle and frmware GPS
before (negative values) and after (positive values) crossing the feld boundary.
o
entrance and exit angle and VBS correction.
o
entrance and exit angle and RTK system.
In the Figures 5, 6 and 7 it can be observed a similar behaviour between the frmware assisted GPS,
VBS differential correction and RTK signal for the 60
o
entrance and exit angle. For the forward
speed of 1.66 m/s the stop spraying happened about 3.0 seconds after exiting the feld, being more
expressive in the left side of the boom on stopping spraying. The CV, independent of the GPS signal
used, was always higher for the lower speeds. The distance error reached the maximum of 7.97 m
at 5.00 m/s theoretical forward speed on the right side of the boom on stopping spraying with the
VBS signal and 7.72 m with the RTK signal at 8.33 m/s.
o
signal.
o
entrance and exit angle and VBS correction
signal.
o
entrance and exit angle and RTK GPS system.
For the 45
o
entrance and exit angle with the frmware GPS signal (Figure 8) for all the forward
speeds tested the controller was able to open and close the section within an distance errors lower
than 5.62 m (at 5.00 m/s) after the target location for stopping spraying.
The times expressed in Figure 9 represent the results of VBS differential signal at 45
o
entrance and
exit angle. The controller performed better at the lower forward speed on entrance but not on the
feld exit. The higher distance error was 5.96 m at the higher forward speed on feld exit.
Using the RTK GPS system for the 45
o
entrance and exit angle (Figure 10) the controller performed
better again at the lower forward speed on entrance but not on the feld exit. The higher distance
error was 6.49 m at the higher forward speed on feld exit.
The results indicate that the behaviour of the control system is not the same when entering and
when exiting the feld. The time error entrance in the feld was more random, but the exit has a
pattern, with higher time values, for lower speeds. This can be explained by the setting off delay
responsible for stop spraying, which is speed dependent and must be varied according to the travel
speed. The set up used of minus 1 second of delay must be altered to get better results with different
forward speeds.
Conclusions
The real forward speeds did not achieve the target speeds on the higher levels. CV was high for
the lower forward speed and frmware assisted GPS signal. It also tended to be higher on feld
entrance than on exit.
o
entrance and exit angle and VBS correction
signal.
o
signal.
The performance of the control system is not the same when entering and when exiting the feld. On
the exit the time intervals are higher for lower speeds. Especially the setting for stopping spraying,
which is speed dependent, must be varied according to the travel speed. The distance errors reached
the maximum of about 8 m on the 60
o
entrance and exit angle, independent of the GPS signal.
References
Batte, M.T. and Ehsani, M.R. 2006. The economics of precision guidance with auto-boom control for farmer-
owned agricultural sprayers. Computers and Electronics in Agriculture 53: 28-44.
Rietz, S., Plyi, B., Ganzelmeier, H. and Lasl, A. 1998. Performance of electronic controls for feld sprayers.
Journal of Agricultural Engineering Research 68: 399-407.
Timothy, S.S. and Scott, A.S. 2001. DGPS-based guidance of high-speed application equipment. ASAE Annual
International Meeting, Sacramento, California, USA.
Shuller, J.K. 2006. Chapter 4: Mechatronics and Applications, in CIGR HandBook of Agricultural Engineering,
ASABE Copyright American Society of Agricultural Engineers, pp. 185-195.
o
entrance and exit angle and RTK GPS
system.
The development of a computer vision based and real-time
plant tracking system for dot spraying
M. Nrremark
1
, H.J. Olsen
1
, N.W. Andreassen
2
and I. Lund
3
1
University of Aarhus, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Agricultural Engineering,
Blichers All 20, 8830 Tjele, Denmark; Michael.Norremark@djf.au.dk
2
University of Southern Denmark, Faculty of Engineering, Institute of Chemical Engineering,
Biotechnology and Environmental Technology, Niels Bohrs All 1, 5230 Odense M, Denmark
3
University of Southern Denmark, Faculty of Engineering, Department of Industrial and Civil
Engineering, Niels Bohrs All 1, 5230 Odense M, Denmark
Abstract
Site specifc weed control at individual plant level requires very accurate positioning of crop and
weed plants within agri- and horticultural felds. Spraying only a single droplet on a leaf of a
weed eliminates the leaching of herbicides to the environment, and mechanical weed control in
the near proximity of individual crop plants increase revenue in organic production. This paper
presents a computer vision based deformable object tracking and positioning methodology using
blob analysis at its current developmental stage. The developed instrumentation and methodology
enabled tracking and positioning of green objects of the size of weed seedlings with forward speeds
up to 1.43 m/s. The image processing was evaluated under controlled conditions and by using a
dot-sprayer to target 0.5 l liquid to green objects placed on soil background, while the integrated
smart camera and dot sprayer system was in motion up to forward speed of 0.25 m/s. The results
showed that the spray liquid could be applied within 3.1 mm ( 3.2 mm SD) accuracy at 0.1 m/s
forward speed and the accuracy decreased 4-5 fold when forward speed was increased from 0.1
m/s to 0.25 m/s

due to error sources related to the dot sprayer.
Keywords: weed control, image processing, deformable object tracking, dot sprayer
Introduction
One of the objectives of precision agriculture is to minimize the amount of herbicides by using
site-specifc weed management systems. It is therefore desirable that a tool for weed control
performs guidance and executes high precision tasks to crops and weeds (Blackmore et al., 2005;
Griepentrog et al., 2004). Spraying only a single droplet on a leaf of a weed which eliminates the
leaching of herbicides to the environment is one such high precision task. In addition, Graglia (2004)
has shown that the dose rate of glyphosate at average weed density of 100 seedlings/m
2
can be
reduced from 540 g/ha (allowed dosage in Denmark) to 1 g/ha by applying one droplet containing
1 g of glyphosate to individual weed seedlings. Sgaard (2007) and Sgaard and Lund (2005)
investigated micro-spraying for applying single droplets to a circle wherein a weed seedling or
parts of it appears and obtained sub-centimeter accuracy with 10.5 l droplets. Other examples
of high precision tasks are eradication of weeds by concentrated light energy targeting the main
shoot of weed seedlings (Mathiassen et al., 2006), and mechanical weed control in the very near
proximity of crop plants (Nrremark et al., 2006). Srensen et al. (2005) completed a feasibility
study showing that organic farmers could increase their income per hectare in certain row crops
by 85% when applying automated mechanical weed control, but the beneft was depend on 100%
control effciency. The task for any guidance system for the above mentioned examples should
maintain a dynamic visual model of the external world and position the target object in real time.
Computer vision technologies have reached commercialisation in agri- and horticultural felds mainly
to identify and locate crop rows (AgroCom, Garford) but recently also individual transplanted crop
plants (Garford, THTechnologies Ltd). The typical computer vision guidance system identifes the
location and centre of seed line, ridge or tramline, calculates the offset between the current position
and the desired position, and completes lateral control by moving an electromechanical/hydraulic
steering system (Tillett et al., 2003; Sgaard and Olsen, 2003; Bakker et al., 2008).
In terms of transversal control by use of computer vision Lee et al. (1999) obtained cell spraying
of weed plants at operation speeds up to 0.33 m/s with some reduction to crop stand and Tillett et
al. (2008) obtained intra-row mechanical weed control up to 0.5 m/s with no notable reduction in
crop stand. Image processing times found in literature for image segmentation and identifcation
of crop and weed plants range between 133 ms (Gliever and Slaughter, 2001), 344 ms (Lee et al.,
1999), 482 ms (Blasco et al., 2002) and up to several seconds (Sgaard, 2007; Skefeld, 2007).
The overall aim of our on-going research, where some midway results are presented in this paper,
is to develop a computer vision system for accurate estimation of individual crop plant positions,
and the systems speed and orientation over the soil surface. The computer vision system was based
on modern smart camera technology. The accuracy should be suffcient for targeting droplets to
individual weed seedlings (dot-sprayer) and close to crop mechanical weed control.
The objectives of this paper are to present (1) a computer vision system for tracking green objects
of the size of weed seedlings using a smart camera, (2) to estimate position of objects with high
frequency while the vision system moves over the object, and (3) to validate the systems current
confguration with a dot sprayer on a test stand in the laboratory.
Camera and dot-sprayer
The main components of the dot sprayer system are a digital colour camera equipped with an
embedded computer (eXcite exA640-120c, Basler Vision Tech., Germany) and a spraying unit
(Figure 1). The spraying unit consists of 16 small solenoid valves (Willett 800, Videojet Tech. Inc.,
Figure 1. The camera and spray unit at the test rig. (a) Basler eXcite smart camera, (b) spray
unit, (c) plastic container with water and tracer, (d) plastic hose, (e) simulated plant seedlings,
(f) band of soil, (g) spray deposit on paper sheet.
USA), controlled by a 16 MHz AVR microcontroller (Atmel Corp., CA, USA). The microcontroller
receives data packets for which valves to open from the camera serial port.
From previous research on applying liquid droplets to weed seedlings, Sgaard (2007) and Sgaard
and Lund (2005) concluded that the frst two generations of spraying systems had too slow solenoid
valves for dispensing the spray liquid accurately at higher forward speed, i.e. systems would not
work with a fast updating control system. For the new spraying unit, the time between the data
packet creation and actual valve opening was less than 1 ms. The nozzles were opened for 5 ms
ejecting a 0.5 l dose of liquid (shorter dispense time intervals were possible, but made identifying
droplets diffcult). The dispense height of spray liquid above target was 100 mm. The effective
width of the spraying unit was 174 mm and the 16 spraying solenoid valves were spaced 10.5 mm
apart. For tracing the droplets on paper, bluish water based stain was enclosed in a plastic container
under pressure (80 kPa) and transported by the pressure to the spraying unit via a plastic hose.
The Basler eXcite smart camera recorded colour images with a size of 490656 pixels. The camera
lens covered an area of 120170 mm area on the soil surface (in longitudinal transversal directions)
giving a resolution of 15.75 pixels/mm
2
. An 11 W compact fuorescent lamp with CCT of 4000 K
(OSRAM) was used for illumination source as the test rig was placed indoors. The illumination
source was chosen and placed in order to minimize object surface refections in the camera feld of
view (FOV). The illumination conditions made it necessary to set the exposure time to 42 ms. The
camera comprised an integrated FPGA and a 64 bit MIPS processor running at a clock frequency
of 1 GHz (Figure 2). The operating system was Linux with a 2.6 kernel. The camera had various
ports for communication whereof the serial port (RS232) with baud rate of 115200 baud was used
for communication of 5 bytes data packets to the microcontroller. Readout of pixel values from the
CMOS image sensor and exposure overlapped, which resulted in 24 images/s.
Programming
AVR Studio 3 including an assembler (Atmel Corp., CA, USA) was used for low-level language
programming of the microcontroller. The image processing code was written in C++ using Eclipse
Figure 2. Block diagram of eXcite camera (Basler Vision Tech., Germany).
IDE for C/C++ (Eclipse Foundation Inc., Canada/USA) and cross compiled to the execution code
for the MIPS processor on the eXcite camera.
Image processing
The frst step after image capture was transformation of the original RGB image into greyscale
(monochrome) image, by applying the excess green index introduced by Woebbecke et al. (1995)
and Meyer et al. (1998). Based on methodologies developed by Rasmussen et al. (2007) the next
step was automatic determination of the greyscale threshold, which set the contrast breakpoint
between pixels containing vegetation and pixels containing non-vegetation in order to produce a
binary image. Standard blob-analysis techniques (Jain, 1996) were deployed in the third step for
estimation of centroid coordinates of vegetation objects in the binary image. The coordinate values
were stored in the memory, and for a new image, the coordinate of an object was compared to its
coordinate in the previous image. If an object in the last captured image was found to be at the same
transversal position 5 mm as an object in the previous image less than the calculated distance
between 2 successve images in the direction of driving, it was taken as a new position for the object.
In this way the plants were tracked through the image from top to bottom. Virtual borders, formed
by partitioning of the area beneath a line placed 50 mm downwards from the centre line of the
FOV (Figure 3) into 16 squares of 10.510 mm, were used to trigger the opening of spraying unit
valves corresponding to the square borders where plant coordinates have been registered within.
A droplet of 0.5 l was released from opened valves.
Test rig
For the experiments, a test rig consisting of a frame system with a linear drive for moving the
dot-sprayer and camera in the y-axis direction (longitudinal) over the test rig table (Figure 1). One
Figure 3. Illustration of the image processing and virtual borders for triggering the dot-sprayer
valves. (a) cut-out image of the band of soil with green objects; (b) binary image of the FOV in
(a); (c) the 16 virtual squares of size 10.5 mm 10 mm and centre line of image (dotted line).
end of the test rig table made up the x-axis direction (transversal). Rectangular paper sheets of
20.4 m size were used as spraying surface and were placed the test rig table and aligned with the
x- and y-axis. The green objects to be recognised as plants were small paper cuttings of true weed
seedlings shapes. The objects were placed on a plane surface of sand mixed with a few percent clay
soil. 51 objects were randomly distributed with two densities of 133 plants/m
2
and 400 plants/m
2
,
and their coordinates were measured by rulers in the x,y-coordinate system formed by the edges
of the test rig table. The sand and soil mixture was evenly distributed in a band on a paper sheet
placed next to and aligned with the spraying surface (Figure 1). The experimental setup required
that the spray unit was offset 250 mm in the transversal direction from the camera. The centre line
of the camera FOV was offset -55 mm in the longitudinal direction such that the row of nozzles
was centred within the 16 virtual squares described in the above.
The purpose of the experiment was to evaluate the accuracy of the integrated camera and dot-sprayer
to target the centre position of plants. After each test run, the sprayed paper sheet was removed
and coordinates of the centroid of imprints of spray liquid on the paper sheets were determined by
ruler measurements. The distance between the centre of plant and the centroid of the corresponding
imprints of spray liquid was calculated by subtracting the previously mentioned offset distances
along the x- and y-axis for the experimental setup. The dot-sprayer system was tested three times
at forward speed of 0.1 m/s and again at 0.25 m/s.
Results
Speed of image processing
Processing time is a major concern in real-time computer vision applications. The time required
for each image processing step was 5-10 ms depending on number of objects in the image. The
illumination conditions during the conducted experiments only allowed a shutter time of 42 ms.
The placement of the virtual border for triggering the valve opening decreased the maximum
forward speed. That is, when coordinates of an object in one image were before the virtual border
and in the next image the object had disappeared from the FOV, no activation of valves happened.
The FOV could then be moved with maximum 10 mm between each image acquisition giving a
maximum forward speed of 0.25 m/s.
Precision performance
The results from the experiments are presented in Table 1. The experiments with 0.1 m/s forward
speed showed that imprints of spray liquid were placed on average 3.1 mm ( 3.2 mm SD) before
the centre of the target relative to the driving direction. All objects were sprayed at 0.1 m/s forward
Table 1. Statistics on longitudinal and transversal distances from object centroids to centroids
of corresponding imprints of spray liquid.
Test parameter Standard deviation, mm Average of absolute
distances, mm
Percent
targeted
objects
a

Longitudinal Transversal Longitudinal Transversal
0.10 m/s, all 3.2 3.3 3.1 -2.2 100
0.25 m/s, 133 objects/m
2
3.9 3.9 -14.3 -2.8 98
0.25 m/s, 400 objects/m
2
6.7 4.0 -15.3 -2.2 62
a
Non-targeted objects were those with longitudinal distances >30 mm.
speed, and for the 0.25 m/s forward speed, all objects with low density except one were sprayed.
The results from tests with 0.25 m/s forward speed at low object density showed that imprints of
spray liquid were placed on average 14.3 mm (3.9 mm SD) after the centre of the target relative
to the driving direction. At the high object density and at forward speed of 0.25 m/s, some objects
were not sprayed. The transversal errors were biased indicating that the offset distance between
camera and spraying unit was 2-3 mm shorter than measured.
Discussion
The results showed that some sources of error affected the accuracy of spray droplets targeting centre
of objects. First, there was an intrinsic error due to the spatial resolution of the spray system. The
row of nozzles was centred within the 16 virtual squares of size 10.510 mm in the FOV. A spatial
error of 5 mm in spray targeting would occur in longitudinal and transversal direction whenever
the centroid of an object happened to be located in the corner of a virtual square rather than the
centre, since the valve pattern was centred within the 16 virtual squares.
It can be seen from Table 1 that the longitudinal distances were generally larger than the transversal
distances. At 0.1 m/s the droplets were placed before the centre of the target relative to the driving
direction most probably because valves were opened before the target centroid location. The
FOV between subsequent images were moved 4.2 mm and this implied that objects were detected
within the virtual squares about 0-4.2 mm after the virtual border used for triggering the valves
opening. The timing of valve openings relative to forward speed was not included in the control
of the valves as seen in other studies (Lee et al., 1999; Sgaard and Lund, 2005; 2007) because it
was assumed that the obtained fast image processing time would not add a signifcant error source.
Furthermore, it was assumed that the time from droplets dispensing to droplets hitting the surface
would not entail an error source. There were no differences between the shape of imprints of spray
liquid for 0.1 m/s

and 0.25 m/s forward speed and droplets hitting the surface of the paper sheets
did not tend to be elongated.
At 0.25 m/s forward speed the droplets were placed after the centre of the target relative to the
driving direction. The errors found in the driving direction at the 0.25 m/s forward speed experiments
were so large that an explanation of error sources could not be given. Also at 0.25 m/s forward
speed the fndings of 38 percent non-sprayed objects at high density and incorrect placement of
droplets was caused by errors located somewhere between the camera and spray unit valves. The
number of non-sprayed objects increased in the direction of travel indicating that the dot sprayer
had a tendency to stall at increasing object density. Post-test analysis of the log fle of the image
processing showed that the program did send signals for opening valves to spray all objects at 0.25
m/s forward speed.
In this paper, a discussion of utilisation of the dot-sprayer system for herbicide saving is not given, as
the authors opinion is that a feld operational version should be developed and tested under various
feld conditions before any conclusions on weed control effciency can be made. However for such
feld tests, the initial amount applied to individual weed seedlings could be 1 g of glyphosate
which is found to be suffcient for controlling Solanum nigrum (Graglia, 2004).
Future work
In future developments, the blob analysis will be used for detecting regions of interest (ROI) before
executing image processing methods for recognition and positioning of a plant parts in the regions.
The tracking procedure will be evaluated under real feld conditions in order to test its utility for
estimating speed and orientation of the camera movements over the soil surface. The segmentation
algorithm worked well during the conducted experiments after many attempts to illuminate the
objects correctly in terms of eliminating surface refections and shadows, and enhancing diffuse
refection. Therefore different illumination sources and their positions relative to the camera FOV
will be evaluated under real feld conditions in order to make the segmentation robust.
Conclusion
The computer vision instrumentation and methodology developed in this project enabled tracking and
positioning of green objects of the size of weed seedlings with a frequency of 24 images/s allowing
forward speeds up to 1.43 m/s. The smart camera used for image acquisition and processing was
integrated with a dot sprayer. The experiments under controlled conditions demonstrated that the
ability of the dot-sprayer system to target the centroid of green objects on soil background worked
in real-time without any predictions and calibrations, but at 0.25 m/s forward speed errors located
somewhere between the camera and spray unit valves occurred. There is still research needed to
integrate plant recognition methods and adapt the dot-sprayer system to varying feld conditions.
Acknowledgement
The authors acknowledge fnancial support from the Danish Food Industry Agency, Ministry of
Food, Agriculture and Fisheries.
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SensiSpray: site-specifc precise dosing of pesticides by on-
line sensing
J.C. van de Zande
1
, V.T.J.M. Achten
1
, C. Kempenaar
1
, J.M.G.P. Michielsen
1
, D. van der Schans
2
,
J. de Boer
3
, H. Stallinga
1
, P. van Velde
1
and B. Verwijs
1
1
Wageningen UR, Plant Research International, P.O. Box 16, 6700 AA Wageningen, the Netherlands;
jan.vandezande@wur.nl
2
Wageningen UR, Applied Plant Research, P.O. Box 430, 8200 AK Lelystad, the Netherlands
3
Homburg Machinehandel, P.O. Box 5, 9050 AA Stiens, the Netherlands
Abstract
In agriculture crop protection products (CPP) are used to protect the crop against pests, diseases and
weeds. Several sprayings of CPP are done per crop per season. The used amount of CPP per spraying
is generally based on a pre set CPP dose. Most often felds with variations in crop development are
treated uniformly while spraying some patches in these felds would have been suffcient. In order
to deal with the variations in crop development and site-specifc variations in a feld, a sensor-
based spray technology was developed; SensiSpray. The system consists of sensors to detect crop
variation and a spray system to automatically change spray volume. Electronics and software were
developed to use the output signal of the sensor to adapt spray volume. For the variation of spray
volume Lechler VarioSelect nozzle bodies were used ftted with four different low-drift venturi
fat fan nozzles. On a 27 m working width boom sprayer seven sensors were placed on each boom
section to control spray volume per boom section of 3-4.5m wide. Spray deposition measurements
were performed to test the sprayer accuracy in adapting spray volume based on the refection
signal per section, using a fuorescent dye (Brilliant Sulpho Flavine) added to the spray liquid. The
system is able to adapt spray volume within 1-2 m in the direction travelled. To demonstrate the
potential use, the SensiSpray system was used in potato haulm killing spraying. The variation in
refection of the potato canopy was used to control the spray volume during desiccation spraying
before harvest. MLHD PHK dosing algorithms for potato haulm killing herbicides were used to
translate local greenness into a minimum effective dose. In the 2007 and 2008 season different
potato felds were sprayed and a general use reduction in CPP for potato haulm killing was circa
50%, maintaining effcacy.
Keywords: canopy density, sensor, spray technique, crop development, spray volume
Introduction
Crop protection products (CPP) are used in agriculture to protect the crop against pests, diseases
and weeds. The use of CPP assures high yields at harvest and high quality agricultural products.
Several sprayings of CPP are done per crop per season. The used amount of CPP per spraying is
generally based on the advised dose and generally does not take into account what is to be sprayed,
the target. During the growing season generally the dose is not adapted to changes in crop canopy
structure (Scotford and Miller, 2005). More often the whole feld is treated uniformly although
spraying some patches in the feld would have been suffcient. In order to deal with variations in
crop development and site-specifc variations in the feld, a sensor based spray technology was
developed; SensiSpray.
The system was built on a boom sprayer and consists of sensors to detect crop variation and a spray
system to automatically change spray volume and therefore CPP dose depending on the sensor signal
(Figure 1) and an application specifc dosing model. The sensors used were NTech GreenSeeker
sensors that measure crop refection. The Normalised Differential Vegetation Index (NDVI) output
signal of these sensors was used (Schwab et al., 2005). A control unit, electronics and software
were developed to use this output signal of the GreenSeeker sensors to adapt spray volume. To vary
the spray volume Lechler VarioSelect nozzle bodies were used ftted with four different low-drift
venturi fat fan nozzles (Bttger and Langner, 2003). Seven sensors were placed on a 27 m working
width boom sprayer. Each sensor controlled the spray volume of a boom section of 3-4.5 m wide.
Spray deposition measurements were performed to test the sprayers accuracy in adapting spray
volume based on the crop refection signal per section. A grassland feld was prepared in 24 m
wide strips next to each other with difference in biomass by extra N fertilization, mowing and
herbicide treatment. Treatments resulted in distinct differences in biomass and vegetation colour
and therefore refection. The sprayer was passing across the strips at an angle of 45
o
at a speed
of 6 km/h to get a clear view on the individual section changes on the sprayer boom. Measuring
spray deposit was done using a fuorescent dye (Brilliant Sulpho Flavine) added to the water in
the spray tank. The individual section sensor reacts on the change in refection and spray volume
was adapted per boom section.
To demonstrate the potential use of the SensiSpray system it was used in potato haulm killing
spraying (Kempenaar and Struik, 2007). The variation in the feld of the greenness (amount and
activity of green biomass) of the potato canopy at desiccation spraying before harvest was used to
vary spray volume of the herbicide used. The spray volume and dose adaptation was based on dosing
algotithms of the Minimum Lethal Herbicide Dose Potato Haulm Killing system (MLHD PHK)
relating refection measurements with minimum dose needed to kill off potato canopy (Kempenaar
et al., 2004). In the 2007 and 2008 season different potato felds were sprayed and a general use
reduction in CPP for potato haulm killing was circa 50%. In the 2008 season preliminary SensiSpray
was also tested in late blight (Phytophthora infestans) control in potatoes, adapting spray volume
(dose) to the crop development during the early growing season.
Spray technique
The SensiSpray system was built on a boom sprayer and consists of sensors to detect crop variation
and a spray system to automatically change spray volume depending on the sensor signal. NTech
GreenSeeker sensors that measure crop refection in the red and the near infrared wavelengths from
which a NDVI output signal was used. Electronics and software were developed to use the output
Figure 1. Varioselect nozzle holder and GreenSeeker sensor placed on the spray boom, sprayer
sprays a high volume above green grass (right) and a low volume above desiccated grass (left).
signal of the GreenSeeker sensor to adapt spray volume. For the variation of spray volume Lechler
VarioSelect nozzle bodies were used ftted with four different low-drift venturi fat fan nozzles
(Lechler IDKN 12001, 120015, 12002, 120025). On a 27 m working width boom sprayer (Hardi
New Commander Twin Force) seven sensors were placed, one for each boom section to control
spray volume per boom section of 3-4.5 m wide.
Spray deposition measurements
Spray deposition measurements were performed to test the sprayer accuracy in adapting spray
volume based on the refection signal per section. A grassland feld was prepared in 20 m wide
bands which were next to each other extra fertilized, mowed and treated with a herbicide to create
differences in vegetation colour and therefore refection.
The sprayer was driven at 6 km/h over the feld in an angle of 45
o
, pulled by a tractor, ftted with
a RTK-DGPS guidance system, to show the individual section changes on the sprayer boom.
Travelling distance was 200 m, the track was run two times to do the measurements as two
repetitions. Spray pressure was 3 bar and sprayer boom height was 0.50m above crop height. In
order to quantify the spray deposition at changes in crop type and within a constant crop refection
area different collector orientation were placed in the grass strips. Collectors used were flter
material (1.000.10 m; Technofl TF280) placed on individual PVC plates (A) at an angle of 45
o

with driving direction, 10 collectors next to each other on a 1 m
2
tempex plate with length direction
in the driving direction, and 10 collectors in a row placed at grass strip edges in the length direction
3 m/7 m before after boundary and cross to the driving direction over the total width of 30 m with
the centre underneath the centreline of the driving track (Figure 2). To correlate the position of the
collectors with the actual volume rate sprayed of the moving sprayer the position of the collectors
was measured with RTK-DGPS (Figure 3). The actual rate sprayed from the individual sections
Table 1. Nozzle combinations, spray volume (l/ha) at 3 bar spray pressure, dose rate (l/ha) and
NDVI level.
combination NDVI Spray volume dose
l/ha
IDK 12001 IDK 120015 IDK 12002 IDK 120025
l/ha %
0 0 0 0 0
1 0.28 78 14 0.42 X
2 0.34 118 21 0.64 X
3 0.39 160 29 0.87 X
4 0.44 196 35 1.06 X X
5 0.44 198 36 1.07 X
6 0.50 238 43 1.29 X X
7 0.55 276 50 1.49 X X
8 0.55 278 50 1.51 X X
9 0.60 316 57 1.71 X X
10 0.66 356 64 1.93 X X X
11 0.66 358 65 1.94 X X
12 0.71 394 71 2.13 X X X
13 0.77 436 79 2.36 X X X
14 0.82 476 86 2.58 X X X
15 0.93 554 100 3.0 X X X X
at the spray boom is logged in the sprayer computer and connected to the RTK-DGPS position of
the tractor cabin.
Measuring spray deposit was done using a fuorescent dye (0.15 g/l Brilliant Sulpho Flavine; Chroma
GmbH) added to the water in the spray tank together with 0.1% of Agral (Syngenta). After spraying
the collectors were put individually in plastic bags, marked and stored in the dark. In the WUR-PRI
Figure 2. Schematic presentation of the different grass strips in the test feld and the position
of the collectors placed.
Figure 3. Position of collectors in the feld and position of spray track and grass strips measured
with GPS.
spray laboratory the collectors were washed in 1 l of demineralised water and concentration of
BSF was measured using a fuorimeter (Perkin Elmer LS45). Measured concentration was related
to the measured tank concentration of BSF and a standard concentration curve to calculate spray
deposition expressed as l/cm
2
.
The individual section sensor reacts on the change in refection and spray volume was adapted per
boom section. The spray volume and therefore dose adaptation was according to the changes in
measured refection expressed as Normalised Differential Vegetation Index (NDVI) of the different
bands of grassland. Specifcally for this spray deposition test the calculated dose of agrochemical
(3.3 l/ha) was linearly related to NDVI as: DOSE = -0.7 + 4*NDVI.
During spraying average temperature was between 15.9
o
C and 17.5
o
C, relative humidity was 79%,
wind speed was 1.7 m/s and 2.3 m/s during the two runs over the grass feld. Wind angle was for
the frst run around 40
o
from left behind and for the second run right ahead.
Results
Crop refection
NDVI recordings of the seven GreenSeeker sensors running over the different grass strips is
presented in Figure 4. From left to right NDVI value for standard grass was on average 0.6, for
mowed grass 0.43, for dead grass 0.25, for extra N fertilised grass 0.89 and for standard grass land
again 0.6. As the sprayer drove over the strip borders under a 45
o
angle the order of the sensors
passing the borderline is clearly seen.
Spray deposition
At the borders of the different grass strips the spray deposition was measured both in the length
direction and the cross distribution.
Cross distribution
Cross distribution of realised spray deposition at the borders of the grass strips from grass to grass,
mowed grass to grass, dead grass to mowed grass, grass to extra N-fertilised grass and dead grass
to mowed grass are presented in Figure 5. It is clearly seen that from the centreline of the sprayer
either to the right or to the left within a width of 3 m the difference between the grass strip NDVI
Figure 4. NDVI of the seven GreenSeeker sensors running different grassland strips.
results in a change in spray volume. Especially the grass to extra N fertilised grass and the dead
grass to mowed grass show large differences in right and left boom side spraying.
Length distribution
Length distribution of realised spray deposition at the borders of the grass strips from grass to mowed
grass, mowed grass to dead grass, dead grass to extra N fertilised grass, and extra N fertilised grass
to grass are presented in Figure 6. Especially the change in spray deposition from dead grass to
extra N fertilised grass is very clear. Within a distance of 2 m the spray dose has been adapted to the
changed NDVI measured by the GreenSeeker sensor.Length of spray volume adaptation depended
on the position of the sensor relative to the position of the collector line.
The spray volume and therefore dose adaptation was according to the changes in measured refection
(NDVI) of the different bands of grassland. The accuracy of the system to adapt spray volume was
within 1-2 m from the borderline of the different grass bands. However a difference between the
two passes over the same track was recorded in spray deposition. Spray deposition of the second
pass was consequently lower although NDVI was recorded exactly similar. Also the expected
spray deposition level following from the maximum target rate was not met. We hypothesize that
the continuous switching of the nozzles in the VarioSelect nozzle holder based on the continuous
changing GreenSeeker NDVI values reduces fow rate. Possibly the opening of a specifc nozzle
is slower than closing of another whereby gaps in spraying occur and fow rate is reduced. This is
a point for further research and potentially software adaptation.
The different collector places and orientation used in the spray deposition measurements show
that on average there is little difference between the measured spray deposition. The aim of the
Figure 5. Cross distribution of spray deposition (l/ha) underneath a 27 m spray boom when
passing the different border edges of grass strips under an angle of 45
o.
different collector orientation and places give however more information on the specifc issues
as absolute height of spray deposition (fow rate check) with the single (A) collectors; detailed
cross distribution (plates) as if a patternator is used in the feld; or length and cross distribution
underneath changing spray volumes. For determining the accuracy of precision spray equipment
this methodology has shown its value and could be an element for standardisation of measuring
protocols (ISO/CD24543).
Potential use of SensiSpray
To demonstrate the potential use of the SensiSpray system it was used in potato haulm killing
spraying. The variation of greenness in the feld (amount and activity of green biomass) of the
potato canopy at desiccation spraying before harvest was used to vary spray volume of the herbicide
used. The spray volume and dose adaptation was based on calculation rules of the Minimum Lethal
Herbicide Dose system (MLHD-PHK) relating refection measurements with minimum dose needed
to kill off potato canopy. In the 2007 and 2008 season different potato felds were sprayed with
SensiSpray and the MLHD-PHK dosing algorithms, resulting in a reduction in CPP for potato haulm
killing of circa 50% compared to conventional practice, while biological effcacy remained good.
As an example of the experienced variation in crop canopy and NDVI refection the results of the
dose variation sprayed for a high and a low variable feld of potatoes is given (Figure 7). Average
dose for the high variation potato strip was 0.85 l/ha of herbicide and for the low variation strip
0.77 l/ha. Lowest dose was 0.5 l/ha for both strips and highest dose respectively 1.9 l/ha for the high
variation strip and 1.5 l/ha for the low variation strip, resulting in coeffcients of variation of 25%
and 20% respectively. Conventional dose of potato haulm killing herbicide for the feld was advised
as 2 l/ha because of the dessication stage of the crop canopy whereas advised label dose was 3 l/ha.
During the 2008 season frst tests were done in late blight (Phytophthora infestans) control in
potatoes adapting spray volume to the crop development at the beginning of the growing season.
At the frst three fungicide applications spray volume and dose was reduced. First results show no
difference in disease development between conventional spraying and canopy adapted dose spraying
with the SensiSpray system with good protection against late blight. The NDVI measurements in
Figure 6. Length distribution of spray deposition (l/ha) underneath a 27 m spray boom when
passing the different border edges of grass strips at an angle of 45
o
with the driving direction.
the SensiSpray project yielded much information on spatial and temporal variation of crop biomass
in potato, wheat, tulip and onion crops, and how to use this successfully in a site specifc pesticide
dosing system.
Acknowledgement
The authors greatly acknowledge the fnancial support provided by the Ministry of Agriculture
Nature and Food Safety and SenterNovem (SMT programme).
References
Bttger, H. and H.-R. Langner, 2003. New technology for variable rate pesticide application. Landtechnik
58(3): 142-143
ISO/CD24543, 2009. Crop protection equipment Spray deposit tests of feld crop sprayers. Part 1 Field
deposit measurements. International Standardisation Organisation, Geneva.
Kempenaar, C., R.M. Groeneveld and D. Uenk, 2004. An innovative dosing system for potato haulm killing
herbicides. XII International Conference on Weed Biology, Dijon, 31 Aug. to 2 Sept. 2004: AFPP-
Conference Proceedings, pp. 511-518
Kempenaar, C. and P.C. Struik, 2007. The canon of potato science: 33. Haulm killing. Potato Research 50:
341-345
Scotford, I.M. and P.C.H. Miller, Vehicle mounted sensors for estimating tiller density and leaf area index
(LAI) of winter wheat. In: J.V. Stafford, ed. Precision Agriculture 05. Wageningen Academic Publishers,
Wageningen. pp. 201-208.
Schwab, G.J., E.M. Pena-Yewtukhiw, O. Wendroth, L.W. Murdock and T. Stombaugh, 2005. Wheat yield
population response to variable rate N fertilization strategies using active NDVI sensors. In: J.V. Stafford
(ed.). Precision Agriculture 05. Wageningen Academic Publishers, Wageningen. pp. 235-242.
Figure 7. Sprayed dose (l/ha) during potato haulm killing of a strip of a potato feld with high
variation and low variation in greenness of the crop canopy with the SensiSpray sprayer.
Section 14
ICT in precision agriculture
Data collection and two-way communication to support
decision making by pest scouts
A. Hetzroni
1
, M. Meron
2
, I. Fraier
3
, Y. Magrisso
3
and O. Mendelsohn
3
1
Agricultural Research Organization of Israel, P.O. Box 6 Bet Dagan 50250, Israel;
amots@volcani.agri.gov.il
2
Migal - Galilee Technology Center, Southern Industrial Zone, P.O. Box 831 Kiryat-Shmona
11016, Israel
3
ScanTask, 8 Hamaayan St., Ind. Zone, Holon 58811, Israel
Abstract
Knowledge and information are key factors in pest management decision making. This work is part
of an endeavor to establish a collection, storage and dissemination system for pest scouting data, as
part of a decision support system for pest management. A data collection system was developed based
on pocket-PCs and deployed in three regions. The concept was proven to be feasible; and has thus
been accepted and used by the pest scouts. Yet, having been used only to collect data and transfer
it to the central repository; it lacked two-way communication to provide the feedback required in
order to support decision making in the feld. The objectives were to provide pest scouts with a
feedback mechanism to support decision on pest managements measures. The handheld pocket-PC
type data collection units were replaced by cellular phones linked to the repository data server. A
fexible data collection protocol, based on a cellular workfow engine was implemented into the
phone which served as a data collection unit. Upon login, local data tables were updated from the
main server, data such as a list of plots and crops pertinent to user. The scouting records, including
time and location are transferred, upon communication availability, to the server. The repository
was designed for internet interface to respond to spatial queries. Predefned queries and flters, such
as history of infestations, are available for the end user from the cellular terminal. Experimenting
with cellular units confrmed their advantages over the pocket-pc units. No hardware failures or
communication diffculties were reported. GPS data was available with almost all records.
Keywords: cellular, data collection, regional data management, IT
Background
Knowledge and information are key factors in pest management decision making (Bajwa et al.,
2003). Therefore, there is an increasing demand for tools that enable effcient data collection on a
broad spectrum of pests over a wide spatial scale (Magarey et al., 2002).
Previously developed systems lacked the ability to collect accurate and timely data with minimal
investment of effort, beyond what is accepted during pest scouting. Such systems were irrelevant
in practical agriculture and were used mainly for research purposes, thus eventually becoming
obsolete. This work is part of an endeavor to establish a collection, storage, and dissemination
system for pest scouting data, as part of a decision support system for practical pest management.
Local counts or estimated pest populations are usually used in integrated pest management to
determine an immediate response to various threats. Information regarding wider area population
trends, previous control measures and other environmental parameters could improve decision
making, and delay the acquired pest resistance to applications. As of now, dozens of scouts are
already employed by individuals or organizations to monitor pests in feld crops plantations and
controlled greenhouses. Pest control decision is based on observations that are often translated into
recommendations to the growers. Observation data might be sporadically recorded by the scouts
but only some of their clients compel methodological record retention. Electronic data acquisition,
real-time processing and communication could provide the necessary tools to support enhanced
decision making.
Pocket PCs have already been utilized for both data collection in agriculture (Zazueta et al., 2002;
Hetzroni et al., 2005a,b, 2008) and environments monitoring (CyberTracker Conservation). Cellular
phones, mainly using SMS services were proposed and investigated as a tool for the agricultural
sector (Jensen and Thysen, 2003; Ntaliani et al., 2008). Experimenting with cellular phones to
collect data from sugarcane growers indicated that the precision of the GPS function of the cellular
phone was suffcient to identify the current working feld. In addition, using a cellular phone, a set
of recorded farming data can be input within 1-2 minutes (Guan et al., 2006). Furthermore, access
to databases and models to predict the harvest time of caulifower was demonstrated by Jensen and
Grevsen (2007). The advantage of cellular phones lies mainly in their versatility and the familiarity
of the users with the operating system and its functionality. Combined with the use of the GPS, data
is recorded with time-date and position stamps. Storage capacity and programming fexibility can
further make the pocket-PC a decision support tool (Bange et al., 2004). However, the durability
of the pocket-PC is challenged by the harsh conditions during pest scouting due to dampness in
the early morning hours when the crop is covered with dew, which then shifts into hot and humid
conditions throughout the day.
The goal of this study was to implement and test the feasibility of a system to collect, maintain and
disseminate regional pest scouting data anchored in time and space.
System design
The system architecture was based on the model proposed by Hetzroni et al. (2008) and depicted in
Figure 1. The players according to this model were: feld workers (scouts), data clients and managers,
and a data server. The feld workers were equipped with third generation cellular phones (Nokia
6120 classic), each supplemented with an external GPS receiver linked to the phone, using the
Bluetooth wireless communication protocol. These were later replaced by a model that combines
the GPS and phone into a single unit (Nokia 6210 Navigator). The server was built using PHP and
MySQL database. The design and maintenance implemented a workfow engine that allowed rapid
development and control while maintaining fexibly to modifcations. Desktop users accessed the
database over the Internet to manage data tables, and access reports.
Figure 1. System architecture.
A tuple should include a time and location stamp, the pest and a measure of infestation. One would
assume that by having a GPS unit onboard and having the location determined, then the plot, the
owner, the current crop, and other parameters would become available. Nevertheless, additional data
were included, thus making the records over-determined following the assumption that there were
several advantages for the over-determined approach: it enables detection of erroneous entries; it
eases the analysis; and assists in reporting. From the scout point of view, the seemingly redundant
information was used to ease the navigation through the many options. The extra information
includes: the client, plot name, and crop.
In most of the cases a scout has clients and each client has plots, each plot contains a single crop.
Each crop is associated with a fnal list of pests c
i
, which is a subset of the full list of relevant
pest and disease P, i.e. let P be a set, let C={c
i
} be a subset of P. Note that some of the pests are
polyphagous, i.e. given c
i
,c
j
C it is possible that c
i
c
j
= or that c
i
c
j
.
To allow this many-to-many relationship a crop-pest table was used for defning every crop and
relevant lists of pests. The list was not a complete set, but rather a practical list of pests that were
considered to be a threat and had to be monitored and controlled.
Every pest-crop pair was associated with an interface which refected the sampling method. The
screen type could be set to collect infestation level, numeric data, or multistage data entry. For
example, Agrotis in cotton is reported using four levels (none found, light, medium, or heavy),
while Aphids in cotton are recorded as percentage of infected plants.
The cellular units for this project were equipped and set to establish Internet connection. The frst
installation of the application on the portable phone was set via an Internet site. This installation
needed to be set only once (except for upgrades).
An instance of a scout user in the system is associated with a set of plots. The users sets were
not necessarily mutual exclusive, although this was often the case. This meant that scouts might
share plots either on a regular basis or while assisting or flling in for a colleague. Users plots are
grouped into sets of clients.
System usage
Upon a scout login to the system (Figure 3a), the set of tables stored on the phone were synchronized
with the server (Figure 2). The tables included the list of clients, plots, crops, pests, and screen types.
The synchronization process did not require any intervention after it was triggered allowing the
Figure 2. Usage fow.
scout to attend to other tasks. Although the synchronization could last for even up to one minute, it
is normally done only once at the beginning of the work day, often while the scout was still driving
to the frst site, thus, it did not bear any additional burden.
Once the phone was synchronized (Figure 3b), then the scout could collect data. There are two
available modes: reporting an observation on a registered plot, or a random observation. Random
observation was used in some cases. For example when certain pests were monitored in the region,
but have not been confned to a cultivated, monitored plot. Figure 3c depicts the selection screen
where Cuscuta and two members of the genus Orobanche (all parasite plants) can be reported
anywhere. The scouts were required to report any occurrence of this parasitic plant within the
boundaries of their area. Other possible examples may include a scout visiting a new plot that
has not yet been registered, or whilst assisting a colleague in monitoring a plot out of the routine
domain, or merely coming across a plot which is not within the database, but in which the infestation
is worth reporting.
Upon arrival to a registered plot, the scout selected the client (typically the individual or organization
that cultivates that plot). Once a client was selected, a list of plots was made available for the scout
to select (Figure 3d). When a plot was determined; the user was asked to confrm the crop that was
currently occupying the plot. If the crop listed was not the correct one, the scout would select a
different one. Next, the scout was presented with a list of potential pests. With a pest selected, the
relevant interface screen was displayed: either a menu selection or numeric felds to type in numbers.
Storing the record triggered transmission and storage on the server. If transmission could not be
completed it would later be transmitted without interrupting the user.
At the reported stage of the project, only one optional feedback was provided to the scout. The user
in the feld could retrieve a list of previous observations for each plot from the server.
Back offce management was maintained via an internet site. The site provided a list of observations
that could be downloaded to a local station. The user could select a site, pest, and time range and
the subset of observations could be projected on a map. Table management was performed on the
site. It included a list of clients, plots, crops, pests, crop-pest relationships and interface forms.
Results
A working system was developed and implemented to enable the collection of data from feld scouts
in wide areas into a central database. The system used cellular phones and Internet to transmit data
mainly from feld scouts to a central data base, with limited feedback. The system was intensively
used through the summer of 2008 and has been operating since. During the period between the 23
to the 39 week of 2008, approximately 100-200 tuples were recorded weekly (over 2,500 total) by
Figure 3. User login screen (a); Synchronization (b); client/random selection (c); and plot selection
(d).
two feld scouts visiting 100 plots. In average, a plot was visited 25 times during this period, one
quarter of the plots were visited over 40 times. Within that period, some of the plots had more than
one crop grown under the same plot title, mostly due to subdivision of the plot.
This assumption that client and plot names were redundant was found to be weak because,
unfortunately, the GPS might not be available, or the accuracy might be so that the plot cannot be
correctly determined. Therefore, the deterministic approach that the GPS stamp is suffcient was
not accepted. In 17% of the tuples, location data (latitude-longitude) were not recorded.
The system is intended to be used by numerous users over a wide area to record a multitude of pests
in various crops; therefore, a special effort is still being invested into the assimilation of common
standards and terminology among the users. This effort is not reported but the rules and standards
are embedded into this system. The system has a fexible workfow engine implemented allowing
rapid updates by users.
The cellular phone application was built using the J2ME set of technologies and more specifcally
the CLDC 1.1, MIDP 2.0 and the Location API (JSR-179). MySQL was used as the database engine
with PHP scripts on the server side. The database contains managed lists of pests, crops, plots,
users and clients. Relationships among tables associate the pest with its hosting crops; crop-pest
pairs with the user interface screen and data collection method by specifying the interface screen.
The crop-pest map can also be customized for particular scout. The system includes a controlled
list of standard comments, recommendations and prevention measures that the scout can include
in the record.
At this stage the reporting system is limited. The scouts, using their cellular phones, can retrieve a
report in a form of a list of records from previous visits to the current plot. Other users can browse
the data tables sorted and fltered online using a computer, or download the data to a local station.
This report includes user name, data stamp, location, plot crop, pest and data. The data units depend
on the crop-pest pair which may be count, a ratio, percentage, or level. The raw data (item, count,
meter, notes) is also listed when relevant; i.e. when a count per meter is calculated then the count
and the length are listed as well.
Conclusions
The major achievement of this work was the ability to demonstrate that the concept is valid.
The whole system was designed, built and assimilated. The scouts were able to use the system
immediately after a brief introduction. They accepted the system and have been fully and
continuously using the system through periods of several seasons. The technology functioned fault
free through the whole period under harsh feld conditions. Communication is stable and data has
been accumulated.
This database opens a whole new domain of standards and opportunities which had not been
possible without the essential infrastructure that was developed here. This system is to be the
essence of a farm management system that includes plots, and activities. It is already serving as a
decision support system by providing past data to the scout in the feld. When fully utilized it has
the potential to advice on possible sources of infestation, on pesticide applications in the vicinity
or any other data that might be relevant for the scout to make a better decision. The system already
enables limited control on the work of the scouts, such as monitoring the location in the plot that
were visited during the routine scouting.
A spatial database is a powerful tool for research using tools such as data mining; data retrieval
to detect and investigate patterns of pest distributions and dynamics. Plant-pest relationship is a
major factor in integrated pest management. The database that is being accumulated is a valuable
source of information that can be utilized as a research tool.
For reliable wide area management it is required to establish quantifcation of pest population
which takes into account the differences in estimation not only among scouts but also among
crops. The severity of pest population is not necessarily similar when evaluating a population in
one crop compared to another. Therefore, there is a need to establish and assimilate standardized
estimates of pest populations.
Some future tasks include the development and assimilation of client involvement in updating the
database. This includes updating plots usage, time and chemicals by use of spray or other application.
There is a need to improve the feedback to scouts and growers in order to support decision making
and to extract the required statistics as a management tool.
References
Bajwa, W. I., Coop, L. and Kogan, M., 2003. Integrated pest management (IPM) and Internet-based information
delivery systems. Neotropical Entomology, 32: 373-383.
Bange, M.P., Deutscher S.A., Larsen D., Linsley D. and Whiteside S., 2004. A handheld decision support system
to facilitate improved insect pest management in Australian cotton systems. Computers and Electronics
in Agriculture 43(2): 131-147.
Guan, S., Shikanai, T., Minami, T., Nakamura, M., Ueno, M. and Setouchi, H., 2006. Development of a system
for recording farming data by using a cellular phone equipped with GPS. Agricultural Information Research
(Japan) 15(3): 241-254.
Hetzroni, A., Edan Y.and Nagurka M., 2005a. Development and evaluation of icon-based date logging systems
for agricultural applications. Paper presented ath the International Congress on Information Technology
in Agriculture, Food and Environment (ITAFE 05), Adana, Turkey.
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and management. 5th conference of the European Federation for Information Technology in Agriculture,
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presented at the CIGR International Conference of Agricultural Engineering, Brazil.
Jensen, A.L. and Grevsen K., 2007. Web-based forecast of caulifower harvest for grower and supply chain.
Paper presented at the EFITA / WCCA 2007, Glasgow, Scotland.
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the EFITA 2003 conference, July 5-9, in Debrecen, Hungary.
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quenching the thirst. Plant Disease 86(1): 5.
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programs. Paper presented at AFITA 2002, Third Asian Conference for Information Technology in
Agriculture. October 26-28, 2002, Beijing, China.
Prototype system of monitoring farm operation with a
wearable device and feld server
T. Fukatsu
1
, K. Sugahara
1,2
, T. Nanseki
2
and S. Ninomiya
1
1
National Agriculture and Food Research Organization, 3-1-1 Kannondai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-
8666, Japan; fukatsu@affrc.go.jp
2
Kyushu University, Faculty of Agriculture, 6-10-1, Hakozaki, Fukuoka, 812-8581, Japan
Abstract
In order to monitor a farmers operation automatically, we propose a farm operation monitoring
system with Field Servers and a wearable device equipped with an RFID reader and motion
sensors. In this system, we try to monitor farm operation by analyzing data from the sensors and
detected RFID tags which are attached to various objects such as farming materials, facilities and
machinery. This method can be applied to various situations without changing the traditional system.
By constructing the proposed system based on the Field Server system, we are able to provide
effective management, complex analysis and interactive support applications for farm operation. In
order to evaluate this system, we conducted some experiments with a prototype wearable device.
By analyzing the pattern of RFID tags, which are detected through the users feld work, this system
recognizes farm operations with high accuracy. In order to evaluate the interactive support according
to a particular farms needs, we constructed an application to provide useful information in real-
time and to control specifc machines in a coordinated manner. The results of these experiments
show the effectiveness of this system. The experiments suggest the need for future studies of the
wearable device, recognition method and practical system.
Keywords: operating recognition, support application, wearable system, RFID, Field Server
Introduction
It is important to monitor crop growth, feld environment and farm operations in order to increase
agricultural productivity and to promote effcient management. However, it is severe to realize these
monitoring automatically in the agricultural feld because it requires the deployment of equipment
and the improvement of facilities which require much effort, space and cost. One of the key
technologies in feld monitoring is a sensor network using many small sensors with radio data links
(Khan et al., 1999). In our previous work, Field Server was developed as a sensor network applied
to agricultural situations (Fukatsu and Hirafuji, 2005). Field Server enables crop and environmental
monitoring with various sensors and cameras, but it is insuffcient for obtaining detailed information
about farm operations. Farm operations can be recorded using several approaches such as writing
them manually, inputting them with Internet cell-phones and using PDA software equipped with
GPS or voice entry (Guan et al., 2006; Otuka and Sugahara, 2003). These methods are not easy
to apply because they require farmers to be interrupted during their feld operations to input data.
These methods also handle only general items such as pesticide spraying, but monitoring farmers
operations in detail including what they observe, which pesticide they choose, in what area they
operate and how much they spray, is desired in order to realize a more useful and effective support
system.
In this study, we propose an innovative farm operation monitoring system to solve these problems
by using the Field Server system and a wearable device that we developed which is equipped
with a Radio Frequency Identifcation (RFID) reader and motion sensors. In this system, we try
to recognize a farmers operation automatically in various situations by analyzing data from the
sensors and the RFID tags, which are attached to all relevant objects such as farming materials,
facilities and machinery. We constructed the proposed system based on the Field Server system
because this system allows for effective management, multiple monitoring, network infrastructure,
and easy construction of service applications. In this paper, we explain the concept and features
of the system and then evaluate its effectiveness and potential through several experiments using
a prototype system.
Field Server System
Field Server, a web-based sensor node of an advanced sensor network system, has a wireless
LAN, an Internet camera, and a monitoring unit with a Web server (Figure 1). By controlling and
measuring various sensors including the camera, we can monitor not only the feld environment
but also crop growth, insect emergence and some feld operations (Fukatsu et al., 2008). A wireless
LAN provides high-speed transmission and long-distance communication at low cost, and Field
Server is therefore effective in collecting high-resolution image data. It also provides network
infrastructure and a hotspot area in the agricultural feld to overcome the digital divide.
Each module of the Field Server can be accessed in the manner of a Web page using a Web browser
such as Internet Explorer. It performs remote operations and monitoring with a management
program called Agent System (Fukatsu et al., 2006). Agent System manages all types of Web-
based modules via the Internet, so Field Server can be built with simple frmware on the inside.
Agent System can choose its operations fexibly and autonomously according to users requests and
changing situations with a rule-based function. It can also analyze the monitored data in real-time
in collaboration with useful Web applications such as image analysis and signal processing. This
architecture provides versatile and easily expansible functions without changing or rebooting the
main program and makes it possible to distribute calculation tasks.
By constructing the farm operation monitoring system based on the Field Server system, we can
exploit some of its advantages. Network infrastructure in the agricultural feld is available to
the monitoring system around Field Servers. This proposed system can be easily managed with
Agent System by use of a wearable device that can be accessed via the Internet. Some support
applications in response to farm operations are also provided easily by using the distributed Web
processing function.
Figure 1. Field Server System.
Farm operation monitoring system
Concept
To construct a useful farm operation monitoring system for a farmer, it is important to consider the
following functions. (1) The system must not encumber the farmers hands during farm operation.
(2) It should be easy to use for non-experts and should not involve complicated processes. (3) It
should be available under many conditions without changing the facilities and equipment. (4) It
should make effective use of monitoring information in real-time. In order to achieve these functions,
we propose a recognition method for farm operation with a wearable device equipped with an
RFID reader and motion sensors. The RFID system is generally used for individual recognition
in some areas of logistics, security control and in the livestock industry (Sugahara et al., 2007).
In our system, however, we adapted it for use in the recognition of farm operations. RFID tags
are attached to objects such as farming materials, implements, machinery, facilities, plants, felds
and so on. The wearable device detects a sequence of these RFID tags throughout the farmers
activities. In this method, the farmers operations are deduced by analyzing the detected patterns
of RFID tags and sensing data.
This method is fexibly available under many conditions without changing the facilities or equipment.
All that is necessary is to attach RFID tags to existing objects. For example, we can monitor how a
farmer operates agricultural implements by analyzing the detected pattern of RFID tags which are
attached to parts of implements such as handles, levers, buttons and keys. By attached RFID tags
to plant trays, partitions and felds, we can also monitor the time and locations of operations in a
greenhouse where GPS sometimes does not work well. This method recognizes farm operations
more accurately and specifcally by using motion sensors in addition to RFID tags.
In the proposed system, detected data from the wearable device is analyzed at a remote site instead
of by an internal device computer. By separating this function, the wearable device becomes
simple, small and light with a high performance process. By using the detected pattern and data,
farm operations are recognized with estimation algorithms such as pattern matching, Bayesian
estimation, principal component analysis, support vector machine, and so on. This recognition
function is easily and effectively modifed because of the distributed processing architecture. This
distributed processing architecture also enables interactive support applications which control
chosen machines in a coordinated manner and provide useful information to a farmer in real-time.
System design
Figure 2 shows the architecture of the farm operation monitoring system. It includes components
such as object items with attached RFID tags, a wearable device, Field Servers and a management
system. There are some types of RFID with different frequencies (2.45 GHz, 13.56 MHz, 134.2
kHz) which differ in terms of communication distance, tag shape, antenna size and regulation. In this
system, the 134.2 kHz type of RFID is used because of the emphasis on communication distance.
The wearable device equips a wireless LAN, an RFID reader with a modifed antenna and a
measurement unit with bending sensors and pressure sensors for the farmers hand. The RFID reader
and measurement unit are accessed via Field Servers by a mediation program in the management
system. The mediation program collects sensor and tag data from the wearable device and stores
them in the database (using Microsoft Access). Agent System does not access the wearable device
directly but rather accesses this database as a cache because the database is able to effciently treat
a massive amount of data stored with high frequency (200 ms). After accessing the database, Agent
System recognizes farm operations with an estimation algorithm. In this paper, we simply choose
a pattern matching with defned pattern table as an estimation algorithm.
Agent System with a rule-based function and distributed Web processing function can also provide
support applications according to farm operation. Some existing Web applications such as a
navigation system for appropriate pesticide use (Nanseki and Sugahara, 2006) are available for this
system to provide useful information to farmers. Some feld devices connected to Field Servers can
be appropriately controlled to assist farm operations using Agent System. In this case, it is necessary
to consider avoiding controlling interference between this event action and scheduled action. In
order to solve this problem, we introduced a multi Agent System in which one agent exclusively
performs scheduled action and other agent performs event action in a coordinated manner.
Experiments
Performance of RFID reader
In order to perform automatic recognition of farm operations with the wearable RFID reader, it is
important to detect RFID tags with a high degree of accuracy without conscious action at work.
Given the various operation contents and tag-attached situations, a high-performance antenna
which enables us to read RFID tags without contact is required in this system. Three types of
antennas were developed, and we used them to evaluate the systems performance in terms of
communication distance.
Figure 3 shows the experimental results and materials such as typical RFID tags (card, button and
stick type) and antennas (bracelet- (A), ring- (B) and fngertip-type (C)) considered to have an
easily wearable shape and adequate inductance of the antenna coil (47 uH for 134.2 kHz). In this
experiment, we measured the accessible distance from two directions (at vertical (a)/ horizontal (b)
to the normal line of magnetic force) each ten times between the tags and the antennas. These tags
are attached to objects and an operator wears the antenna by turns. The bracelet-type antenna has
suffcient distance (maximum 160-220 mm) for each tag in various situations. The communication
distance of the fngertip-type antenna is about one-third that of the bracelet-type, but it is capable
of detecting only fngered objects selectively. Tag type has an insignifcant effect on detecting
performance in this condition. This result shows that all combinations of tags and antennas are
better than the other types of RFID (2.4 GHz, 13.56MHz) (Nanseki et al., 2007).
Recognition of farm operation
To evaluate the basic performance of this system in a feld environment, we conducted several
experiments in various farm operation locations. In this paper, we describe one fundamental
experiment involving the entering and leaving of greenhouses. In this experiment, RFID tags
Figure 2. Farm operation monitoring system.
were attached to both sides of the door (tag-A: outside; tag-B: inside), and this system recognized
entering (detect tag-B after tag-A) and leaving (detect tag-A after tag-B) by the sequence pattern
of the detected tags.
Figure 4 shows some of the result data for the experiment, which tested the recognition of
both entering and leaving eight times each in two kinds of greenhouses. The percentage of
accurate recognition in total was 87.5% for entering and 81.3% for leaving. The main reason for
misrecognition was not detection error due to inadequate antenna sensitivity but false detection due
to excessive antenna range, in which the antenna mistakenly detects a far-side tag through the door.
Support application according to farm operation
This system enables us not only to recognize farm operations but also to provide support applications
according to the recognized operation. In this experiment, we constructed support applications
for the farm operation of pesticide preparation, in which it is important for the farmer to provide
useful information regarding proper usage and to record the operation procedure for custody and
management. RFID tags were attached to a warehouse door, some points of a rack in a warehouse
and stored pesticide bottles. When the system recognized that a certain bottle was being taken, it
accessed the camera of a neighboring Field Server to record the target process with a zoom function,
Figure 3. experimental materials and results.
Figure 4. Recognition result of entering and leaving.
and it also sent detailed information and judgment for appropriate use regarding the target pesticide
to a wearable computer display.
Figure 5 shows the operation status fow of the management system in this experiment. One agent
(Agent-A) monitored the Field Servers based on their scheduled operation and other agent (Agent-B)
periodically checked the RFID database. When a defned operation was recognized, Agent-B sent
a stop signal to Agent-A to avoid access collision, and Agent-B preferentially directed the camera
of the Field Server to the position of the detected rack-attached RFID tags. When a user with a
wearable device tried to bring out the bottles randomly in this experiment, the system was able to
record the target operation procedure using image data without problems.
In this experiment, we also tested whether the system was able to provide appropriate information.
After recognition of the operation, Agent-B searched for the pesticide name and detailed information
in a prepared list. This information was converted to an HTML fle including a link to the judgment
for appropriate pesticide use provided by the Web application (Figure 6). In this experiment involving
fve kinds of pesticide bottles, the user was able to obtain correct information in HTML form on a
wearable computer display connected to the Internet via Field Servers.
Figure 5. Operation status fow of agent system.
Figure 6. Support application of providing useful information.
Discussion
We proposed a farm operation monitoring system composed of Field Servers and a wearable device
and evaluated the potential and effectiveness of this system experimentally. These experiments
show that the prototype system is able to recognize farm operations well and to provide support
applications according to the operation. Through the experiments, we determined future directions
of research on wearable device, recognition method and practical system.
In the recognition experiment, there were some failed detections of RFID tags because of excessive
antenna sensitivity. We propose solutions such as adequate range design with directional antennas,
a multi-antenna switching method with a phased array and a tag allocation technique based on
objects and operations. In some farm situations, it is diffcult to recognize complex and detailed
operations using only detected RFID tags. For example, this system does not distinguish between
holding an implement and using it. Currently, we are testing the proposed system with the wearable
device and the addition of various motion sensors in these situations.
In order to recognize farm operations more accurately, it is required not only to detect RFID tags
correctly on the objects but also to improve the algorithm for the estimation of farm operations
from detected data. The algorithm should be customized and adjusted according to the performance
of the wearable device, tag allocation, operation contents and requirements.
In this paper, we only constructed support applications to provide information and to record
operations, but this system enables us to apply interactive applications such as sharing databases
regarding operation techniques, controlling power assist tools and navigation- and attention-system
related to operations. If we are able to obtain information not only on farm operations but also on
the farmers behavior e.g. what he pays attention and how he acts with this system, it will become
an important tool for understanding practicing farmers.
From the viewpoint of the Field Server system, we can treat the wearable device as a special Field
Server which selectively measures important objects with mobile felds. In traditional monitoring
with an automatic system, we were not able to obtain these measurement data. By improving the
system, we can develop the new concept of a user-based monitoring system in a sensor network.
References
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ACM/IEEE Intl. Conf. on Mobile Computing and Networking: 271-278.
Fukatsu, T. and Hirafuji, M., 2005. Field monitoring using sensor-nodes with a Web server. Journal of Robotics
and Mechatronics 17(2): 164-172.
Guan, S., Shikanai, T., Minami, T., Nakamura, M., Ueno, M. and Setouchi, H., 2006. Development of a System
for Recording Farming Data by Using a Cellular Phone Equipped with GPS. Agricultural Information
Research 15(3): 47-56.
Otuka, A. and Sugahara, K., 2003. A Labor Management Application Using Handheld Computers. Agricultural
Information Research 12(2): 113-124.
Fukatsu, T., Saito,Y., Suzuki, T., Kobayashi, K., and Hirafuji, M., 2008. A Long-Term Field Monitoring
System with Field Servers at a Grape Farm. Proc. of Application of Precision Agriculture for Fruits and
Vegetables: CD-ROM.
Fukatsu, T., Hirafuji, M. and Kiura, T., 2006. An agent system for operating Web-based sensor nodes via the
Internet. Journal of Robotics and Mechatronics 18(2): 186-194.
Sugahara, K., Sato, K. and Kono, Y., 2007. Traceability System for Agricultural Products Distribution Based
on RFID Technology. Proc. of EFITA 2007: CD-ROM.
Nanseki, T., and Sugahara, K., 2006. A Navigation System for Appropriate pesticide use: System development
and application in Japan. Proc. of AFITA 2006: 293-300.
Nanseki, T., Sugahara, K., Fukatsu, T., 2007. Farming Operation Automatic Recognition System with RFID.
Agricultural Information Research 16(3): 132-140 (in Japanese).
Information requirements and data sources for automated
irrigation control in tree crops
J. Casadess
IRTA, Institut de Recerca i Tecnologia Agroalimentries, Avgda. Alcalde Rovira Roure, 191, 25198
Lleida, Spain; Jaume.Casadesus@irta.cat
Abstract
The overall requirements of information for drip-irrigation control in tree crops are analyzed
here using an abstraction for a generic controller that tries to summarize most of the reported
approaches in irrigation control. Despite the diversity of control strategies and sources of data that
can be used to support them, some general patterns can be recognized. This analysis highlights
three key pieces of information that are essential for most irrigation control applications. First, an
estimation of the water needs imposed by the environmental conditions. Basically, this means an
estimate of the reference crop evapotranspiration (ETo), which can either be calculated from a set
of local meteorological sensors, or estimated from a simplifed subset of these sensors, or queried
to an external meteorological network. Second, an indication of vegetation size or its coupling to
the environment. This can be either based on crop coeffcients (Kc) published by irrigation support
organizations, or estimated from ground cover measurements or derived from data obtained from
external sources like vegetation maps or remote sensing images. And third, an indication of the crop
water state, which must be based on sensor measurements within the irrigated system. A variety
of approaches exist for assessing the crop water state, including different soil probes as well as
the use of plant water-stress indices derived from different types of plant probes. Hence, all these
pieces of information can be supported by multiple sources of data, whose feasibility will vary
from case to case. Then, irrigation control applications should not predetermine how those pieces
of information will be obtained but should facilitate the adaptation of the control strategies to the
particular context of each scenario. The identifcation of a general pattern for irrigation control
that can be implemented in a variety of ways provides a sound base and at the same time allows a
great fexibility to adapt to particular conditions.
Keywords: irrigation control, phytomonitoring, sensor networks, evapotranspiration, Kc
Introduction
Advances in sensor design, wireless communications and digital electronics are presumably
leading towards a scenario where technologies like wireless sensor networks will provide a great
capacity for data acquisition and ubiquitous computing, to support many production processes and
human activities (Kwiatkowska et al., 2008). Meanwhile, there are still some milestones to reach
from different disciplines before those potentialities are truly fulflled (Akyldiz et al., 2002). In
this sense, in order to implement effcient systems for specifc applications, users and application
domain experts are required to collaborate with hardware and software designers in the development
processes (Romer and Mattern, 2004).
One promising feld for sensor networks is the remote supervision and control of irrigation systems.
Though the applications of sensor network technologies in agriculture are still rare, a fast grow
is expected in the next few years (Wang et al., 2006). Preparing the irrigation domain for the
adoption of these technologies requires some specifc developments, from planning sensor systems
specifcally addressed to match the actual information requirements of supervision and control
processes, to defning specifc algorithms that effectively extract information from the acquired
data and use it for managing irrigation. Additionally, to get full proft of the tendency towards an
increased interoperability of data and applications, isolated standalone sensor networks are not
likely the best approach. Instead, the available data for a given application should not be limited
to those collected by a sensor system specifcally deployed for that application but should also
consider data that can be obtained through interoperability with other systems.
In this context, it makes sense that the design of applications for irrigation control and supervision
frst analyzes which are the information requirements for different approaches of irrigation control
and then revise what data sources i.e. sensors, interaction with users or with other applications
and processing methods might be used to support them. To constrain the scope of the present
analysis, it focuses on applications for automated remote control and supervision in the specifc
context of tree-crop drip irrigation.
General characteristics of irrigation control
Control theory has developed a sound background for the analysis and design of control systems (e.g.
Ogata 2003, Astrm and Murray, 2008). However, irrigation control systems are rarely expressed
in terms of control theory. Instead, they use to be expressed plainly in terms of the agricultural
domain, probably because of the need for simple and intuitive procedures and by some diffculties
for applying in this domain the more sophisticate design principles of control theory.
Compared with control processes in other domains, irrigation control systems have to manage large
open feld areas with very low investment and operational costs, facing large uncertainties in the
assessment of the state of the system and its disturbing factors.
Some reasons that justify such uncertainties are the lack of effective measuring methods at the
required scale and cost, given the large spatial variability in most of the relevant variables. Also,
some of the factors that cause perturbations on the irrigated systems are diffcult to observe and
practically impossible to measure in realistic applications. For instance, the variable contributions of
groundwater discharge to the soil water balance. In addition, the irrigated system includes biological
components (mainly the plants but also pests and soil organisms), whose response to irrigation and
further effect on the state of the system would be rather complex to modelize.
Regarding the time properties of irrigation control, most processes that affect the state of the system
show a pronounced diurnal cycle e.g. plant transpiration. Soil water status is also subjected to
marked patterns as a direct effect of irrigation and later re-equilibrium of soil water. All these
variability on a diurnal scale lead often to the practical need to simplify the time scale by describing
the state of the system in a discrete day to day basis instead of a time-continuous basis. Then the
usual time granularity for irrigation control in open feld crops is typically one day, which is a long
time compared with control processes in other domains.
Different approaches for irrigation control
Control theory distinguishes between closed loop and open loop controls. Closed loop control
systems use feedback to compare a reference target state of the system with a measurement of
its actual state and they activate some control actions to reduce the difference between the target
state and the actual state. In contrast, open loop systems do not use feedback; instead they assume
a model of response of the system and apply some control actions without measuring their effects
on the controlled system (cf. Ogata, 2003).
Translated to the irrigation domain, the most common control actions are either starting or stopping
irrigation or scheduling a certain irrigation dose for the next irrigation event. As the fnal objective
of irrigation control is to optimize the daily water supply in terms of water balance and plant
production, the state of the system is usually described in terms of crop water state.
Open loop irrigation control
Many examples of open loop control can be found in the domain of irrigation. Most of them consist
of programming the irrigation system to supply the required amount of water to compensate the
estimated crop evapotranspiration (ET). These open loop control strategies are based on some
estimation of ET without measuring the actual water state of the crop (Figure 1). The most common
example is the irrigation based on the reference evapotranspiration (ETo) following the FAO
recommendation (Allen et al., 1998). This requires several meteorological variables and the crop
coeffcient, Kc, which is commonly calculated in experimental stations and published through
irrigation support services. This coeffcient typically depends on the plant species, use to vary
with factors like ground cover or crop growth stage and in consequence often it is diffcult to fnd
a published reference that matches the specifc plant characteristics of the particular crop where it
has to be applied. For this reason, in some cases Kc is estimated from canopy size, ground cover
or similar crop parameters (Girona et al., 2004; Goodwin et al., 2006), which can be measured
by sensors.
Beyond the FAO method, there are other possible methods for estimating ET that sometimes are
chosen because they require less input data (Rana and Katerji, 2000).
Another possibility for estimating ET is based on measurements in well irrigated trees, for instance
measuring sap fow (Fernandez et al., 2008a), which then can be used to control irrigation of other
trees.
The advantages of open loop control of irrigation are that it uses to be rather simple to implement
and effectively deals with the day to day variability in the crop water demand imposed by the
meteorological conditions. Also, the meteorological conditions can be assumed to be quite
homogeneous on a large area around the measuring point, and then the same sensors can be used
to support a large irrigated area.
On the other hand, open loop control of irrigation is highly sensitive to its parameterization
typically Kc. Inappropriate parameterizations will produce sustained under-irrigation or over-
irrigation which an open loop controller is unable to detect and correct. In addition, the system
cannot respond by its own to perturbations like rainfall or groundwater discharge.
Closed loop irrigation control
Typically, the implementation of a closed control loop for irrigation implies measuring the soil
water status by some type of soil water probe (Figure 2). The most common examples consist of
discrete on/off control of solenoid valves that open or close when the signal of a soil moisture probe
crosses some predefned thresholds (Dukes and Scholberg, 2005; Munoz-Calpena et al., 2005). More
elaborated systems modulate the daily irrigation dose based on some adaptive feedback algorithm
that use soil water probes to determine the effect of previous irrigation events (Singh et al., 1995;
Ribeiro and Yoder, 1997; Capraro et al., 2008).
Other implementations of closed loop control can be found that instead of measuring soil water status
measure the plant water status (Jones, 2004). Focusing in the plant rather than in the soil makes
sense when there are doubts in how the readings by soil probes are representative of the overall
Figure 1. Block diagram for a typical open loop irrigation control.
crop state. The most common use of plant sensors in irrigation control is through the calculation
of some water stress index for triggering irrigation when it reaches some predefned threshold. The
range of plant features whose measurements have been used for irrigation control includes stem
diameter (Fereres and Goldhamer, 2003), canopy temperature (Abraham et al., 2000), acoustic
emissions (Yang et al., 2004) and sap fow (Fernandez et al., 2008b).
The main advantage of closed loop controls is that they can adjust themselves to evolving
scenarios, including variation in crop water demand as well as in water inputs like rainfall and
groundwater discharge. However, as outlined above, in some cases it is diffcult to obtain a reliable
and representative measurement of the crop water status, due to the spatial heterogeneity and the
lack of effective and affordable probes. Also, the most common use of closed control systems
requires some reference thresholds which are not always available or undisputable. For instance,
the water status in drip irrigated soils is highly variable in a diurnal cycle and in a 3D space relative
to drippers and trees. These patterns are quite site specifc, which can cause that once the probes
have been installed, the thresholds have to be empirically determined for each particular probe
(Nogueira et al., 2003).
Regarding the use of plant sensors, one of its problems is that the sensitivity of the measured
parameter to the actual water status of the crop uses to vary along the cropping cycle, which increases
the diffculty in fnding a reliable reference value for its use on a specifc scenario (Jones 2004).
Hybrid irrigation control systems
Given the complementary advantages of open loop and closed loop irrigation control systems, some
hybrid approaches have also been developed (Norrie et al., 1994; Krger et al., 1999; Abraham
et al., 2000; Bacci et al., 2008). The simplest approach consists of applying daily irrigation doses
based on historical ETo complemented with a feedback by some soil water probe that deactivates
irrigation when soil water is above a given threshold (Munoz-Carpena et al., 2005). In other similar
hybrid implementations the ET can be estimated in real-time by some meteorological measurement
like incident radiation (Cceres et al., 2007).
Plant sensors have also been used in hybrid approaches to trigger irrigation. For instance, leaf to air
temperature was used for the activation of a system where the irrigation volume was determined
by an ET model (Prenger et al., 2005).
An interesting approach for integrating the open loop and the closed loop controls is to make use
of feedback from soil water sensors to adjust the Kc parameter that is used by the ET model in the
open loop (Bacci et al., 2008, Casadess et al., 2009).
The advantage of a hybrid control is that it includes both the anticipative response of open loop
systems to day to day meteorological variation as well as the adaptive response of closed loop
systems to correct drifts from the target crop water state. Thus it is more robust in front of weak
parameterization and uncontrolled perturbations. On the other hand, hybrid systems are more
complex, involving more physical components and also more information requirements.
Figure 2. Block diagram for a typical closed loop irrigation control.
An abstraction for dealing with most types of irrigation control approaches
A hybrid control system adds the advantages of open loop and closed loop controls and at the same
time it is a generalization that includes both basic types. Then, a unifed view of the functionalities
and requirements for irrigation control can be based on the abstraction of a generic hybrid control
system whose components can be implemented in a variety of different ways.
Figure 4 shows a UML diagram representing a generalized irrigation control system, some possible
implementations of its components and the data requirements associated to those particular
implementations. Basically, it is composed of a closed loop part and an open loop part. The closed
loop is associated with some entity representing the crop water state and another that supplies
the feedback response to the water state, while the open loop is associated with some entity that
supplies an estimation of ET. Then, each of these three types of entities, Crop Water State, Response
Function, and ET Model, can be implemented in a variety of ways. For instance, the ET model
can be implemented either by some measurements on reference plants or by some model based on
meteorological data. For this later option, the fgure shows the most likely case which is a model
based on ETo and Kc. That model would be associated with an entity representing the Kc, which
in turn could be of diferent types such as either plainly tabulated Kc values, or Kc estimated from
groundcover, or Kc adaptatively modulated by the closed loop control in response to the crop
water state.
Each of these possible implementations has its own data dependencies. This means that every
application of this schema for a particular case is a particular combination of one type of Crop
Water State, one type of Response Function and one type of ET Model and this combination will
imply some particular requirements of data.
Regarding the types of data shown in Figure 4, those labeled as Measurements need to be measured
with sensors within this system as they represent the state of this particular system. On the other
hand, those labeled as References are typically user input, though they might also be obtained from
interaction with other applications e.g. some repository of Kc references or generated within
the same application by some machine learning algorithm. Finally, those data types labeled as
Data, can either be directly measured by the same system or obtained from external sources, like
GIS tools or meteorological web services.
Figure 3. Block diagram for a possible hybrid irrigation control.
Conclusions
There are a variety of approaches for controlling irrigation and each choice implies a particular
set of information requirements for which, different sensor types and other sources of data can be
considered. The fnal implementation decisions must be based on the availability of the required
data and the particular costs and benefts for each particular scenario. These factors, availability,
costs and benefts are not fxed but variable in time as technologies evolve and also productive
objectives may change. Decoupling the main functionality of irrigation control from specifc control
approaches and data sources allows a greater fexibility to adapt to particular scenarios.
Acknowledgements
We acknowledge the support of the CSD2006-00067 grants to CONSOLIDER-INGENIO 2010
and of the project AGL2007-66279-C03-01 by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation.
Figure 4. UML representation of an abstract irrigation control system. The upper panel shows
its basic components, the middle panel shows how those components could be implemented in
different ways, leading to different requirements of data, which are shown in the lower panel.
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Akyildiz, I.F., Su, W., Sankarasubramaniam, Y. and Cayirci, E. 2002. Wireless sensor networks: a survey.
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Allen, R.G., Pereira, L.S., Raes, D. and Smith, M. 1998. Crop evapotranspiration: guidelines for computing
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Bacci, L., Battista, P. and Rapia, B. 2007. An integrated method for irrigation scheduling of potted plants.
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Capraro, F., Patino D., Tosetti, S. and Schugurensky C. 2008. Neural network-based irrigation control for
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Casadess, J., Mata, M., del Campo, J. and Girona, J. 2009. Automated modulation of Kc in peach based on
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Geo-enabled hands free registration of tillage activities in
arable farming
H. Janssen
1
, T. van der Wal
2
, A. Beek
3
, J.A. van Rossum
3
and M. Uyterlinde
3
1
Wageningen UR, Alterra, P.O. Box 47, 6700 AA Wageningen, the Netherlands; Henk.Janssen@wur.nl
2
Portolis, Spoorbaanweg 23, 3911 CA Rhenen, the Netherlands; Tamme@portolis.nl
3
Food Proces Innovations BV, Van Ledenberchstraat 10, 2334 AT Leiden, the Netherlands
Abstract
European arable farmers increasingly suffer from an administrative burden caused by intense
governmental legislation and regulation and information demand on activities in the agri-chain. The
geo-ICT domain provides useful tools to their increasing call to simplify the rules and administration.
Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) combined with Geographical Information Systems
(GIS) and wireless communication (GPRS, UMTS) make up a perfect toolkit to develop hands
free registration systems for crop husbandry activities on parcel level, and thus assisting the farmer
in his time consuming administrative tasks. Geo-enabled farming is promising in the context of
technological development of satellite navigation, GIS-datasets and development of sensors for
the registration of machinery activities. Innovative farmers together with geo-researchers and
hardware developers built a hard- and software demonstrator to register where, when and
what on parcel level without human interaction. Test bed results show the potential benefts for
arable farmers. The collected and derived data can be used for farm management and to deliver
information to the agro-industry chain and retailers. Based on evaluation of the information model
used in the experiment, future developments and research challenges are presented. The benefts
of integration of geo-technology and workfow management are evident, but the results also show
that more detailed work has to be done.
Keywords: GPS, automated documentation, food safety
Introduction
Administrative tasks
Most arable farmers consider the work on administrative tasks to be a burden. Farmers are recording
information to meet legal or commercial obligations to provide documentation of their activities
(or products). A substantial amount of information concerns the documentation of crop husbandry
activities. Four stakeholders concerning this information request this: The government, the buyers,
the farmer himself and his advisory services.
In a study into the administrative costs of farmers, the European Commission considers an
administrative activity to be a burden if the information would not be recorded without laws and
regulations (European Commission, 2006). This suggests that certain records are only taken for
regulatory use. But also buyers are requesting information about the crop husbandry, for food safety
purposes and quality assurance. To some extend, these records are taken to be able to sell the product.
At the same time, farmers are confronted with high dynamics in prices, causing them to be aware
of their cash fows and costs of production. When farmers seek assistance in decision making, the
same records are relevant information to provide a good advice. Our central proposition therefore
is: farmers need to take more records of their operational work in order to satisfy governments,
buyers and their own information needs even though they do not like this work. This calls for
attempts to automate record keeping to reduce farmers burdens and irritation and to improve the
quality and quantity of information.
Since the increased (internal) information demand should not lead to an increase in administrative
desk top time, the question arises if and how geospatial data and software can assist farmers in
automated registration of farming activities.
Analysis
Satellite navigation devices provide location and time and each action at an arable farm has a location
and time. Combination of this place and time information with sensor information on machinery
status, produces status-time-place triplets that form the core of our information.
Our analysis framework is presented in Figure 1. A farm consists of production factors (human
resources, felds, machinery, etc.) and farming activities (potato cultivation, etc.). Each farming
activity implies a set of actions to be taken to create a product that can be sold. This can also be a
service. All actions take place on a production factor (a feld) and involve the use of other production
factors (tractor, plough, seed, etc.) hence the double relation between action and production factor.
At the aggregated level, a farmer needs to report his actions in concise forms, in general in the
shape of what where when. For instance: seed bed preparation for potatoes on 23 March on feld
number 2. If we drill down into the information content of this record, it is clear that each of these
attributes can be composite. At the most detailed level (the lowest level) we record time and place
(e.g. by using satellite navigation) and the status of the tractor-implement combination in the feld.
Proposed method
As stated above, farmers have to report activities on parcel and crop level in order to comply with
information demands. Automated record keeping and aggregation will (partly) relieve the farmer
from his administrative work. We propose to develop a hands-free registration strategy using Global
Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) combined with Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and
wireless communication (GPRS, UMTS). Potentially this makes up a perfect toolkit to develop
hands free registration systems for crop husbandry activities on parcel level, and thus assisting the
farmer in his time consuming administrative tasks.
For purposes of clarity, we present here the case of spraying a wheat crop. The farmer takes the
following actions:
The farmer has to fll the tank of the sprayer with a weighed amount of a chemical agent and
water.
The farmer drives to the crop he wants to spray (at a known location).
On the parcel he drives the sprayer in swaths until the entire crop is treated.
In doing this, he respects spray-free zones around watercourses and other protected areas.
Figure 1. Analytical framework for automated record keeping of farming activities and actions.
In an automated registration situation, these actions should result in a line in a report like: 5 hectares
of wheat on parcel y sprayed with 3.7 kilograms of product x. This record is in fact an aggregate and
combination of collected point information and knowledge in space and time. Geospatial functions
are needed to aggregate and combine point information to cultivation level. The combination of
tractor and sprayer is not aware of the crop it is spraying: geospatial overlaying is needed to detect
what cultivation was on the location that was sprayed. Similarly, if the farmer had to refll his tank
in order to complete this cultivation, tempo-spatial analysis will show that he did not spray the
same crop twice but merely completed his work.
The model
In modern farm management tools, GIS is used to geometrically plan all crops for the growing
season, in space and time. Using GPS combined with status sensors on machinery, it is possible to
collect information on place (x,y,z), time (t) and machine status (s).
In order to automatically derive information on tillage activities on parcel level, we need a model
to transform machine sensor measurements in place (x,y,z) and time (t) (Events) to relevant
homogeneous information on area level. This area can be a complete crop parcel, or sub areas
within this parcel.
The model is based on the processing of successive geo-measurements. Most machine activities
are carried out in adjacent strips (swaths) on parcels. In the frst step, the model aggregates point
information to line information. The model starts by taking the frst received Event from the database.
From this Event, the model collects status information of the active sensors on the equipment. In
the case of spraying, the Event will contain status information on fow of the agro chemical. The
model then compares the sensor status information of this point with the sensor status information
of the next Event in the database. Dependent on the distance in time and space between the two
points and the status of the sensors, the model decides to combine the two Events in a collection
(a line). In the case of spraying, the information of two points is considered homogenous if the
fow sensor value is higher than the previous point and the points are not too distant in space and
time. The model keeps combining successive points in this collection, until the sensor information
indicates a change in status of the sprayer. In our example, the collection is closed when the fow
sensor value hasnt changed in comparison with the latest point. And lhistoire se rpte for the
remaining Events.
The frst run of the model combined points (Events) into collections. The collections represent
sprayed strips. Based on the points in the collections, geometric lines are calculated. In order to
calculate the width of a sprayed strip, the model selects the properties of the sprayer from the
database. By geometric buffering of the line with the working width of sprayer, the model is able
to generate a sprayed polygon.
The next run of the model is similar to the frst run. Combination of generated homogenous polygons
with similar properties (the sprayed swaths) leads to a treated area, in our example to a sprayed
area. The fow chart (Figure 2) shows how geo objects on different level (point, lines or polygons)
can be combined using decision rules. The result of each model run is a collection of geo objects
that are homogenous for a set of relevant properties.
By processing point information, the model has thus derived a treated area. By overlaying the
calculated homogenous treated areas with the geometric cropping plan, the model will be able to
quantify which crops have had specifc treatments in space and time.
Demonstration
In order to register farming activities in the feld, tractors and farming machinery are equipped with
communication hardware. On each tractor a communication unit is mounted. This unit consists
of a GPS-receiver, a GPRS/Wif-communication board and embedded software to communicate
with sensors that collect status information of machinery attached to the tractor. The sensors watch
relevant elements of the machinery, thus gathering information on the actual status of the farming
equipment.
Example of a status sensor is the wheel-tic sensor. This bipolar sensor reacts to movement of
a tractor wheel. Each time a wheel bolt passes the magnetic feld of this sensor, it sends a pulse
to the communication unit. The wheel-tic sensor is a cumulative sensor, its pulses are counted
and registered. The information can be used to deduct movement of the tractor. A fow sensor
can detect the fow of the agro chemical solution in the sprayer, and is used to deduct whether the
sprayer is active.
The raw information of the machinery is stored in a fle based data store (Figure 3). The model
collects raw information from this data store and stores enriched information in a PostGIS-database,
as described in the previous paragraph. A web viewer completes the infrastructure.
In the demonstration, the information is presented in the web viewer within 15 minutes. Figure 4
shows a screenshot of the web viewer. The sprayed swaths are presented using Google Maps, in
combination with a time line. The time line and map are related, a selection on the time line will
lead to a change in the map viewer.
Discussion
In this project the analytical framework was used to create a design that was implemented in a
demonstration test bed. The architecture as described consisted of hardware components producing
event specifc data streams transmitted and stored on the raw data server. The software retrieved
data from the server and performs an information analysis the produce relevant homogeneous
information at cultural practise (farm operation) or parcel level. As has been showed by the
demonstration, the architecture works and produces data. In our demonstration, it is possible to
verify the correctness of the system.
The demonstration proofs that the system works under test conditions. To be applicable in real
practical situations the system needs to be functionally improved. The following issues have been
addressed that need improvement for further implementation:
Automatic outlier recognition and exception handling of sensors
The behaviour of sensors has been modelled straightforward. In practice, sensors sometimes provide
values that are unexpected. Exceptions have been noted of different sensors producing data that
Figure 2. Model fow chart.
does not correspond to the activity, for instance a fow sensor producing a data event while no
fow was measured. Although the quality of the sensors can be addressed, it is always possible that
these kinds of events are triggered and the software dealing with data-aggregation and -distillation
needs routines to cope with that.
Figure 3. Test bed infrastructure.
Figure 4. Screenshot of test bed viewer.
Precision of location devices
As the GPS location device is producing the time and space attributes of a data event, the precision
of the location device can be a source of disturbance. Using the single band, open service of GPS,
the expected precision is around 1.5-2.5 meters. This is shown on the map as noise imposed on
the right track. As with the sensors, the quality of the positioning can be improved by introducing
more advanced (and costly) receivers, but also here outliers can be expected and the software needs
to be able to deal with that.
Realistic circumstances in agricultural practice
The test bed assumes that a crop is treated with one activity at the time, with one machine, in one
timeslot. In reality, activities can be combined, more machines can be involved and a treatment
can be completed at a later moment. The aggregation therefore needs to be able to deal with these
complex situations.
So, although the system works in demonstration circumstances, to make it operational requires
considerable work. Many farmers for instance, use contractors to perform certain treatments,
especially in peak times. In order to create a complete and consistent record of feld activities the
contractors work needs to be recorded as well and integrated into a single system. This requires
a cross-enterprise communication standard. Janssen and Van der Wal (2006) have described such
a standard for the data exchange between national administration and farmers. This seems a good
candidate standard for the communication here as well.
The complex situation of sensors producing data events, which then need to be condensed into
concise, sensible information, is a diffcult issue to tackle. Dealing with outliers and exceptions,
imprecise location measurements and an agricultural practice that imposes complex boundary
conditions requires analytical tools that deal with these issues. For instance more advanced clustering
or other statistical techniques are required.
The chosen strategy to produce instantaneous events of data that need aggregation afterwards
has been tested. Although other strategies, like real-time clustering, have not been tested, the
complexity of farm practices requires an as late as possible aggregation, in order to retrieve the
right information out off the data fows. We conclude therefore that the proposed strategy is a
good candidate to automate the registration and documentation on farm. However, implementation
requires further investigating and solving problems as has been described.
Acknowledgements
This article describes activities carried out in a joined project commissioned by FPI BV, with
company AnyWi (www.anywi.com) that developed the sensor and communication hardware;
Alterra, Portolis and Hogeschool Leiden (Leiden University of Applied Sciences) developed the
geo-ICT infrastructure and the internet interface.
References
European Commission, 2006, Measuring administrative costs and reducing administrative burdens in the
European Union, Brussels, 14.11.2006 COM(2006) 691 fnal.
Janssen, H. and Van der Wal, T., 2006, Internet en geo-informatie: een perfecte combinatie. Agro Informatica
19-1: 11-15.
A multi-level modelling approach for food supply chains
using the unifed modeling language (UML)
R. Lehmann, M. Fritz and G. Schiefer
University of Bonn, Department of Food and Resource Economics, Chair for Business Management,
Organization and Information Management, Meckenheimer Allee 174, 53115 Bonn, Germany;
richard.lehmann@uni-bonn.de; m.fritz@uni-bonn.de; schiefer@uni-bonn.de
Abstract
Food supply chains differ from supply chains in other sectors by their complexity which makes
modelling in this feld an exceedingly diffcult task. Decision makers in the agri-food sector need
to involve a multitude of interacting elements into their decision process so they need models
which allow analysing these elements in interrelated levels and thereby also in different degrees
of abstraction. Therefore the present paper proposes a multi-level modelling approach using the
Unifed Modeling Language (UML) considering a requirement, process and information level.
The frst level identifes relevant chain actors, their tasks and requirements, therewith providing
a basis for the second level, where these tasks and requirements are further specifed by implying
detailed actions, physical and informational resources as well as major decision points. Based on
the resources of the second level, the third level is modelled focusing on information availability
and exchange. By means of a simplifed food supply chain a systematic modelling approach is
introduced, targeting at documentation, analysis, communication and improvement of interrelated
production and information processes.
Keywords: supply chain management, process modelling, information modelling, process interaction
Introduction
Production and information processes in the agri-food sector are increasingly confronted with
requirements by consumer, legislation and market (Hannus, 2008). Additionally, due to open EU-
markets and new emerging markets worldwide, competition is continuously intensifying. For coping
with recent challenges as well as existing process ineffciencies, enterprises in food supply chains
need support at documenting, analysing and communicating the established processes in order to
improve them. Requirements need to be identifed and transferred into according production and
information processes, thereby also taking the interrelations between these processes into account
since they are particularly important for quality management in the food sector. However, the
high complexity of food supply chains and the strong interrelations between their production and
information processes makes modelling in this feld an exceedingly diffcult task. Existing modelling
approaches need to be enhanced to make the complexities of food supply chains comprehensible.
Traditional system modelling approaches have particular limitations at modelling chain-wide
production and information processes as well as their interrelations. The complexity of food
supply chains and the resulting multitude of interacting elements require models which allow
capturing all these elements in interrelated views and moreover in different degrees of abstraction
(Oestereich et al., 2004). Hence, the present paper introduces a multi-level modelling approach
using the Unifed Modeling language (UML), the de facto modelling standard. After a literature
overview on supply chain modelling, the different levels of the approach are presented and their
interrelations discussed. All models are presented using a simplifed food supply chain consisting
of Production, Processing and Trade. In three interrelated modelling levels the approach
includes identifcation of chain-relevant actors, their tasks and requirement, further specifcation of
identifed processes and therefore needed resources as well as analysis of information availability
and exchange. It proposes a methodology for documentation, analysis and communication of the
aforementioned aspects therewith providing the basis for production and information process
improvement in food supply chains.
Literature background
Food supply chains can be subdivided into different stages. Agriculture, horticulture, fshery and
aquaculture are the primary production, whereas manufacturing, which processes the food into
products for the consumer, together with the packaging enterprises, are an intermediate stage, and
the wholesalers, retailers and caterers are the fnal stages of a supply chain. At each stage in the
chain value is added to the food which allows compensating the costs of the transport and also
provides a proft margin (Webster, 2001). Thereby, enterprises in the European Unions food sector
show an outstanding global position, but in order to persist in the market, to keep this position and
to successfully compete in the future, enterprises need to permanently adjust their processes to
constantly changing situations.
However, enterprises in food supply chains are not able to resolve the ineffciencies by themselves.
They need professional, organisational and technical help (Poigne, 2008). Therefore a clear
and chain-wide documentation of the existing situation as well as tools for further analysis and
communication are needed in order to plan and assess future scenarios and to support decision
makers in the enterprises. Since a supply chain model is an abstraction of the real processes in
the chain it can be used as a tool for documentation, analysis and communication, targeting at
improving these processes.
In the majority of cases, reality which is modelled shows a lot more of factors, dependencies and
exceptions which, however, mostly are not important for the modelling objective. Modelling shows
clear advantages, particularly compared to using natural language. Natural language makes it
diffcult to change the perspective since it is already determined by the given document. Hence, if
different perspectives are considered and according documents are created, this mostly leads to an
inconsistent collection of information which is more a burden than a tool for the user. Unlike a simple
description in natural language, a model has a clear structure which connects the single elements
of the model. Therewith, it is possible to organise the information in a way which allows different
perspectives on the model in different degrees of abstraction. To make complex interrelations
comprehensible, graphical models like diagrams are widely used, in most cases supported by a
modelling tool (Kreische, 2004). On the one hand, the model has to give the opportunity to include
precise data, on the other hand, the model should not overburden its user by being too complex,
especially if the target group has no technical background (Oestereich et al., 2004).
Although many authors have proposed major categories of supply chain models, the basic ideas
behind these classifcations are very similar (Kim and Rogers, 2005). Min and Zhou (2002)
classifed supply chain models into deterministic, stochastic, hybrid and IT-driven models. All of
these modelling approaches are characterised by different criteria of which the formality, scalability,
enactability and ease of use can be considered as the most important ones (Luo and Tung, 1999).
Thereby formality is determined by the precision of the language and its notation, scalability by
size and complexity of the processes the approach can optimally handle, enactability by the support
of automated enaction and process manipulation, and ease of use by the diffculty of the method
to understand and use.
Modelling complex and dynamic systems like food supply chains requires the use of multiple views
in order to make the focused aspects and their interrelations comprehensible. Thereby, each view can
be described through specifc diagrams. Curtis et al. (1992) identifed the four most common views
for process modelling as the functional, behavioural, informational and organisational view. This
means that supply chain modelling should start with an image of the considered enterprises, their
functionalities and additional requirements to gain a general overview on the chain and, moreover,
such a model should also allow a detailed description of intra- and inter-enterprise production and
information processes as well as their interrelations. The resulting documents can help the involved
enterprises at revealing actions and operations, defning responsibilities and informing the involved
employees about their tasks (Kreische, 2004).
One of the basic functions of business process modelling is the documentation of a sequence of
activities and therefore needed resources. According to Davenport and Short (1990), a business
process can be defned as a set of related tasks performed to achieve a defned business outcome.
Furthermore, business processes can be classifed into production and information processes
depending on the types of resources being manipulated (Luo and Tung, 1999) and thus, in an
analogous manner, these resources can be divided into physical and informational resources (Kim
and Rogers, 2005). By building an integrated production and information model, weaknesses in
both kinds of processes can be identifed and eliminated. However, since most of these elements
are interacting dynamically, it is not possible to analyse them isolated.
Multi-level supply chain modelling
The present paper proposes a deterministic modelling approach which allows documenting business
processes in a supply chain on basis of identifed chain actor tasks and requirements. Furthermore
it provides a method for analysing interrelations between these processes which is in particular
important for quality management in the food sector where the interrelations play a key role for
decision making. Thereby, documentation means a coherent, clear and precise description of the
requirements and processes whereas analysis means the examination of interrelations between
these processes (Kreische, 2004).
The de facto standard for process modelling is the UML and it offers different types of diagrams
for modelling the aforementioned views. The functional view, including the chain-actors
requirements, can be modelled by use case diagrams, the behavioural view by activity,
sequence, collaboration or state diagrams, the structural view by class or object diagrams
and the organisational view by component or deployment diagrams (Kim and Rogers, 2005). For
the present paper the use case approach is pursued for modelling the functional view (requirement
level), activity diagrams are used for the behavioural view (process level) and class diagrams for
the structural view (information level). Therewith it is possible to model the organisational view
(the interrelations between the different levels) without a specifc diagram since the usage of
the chosen diagram types allows modelling the interrelations as direct connections between the
modelling levels. In the following chapters the requirement, process and information level will be
presented frst, followed by a description of the interrelation modelling.
Requirement level
In this paper the use case approach, which is widely accepted to discover and record requirements,
is adopted to express a functional view of the supply chain, therewith forming the initial point for
the multi-level modelling approach. The general procedure for creating such a model is to choose
the boundary of the whole system as well as the boundaries of the considered supply chain stages,
to identify the primary stage actors as well as their tasks and requirements and to defne use cases
that match these tasks and requirements. Thereby, use cases can be any activity of any actor, like
for example a delivery of a resource from one actor to another, the processing of this resource
within one stage or a request of information which is needed for the processing of this resource.
These use cases are mostly associated to use cases within the enterprise or to use cases of other
chain actors and are partly complementary to each other (like for example an exchange of goods
between two actors). Figure 1 illustrates the requirement level using a simplifed supply chain and
exemplary use cases.
Figure 1 shows supply chain actors and their use cases from their specifc point of view. By
connecting these uses cases across the whole chain, for example by linking the transactions of
products, by including inspections conducted by external certifers or by considering any other
external service provision, a comprehensible supply chain model is created including stage actors,
their actual tasks and additional requirements.
Process level
The identifed tasks and requirements of the requirement level serve as a basis for the process level.
Thereby every use case from the requirement level can be further specifed in activities which are
linked to other activities across the chain. In these activities detailed actions and therefore needed
resources as well as decision points which occur during the process are implied. At this point,
information, which is also used for decisions, can already be added to the resources. The resources
can be physical resources, like e.g. products, or informational resources, like e.g. databases. The
process start is defned by one initial node whereas its end is defned by one or more fnal nodes.
It is also possible to include probability distributions at decision points, which can be used for
further analysis, like for example in a stochastic model. Figure 2 shows a simplifed supply chain
process model.
The example in Figure 2 illustrates several typical processes in a supply chain. A producer sells
and delivers his product to the processor who receives and controls it. At this decision point, the
product can either pass the control, be further processed and then be delivered or it can be rejected
and sent back to its producer. Hence, the process level allows translating tasks and requirements
from the requirement level into detailed processes including actions and decisions as well physical
and informational resources.
Information level
The resources of the process level are taken as a basis for modelling the information level. Thereby
it is necessary to clearly distinguish between informational and physical resources. Informational
resources like intra-enterprise or chain/sector focused databases build the primary structure of the
model whereas physical resources like products (together with their information) are transferred into
association resources. These association resources are located between the informational resources
and represent one alternative of information exchange. Apart from that, information can also be
transferred directly between the informational resources. Figure 3 exemplifes this approach of
information modelling in a supply chain.
Figure 1. Requirement level.
Informational resources (like X, Y and Z in Figure 3) exchange information by the two aforementioned
ways. One alternative of information exchange is by means of a physical resource (like B and C in
Figure 3). This information is associated to products like for example on a label, delivery receipt
or RFID-tag. The second alternative is a direct connection between the informational resources
like for example by a database interface (e.g. between resource Y and resource Z in Figure 4).
Consequently, with this information modelling approach it is possible to locate any requested
information within a supply chain, to determine the existing and additionally required intra- and
inter-enterprise information exchange and to defne the according information carrier. Therewith
the information level is a basic prerequisite to identify, analyse and remedy information defciencies
in a supply chain.
Interrelating the requirement, process and information level
The tasks and requirements of the frst level build the basis for the second level where processes,
resources and decisions for each task and requirement are further specifed. After this, the resources
of the process level are transferred into the information level which leads to a mutual interrelation
of the process and information level by the used resources. In contradiction to the interrelations
Figure 2. Process level.
Figure 3. Information level.
between requirement and process level where use cases are further specifed, at modelling the
interrelations between process and information level the resources stay the same, just the perspective
is changing. Only resources (with their included information) are taken into account while all actions
and decisions are left out. Figure 4 illustrates the interrelations between requirement, process and
information level in a simplifed supply chain model.
Figure 4 demonstrates the interrelations between the different modelling levels using the example
of a product control in a processing enterprise. The use case of the processor in the requirement
level and the according activity in the process level are named control product. The controlled
product is a physical resource in the process level and an association resource in the information
level. If the product passes the control (if a is true) the delivery can proceed. If the product is sorted
out (if b is true) an entry is created in the enterprises database and the process stops (for reasons
of clarity, initial and fnal nodes are not included in Figure 4). For the information level only the
physical and informational resources, but not the actions and decisions are taken into account and
set into relation with the process level. This way it is possible to create a model that shows the
location of all information available in the supply chain as well as the interfaces in the chain where
this information is exchanged. According to Van der Vorst and Beulens (2002) a lot of uncertainty
in food supply chains is related to a lack of correct, accurate and up-to-date information. Due
to the complexity of food supply chains and the high number of actors, according models often
tend to get confusing and unclear. Therefore the presented interrelated information level helps at
locating needed information in a comprehensible supply chain model.
Conclusion
Increasing requirements by consumer, legislation and market as well as growing competition force
enterprises in food supply chains to document, analyse and continuously improve their processes.
Thereby, decision makers in enterprises use models of their intra- and inter-enterprise production
Figure 4. Interrelations between requirement, process and information level.
and information processes to support their decisions. However, traditional modelling approaches
need to be enhanced since they have particular limitations at modelling large and complex systems
like food supply chains as well as interrelations between production and information processes. The
multitude of interacting elements requires a modelling approach which includes all these different
elements in interrelated modelling levels and thereby also in different degrees of abstraction.
Hence, the present paper introduces a multi-level supply chain modelling approach using the
UML, targeting at documentation, analysis, communication and improvement of production and
information processes on basis of chain actors tasks and requirements. The systematic modelling
of production and information process interrelations by means of their physical and informational
resources allows modelling large and complex food supply chains in high precision, but in a still
comprehensible way. Additionally, the approach facilitates the chain-wide location of information
and therewith reduces uncertainties for decision makers in food supply chains.
References
Curtis, B., Kellner, M.I. and Over, J., 1992. Process modeling. Communications of the ACM, 35 (9), 75-90.
Davenport, T.H. and Short, J.E., 1990. The new industrial engineering: information technology and business
process redesign. Sloan Management Review, 31 (4), 11-27.
Hannus, T., 2008. Informationsmanagement im betrieblichen Qualittswesen Umsetzung in der Agrar- und
Ernhrungsindustrie. Dissertation. Available at: http://hss.ulb.uni-bonn.de/diss_online/landw_fak/2008/
hannus_thomas/1466.pdf.
Kim, J. and Rogers, K.J., 2005. An object- oriented approach for building a fexible supply chain model.
International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, 35 (7), 481-502.
Kreische, D., 2004. Geschftsprozessmodellierung mit der Unifed Modeling Language (UML).
Dissertation. Available at: http://deposit.d-nb.de/cgi-bin/dokserv?idn=972544232&dok_var=d1&dok_
ext=pdf&flename=972544232.pdf.
Luo, W. and Tung, Y.A., 1999. A framework for selecting business process modelling methods. Industrial
Management & Data Systems, 99(7), 312-319.
Min, H. and Zhou, G., 2002. Supply chain modeling: past, present and future. Computers and Industrial
Engineering, 43 (1/2), 231-249.
Oestereich, B., Weiss, C., Schrder, C., Weilkiens, T. and Lenhard, A., 2004. Objektorientierte
Geschftsprozessmodellierung mit der UML. dpunkt.verlag, Heidelberg, Germany.
Poigne, O.K., 2008. Strategisches Qualittsmanagement in Netzwerken. Dissertation. Available at: http://hss.
ulb.uni-bonn.de/diss_online/landw_fak/2008/poignee_oliver.
Van der Vorst, J.G.A.J. and Beulens, A.J.M., 2002. Identifying sources of uncertainty to generate supply chain
redesign strategies. International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, 32 (6), 409-430.
Webster, K., 2001. The scope and structure of the food supply chain. In: Eastham, J., Sharples, L. and Ball, S.
(eds.) Food supply chain management. Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford, England, pp. 37-54.
Section 15
Robots
WURking: a small sized autonomous robot for the Farm of
the Future
E.J. van Henten
1,3
, C.J. van Asselt
2
, T. Bakker
2
, S.K. Blaauw
1
, M.H.A.M. Govers
1
, J.W. Hofstee
1
,
R.M.C. Jansen
1
, A.T. Nieuwenhuizen
1
, S.L. Speetjens
2
, J.D. Stigter
2
, G. van Straten
2
and L.G.
Van Willigenburg
2
1
Farm Technology Group, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 17, 6700 AA Wageningen, the
Netherlands; eldert.vanhenten@wur.nl
2
Systems and Control Group, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 17, 6700 AA Wageningen, the
Netherlands
3
Wageningen UR Greenhouse Horticulture, P.O. Box 16, 6700 AA Wageningen, the Netherlands
Abstract
Autonomous robots for agricultural practices will become reality soon. These mobile robots could
take over regular tasks such as scouting for weeds and diseases, plant specifc applications, yield
and feld mapping and for instance the release of info-chemicals for attracting predators of pests.
This paper presents WURking, a small sized sub-canopy autonomous robot that can be used for a
wide range of tasks on the farm of the future. WURking was designed for navigating within row
crops like corn. It consists of a mobile platform with three independently driven steerable wheels.
The robot carries ultrasound sensors and a gyroscope used for navigation between the crop rows,
end of row detection and headland turning. A camera is mounted to detect objects like weeds. High
level control of this robot was implemented using the visual programming language LabView. A
data fusion technique is used to extract the position and orientation of the robot relative to the
crop rows, from the redundant set of sensor data. Feedback linearization of the non-linear system
dynamics yielded a simple linear controller structure which was fed by state estimates generated
by a Kalman flter using the raw ultrasound sensor data. The headland turning was based on a
proportional controller using data from the gyroscope. This paper contains a description of the
robot as well as results of a performance test performed in 2008. This test revealed that the robot
was able to navigate through the corn feld with a maximum offset of 10 cm from the centre of
the rows and an maximum orientation error of 0.15 rad.
Keywords: robot, crop scouting, performance, navigation
Introduction
Autonomous robots for agricultural practices will become reality soon. These mobile robots could
take over regular tasks such as scouting for weeds and diseases, plant specifc applications, yield
and feld mapping and for instance the release of info-chemicals for attracting predators of pests.
Some examples are robots for plant scale husbandry (Tillet et al., 1997), weed control (Astrand and
Baerveldt, 2002), mapping in-feld variability (Godwin and Miller, 2003) or detection of volunteer
potatoes (Evert et al., 2006).
In 2003, in Wageningen, the Netherlands the Field Robot Event (FRE) was initiated as an
international design competition in Agricultural Engineering (Van Straten, 2004; Mller et al.,
2006; Van Henten et al., 2007). Essentially, the objectives of the FRE are twofold. First of all,
it gives a high-tech favour to the Agricultural Engineering curriculum and can be used as a PR
instrument to attract students for a career in Agricultural Engineering so as to counter the stagnating
student numbers. Secondly, the FRE aims at stimulating the design of small robots for actual use
in agricultural practice. Small sized light weight robots ft into the small scale farming approach of
precision farming. They induce less soil compaction and offer the opportunity of a more weather
independent access to the felds. And due to their small size, safety issues will be less critical under
autonomous operation than with large machines. Given the current and ever growing size of todays
farm machinery, deployment of small scale machines would mean a paradigm shift in agriculture.
For the 2006 FRE at Hohenheim University, Stuttgart, Germany, the Farm Technology Group and
the Systems and Control Group of Wageningen University decided to build a robot. The objectives
were twofold: (1) to participate in the Field Robot Event, (2) to have a universal platform to be used
for further research and education on small sized robots for agricultural applications. The developed
robot participated in the Field Robot Event contests of 2006, 2007 and 2008. In the present paper,
this robot is described in some detail. In addition, methodology and results of a performance test
of the robot in a corn feld are presented and discussed.
The feld robot
WURking is a small sized sub-canopy robot built to traverse row crops like corn (Figure 1). The
platform consists of an aluminium frame, a cover to protect the electronics, a battery pack, several
sensors and three independent wheel units. Two wheel units are placed in the front and one wheel
unit in the rear of the frame. Each wheel unit is able to steer left (+135
o
) and right (-135
o
). The
robot is equipped with six ultrasonic and two infrared sensors for row detection. A camera is
attached to the robot for detection of objects like golf balls, lines and fags during various elements
of the competition. This camera might be used for weed detection as well. A gyroscope is used to
determine the orientation change of the robot.
The wheelbase is 500 mm and the track width between the front wheels is 320 mm. The total width
of the platform is 400 mm and the total length is 700 mm. The clearance of the platform is 120
mm. The weight of the platform including battery pack is 39 kg.
The wheel units (see Figure 1 right) were designed in cooperation with the Kverneland Group
Mechatronics BV in Nieuw Vennep, the Netherlands. The wheel drive is powered by a single 150
W motor at 24 volts (Maxon Precision Motors, brushed DC motor, model RE40). The maximal
torque delivered is 181 Nm at 7,580 rpm. This motor is connected to a planetary gear head with a
reduction of 15:1 and a maximum effciency of 83% (Maxon Precion Motors, model GP52C). The
Figure 1. The WURking robot (left) and one of the wheel units (right).
drive motor is equipped with an encoder to measure the speed in counts per turn (Maxon Precision
Motors, encoder, model HEDS 5540). Steering is realised by a 20 W motor at 24 volts (Maxon
Precision Motors, DC motor, model RE25) connected to a planetary gear head with a reduction
of 66:1 and a maximum effciency of 70% (Maxon Precision Motors, model GP32C). The wheel
units are equipped with conventional tube tyres ( 250 mm, 80 mm). The tyres were infated to
approximately 3 bar for optimal traction. The maximum steering velocity of the unit is approximately
115 deg/s. The weight of the wheel unit including the motors is 4.1 kg.
Each wheel unit is controlled by a Motion Mind DC motor controller. Each controller is capable of
controlling two brushed motors, in this case one motor for driving and one for steering.
The platform is equipped with a battery pack containing three batteries located in between the
wheel units to realize a low centre of gravitation. Two 12V, 7Ah batteries are used to power the
driving and steering motors. Additionally there is one 12V, 12 Ah battery to power the PC platform,
controllers and the sensors. The total weight of this battery pack is 10 kg. This battery pack is
mounted on the platform in such a way that it can be easily exchanged with a spare battery pack
for continuous operation.
The platform carries a wide range of sensors. Six Devantech SRF08 ultrasonic sensors are mounted,
three at each side. These sensors measure the distance from the robot to the crop row. The range of
the ultrasonic sensors is from 3 cm to 6 m and the sound frequency is 40 kHz. The ultrasonic sensors
are connected to the I
2
C bus of a BasicATOM microcontroller. Besides the ultrasound sensors,
the robot has two Sharp GP2D12 infrared sensors also used to measure the distance between the
robot and the crop rows.
The camera is a Unibrain Fire-i frewire camera with a CCD (659494 pixels) and a pixel size
of 5.6 m in both horizontal and vertical direction. The frame rate is up to 30 frames per second
(uncompressed VGA picture).
The robot is also equipped with a XSens MT9-B gyroscope with a 3D compass, 3D accelerometer
and 3D gyros and yields by integration very precise values for yaw, roll, and pitch. The angular
resolution is 0.05, the static accuracy is <1, and the dynamic accuracy is 3 RMS (XSens, 2006).
For data acquisition and control, the robot contains two computer platforms, a BasicATOM40
and a VIA EPIA SP13000 PC. Part of the data acquisition is realised with the BasicATOM40
microcontroller with inputs from the two infrared sensors and the six ultrasonic sensors. The
microcontroller processes the raw sensor signals and creates a message with the calibrated values
which is send to high level control program.
For high level control, the VIA EPIA SP13000 PC is used as a low power compact motherboard
with built in CPU, graphics, audio and network. The PC has 512 MB RAM and a 40GB hard disk
with a Windows XP operating system supplemented with a WiFi connection for remote control
and monitoring purposes.
The high level control of the robot is realised by a LabVIEW program and involving several
processes that run independently from each other. Each process is represented by a VI (Virtual
Instrument) including several sub VIs that realise a specifc task. There are VIs for initialisation,
motor control, the kinematic vehicle model, camera control, communication with the BasicATOM,
communication with the gyroscope, and sensor fusion. A state machine controls the activation
and de-activation of processes and the VIs exchange data with each other via global variables. A
schematic diagram of the different components of WURking is shown in Figure 2.
One VI was designed to compute the position and orientation of the robot relative to the row using
six ultrasonic sensor measurements. The VI basically employed a linear regression technique in
combination with information about the row width and robot dimensions. For end of row detection, it
provided a signal when one or several sensor measurements are inconsistent with these dimensions.
Navigation and control design issues were addressed in an advanced model-based design using a
kinematic mathematical model of the three-wheel vehicle (see Figure 3). The kinematic model is
a dynamic state-space model that is integrated using standard numerical integration as shown by
Campion et al. (1996). In this way the next state, that is the next position and orientation of the
robot, is calculated using the current control inputs being the wheel velocities and wheel angles. A
so-called Kalman flter combines these computations with on-line measurements obtained from the
ultrasonic sensors to estimate on-line the future state, which is the next position and orientation of the
robot relative to the row. These estimates together with the state-space model are used to compute
on-line the next control values, which are the next values of the wheel angles and velocities. The
computation is performed by applying a feedback linearization scheme (Kwatny and Blankenship,
2000). Application of this scheme reduces the controller design to a simple linear controller design
that is performed by means of pole placement. The state estimates, generated by the Kalman flter,
can also be used for higher level decision making such as what to do if the end of the row is reached.
Turning by means of feedback linearization was unsuccessful due to the total absence of feedback
from the ultrasonic sensors. Therefore, a very simple proportional controller was used for turning at
the headland. It used the X-sense absolute angle measurement for feedback and benefted from the
fact that setting the three robot wheels at appropriate angles allows the robot to fully turn around its
midpoint. The output of the proportional controller was clipped to limit the angular velocity of the
robot. Filtering the last pair of measurements taken from the X-sense while traversing the previous
row provided a good estimate of the orientation of the end of the previous row. Relative to this
orientation, the robot turned into the next row using the clipped proportional controller. The turn
was performed in three stages. First, a 90
o
turn was made and next, the wheels were set straight to
drive straight over a fxed distance coinciding with the row distance. This distance was measured
Figure 2. Schematic diagram of the different components of WURking.
by the wheel rotations and regulated also by a clipped proportional controller. Then a 90
o
turn
was made again. The end of row detection was performed using the VI (Virtual Instrument) build
around the six ultrasonic sensors. The VI provided a signal that indicates whether measurements
occur that are incompatible with driving through the row. If this signal was received for a certain
amount of time, this indicated the end of row.
The performance tests
In 2008, the performance of the WURking robot was evaluated. In spring 2008, a corn feld was
prepared by sowing with an interval of two weeks yielding four felds with different growth stages
of corn as shown in Figure 4 (left). To measure the accuracy of the robot in terms of position and
orientation between the rows, a measurement rig was designed as also shown in Figure 4 (right).
Using the T-shaped mould, the foot print of the robot was followed with intervals of 25 cm over a
total distance of 30 m. The mould was mounted on a slider and could rotate to allow measurement
of position and orientation of the robot from the centre between the two rows. During experiments,
data were recorded both by the WURking robot as well as afterwards with this measurement device.
Before the performance test, the soil surface was fattened out.
Figure 3. Controller structure of WURking.
z
Results
Field tests indicated that traversing straight and curved rows by means of feedback linearization
performed satisfactorily since no plants were damaged while the driving speed was below a maximum
of 0.75 m/sec. Accuracy of the robot in terms of position and orientation between the two rows is
illustrated in Figures 5 and 6. Figure 5 frst of all shows an adequate match between measurements
performed with the ultrasound sensors on board the robot and the independent measurements
performed with the measurement frame. Secondly, the measurements reveal an average positive
offset of the robot from the centre between the rows. Maximum position errors lie between -7.5
and +10 cm based on ultrasound measurements and 0 and +7.5cm based on measurements with the
measurement rig. Earlier experiments had revealed that roughly 75% of the headland turns were
successful, meaning that no plants were damaged and no human interference was necessary.
Despite some fuctuations, the orientation measurement of both the robot and the measurement
rig relative to the centre line between the crop rows reveal a consistent orientation offset of the
frame of +0.05 rad. This is possible because the robot consists of 3 independently steerable wheels
which allow the straight line motions with a continuous offset in the frame axes. Based on the
measurement rig, the orientation of the robot frame varied between 0.025 and 0.075 rad. The gyro
showed similar results (not in the fgure): fuctuations between -0.10 and +0.15 rad were measured.
Figure 4. The feld for the 2008 performance test (left) and the measurement device to measure
position and orientation accuracy of the robot (right).
Figure 5. Position accuracy of the WURking robot, measured with the ultrasonic sensors of the
robot and the measurement device.
Conclusions and directions for future research
In this paper, the WURking feldrobot was described and methodology and results of a performance
test were presented. The performance test revealed a success rate of 75% of the headland turns.
Also, the performance test revealed that the robot was able to navigate through the corn feld with
a maximum offset of 10 cm from the centre line of the two rows and an maximum orientation
error of 0.15 rad. Further experimentation is needed to verify the robustness and performance of
this robot platform.
The measurement device had the advantage that it produced an independent measurement of the
robot performance. However, such instrument can only be used if the soil is prepared properly.
There is a need to develop a generally accepted way to evaluate robot performance. It is suggested
to introduce a standard protocol for this purpose because only then can performance comparisons
between robots be made.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to acknowledge Kverneland Group Mechatronics BV in Nieuw Vennep
the Netherlands for the cooperation in the design of the wheel units, XSens Motion Technologies
for providing the gyroscope.
References
Astrand, B. and Baerveldt, A.J. 2002. An Agricultural Mobile Robot with Vision-Based Perception for
Mechanical Weed Control. Autonomous Robots 13, 21-35.
Campion G., Bastin G. and dAndrea-Novel B. 1996. Structural properties and classifcation of kinematic and
dynamic models of wheeled mobile robots. IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control 12, 47-62
Godwin, R.J. and Miller, P.C.H. 2003. A Review of the Technologies for Mapping Within-feld Variability.
Biosystems Engineering 84, 393-407.
Kwanty, H.G. and Blankenship, G. 2000. Nonlinear Control and Analytical Mechanics: A Computational
Approach. Birhuser Verlag, Basel, Zwitserland.
Figure 6. Orientation accuracy of the WURking robot, measured with the ultrasonic sensors
of the robot and the measurement device.
Mller, J., Walther, S., Bttinger, S., Ruckelshausen, A. and van Henten, E.J., 2006. Field robot design contest
a showcase in agricultural engineering education. Preprints of the 3
rd
IFAC International Workshop on
Bio-Robotics, Information Technology and Intelligent Control for Bioproduction Systems, Sapporo, Japan,
9-10 September 2006, pp. 276-281.
Van Evert, F., van der Heijden, G.W.A.M., Lotz, L.A.P., Polder, G., Lamaker, A., de Jong, A., Kuyper, M.C.,
Groendijk, E.J.K., Neeteson, J.J. and van der Zalm, T. 2006. A mobile feld robot with vision-based detection
of volunteer potato plants in a corn crop. Weed Technology 20, 853-861.
Van Henten, E.J. and Mller, J., 2007. The Field Robot Event- An International Design Contest in Agricultural
Engineering. Proceedings of Land-Technik AgEng 2007 Engineering Solutions for Energy and Food
Production, 9-10 November 2007, Hannover, Germany, pp. 169-174.
Van Straten, G. 2004. Field Robot Event, Wageningen 5-6 June 2003. Computers and Electronics in Agriculture
42, 51-58.
Tillett, N.D., Hague, T. and Marchant, J.A. 1997. A Robotic System for Plant-Scale Husbandry. Journal of
Agricultural Engineering Research 69, 169-178.
BoniRob: an autonomous feld robot platform for individual
plant phenotyping
A. Ruckelshausen
1
, P. Biber
4
, M. Dorna
4
, H. Gremmes
2
, R. Klose
1
, A. Linz
1
, R. Rahe
3
, R. Resch
3
,
M. Thiel
1
, D. Trautz
2
and U. Weiss
4
1
University of Applied Sciences Osnabrck, Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science,
Albrechtstr. 30, 49076 Osnabrck, Germany; a.ruckelshausen@fhos.de
2
University of Applied Sciences Osnabrck, Faculty of Agricultural Science and Landscape
Architecture, Oldenburger Landstr. 24, 49090 Osnabrck, Germany
3
Amazonen-Werke H.Dreyer GmbH & Co. KG, Postfach 53, 49202 Hasbergen-Gaste, Germany
4
Robert Bosch GmbH, Corporate Sector Research and Advance Engineering (CR-AE32), Postfach
30 02 40, 70442 Stuttgart, Germany
Abstract
Electronics, software and sensor systems have become key technologies in agriculture. Future
development steps are autonomous feld robots with high technological challenges and options for
economical and ecological benefts. The robustness of autonomous robots is considered to be of
highest relevance for a step from present research activities towards prototypes. The application
crop scout has been identifed as a promising option to realise such a robot, called BoniRob, in
an interdisciplinary cooperation with partners from electronic and agricultural industry as well
as research institutions from engineering and agriculture. The vehicle is based on four wheel hub
motors and hydraulic components, thereby offering a high fexibility with respect to navigation and
changing height positions. Multi-sensor fusion including complex sensor systems like spectral
imaging and 3D time-of-fight cameras and a RTK-DGPS system are applied for an individual
plant phenotyping. The navigation concept of BoniRob is based on probabilistic robotics. A
Gazebo-based 3D simulation environment for BoniRob is developed, including options for data
and software exchange between the simulator and the real robot. In the frst stage maize and wheat
are considered for phenotyping, sensor and plant parameters have been defned according to the
extended BBCH scale. As an additional option mapping of plant diseases based on spectral imaging
information will be evaluated. The automatic phenotyping and mapping of all plants in a feld will
be a revolutionary change in the methods of feld trials. Moreover, the availability of a robust crops
scout platform will offer options for other feld applications.
Keywords: agricultural robots, agro-sensors, multi-sensor fusion, probabilistic robotics
Autonomous feld robots
Agricultural engineering has become a technology feld of highest worldwide relevance with
respect to food, energy as well as landscape conservation. In particular, electronics, communications
and sensor technologies are strongly pushing innovations in agriculture and have become key
technologies in this feld, thereby offering options for economical as well as ecological benefts.
The state-of-the-art technology already allows the autonomation of existing agricultural machines
(Niehaus et al., 2007). Thus partially autonomous feets are an option for the next years. Recently,
increased research activities have been started to develop small autonomous feld robots for future
applications in agriculture. Moreover, autonomous robotics in general has become a major feld
of research in the past years and high volume future markets are expected in various applications,
including agriculture and forestry (Siciliano and Khatib, 2008). For example Blackmore et al.
(2007) have given a specifcation for an autonomous crop production mechanization system
including a variety of future technical applications in agriculture. Pedersen et al. (2006) have
already investigated economical aspects for agricultural robots.
However, whenever technology meets nature, considerable technical and non-technical challenges
have to be solved. In most applications the robots are acting outdoor, in a complex and changing
environment with varying conditions, such as light, wind, temperature or dust. In practice, the
yearly International Field Robot Event as described by Van Henten et al. (2007) gives an insight
into these problems. During this competition completely autonomous navigation in maize felds
and application examples such as weed control are major tasks. The high challenge for the
related technologies under complex and dynamic feld conditions has shown so far that the low
robustness of the single robot is a major hindrance for the introduction of a frst prototype of an
autonomous agricultural feld robots or even robot swarms. As a consequence the availability of a
robust platform will be an important next step for autonomous agricultural robots. Since the robot
development already includes a high complexity, the application itself should be of comparably
low complexity. The implementation of additional mechatronic systems, such as weeding or
seeding, will increase the complexity due to technical and logistical aspects and thus reduce the
probability for the development of a robust system. Furthermore, the economical competition of
large machines for these applications is very high. The authors have identifed crop scouting as a
perfect frst application for an autonomous platform. The extension of sensor technologies and its
interpretation already necessary for navigation will lead to a beneft for plant breeders as well
as farmers. Moreover, a continuous complete characterisation of all single plants in a feld would
be a revolutionary method for agricultural feld trials.
Plant phenotyping
In order to evaluate breeding processes or the crop status, the characterization of plants and
environmental parameters is of highest importance, a detailed description of feld trials is given
by Thomas (2006). There is a need for further development of corresponding methods and sensor
systems with high accuracy. Moreover, the correlation of interpreted sensor data with plant
parameters should be based on a standardized description of plant development stages. The Extended
BBCH (Biologische Bundesanstalt, Bundessortenamt and Chemical Industry) scale as described
by Meier and Bleiholder (2007) is such a system for a uniform coding of phonologically similar
growth stages. If the non-destructive dynamical measurement of plant parameters is combined
with a high-resolution Global Positioning System (GPS), the absolute position of a single plant can
be determined and this plant can be relocated (and measured) in a later stage as demonstrated by
the authors (Fender et al., 2006) in maize. The combination of an extended sensor system with an
autonomous feld robot is the major application of this work. As compared to the state-of-the-art
phenotyping of plants based on sampling methods, the crop scout would be a fundamental step
towards an automatic data generation for all plants as described by Ruckelshausen (2007). Based on
the German word Bonitur for rating, BoniRob has been chosen as the name for the crop scout.
The plants chosen for the measurements are corn (Zea mays) and winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L)
as very important types of grains, plant parameters are given in table 1. The methods and technologies
described in section 3, however, can be extended to other plants. Using spectral imaging, the detection
of three fungal diseases of winter wheat will be evaluated: Leaf and glume blotch (Septoria nodorum),
Septoria blotch (Septoria tritici) and Powdery mildew (Blumeria [syn. Erysiphe] graminis). This
selection is based on the high amount of yield reduction of the diseases. After Obst (2002) Leaf
and glume blotch causes a yield reduction of 30%, Septoria blotch of 30% and Powdery mildew of
25%. Gerhards and Christensen (2003) said that several parameters like vitality, nutrient supply and
phyllotaxis have an exert infuence on the distribution of plant diseases. Furthermore they found
out that diseases appear in patches before it expand over the feld. To ensure the course of diseases,
it is necessary to detect the actual development status of the plants using parameters from Table 1.
Field robot BoniRob
The realisation of such a system strongly depends on interdisciplinary competences. As a consequence
industrial partners from electronics, sensors and agricultural machines as well as research institutes
(engineering and computer science as well as agriculture) are working together. Experiences in
the development of autonomous systems inside and outside agriculture are available. (Biber and
Duckett, 2005; Niehaus et al., 2007; Klose et al., 2008). Moreover, the feedback from potential
users of BoniRob is already integrated in the development process, namely the panel of feld trials
of the DLG (German Agricultural Society) and the GFP (Gemeinschaft zur Frderung der privaten
Deutschen Pfanzenzchtung e.V.) are cooperative partners. Details of the system architecture,
vehicle, navigation, multisensor fusion and the safety concept for BoniRob are given below.
System architecture
The system architecture is illustrated in Figure 1. Horizontally the different systems are given.
The control systems for navigation and phenotyping are using the data of several sensor systems
(including GPS) and maps. The speed and steering control system is in charge of the motor and
hydraulics of the vehicle. The internal system communication (control units, sensors, documentation
and user interface) is based on Ethernet and thus allows a real-time implementation at high data
rates. Sensor data for the navigation are necessarily treated in real-time, some other data are less time
critical as for example disease mapping data. A timestamp concept is used for synchronisation and
correlation of the various data. On lower levels CAN-bus communication is implemented. In order
to optimise timing and handling of the data volume a middleware concept has been implemented.
The software of the navigation module is based on a component-based software architecture.
Components are realised using a robotic-specifc software framework with operation system
abstraction and communication patterns for inter-component communication. The framework
supports several real-time and non-real-time operation systems (OS) which enables a very fexible
deployment of components, depending on their functionality, e.g. navigation control needs to run
under a real-time OS and mapping of plants can be deployed on a non-real-time OS.
Table 1. Plant parameters for phenotyping with BoniRob.
Parameter Outcome
Number of plants, crop density Population density
Spacing in the row Plant distribution
Plant height Phenotypic characterisation
Steam thickness Phenotypic characterisation
Spectral refexion Plant aberrations, absorption of chlorophyll,
moisture
Ground cover, coverage level, Ratio crop/soil Assimilation area, competitive effect against
weed
Phyllotaxis Phenotypic characterisation
Biomass Water supply, pathogen stress
Growth Environmental conditions
Development of single plants/patches Differentiation of population
Vehicle
Each wheel of the vehicle is driven by a hub motor and equipped with a brake. In case of a power
breakdown each wheel is stopped and prevents the robot from further movement. The wheels are
fxed to arms in that way they can be steered separately and each arm can be moved separately too.
All movements are powered by a hydraulic system which was incorporated in the frame. The arms
can be changed in height allowing a chassis clearance of 0.4 m to 0.8 m. Therefore the sensors can
be adjusted to the height of the plants to observe without the need of changing the sensor setup.
Additionally each arm allows changing the track of the attached wheel from approx. 0.4 m to approx.
1.0 m to the centre. This allows driving with a narrow track of 0.75 m width or a wide track with
nearly 2 m width. Also all combinations in between can be chosen. With this fexibility different
kind of test felds can be analysed and even the position of the sensors within the test feld can be
changed. A few possibilities are shown in Figure 2 (left). Each wheel can be steered separately by
an angle of 90. Respecting the Ackermann condition, a wide range of different tracks like simple
turns, spot turns or crab steering can be driven. These are visualised in Figure 2 (right).
Navigation
A RTK-GPS receiver is the main sensor for localization. Additionally, information from the robots
odometry and inertial sensors is incorporated using a Kalman flter. The output of this flter provides
a sub-decimetre localization accuracy even if the RTK-GPS receiver temporarily loses its high
accuracy fx. Besides the estimation of the robots pose, sensing the environment, especially object
detection is an essential task for reliable navigation and mapping. This will be done by a 3D laser
sensor mounted on the robots front, which recognises the crop rows, as well as single plants. The
Figure 1. System architecture for BoniRob.
Figure 2. Concept of the autonomous vehicle platform BoniRob.
authors have started to use algorithms based on probabilistic robotics (Thrun, 2005) like particle
flters for simultaneous localisation and mapping (SLAM) to fuse the sensor data and previous
knowledge about the feld structure.
Multi-sensor fusion
In order to increase the robustness as well as the quality of information for phenotyping, concepts
of multisensor data fusion are used (Mitchell, 2007). The authors frst introduced this concept in
agricultural feld applications already 10 years ago for online crop/weed detection as part of an
intra-row weed control process (Ruckelshausen et al., 1999). In continuation of this work Klose et
al. (2008) have applied intelligent sensor systems in autonomous feld robots. Cameras, spectral
imaging systems, light curtains and distance sensors are used. Moreover, newly developed 3D time-
of-fight cameras show a high potential for robot navigation. The sensor data for phenotyping and
navigation can be used vice versa. Additional sensors are used for the safety concept (see below)
and for electronic control purposes (voltage control, temperature, dust). A priori information as
well as GPS information is used. The modular system architecture allows an extension of the
number of sensors.
Safety concept
A safety concept has been integrated in the concept of BoniRob from the beginning in order to avoid
that the robots harm humans. Each wheel system has an emergency shutdown buttom, malfunctions
of the software result in a shutdown and also an external shutdown via WLAN is implemented. As
realised in the experimental weeding robot WEEDY (Klose et al. (2008)) it is planned to detect
obstacles in the surrounding area via an ultrasonic wall, however, such sensor systems have to be
adapted to the fexible vehicle confguration.
Simulation
In order to perform repeatable, season independent experiments and learn how to handle the
complex omnidirectional drive, the authors decided to model and simulate BoniRob in the Gazebo
3D Robotics Simulator (Gazebo, 2009), so the authors are able to get frst results during the
construction process of the real robot.
The open source-project Gazebo is a multi-robot simulator for both indoor and outdoor environments
and relies on a number of third-party libraries, like the physics engine ODE and the graphics engine
Ogre. Gazebo describes the environment, robots, sensors, light sources, user interfaces, and so
Figure 3. Gazebo-based simulation of the BoniRob feld navigation.
on in XML. It is capable of simulating a population of robots, sensors and objects and generates
realistic sensor feedback, object collisions and dynamics. Like Stage, it provides an interface
to the Player-framework, which allows access over TCP/IP. Also, it is utilised for developing a
hardware-in-the-loop concept, able to connect the control device with the simulated or the real
robot and sensors without any changes in the middleware. Figure 3 shows a screenshot illustrating
the simulator with BoniRob driving over a row of maize.
Outlook
The concept of the feld scout BoniRob has been developed, frst parts of the system architecture,
the navigation and sensors have already been realised. The mechanical construction of the frst
version of BoniRob is completed and frst dynamic tests of the robot will be presented. Figure 4
shows the vehicle, a preliminary data sheet is given in Table 2. In the next step feld tests will be
performed, including frst phenotyping runs. In 2011 the availability of a robust prototype for plant
Figure 4. Autonomous vehicle BoniRob.
Table 2. Preliminary data sheet of BoniRob.
Category Specifcation
Basic data Main body dimension (l) 1,500 (w) 1,000 (h) 500 mm
Track gauge 750 2,000 mm (variable)
Chassis clearance 400 800 mm (variable)
Total weight 400 kg
Vehicle speed max. 8 km/h
Power consumption max. 2 kW
System technology PC, Microcontroller, Embedded systems, Ethernet, Wireless-LAN,
Middleware based communication structure
Navigation sensor
technology
2D-Laserscanner, 3D-Laserscanner, Accelaration sensor, Gyroscope,
RTK-GPS
Phenotyping sensor
technology
Spectral Imaging, 3D-time of fight-camera, Light curtain, Laser distance
sensor
Safety features Emergency switch, Ultrasonic wall, Software monitoring
phenotyping is planned. The intended robustness of the autonomous feld robot BoniRob will offer
future options for other applications (including actuator developments) and robot swarms.
Acknowledgement
This work is funded by the Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection BMELV (Germany).
References
Biber, P. and Duckett, T. 2005. Dynamic Maps for Long-Term Operation of Mobile Service Robots, in:
Robotics: Science and Systems.
Blackmore, B.S., Griepentrog, H., Fountas, S. and Gemtos, T., 2007. A Specifcation for anAutonomous Crop
Production Mechanization System. Agricultural Engineering International: CIGR Ejournal. Manuscript
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Fender, F., Hanneken, M., In der Stroth, S., Kielhorn, A., Linz, A. and Ruckelshausen, A., 2006. Sensor Fusion
Meets GPS: Individual Plant Detection, Proceedings of CIGR EurAgEng/VDI-MEG.
Gazebo, 2009. Available at: http://www.irobotics.org/gazebo08.html.
Gerhards, R. and Christensen, S. 2003. Real-time weed detection, decisionmaking and patch spraying in maize,
sugarbeet, winter wheat and winter barley. European Weed Research Society, Weed Research 43, 385-392.
Klose, R., Ruckelshausen, A., Thiel, M. and Marquering, J., 2008. Weedy a Sensor Fusion Based Autonomous
Field Robot for Selective Weed Control, 66th International Conference Agricultural Engineering/ AgEng,
Stuttgart-Hohenheim, VDI-Verlag, Conference Proceedings, pp. 167-172.
Meier, U. and Bleiholder, H., 2007. The BBCH scale codifcation and description of phenological growth stages
of plants and their international use in agricultural research. Proceedings of the International Symposium
Agricultural Field Trials Today and Tomorrow, 08 10 October 2007 in Stuttgart-Hohenheim, pp. 122-125.
Mitchell, H.B., 2007. Multi-Sensor Data Fusion, Springer, Berlin/Heidelberg/New York, 281 pp.
Niehaus, W., Urra Saco, M., Wegner, K.-U., Linz, A., Ruckelshausen, A., Thiel, M., Marquering, J., Pfsterer,
T. and Scheufer, B., 2007. Autonomation of the self propelled mower Profhopper based on intelligent
landmarks, Proceedings of the 65th International Conf. Agricultural Engineering, VDI-Verlag, pp.185-190.
Obst, A., 2002. Getreide; Krankheiten, Schdlinge, Unkruter. Verlag Th. Mann, Gelsenkirchen, Deutschland,
256 pp.
Pedersen, S.M., Fountas, S., Have, H. and Blackmore, B.S., 2006. Agricultural robots system analysis and
economic feasibility. Precision Agriculture 7: 295-308.
Ruckelshausen, A., Dzinaj, T., Gelze, F., Kleine Hrstkamp, S., Linz, A. and Marquering, J., 1999.
Microcontroller-based multisensor system for online crop/weed detection. Proceedings 1999 Brighton
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Ruckelshausen, A., 2007. Autonomous robots in agricultural feld trials. Proceedings of the International
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pp. 190-197.
Siciliano, B. and Khatib, O., 2008. Springer Handbook of Robotics, Springer-Verlag, Berlin/Heidelberg,
Germany, 1611 pp.
Thomas, E., 2006. Feldversuchswesen. Verlag Eugen Ulmer Stuttgart, Germany, 387 pp.
Thrun, S., Burgard, W. and Fox, D., 2005. Probabilistic Robotics, MIT press, Cambridge, USA, 667 pp.
Van Henten, E.J., Hofstee, J.W., Mller, J. and Ruckelshausen, A., 2007. The Field Robot Event An
International Design Contest in Agricultural Engineering. Proceedings of the 6th European Conference
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Preparing a team to Field Robot Event: educational and
technological aspects
T. Oksanen
1
, J. Tiusanen
2
and J. Kostamo
3
1
Helsinki University of Technology (TKK), Department of Automation and Systems Technology,
P.O. Box 5500, 02015 Espoo, Finland; timo.oksanen@tkk.f
2
University of Helsinki, Department of Agrotechnology, P.O. Box 28, 00014 Helsinki, Finland
3
Helsinki University of Technology (TKK), Department of Engineering Design and Production,
P.O. Box 5500, 02015 Espoo, Finland
Abstract
Field Robot Event is an annual competition for small feld robots intended for student teams. Field
Robot project has been seen as a motivating challenge for project-based learning as it results to a
working prototype. In Finland the team has been a joint team with students from different institutions
and interdisciplinary educational goals have been set: (1) to let students apply theoretical knowledge
in practice; (2) to teach team working skills; and (3) to get acquainted with robot design. This requires
well planned student guiding and teaching. Dividing the team in separate groups makes schedule
keeping hard, decreases working motivation and hinders learning from each other. A better division
has been found to spend the autumn term for catching up knowledge gaps in separate groups and
then integrating the team in the spring term. Dividing education in consequent work tasks enables
schedule follow-up and learning evaluation. Too much freedom leads to less learning and a decreased
work motivation. Detailed robot specifcations have enabled the students to focus on the essential
work. This, in addition to considering the teachers as clients ordering a working end product, but
on the other hand as hands-on teachers in individual problems, was proven successful as the team
won the FRE 2008 competition.
Keywords: agricultural robots, teaching, project-based learning, robot technology
Introduction
The Field Robot Event is an annual competition for small feld robots intended mainly for student
teams. A student team from Finland has participated Field Robot Event four times during the years
2005-2008 (Honkanen et al., 2005; Telama et al., 2006; Maksimow et al., 2007 and Backman
et al., 2008). Each year both the student group and the robot itself have been different. High
interdisciplinary educational goals have been set every time and the student teams have consisted
of students from different technological areas. So far 29 students from Finland have got experience
in building a small agricultural feld robot to the competition.
Researchers argue that learners generate knowledge by solving complex problems in situations in
which they use cognitive tools, multiple sources of information, and other individuals as resources
(Resnick, 1987). Project-based learning can be described as teaching by engaging students in
investigation. The project requires a problem that serves to organize and drive activities and these
activities result in a fnal product that addresses the driving question. The question may not be so
constrained that the outcomes are predetermined, leaving students with little room to develop their
own approaches (Blumenfeld et al., 1991). Previous hands-on and discovery learning attempts
in the 1960s were not very widespread, one reason being insuffcient attention to the nature and
extent of teacher knowledge and commitment (Blumenfeld et al., 1991).
Students often are resistant to tasks that involve high-level cognitive processing and try to simplify
the demands of the situation through negotiation (Doyle, 1983). Consequently, project-based
education is not likely to work unless projects are designed in such a way that, with teacher support,
they generate and sustain student motivation. Teachers need to (a) create opportunities for learning
by providing access to information; (b) support learning by providing instructions and guiding
students to make tasks more manageable; and (c) assess progress, diagnose problems, provide
feedback, and evaluate overall results (Blumenfeld et al., 1991). We argue that a project such as
Field Robot sets higher demands for teachers than for students.
This paper describes the evolution of our education methods related to the Finnish Field Robot
project team. The main goals have remained the same: (1) give students the opportunity to apply
theoretical knowledge in practice; (2) teach team working skills in a technologically heterogeneous
group; and (3) to build a robot from scratch and to get acquainted with mobile robot subsystems.
After university level theoretical studies it is interesting for students to build something that must
actually work and fnally put the result into test in the competition.
Teaching
Agricultural technology education in Finland
A brief description of agricultural and technical education in Finland is needed to explain the
interdisciplinary of the team. The University of Helsinki (UH) is the only institution giving
masters degree education in agriculture in Finland. Inside the faculty of Agriculture and Forestry
stands a department of Agrotechnology which focuses on giving a broad view of technologies,
measurements and research methods related to farm processes and environment research. While
the agrotechnologist is meant to act as an interpreter between agronomists and engineers, the
education does not include deep insight in any specifc engineering branch. On other hand, the
Helsinki University of Technology (TKK) is arranged into faculties and departments focusing on
engineering felds such as automation or mechatronics but not in conjunction to any specifc feld of
application. In some specifc application areas courses are organized but no courses on agricultural
automation or agricultural machines at TKK.
It is quite clear from the agriculture viewpoint that in order to be successful in Field Robot event,
a joint team is needed. One could say that the UH agronomists are able to state what the robot
should do, the TKK automation engineers how to make intelligence in it, and the TKK mechatronics
engineers are able to design and actually make the robot moving. Such approach gives an obvious
opportunity to interdisciplinary learning from the team partners but it is not likely to happen without
close and well planned student guiding and teaching.
Challenges for teachers
Three aggravating issues must be emphasized: (1) the students have very varying background
knowledge and skills; (2) the two campuses lie 20 km apart from each other; and (3) the project
group must be kept in schedule. One more challenge, unrelated to education, is the lack of maize
feld testing environment because of northern climate conditions.
During the frst three times the team was composed of students of TKK automation technology and
UH agrotechnology. The background knowledge differed a lot. The education of automation and
systems technology contains high level mathematics, physics and computer programming courses
as well as applied mathematics like signal processing and dynamic systems, but no courses on how
to design complicated systems. On the other hand the education of agrotechnology contains no
courses on computer programming and only a few superfcial courses on machine design.
As the students came from two universities, both located in Helsinki area, but which are 20 km
apart from each other, the interoperation was resolved by dividing the team so that students of
agrotechnology concentrated on building the chassis and mechanics including the freestyle task and
students of automation technology concentrated on machine vision, navigation, sensors, electronics
and computer software. This approach did not produce as much interdisciplinary learning as desired
and the team remained bipartite.
As said, one of the major challenges for the teachers has been managing the scheduling. Every time
the project has started on September or October, preceding the year of the Event. The students are
keen on thinking that no hurry, there is 9 months to fnish this and explaining beforehand just how
much effort all subparts will require has been diffcult. Strong worded letters from the previous
team members to the preceding ones have made this a bit easier.
It is clear a feld robot that performs adequately in the competition can be built in a very simple
way, as we have seen over years. This makes level setting of education challenging. For example
FRE 2005 winning robot, Callum (Joosten et al., 2005), was quite simple and straightforward
compared to the robot the Finnish team had built (Honkanen et al., 2005). Generally simple is
better, but we have not seen the simplest algorithms, sensors and computing to meet the educational
requirements for students of automation technology. Thus we have always set the level of complexity
much higher than perhaps would serve the competition, and hence developed a quite sophisticated
AI. In the frst years this was problematic as sophisticated algorithms resulted in lots of parameters
and usually there was not enough time to test all the algorithms and tune the parameters carefully.
The importance of tuning was recognized as the major problem restricting the success in the
competition time after time. Therefore a very detailed tuning procedure was intensively emphasized
to the team in 2007-2008. A fgurative reference to Formula 1 race weekend was introduced for the
student group: the teams have prepared very carefully the plan for the whole weekend, for Friday
testing, for Saturday qualifying and for Sunday race and there are pre planned roles and tasks for
each team member and the tests runs are carefully planned in order to get optimal settings for wings,
suspensions and all the other tuneable parameters in Formula 1 car. In our case, we demanded that
the tuning procedure of each parameter had to be specifed and documented simultaneously with the
algorithm development and programming. This way all the work targeted to the competition site,
where all the testing had to be carried out in just one day, was planned in detail beforehand. It is not
possible to fx dozens of tuneable parameters without a carefully planned and organized procedure.
Guiding vs. teaching
The academic advisors role amongst the Finnish team was not very clear during the frst years.
The uncertainty related to dividing duties was partly caused by the fact that the Field robot event
was only one-year-old and the rules did not give clear guidelines for advisors. On the other hand
taking a student team to this type of a competition was a new experience to the advisors, too. The
information of the frst FRE was carefully read and this information was combined to previous
experiences in building mobile robots and agricultural machines.
During the frst year in Field Robot Event the advisors of Finnish team did not participate in technical
construction of the robot and gave only general guidelines. It was thought giving unambiguous
technical instructions was against the spirit of the competition and almost all of the technical
decisions were left to the students. However, the instructors carried out administrative duties to
ensure project funding and to provide the students the possibility to start designing the robot right
from the beginning of the course. Scheduling and planning of the project were left for the student
team itself.
The result of the frst competition was moderate but we recognized clearly that much improvement
was needed in the team work practices. We concluded that better results required a more structured
and outlined robot development process. At the same time the trade off between the ranking of
the team and learning by trial and error was recognized. Handing out specifc instructions may
result in improved success in the competition but there is a risk of spoiling the students chance
for innovative solutions.
The innovative aspect in robot building was previously considered important but experience
showed that too much freedom lead to neither good learning experience nor competition success.
As the Finnish team instructors have got more experienced, after the frst time experience, certain
specifcations for a robot have been given out as a starting point. For example it has been specifed
by instructors that robot should have four wheels, diameter of tyres over 15 cm, camera on top
and maximum driving speed should be 2 m/s. By defning some technological functions known
to be important for a successful robot, the student team can in fact be guided to fnd their own
way to solve the given problems. In addition, we found that the students own ideas were not
that innovative after all. Perhaps the awareness of their own duty to actually execute the robot
suppressed the wildest ideas.
During the recent years we have taken a clearer role as teachers rather than advisers in individual
problems. For the team 2007-2008 we decided beforehand to spend the autumn in teaching all
required skills (machine vision, signal processing, software development, simulation, kinematics,
navigation, robot control, etc.) in a systematic manner. In the spring term the team had to apply the
obtained knowledge and integrate everything together into a winning robot.
Project management tasks
A project such as Field Robot includes lots of learning in building a functioning robot with all
subsystems and participating in a competition. This brings many different duties and there is plenty
of work for every team member. The common challenges involve team integrity, roles inside the
team and scheduling work among the members. As the competition is international, also project
funding, budget, marketing, PR and other non-technical duties must be carried out. In our case we
soon decided to assign project funding and budget keeping away from the team students; the frst
reason was that fnancing was governed through university accounts and secondly the developing
and technical work was considered to support the most important learning goals.
Leading education towards a competitive robot
In 2007-2008 we tried a new way of educating algorithms at the TKK. In the frst quarter of project
in machine vision and in signal processing algorithms a clear specifcation of basic components
was given to students. These algorithms were known to work satisfactorily but not necessarily
optimally. For the student team it was given a task to program the specifed algorithms and then
also develop a competing algorithm that they had to invent by themselves (some clues were given).
Finally students had to compare the performance and fnd out which one works best. This was
found to be a powerful way in education: students could immediately get involved into a problem
but it also gave the opportunity to apply creativity. Finally in the 2008 competition there were two
competing algorithms for almost all functions and the fnal decision of which one was the best was
done at competition feld just one day before the event. However, this kind of approach requires
enough resources (students and time) in order to function in our case it worked as this was done
in autumn semester.
On the university side we gave the agrotechnology students a new way to kick off the project.
Instead of starting chassis design and test feld planning, we bought a most simple four wheel
drive radio controlled (RC) car and a PIC-based microcontroller development board. The students
with zero experience in electronics or programming were lead step by step towards building an
own robot, which would be able to navigate between to walls or maize rows with two ultrasound
sensors. The intermediate steps were defned as one-week tasks, such as reading a distance value
and turning a LED on and off accordingly, then turning the wheels according to one distance value
and hence driving at a specifc distance from a wall, etc. Since the advancement speed could not
be known beforehand, the next week task was always defned on the basis of the previous task
success. Simultaneously, the idea of how far the students would get until Christmas was refned.
The actual teaching events were clearly hands-on contact lessons and are a bit hard to describe as
problem based. When the rehearsal robot was fnished by Christmas the worst gap between the
UH and TKK team parts was overcome and the UH students started to design a sowing machine
(for the freestyle competition), which of course was too built on the now familiar PIC-board.
Without the rehearsal robot the UH students would not have been able to independently work with
microcontrollers nor understand the navigation and control problems of the actual competition
robot. The goal of building the sowing machine was not only the participation on the Event and
for freestyle task, but also to give an agronomical aspect on robotics.
During the concept creation process the students of mechanical engineering have used 3D CAD
modeling to create virtual prototypes. The feasibility of the mechanical solutions could be evaluated
without building a real robot and time and money was saved. On the other hand students need
guidance in the virtual prototyping phase. It was found out students have tendency to model
some details with great precision but more important mechanical properties related directly to
the functionality of the robot seemed to gain less attraction. In the early prototyping phase the
construction changes its shape in dramatic ways and it is ineffcient to model fancy details to the
models which are not developed further. This fact was recognized by the instructors after the frst
years and the effciency of the prototyping phase has been increased by defning different levels for
the precision of virtual prototyping. In the frst phase the 3D models are very simple shoving only
sketches of the ideas. It is fast to create models based on different ideas and the 3D models can be
used to visualize the ideas to other team members. When the basic functional principle is chosen
the mechanical feasibility of the structure can be evaluated with a more detailed model. In this
model the functionality of the mechanism can be validated and calculations for e.g. mechanisms
can be made. In the fnal phase the components satisfying the mechanical constraints are chosen and
the essential features are modeled. By having a dimensionally precise model of each component,
computer aided manufacturing and CNC machines can be used in the manufacturing process.
Robot technology
Several technologies have been tried out in mechanics, mechatronics, software and control
implementation. Only the machine vision has been quite similar every time. Choosing suitable RC
model car parts has been one educational aspect, but decreasingly since there have been backlashes
with adequacy. Robot price is one competition factor and it is hard to fnd parts with both high quality
and low price. Therefore e.g. sensors have been very similar throughout the competition history,
which has strongly directed education. On the other hand, low level electronics is one essential
part of building a mobile robot and therefore it is necessary to include also those parts in education.
Signal processing, navigation and position/state estimation has been increasingly done with Matlab/
Simulink. In the frst year only some controllers were tuned with Simulink, later a kinematic robot
model and a 2D simulator were developed. 2008 all position estimation and navigation along with
all calculations (excluding machine vision) were done in Simulink. Focusing on one good tool
keeps the education concise. In product development more advanced tools with rapid prototyping
capabilities are more and more important in the future.
C++ code generated from the Simulink model is used for real time computing. For tuning and
developing logics, etc., the simulation model of the robot together with control system runs in
Simulink and after tuning it is easy to deploy online code just by pressing a button and connecting
signals to real signals in the runtime computer. As this phase is more fuent in the development
process compared to traditional software development, there is more time to concentrate developing
algorithms and tuning the parameters. The team 2008 developed also a visual simulator that was
connected to Simulink kinematic environmental model and in that way it was also possible to
simulate the camera image. Simulating robot behavior enabled evaluation of chosen technologies
before building the hardware in the short project timeline.
Mechatronics
As students did not have design and construction skills of miniature mechanics and mechatronics
in the frst year, it was decided to use parts of radio controlled (RC) cars. For the frst robot all
parts of the drive chain were taken from ClodBuster car and only the chassis was custom built to
support a onboard laptop, camera and other sensors. Good properties in RC cars are that they are
cheap and replacements are easily available, but on the other hand the quality and durability are
not so good. Existence of backlash, hysteresis and elasticity in steering is not making development
and tuning of navigation algorithms easy. Also as the RC car parts are designed to support weight
of 1-2 kg, and if a weight of 10 kg is put there, this causes tire implosion, which causes plenty of
friction to make steering on place, which leads using more powerful steering servos, which results
using more powerful batteries and so on more troubles are caused. Over years, less and less RC
parts are used to make a robot. In robot 2008 only the axles and steering servos were taken from
RC-car. This was possible because students doing their major in mechatronics participated the team.
Computing & software development
As robots need sophisticated algorithms and some algorithms require reasonable amount of
computing power, our solution has been putting a laptop computer onboard. Advantages in this
approach are good processors, integrated energy system (batteries), easy-to-access debugging
environment (keyboard, display), integrated communication system (WLAN) and possibility to use
advanced development tools. However there are also disadvantages: unnecessary components such
are display cause weight, cooling may be problematic, battery charging has to be made with computer
and desktop operating system may not be stable enough. In the frst year quite heavy laptop was
used (we had to use the one our sponsor supplied), the weight was more than 3 kg later on lighter
laptops are used, 2008 a small 12 laptop less than 2 kg was used. Later on so called mini-laptops,
which weight about 1 kg, have appeared to markets but they were not available yet at end of 2007.
Sensors
In the education viewpoint it would be necessary to use such sensors that are used in industry and
guide selecting proper sensors. However, it is not possible to use industrial sensors in these projects
as the price is out of reach for student robots. Therefore cheap hobbyist sensors are mainly used,
such as ultrasonic rangers, infrared rangers, etc. which are used by other teams also. These sensors
give a good enough accuracy so they are valid for this purpose but on the other hand selection of
sensors is given, not to be done by students.
Machine vision
It was considered from the frst year that machine vision should be a part of this project work, even
if this was not necessary for 2005 competition. Machine vision is educated in one course at TKK,
and it is important also give practical hands-on experience. In the very beginning various softwares
and software libraries were investigated and analyzed which of those are suitable for this project
so that the amount of work and on the other hand education are in good balance. Some tools, such
as LabVIEW were considered too ready in order to make good education, as some other software
libraries required almost everything to be programmed by hand and deep understanding of C/C++
was required. OpenCV (Open Source Computer Vision Library) was found to be the best software
library for this purpose, and besides it was open source. OpenCV is a library where sophisticated
algorithms are realized and it is quite optimized for real-time computing, but it is not possible to
start using it without getting into algorithms and understand how they work. OpenCV has been used
since the beginning and it is still considered a good choice even if other tools may have appeared.
Summary and conclusions
We have described the evolution of our Field Robot team education methods. In addition to a
competitive robot we have sought interdisciplinary learning opportunities, as the team consists of
students with varying background. Building a robot involves a lot of issues, both technological
and educational. The better the education is planned, the more the project work gives to students.
Dividing the team in separate groups working with divided tasks makes schedule keeping hard,
decreases working motivation and hinders learning from each other. A better division has been found
to spend the autumn term for catching up knowledge gaps in separate groups and then integrating
the team in the spring term.
To motivate schedule keeping we have found hind sighted letters from the previous team members
to the preceding ones useful. Dividing the autumn term in many consequent work tasks has enabled
both schedule follow-up and close learning evaluation.
We discovered too much freedom leads to a less valuable learning experience and a decreased work
motivation because of the inevitable disorientation. Detailed robot specifcations have enabled the
students to focus on the essential work. The best solution has been found to maintain a role as a
client ordering a specifc kind of an end product, but act as teachers concerning individual problems.
In conjunction to this approach, it is natural to let the students freely organize their roles inside the
team but to occupy all the roles strictly defned by the teachers. We have also found it worthwhile
that teachers manage all non-technical tasks, such as funding, budget keeping and marketing to
allow the students to focus on the primary tasks and achieve the set educational goals.
Acknowledgements
Sponsors have made it possible to participate in the Field Robot Event. We wish to express our
gratitude to all sponsors so far: Henry Ford foundation Finland, Koneviesti magazine, Suomen
kulttuurirahasto, Valtra, HP Finland, Kemira Growhow, Maatalouskoneiden tutkimussti,
Junkkari, Linak and OEM Automatic.
Education would have been wasted without enthusiastic and diligent students in the teams: Jere
Syvnne, Matti Honkanen, Kosti Kannas, Hannu Suna, Hannu Grhn, Mikko Hakojrvi, Aleksis
Kyr, Matti Selinheimo, Juho Steri, Miika Telama, Jukka Turtiainen, Pekka Viinanen, Jari
Kostamo, Ville Mussalo, Tuomas Virtanen, Thomas Maksimow, Jussi Hltt, Erkki-Juhani Lms,
Juho Junkkala, Petri Koskela, Mikko Posio, Juha Backman, Heikki Hyyti, Jouko Kalmari, Jouko
Kinnari, Antti Hakala, Vesa Poutiainen, Petro Tamminen and Heikki Vtinen. Matti Pastell, Juho
Steri and Frederick Teye have acted as assistant advisors during the years.
References
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automation.tkk.f/FieldRobot2008/
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M., Steri, J. and Tiusanen, J. 2005. The development of an Autonomous Robot for Outdoor Conditions.
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Resnick, L.B. 1987. Learning in school and out. Educational Researcher 16, 13-20.
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14p.
Safe and reliable: further development of a feld robot
H.W. Griepentrog
1
, N.A. Andersen
2
, J.C. Andersen
2
, M. Blanke
2
, O. Heinemann
3
, T.E. Madsen
4
,
J. Nielsen
1
, S.M. Pedersen
1
, O. Ravn
2
and D. Wulfsohn
1
1
University of Copenhagen, Dept. of Agriculture and Ecology, 2630 Taastrup, Denmark;
hwg@life.ku.dk
2
Technical University of Denmark, Dept. of Electrical Engineering, Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark
3
Hako Werke, Bad Oldesloe, Germany
4
Agrocom Vision, Kvistgaard, Denmark
Abstract
High levels of reliability and safety are necessary and can be achieved by novel developments
within automated perception, diagnosis and decision making and fault tolerant operation. The
aim is to add functionality to an existing robot prototype so that it will behave in a safe, reliable
and effective manner under unmanned operation. The existing machine system and the proposed
operation conditions were assessed by a machine safety consultant to check the compliance of
existing legal requirements. Based on legal safety consultancy and a failure modes and effects
analysis a redesign of the machine system was completed. The supposed operation is spraying and
mowing in semi-public orchards. The machine will be unmanned but not unattended. An operator
prepares, checks and starts the machine in the operation area. During machine operation the operator
is around and is supposed to complete other working tasks. An additional stereo vision camera and
a laser scanner will provide more information about the machine environment to avoid collision
with obstacles and improves the machine navigation, this will contribute to reduce the dependency
on GPS information. Signal monitoring software was developed to achieve higher levels of reliable
and fault tolerant control. An additional safety circuit including bumper switches allow the machine
to stop when other collision sensors fail.
Keywords: agricultural robotics, safety, reliability, control systems
Introduction
Unmanned, supervised, small machines in semi-public agricultural or horticultural areas will be
common in the foreseeable future. Highly automated and autonomous machines save labour costs,
remove people from performance of risky operations, and reduce negative environmental impacts.
The considerable complexity of semi-natural outdoor environments found in agriculture and
horticulture and of the mobile robot itself, result in substantial challenges to achieving reliability
and safety under unmanned and/or unattended operation.
The specifc project objectives are to (a) specify and identify descriptions of reliable and safe
behaviours and strategies under outdoor unmanned conditions, that meet legislative as well as
task-determined requirements, (b) develop sensor-based perception system for relevant description
of the machines behaviour as well as its environment, (c) develop internal generic robot fault
handling and decision support routines, (d) add hardware and software components to the existing
feld robot, (e) upgrade user interface and usability routines, (f) implement and test the improved
robot and (g) conduct an economic and technology assessment.
Background
A mobile robot operating in semi-natural environments like felds, orchards or plantations must cope
with a high degree of diversity. Internal machine faults can result in unwanted machine behaviours
and can even result in an unsafe machine performance status. Furthermore, the machine must be
aware of its close environment to carry out operations effciently and also to avoid collisions with
other objects that could damage the machine and other objects (infrastructure, plants, humans and
animals). To meet these performance goals automated perception capabilities are required, and the
robot must react promptly and appropriately when unexpected objects are detected or when faults
of various severity do occur. A main direction of outdoor robot research is on the development of
agent-based architectures suitable for unmanned, possibly unattended, but still supervised systems
(Granot, 2002).
A number of highly automated machine prototypes exist for outdoor applications, but none of them
has a proper safety system (Garcia-Alegre et al., 2001, Aastrand and Baerveldt 2002, Pilarski et
al., 2002, Zeitzew, 2007, Sorensen et al., 2007, Van Evert et al., 2007).
With availability and safety being crucial for the usability and public acceptance of an autonomous
tractor, which is only supervised remotely, fault diagnosis and fault-tolerant control strategies are
needed to detect and isolate possible faults in hardware or software and artefacts in the sensor-
based perception of the surrounding environment. Once this has been achieved, remedial actions
are needed to faults to keep the tractor operational, and fault-tolerant perception is needed to
maintain a high level of safety for live objects in the vicinity of the autonomous vehicle. Techniques
for fault-tolerant control of low-level engine hardware are available (Blanke et al., 1997, 2006),
but need to be tailored to each specifc application. Techniques for fault-tolerant perception from
intelligent sensors and for supervision of the correct functioning of software modules are at the
edge of present research.
Commercialisation and adoption of autonomous robots will only occur if safety aspects are
incorporated and related problems are acceptably solved. These aspects for outdoor robots have
still not been solved satisfactory giving legal authorities arguments for refusing operating licences
or even banning these systems. Reliability and safety are a priority for adoption (Reid, 2002;
Vougioukas, 2006). The usability is also often a restraint for adopting highly automated systems
because planning and generating the mission often overstrains the operator.
Robot status at project start
A conventional 20 kW tractor (Hakotrac, 3000) was retroftted with an RTK-GPS (Trimble MS750)
and a controller system for navigation. The control of steering, engine speed, vehicle speed, PTO
and three point linkage was achieved by using an electronic controller unit (ESX). Two electro-
hydraulic valves (Sauer Danfoss EHP) actuate the steering and electric linear motors (Linak) control
engine rpm and continuously variable transmission (CVT). The steering wheel, the driver seat and
the ROPS (Roll Over Protection Structures) were removed. The safety interlocks and emergency
shutdown was achieved by a combination of stamp computers (with PIC microcontrollers), radio
links and hardwired relays. The tractor navigation controller was designed to follow a predetermined
route plan accurately and repeatable across a feld with planned action points for implement control
(Blackmore et al., 2004; Reske-Nielsen et al., 2006).
The controller system uses a multi-layer structure spanning from a hardware control server, a
low-level mobile robot controller, a high-level mission planner to a graphical user interface. A
notebook computer was linked by wireless local area network (WLAN) to the navigational tractor
computer to provide the user interface. The internet browser on the notebook displays the graphical
user interface of the navigation software and furthermore functions to upload the mission fles. A
standard path tracker navigated the vehicle along way points. For turning at headlands, however,
the tractor switched to predefned turning routines. Missions are defned using an XML formatted
fle that can be uploaded to the tractor through the user interface. The generating and handling of
XML fles is easy, common and exhibits low error. The user interface is complex and provides
several user services (Reske-Nielsen et al., 2006).
The control system consists of four operation modes: Off, Start, Remote and Automatic. The Start
mode has the purpose to start the diesel combustion engine and the basic tractor control system.
During the Start mode the operator has to activate the starter buttons from the right side of the
machine. After starting the machine the operator can control the machine while standing and walking
beside it. The vehicle speed, engine rpm and the steering can be varied using a control panel and
joystick connected to the machine by a cable (Remote mode). The purpose of the remote mode is
to permit a manual control to move the machine to its operating location. During the automatic
operation (Automatic or Autonomous mode) the machine is controlled by machine commands
stored in a so-called mission fle, which will be uploaded to the onboard computer before the
operation start. The tracking of the machine during automatic execution is controlled by real-time
GPS-signals until the machine reaches the end position. By reaching the end position the machine
automatically stops and switches the engine to idle state.
The research focus was on basic functionality of the machine and controller system. Several
implements to allow different feld operations have been developed for the machine namely
precision seeding and weeding tools (Griepentrog et al., 2006a,b). The vehicle at project start was
purely deterministic in its behaviour and had no reactive components; it could not by itself react
on occurring external or internal faults or events.
Safety assessment and defnition
The safety assessment of the machine had the aim to determine the compliance to legal standards
and to draw attention to the most probable operational risks. A legal machine safety consultant
(T. Roos, Maskinsikkerhed, Vrlse, Denmark) conducted a safety analysis based on current
applicable safety standards. For highlighting and ranking of risks a failure modes and effects
analysis (FMEA) was conducted (Blanke et al., 2006). As a prerequisite for the safety assessment
the intended autonomous operations and conditions had to be defned. After identifying and ranking
the risks and hazards safety and reliability procedures and components were selected to improve
the performance and to fulfl the legal requirements.
Intended use
The intention is to create an unmanned but not unattended machine capable of driving on predefned
routes in a defned area without human control. The machine may be of interest for semi-public
areas such as orchards, sports grounds, plant nurseries and similar locations with restricted access
for persons and other traffc. The machine is not designed to be used or to be controlled on public
roads and other areas with free public access. The application tasks include the control of implements
for grass mowing and for spraying.
The operator tasks are to start up the machine, to manually control its driving to the feld and to
the start position for automatic mode. After checking the main machine controls and status the
operator activates the start switch for automatic mode and hence the automatic operation. During
the automatic mode the operator will be at the operating location but will not continuously monitor
the machine.
Relevant standards
The tractor basis is modifed to an extend where it cannot be regarded as a tractor despite the
following defnition in Directive 2003/37/EC for tractors:
Tractor means any motorized, wheeled or tracked agricultural or forestry tractor having at least
two axles and a maximum design speed of not less than 6 km/h, the main function of which lies in
its tractive power and which has been especially designed to pull, push, carry and actuate certain
interchangeable equipment designed to perform agricultural or forestry work, or to tow agricultural
or forestry trailers; it may be adapted to carry a load in the context of agricultural or forestry work
and/or may be equipped with passenger seats.
Because the machine lacks a driver seat and is not intended for driving on public roads nor areas
open to other traffc, the machine falls within the exemption procedure for certain vehicles built
in limited numbers or those which take advantage of technical progress not covered by a separate
(tractor) directive. Consequently this autonomous machine can be regarded as a machine and the
risk evaluation should be carried out with respect to the essential health and safety requirements
of directive 98/37/EC for machinery (Roos, 2008).
Requirements for safety and reliability for an automatically controlled machine are specifed by
the directive of machinery which in clause 1.2.1 states: Control systems must be designed and
constructed so that they are safe and reliable in a way that will prevent a dangerous situation arising.
Above all they must be designed and constructed in such a way that (1) they can withstand the
rigors of normal use and external factors, and (1) errors in logic do not lead to dangerous situations.
Acceptance for the reliability of control systems may be based on the principles of redundancy and
self-monitoring given in the European standard EN 954-1 which now will be replaced by EN ISO
13849 -1 Safety of machinery Safety-related parts of control systems Part 1: General principles
for design and Part 2: Validation. Acceptable solutions for electro-hydraulic control systems are
shown in BIA report 6/97 Categories for Safety-related Control Systems in Accordance with
EN 954-1.
The implements mounted on the machine to perform a particular operation (spraying, weeding, etc.)
are conventionally constructed and safeguarded for the use of a manned tractor. The implement
manufacturer did not foresee that an automatic machine without a driver would operate and control
the implement. Consequently a new supplementary risk assessment has to be made for every attached
implement to be used by the automatic machine. A supplementary risk assessment for the implements
was not undertaken as a part of the risk evaluation. The focus was on the automatic main machine.
Safety assessment
For the safety assessment the operational restrictions as defned in the intended use are highly
relevant. It was decided to work only in semi-public areas to be able to exclude risks and hence to
comply more easily with legal requirements. Simple conditions like a fenced orchard can ensure
that non-authorised humans are not within the operation area. Furthermore, defned rules have to
be defned e.g. for the operator to setup and monitor the machine. Such assumptions can lower
the risk probability signifcantly and can further reduce the technical safety requirements for the
machine. However, additional hardware and software monitoring was identifed to achieve a fault
tolerant machine and system behaviour. In general it was summarized that due to its complexity
the most diffcult and challenging task is to increase the reliability and fault tolerant behaviour of
the installed computer control system.
The risk evaluation performed by the machine safety consultant can be summarized (Roos, 2008):
The automatic machine is an interesting new aspect in outdoor mechanization.
The functionality and the design of the machine shows that it is possible to work without an
onboard driver.
The outdoor operations should be reduced to applications under semi-public conditions to more
easily comply with legal requirements.
The evaluation of the safety shows that documentation and design of the control system does
not meet the requirements for safety for a machine. The control system must be redesigned and
rebuilt to meet performance level PL d of EN ISO 13849.
The emergency stop system (safety circuit) has to be re-evaluated before it can be regarded as
acceptable to let the machine work without surveillance.
Redesign of machine and controller system
Based on legal safety consultancy and the FMEA the machine system was redesigned. An additional
laser range fnder (scanner) and a stereo vision camera will provide necessary information to
enhance the performance related to navigation and obstacle detection and thus, will contribute to
reduce the dependency on GPS information. Both sensors will provide data input to algorithms
for obstacle recognition and avoidance. Added bumper switches allow the machine to stop when
other collision sensors fail. Furthermore, fault tolerant software routines will allow more reliable
machine controls. Figure 1 shows the redesigned controller system and Figure 2 shows the machine
itself with additional safety components.
Safety circuit
The safety circuit is able to stop the fuel supply to the combustion engine and thus stops the
hydraulic drive and movement of the machine. The safety circuit can be activated by 4 push button
emergency switches, 4 bumper switches, a hold-to-run button on the remote control panel and a
remote emergency switch. The safety components in the safety circuit must have a documented
high reliability.
The circuit was re-designed by creating a double wire solution, meaning that a single fault in the
system can not lead to a loss of the safety function. The safety circuit does not stop other machine
components, e.g. the hydraulic control valves or PTO devices.
The stopping time and the stopping distance of the safety circuit will depend on the machine speed
and is estimated to be at least 0.5 meter. The safety distance to any person shall be at least the same
as the stopping distance.
A new main component of the safety circuit is the front bumper. The bumper is supported by arms
ftted to the front lift. There are six hinges, four of these have spring loaded wedges which fxes
the angles of the joints, until a limit (defned by the shape of the wedge and the spring tension), at
which the bumper is dislocated. The change of angle is detected by SensaGuards (Rockwell) when
a hinge is turned, the actuator of the SensaGuard is moved out of sensing range and this breaks
the safety loop. The bumper can be compressed approximately 0.5 m at defned force, until it is
fully compressed. Currently the ground clearance is about 0.25 m (thus a smaller object will not
be detected) but the height is adjustable.
Laser scanner
Autonomous navigation while applying chemicals (spraying) and grass mowing in an orchard is
one of the required operation tasks. An orchard is a semi-structured natural environment, where
fruit trees are planted in straight rows and headland is available to drive the tractor to consecutive
rows. Therefore, using distance measurements between the robot and the tree rows for localisation
is obvious when the robot navigates between rows. Using a laser scanner, a maximisation of the
expectation against position of known elements (using a priori maps) in the environment was
used together with an Extended Kalman flter to estimate the machines pose. By integrating this
information the navigation of the machine could be improved even when based on laser scan data
only and the vulnerability of the system against GPS failures was signifcantly reduced (Hansen
and Tjell, 2008; Hansen et al., 2009).
Within the activities to increase the machines reliability it was decided to use the laser for obstacle
detection as well. The aim was to extract as much information as possible from laser scanner
data. A model was used to classify laser data into obstacles. At this frst stage of the project,
obstacle recognition was limited to three classes: Human, Tree, and Other. The preliminary results
demonstrate the feasibility of implementation in the autonomous tractor. First limited tests showed
that mobile and stationary adult humans could be identifed using feature based extraction based
on a few geometrical features of the scan.
Stereocamera
Stereo vision has been introduced in perception systems for autonomous vehicles in the last years
(Wei et al., 2005; Rovira-Mas et al., 2008). When working in outdoor applications the natural
light conditions change and the perception system should be able to react on it and correct the
parameter settings. An algorithm was developed capable of proposing a new exposure parameter
Figure 1. Main components of the control system.
for the camera setting depending on varying light conditions (Garcia Ruiz, 2008). The algorithm
created worked properly in different orchard and light conditions.
The stereo camera combined with the laser data (using feature based extraction methods) will
be used to detect humans. First limited tests in an orchard showed that adult humans and trees
could be correctly classifed using the stereo camera based on some geometric parameters of the
generated 3D point clouds.
Clearly for acceptable safety of the machine, children and possibly medium sized animals (e.g.
dogs) must be correctly identifed by the perception system. This would require more sophisticated
algorithms than implemented to date and may require fusion of the laser scanner and stereo camera
data to achieve acceptable rates of recognition.
Fault tolerant control
Employing an extended Kalman-flter was for navigation, it was made fault-tolerant by establishing
a residual generator that compare odometry, real-time-kinematic GPS position and laser scanner
(LADAR) data with map information. Statistical hypothesis testing and expectation maximization
were employed to isolate faults. Practical tests revealed that typical reasons to estimation errors
could be signal jumps in the RTK GPS and slippery ground was a reason to odometry estimation
errors. With the experience that 2 cm class device would often jump up 1-2 m every time the tractor
passed out of satellite shadow between rows of trees, entering into the headland in the orchard, the
integration with LADAR-based hypothesis testing against a map of trees was of good use. These
results are reported in (Hansen et al., 2009).
Overall supervision of navigation was pursued using an automaton to represent semantically where
the tractor moves, based on laser scanner information. This was reported in (Caponetti and Blanke,
Figure 2. Main components in relation to safety and perception system.
2009a) and demonstrated that, in the event that other sensors fail, the laser scanner information could
make basis for a back-up control and assure availability of the tractor for servicing the orchard.
Likewise, this solution, using advanced stochastic automaton-based diagnosis, could be effective
in supervising the navigation solution obtained by Kalman flter techniques.
Artefacts occur regularly in stereo vision when a stereo vision algorithm correlates texture in two
areas of the image, where there should not be texture correlation. Such artefacts can jeopardize
estimation of optical fow and hinder correct detection of moving objects in the scene. The
phenomenon was studied in (Blas et al., 2009) where an algorithm was obtained that could detect
and present this type of artefacts in the image processing. The algorithm was yet too computationally
demanding to implement in the current tractor hardware.
Integration of LADAR and stereo vision data is an obvious use of the two advanced environment
sensors onboard. This is being studied and ways to arrive at fault-tolerant fusion of these sensor
data are reported in (Caponetti et al., 2009a).
Finally, in support of detecting faults in software modules, and agent-based architecture was
studied in (Caponetti et al., 2009b) that allows detection of defects in software modules and uses
standardised agent-technology software to restart individual parts of software without the need
for operator supervision.
Conclusions
In industrialised countries advances in automation are demanded by the market as a response to
high labour costs. Developments in hardware and software systems are ready to be modifed and
implemented in robotic outdoor systems to allow effcient and economically viable operations in
agriculture, horticulture and forestry. Negative impacts on the environment will be reduced and a
higher quality of products will be achieved by more effective and effcient operations and use of
management inputs. Due to minimised exposure time of humans to dust, noise and pesticide fog
the working conditions will improve and reduce health risks.
To reduce the identifed risks for autonomous outdoor operations the following conclusions can
be made:
to fulfl the legal requirements an emergency safety circuit was installed to backup faults in the
control system and to protect the environment as well as the machine itself;
the outdoor operations have to be reduced to applications under semi-public conditions to
comply more easily to legal requirements as well as to achieve a reasonable economic viability;
a perception system is needed to detect obstacles and to improve the localisation system for
navigation purposes;
additional hardware and software monitoring is necessary to optimise the systems behaviour;
some safety risks had to be excluded at this stage of the project (e.g. the possibility of free
public access to the area, the presence of children) or tried to be met by defning rules for the
operator behaviour;
it was identifed that due to its complexity the most diffcult and challenging task is to increase
the reliability and fault tolerant behaviour of the installed computer control system.
Acknowledgements
We thank PhD Students Fabio Caponetti and M. Rufus Blas; MSc Students Francisco Garcia, Sren
Hansen and Peter Tjell; Senior Scientist Kurt Hjort-Gregersen; Engineering Assistants Allan E.
Hansen and Jesper Resting-Jeppesen; Consultant Hans H. Pedersen; Associate Prof. Henning T.
Sgaard and CEO Jesper Vilander for their signifcant contributions to the project. Thanks also
to The Danish Food Industry Agency within The Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries for
funding the project under the Innovation Law.
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Blas, M.R., Blanke, M., Rusu, R.B. and Beetz, M., 2009. Fault-tolerant 3D Mapping with Application to an
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IX (July).
Simple tunable control for automatic guidance of four-
wheel steered vehicles
T. Bakker
1
, C.J. van Asselt
2
, J. Bontsema
3
, J. Mller
4
and G. van Straten
2
1
Tyker Technology, Papiermakersbeek 16, 3772 SV Barneveld, the Netherlands;
tijmen.bakker@tyker.com
2
Systems and Control Group, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 17, 6700 AA Wageningen, the
Netherlands
3
WUR Greenhouse Horticulture, P.O. Box 17, 6700 AA Wageningen, the Netherlands
4
Farm Technology Group, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 17 6700 AA Wageningen, the
Netherlands.
Abstract
The objective of this research was to identify the advantages of using all degrees of freedom of
four-wheel steered vehicles for headland turning compared to the current manual control using
only two degrees of freedom, often further limited by coupling the front and rear wheels in a fxed
relation. Headland turning with coupled front and rear wheels was simulated and compared with
turning exploiting the full degrees of freedom, based on a newly developed practical method for
path following control applicable for any four-wheel-steered vehicle. This method enables the user
to defne the vehicle control point as a position in the coordinate system attached to the vehicle,
which was set to the implement position. The path following control consists of a method that inverts
the kinematic model of the four-wheel steered vehicle, into a very simple model. For this simple
model two P controllers are designed. The tuning of the P-controller is simple and straightforward.
In terms of implementation, the kinematic model inversion can just be seen as a general applicable
software module that can be set according to the vehicles parameters. Simulation of a self-propelled
four-wheel steered vehicle available on the market showed that using all degrees of freedom for
turning at the headland in stead of using front and rear wheel opposite steering can reduce both
the headland space needed as well as the time required for turning. The required time for turning
was reduced with 10 percent, from 30 s to 27 s, while the space for headland turning was reduced
by 24 percent from 17.8 to 13.5 m. A fgure and video showing path following results with the
method implemented on the Intelligent Autonomous Weeder platform of Wageningen University
substantiate the performance and practical applicability.
Keywords: four-wheel steering, headland turning, turning space, turning time, degrees of freedom
Introduction
Automation of agricultural machinery reduces driver fatigue and improves precision of the work
performed and could fnally exclude the need for a driver. Automatic guidance solutions exist for
two-wheel steered and tracked tractors. These machines are systems with two degree of freedom:
driving straight (in x-direction, with straight front wheels or same speed of tracks) and rotating
around an instantaneous centre of rotation (when steering). With the tendency of increasing sizes
of agricultural machines, more machinery is equipped with four wheel steering to keep some
degree of maneuverability with these big machines. Four wheel steered vehicles have in principle
three degrees of freedom (drive in x-direction, rotate, and drive in y-direction), but in practice the
steering angles of front and rear wheels of these machines are coupled by selecting from various
steering modes. Common steering modes are: front and rear wheels steer in opposite direction,
only front-wheel steering, the front and rear wheels steer in parallel and sometimes the rear wheel
is set to a fxed offset to obtain dog-like moving. Because these steering modes predefne the
relation between front and rear wheel angles at any time, these steering modes limit the vehicles
degrees of freedom: in case of the opposite steering to rotating around a point and driving straight
(two degrees), and in case parallel steering to moving sideways or straight (two degrees). It is
obvious that using the degrees of freedom of a four-wheel steered vehicle by not having a fxed
relation between front and rear wheels could potentially improve its maneuverability, and improves
headland turning performance. In this research a control method simulating manual steering with
coupled wheel angles is compared with a method that uses all three degrees of freedom. The
advantages in terms of headland turning performance are quantifed.
Method
Vehicle
The vehicle parameters are derived from the four-wheel steered multi-purpose platform Vredo
VT3936 (Vredo, 2009). A common use of this vehicle is applying of manure. Figure 1 shows the
machine equipped with a manure application system. The vehicle has a length of 7.3 m (without
the manure equipment) and a width of 3 m. Standard tires used for this machine have a width of
1.05 m and a diameter of 1.86 m. It is assumed that the maximum turning radius of the front and
rear wheel angles are the same. For simulation purposes the vehicle is considered as having only
two virtual wheels, located in between the front and rear wheels respectively. The maximum wheel
angle of the virtual wheels is calculated from the turning radius of 12.50 meters and the vehicle
dimensions and equals 34 degrees (0.60 rad). The working width of the selected implement for
manure application is 6.4 m. This working width determines the distance between the subsequent
paths, so the headland turn should be made between two parallel paths 6.4 m apart.
Manual control
Manual control is simulated by implementing a controller described by Hague and Tillett (1996).
This controller minimizes the orientation and orthogonal offset of the vehicle centre relative to a
path by controlling only the orientation rate. The controller gains are chosen in such a way that it
results in a critically damped response. With inversion of a vehicle model as described by Bakker
(2009), wheel angles are calculated. The wheel angles () are constrained to the range from -0.6
Figure 1. The four wheel steered vehicle with manure application system from which the
simulation parameters are derived (picture: www.vredo.nl).
rad to 0.6 rad and the solutions are limited to solutions with coupled wheels, i.e.
front
= -
rear
.
The vehicle position and orientation is simulated at a constant speed of 1 m/s. The model used
is described by Bakker (2009), which is adapted from the model of Campion et al. (1996) and
Bendtsen et al. (2002).
Using all degrees of freedom
The method performing a headland turn using all degrees of freedom can be found in Bakker (2009).
The controlled position can be chosen freely within the vehicle frame, and is chosen as the middle
of the manure implement at the rear of the machine. The deviation of the robot to the desired path
is supplied to two P controllers minimizing the orthogonal distance and orientation to the path,
which makes the control simply tunable. The proportional controller gains are chosen equal to -1.
Wheel angles are determined from inversion of a vehicle model.
Results
Manual control
In Figure 2 the results of turning are visualized using only two degrees of freedom under the
constraint that the angles of the front and rear wheels are coupled. The vehicle starts at x,y = 0,0
and the turning starts when the implement passes the border at x = 20 m. The path to be followed
continues then at the beginning of the parallel path starting at x,y = 20,6.4. The implement is the
wide beam at the back of the vehicle. To navigate to the second path the controller is controlling
only the orientation. Figures 3 and 4 show the orthogonal error and the orientation error to the path
of the middle position of the vehicle (the vehicle middle position is being controlled). Figures 5 and
6 show the orthogonal error and the orientation error of the implement. The front and rear wheels
are always opposite as can be seen from Figure 7. The visualized wheel angles are the angles of
two virtual wheels, located exactly in between the front and rear wheels respectively. Figure 8
shows the orthogonal error of the middle of the implement related to the implement x position.
The start of the turn in this fgure is induced by the sudden increase in error at x = 20 m resulting
Figure 2. Headland turn of the vehicle simulating manual control.
Figure3. Orthogonal distance to the path of the vehicle middle position.
Figure 4. Orientation error to the path of the vehicle middle position.
Figure 5. Orthogonal distance to the path of the middle of the implement.
Figure 6. Orientation error to the path of the middle of the implement.
Figure 7. Wheel angles of the virtual front (beta1) and virtual rear (beta2) wheel of the vehicle.
Figure 8. Orthogonal distance to the path of the middle of the implement related to the vehicle
x-coordinate.
from the setpoint change at the end of the frst path to the beginning of the second path. From this
fgure it was determined that the maximum x = 30.4 m, and that it takes until x = 15.8 m until the
orthogonal distance to the path is less than 5 cm. Because the x visualizes the implement middle,
an additional half working width of 3.2 m turning space in x-direction should be added to the 30.4
m, so the border of the turning area is located at x = 33.6 m. The required turning area in x direction
is then 33.6-15.8 = 17.8 m. To return to the subsequent path within the limit of 5 cm deviation, the
headland space should be increased, which can be done by locating a headland border at x = 15.8
m. The total time required for turning from x = 15.8 (at t= 16.8 s), until returning to the path at x
= 15.8 m (at t = 46.8 s) is 30 s.
Using all degrees of freedom
In Figure 9 the results of turning are visualized using all degrees of freedom. The vehicle starts at
x,y = 0,0 and the turning starts when the implement passes the border at x = 20 m. To navigate to
the second path the controller is controlling both orientation and orthogonal distance. Figures 10
and 11 show the orthogonal error and the orientation error of the implement. The implement middle
position is being controlled by the controller. As before, the front and rear wheel angles visualized
in Figure 12 are the angles of two virtual wheels in between the front and rear wheels. The front
and rear wheels are now not always opposite as can be seen from the fgure. Figure 13 shows the
orthogonal error of the implement related to the implement x position. The start of the turn in this
fgure is induced by the sudden increase in error at x= 20 m. From this fgure it was determined
that the maximum x = 30.3 m, and that it takes until x = 24.3 m until the orthogonal distance to the
path is less than 5 cm. Because the x visualizes the implement middle, an additional half working
width of 3.2 m turning space in x-direction should be added to the 30.3 m, so the border of the
turning area is located at x = 33.5 m. Hence, the required turning area in x direction is 33.5-20 =
13.5 m. The total time required for turning from x = 20 m (at t = 21 s), until returning to the path
at x = 20 m takes (at t = 48 s) is 27 s.
x-coordinate.
Figure 9. Headland turn of the vehicle simulating control using all degrees of freedom.
Figure 10. Orthogonal distance to the path of the middle of the implement.
Figure 11. Orientation error to the path of the middle of the implement.
Figure 12. Wheel angles of the virtual front (1) and virtual rear (2) wheel of the vehicle.
Experimental results
Bakker (2009) demonstrated that the method using all degrees of freedom is applicable in practice.
The method was implemented on the autonomous robot platform for weed control. The path was
slightly different because also the turn path was provided, the speed was 0.5 m/s and the proportional
controller gains for both the orthogonal distance controller and the orientation error are chosen
equal to -0.77. Figure 14 shows experimental results.
Discussion
In practice the required time and distances might increase a bit as compared to the simulation results
because the simulations did not include the vehicle dynamics. Because the dynamics were not
included in both the simulation of the manual control and in the simulation of the control using all
degrees of freedom, it is not expected that it will have much effect on the relative performances of
the two methods. The performance of a driver might not be as good as the simulation of the manual
control resulting in exactly a critically damped response. So, if using all degrees of freedom is done
Figure 13. Orthogonal distance to the path of the middle of the implement related to the vehicle
Figure 14. Experimental results of path following with the Intelligent Autonomous Weeder
platform (Bakker, 2009).
automatically by using RTK-DGPS, the advantages can even be more prominent. In practice also
other turning methods are used, like driving back, or moving along the path by dog motion where
the vehicle has a constant offset in orientation to the path. The relative performance of the control
method using all degrees of freedom compared to the current manual control in these situations
has not yet been examined, but is expected to be favourable as well.
Conclusion
Using its full degrees of freedom for turning at the headland in stead of using front and rear wheel
opposite steering can reduce both the headland space needed as well as the time required for turning.
Using an existing self-propelled vehicle available on the marked the required time for turning was
reduced with 10 percent from 30 s to 27 s and the space for headland turning was reduced by 24
percent from 17.8 to 13.5 m.
References
Bakker, T., 2009. An autonomous robot for weed control Design, navigation and control. Ph.D. thesis,
Wageningen University, Wageningen, the Netherlands, 138 p.
Bendtsen, J., Andersen, P. and Pedersen, S., 2002 Robust feedback linearisation-based control design for
a wheeled mobile robot. In: 6
th
International Symposium on Advanced Vehicle Control (AVEC 02).
Hiroshima, Japan.
Campion, G., Bastin, G. and DAndra-Novel, B., 1996. Structural properties and classifcation of kinematic and
dynamic models of wheeled mobile robots. IEEE Transactions on Robotics and Automation 12 (1): 47-62.
Hague, T. and Tillett, N.D. 1996. Navigation and control of an autonomous horticultural robot. Mechatronics
6 (2): 165-180.
Vredo, 2009. Vredo VT3936. De meest bodemvriendelijke en meest wendbare zelfrijder in zijn klasse. Available
at: http://www.vredo.nl/mme/upload/VT3936_NED.pdf. Accessed 19/2/2008.
Development of a small agricultural feld inspection vehicle
R. Gottschalk, X.P. Burgos-Artizzu and A. Ribeiro
Artifcial Perception Group (GPA), Instituto de Automtica Industrial (CSIC), Arganda del Rey,
Madrid, Spain; angela@iai.csic.es
Abstract
Weed mapping is a valuable tool when it comes to optimizing the use of resources in managing
the attempts made to control weeds. Weed mapping has traditionally been done by using random
sampling techniques, amongst others, with a team of experts working in the feld. One alternative
to this tedious task, which requires moving the experts with the consequent associated cost, is the
use of photographic samples, with and without controlled lighting. Once in the laboratory an expert
can estimate the amount of weeds and the growth state of the crop on the basis of the set of photos
that have been taken at the geo-referenced sampling points. This method can be used to observe the
photos several times and correct errors in estimation, this in view of the fact that visual assessment
of the photos is a subjective process in which it is easy to adapt observation to an overall situation;
for example, average density can be estimated as high if the set of photos is not very dense and as
low if the opposite is the case. This paper presents the frst vehicle prototype developed at the IAI-
CSIC that is able to move autonomously across agricultural felds, taking high-resolution photos, at
sampling points defned by the user for the generation of a weed distribution map. The autonomous
vehicle was tested successfully in an agricultural environment without controlled lighting.
Keywords: autonomous robot, vision-guided robot, crop row detection
Introduction
Traditionally spatial distribution of weeds has been ignored in weed management because techniques
to measure the spatial variation of weeds have not been established as yet. Nevertheless, there is a
general agreement that herbicide use can be signifcantly when it is site-specifcally (Nordmeyer,
2002; Dammer et al., 2003; Barroso et al., 2004).
A major step towards a practical solution for site-specifc weed management is the generation of
a treatment map that requires knowing the degree of weed coverage in each area of the feld. A
sampling process is habitually carried out in the crop feld to obtain this information, whereby data
is acquired for selected points (sampling points). The overall situation in the feld is then inferred
by means of an interpolation process. A frequently employed method is laboratory analysis of
soil samples that provide information on crop parameters such as biomass and plant number in
the sample. Previous practice is very useful to generate the weed map, but it is both a tedious and
complicated process. An alternative technique is that of visual estimation. Collection of visual
information in the feld has been performed in many different ways since the start of Precision
Agriculture, with the same depending highly on the technology that is available in each given time
period. The techniques used to gather information in the feld can be divided into three main groups:
(1) by means of devices boarded on aircrafts, (2) by means of devices boarded on satellites, and (3)
directly at ground level (Thorp and Tian, 2004). Use of both aircraft and satellites has always been
very expensive and diffcult, largely due to the fact that photos can be taken only under optimal
weather conditions. Moreover, the height from which the photos are taken leads to low precision
images, since each pixel represents more than a square meter of area. By the late 1990s, with
the ever increasing developments in technology, research has been mainly directed at attempting
to develop weed detection methods starting from images taken at ground level (Tellaeche et al.,
2008a,b, Burgos-Artizzu et al., 2009) since these provide sub-centimeter precision. Studies in
this area take images of the feld from various heights, usually less than 3 meters, using tripods
placed in different machines (tractors, agricultural robots, etc.) or simply by hand. In view of the
considerable advantages of taking images directly at ground level, the objective of present project
is to develop a vehicle that can move autonomously across agricultural felds. Emphasis is placed
on vehicle control and object detection (crop rows), allowing for an autonomous motion using a
webcam, remote controlled motion via an external PC and a wireless network connection.
The rest of this paper is structured as follows: the next section describes the feld inspection vehicles
hardware, followed by a section devoted to the program structure used for controlling the vehicle,
including image processing, which is the most important task to implement an autonomous motion
mode. Conclusions and future work are outlined in the last section.
System description (hardware)
The initial step was development of a small feld inspection vehicle that could navigate
autonomously between crop rows. The vehicle will be equipped with the following devices for
this purpose: (1) low-cost camera, (2) on-board computer, and (3) wireless communication system.
Vehicle platform
The planned vehicle had to meet the following requirements:
maximum width of 60cm in order to ft between the rows of maize;
suitable for cross-country: big wheels, strong motor;
big enough to carry all necessary electronic equipment;
independent power supply;
low cost.
Based on ideas outlined in (Corke and Sukkarieh, 2006) and (Ferre et al., 2007), in which similar
projects were elaborated and after analyzing different options, the best choice seemed to be a remote
controlled model. Although there are a large variety of models, most of them are racing cars with
small wheels and rather low platforms. In order to meet the specifed requirements it had to be an
off-road-truck. The scarce possible models all had wheels with a diameter larger than 12 cm and a
clearance height of more than 8 cm. The vehicle could either be petrol-driven or electrically-driven.
Although the petrol-driven motors are more powerful, and the absence of batteries would mean no
time wasted on recharging, an electric motor seemed better suited to our needs. Since the electronic
equipment was going to require an electronic power supply anyway, use of two different types of
power supply seemed unnecessary. Furthermore controlling and regulating an electric motor with
an on-board computer is easier than a petrol-driven motor. The chosen vehicle was the Traxxas
E-MAXX electric-driven model truck (see Figure 1a). It is approximately 52 cm long, 42 cm wide
and it has a ground clearance of 10 cm. The vehicle is powered by two 7.2V battery packs and it
has two main driving motors and two steering motors. It is four-wheel-driven, which enables the
vehicle to move through rough terrain. All the important steering and drive chain parts that must
withstand aggressive movement are made of metal.
Having chosen the platform for the vehicle and the electronic components needed for assembly,
Figure 2 shows how the parts were to be connected. Important components are the servo motors,
servo controller, driving motors, speed controller and the universal switchboard.
Low-cost camera
A simple 8-bit color webcam can be used for orientation purposes since no high resolution image is
required. The only problem is that webcams typically have a viewing angle of less than 50 which
would force us to mount the camera at an approximate height of 150 cm. Therefore, we chose the
Live! Cam Notebook Ultra developed by Creative. It has a viewing angle of approximately 80
(Figure 1b).
On-board computer
A PC/104 manufactured by Advantech was used as the main on-board vehicle controller (please
see Figure 1c). It has almost all the features of an average personal computer. The main advantage
over a normal PC is its small size of only 108115 mm and its weight of only 279 g. It is equipped
with a VGA/LCD controller with optimized Shared Memory Architecture that supports dual display
usage. A standard PS/2 mouse and keyboard can be connected. The processor is an Embedded Intel
Pentium M Processor with a processing frequency of 1.1GHz.
Figure 1. (a) Electrically-driven Traxxas E-MAXX, (b) webcam with a special wide angle lens,
(c) Advantech PC/104, (d) Advantech PM-P001 that feeds the electronic equipment at 5V and
12V, and (e) the D-Link 108G Wireless Access Point.
Figure 2. Hardware schematic of the vehicle equipment. The dotted circles symbolize the
connection to the power supply.
One gigabyte DDR SDRAM is available as memory and an 8GB Compact Flash Card Type I is
used as the main hard drive. Furthermore two serial ports, a parallel port and six USB 2.0 ports
can be used for accessing external devices
1
.
Power supply
Two separate 7.2V batteries are used to feed the electronic equipment. Serially connected, the
resulting voltage is 14.4V, which is high enough to power all the components involved. However,
certain stability for different voltage values is required, which is why the Advantech PM-P001
power supply is considered suitable (Figure 1d). Its input voltage can range from 8V to 30V and
it feeds the electronic components at three 5V and two 12V outputs, at a maximum power rating
of 101W. Its ATX functionality enables it to be switched on when the PC/104 power switch is
pressed. It also automatically switches off automatically when the PC/104 is shut down. When it
is switched off, the power supply deactivates all the outputs except for one 5V standby output that
is connected to the PC/104. When the power switch is pressed the PC/104 sets the PS_ON signal
to ground level, which activates the power supply.
The systems power supply turned out to be a complex matter. It was impossible to exactly calculate
total power consumption because it signifcantly depended on the systems state and environment;
time-consuming software tasks, blocking wheels, rough terrain and high temperatures all lead to
an increase in power consumption. The solution to this problem was found by analyzing the system
state under various circumstances and estimating the maximum power consumption. Furthermore,
instability of the system voltage gave rise to unforeseen resets that could be prevented by using
extra stabilizing capacitors.
Wireless communication system
We initially tried to establish a wireless network connection using two W-LAN USB adapters to
create a direct (Ad-Hoc) PC-to-PC connection. A series of outdoor tests revealed that the range
for this type of connection was limited to less than 60 m. It was due to this reason that the W-LAN
adapter was replaced by a wireless access point. A more than suffcient range was achieved thanks to
its signal enhancement algorithms and optimized antennas. The model used is the D-Link Wireless
108G Access Point (Figure 1e). An important feature was that it requires a 5V input voltage that
can be supplied by the on-board power supply.
Finally, the webcam is connected via USB and a GPS module is also integrated for future purposes,
the same using the second serial port. The hardware schematic of the vehicle equipment is displayed
in Figure 2, while Figure 3 illustrates the vehicle in its fnal state.
1
http://taiwan.advantech.com.tw/unzipfunc/Unzip/1-O0M2I/PCM-3380_ds.pdf
Figure 3. The vehicle in its fnal state.
Precisionagriculture09 881
Vehicle control software
Two programs were implemented: one running on the vehicle (on-board computer) and the other
one running on an external PC that remotely controls the vehicle. The vehicle program executes
three main tasks: (1) controlling the servo and driving motors via the serial port, (2) communicating
with the remote PC using a wireless network connection, and (3) using the camera to detect the crop
rows. In other words, communication and image processing is executed by the on-board computer.
The resulting steering and speed commands are sent via the serial port to the servo controller.
On the other hand the remote control program had to (1) connect to the vehicle program, (2) supply
a user interface with controls for steering of the vehicle (tele-operation), and (3) adjust the vehicle
The controller
The controller manages the relative position of the vehicle between the crop rows that is extracted
the displacement (offset) between its centre and the middle point between the crop rows and the
these values using a moving average function. This takes advantage of the fact that positioning
information can not only be extracted from a single frame, but also by considering the previously
extracted data. The previous n (n N) offset and angle values are stored in an array that is updated
that also includes the current position. Therefore, as indicated in Figure 4b, it evens out the values.
point of zero (the set point is the target value that an automatic control system, for example a PID
controller, will aim to reach). However, this led to situations in which the vehicles front centre was
Figure 4. (a) The vehicles offset d and angle a must both be taken into account for the steering
correction. (b) Calculating the moving average of the vehicles offset. (c) PID steering controller.
positioned exactly in the middle, between the plants, while the wheels were not aligned in parallel
fashion to the rows of crops (angle 0). In this case the controller did not correct the steering that
led to the vehicle continuing to move towards the plants. This resulted in an oscillating movement
around the centre line between the plants. The solution to this problem was to take the extracted
angle into account in order to be able to start steering against the offset direction as soon as the
vehicle was returning to the centre. Figure 4a demonstrates the problem visually. If only the offset
is taken into consideration and if we try to decrease this value, then the vehicle would steer to the
left. If only the current angle is considered, then the vehicle would steer to the right (which would
result in a parallel movement rather than a centered movement).
This false steering behavior can be compensated by using both the offset and the angle. Figure 4c
shows the processing chain. First of all both values are multiplied with a weighting factor. Then
the moving average of the sum is calculated, to then be fnally passed on to the PID controller.
Image processing
In order to extract positioning information from the video footage supplied by a webcam mounted
on the inspection vehicle, each frame needs to be processed by an image processor. Hence due to
this reason the frst task was to develop an algorithm that processes data from a single image fle.
A process based on a color histogram was used to perform segmentation of vegetation against
non-vegetation in uncontrolled outdoor conditions. This procedure analyses the color spectrum of
a target area a section that only shows plants can be selected for calibration and extracts those
sections of the original image where the color spectrum concurs. This approach takes into account
the hue, saturation and lighting value and it is very fexible because processing parameters can be
very easily altered. Having used segmentation to convert the image into binary data (plants / no
plants), the next step was to extract geometrical equations for lines representing the rows of plants
shown in the image. Assuming that the camera was pointed almost vertically to the ground from
a height of 70 cm in front of the vehicle and that the vehicle was placed in the centre between the
lines, initially two rows would appear as more or less vertical agglomerations of white areas on
each side of the image. Their statistical centers were found by frst calculating an average pixel
value for each column of the pixel grid and applying a threshold flter to preserve binary data. This
resulted in various vertical lines of different width. The widest line on each side of the image was
chosen as the approximate centre of the rows of plants. Taking into account that, when in action,
an angular displacement was probable, this method was not applied to the entire image at once.
Instead, it was divided into several horizontal segments, each of which was then processed one
by one, resulting in two vertical lines representing the centers of the crop rows for each segment.
The lines of each segment were reduced to their middle point and the resulting set of all points
was a statistical approximation of two non-parallel lines. Two methods were compared in order to
fnd the geometrical equations: the least squares method and the top and bottom mean values
(Figure 5). The results were very good and equally satisfying with regards to processing time and
approximation error. The two equations were then used to calculate the vehicles offset and angle
between the rows of crops. Some results are indicated in Figure 6. The fnal result is the steering
correction value that is used to control the servo motors. A more detailed description of the method
can be found in (Gottschalk et al., 2008).
Conclusion
Development of an autonomous feld inspection vehicle is presented in this paper and it is then
analyzed with regards to its technical requirements and algorithms that are used for autonomous
motion. A commercial model truck chassis was used as a vehicle platform, proving to be an adequate
choice when compared to an industrial chain-driven platform that would have considerably increased
development costs. The only industrial component used in the entire vehicle was the on-board PC
(PC/104), including its power supply. The variety of connections of the PC/104 computer system was
a big advantage when connecting peripheral devices such as the camera, motor controller, external
hard drive and the wireless access point used for external vehicle supervision and remote control.
The application used to control and monitor the vehicle remotely is commonly run on a laptop,
and a user interface was created to provide an intuitive way of steering. Furthermore, it allows the
user to change all the important parameters of the vehicle in that pertaining to image processing
and autonomous steering control. It connects to the vehicle on-board application via a wireless
network. The program running on the vehicle is used for various tasks including the establishment
of a network connection, decoding of the received commands and to control the vehicles speed
and steering. If the autonomous mode is activated, it also needs to process the images from the
camera in order to extract the vehicles relative position between the rows of crops. The determined
values of the vehicles offset and angle are passed on to a PID feedback controller that calculates
the correction values for the steering. The main challenge in this part of the work was the real
time image processing and hardware reaction, which was accomplished by using asynchronous
programming such as non-blocking sockets and multithreading.
Image processing was the most important task in order to implement an autonomous motion mode. A
moving average value is calculated for a certain number of past frames to eliminate errors resulting
from false recognition of a single image. The values are then passed on to a PID feedback controller
that calculates the steering correction values. The whole chain of processing worked well and a
function was implemented to record a video while the autonomous mode was active, showing
indicators and values for the extracted vehicle offset and angle on top of the original image from
Figure 5. Approximation of non-parallel lines. (a) Binary image after segmentation. (b) The
vertical average pixel values for fve horizontal segments. (c) Applying a threshold flter. (d) The
centres of the widest blocks on the left and right side are marked with black and white squares
respectively in the original image, and then those points were used to approximate the linear
equations, using the least squares (white line) and the top and bottom average (black line)
methods.
Figure 6. Visualization of vehicle displacement (triangle) and the pathway angle (arrow).
the camera. A video fle such as this can then be used to analyze the image processing and controller
reaction. This paper shows that autonomous movement across a feld can be achieved at low cost
and by mainly using commercial products. Although all components for autonomous movement
have been implemented, optimization of the controller parameters is recommended as a subject
for further development. A possible approach might be simulation or implementation of some sort
of in-the-loop controller on the remote computer. Since only local navigation between rows of
crops was considered, further development steps could consist in implementing global planning
that includes leaving the pathway at the end of a pair of rows and entering the adjacent ones, thus
covering the entire feld.
Acknowledgements
This project was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (AGL 2005-06180-C03
and AGL 2008-04670-C03-02 projects). The second author currently holds a Ph.D. scholarship
given by the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC).
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Section 16
Future farming
Futurefarm: the European farm of tomorrow
B.S. Blackmore
Center for Research and Technology of Thessaly (CERETETH), Volos, Greece
Abstract
FutureFarm is an EU funded 3 year project involving 4 farms with 15 partners from 10 countries. The
project aims to address such wide issues of development from public awareness, decision support,
compliance to recognised management standards, socio-economic impact, energy effciency, biofuels
and robotics. The core technology will be to take the already extensive experience in Precision
Farming research and integrate it into a practical farmer based system. In the future European farmers
will have to effectively manage information on and off their farms to improve economic viability and
to reduce environmental impact. To this end, an integrated information system is needed to advise
managers of formal instructions, recommended guidelines and implications resulting from different
scenarios at the point of decision making during the crop cycle. This will help directly with making
better decisions as the manager will be helped to be compliant at the point of decision making.
In FutureFarm the appropriate tools and technologies will be conceptually designed, prototypes
developed and evaluated under practical conditions. Precision Farming as well as robotics are
very data intensive and provide a wealth of information that helps to improve crop management
and documentation. Based on these technologies a new Farm Information Management Systems
(FMIS) will be developed. This paper describes the FutureFarm project as it is just starting at the
beginning of 2008 so it does not include any of the outcomes.
Keywords: vision, management information system, economic and environmental impact
Introduction
One of the biggest challenges for farmers in the future will be to effectively manage information on
and off their farms to improve economic viability and reduce environmental impact while showing
cross compliance to societal and other standards. Farms of tomorrow will have to be able to meet
these standards through new technologies and ICT tools. This will allow the public goods and
services provided by agriculture to become more transparent and open. Due to the high variability
of farming regions, farm types, crops and technological adoption, the project will also deliver
typologies of potentials in the development of future farms, of feasible technical development
threads and of policies within the EU member states, relevant to information management and to
introduce and promote innovations on farms.
Precision Farming research and development over many years has adapted and developed
information and communication technologies for farming systems. With its sensors, satellite
positioning systems, PC based geographical information systems and automated equipment control
it is the technical core of an information driven or information intensive crop production. We now
have the ability to apply these techniques on a cheap and simple basis in order to meet the internal
and external requirements of management and information for all kinds of farms and farming
systems. Currently most of the required sub systems and technologies exist as separate entities.
This project will analyse the necessary prerequisites and design concepts to set up the required
technical environments, information platforms and procedures for core activities of future farmers
in the European Union. Standardised information fow is a technical prerequisite to comply with
private or public standards and thus to communicate indirectly but in a new mode with consumers
and citizens. This will also allow better integration of local specifc information with more general
directives and guidelines and thus will embrace the diversity of European agriculture.
Using case studies and practical examples this project will integrate existing research into a coherent
information management system. This system will allow not only support socioeconomic viability
with environmental considerations but also meeting evolving standards for compliance. The
general validity of the system will be tested on four farms in the EU using examples of cash crop
production as well as internal use of bioenergy produced on the farm. Studies and demonstrations
will also include the potential of feld robots in order to increase labour and energy effciency and
to increase effciency by targeting inputs. The applicability and the necessary steps to adapt the
system to the variability of farm types in the EU will be analysed and typifed. Recommendations
for the development of future farms from the central view of information management will be
elaborated with stakeholders from farms and regions as well as with the European companies
providing information technology for agriculture. Besides researchers from universities and non
university research centres some project partners are European SMEs. Four selected farms are
participating in the project to ensure R+D and communication within the project with a view for
the practical conditions of farmers in the EU and to have access to real world situations and data.
Methods
Seven objectives have been proposed for FutureFarm:
Objective 1. Develop a vision of the farm of tomorrow from the perspective of the project team
and invited stakeholders to show a better understanding of how farming will develop. This will
include identifying relevant drivers and their potential impact on crucial processes in knowledge
management in arable crop production.
Objective 2. Identify and analyse a range of formal and informal management strategies in
crop production and identify required indices in terms of management and practices that would
constitute compliance to standards within the strategy.
Objective 3. Analyse and specify the required knowledge, information and methods needed to
adopt specifc management strategies. Produce a set of specifcations that can be used to defne
a fexible and dynamic Farm Management Information System (FMIS).
Objective 4. Apply and test the general principles of a FMIS by developing a prototype of an
integrated a FMIS. This will include elements from different methods and sources (e.g. GIS,
DSS, expert systems, trusted third party knowledge, formal and informal knowledge transfer
etc.). Ease of use and largely automated data handling procedures will be an important aspect.
Working prototypes will be made available for evaluation.
Objective 5. Provide a socio-economic, environmental and technology assessment to understand
the drivers and issues from Objectives 1, 2, 3 and 4. Recommendations will be expected to show
how development can be made to take advantage of opportunities and avoid obvious problems.
Objective 6. Assess the infuences of robotics and biofuels on economic and energetic
effciencies of farm production. Existing robotic and closed loop on-farm biofuel systems will
be demonstrated and evaluated as examples of internal fow management.
Objective 7. Develop a typology for information technologies in European farming (like
precision farming) and comment on its suitability for different farm groups within the member
states of the EU. Application, integration, demonstration, generalisation and dissemination of
project results will take place on commercial farms.
Structure of the FutureFarm project
The project is divided into eight work packages and each work package has a number of tasks:
Work package 1. Vision of the farm of tomorrow
This WP will analyse external drivers which infuence farm management. Examples of such drivers
are;
Technology developments.
Climate change.
Globalisation of markets.
New EU policies.
Reduction of subsidies.
Competition between energy and food production.
Societal demands on traceability, on rural areas and rural urban relationships.
Work package 2. Analysis of management strategies and required compliance to standards
The main objective of this work package will be to analyze the needs and requirements of what
will be the multifunctional farm of tomorrow based on the envisioned perspectives in WP1. The
focus will be on identifying the necessary management strategies and the needed compliance with
standard requirements. The multifunctional farm will take into account the current and future
trends in European Agriculture with the new CAP, as well as world trade trends in less protected
markets. Additionally, ICT tools and integrated technologies will be identifed and analyzed that
could enhance the use of the standards and communicate the information in the whole supply chain
from suppliers to farmers, consumers, and other entities in the rural area.
Work package 3. Analysis and specifcation of knowledge based farm management
This WP will use the results from the vision (WP1) and the identifed management strategies and
standard compliance needs (WP2) as the basis for analysing knowledge based farm management. The
main objective of this work package will be to analyse and specify the requirements for knowledge
based management strategies and the compliance with the new framework for European farming.
This will include a top-down approach considering the decisions, information fow as well as the
data fow between on-farm and local entities, including network solution for communication and
information fow in the rural area based on a general model of decision making and information
fows.
This work will establish a comprehensive and detailed quantitative and qualitative description of
the identifed knowledge management strategies, activities, processes, and information inherent
in the proposed FMIS.
Work package 4. Knowledge management in the FMIS of tomorrow
This work package will use the results of existing published research into the decision making
process in (precision) farming together with the results of WP2 and WP3 to demonstrate how online
machine readable knowledge delivered via the internet may be used in the FMIS of tomorrow.
The potential scope of such knowledge includes models and raw data used directly for decision
support, management strategies and information on regulatory and documentation requirements.
Such knowledge should in future be made available in a machine readable form by the originating
organisations and continuously actualised, thus removing concerns from software vendors about
liability for using inaccurate or out of date information in their products whilst still allowing the
knowledge to be automatically incorporated in the decision making process.
Work package 5. Socio-economic, environmental impact and technology assessment
This work package will assess the impact on people, markets and regions and technical implications
of the proposed information management systems at the farm level. In addition we will assess the
likely acceptability of these systems among users. It will include a model of farmers management
processes, use of different input sources for a number of crop rotation systems. Focus will be put
on common crops in different European regions including wheat, barley, rape seed, maize, cotton
or other crops, depending on partner farms.
A partial and participatory technology assessment will be conducted to assess the likely perception
of changes among users. This assessment will rely on the conclusions drawn from the farm economic
model and the environmental impact assessment. Moreover, parameters such as legal requirements
for control and safety systems for robotic and PF systems in an open and natural environment will
be assessed.
Computable general equilibrium models (CGE models) may be used to assess the market impacts
on prices, employment, trade (imports/exports) etc. of policy incentives designed to promote a
regions PF network.
Work package 6. Infuences of robotics and biofuels on economic and energetic effciencies of
farm production
WP6 will demonstrate current research robotic platforms in a commercial context, carry out an
energy audit to identify energetic savings, start preliminary trials of on farm biofuels production
processing and usage and demonstrate minimised machinery usage and route planning to reduce
energetic and economic costs of crop production.
One important event within WP6 will be the feld robot event held in Wageningen in 2009. Many
existing feld robot platforms will be invited to participate and show the current capability of
robotic research in Europe.
Work package 7. Generalisation, integration, application and dissemination
The major intention of this work package is to generalise the potentials of FMIS and PF technologies
in relation to the future farm types in the EU-member states. This is done by (1) theoretical studies
of the relevant types and potentials in PF technologies for different farm types and (2) by studying
the potentials in implementing some of the results of the collaborative research project by practical
steps on the four project farms. In both cases the work is done in order to continuously verify the
procedures, protocols and tools suggested by the work in FutureFarm. In addition the farms will
provide insight into the actual problems of information management of farms.
The work package will also analyse these farms in order to describe how representative they can
be taken for typical farms in agricultural regions in Europe (EU27).
Work package 8. Project coordination and exploitation
The role of this WP is to help the communication processes between work packages and ensure
that the project develops smoothly and produces the required deliverables.
The Project Manager (Simon Blackmore) is supported by a full time Project Administrator/
secretary (Frank Dreger) who takes day-to-day responsibility for project communications and for
coordinating the logistics associated with meetings and workshops. He provides logistical support
where necessary to other partners and takes responsibility for processing a majority of project
documents and will develop budget management procedures in conjunction with the CERETETH
fnance offce. The PA is also responsible for the content and updating of the project website. The
project manager is the chairman of the steering committee and the PA will be the secretary to the
steering committee.
The steering committee (SC) is made up of all of the work package team leaders, chairman of
the technical committee and stakeholder representatives. The steering committee will have the
responsibility to make all strategic decisions based on recommendation from the technical committee
and advice and suggestions from the stakeholder representatives. One of the main responsibilities
of the SC will be to commission a mid-term external review of the project and to act to implement
recommendations arising from this review. This will be one of the main quality assurance
mechanisms. Exploitation of the project fndings will be carried out by the steering committee.
The steering committee will be assisted in the technical management of the project by the technical
committee (TC) which will comprise of those technical experts invited by the technical committee
chairman. Outcomes from these meetings will be presented to the steering committee for ratifcation.
The main purpose of the TC will be to deal with specifc issues arising from the project such as
deciding on communication standards, establishing coherent interfaces, etc.
Demonstration farms
Bramstrup Estate is located in the Municipality of rslev on the island of Fyn, Denmark. It
comprises a total of 404 ha, of which 335 ha is cultivated farmland. Under the auspices of the
Bramstrup Knowledge Centre for agriculture and food a large area is reserved for experimental
farming. Bramstrup grows a range of traditional crops, such as grains, seeds and sugar beet. The
focus is on producing these products in a very high quality, and by cultivating the land with great
care and making use of advanced technologies, such as Precision Farming Technology including
GPS and sensor technology. Since 2006 Bramstrup estate also comprises organic food production.
In addition, Bramstrup uses its experience in farming and know how built up via the Bramstrup
Knowledge Centre to run a machine pool.
Markinos farm established in the mid of 70s in Myrina area of Karditsa prefecture, Central Greece
(Thessaly), by Thomas Markinos. The farm accounted as a family farm (3 members) and has 1
person as permanent employee and occasionally employed 5 seasonal workers. The last 20 years
the Markinos farm was focused on the cotton crop cultivation that is the major irrigated arable
crop in Greece. The farm has incorporated the precision agriculture in practice in the last years.
The site conditions of the farm are characterized by high variability especially in the soil qualities.
The farm is in a direct collaboration with the Farm Mechanization Laboratory of the University
of Thessaly working in the precision farming technology for research. The farm uses feld record
keeping software (GIS based) for logging and managing the majority of feld operations. The farm is
going towards the use of the self guidance systems for the feld operations. All the new investments
in agricultural equipment are equipped with hardware for precision agriculture applications. The
last years the farm participated in European Union programs for environmental protection and
conservation. There is also a big interest in energy crop production for biofuels. But the main
target is to reduce the production costs and to increase management effciency by farm automation.
Wimex was founded in 1985 and has enjoyed a steady increase in production since then. It is one
of the main producers for broiler hatching eggs in Europe. Wimex is located in Saxony-Anhalt
(Germany), close to Dessau. It is sited east of the Harz, hence the precipitation is comparatively
low with an average between 450-500 mm per year. The arable land has mainly good soils, mainly
tchernozems from boerde loess, partly with varying degrees of sandy loess over sands, gravel and
glacial till. A wide variety of crops (wheat, rape, maize, potatoes, etc.) is grown as well as high
quality vegetables. Feed mills (built in 1995 and 1999) further process the raw materials produced
on this land. Wimex is involved in Precision Farming technologies since app. 1997. Wimex was
part of the collaborative research project Preagro I (1999-2002). and II (2005-2007). Most aspects
of site specifc management such as site specifc seeding, nutrient application, spraying and others
are included into the management of Wimex. The frm is very advanced in handling the various
data fows. For instance, wireless data transfer from agricultural machinery into offce computers
secure immediate availability of data. Their own farm management system supports the generation
of information and thus rational decision making.
Mespol Medlov, A.S. was founded in 1999 as a SME farm. The total number of employee are 87,
there 11 people working in crop production. Medlov is located near Olomouc in the east of the
Czech Republic. The farm manages 1.488 ha and cultivates a wide variety of crops (winter wheat,
barley, winter rape, sugar beet, maize, clover) with good results. The company has experience in
precision farming since 1998. They use zone management since 2001. Soil sample data are collected
and processed by MJM service organization. (P, K, Mg, Ca, soil structure, microelements, organic
matter). In the year 2003 a web MapServer information system was established for data transport
and wireless communication between the farm and a Service Company.
Discussion
The main purpose of the project is to integrate existing ICT tools and techniques to give an
integrated FMIS that not only meets the on-farm data needs but also addresses off-farm political,
societal and environmental issues as well. All of the 15 partners have worked in Precision Farming
before and have experience of dealing with the information intensive decision making inherent in
dealing with spatial and temporal variability. This complexity is compounded by adding further
constraints of the off-farm issues that are becoming more prevalent such as cross compliance, food
chain management, societal and environmental pressures. The resulting information system must
consequently not only deal with organising relevant information and models to assist real-time
management decision making but also show compliance to recognised standards for outside scrutiny.
Although the FutureFarm project is not primarily focused towards any new research, certain issues
of compatibility and standards arise immediately. Discussions are taking place on the system
architecture for the FMIS as well as adopting a standard data interchange which will likely use
AgroXML as its basis. Experience of the issues of data exchange have already been gained by
some of the partners in previous project such as InfoXT in the Nordic countries and the EU project
WirelessInfo that will signifcantly help in this process.
Acknowledgements
This project was funded in part by the Seventh Research Framework Programme (FP7) of the
European Union under Grant Agreement No 212117 and the participant institutions. This paper is
derived from the main project document that was written by many people within the FutureFarm
project. Special thanks should be made to Armin Werner and Frank Dreger of ZALF in Germany.
References
Original project documents and references can be found at the FutureFarm web site. www.FutureFarm.eu.
Management strategies and practices for precision
agriculture operations
S. Fountas
1,2
, S. Pedersen
3
, C. Sorensen
4
, A. Chatzinikos
1,2
, L. Pesonen
5
, B. Basso
6
, S. Vougioukas
7
,
E. Nash
8
, T. Gemtos
1,2
and S. Blackmore
1
1
CRTH-ITEMA, Center for Research and Technology, Institute of Technology and Management
of Agricultural Ecosystems, Technology Park of Thessaly, 1st Industrial Area, GR 385 00, Volos.
Greece; sfountas@agr.uth.gr
2
University of Thessaly, School of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Crop Production and
Rural Development, Laboratory of Farm Mechanization, Fytokou str., GR 38334, Volos. Greece
3
Institute of Food and Resource Economics, University of Copenhagen, Rolighedsvej 25, 1958
Frederiksberg C, Denmark
4
rhus University, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Agricultural Engineering,
Research Centre Bygholm, Schuttesvej 17, 8700 Horsens, Denmark
5
MTT Agrifood Research Finland, Vakolantie 55, 03400 Vihti, Finland
6
University of Basilicata (UNIBAS), Via N. Sauro,85 -(85100) Potenza
7
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Faculty of Agriculture, P.O. Box 175, Thessaloniki, Greece
8
Rostock University, Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Institute for Management
of Rural Areas, Justus-von-Liebig-Weg 6, 18059 Rostock, Germany
Abstract
This paper presents a holistic farm management system combining formal management strategies,
personal management goals and the technology used. The personal management goals have been
identifed and analysed. Six feld operations have been identifed to be the major operations during
a growing season. These feld operations have been analysed in terms of management goals. The
structure for this analysis includes a description of each management goal; the principal information
needed; the decision objective and the decision outcome. The analysis of the maximised return
management goal during the fertilising application is presented. A case study to combine the organic
farming standard and the personal management goals for the major feld operations is also presented
Keywords: management, goals, technology, decision
Introduction
Many farmers claim that their main purpose is to make money. However this is too simplistic,
since sustainability and environmental issues are becoming more important. The term practice
is here defned as the management options that apply to a particular sector. Operational elements
describe the particular feld operations. To be able to manage these forms of complex variability, a
coordinated approach is required, integrating personal strategies, farm practices and feld operations.
Developing codes of good farming practice, diversifying markets and production systems require
implementation of more elaborate management strategies. These have to respect specifc ecological
conditions, demands from the rural regions and those from the value-added chains. On top of that,
these strategies have to be simple, but fexible enough to be adapted easily to changing economic
or environmental conditions; additionally they need proof of their compliance with standards and
other codes of practice.
Firstly, the strategy must be identifed as one which refects the values and preferences of the
manager. Subsequently, the practices should be chosen that lie within the values set out by the
strategy. The feld operations then carry out what is required to meet the goals of the practice.
This work is a part of the FutureFarm project. FutureFarm is a European project funded by the EU
as part of the Seventh Research Framework Programme. The objective of this study was to identify
the personal management strategies and practices that a farmer may follow, when (s)he makes
decisions throughout the growing season. This is a preliminary research to identify management
strategies and practices that will lead to the development of a Farm Management Information
System (FMIS), which is one of the objectives of the FutureFarm project.
Farm management strategies
There are three levels of decisions that a farm manager makes during the growing season; strategic,
tactical and operational. Strategic decisions are major decisions for the farm and occur occasionally
from year to year. The second level is the tactical or practical. Here the farmer, depending on data
and information that can be collected, chooses the best tactical decisions for her/his farm. During the
crop season, the farmer can change her/his previous decisions depending on additional information
that may have been collected. The last level is the operational decisions. Operational decisions are
the last level of decisions that a farmer must take in his/her everyday work.
Figure 1 shows the three levels of decisions in the shape of a triangle on a top down approach
(Blackmore et al., 1997). Strategic decisions are in the top of this triangle because it is the most
important decision level in the farm and is changing year by year it is also the level at which the
fewest decisions are made. In the middle of triangle are the tactical decisions. These decisions are
relying on the previous level and are possibly changing during the same growing season, depending
on information that was collected on-farm. In the bottom of the triangle are the operational decisions,
which are the decisions for everyday work and includes all the kind of operations.
These decisions levels correspond to three different stages of a farm management system, which
are represented in Table 1. The frst column includes the formal management strategies, which are
strategic decisions. In this stage the farm manager has to follow a recognised management strategy
such as Cross Compliance (CC), Organic Farming or Integrated Crop Management or to choose
traditional strategies (e.g. conventional farming). The vast majority of the farmers follow at least
one of the recognised or formal strategies because their income depends on EU subsidies. CC is the
most obvious management strategy which is followed by the majority of the EU farmers, however,
they are some farmers mainly larger farmers who prefer to grow without following CC rules and
therefore we classify CC as management strategy. It is also very common for EU farmers to follow
some regulations or requirements for quality assurance and be competitive in the international
Figure 1. Levels of decisions.
market. Secondly, farm managers put their personal values on managing their farms to achieve
the best outcome on each feld operation. They put their own personal management goals, such as
maximising return or minimising environmental risk. Personal management goals correspond to
the second decision level.
For carrying out these management strategies and meeting their personal management goals,
farmers should utilise the appropriate technologies, methods or tools (third column in Table 1).
These technologies and methods cover the new technologies offered by precision agriculture, such
as variable rate technology, auto-guidance systems, as well as other methods such as selective
harvesting, contour cultivation, etc. Finally, six feld operations (fourth column in, Table 1) have
been identifed to be the major operations during a growing season.
Personal farm management goals
Defnitions of personal management goals
The defnitions of the personal management goals that have been identifed are given below:
Maximum yield is a target of the farmer to increase the crop yield. The main concept is to achieve
the highest yield by optimising feld conditions (tillage, weather, irrigation, nutrients).
Maximised return has as target to keep the balance between production cost and farm income.
Production cost includes all kinds of operations which are related to each crop, energy cost and
human labour, while the farm income is related to the product price and external subsidies.
Minimised environmental impact is a basic issue for most of the EU agricultural legislation based
on protection of the environmental protection. This management goal tries to reduce the adverse
effects that are caused by a development, industrial, or infrastructural project or by the release of
a substance in the environment (Business directory, 2004).
Input replenishment is the goal to restore the previous condition of the feld as far as fertility and
natural resources are concerned. This is an issue of sustainable farming. Sustainable farming is
a modern way of land cultivation, which restricts the use of natural resources and imply that the
production is economic viable (National Research Council, 1997).
Minimised cost of production includes anything that is necessary for plant growth. The major part
of the cost of production is labour and energy. This means that the farmer can reduce the production
costs in a level which is affordable.
Table.1. Farm management system.
Formal management
strategies
Farm management goals Technology methods
tools
Field operations
Cross compliance
Organic
Integrated crop
management
Market-based farming
Field subsistence
Maximised yield
Maximised return
minimised Environmental
impact
Input replenishment
Minimised fnancial risk
Minimised cost of
production
Conventional practices
Intercropping
Variable rate technology
(VRT)
Controlled traffc
Contour cultivation
Conservation tillage
Robots
Autoguidance
Tracking tracing
Selective harvesting
Tillage
Seeding
Fertilising
Irrigation
Spraying
Harvesting
Minimised Financial Risk focuses on avoiding operations which increase cost, but their outcome
is doubtful. This means that the farmer must decide when a new technology or method is capable
of increasing the income.
Analysis of personal management goals
Six feld operations have been identifed to be the major operations during the growing season. For
the feld operations, each operation has been analysed to identify the management goals that are
associated with them. The structure for the analysis of the management practices on each operation
includes a description of the practice, the principal information needed, in terms of necessary data
and knowledge to follow this practice, the decision objective and the decision outcome. The personal
management goals for each feld operation can be seen in Table 2.
Maximised return for fertilising
To present the analysis of the management goals, an example is illustrated for the Maximised
Return goal for the feld operation: fertilising:
Description of the management goal
Under this management goal the farmers want to maximise their income in order to continue to
cultivate their land and stay in business. It is therefore important to know the prices of the fnal
product (e.g. wheat, cotton) and of the inputs (fertilisers). Besides that, it is very important to
know the costs and the benefts of the crop production. This means that the farmer must know
two variables; the price of the fnal product and the prices of fertilisers. This analysis contains
Table 2. Farm Management goals for each operation.
Field operations Management goals
Tillage Maximising yield
Maximising return
Minimising adverse effects to the environment
Seeding Maximising yield
Maximising return
Minimised environmental impact
Fertilising Maximising yield
Maximising return
Acidifcation management
Nutrient balance
Input replenishment
Irrigation Maximising yield
Maximising return
Minimised eshment
Spraying Maximising yield
Maximising return
Harvesting Maximising yield
Maximising return
Minimised fnancial risk
two parts. The frst one is the relationship between the fertiliser factor (price of fertiliser) which
is the independent factor and the yield as dependent factor. This means that the response of each
crop to the fertiliser depends on the biological circle of the plant and on the local environment.
The second part of this model is the relation between the prices of product according to the yield.
When the deviation between the two curves (price of fertiliser-yield and price of product-yield) is
the maximum, then this is the optimal rate of yield with the maximised return.
Data required
Price of fnal product (crop).
Price of fertiliser.
Previous years yield.
Growing conditions (climatic, soil).
Season and timing of seeding.
Knowledge Required
Response of yield to fertiliser rate.
Partial economic analysis, specifcally cost benefts.
Yield potential.
Decision objective
Achieve the maximum economic return.
Decision outcomes
Taking this strategy, the farmer will have a high net economic return. That means that they will earn
more money than from maximising the crop yield. But very often this is not possible because the
prices through the year are not constant and so the optimal fertiliser rate is changing through the
season. It is also diffcult for the farmer to understand the response of the plant to the fertilisation in
order to understand which rate is the optimal at a given time. Other factors such as level of weeds
and access to water may complicate the decision. Besides that, this practice needs a huge quantity
of data, which is very diffcult for the farmer to collect and analyse.
Combination of formal management strategies and personal management goals
A case study is presented describing the Organic farming formal management strategy (column
1 in Table 1) and the management goals that a farmer may choose during the growing season. This
example is based on the EU standard for organic farming (Council Regulation (EC) No 834/2007)
and based on Greek farming conditions.
The frst step for applying organic farming is to choose the right crop and farming system with
access to the needed nutrients. The crop is depended on adaptability on local conditions (climate,
soil conditions). If the crop is not adapted to local conditions, then the farmer could not possibly
comply with the organic standards.
Secondly, to achieve the best crop establishment soil cultivation should be taken into account. For
soil cultivation, the farmer can use any tillage system that maintains or improves soil fertility such
as no-tillage or strip tillage. The management goal that he is suggested to achieve is the adverse
effects to the environment or a combination with maximising return.
Organic farming application demands farmers to use only seeds produced from organic felds.
Otherwise, the use of conventional seeds should be followed by confrmation of non-availability
of organic ones as well as not being treated with a prohibited substance. The best practices for
seeding in an organic feld are soil protection (from erosion), intercropping and maximised return
or a combination of them. Management practices which help to avoid soil erosion in any way are
included in the organic farming standard. Intercropping is a practice that has very good outcomes
for avoiding many problems, such as using inorganic nitrogen fertilisers and spraying for pests.
In organic farming, fertilisation is very restricted and is based mainly on organic material that
is produced at the same farm or obtained from other organic farms. There is not any practice
that satisfes the standard. Management practices that cover part of organic farming standard are
intercropping, acidifcation management, replenishment and minimised environmental impact. Most
of them are compliant with the basic issue of organic farming which is minimising the nitrogenous
fertilisers by not using chemically synthesised inputs which are diffcult to break down.
In order to use of irrigation water effectively, farmers should use an irrigation system with
high effciency such as drip irrigation. Therefore, the farmer has to decide mainly between two
management strategies; replenishment and minimised environmental impact. The goal of maximising
returns needs to apply large volumes of water, which means that is not the best practice for an
organic farm.
Crop protection from pests generally in organic farming is implemented by using natural enemies
of pests or varieties of plants tolerant to them. Additionally, farmers can use products without
negative impacts to environment, such as pesticides based on B. thurigiensis.
Regarding the management practices for harvesting there are not any restrictions and that are
possible to follow. The only issue is to have cleaning all the equipment from substances that are
prohibited for organic farming, before using it in an organic farm.
Conclusion
Farm management is a holistic approach. Formal management strategies can be combined with
personal management goals to improve the outcome for different feld operations. Six personal
management goals have been identifed, described and analysed for six major feld operations. These
management goals are: maximised yield; maximised return; minimised environmental impact; input
replenishment; minimised fnancial risk and minimised cost of production.
References
Blackmore B.S. and G. Larscheid, 1997. Strategies for Managing Variability, 1
st
European Conference on
Precision Agriculture, 8-10 September 1997.
Business dictionary, 2004. Available at http://www.businessdictionary.com/defnition/environmental-impact.
html.
Council Regulation (EC) No 834/2007 of 28 June 2007 on organic production and labelling of organic products
and repealing Regulation (EEC) No 2092/91.
Fountas, S., 2004. Systems analysis of Precision Agriculture, ph.D. Thesis, KVL, Denmark.
National Research Council Board on Agriculture, Committee on Assessing Crop Yield 1997. Precision
Agriculture in the 21st Century: Geospatial and Information Technologies in Crop Management (National
Academy Press, Washington, D.C., USA), p. 168.
Srensen, C., A., 2000. A Bayesian Network Based System Decision for the Management of Field Operations.
Ph.D. Thesis, DTU, Denmark.
Wortmann, C.S. and Jasa,P.J., 1999. Choosing the right tillage systems for row crop production. NEB guide.
University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension, Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources.
Can compliance to crop production standards be
automatically assessed?
E. Nash
1
, A. Vatsanidou
2,3
and S. Fountas
2,3
1
of Rural Areas, Justus-von-Liebig-Weg 6, 18059 Rostock, Germany; edward.nash@uni-rostock.de
2
University of Thessaly, School of Agricultural Science, Fytokou St. N. Ionia Magnisias, 38446
Volos, Greece; vatsanidou@gmail.com; sfountas@agr.uth.gr
3
Centre for Research and Technology, Thessaly, 1
st
Industrial Zone, 38500 Volos, Greece
Abstract
In this paper we present an analysis of the possibility of producing a largely automated assessment
of compliance to crop production standards. This would assist farmers in meeting requirements
imposed by public and private standards. We present a model of the structure of a standard and
a methodology by which the assessment was performed. Based on three standards, the ease with
which compliance checking may be automated is assessed, with mixed results. Finally, some
advances with may be required in order to ease automation of compliance checking are proposed.
Keywords: automation, information management, regulations, rules
Introduction
Crop production standards are playing an increasingly important role in agriculture. As well as the
minimum standards of good farming practice which are applicable to all farmers and which may
be legally mandated, there are many voluntary standards to which farmers may subscribe. Legally-
regulated standards such as the EU Organic standards or private standards such as GLOBALGAP
may be used variously to increase the market value of the crop as a prerequisite by buyers. Both the
legal regulations and the voluntary standards may be considered to be identical from the viewpoint
of the farmer: they defne a set of rules which must be adhered to, and we therefore use the term
standard to cover both.
The current procedure for assessing compliance to standards is typically that the farmer must
document the correct completion of the procedures and actions as required by the standard.
Additionally, some standards require that certain information is presented in a particular form.
The documentation is then periodically audited, usually by an external certifcation body, together
with an on-site inspection. The farmer must therefore understand what is required by the standard
and take account of the requirements during the planning and performing of actions this is
frequently done through the use of self-assessments e.g. as checklists. The farmer must also be able
to produce documentation to satisfy the certifcation body that they have met the requirements, and
so should know in advance what is required, how it should be presented and integrate collection
and management of required data in operational processes.
The process of compliance to crop production standards is currently a largely manual procedure:
although systems are becoming available for automated collection and management of data (e.g.
via ISOBUS), the requirements of individual standards are not specifcally integrated with these
systems. Decision-support systems for farmers, e.g. precision agriculture software, also do not take
requirements of standards into account. In order to enable this, an automated assessment against
the standards relevant to the farmer would be required.
There are therefore two aspects of automatically assessing compliance to standards which are
considered in this paper: the self-assessment by farmers which they use to proactively adhere to
standards during day-to-day operations and the external assessment of compliance which is used
to retroactively verify compliance. This paper is concerned primarily with the former.
Structure of standards and prerequisites for automated compliance checking
Standards and regulations may be published in many forms (e.g. paper/electronic, prose/checklist)
and by many organisations. Fundamentally, however, all standards and regulations have the same
underlying structure:
Metadata including some or all of:
The publisher.
The spatial and temporal range of validity.
The intention of the publisher (why farmers should adhere).
The target audience (e.g. which products or farm types).
Procedures in the event of non-compliance.
A defnition of terms used.
A set of rules. Of these rules:
Some may be mandatory for compliance in all cases.
Some may be optional for compliance (a certain percentage must be met).
Some may be mandatory or optional depending on certain variables such as location, time,
etc.
Each rule may be considered to be a logical predicate, i.e. a statement against which facts may
be evaluated to produce a true/false answer. Usually each rule will either mandate an action
(the standard is complied with only if the farmer does x) or forbid an action (the standard is
not complied with if the farmer does y). A further category of rule is the requirement to keep
particular documentation. Such rules could be interpreted as a mandating rule where the action is
the documenting, but since they should not affect the actual operations performed by the farmer,
they are here treated separately. Rules may also not be explicitly defned as such where only a
text is available then individual rules must be inferred by interpreting this.
In order for software to be able to automatically assess compliance to each rule, four fundamental
prerequisites must be met:
The rule must be encoded in a machine-readable form. This may be hard-coded as algorithms
in the software or be a transfer format (e.g. XML-based) which the software performing the
assessment can read.
The rule must be capable of being interpreted by the software. This has two aspects. Firstly, all
the concepts used within the defnition of the rule (e.g. nouns such as farm, production unit,
crop, nitrogen or fertiliser, verbs such as weed, sow or spray or adjectives such as certifed or
organic) can be correctly understood by the software in the context in which they are used
in the rule. Secondly, the rules must be computable, that is to say that it must be capable of
being evaluated by an automaton (e.g. a Turing machine) according to computability theory.
The individual rules must have discrete outcomes which can be determined by a computer.
That is to say that compliance to each rule must be assessed using computational models using
digital data inputs and producing discrete outcomes (true/false) as opposed to value judgements.
The required data inputs for assessment of the rule must be available in digital form. This may
be already existing data held in one or more databases which are accessible to the software or
gathered on-demand by online sensors.
Description of current crop production standards
In this section we present a general description of the nature of standards and in detail we emphasise
three examples of standards which are widely used, describe their structure and assess to what
extent they are capable of automated assessment. The three standards chosen are GLOBALGAP
Combinable Crops (GLOBALGAP, 2007), a private worldwide standard specifcally for crop
production, the EU Organic standard (EC Regulation 834/2007), an EU-wide standard for organic
agriculture and the EU Cross-Compliance standards.
Checklist methodology
The checklist is taken here to be a list of factors, properties, aspects, components, criteria, tasks,
or dimensions, the presence or amount of which is to be separately considered, in order to perform
a certain task. More formally, a checklist presents the rules which a farmer must obey in order to
comply with a standard. Although there are many different types of checklists, they have at least
one non-defnitional function in common that of being a mnemonic device. This function alone
makes them useful in evaluation, since the nature of evaluation calls for a systematic approach to
determining the merit, worth, etc., of what are often complex entities. Hence, a list of the many
components or dimensions of performance of such entities is frequently valuable.
The methodology of creating the organic and cross compliance standards checklist is set out
below. Our target was to create the checklist based on a widely accepted source, such as the
European Legislation, Regulations and Directives. The next step was to fnd the standards and
requirements the farmers must meet and transformed them into the form of questions and answers
easily used for further analysis in the FutureFarm project (http://www.futurefarm.eu
)
. Moreover,
based on literature review concerning organic farming checklists there exist checklists already
used by private organizations such as the Soil Association (2008), or in other countries such as the
USA and Switzerland. Regarding cross compliance some countries in the EU, e.g. the UK, have
already defned the standards and requirements in booklets for farmers, including the checklists
for compliance. Therefore the proposed rules discussed within this paper are based on a review
of published standards for organic farming and cross compliance and the interpretation of EU
Regulations and Directives to produce checklists (Vatsanidou et al., 2009).
Introduction to standards
This paper deals with standards designed to address the environmental impacts of agriculture. In their
widest sense, standards can embrace both targets for performance as well as statutory requirements
and they can be set by the public or private sectors. The emphasis is at baseline measures- that
is, standards set as a basic minimum of responsible farming practice, to protect and enhance
environmental value on farms (Dwyer et al., 2001). This corresponds to the so-called reference
level in European and international policy discussions i.e. what every farmer is obliged to do as
a matter of course, to comply with the law or offcial but non-statutory guidance, without specifc
environmental payments. Thus the standards need to be set by reference to the public interest, which
implies some degree of public sector endorsement. They also need to apply to the vast majority of
farms or farmed land, rather than a self-selecting minority (such as those farmers who choose to
enter agri-environmental schemes or apply organic certifcation).
Regulatory or public policy standards vary in their nature according to Dwyer et al. (2001):
Some are specifed in unambiguous, often quantifed statutory obligations, for example
prohibiting the use of a particular product or limiting the contamination of a type of food
pollutants above a given concentration. Many EU Directives specify standards in this way, which
are then transposed into national law. However, some statutory obligations may be expressed
in a more general form, prohibiting serious damage or requiring the adoption of best available
practices without specifying these in a quantifed way.
Many environmental standards do not apply directly to the farmer per se; liability lies elsewhere
and the impact on farming operations may be more diffcult to ascertain. This is the case with
some legislation on water quality standards, for example.
In relation to some issues, statutory guidance may need to be considered alongside legislation, in
setting and upholding standards of behaviour. For example, farmers will be exposed to potential
prosecution if they cause a major fsh kill, even if they complied with all the relevant pollution
legislation. In such cases the degree of compliance with guidance as expressed in the formal
Codes of Practice, not themselves legally binding, can be relevant.
Standards as expressed in conditions for the receipt of public funds, where these affect a
suffciently large number of farmers to be considered akin to industry-wide conditions (notably,
cross-compliance on CAP direct payment).
Voluntary or industry-led standards, most of which have no specifc endorsement by the public
sector but which represent the dominant form of standard applying to the certain of agricultural
practice and which may affect a signifcant and increasing proportion of the industry. Some
of these initiatives are designed to be taken up by most farms, while others are specifcally
targeted towards particular market segments (e.g. organic standards) and are therefore less akin
to baseline standards.
GLOBALGAP
One of the most widespread applications of an Integrated Crop Management (ICM) scheme is
controlled by the Euro-Retailer Produce Working Group (EUREP), which has been renamed
in GLOBALGAP. GLOBALGAP is a private sector body that sets voluntary standards for the
certifcation of agricultural products around the globe. The GLOBALGAP standard is primarily
designed to reassure consumers about how food is produced on the farm by minimizing detrimental
environmental impacts of farming operations, reducing the use of chemical inputs and ensuring
a responsible approach to worker health and safety as well as animal welfare. GLOBALGAP is a
pre-farm-gate standard, which means that the certifcate covers the process of the certifed product
from farm inputs like feed or seedlings and all the farming activities until the product leaves the
farm. It includes annual inspections of the producers and additional unannounced inspections.
GLOBALGAP is a business-to-business label and is therefore not directly visible to consumers.
GLOBALGAP consists of a set of normative documents. These documents cover the GLOBALGAP
General Regulations which sets out the rules by which the standard will be administered, the
GLOBALGAP Control Points and Compliance Criteria and the GLOBALGAP Checklist.
In order for a producer to obtain and maintain a GLOBALGAP certifcation it has to comply with
the following documents:
The Control Points and Compliance Criteria (CPCC), which are audited to verify compliance
is the standard with which the producer must comply, and which gives specifc details on each
of the requirements. These documents are divided into modules, listing for each scope and
sub-scope the control points, compliance criteria and the level of compliance required for each
point. The levels can be major must, minor must or recommendation.
The Checklists which forms the basis of the producer external audit and which the producer
and producer groups must use to fulfl the annual internal assessment, and actually replicate
the Control Points in the CPCC, and are therefore also composed of modular section. Scopes
covering more generic production issues, classifed more broadly (all farm base, crops base).
Sub-scopes covering specifc production details, classifed per product type (fruit and
vegetables, combinable crops).
Compliance with GLOBALGAP consists of three types of control points: major musts, minor musts
and recommendations, which must be fulflled as follows:
100% compliance of all applicable major must control points is compulsory.
For all scopes 95% compliance to all applicable minor must control points is compulsory for
the sum of the control points in the applicable modules.
Recommendations must not be complied with, but must be assessed during internal or external
assessments.
EU organic
Organic farming is an agricultural system that seeks to provide the consumer, with fresh, tasty
and authentic food while respecting natural life-cycle systems... To achieve this, organic farming
relies on a number of objectives and principles, as well as common practices designed to minimise
the human impact on the environment, while ensuring the agricultural system operates as naturally
as possible (European Commission, 2009). Therefore organic products are produced according
to strict rules, named organic standards, aimed at respecting the environment and animals. These
rules were laid down in EC Regulation 2092/91 which applies to both unprocessed and processed
agricultural crop products as well as any products intended for human consumption composed
essentially of ingredients of plant origin, and lays special inspection arrangements which cover the
whole production and processing chain. A detailed review of the 2092/91 regulation resulted in the
new EC 834/2007 on organic production and labelling of organic products, which defnes organic
production, its logo and labelling system and will applies from 1 January 2009. Organic standards
therefore, are the rules and regulations that defne how an organic product must be made. The EC
Regulation 2092/91 and EC Regulation 834/2007 set a legal requirement for EU governments and
the private sector as these regulations are to be used directly by certifcation or inspection bodies.
Each EU Member State has designated a number of public authorities and/or approved private
inspection bodies to carry out the inspections which have to be performed at every stage in the
organic farming supply chain to ensure their compliance with the regulation. Every inspection
body has its own checklists which are used as a basis for the external assessment of compliance
with organic standards and for the annual self-assessment.
Due to the necessity of producing through a system of quality and minimum environmental impact
farmers nowadays are obliged to follow a certifcation process for their products. This means that
they have to spend substantial time to fulfl the necessary documents required to be compliant. If
the whole procedure could be automated through a farm management information system, it would
simplify the large manual procedure of crop production for both farmers and the certifcation bodies.
Our concept of converting EC Regulation 834/2007 rules concerning organic production into a
form of a checklist relied on the need to fnd a tangible way of transforming the regulation into
machine readable code, which will be easily useable by the farmers. This will also assist farmers
in a self-assessment of compliance to the organic standards.
Cross-compliance
The fundamentals of cross-compliance are described clearly by the FP6 CCAT project, which aims
at assessing the impact of these policies (Anonymous, 2009):
The June 2003 agreement to reform the CAP introduces major changes to the way it operates
and to farmers responsibilities direct aids to farmers will be made mainly via one Single
Payment Scheme (SPS) payment per year, replacing most existing direct aids. Some production-
linked payments may also be maintained where necessary to avoid production abandonment.
This shift in the emphasis of CAP support towards direct aids to farmers, and away from price
support, is accompanied by clearer obligations on farmers to manage their farms in sustainable
ways. Cross-compliance links direct payments to farmers to their respect of environmental
and other requirements set at EU and national levels
Farmers do not have to produce in order to receive SPS and/or other direct payments, but they
must respect cross compliance standards in two ways:
Good agricultural and environmental condition. All farmers claiming direct payments,
whether or not they actually produce from their land, must abide by standards to be established
by the Member States. This new requirement is a consequence of the introduction of the
SPS and is intended to avoid the abandonment of agricultural land (and its environmental
consequences).
Statutory management requirements. Farmers must respect other cross compliance standards
called statutory management requirements set-up in accordance with 19 EU Directives
and Regulations relating to the protection of environment; public, animal and plant health;
animal welfare.
Failure by farmers to respect these conditions can result in deductions from, or complete
cancellation of, direct payments.
As the main administrators of the CAP, Member States play the leading role in applying cross-
compliance. Their responsibilities include establishing the defnition of good agricultural and
environmental condition for their agricultural circumstances (at national or regional level), taking
into account the specifc characteristics of the areas concerned, including soil and climatic condition,
existing farming systems, land use, crop rotation, farming practices, and farm structures. Member
States must inform farmers of the defnition, provide them with the list of statutory management
requirements and set up management, controls and sanctions systems for all cross-compliance.
Member States are also required to establish, since 2007, a comprehensive advisory system to
support cross compliance.
Evaluation of potential for automating compliance checking
Having introduced the criteria by which we assess the potential for automated compliance checking
and the standards considered here, we will now present some preliminary results.
GLOBALGAP currently publishes standards in a checklist form, specifying the individual rules.
Many of the terms used are defned in a glossary forming an appendix to the standard. However,
the rules are still specifed using a natural language and so are not unambiguous. Many of the rules
fulfl all four prerequisites listed previously and so may theoretically be relatively easily automated.
An example is rule 4.3: Are only biocides and plant protection products used that are offcially
registered in the country of use, and for use post-harvest on the harvested crop being protected?
(GlobalGap, 2007) assuming the products applied to the crop are recorded in the FMIS, and that
a list of all allowed post-harvest treatments is available, non-compliance may be easily identifed.
However, this is not true for all rules: 5.1 demands Is the risk of contamination by glass or any
other physical contaminants prevented? apart from being grammatically inelegant, it is hard to
envisage how testing against this rule may be meaningfully automated (perhaps by continuously
recording the position of the harvested crop and of all potential contaminants?). Ultimately, what
is being asked for by this rule is a production and management system which minimises this risk
rather than regulating any specifc operational action which will be recorded.
The EU Organic standard is not published as a checklist, but rather as a series of clauses in a text
document which have been transformed to the rules presented here using the methodology described
previously. Of these, our assessment is that a smaller proportion may be easily automated than for
GLOBALGAP, but that there is also a smaller proportion which may not be automated. Although
some rules may be easily automated (e.g. 1.4.3: Have you taken care not using mineral nitrogen
fertilisers?, assuming all products applied and their contents are recorded), some rules require a
complex analysis e.g. 1.5.1: Have you implemented a planned multiannual crop rotation that will
maintain or improve the fertility and biological activity (organic matter) of your soil? requires not
only that the feld management plan is recorded but also that the software can assess whether it will
improve the fertility and biological activity. Although not impossible, this is likely to be a hard rule
to reliably test. 8.2: If the holding is partly converted does the operator separate the organic land
and products from those of non-organic? may be automatically assessed if post-harvest tracking
information is available, but otherwise requires an assessment of the management systems in place,
which is again hard to automate.
Finally we will consider cross-compliance. Here the rules as defned at the EU level are very general,
as defnition of good agricultural practice, and hence exact rules to be followed, is done by the
individual member states. Nevertheless, of the rules which are defned at the EU level (from the
checklist prepared within FutureFarm), there are again rules which are easier and rules which are
harder to automate. As an example, for 3.1: Are you maintaining soil structure through appropriate
measures, like appropriate machinery use? it is straightforward to record the required data (e.g.
which machines are used), but hard to determine whether this has helped maintain soil structure.
1.1: Are you protecting soil through any of the following appropriate measures: minimum soil
cover, minimum land management refecting site-specifc conditions or retain terraces? is, in
contrast, relatively straightforward to automate testing, although defning the required minimum
could prove problematic.
Required advances to enable automated compliance assessment
The evaluation presented up until now has largely been of a theoretical nature, which has ignored
many of the practical problems associated with automating compliance testing. Perhaps the largest
of these is the requirement to have the necessary data required to assess compliance. However,
automated data collection is becoming more widespread, e.g. due to the use of ISOBUS-compliant
hardware and information-intensive precision farming techniques. Farmers are therefore increasingly
likely to gather data. This data must however be managed and, if necessary, transferred between
components of the system. An improvement in agricultural data management and a standardisation
of data transfer mechanisms (e.g. using OGC web services as proposed by Nash et al., 2007) is
therefore a prerequisite for automated compliance assessment.
Related to the requirement to have the data to assess compliance, it is also necessary to have an
accurate defnition of the rules to be followed and the regions to which they apply. Since these
may be different for each farmer, and many rules are defned in relation to natural features (such
as for use of fertilisers near watercourses), these must be interpreted in the context of each farm.
Since the rules change periodically, and as discussed above, must currently often be inferred from
the standards, a mechanism is required whereby published changes are automatically detected
by the software. A web-service based system whereby each standards publisher may provide a
standardised representation of the rules directly to the software would provide such a mechanism.
However, this presupposes that the standards are published as individual rules, that there is a
standardised format for these rules and a standardised web-service interface with which to access
them. Currently none of these is true.
As described in the prerequisites for software-based assessment of rules, the need for the software
to be able to understand the terms used was stated. If software is to be able to fexibly interpret
rules, it is therefore necessary that the vocabulary used is known to the software. A harmonised
vocabulary covering all agricultural rules and data standards would ensure this, but is an unrealistic
hope. The expression of vocabularies using formal ontologies and the use of mappings between
these and inference engines is a more realistic solution, albeit one which would require signifcant
developments from the current situation.
This paper has mainly been concerned with the management of data; this must however be linked
to the actual goods produced, particularly with respect to the movement of materials across the
farm boundary (e.g. buying certifed seed or selling certifed goods). Although for packaged goods,
this could be managed by labelling with barcode or RFID-encoded data, for unpackaged goods a
new solution may be needed.
Conclusions
In this paper we have presented an initial analysis of the amenability of crop production standards to
an automated compliance assessment. Based on the derivation of specifc rules for three standards
we have estimated how easy testing of the individual rules using software would be. From this
analysis we conclude that, in general, the more specifc a rule is (i.e. regulating specifc operations
and quantities of products), the easier the testing is to automate. Conversely, the more a rule relates
to management systems and processes, or to the wider effects of specifc operations, the harder the
testing is to automate. There also exist rules which cannot be automated as they require a visual
inspection or the assessment of information which will not realistically be collected or held within
a farm management information system. Unless the scope and content of agricultural standards
is re-assessed, a complete automation of compliance testing is therefore infeasible. However, an
automation of the self-controlling required by farmers during operational planning is perhaps
realistic in the short-medium term.
Acknowledgements
The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Communitys Seventh
Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement no 212117.
References
Anonymous, 2009. CCAT / Cross Compliance Assessment Tool. Available at: http://www.ccat.wur.nl/UK/
General+Information/Background/.
Dwyer, J., Baldock, D., Shaw, K. and Einschutz, S., 2001. Identifying baseline standards in agriculture, No
405 English Nature Research Reports.
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agricultural products and indications referring thereto on agricultural products and foodstuffs (OJ L198/1).
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common rules for direct support schemes under the common agricultural policy and establishing certain
support schemes for farmers and amending Regulations (EEC) No 2019/93, (EC) No 1452/2001, (EC)
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organic-farming/what-organic_en.
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CROPS, English Version, V3.0-2 Sep07. Available at: http://tinyurl.com/7s7zue. Accessed 27 January 2009.
Nash, E., Korduan, P., and Bill, R., 2007. Optimising data fows in precision agriculture using open geospatial
web services. In: Stafford, J.V. (Ed.), Precision agriculture 07, Wageningen Academic Publishers, the
Netherlands. pp. 753-759.
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C.G., Nash, E. and Blackmore, S., 2009. Compliance to standards specifcations. FutureFarm Project
Deliverable 2.1.1.
Typology of precision farming technologies suitable for EU-
farms
J. Schwarz, A. Werner and F. Dreger
Leibniz-Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF) Mncheberg, Institute of Land Use
Systems, Eberswalder Str. 84, D-15374 Mncheberg, Germany; awerner@zalf.de
Abstract
This paper focuses on the development of a typology that summarizes and structures the very broad
and diverse set of techniques that can be named precision farming (PF). The typology should
be suitable for EU-farms. The crops that have to be covered with the typology were determined
by analysis of statistical data towards the dominating crops in the EU-countries in a reference
year. Relevant procedures for conventional crop management in agricultural farming and also for
management with precision farming were identifed by a literature review. Main crops in the EU-
27 are cereals (56.5%) and forage plants (17.7%) which cover together about 75 % of arable land
(year 2005). Thus the typology of precision farming technologies was restricted to those techniques
that are relevant for these two groups of crops. As factors to discriminate or group the techniques
for precision farming have been used: PF application level, farming system (intensity), cultivation
measures, collection of machine data, time line for availability of the technique, GPS level and
information load for a farm management information system (FMIS). For applying the typology
different starting levels with PF were designed: mini stands for low cost, compact stands for
medium costs and combi means high-end systems. The typology focuses on two general PF-
application levels. Type I is using GPS but no VRT technique and type II is using VRT technique.
General farm type I has three subtypes (regarding the usage and quality of GPS and the use of
robots). General PF-application level II has fve subtypes (regarding GPS, the usage of sensors,
maps or both and the use of robots). The subtypes are dissected into defnite segments according
the relevant discriminating factors.
Keywords: information management, robots, FutureFarm
Introduction and objective
Due to changing frame conditions for farming, in the future the European farmers will have to
increase the effciency to manage information on and off their farms in order to hedge economic
viability and to reduce environmental impact. Precision Farming (PF) is seen as a collection of
techniques and specifc equipment as well as integrated concepts and is providing a wealth of data
and tools for information management. The second generation of PF-technology is available on
the market and has a large potential to foster crop production and documentation, especially by
using adapted farm management information systems (FMIS).
Still missing are standards and basic solutions for FMIS that ft best to the needs of farmers. The
EU-funded collaborative research project FutureFarm (www.futurefarm.eu) is aiming to provide
suitable background and prototypes for FMIS. Due to the variety of farm types, crops, equipment,
growing regions and management cultures within Europe, it will not be possible to have a general
standard or one fxed technical solution for information management on EU-farms in the future.
Therefore work in FutureFarm on FMIS will be projected on a typology of precision farming
settings. The objective of the work at hand is to produce a generic PF-typology considering general
patterns in the crop production of European farms.
Typologies try to bring a generalisation into sets of specifc objects. Typologies should be as
universal as possible, but we should always keep in mind in individual cases deviations from these
typologies do and will remain to exist.
From the literature, the general characteristics of typologies (Caballero, 2001; Koenzen, 2005,
Valbuena et al., 2008) were determined. Typologies have in common that they try to provide a
generalisation into sets of specifc things. Typologies should be as universal as possible, but it is
necessary to always have in mind that many individual cases still exist. In addition, typologies
should allow assessment of procedures in different directions, e.g. economical or ecological.
There are some other classifcations and characterisations for precision farming technologies (e.g.
Auernhammer, 1994, 2001). The question at which level a crop management procedure can be
called precision farming is discussed in the literature in a controversial way. For some authors the
usage of GPS is a pre-requisite, others are demanding variable rate technology. Out typology will
focus on the information level for a FMIS.
Statistical data for the relevant agricultural data were provided through the EU-offce EuroStat. For
each country statistical data regarding the land use and farm structure were provided. The analyzed
data belong to the base year 2005 (Benoist and Marquer, 2006, 2007). The year 2005 is presently
the last year with a complete statistical database. Earlier years were also examined, but no general
differences were found compared to 2005.
The percentage for each crop was calculated by dividing the sum of the land of the according crop
through the sum of the total arable area in the EU-27.
Relevant procedures for agricultural farming and also for Precision Farming were identifed through
review of relevant literature (Hufnagel et al., 2004; Srinivasan, 2006).
Applying a certain technique, e.g. a particular sensor, could always be done in different approaches.
This establishes the basic element of the typology: it is necessary to distinguish between different
levels and combinations of usage. This notion is used as the discrimination technique in the typology.
It starts with use or disuse of a sensor. This is a common situation for yield monitors. Most of the
larger and premium combines built in the last few years are equipped with a yield monitor. But
often they are not used for yield-mapping under practical conditions.
In the next level of the typology the discrimination is achieved by identifying use or disuse of geo-
positioning information. For example an optical nitrogen sensor equipped with a GPS system can
be used as just GPS. This leads to various combinations in the application of a PF-technique (see
Table 2: general farm type and subtype in brackets: (I.1.) as data gathering, (I.2.) as sole online
system, (II.1.) also as (1) frst mapping and (2) application in two passages, (II.2.) as GPS and
sensor (II.3.) and if e.g. a yield map exist as (II.4.)).
Results
The typology of PF-technologies suitable for farms in the EU-nations focuses (1) on the relevant
crops on arable land in the EU-27, (2) on relevant procedures for agricultural farming/PF and (3)
presently available technologies as well as technologies available in the near future.
That will lead to a critical point, because the technologies in PF are changing. For example the
RTK-GPS is commonly used for auto-steering systems, but was not so commonly used 10 years
ago. New sensors, e.g. soil sensors (Mouazen, 2007) may also change the agricultural procedures.
Statistical data from the EU on arable land were used to determine the crops relevant in the EU-
member states. Table 1 shows these main arable crops for the EU-27 in the year 2005.
Summarizing the planted areas of the groups of cereals plus that of forage plants cover already
about 75% of the agriculturally grown areas in the EU. Thus just these two crop groups will be
taken into consideration for the typology. The values in Table 1 are averages over the single values
in the EU27-countries. The respective standard deviations of 7.6% for cereals and 8.7% for forage
plants show that the differences in the proportions of these major crops between the countries are
small. Therefore, it is not necessary to combine the group of cereals with any other group of crops
in order to determine the major groups of crops.
A literature research and interviews with experts as well as own knowledge led to the following
relevant discriminating factors for the typology:
PF Technologies;
farming system (intensity);
cultivation measurements;
collection of machine data;
time line for availability of the technique;
PF starting levels;
GPS level;
information load for a FMIS.
PF technologies
Simple approaches of PF technologies are using the GPS only for getting data for the exact position
of , e.g. for logistic purposes. Others are using the GPS signals for operating light-bars or auto-
steering systems. But the usage of GPS is not a prerequisite for precision farming if for example
online sensors are used.
Also it is possible to collect data, e.g. yield monitor data or nitrogen status without any VRT action.
Some farmers are collecting data for years to get a stable database for future decisions.
Regarding the variable rate technology different approaches are possible. The decision for doing
e.g. a variable rate application of nitrogen can be based on (1) maps in the offine approach or (2)
on sensors the online approach or (3) a combination of a map with an online sensor the hybrid
approach.
The maps for VRT application should have a link to the cultivation measures (see below). It might
be possible to create maps for nitrogen application with respect to last years yield maps but not to
create maps for recent pest management regarding application necessary insecticides in the standing
crop. Maps for VRT technique can have different sources, e.g. aerial images, satellite data, soil
maps or yield maps. Sensors are defned in this purpose to be online on-board sensors.
Table 1. Main crops of arable land for the EU-27 (Benoist and Marquer, 2006, 2007).
Crops Proportion of cropped land Cumulative
Cereals 56.5% 56.5%
Forage plants
*
17.7% 74.2%
Industrial crops 9.8% 84.0%
Fallow land 7.7% 91.7%
Root crops 4.2% 95.9%
Dried pulses 1.8% 97.7%
Others 2.3% 100.0%
*
Arable forage plants includes all green crops intended for animal feeding. Examples: feld grass,
vetches, green maize. Root crops for fodder and brassicacea species are excluded.
Farming system/management intensity
The discriminating factor farming system / management intensity are split into three main systems:
Organic farming practices (at least EU-regulation 2092/91) include wide crop rotations,
restrictions on use of chemical synthetic pesticides and synthetic fertilisers and prohibition of
the use of genetically modifed organisms.
Extensive farming or low energy input farming focuses on the energy consumption of agricultural
procedures. There is no exact defnition of restrictions. Generally speaking the abandonment of
intense soil cultivation, e.g. ploughing, are dominating this type of farming system.
Integrated farming has also no strict defnition of restrictions. Good Farming Practices are
demanded. This means for example the use of thresholds in pest or weed control, no preventive
pesticide use and fertiliser application according to actual crop demands.
Cultivation measures
Cultivation measures are divided into: tillage, seeding, fertiliser, weed control, pest and disease
management, growth regulators and harvesting. All of these cultivation measures are relevant for
cereals and for forage plants. But not all of these cropping measures need to take place in all crops.
Also the farming systems have an infuence on the cropping measures or their design/implementation?.
For example, nitrogen fertilisation in an organic farming system can only be done with organic
manure. Precision irrigation is not taken into consideration because of the low dispersal and the
rare usage in the crops considered for the typology. In 2005, the agricultural area of the EU-27
was about 17210
6
ha and the area that was at least once irrigated amounted to 10.510
6
ha, or
about 6% (Eurostat).
Collecting machine data means the data gathering of geo-positions or the geographical positions
with sensor values or geographical positions with the applied amount (VRT).
Time line for availability
The time line describing the availability of the technique is divided into now available, next 5
years and in the future (>10 years).
To apply the typology, the following starting levels for PF were identifed to Mini, Compact
and Combi. Mini means a low-cost alternative, e.g. minicomputers: palms, PDA, control of
application manually or automatically, parallel guidance with light bars.
Compact is a mid-cost alternative, e.g. on-line sensors + direct controlling, on-board computers
/ terminals, parallel guidance with terminals.
Combi is the high-end alternative, e.g. complex software (farm management systems, GIS, div.
databases), documentation (Cross Compliance, QS etc.), parallel guidance (very precise, automatic
steering).
The GPS level is divided into GPS, DGPS and RTK-GPS. GPS is defned as a simple GPS without
any improvements for precision and an accuracy of about 10 m. DPGS has a differential signal
for improving the accuracy, normally about 1 to 5 m precision. RTK is a GPS system with a high
accuracy, up to a few centimetres.
Information load for the FMIS is an important parameter for the FutureFarm project. The
specifcations are set at No, Low, Medium or High. No information load means that no data are
recorded or that the accuracy of the GPS is not suffcient enough, e.g. simple GPS. Low information
load is set to e.g. DPGS positions or other data with not much information content. Medium
information load includes for example accurate GPS positions and data for plant or soil parameters.
Also the VRT techniques with only maps bring a medium information load.
Using these relevant discriminating factors leads to the general typology of PF. Table 2 shows this
typology in a nutshell.
The extended typology refnes the typology in a nutshell. All mentioned variables are taken into
consideration and the assessment with the starting levels of each branch is done. Furthermore the
GPS level is outlined.
The mentioned levels in the typology are considered to be the minimum requirements. For example
in the case of the GPS level, the usage of RTK systems instead of DGPS system is possible, but
not necessarily required.
Detailed typology
Examples for the detailed typology will be given in the following section.
At the beginning this is done with the typology of the general farm type I (using no VRT), subtype
2 (using GPS and sensors for data gathering for crop stands or soils or others).
Farming system: Organic farming; Extensive farming; Integrated farming
Collecting machine data: Yes
PF starting level: Compact
GPS level: DGPS
Information load for the FMIS: medium
Cultivation measurements Time line
Tillage e.g. logging soil properties (clay content) Next 5 years
Seeding e.g. logging soil properties (clay content) Next 5 years
Fertiliser lime e.g. capture of pH-value Next 5 years
Fertiliser base e.g. capture of need for phosphorus and potassium Next 5 years
Fertiliser nitrogen e.g. capture of need for nitrogen Available
Weed control e.g. capture of weeds Next 5 years
Pest and disease management e.g. capture of pests Next 5 years
Spraying growth regulators e.g. capture of crop density Available
Harvest e.g. capture of yield quantity and quality Available
Monitoring biotic data Next 5 years
Table 2. Typology for PF-technologies for the EU-nations.
General farm type Subtype
number
Short term Explanation
Code Nick name
Farm Type I: Using
no VRT
1 I.1. Just GPS Using GPS for work (GPS, DGPS, RTK)
2 I.2. Sensor data Using GPS and sensors for data gathering
3 I.3. Robot data Using GPS and robots for data gathering
Farm Type II: Using
VRT
1 II.1. Just VRT Using no GPS, using sensors for VRT (no
information avail. on as-applied)
2 II.2 VRT Maps Using GPS for work and maps for VRT
3 II.3 VRT Sensors Using GPS for work and sensors for VRT
4 II.4 VRT Hybrid Using GPS for work and maps and sensors
for VRT
5 II.5 VRT Robot Using GPS for work and robots for VRT
Detailed typology of the general farm type II (using VRT) subtype 1 (using no GPS for work (only
online sensors))
Farming system: Organic farming
Collecting machine data: No
GPS level: DGPS
Information load for the FMIS: No
Tillage Next 5 years
Seeding In the future
Fertiliser lime Next 5 years
Fertiliser base Next 5 years
Fertiliser nitrogen Next 5 years
Weed control Next 5 years
Pest and disease management
fungi crop density Available
fungi direct detection Next 5 years
insects In the future
Harvest Available
Farming system: Integrated farming
Collecting machine data: No
GPS level: DGPS
Information load for the FMIS: No
Tillage Next 5 years
Seeding Next 5 years
Fertiliser nitrogen Available
Spraying growth regulators Available
fungi direct detection Next 5 years
Harvest Available
Detailed typology of the general farm type II (using VRT) subtype 4 (using GPS for work and
maps and sensors for VRT
Farming system: Extensive farming
Collecting machine data: Yes
PF starting level: Combi
GPS level: DGPS
Information load for the FMIS: High
Tillage and seeding In the future
Fertiliser nitrogen Available
Spraying growth regulators Available
fungi direct detection In the future
Harvest Available
Discussion
The developed typology for PF-technologies represents a general, not a detailed or case specifc
view. The typology is as universal as possible in order to apply it for different purposes. Demand
for such a typology is related to the need to have a clear description of the applicable PF-techniques
for impact assessments of farming systems or in the design of information management for farms
likely to use PF in the future.
With the help of this typology, in a next step, farms in the EU-27 can be classifed according to
a general farm type and relevant subtypes. Also the typology could help to fnd the demand on
information fows in a FMIS and to identify the starting level that probably a predefned farm is
likely to apply.
The typology has to be slightly different, if other crops like root or tuber crops will be taken into
consideration. Also incrementing this typology to other types of bio-production e.g. horticulture
would change the typology.
Intentionally in this typology specifc sensors or certain machinery were not addressed. Because,
for instance, the sole existence of a sensor in a crop management system does not determine the
usage and is therefore not suitable for developing a typology.
Conclusion
The PF-typology for European farms is a necessary precondition to reduce the number of possible
combinations of PF-farming situations in the EU. In the next step of the project it will be discussed
with the developers of FMISs, if a further aggregation of types is necessary. The PF-typology for
European farms is necessary to transfer the projects results from one or few prototypes of the
FMIS developed for normative farming situation to the actual and especially to future situations
of farms in the EU. These situations can not be analyzed directly. The four practical farm cases of
FutureFarm serve as a basic framework for generalisation procedures.
Acknowledgments
Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement no. 212117. This publication does
not necessarily refect the European Commissions views and does not anticipate the Commissions
future policy in this area. Its content is the sole responsibility of the authors. This work is part of
the EU-funded collaborative research project FutureFarm (www.futurefarm.eu).
References
Auernhammer, H. 1994. Global Positioning Systems in Agriculture, Computers and Electronics in Agriculture
11, 1.
Auernhammer, H. 2001. Precision farming the environmental challenge, Computers and Electronics in
Agriculture 30, 31-43.
Benoist and Marquer 2006 and 2007. Statistics in focus; agriculture and fsheries; 10/2006; 11/2006; 12/2006;
13/2006; 14/2006; 15/2006; 16/2006; 17/2006; 19/2006; 20/2006; 21/2006; 22/2006; 24/2006; 5/2007;
7/2007; 11/2007; 13/2007; 18/2007; 21/2007; 22/2007; 24/2007; 26/2007; 42/2007; 43/2007; 59/2007;
60/2007.
Caballero, R. 2001. Typology of cereal-sheep farming systems in Castile-La Mancha (south-central Spain),
Agricultural System 68, 215-232.
Fountas S, B.S. Blackmore & S.M. Pedersen 2004. ICT in Precision Agriculture diffusion of technology. In:
ICT in Agriculture: Perspectives of technological Innovation. Ed. by Ehud Gelb and A. Offer. The Hebrew
University for Agricultural Economic Research, Israel. Electronic Book Chapter.
Fountas S., S. Blackmore, D. Ess, S. Hawkins, G. Blumhoff, J. Lowenberg-Deboer and C.G. Sorensen 2005.
Farmers Experience with Precision Agriculture in Denmark and the US Eastern Corn Belt. Precision
Agriculture 6 (2), 121-141.
Hufnagel, J., Herbst, R., Jarfe, A. and Werner, A. (eds.) 2004. Precision Farming. Analyse, Planung, Umsetzung
in die Praxis, KTBL-Schrift 419, Loseblattsammlung.
Koenzen, U. 2005. Fluss- und Stromauen in Deutschland Typologie und Leitbilder Bundesamt fr
Naturschutz, angewandte Landschaftskologie, Heft 65, Bonn, 327 pp.
Mouazen, A.M., Maleki, M.R., de Baerdemaeker, J., Ramon, H. 2007. On-line measurement of some selected
soil properties using a VISNIR sensor, Soil & Tillage Res. 93, 13-27.
Pedersen, S.M., S. Fountas, B.S. Blackmore, M. Gylling and J.L. Pedersen 2004. Adoption and perspective of
precision farming in Denmark. Acta Agriculturae Scandinavica Section B, Soil and Plant Science 54 (1) 2-6.
Reichardt, M. and Jrgens, C. 2006. Precision Farming in Germany - Adoption trends since 2001, Source:
Proc. of the 4th World Congr. on Computers in Agriculture, Orlando, Florida.
Reichardt, M. and Jrgens, C. 2007. Adoption and perspective of precision farming in Germany: results of
several surveys among the different agricultural target groups, Stafford, J. V. (ed.): Precision Agriculture
07. Wageningen Academic Publishers, the Netherlands, pp. 843-850.
Srinivasan, A. (Ed.) 2006. Handbook of Precision Agriculture. Principles and Applications, Haworth Press,
Binghamton, USA, 683 pp.
Valbuena, D., Verburg, P.H. and Bregt, A.K. 2008. A method to defne typology for agent-based analysis in
regional land-use research, Agricultural, Ecosystems& Environm. 128, 27-36.
Analysis of external drivers for farm management and their
infuences on farm management information systems
K. Charvat and P. Gnip
Wirelessinfo, 784 01 Litovel, Czech Republic; charvat@wirelssinfo.cz; nip@wirelessinfo.cz
Abstract
In order to build a vision for future knowledge management in arable farming, examples of existing
knowledge management systems as well as drivers, which could have future infuence on the farming
sector were analysed. The objective of knowledge management is to help farmers to be competitive
on the market in the sense of required products, quality and amount, to be to able react on changes
on the market, changes in subsidies systems, and requirements about environment protection, but
also to be able to react, for example on cost increase of inputs or on climatically changes. It is also
important to protect soil, as main mean of farming production, for long term sustainability of the
farm. Within the Future Farm project a trans-European investigation has led to the defnition of
key objectives needed to realise this vision of a new concept of farming knowledge management,
respecting changing conditions and demands.
Keywords: external drivers, farming system, future farm, farm management information system
Introduction
Over the next 20 years rural Europe will be radically transformed in terms of the distribution of
people and of economic activity within and across its regions. These changes are inevitable and
many forces conspire to bring them about. The common and future position of each important
driver can be different in reality; in many cases two drivers can stay against each other and their
future infuence on Agri-production and food market may depend on regulations and common
policy. For example:
Food quality and safety food requirements for growing population.
Growing requirements for food renewable energy production technologies.
Renewable production energy demand demand on more environmentally friendly production.
To possibly overcome these problems it is necessary to defne new methods of farm management,
which will look for optimal solutions in changed conditions. As already mentioned in this document
the main decision has to be provided on level of the single farm. For instance: the decision about
production in region, countries, etc. could have negative infuences on the market, because when
all farmers will change their behaviour, it could have a negative infuence on market (for example
two or three years ago large orientation of all farmers lead to defciency of food on world market).
Thus the main decision has to be provided on the singe farm, therefore a Decision Support System
has to be built on farm level. The outputs from this decision could be input for decision on feld
level. But to be able to provide an optimal decision, the system needs to have access to as many
knowledge as possible from a global level (the different macro knowledge was mentioned before).
Any missing knowledge could have infuence on the fnal decision. Many limitations exist, but
also many freedoms for decisions. It is necessary to mentioned one risk: if all farmers will use the
same input knowledge and the same deterministic algorithm, the usage of such a decision could
lead to distortion of the market.
Demands for Future Farm system from external drivers
For proposals of future knowledge management system functionalities and interrelation is necessary
consider the previous analysis. The basic principles of interrelation could be expressed by Figure 1.
If this scheme will be studied deeply, we can expected next transfer of knowledges:
Climate changes
Macro to level global trends in long and short time.
Farm to micro level regional forecast, decision about crops, application of pesticide, herbicide,
fertilisation.
Micro to farm level local forecast, local changes, alert situation.
Demographic
Macro to farm level changes in demand on amount of food.
Farm to micro level selected methodology of production.
Micro to farm level yield monitoring.
Energy cost
Macro to farm level cost of energy, demand on bio energy.
Farm to micro level selected crops, selected methodology of production.
Micro to farm level yield monitoring.
Quality of food
Macro to farm level prices, demand on quality.
Micro to farm level yield monitoring, traceability.
Farm to macro level traceability.
Innovation
Macro to farm level new crops, new methods of work.
Figure 1. Basic principles of interrelation.
Farm to micro level new crops, new methods of work.
Micro to farm level data for research analysis.
Farm to macro level data for research analysis.
Policies
Macro to farm level regulation, subsidies.
Micro to farm level traceability, evidence for subsidies.
Farm to macro level traceability, evidence for subsidies.
Sustainability and environment
Macro to farm level regulation, valorisation.
Micro to farm level traceability.
Farm to macro level traceability, evidence for subsidies.
Public opinion
Macro to farm level changes in public opinion, public requirement.
Farm to micro level selected methodology of production.
Micro to farm level traceability.
Farm to macro level traceability.
Recommendation for Future Farm knowledge management
The recommendation for Future Farm project makes use of the Service Oriented Architecture (SOA),
which provides methods for systems development and integration, where systems group functionality
around business processes and package as interoperable services. An SOA
1
infrastructure allows
different applications to exchange data with one another as they participate in business processes.
Service-orientation aims at a loose coupling of services with operating systems, programming
languages and other technologies which underlie applications. SOA separates functions into distinct
units, or services, which developers make accessible over a network in order that users can combine
and reuse them in the production of business applications. These services communicate with each
other by passing data from one service to another, or by coordinating an activity between two or
more services. In FutureFarm it is recommended to use SOA for integration of the Software (SW)
tools and web services, and implement an Open Agriculture Service (OAS). The integration and
communication among the independent components of the system is based on the implementation
of the Open Standards defned mainly by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), Open Geospatial
Consortium (OGC) and Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards
(OASIS).
This choice provides easy access to the individual services exposed by any domain specifc
application wishing to participate in the knowledge management system. The framework also helps
to easily provide the insertion of new services and components, and the re-use of existing blocks
and services. Hence a great fexibility both in the platform management, especially in the choice
and integration of system components and services, and in the requirement for developers of new
services, is provided, as these are loosely coupled object oriented systems that are distributed and
maintained with (eventual) service level agreements by the single service provider.
The approach has to be based on a service-oriented basis and this both refects in the user view of
the platform facilities and provisions, and in the approach for application providers and developers
that implement new components.
1
Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Service-oriented_architecture
System architectural design has to be evolved from monolithic applications to more client-server
oriented ones. Nowadays, a brand new architectural paradigm appears from the standardization of
the Web Services. The Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) is a software architectural concept that
defnes the use of services to support business requirements. In an SOA, resources are made available
to other participants in the network as independent services that are accessed in a standardized
way. Normally, the defnitions of SOA identify the use of Web Services (using SOAP and WSDL)
in its implementation.
In view of the project objectives especially those that relate or infuence the environment within the
FutureFarm system developments in the following domains will be highly relevant to the project:
Geographic Information Systems (GIS). The intelligent use of technologies for maintaining,
querying, displaying, and analyzing geographic information will be an important determinant
to the projects success.
Information Integration using XML: an important objective of this project is to present to end-
users information from a wide variety of sources that can have very different types of content
organisation (geographic databases, textual information, graphic content, ). The family of
technologies that are being developed around the XML format provide an obvious environment
for developing the necessary content integration and content transformation tools.
Robotics will play important role on farms.
It is of utmost importance for FutureFarm to offer the possibility of effcient knowledge management
on all management levels. In general we can say that the ecological, technical business and legal
requirements need new structures that are able to fulfll and support the farmers needs. As existing
structures this is valid for public structures, like ministries or government driven extension services,
but also for semi-governmental organizations, like chambers of agriculture have a tendency to
move slowly, as every change hurts and sometimes change shows also the wrong structure of
existing organizations. This could mean that in countries without any structures yet, technology is
implemented much faster, because the set-up of a new structure will be done with latest technology.
Some European structures, that have been in general very effective for the farmers need during
the last hundred years, could be not so effective or contra-productive for the needs of the future.
References
Charvat K, P Gnip, S Fountas, K Zieger, W Mayer, SM Pedersen, and, C Sorensen, 2009. D1.2.3 Visions and
recommendations for knowledge management, Report from project Integration of Farm Management
Information Systems to support real-time management decisions and compliance of management standards,
Litovel 2009.
Potential savings and economic benefts in arable
farming from better precision farming and information
management
S.M. Pedersen
1
, J.E. rum
1
, C.G. Srensen
2
, S. Fountas
3
, L. Pesonen
4
, B.S. Blackmore
3
and B.
Basso
5
1
University of Copenhagen, Rolighedsvej 25, 1958 Frederiksberg C, Denmark
2
University of Aarhus, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, Blichers All 20, P.O.Box 50, DK 8830,
Denmark
3
CRTH-ITEMA, Center for Research and Technology, Institute of Technology and Management of
Agricultural Ecosystems, Technology Park of Thessaly, 1st Industrial Area, GR 385 00, Volos, Greece
4
MTT,Agrofood Research Finland, Vakolantie 55, FI-03400 Vihti, Finland
5
University of Basilicata (UNIBAS), Via N. Sauro 85, 85100 Potenza, Italy
Abstract
This paper describes the potential benefts and savings from different precision farming technologies
and farm information management systems (FIMS) in arable farming. Focus is on potential costs
and benefts at the farm level of different intelligent and information-intensive systems used in the
production of commonly grown crops.
Keywords: farm information systems, production economics, farm management
Introduction
For the majority of farmers in arable farming a key objective is to improve the farm economic
viability. However, to which extent is the farmer capable of improving the economic beneft from
advanced information and communication technology systems and precision farming systems like
variable lime, nitrogen and pesticide application? And if capable, how can he quantify potential
yield improvement or saving, and what reference should be employed to compare his management
strategy? To assess the benefts from an implementation of new Farm Management Information
Systems (FMIS) implies a comparison between a present situation without FMIS and a new
situation with FMIS (see Fountas et al., 2006). Better information technology and sensing systems
may not provide improved yields or reduced factor costs - but may enable other technologies to be
implemented and used to improve yields or reduce costs. It will often be diffcult for the farmer to
measure and compare this improvement with any alternative situation like uniform application or
less intelligent management of information - simply because there is no reference for comparison.
The farm manager may have an idea about some of the potential improvements but not all. Site-
specifc nitrogen application seems for instance more complicated to judge since it may involve
both changes in yields and quality. The economic revenue depends on biological differences in the
feld, different weather conditions, technical capabilities and yields. However, precision farming
and FMIS may also involve economic benefts that are not directly related to the spatial variation
on the feld or more intelligent use of information. An assessment of potential costs and benefts
therefore requires a holistic approach.
Methodology
The objective of this study is to conduct a holistic assessment of farmers potential costs and benefts
of implementing different information management systems, including precision farming in Europe.
Focus has been on commonly and locally produced crops on four modern European demonstration
farms where current advanced information and precision farming systems are implemented. These
farms are located in Denmark, Czech Republic, Germany and Greece.
The frst task includes a description of the farmers use of more intelligent management of different
input sources, treatment and information management systems (including precision farming systems)
for a number of crop rotation systems. For these crop rotations we will asses the cost structure and
potential beneft from various scenarios. Based on the case farms we intend to defne a number
of model farms where various information and precision farming systems in the crop production
can be integrated.
The economic assessment will include a description of the use of production inputs like water,
fertiliser, seeds, pesticides, lime, and labour to different crops based on actual/expected prices of
factor inputs, product prices and yield response. Differences in product quality are expressed in
terms of price premiums and yields and nitrogen surplus and pesticide will for some scenarios
be based on climatic conditions and yield response. Quality parameters may then include better
protein content, easier certifcation with electronic traceability of crop origin, cultivation practices,
and use of fertiliser.
With this approach a distinction will be made between the management at the strategic level
(investment in new technology), the tactical level (farmers seed and crop choices, etc.) and
the operational level (decisions about nitrogen applications and pesticides at a particular time)
depending on the timeframe for choosing technology and operations. The analysis will rely on
actual, rational behaviour among farmers at the 4 European case-farms in the EU-fnanced Future
Farm project. The principle in this approach is similar to a partial budget, which focuses on those
costs and benefts (revenues) that change when using a specifc practice. In this case, conventional
treatment is indirectly the reference application in the overall analysis, compared with different
site-specifc and information management systems (see also Pedersen, 2003).
The causes of economic beneft may depend on many parameters that can be diffcult to distinguish
from each other, and different factors may often be interdependent. A farm management system
software and decision support system may not in itself provide better quality, improved yields
or reduced factor costs but it may enable other technologies, in combination, to be implemented
and used in a more cost-effcient way.
To give an example, today it is possible to maintain weed maps manually and conduct variable rate
weeding. However, it will hardly be relevant for the farmer because it is time consuming to collect
the data, and (if) there is no need (no proft) for the map. By implementing software and sensing
systems that enables the farmers to register data about weed patches on GIS-maps on the run and
thereby provide weed maps for patch spraying, it may be possible to save herbicides, costs, and
maybe even labor time. This cost saving and environmental beneft may not be caused by the FMIS
system in itself, but the system provides the possibility for doing so. In this matter it is necessary
to make precise descriptions and assumptions for these systems. What are the causes of changes
and what are needed to make the change.
In the following, we will present a number of advanced farm operation systems that we intend to
study (see also Table 1):
Improved logistics and fuel-savings
A thorough application of a GPS-system and intelligent automation gives the farmer a remedy to
save fuels during, for example, harvest and bale handling. If for instance, the tractor pilot has on-
line access to the position of other farm-vehicles, the GPS and GIS-maps provide an opportunity
for the pilot to optimise the co-ordination with the other tractor and combine pilots when unloading
grains between vehicles. Automation can thereby optimise fuel consumption and keep the driver
aware of the logistic situation. Information about site-specifc location of drainage areas (drain
pipes), large stones and wells may be diffcult to validate in economic terms, but could be just as
valuable information as for instance spatial management of nutrients and chemicals.
Fleet management solutions for agriculture comprise a combination of tracking and routing. By
using feet management, it is possible to track the mobile units in the feld in order to dynamically
allocate the right unit to the right task in the right way. It will be possible to monitor and display
the current position and other status information (time, current or expected capacity, working
velocity, etc.) see Srensen and Thomsen (2006) for a comprehensive study on the potential of
on-line machinery management.
A more advanced GPS system with high accuracy may also enable the farmer to reduce fuel costs on
feld work because of fever overlaps during harrowing, ploughing, harvesting and feld cultivation
in general. The tractor pilot sometimes overlaps previously treated areas with up to 50-100 cm
during tillage and harrowing (Pedersen, 2003). With advanced GPS systems the driver just has to
steer by following a light bar on the display in the tractor cabin, or let a autosteering system take
care of the steering.
Variable rate nitrogen application
As indicated above, variable rate application has the potential to either reduce nitrogen application
or improve yields and crop quality. Several crop experts have attempted to site-specifcally estimate
the appropriate dose of nitrogen. Some experts have focused on soil data and others have based
their approach on the application on yield data. Even though there are obvious considerations and
diffculties about choosing the most proftable application strategy there are also other concerns
like the technical functionality of different technical systems.
he two most common systems for distributing fertilisers on the feld are the centrifugal spreader
and the phneumatic boom spreader. The centrifugal spreader is currently the most widely used of
the two practices. To site-specifcally vary fertilisers, it is necessary to mount an electronic device
on the spreader. This device is often connected to the CANBUS system and a task controlling
computer in the tractor cabin. The regulation of fertilisers can either be carried out automatically
or manually. With a GPS-receiver, a data-card and a GIS-application program, it is possible to
vary nitrogen on the run. Variable application of fertilisers implies a chain of technical solutions in
which each technical element must work properly including the positioning system, the on-board
computer and the fertiliser distributor. The necessary electronic devices are mounted on the fertiliser
distributor for variable adjustments during feld work. There are in principle four potential sources
of inaccuracy: Positioning, dosage, delay in reaction and inaccuracy of distribution.
Many farmers can, however, also see a beneft from variable application of slurry in combination
with variable application of commercial fertilisers. In many crop-rotations, the application strategy
should allow for commercial fertilisers as well as animal manure and slurry.
Variable rate application of phosphorus (P) and potassium (K)
Phosphorus and potassium are fertilisers that are easy to handle compared with nitrogen in the
sense that these nutrients are fairly stable in the soil. Usually the farmer can regulate the amount of
P and K by adding an amount similar to the amount removed when harvesting the crop. In recent
years there has been a concern about the environmental impact from intensive pig production and
excessive surplus of phosphorus (P) from animal slurry in certain vulnerable areas. Most fertilisers
are delivered as mixed NPK nutrient and in certain cases other micro-nutrients are added as well.
This approach of mixed fertilisers has been applied for several years. Pre-mixed commercial/
mineral fertilisers are easier to handle and distribute than separate fertilisers. The time and costs
spent on distributing fertilizers is relatively high compared with the potential yield improvements
from spatial yield improvements. In this respect, farmers tend to minimise the number of runs
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on the feld. Site-specifc application of P and K is carried out at the same time and with the same
fertiliser distributors/spreaders as used for variable rate nitrogen application. The potential private
economic beneft from appropriate applications of P and K appears to be relatively modest and the
time for levelling out the soil content of nutrients within the feld might take several years. Site-
specifc P application may be benefcial in certain areas. However, for agronomic and environmental
reasons, the ideal solution might be to apply all nutrients separately.
Variable lime application
Site-specifc application of lime is based on application maps derived from soil maps and directed
site-specifc soil samples. An algorithm for variable lime application is determined according to the
site-specifc soil type and the site-specifc pH level. In principle, lime should be added or reduced
according to the measured levels. Practical experiences with variable-rate liming and the application
algorithms provided by advisory services have proven to be very successful on many farms.
The implementation of soil conductivity mapping has also given the farmers a tool to estimate
the soil type in a fast and effcient way since soil conductivity is relatively well correlated to clay
content in the soil.
Variable rate pesticide application
Variable application of chemicals not solely emerged with the GPS-system. In fact, farmers in many
regions have been aware of the potential savings on chemicals within the feld. Full time farmers
seem to be risk averse but at the same time aware of possible savings from using appropriate
techniques. The application strategy might also depend on the farm type. For example, livestock
farmers have other priorities than feld work. They usually focus on livestock production and have
little time for weed mapping and pesticide spraying. Thus they are less interested in weed and site
specifc crop protection than for instance arable farmers, also because most of their crops will be
used on farm to feed the livestock, which reduces the incentives to produce high quality crops (rum
et al., 2001). In this respect, it is diffcult to conclude which farm types would beneft the most
from using site-specifc application techniques. Research into variable application of pesticides has
primarily been focusing on herbicides. However, some research is also conducted within the area of
fungi detection and variable application of fungicides. Preventive and site-specifc treatment with
insecticides is complex since insects are diffcult to monitor on the feld, whereas some weeds and
some fungi have a tendency to concentrate in patches. It is argued that output from a single sensor
will be able to give information about more than one crop parameter. Refectance sensors might
enable the farmer to get information about N-status, vegetation index (canopy size) and information
related to weed and disease occurrences. Here our focus will be on variable rate application of
herbicides since most attention has been paid to weed protection.
Besides some mechanical techniques for organic farming, most conventional systems for controlling
crop deceases in cereals are based on conventional boom-sprayers. Conventional sprayers usually
have water tanks in which the various chemicals/pesticides are mixed with water. Usually 3-5
different chemicals are mixed in the water tank for each treatment. In practice, farmers usually
pre-mix exact amount of water and expected application of active ingredients before spraying. In
this matter they often estimate the precise amount needed for that particular area to avoid emptying
the tank after each operation. This common approach conficts with the idea of variable treatment
in which the farmer should strive to reduce the amount of pesticides on areas with no infections.
The concept with premixed tanks has been used for many years and requires that the farmer in
advance assess the exact amount of chemicals that he will apply to the feld. To conduct variable
rate application, some sprayers are equipped with devices to regulate the amount of chemicals on
the run. A GPS-receiver and a tractor-computer can be installed to regulate and carry out variable
rate application of pesticides. Due to the practical inconveniences with pre-mixed pesticides for
patch spraying, it is vital that site-specifc spraying systems are followed by some sort of injection
systems where water and chemicals are kept separate. Commercial injection systems usually have
about 5 containers for different chemical ingredients. With the injection system it is possible to
keep chemicals and water separate during spraying, implying that it should not be necessary to
eliminate any leftovers after the spraying job is fnished. A further advantage is that the system
enables the farmer to vary applications of chemicals without any risk of additional chemicals in
the water tank (Pedersen 2003).
Other site-specifc applications
In principle all plant nutrients can be applied site-specifcally. A further study and practical
implementation of these techniques depends on the development of effcient sensing techniques,
knowledge modelling and justifcation of economic viability.
In many regions water is a limiting factor for crop yield. New advanced irrigation technologies like
subsurface drip irrigation may reduce the use of water and energy for pumping the water. Using
new irrigation technology in combination with Partial Root Zone drying systems and fertigation
could enable farmers to save even more water and fertiliser, and possibly improve crop quality
(M.V. Boesen, unpublished results). Variable rate irrigation has only caused modest interest among
North European farmers. In Southern Europe and the Mediterranean countries, several trials have
been conducted with variable rate irrigation. Variable irrigation techniques may also be relevant in
some high value crops and row crops like sugar beets and potatoes in North European countries.
Variable rate sowing can be carried out by reducing and increasing the sowing density and sowing
depth. This approach can be relevant in the case of great variation of soil quality and soil compaction
in a feld. The sowing density and depth will have an impact on yields, N-application and weed
pressure. High precision seeding techniques could be relevant for row-crops such as sugar beets
and potatoes, but is likely to be less relevant for cereals. However, improved sowing techniques
with better sowing patterns may turn out to be economically viable.
Variation in crop cultivation along with seed density might also be relevant in some cultivation
practices. The cost of seed is relatively high for some crops, particularly for potatoes and beets.
Projects are made to develop technologies that can generate an electronic feld-map with geo-
spatial co-ordinates for each single seed. The electronic sowing map can thereby be used for high
precision application maps of nutrients and chemicals based on the position of each single seed.
This approach requires a very accurate positioning system such as RTK-GPS, which is expensive
and requires signifcant computer power.
Conclusion
The outcome of this study includes a description of potential benefts and savings from different
commercial and pre-commercial farm management information systems which allow for more
intelligent decisions about the use of different input sources and treatments (incl. precision farming
systems) for common crop rotations in Europe. We have outlined and described the potential costs
and benefts at farm level for these advanced technologies and information systems. Focus is on
commonly produced crops in different European regions and based on 4 case farms. Potential benefts
related to these systems such as input savings, labour and fuel savings, yields and crop quality
are assessed and will be further analyzed in the European funded research project Future Farm.
References
Blackmore S., Greipentrog H.W., Pedersen S.M. and Fountas S., 2006. Europe. Chapter in: Handbook of
Precision Agriculture, principles and applications (ed. Ancha Srinivasan).
Fountas S. Wulfsohn D., Blackmore S.M., Jacobsen H.L., Pedersen S.M., 2006. A model of information fows
for information-intensive agriculture, Agricultural systems (87) (2006), Elsevier, pp. 192-210.
Pedersen S.M., 2003. Precision farming Technology Assessment of site-specifc input application in cereals,
Department of Manufacturing Engineering and Management, Technical University of Denmark. Ph.D
dissertation, 343 p.
Srensen, C.G. and Thomsen, F.T., 2006. Synopsis regarding specifc and general requirements on feet
management within arable farming. www.robocluster.dk, pp. 1-26.
rum JE and Jrgensen., 2001. konomi og risiko ved forskellige fungicid-strategier i vinterhvede nogle
overvejelser og metoder, indlg ved Dansk Plantevrnskonference 2001.
rum JE, Noe E. and Jensen J.E., 2001. Pesticidhandlingsplan 2 i praksis Landmanden og konsulenten
muligheder og barrierer, Tidsskrift for landkonomi, Det. Kgl. Danske Landhusholdningsselskab. 188
rgang juli 2001.
Farmers risk in decision making: the case of nitrogen
application rates
B. Basso
1
, S. Fountas
2
, L. Sartori
3
, G. Cafero
1
, S.M. Pedersen
4
, C. Sorensen
5
, L. Pesonen
6
, A.
Werner
7
and S. Blackmore
2
1
University of Basilicata Crop Systems, Forestry and Environ. Sciences, Via Ateneo Lucano 10,
85100 Potenza, Italy
2
Center for Research and Technology, Technology Park of Thessaly, 1st Industrial Area, 385 00,
Volos, Greece
3
University of Padua, Landscape and Agroforestry Systems, Agripolis, Legnaro, PD, Italy
4
KU-LIFE-FOI, Institute of Food and Resource Economics, University of Copenhagen, Rolighedsvej
25, 1958 Frederiksberg C, Denmark
5
Research Centre Bygholm, Schuttesvej 17, 8700 Horsens, Denmark
6
7
Liebniz - ZALF, Land Use Systems and Landscape Ecology, Eberswalder Str. 84, 15374
Muencheberg, Germany
Abstract
Yield response functions often provide little assistance to farmers in making decision about farm
management strategies. Process-based crop models can play a signifcant role in the development
of alternatives for obtaining sustainable crop production systems. The objective of the study was
to demonstrate that crop models can provide the farmers desired extra information by simulating
the effects of a specifc management practices on the economic viability and environment of the
farm before the decision is made. The knowledge of such information would allow the farmer to go
beyond the constraints imposed by current practices in describing their decision making process.
In this study, we used a relatively new crop model called SALUS to compare the effects of the
best nitrogen rate suggested by the model and with the nitrogen rate currently adopted by the farm
manager, in terms of yield response and economic revenue for the farm. The model was also applied
in a spatial contest on two previously identifed management zones to compare the reduction in
NO
3
leaching obtained by the best management practices proposed by SALUS. The model provided
excellent results when compared to the measured data; it also showed to be a valuable tool that
would help farmers reduce their economic risk and environmental impact related to N fertilization.
Keywords: crop model, nitrogen, management practice, economics, environment
Introduction
During the last 50 years the yield was considered as the only important factor in the agricultural
system, but recently the pressure of the agriculture on the environment has been considered. It has
become clear that it is not a lack of available data that will impede progress in modern agriculture.
Rather the challenge will be to identify the usefulness, importance and relevance of the gathered
data for optimising farm effciency. Farmers need to think systematically about their information
needs, the costs of information, alternative sources and the value of the information, identifying
what is the necessary information to collect before making decisions.
Decision-making is a core issue in farm management and has been the focus of numerous studies.
The reason is that understanding decision making processes it enable us to intervene in the process,
helping farmers make better decisions. However, because of the complexity of the agricultural
business, farmers will often have to make decisions based to some extent on intuition.
Decision making in todays agricultural environmental is a volatile process, mainly because of the
intensity of infuence of many factors. Prices for products and inputs (i.e. fertilizers, chemicals,
and fuels) have greatly increased in the past two decades and declined again. Recent literature has
focused attention on many of the issue that jeopardizes our ability to meet human food, fuels and
fber for the future. The volatility of these factors affecting yield and price variations demonstrates
the need for farmers to have available tools that can assist them in making appropriate, cost-
effective decisions. Farmers are not risk neutral. Rather they are risk averse and attempt to attain
some maximum degree of utility, as expressed through different goals such as maximum proft,
minimum variance of yield; maximum stability of income, or a mix of these goals. Because yield
response functions are established from experimental data, they often provide little assistance to
farmers in making decision about farm management strategies.
Farmers often express the wish to have future knowledge of weather or the probable outcome of
a management strategy. These information are called the desired extra information that are not
currently available but which help making better decision.
Fountas et al. (2006) developed and evaluated a system based model to characterize farmers-
decision-making process in information-intensive practices in the context
of Precision Agriculture (PA). In their participative methodology farm
managers decomposed their process of decision-making into brief decision statements along with
associated information requirements. Their methodology was frst developed on a university research
farm in Denmark and further revised during testing on a number of research and commercial farms
in Indiana, USA. Twenty-one decision-analysis factors were identifed to characterize a farm
managers decision-making process. Then, a general data fow diagram (DFD) was constructed
that describes the information fows from data to different level of decisions: strategic, tactical
and operational. They included the desired extra information into a magic box in which the farm
manager could identify desired information that was not currently available, but which could help
in making better decisions and to allow the farmer to go beyond the constraints imposed by current
practices in describing their decision-making process.
Process-based crop models can play a signifcant role in the development of alternatives for obtaining
sustainable crop production systems. They can quantify the effects of management practices,
genetics, soil and weather on yield, crop quality and environmental impact over space and time.
Crop simulation models are essential ingredients in a decision support system (DSS) when validated
and responsive to the factors relevant to sustainable crop production. For comparing alternative
management practices, it is necessary to determine the frequency or probability distribution of the
outcome. Examples of alternative management strategies affecting crop yield and production costs
are: (1) alternative nitrogen (N) or Phosphours (P) levels; (2) alternative cultivars; (3) alternative
irrigation methods and amounts; (4) alternative sowing dates, sowing rates and plant populations;
(5) effects of increased CO2, temperature and precipitation under climate change scenarios; (6)
biofuels production; (7) any combination of the above and in a spatial contest (precision agriculture).
The objective of the study was to demonstrate that crop models can provide the farmers desired
extra information by simulating the effects of a specifc management practices on the economic
and environment of the farm before the decision is made. The knowledge of such information
would allow the farmer to go beyond the constraints imposed by current practices in describing
their decision making process. In this study, we used a relatively new crop model called SALUS
(B. Basso and J.T. Ritchie, unpublished results; Basso et al., 2006) to compare the effects of the
best nitrogen rate suggested by the model and with the nitrogen rate currently adopted by the farm
manager, in terms of yield response and economic revenue for the farm. The model was also applied
in a spatial contest on two previously identifed management zones to compare the reduction in
NO
3
leaching obtained by the best management practices proposed by SALUS.
Methodology
Site description
The study was carried out on a 8-ha feld with near zero slope, located close to Rovigo (44 4 12 N,
11 47 22 E, 6 m a.s.l.), NE Italy., during a 5-year crop rotation (1998-2002). The soil type was clay
according to the USDA particle-size distribution limits, defned as FAO Ombric and Thionic Histosols.
The climate of the area (data relating to the 1997-2008 period) was characterized by an average annual
rainfall of 700 mm, distributed mostly in autumn and spring. The annual average temperature was
13.3 C, with a monthly maximum of 23.5 C in July and a minimum of 3.2 C in January.
Agronomic management
The agronomic practices applied to the maize crop (Zea mays, L.) crop generally consisted of
minimum tillage and integrated weed control strategies. The N fertilizer rate applied by the farmer
is 250 kg N/ha in two split applications (30% at planting and 70% at V6 stage). We compared the
current farm management strategy with 4 alternative nitrogen rates, 50, 100, 150 and 200 kg N/ha.
Overview of the SALUS model
The SALUS (System Approach to Land Use Sustainability) model is designed to simulate continuous
crop, soil, water and nutrient conditions under different management strategies for multiple years
(Figure 1). These strategies may have various crop rotations, planting dates, plant populations,
irrigation and fertilizer applications, and tillage practices. The program simulates plant growth
and soil conditions every day (during growing seasons and fallow periods) for any time period
when weather sequences are available. For any simulation run, a number of different management
strategies can be run simultaneously. By running the different strategies at the same time we can
compare this effect on crops and soil under the same weather sequences. This also provides a
framework whereby the interaction between different areas under different management practices
can be easily be evaluated. SALUS provides a user interface consisting of two components: (1)
input and output fle management and; (2) an interactive control system. Input and output fles can
be built new or imported from the widely adopted decision support DSSAT formats. The input fles
contain information to initialize the model (e.g. physical and chemical properties, soil water contents
and N concentrations) and supply driving variables (i.e. time series of weather and management
practices). The output fles contain summaries of important model variables such as crop yield,
crop developmental stages, N uptake, nitrate leaching, water drainage, runoff, soil organic C and
N levels, irrigation water used and fertilizer applied. The interactive portion of the program allows
Figure 1. Diagram of the components of SALUS.
the user to have fexible control over the use of input fles and the amount and type of data that is
in the output. Users can select management strategies they wish to use and compare them directly
in simultaneous model runs. Users can also interactively change the management practices to
examine the effects of a particular management variable. An application for a web-based system
and a linkage to a GIS platform is also available.
A 25-year weather record was used to simulate the N rates. The model was validated with the
observed yield data for the years 1999-2007 using the root mean square error RMSE.
Result and discussions
The simulated results showed excellent agreement with the measured data (Figure 2) with a low
RMSE of 450 kg/ha. The farmers current N management (250 kg N/ha) provided higher yield only
2 years out of 25 years simulated (Figure 3). The 25 years simulations showed that the farmer N
strategy of applying 250 kg N/ha was not sustainable due to lower net revenue and higher nitrate
leaching (Figure 4).
The feld site is characterized by two distinct soil areas, one with clay soil and higher organic
matter content, and the other with more loamy soil and lower organic matter content. These two
homogeneous areas in terms of yield response have been previously identifed and described in
Basso et al. (2007).
We compared the impact of two N rates on the yield, net revenue and nitrate leaching for the two
zones. Figure 5. shows the probability that the N rates would provide a certain yield. The 250 Kg
N/ha did not yield less than 9 ton/ha nor more that 16.5 ton/ha. If we convert the yield into a net
revenue, the 200 Kg N-ha provide the highest income for the farmer with values
Figure 7 describes the nitrate leaching occurring in the two zones (H and L) for the two nitrogen
rate. The highest amount of leaching occurred in the 250 kg N/ha for all the 25 years simulated and
for the L zone. The 200 kg N/ha also showed high nitrate leaching in the L zone but with a lower
amount compared to the 250 treatment. The fgures indicates that if the farmer were to apply 250
kg N/ha in L zone, he would not only get lower yield and lower net revenue but also high leaching.
The results demonstrated the potential in using the model as decision aid to improve farmers
economic return by maximizing yield or reducing input while protecting the environment.
Figure 2. Comparison of six years measured and simulated maize grain yield for the feld site
in NE Italy.
Clearly, the goal of crop simulation in precision agriculture is to explain the spatial variability of
crop performance mapped with grain yield monitoring systems and to help guide in management
decisions related to the site-specifc management of crop inputs. It is also clear that crop simulations
cannot be performed everywhere given that the cost and the availability of detailed inputs would be
prohibitive. For this reason, a more balanced approach for the application of crop simulation models
to precision agriculture would be to determine zones within the feld of similar crop performance
where the models can be executed to identify the best management practices and to help farmers
making decision with a lower level of risk.
Figure 3. Cumulative probability of yield response to different N rates.
Figure 4. Cumulative probability of net revenue for different N rates.
Figure 5. Cumulative probability of yield response for two nitrogen rates and in two previously
identifed homogeneous zones (H= high yielding zone and L= low yielding zone).
Figure 6. Cumulative probability function for two nitrogen rates and net revenues in two
previously identifed homogeneous zones (H= high yielding zone and L= low yielding zone).
References
Basso B, Bertocco M, Sartori L and Martin, E.C. 2007. Analyzing the effects of climate variability on spatial
pattern of yield in a maize-wheat-soybean rotation. Eur J. Agron. 26 (2): 82-91.
Basso. B., J.T. Rtichie, P.R. Grace and Sartori L.. 2006 Simulating tillage impacs on soil biophysical proprerties
using the SALUS model. Ital. Jour. Agron. 3 1-10.
Fountas S, Wulfsohn D, Blackmore B.S. Jacobsen H.L. and Pedersen S.M.. 2006. A model of decision-making
and information fows for information-intensive agriculture. Agricultural Systems 87 (2006) 192-210.
Figure 7. Cumulative probability function for two nitrogen rates and nitrate leaching in two
previously identifed homogeneous zones (H= high yielding zone and L= low yielding zone).
Technology requirements for a standard information
infrastructure to assist compliance with crop production
standards
E. Nash
1
, R. Nikkil
2
, L. Pesonen
3
and C.G. Srensen
4
1
of Rural Areas, Justus-von-Liebig-Weg 6, 18059 Rostock, Germany; edward.nash@uni-rostock.de
2
5500, 02015 TKK, Finland; rnikkila@cc.hut.f
3
MTT Agrifood Research Finland, Vakolantie 55, 03400 Vihti, Finland; liisa.pesonen@mtt.f
4
Research Centre Bygholm, Schuttesvej 17, 8700 Horsens, Denmark; claus.soerensen@agrsci.dk
Abstract
The assessment of compliance with standards requires not only on-farm data but also information
from external sources. Not least amongst this information is the defnition of what is required by
the standard. Software providers may be reluctant to embed this in their systems due to concerns
regarding liability, particularly as standards are subject to temporal and spatial variation which
would require a mechanism for customising the software and ensuring timely updates. Many
standards also require that inputs to the farm (seed, fertilisers, crop protection agents, etc.) are both
documented and certifed and that the details of many on-farm operations are recorded. Furthermore,
outputs from the farm, both in terms of agricultural products and by-products, must in many cases
be recorded. Required information may currently typically be held using paper records, or simple
digitised records such as spreadsheets and text documents, and may be exchanged either in paper
form or electronically, on physical medium or via the internet. However, technologies already exist
which could be used to simplify and automate the electronic collection, management and transfer
of information. The administrative workload of demonstrating compliance with standards could
thereby be signifcantly reduced by adoption of appropriate technologies. In this paper we will
consider some of the technical requirements for an infrastructure to provide for crop production and
farm management standards to be acquired by the farmer and enable an automated assessment of
compliance. Where appropriate, suggestions are made as to where existing or emerging technologies
may be used to assist in assessing compliance. Additionally, components requiring openness and
standardisation will be identifed together with, where possible, existing standards which may be
suitable. Dependability, data transfer capacity and the special requirements of real-time decision
support are also considered.
Keywords: farm management information system, information fows, open systems, standardisation,
systems analysis
Introduction
The assessment of compliance with crop production standards
1
requires not only data concerning
farm management and crop operations but also information from external sources. Not least amongst
this information is the defnition of what is required by the standard, i.e. what actions a farmer
should perform, or which are forbidden, and what must be documented in order to demonstrate
compliance. In order to provide this documentation, the farmer is required to gather information
1
We use the term standards as an umbrella term covering legal regulations and all public and private voluntary
standards for agricultural production and farm management which a farmer must or may choose to comply with.
on-farm and in-feld as well as e.g. certifcation from seed suppliers, composition analyses from
plant protection and fertiliser suppliers, etc. However, proving compliance with standards does not
proactively assist farmers to adhere to requirements for this an integration of the standards into
the operational management and subsequent decision-making processes is required.
Compliance with standards is currently a largely manual process although basic IT tools may be
used to assist in data acquisition (e.g. offce or a farm management software), and in some cases may
assist in automating production of documentation (e.g. completing felds in pre-prepared forms),
there is no end-to-end support for complying with a particular standard or set of standards. As the
number and range of standards in use on farms increases, and the list of individual rules each farmer
should conform to become correspondingly longer, the need for a fexible standardised infrastructure
capable of gathering, managing and presenting the information required to demonstrate compliance
with the individual set of standards in use on each farm becomes more apparent.
In this paper we consider which technologies exist which may contribute to such an infrastructure,
based on a systems analysis presented in Srensen et al. (2009). In particular, we consider areas
in which specifc standards are required in order to ensure interoperability between components.
The appropriateness of existing standards is assessed, and suggestions made as to where new
standardisation initiatives may be required. The main focus lies on software and communication
systems and knowledge interoperability.
System analysis
Here we focus on the defnition of the scope of the proposed information infrastructure. The baseline
system involves crop production and farm management and the use of farm management standards
for production as well as monitoring and compliance. An analysis of the tasks performed by the
farm manager has been carried out to identify the internal as well as external conficts and problems
that the farm manager currently faces. Based on this analysis, the boundary of the targeted system
was defned and within the context of these boundaries a description of the proposed system was
derived in the form of a conceptual model. The system analysis used a Soft System Methodology
(SSM) approach (Wilson, 2001), providing the guidelines for system identifcation and system
design aimed at proposing an integrated farm management information system (FMIS) that can
support real-time standards-compliant management decisions as well as improving the monitoring
of compliance with management standards through largely automating the documentation process.
It must be noted that we do not directly consider the case of automating the external inspection or
audit. In terms of the functionality required by the system with regards to interpretation of rules and
data, this case may be regarded as equivalent to the functionality required for a self-assessment by
farmers. Additional complications are the need to ensure data integrity and prevent fraud. Due to
the inherent potential for manipulation of data, the external audit is likely to remain an important
part of compliance checking. However, the external audit will be supported by providing the farmer
with a clear defnition of what documentation is required and allowing the automatic generation
and digital transfer of this documentation whenever possible.
In a new situation where a novel information management system concept is utilised, the description
of the core feld tasks will change. As part of modelling the novel system concept, information fow
models were devised as illustrations of the new system concept and design. Figure 1 shows the
scope of the information modelling for the execution of a fertilisation plan in terms of identifed
actors to be included in the system (the boxes to the left of the diagram). These actors include
external entities outside the farm, the farmer as the prime decision maker and the mobile unit entities
involving in actual carrying out the planned tasks.
From this system analysis, four broad functional groups relating to standards compliance have been
identifed; transfer of the standards, transfer of the data required to assess compliance, validation
of standards compliance and security. Each of these functional groups is discussed separately in
the following section.
Functions and available technologies
that follows an operational plan and generates a documentation of its work (e.g. using map-based
precision agriculture technologies). The plan and the documentation can be subjected to automated
validation as to their adherence to agricultural standards. The validation is done by using rules that
are a formal description of existing agricultural standards. Note that current agricultural standards
are not published as explicit rules against which validation can be performed (Nash et al., 2009).
For the purposes of this paper we assume that standards will in future be published in a suitable
form, and we restrict our scope to those rules which may be automatically assessed.
Transfer of standards
The content of crop production and farm management standards must be made available to farmers
and information management systems, together with appropriate accompanying meta-data. We
consider that it is in practical terms infeasible for a single static software application to directly
incorporate all of the many standards which farmers may wish to adhere to due to the sheer number of
different standards, and variations of them, and due to their constantly changing nature. A mechanism
whereby this information may be made available by the publishers of the standards in a consistent
form and dynamically bound into the FMIS is therefore required. A potential mechanism would be

et al., 2008).
using the web-service technologies (effectively websites for machines) to form a Service-Oriented
Architecture (SOA) for agricultural standards. This would allow the standards to be stored in a
decentralised manner, enabling standards publishers to provide information directly or to make it
available through clearinghouses.
Functionally, such an SOA requires a mechanism for the FMIS to fnd standards and the repository
servers providing information about them. Once the server has been found, it must be queried to
provide the relevant standards (or specifc rules), and these should be returned in a standardised
encoding. Two server-side components are therefore required: repositories and catalogues (which
contain the metadata for standards and repositories), each of which must have a standardised
interface (set of operations) by which the client (the FMIS) may query them. Examples of how
these may be structured may be found in the geospatial domain with the Catalogue Service for the
Web (CS-W Nebert et al., 2007) and Web Feature Service (WFS Vretanos, 2005) specifcations.
Additionally, the metadata to be recorded for each repository and for each standard must be
standardised (cf. the ISO 19119:2005 and ISO 19115:2003 standards). Finally, a standardised
encoding for both the metadata and the agricultural standards is required: canonically for web-
services this is an XML (eXtensible Markup Language) schema. For metadata, many standards are
available which may provide relevant elements (e.g. Dublin Core (DCMI, 2009), ISO19139:2007).
For the agricultural standards, there are no current proposals. The rules may however be encoded
using a semantic rule markup language such as RuleML (Boley et al., 2001), forming part of a
schema specifcally for agricultural standards.
Data transfer
At a fundamental level, an operational plan is a mapping between location and action (or amount).
In traditional, non-precise agriculture, this operational plan is a single pair of feld identifcation
and amount. In the case of precision agriculture, this mapping is essentially GIS data but in either
case it is also unusable for validation in its oversimplifed form due to a lack of supplementary
information. To cover at least a majority of agricultural standards, additional metadata related to
the plan itself is required together with considerable amounts of data on the farm itself. In the
case of the plan, this metadata includes information on, for example machinery, time of the plan
and the material or chemical being applied to the feld. For the farm, a validation process requires
information on matters such as previous feld operations, any special permits or agreements that
the farm might have and the nutritional states of the felds. Similar information must accompany
the documentation of a feld operation. If a single, monolithic, proprietary system were used for all
data management on the farm, including compliance checking, then it is feasible that no open data
transfer standard would be required. This is however an unlikely scenario even existing FMIS are
in practice usually a loosely-connected set of components (of which only one may be identifed by
the farmer as the FMIS) requiring signifcant data transfer. Additionally, some of the data required
for compliance checking may not be produced or held on the farm and so must be transferred from
external sources (e.g. the manufacturers of machinery or chemicals).
At present there is no standard which can encode all this required information. The operational plan
itself may be encoded using ISO/DIS11783-10 (ISOBUS-XML), and some of the information
may also be encoded using agroXML (KTBL, 2009). Any transformations on the data are the
responsibility of the FMIS storing the data or an external validation service if one is used. In
several cases and especially in the case of precision agriculture, this data transformation requires
the reduction of GIS data to a scalar value to match against rules. For traditional farming, most
values are already scalar and thus no additional transformations are required. Similar restrictions
exist on the documentation of feld operations; the raw operational documentation is unlikely to
contain correct information for the validation.
Validation
Validation of standards compliance means testing and evaluating the available data against the rules
defned by the standard. The parts of the agricultural standards that can be presented in a formal
manner and as processable logical rules are the ones that can be tested using an automatic validation.
This automatic rule validation can be done in a proactive manner to validate an operational plan
before its implementation or in a retroactive manner to verify that a feld operation adhered to a
certain set of rules. The alternating and farm specifc availability of data makes the actual validation
process somewhat complicated as a normal closed-world assumption of inference is unlikely to work.
Most rules can not and should not be evaluated to Boolean values indicating adherence or violation
as the lack of data will frequently lead to an unknown or uncomputable solution. An alternative
solution might be to have each rule state the required farm data for the proper validation of the
rule and verify the availability of data before any actual inference process to indicate unknown or
uncomputable results. An additional complication is the differing vocabularies (formally: ontologies)
used in agricultural standards, data transfer formats and FMIS. The validation engine must be able
to identify which piece of data should be tested against which rule, although the internal ontology
is unlikely to match that of the rule, requiring an ontology matching or alignment. This may be
performed using many methods (Euzenat and Shvaiko, 2007), although none of these are trivial,
and they usually require user intervention.
Security
Security is unlikely to be a major issue assuming that the verifcation is done within the bounds of the
FMIS, and only as a self-assessment by the farmer, in which case no encryption of data is required.
The rules, however, require a digital signature to protect against possible alterations, malicious or
otherwise. In order to verify the origin of the digital signature it is also necessary to have a method
for public-key cryptography, and also a method for distributing the public keys. On the other hand,
if the verifcation is done in a system or service separate from the FMIS, then data encryption is
required to ensure that it cannot be intercepted, but the requirement of the distribution of public-keys
will remain the same as with the digital signature. However, such features for trusted and secure
messaging exist in the internet (e.g. OpenPGP Callas et al., 2007 and SSL Freier et al., 1996)
and so implementation of standard protocols should meet the security requirements of the system.
If, however, an automatic verifcation should also serve as part of an external inspection/audit then
it is also necessary to ensure that the data has not been tampered with. This would require that each
point of data entry (whether manual, or automatic such as on-board sensors) also provided a secure
signature for the data which would be propagated through the system. Comparison of the original
signature with the data would indicate any changes. This would however be a hard problem to solve
as most signature algorithms such as the widely-used MD5 hash (Rivest, 1992) are sensitive to
the format in which the data is held and so any transformations of the data within the system (e.g.
conversion of data captured in an ISOBUS format to agroXML or similar) would invalidate the
signature. For this reason, we believe that an automated external audit is not a viable proposition.
Performance and real-time assistance
Due to the diverse nature of the farmers daily work, farmers are often forced to make different
level decisions in sub-optimal conditions, e.g. tactical or operational decisions when already
executing a task, or decisions concerning parallel running process while executing another one her/
himself. In Finnish research (Pesonen et al., 2007) malt barley growers wished FMIS to be able
to provide location-independent (in-offce and/or in-feld) assistance, context aware information
and knowledge. To a large extent, similar requirements were voiced by Danish farmers in terms
of feld work (Srensen and Thomsen, 2006). To acquire farm or feld specifc information, access
to FMIS is essential. The user interface to the information (information presentation and controls)
should be suitable for the working situation. Easy recording of observations or work results was
the main demand, but feld specifc assisting knowledge to support compliance with standards and
decision making supporting corrective measures for unexpected events, e.g. when fertiliser/spraying
agent quality has to be changed during the task execution, was seen as necessary. This requires
the assessment of compliance in real-time or near real-time, and therefore a highly performant
validation system.
The computational effciency of checking the compliance is not a clear-cut issue. In any verifcation
using frst-order logic or some subset of it, such as Horn-clauses, computational effciency can
easily become an issue as some queries cannot be answered in fnite time. Additional restrictions
or heuristics can be deployed to avoid these problems, but as with any complex system, the way
in which the system is built, or how the rules are represented is likely to have the greatest effect
on the overall performance of the system. Therefore, a set of rules legal by their syntax can be
semantically illegal or in a form which cannot be effectively used in the automated compliance
checking. This is a particularly worrying issue when the rules are defned and encoded by several
people of varying backgrounds and professions. Keeping the system of rules simple can be used
to avoid most of these issues, but excessive simplicity can also severely impair the system. The
opposite alternative of using a very expressive system covering the frst-order logic, or even features
beyond it, easily poses computational issues and contains features far beyond those required to
reasonably represent the standards of agriculture as formal rules.
A web-server based FMIS system was considered the optimal technological solution in the Nordic
InfoXT project (Pesonen et al., 2008). From the list of recommendations and guidelines that were
derived, the following are relevant here:
Effcient information management systems in mobile plant production environments should be
internet-based with an open interface.
Farm data saved in a central database should be accessible to the farmers via internet-servers
to cost-effciently improve location-independent availability of data.
Diffculties are often related to manual transfer of data and incompatibility between links in the
information chain. Therefore, there is need to harmonise or standardise data transfer formats,
and to some extent also data models, for better economic effciency. ISOBUS XML format
is suitable and promising for effcient data transfer between mobile work unit and database.
FMIS (Farm Management Information System) can be rather called AFMIS (Active Farming
Management Information System), since the farm database has to have features that actively
support farming activities and knowledge management. There is need to develop assisting
interactive functions as automatic programmed features and situation/context-aware advice
to be utilised in work situations in the feld, buildings or offce. The functions have additional
personal/farm-specifc services attached.
Wireless connections essential to the system concept have to be reliable and powerful enough
in their data transfer capacity.
Additional to the demands mentioned above, this kind of SOA-based system could also provide
other supporting functions, especially real-time assistance. The weather is an important dynamic
factor in farming. Getting information or warnings from the so-called sensor network based now-
casting (a couple of hours ahead) system, the farmer could take a decision either to continue or
stop task execution in the feld before the rain shower of certain intensity reaches the feld. This
is particularly relevant in the context of environmental standards relating to run-off, e.g. when
fertilising areas sensitive to leaching or run-off, or when spraying agents which need a certain
time to have an effect. Such decision support derived from feld data or real-time sensor data
requires online processing for performance and system state prediction. The assistance that can
be provided automatically and in real-time to give optimal location and situation valid advice or
task execution control measures, is possible only if there exist appropriate and effcient models to
utilise in automation logic. However, even where models currently exist, effcient calculation has
not generally been a consideration.
Providing real-time assistance would therefore require a number of technological advances over
and above those required for a basic validation. Above all, fast and reliable access to data and fast
algorithms for the actual validation are required. The former may be solved by use of a SOA-based
system, standardised data formats and fast wireless data transfer (e.g. WLAN) in felds. The latter
is potentially the harder problem as not only the algorithms but potentially also the expression of
the standards must be adapted for this situation.
Discussion
The actual diffculty in the formal verifcation of compliance checking for crop production standards
stems from the amount of technological and information standardisation required to achieve it. While
the entire verifcation could possibly be done with a relatively small logic program or constraint
logic program, this solution lacks the possibility of any wide adoption of the technology. The rules
themselves require standardisation in both their presentation as in their naming and referring,
which implies a standardised vocabulary for the rules. Obtaining the rules is also of technological
interest as the rules are unlikely to exist in any single system, but rather on systems of or related to
the organisations responsible for publishing and maintaining the standards that the rules represent.
Getting these organisations to represent their standards as formal rules is also a task that should not
be underestimated the benefts of an automatic validation in terms of increased compliance and
reduced administrative workload for the farmer must be made clear in order for institutions to be
motivated to participate in such a system. For commercial standards, the competitive aspect that it
may be easier, and therefore more attractive to farmers, to use their standard if it supports such a
system may be suffcient. For public standards, the public interest case must be made.
In practice, any wide-scale adoption of a common representation and vocabulary may be most
sensibly adopted frst for public standards within the EU and then spread to private standards and
other regions. However, since the automated checking of compliance requires a very high degree of
technology, and information technology in particular, any spread of such method is limited to areas
where high-technology agriculture such as precision farming is practiced for the foreseeable future.
One possible gain of having automated verifcation could also be a shift in the culture in which
current farming standards are written. Having the often vague and subjective standards presented
in a natural language in a more structured and objective form of rules would also beneft farmers
by removing the need to interpret the intention of the standards bodies in each case.
Conclusions
In this paper we have presented an analysis of the technological requirements of supporting an
automated assessment of compliance with crop production and farm management standards. The
functional requirements of such a system were presented based on a soft systems analysis leading
to the identifcation of four groups of functions. For each of these functional groups, the technology
requirements and some existing standards that may be applied were considered. Finally, the use of
such a system in a real-time context was discussed.
In conclusion, it is possible to say that many of the components of an information infrastructure
to support automated verifcation of compliance with standards exist. However, their application
to this feld has not previously been considered or tested. In some areas there is also need for the
development of specifc standards, particularly in the representation and retrieval of agricultural
standards and the vocabulary used to express these standards. Ultimately, the provision of such
a system relies on the motivation and participation of both service and software providers for
agriculture and of the bodies publishing standards.
Acknowledgements
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System analysis of management information systems for
the future
C.G. Srensen
1
, S. Fountas
2
, B. Basso
3
, L. Pesonen
4
, S.M. Pedersen
5
and E. Nash
6
1
Research Centre Bygholm, Schuttesvej 17, 8700 Horsens, Denmark; claus.soerensen@agrsci.dk
2
CRTH-ITEMA, Center for Research and Technology, Institute of Technology and Management of
Agricultural Ecosystems, Technology Park of Thessaly, 1st Industrial Area, GR 385 00, Volos. Greece
3
University of Basilicata (UNIBAS), Via N. Sauro 85, 85100 Potenza, Italy
4
5
KU-LIFE-FOI, Institute of Food and Resource Economics, University of Copenhagen, Rolighedsvej
25, 1958 Frederiksberg C, Denmark
6
of Rural Areas, Justus-von-Liebig-Weg 6, 18059 Rostock, Germany
Abstract
Future European farmers will have to effectively manage information on and off their farms to
improve economic viability trough reduction of environmental impact. To this end, an integration
of information systems is needed to advise managers of formal instructions, recommended
guidelines and document various decision making processes. In the project FutureFarm, a new
Farm Management Information Systems (FMIS) will be developed. Specifcally, the objectives of
this paper are to defne and analyse the system boundaries and relevant decision processes for such
a novel FMIS as a prerequisite for a dedicated information modelling. The boundaries and scope
of a system is described in terms of actors and functionalities, where actors are entities interfacing
with the system (e.g. managers, software, databases). In order to analyse the complex and soft-
systems situations of how to develop an effective FMIS, the soft systems methodology (SSM) was
used. This approach has been successfully applied in many felds and involves identifcation of the
scope of the system, identifcation of user requirements, conceptual modelling, and identifcation
of actors, decision processes and information needs as a preliminary step before the detailed
information modelling. A holistic view and scope of the system is presented together with the
system constraints. The results include the analyses of 4 demonstrations farms in the project and
representing adverse conditions across the EU. The system components are depicted as part of rich
pictures, etc. and linked to the subsequent conceptual model of the overall system as an outline for
the subsequent FMIS development.
Keywords: system boundary, Future Farm, ICT
Introduction
The supply of agricultural products and ecosystem services are both essential to human existence
and quality of life. However, recent agricultural practices that have greatly increased global food
supply have had inadvertent detrimental impacts on the environment and on ecosystem services,
highlighting the need for more sustainable agricultural methods. Current trends point to continued
human population growth and ever higher levels of consumption as the global economy expands.
This will stress the capacity of agriculture to meet food needs without further sacrifcing the
environmental integrity of local landscapes and the global environment. A doubling in global
food demand projected for the next 50 years poses huge challenges for the sustainability both of
food production and of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems and the services they provide to society.
This challenge requires an ecological approach to agriculture that is largely missing from current
management and research portfolios. Agricultural intensifcation through the use of high-yielding
crop varieties, chemical fertilisers and pesticides, irrigation, and mechanisation has been responsible
for dramatic increases in grain production in developing countries over the past three decades. At
the same time, intensifcation has had environmental consequences such as leaching of nitrate and
pesticides, and emissions of environmentally important trace gases.
Agricultural data and information sources for European farmers are not always available, and
if available their utilisation is impeded by data logistics problems and requires signifcant time
and effort. In the future, European farmers will have to effectively manage information on and
off their farms to improve economic viability and to reduce environmental impact (e.g. Sigrimis
et al., 1999; Dalgaard et al., 2006). All three levels in which agricultural activities need to be
harmonised with economical and environmental constraints require integrated ICT adoption for
improving farm effciency, integrate public goods provided by farming into management strategies
and relate to the environmental and cultural diversity of Europes agriculture by addressing the
region-farm interaction. An integration of information systems is needed to advise managers of
formal instructions, recommended guidelines and implications resulting from different scenarios
at the point of decision making during the crop cycle (Schiefer, 2004; Lyons, 2005). Such a system
will help directly with making better decisions as the manager will be assisted in compliance at the
point and time of decision making. The recently EU funded project FutureFarm aims to design,
develop and evaluate a new Farm Management Information Systems (FMIS). As most relevant
farm data will be readily available in the proposed information system, or may be automatically
integrated using standardised services and documentation in the form of instructions to operators,
the certifcation of the crop production process and documentation for standards can be generated
more easily than with present systems. Integration of spatial and temporal historical data, real-time
farm data, knowledge sources, statutory compliance, health and safety guidelines, environmental
guidelines, economic models, etc. into a sophisticated coherent management information system
can help to simplify this complex situation. At the moment these sources are not utilised as bringing
them all together is very diffcult for most people. The study will build on earlier analyses of
information-intensive agriculture and the decisions made during the crop growth cycle (Fountas
et al.,2006; Srensen et al., 2007; Pesonen et al., 2008).
The objective of this study is to create a basic outline for FMIS for planning and control of arable
farming. The identifed framework will guide the evolutionary process of analysing the information
fow and defne the databases, knowledge encoding and requirements for on-line control.
Diversity of European agriculture
The diversity among European agricultural holdings in terms of farm type, size, geography, cultural
differences, etc. has a signifcant impact on the decision making process of the farmers (e.g. Ohlmer,
1998). By structuring the complexity of farms, regions, and technologies for information driven crop
production, indications are derived which illustrate the issue of FMIS transferability within the EU.
The total agricultural area within EU-27 is about 183 mill. hectare see Table 1. About 85 percent
of the farm holdings have an area below 20 ha (Dansk Landbrug, 2007). The farm area structure
varies from an average of about 5 ha per farm holding in Greece to 79 hectare on average in the
Czech Republic. With the accession of Romania and Bulgaria into the European Union, the number
of farm holdings has increased signifcantly due to numerous small farms in Romania.
About 32 percent of the agricultural area is cultivated with cereals of which wheat is the most
common crop. About 40 percent of the cereals are produced in France and Germany. Farming has
been less intensive in many east European countries with reduced yields as a consequence as is
seen in the two neighboring countries Germany and Poland where the difference in potato yield
is signifcant.
Countries such as Denmark, Holland and Ireland have, besides crop production, focused on intensive
animal production with focus on pigs and dairy and related agricultural industries.
The geographical and climatic differences imply that the cropping season, radiation and precipitation
varies from the north to south. Crops such as olives, cotton and citrus, which are common in the
Mediterranean countries, can not be cultivated in the north, while for certain areas and crops it is
possible to have several growing seasons during the same year.
Based on the outlined differences it is indicated that new farm information systems have to be
designed according to geographic and cultural differences among the European regions.
Methodology
The boundaries and scope of a system can be described in terms of users and use-cases, where
users are entities interfacing with the system (e.g. managers, software, databases). The use-cases
describe the functionality of the system or what the users want the system to do. In order to analyse
the complex and soft-systems situations of how to develop an effective FMIS, the soft systems
methodology (SSM) was used (Wilson, 2001). This approach has been successfully used in many
felds of applications (e.g. Macadam et al., 1990; Kasimin et al., 1996) and involves identifcation
of the scope of the system, identifcation of system functionality, conceptual modelling, etc.
The system analysis and boundary specifcation was based on extracted data and information from
the pilot farms involved in FutureFarm. These are the Wimex farm located in Germany, Mespol
Medlov farm in the Czech Republic, the Markinos farm in Greece, and the Bramstrup farm in
Denmark. The selected farms represent a wide range of regional characteristics in Europe as well
as farm types.
Analysis phase
The analysis phase involves the identifcation of the system components applied to farm management
and operations and the consideration of processes, conficts and thoughts of an organisation as the
basis for the design of a dedicated farm information system. The topics that should be addressed are:
Table 1. Farm production and structure among selected countries 2007.
Population
(mln.)
Area
(mln. ha.)
Agriculture
(Mln. ha.)
Farm
holdings
(1000)
Area per
farm holding
(ha)
Cereals
(mln. ha)
Cereals
(mln. tons)
Czech Republic 10.2 7.9 3.6 46 79 1.6 7.7
Denmark 5.4 4.3 2.7 49 55 1.5 9.3
Germany 82.5 35.7 17 412 41 6.8 46
Greece 11.1 13.2 3.8 824 5 1.2 4.2
Spain 43.0 50.5 25.7 1,141 23 6.5 13.3
France 60.6 54.9 29.6 614 48 9.1 64.1
Italy 58.5 30.1 14.7 1,964 7 3.8 20.1
Slovakia 5.4 4.9 1.9 72 26 0.8 3.6
Austria 8.2 8.4 3.3 174 19 0.8 4.9
Finland 5.2 33.8 2.3 75 31 1.2 4.1
UK 60 24.4 16.8 281 60 2.9 21.0
EU-27 488.8 432.1 183.3 15,022 12 59.2 284.9
Source: EU-Commission and Dansk Landbrug.
What are the main processes the farm is dealing with (e.g. public entities, commercial companies,
etc.).
What is working well in the farm (regarding processes) and what is not working well and what
would the farmer like to do about it.
Regarding information processing, what the farmer would like to have to make their daily
working life easier and to run the farm more effectively.
Soft system methodology
In order to propose an ICT system that can help the farm manager in decision-making, a system
analysis has been carried out. Initially, the problems and conficts within farming both internal and
external were found. Soft system methodology (SSM) was used as guidelines to perform the analysis
and conceptual modelling. Basically, SSM comprises the modelling of human activity systems,
which can then be compared with the real-world in order to facilitate and structure further discussions
and elaborations. The outcome from such process is models widely agreed to be relevant in the
particular situation. SSM are divided into three main parts, exploring the current situation, building
models and taking action (Checkland, 1988). The approach is based on a comparison between
real-world problem situations and conceptual models of the proposed system relevant for dealing
with these problems (Nidumolu et al., 2006). In summary, the applied approach is concerned with
expressing the current status quo of the system including inherent problems within the perceived
system, derive the actual goal of the targeted system, and next, construct a plausible conceptual
model containing the proposed problem solutions. The continuous and incremental elaborations
and modifcations of these procedural steps will provide an action plan for the system design.
Based on general extracted knowledge and specifc information from the selected pilot-farms the
current situation and possible alterations were described. From this, the boundaries of the working
area were defned and within this area a new description of the proposed system was developed
based on SSM techniques.
A central element in the SSM approach is the root defnition as it defnes the goal of the system and
brings forth various perspectives on a system and the inherent assumptions (Bergvall-Kareborn
et al., 2004). The root defnition is devised in the form PQR: a system to do P, by means of Q to
achieve R or What to do (P), How to do it (Q), and Why do it (R) (Checkland and Scholes, 1999).
Special attention should be paid to the elements of CATWOE, a mnemonic word representing
the terms Customers (C), Actors (A), Transformation process (T), World view (W), Ownership
(O) and Environmental constraints (E). The core of CATWOE is the T and the W, where the
World view depicts the world view for which the system has meaning and the Transformation
depicts functionality on a system level. Customers are the ones infuenced by the transformation
as they benefts and suffer from it and the actors are the ones that operates the system and the
Ownership belongs to the ones with the power to initiate or terminate system activities. Finally,
the Environmental constraints represent elements outside the system and imposed on the system.
Conceptual model
Conceptual models of the system are built on the premises laid down in the defnition of the system.
The derivation of a conceptual model is the frst step, indicating the concept of the information
system to be designed. Although the process can be written in rather clear points, the outcome of
each point is actually continuously changing as more knowledge is generated as a consequence of
the improved understanding of the system.
The rich picture shown below in Figure 1 illustrates the current situation with its problems and
conficts. As can be seen, the system structure is very complex and many external as well as internal
entities and partners have an interest in the farming system.
In terms of information handling, the farmer needs to manage a lot of information in order to make
economically and environmentally sound decisions. Currently, this process is very labour intensive
and for most parts, executed manually. The important concerns and problems voiced by the farm
manager include the time consuming tasks of monitoring feld operations, managing the fnances and
application for subsidies, which is further complicated by the lack of integrated soft- and hardware
to manage this work and the lack of coordination when such programs do exists. Also, the farmers
voiced a need for additional information and advanced technologies to manage monitoring and
data acquisition on-line in the feld as part of the operations management. When looking at the
external concerns, it is seen that this mostly concerns the need for sustainable production of farm
products, which is further pursued by regulations and the possibility to receive subsidies when
more sustainable management practises are abided by.
Identifcation of system boundaries
When tuning in on the farm manager and his/her everyday management problems, the system
becomes a bit easier to comprehend as shown below in Figure 2. This fgure also shows the perceived
boundaries of the proposed system.
The central entities in the proposed system include the farm manager, the felds, the products and part
of the production input, agrochemicals and fertilisers. The reason for fertiliser and agrochemicals
being included in the system whereas other supplies are not is that the feld operations involving
the application of these are of main interest when considering restrictions from standards and
other provisions. The Ministry of Agriculture is added loosely since a system which can inform
Figure 1. The current situation as seen from the farm mangers point of view. The stippled line,
defne the farm system boundaries. The ministry is dotted in as the proposed system is for use by
both farm manager and ministry. SW = soft ware, the dark clouds symbolise confict or problems.
the manager on compliance with management standards may also be able to do the same for the
Ministry of Agriculture and hence can be used by them for checking compliance with set standards
and regulations. The form of this interaction with the system would however require careful
consideration and management to avoid Big Brother concerns related to external monitoring by
governments.
Defnition of the system
Based on the boundaries identifed above, the system will be defned. The derived situational
elements of CATWOE are listed below.
Customers. The primary customer of the proposed information system is the farm manager and
management system as the demanders of data for production and operations management. The
secondary customers is the EU, certifcation bodies, retailers, etc., understood as entities setting up
and imposing standards and other regulatory frameworks for the farm production, and beneftting
from the improved crop production.
Actors. The actor is the one operating the information system, which in this case is the farm manager
or other farm staff.
Transformation process. The transformation process involves the transformation of operational
feld data into a form, which can provide the foundation for decision making in crop production.
World view. The world view is the hypothesis that drives the information system development. In
this case, the view is that operational data is easily acquired and can be use to improve management
decision-making though out the production cycle.
Ownership. The farm manager is the owner in the way that he has every day decision maker
responsibility, and decides whether the system is of use or not.
Environmental constraints. The constraints infuencing the usability and performance of the
information system includes the expectations of the entities imposing the standards and regulations
Figure 2. The current situation as seen from the farm mangers point of view. The dashed line
defnes the farm system boundaries. The ministry is dotted in as the proposed system is for
use by both farm manager and ministry. SW = soft ware, the dark clouds symbolise confict or
problems.
on the farm, the requirements of the standards, the required data quality, the reliability and regulations
of the information technology (communication devices, server, databases, etc.)
Summarised root defnition. The root defnition of the purposeful activity handled here is: a
farm management information system (owned and operated on farm level) to support real-time
management decision-making and compliance of management standards, by means of automated
acquiring and contextualising of operations data and external parameters (e.g. regulations, best
management practices (BMPs)), market information, etc.) to form a foundation for operations
management. In order to improve the quality of decision-making and reduce time effort.
The conceptual model as derived from the defnition of the system is shown in Figure 3. It depicts
how the operational feld data needs to be collected and transformed in an automatic way. The
fltration of information (external as well as feld operation data) is initiated by the manager according
to the operational activity which is to be planned. Based on the obtained facts, the farm manager
plans the operations and prepares for execution (e.g. the equipment or staff that is to carry out the
operation) and a record of the actual executed operations will be stored. Subsequently, the farm
manager can retrieve documentation reports using a dedicated search in the internal information.
Conclusion
This research has shown the beneft of using dedicated system analysis methodologies as a
preliminary step to the actual design of a novel FMIS. The soft systems methodology targets
organisational process modelling and identify unstructured problems as well as identifying non-
obvious problem solutions. Specifcally, the approach provides the possibility of more clearly
capturing the change that is necessary for a current system to transform into a proposed system
that will fulfl the user requirements of tomorrow.
Figure 3. The concept of the FMIS to be developed with the needed processes (rounded squares),
it is divided into four subsystems, internal data collection, external information collection, plan
generation and report generation. The data collection and processing is an automated monitoring
system, whereas the report and plan subsystems are to be initiated by the farm manager.
Acknowledgements
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Section 17
European relevance for precision agriculture
Future GNSS - Farmers navigate towards trusted farming
R.M. Lokers
1
, A. Krause
2
and T. van der Wal
3
1
Wageningen UR, Alterra, Centre for Geo-Information, P.O. Box 47, Wageningen, the Netherlands;
rob.lokers@wur.nl
2
Wageningen UR, Alterra, Centre for Geo-Information, P.O. Box 47, Wageningen
3
Portolis B.V., Spoorbaanweg 23, 3911 CA Rhenen, the Netherlands, info@portolis.nl
Abstract
Nowadays, European farmers have to comply with numerous rules and directives concerning
a diverse range of production issues. The EU requires farmers more and more to comply with
legislative rules concerning farm management that focus on sustainability and environmental issues.
Non compliancy might result in subsidy reductions or even fnes. On the other hand, consumers
and government demand that farmers produce safe food and they expect that reliable information
regarding the production process is available through the agri-food chain all the way to the origin of
the primary product. GNSS supported (precision) agriculture can support both the implementation
of these demands on the farm and facilitate the associated control process that is required. If
reliable and trusted documentation on farm operations could be collected, these could also serve
as a proof of compliance with regulations or certifcation procedures. This requires the concept of
trusted farming, where the farmer would be allowed to use registered data, automatically collected
during feld work, as a rightful proof of compliance with regulations or certifcation procedures.
The European GNSS (Galileo and EGNOS) that is currently under development might bring an
important step towards trusted farming. In the FieldFact project, opportunities of Galileo, the new
European GNSS, have been examined. Galileo will provide its users in the agricultural sector
with key features that will improve the reliability of recorded information. The combination of an
authenticated signal and an integrity message will provide a hallmark for the measured location
and time. Thus, the generation of authenticated or trusted documentation on the farm, a basis for
trusted farming, will become possible.
Keywords: GNSS, trusted farming, precision agriculture, sustainability
Introduction
The agricultural sector has a long history of using spatial information and knowledge as a means
to enhance farm management and business processes. The intelligent use of information regarding
location specifc circumstances has been a key factor to success from the early days of farming. With
the development of farm mechanization and especially the introduction of information technology
in agriculture, precision farming has become an instrument to optimize farm management and on-
farm production processes. The use of Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) for real-time
positioning in the feld has become an essential part of the technology used in precision farming.
Improvement of production effciency can be regarded as a classical motive for precision farming
and the application of location specifc knowledge. Nowadays, however, other motives for precision
farming in general and especially for the use of GNSS on the farm are gaining importance. European
farmers are confronted with European directives that require them to comply with legislative rules
concerning farm management, environmental issues, etc. Deviation from these regulations might
result in subsidy reductions or even fnes. On the other hand, consumers, actors in the production
chain and government demand that farmers produce safe food. More and more, society expects
that reliable information regarding the production process is available through the production
chain all the way to the origin of the primary product. This paper focuses on specifc issues that
farmers face while fulflling these demands. It also explains how new developments in European
GNSS technology can support in meeting these demands. In the European FP6 project FieldFact,
the opportunities provided by the European GNSS Galileo and the augmentation system EGNOS
were examined. Use-cases from the FieldFact project are described to illustrate these opportunities.
Motives for using GNSS in Agriculture
GNSS is widely used in agriculture, for instance applied as a positioning technology in precision
agriculture applications such as farm machinery guidance, harvest monitoring and variable rate
application. Besides, GNSS positioning is used in numerous applications used by farmers themselves
but also by other actors that play a role in the agri-business. Such applications include for instance
parcel measurement, soil sampling or tracking of livestock transportation. According to Molenaar
et al. (2007), motives for using GNSS applications in agriculture come from three directions: (1)
Efforts to improve production effciency; (2) Efforts to improve authenticated documentation and
(3) Efforts to improve the control on public aid use. Improvement of production effciency can
be regarded as the classical motive for precision agriculture applications. The aim is to increase
margins on product sales by an increase of product yield and a decrease of the production costs, e.g.
by optimization of the use of resources. The motive of improvement of authentic documentation
is primarily driven by the consumer markets demand for product quality, food safety and more
sustainable and environment friendly production of food and on the accessibility to information
on these issues. Efforts to improve the control on public aid use merely focus on the use of GNSS
as a supporting technology to control the eligibility of farmers subsidy applications.
Although rising food prices and to some level decreasing prices of resources (e.g. fuels) might
have eased the pressure on product sales margins, the motive of production effciency as a driver
for GNSS use will defnitely remain important. Nevertheless, it can be expected that the focus will
shift to authenticated documentation and control on public aid use. The requirements for authentic
documentation will most probably increase, since the demand for product and production process
information from actors such as consumers, retailers, government is expected to grow further.
From the viewpoint of control of public aid use, we can observe a gradual change of focus from
direct income support to a subsidy system that is aiming at sustainable and more environmental
friendly ways of agricultural production. Various authors have concluded that GNSS supported
precision agriculture can contribute to a more sustainable and environmentally sound agricultural
practice. From a literature review Bongiovanni and Lowenberg-DeBoer (2004) conclude that PA
can contribute in many ways to long-term sustainability of production agriculture, confrming the
intuitive idea that PA should reduce environmental impact by applying fertilizers and pesticides
only where they are needed and when they are needed. Auernhammer (2001) states that precision
farming will likely gain in importance only when viable additional benefts, such as reduced
environmental burdens and increased fow of information are recognised and evaluated and
become part of the reward itself. Exactly this is the effect of the recent developments in European
CAP regulation. Moreover, consumers are willing to pay for products that have been produced in
a sustainable manner.
Developments in European CAP policy
The 2003 reform of the European Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) aimed at greening the CAP
and making European policy more accepted both internally by citizens and externally by partners
in World Trade Organisation (WTO). The 2003 CAP reform introduced major changes in the way
the CAP operates and to farmers responsibilities. The CAP reform is defned around two so called
pillars. The frst pillar addresses market support measures and the second pillar is addressed to
rural development programmes. With the reform the new single farm payment scheme (SPS)
was introduced. The SPS aims at a decoupling from production and an adjustment to a liberalized
market from which (subsidy) support is being withdrawn. The aim is to make more money available
for environmental quality or animal welfare programmes in the second pillar. Besides, through
the so called modulation, funds are gradually transferred from direct subsidy payments to rural
development expenditure, thus shifting CAP budgets from Pillar 1 to Pillar 2. The initial 2003
compulsory modulation was applied in each EU-15 Member State from 2005 at a rate of 3%, rising
to 4% in 2006 and to its maximum of 5% in 2007 and bound for a continuation at 5% until 2012
1
.
At the beginning of 2009 the EU Commission determined to increase the rate of the modulation.
Thereby any amount of direct payments to be granted in a given calendar year to a farmer in excess
of EUR 5 000 shall be reduced for each year until 2012 by 7% in 2009, 8% in 2010, 9% in 2011
and 10% in 2012. By 2013, the share of traditional CAP spending (excluding rural development)
will have almost halved (from 61% in the period between 1988-1992 to 32% in 2013), following
a decrease in real terms in the current fnancing period (EU, 2009).
The SPS is subject to cross-compliance conditions relating to environmental, food safety and
animal welfare standards. The main two objectives of cross compliance are to contribute to the
development of sustainable agriculture and to make the CAP more compatible with the expectations
of society at large. Cross compliance requires the EU member states to implement standards and
requirements at national or regional level with respect to the specifcities of soil and climatic
conditions, farming and land use systems, production characteristics and farm structures. Failure
by farmers to respect these conditions can result in deductions from, or complete cancellation of,
direct payments.
Developments in food safety, quality and certifcation
The occurrence of several crises such as Foot and Mouth Disease and BSE has lead to a decrease
of consumers confdence in the quality and safety of food products. Despite regulations and
governmental control, the causes were mostly not detected until after the crises, leading to a
decline in consumer confdence in food safety and food quality (Hobbs et al., 2002; Sporleder and
Goldsmith, 2001). As a consequence, consumers demand for information on food production has
risen. In the EU, several national and EU-level regulations were developed to protect consumers
and to certify safe food production. The European Union Traceability Regulation No.178/2002
which came into force in January 2005 for instance lays down regulation concerning traceability
in the area of food safety (EU, 2006). Certifcation generally aims at providing consumers with
better information about the characteristics and quality of food products, thus enhancing market
transparency (Frohberg et al., 2006). Numerous certifcation frameworks are currently in effect.
Standards such as EurepGAP / GLOBALGAP, that defne common standards for farm management
practice, are often taken as a baseline for the food-sector.
In general, certifcation systems can be regarded as quality infrastructure systems. Besides standards
and certifcation, also inspection, testing, metrology and accreditation are needed to be able to
produce a safe and high-quality export product. Thus, the whole quality infrastructure system
relies on certain private and public activities which are interrelated and have to work effciently at
the national or regional level (ITC and UNCTAD/WTO, 2005). It can therefore be concluded that
implementation of good and effcient control on the compliance with certifcation regulations is
indispensable for the functioning of such quality infrastructure systems.
1
CP Council of the European Union (2003)
Trusted farming and the contribution of European GNSS
It is obvious that the demand from society has lead to an increasing emphasis on sustainable
production from the side of European agricultural policy on one hand and the demand for certifcation
procedures in the area of food-safety and environmental friendly production on the other hand.
As a consequence, there is also a growing need for control on the compliance of farm production
processes with relevant regulations. GNSS is already frequently used to support on-the-spot controls
of CAP subsidy applications. However, such control actions usually need to be performed by a
representative of the legislative authority. With the current level of mechanisation and automation
in agriculture, a lot of information on the production process can be automatically registered. Using
GNSS, location specifc operations in the feld can be registered. Potentially, such information is
very valuable, because it documents what operations have been performed at a certain time at a
certain place. It could thus serve as a proof of handling according to regulations or certifcation
procedures. In order to allow this, the concept of trusted farming has to be introduced. Trusted
farming would allow the farmer to use registered data, automatically collected during feld work, as
a rightful proof of compliance with regulations or certifcation procedures. The current development
of the European GNSS (Galileo and EGNOS) will offer services that might enable the use of such
information, also when not registered by a legislatively authorized person but directly by the farmer.
This could be an important step towards the introduction of trusted farming.
The European EGNOS system is a Wide Area Differential GPS (WADGPS) that provides
augmentation of positioning to current GNSS systems, for instance the GPS system or the Russian
GLONASS system. Using EGNOS corrections, the performance of current GPS positioning
increases to meter-accuracy. EGNOS is currently in its pre-operational phase, which implies that
it can be used for positioning but that increased availability and integrity are not yet guaranteed.
Currently, the Safety of Life service that offers this increased availability and integrity is being
tested. Certifcation of EGNOS for Safety of Life applications is expected by the end of 2009
(European Commission, 2008). EGNOS will then be able to indicate through its integrity message
if the positioning signal is reliable.
The Galileo system is the European GNSS. It is expected that Galileo will highly beneft applications
in agriculture. These benefts arise from the Galileo differentiators, which are the characteristics
that distinguish the Galileo GNSS from currently operational GNSS (e.g. GPS or GLONASS).
Lokers et al. (2007) describe the following discriminators of Galileo compared with currently
available GNSS services.
1. Increased accuracy. Increased accuracy will obviously lead to a potentially better performance
of applications that make use of the Galileo SIS for positioning.
2. Increased continuity and availability of the Signal in Space (SIS). This concerns a better
worldwide coverage (e.g. on the more northern latitudes) than GPS, but also a better signal
quality in the surrounding of large objects.
3. Reliability of the SIS. Galileo will provide an integrity message, notifying the user of the signal
quality and possible errors.
4. Authentication. Galileo will provide authentication by means of SIS encryption.
From the viewpoint of trusted farming and the registration of information that is authenticated and
that can be used as a proof of concept of good agricultural practice and compliance with relevant
regulation, the integrity signal and authentication are most relevant. This combination potentially
offers the possibility to prove that measurements were collected using Galileo (through the
authenticated signal) and that the quality of positioning was during the measurement time within
the defned ranges of the system (indicated by the integrity message).
In Table 1 the services that will be provided by the Galileo GNSS are stated. The Open Service (OS)
provides timing and positioning signals free of charge and offers a basic service level dedicated
to consumer applications and general interest navigation for mass-market use. The Safety-of-Life
(SoL) service offers similar accuracy in position and timing to the Open Service, complemented
by a worldwide high integrity level, which is of importance for safety-critical applications such
as transport and aviation. The Commercial Service (CS) is a restricted access service level aiming
at market applications that require higher performance than the Open Service. It provides signal
encryption and a service guarantee. The Public Regulated Service (PRS) is a restricted service
for governmental applications. The service will provide high continuity and the signal will be
encrypted. Finally, the Search and Rescue Service (SAR) facilitates important improvements in
the current search and rescue system, among others by strong improvement of the precision of the
location of received alerts.
From these services, the Safety-of-Life service (SoL), the Commercial Service (CS) and the Public
Regulated Service (PRS) seem to be the most relevant in relation with the demand for trusted
information in agriculture. All three services have either signal authentication or integrity message
or both. The PRS seems to ft best for the purpose of control on public aid use.
Examples from the FieldFact project
In the European FP6 project FieldFact, the opportunities provided by the development of the
European GNSS Galileo and the augmentation system EGNOS were examined. In order to
illustrate these opportunities, demonstrator applications were developed. The FieldFact High End
Demonstrator (HED) was developed to demonstrate the possibilities of using GNSS integrated as
part of the farm management cycle. It shows how various spatial data sources can be collected
and combined, using Geographical Information System (GIS) functionality to generate application
maps for variable rate application. A mobile application, running on a PDA or smart phone, was
developed to measure farmers parcels and to defne management zones within these parcels
using GNSS, in this case GPS augmented by EGNOS. These basic data are integrated through
GIS functionality with satellite based biomass maps, delivered by an external service provider,
to produce an application map that can be used for variable rate application. Figure 1 shows how
these individual data sources are integrated.
The developed demonstrator shows that using GNSS and precision agriculture it is possible to
implement measures that can lead to a more sustainable agricultural practice. Moreover, it shows
that the implementation of related regulation and procedures can be supported by such applications.
The implemented parcel measurement procedure has been certifed against the EU requirements
for parcel measurement and is hence a proper base to use this parcel data for internal and external
applications. Registration of management zones and implementation of management zones in
on-farm processes such as for instance precision farming can support several cross compliance
regulations as defned in the European CAP regulations. A good example is the requirement for buffer
Table 1. The Galileo Services and their characteristics (ESA, 2005).
Service Service characteristics
Open Service (OS) Free of charge for mass-market use
Safety-Of-Life (SoL) Open service + high integrity level and authentication signal
Commercial Service (CS) Encrypted; high accuracy and guaranteed service
Public Regulated Service (PRS) Encrypted; continuous availability
Search and Rescue (SAR) Near real-time reception of distress messages, precise
location of alerts
strips alongside water courses due to the strong scientifc evidence to demonstrate the effectiveness
of grass buffers in improving water quality. More generally, the use of GNSS and the integration
GIS on the farm facilitates the automated implementation of (spatially determined) measures
evolving from regulation and certifcation requirements. Exploiting the Galileo differentiators,
especially signal authentication and signal integrity, might provide a base for trusted farming and
for the generation of authenticated documentation that could be use as a proof of evidence for
compliance with regulations.
Conclusions
European farmers are confronted with societies demand for safe food and a more sustainable and
environmentally sound production. This has resulted in a demand for reliable information regarding
the production process by consumers, resulting in quality and certifcation requirements. Besides,
the EU CAP regulations, following this development, aim more and more at moving from market
support to subsidies that require the farmer to work in a sustainable way. As a result, the need for
authenticated documentation and the control of public aid use are gaining importance as motives
for the application of GNSS supported (precision) agriculture.
The introduction of trusted farming, in which a farmer provides the relevant actors with trusted
information on the on-farm production process, could facilitate the implementation of good
agricultural practice and the control on compliancy with regulations and procedures. The development
of the European GNSS (Galileo and EGNOS) can provide an important step towards trusted farming.
By the provision of an authenticated Signal in Space (SIS) and an integrity message as part of the
SIS, it is possible to prove that a measurement was performed using the Galileo system and that
the quality of the measurement is within the defned boundaries. It would this provide a proof of
evidence for location and time of the registered information.
References
Auernhammer, H., 2001. Precision farming - the environmental challenge. Computers and Electronics in
Agriculture, 30, 31-43.
Figure 1. Measured parcel, management zone and biomass map integrated in a VRA application
map.
Bongiovanni R and Lowenberg-DeBoer, J., 2004. Precision Agriculture and Sustainability, Precision Agriculture,
5, 359-387.
Council of the European Union, 2009. Council Regulation (EC) No 73/2009 of 19 January 2009 establishing
common rules for direct support schemes for farmers under the common agricultural policy and establishing
certain support schemes for farmers, amending Regulations (EC) No 1290/2005, (EC) No 247/2006, (EC)
No 378/2007 and repealing Regulation (EC) No 1782/2003.
EU, 2006. Regulation (EC) No 178/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 28 January 2002.
In: Offcial Journal of the European Communities, 1.2.2002. http://eur-lex.europa.eu/pri/en/oj/dat/2002/
l_031/l_03120020201en00010024.pdf.
EU, 2009. EU budget facts and myths, EU press release. Available at: http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.
do?reference=MEMO/07/350&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en.
European Commission, 2008. Europes Satellite Navigation Programmes GALILEO and EGNOS. Available
at: http://gsa.europa.eu/go/communications-center/publications.
European Space Agency, 2005. Galileo, the European programme for global navigation services. 2nd edition,
ESA Publication Division, Noordwijk, the Netherlands, pp. 36.
Frohberg K., Grote U. and Winter E., 2006. EU Food Safety Standards, Traceability and Other Regulations:
A Growing Trade Barrier to Developing Countries Exports?. Contributed paper prepared for presentation
at the International Association of Agricultural Economists Conference, Gold Coast, Australia, August
12-18, 2006.
Hobbs, J. E., Fearne, A., & Spriggs, J., 2002. Incentive structures for food safety and quality assurance: An
international comparison. Food Control, 13, 77-81.
International Trade Centre (ITC) and UNCTAD/WTO, 2005. Innovations in Export Strategy: A strategic
approach to the quality assurance challenge. Geneva.
Lokers, R.M., van der Wal, T. and Turecki, T., 2007. Galileo improves farming. In: proceedings of the 6th
Conference of the European Federation for Information Technology in Agriculture, Food and Environment
(ed.), July 2-5, 2007, Glasgow, UK.
Molenaar, K., van der Schans, D.A., van der Wal, T., Turecki, T. and Trojek, P., 2007. How Galileo improves
farming: assessment of existing and near future GNSS applications and services in agriculture. Precision
Agriculture 07. Wageningen Academic Publishers, the Netherlands.
Sporleder, T.L. and Goldsmith, P.D., 2001. Alternative frm strategies for signaling quality in the food system.
Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics, 49, 591-604.
New GPS based methods accredited by the EC for area
measurement
M. Grzebellus
NavCert GmbH, Hermann-Blenk-Str. 22, 38108 Braunschweig, Germany,
martin.grzebellus@tuev-sued.de
Abstract
In this paper we present an approach for the validation of area measurement methods for agricultural
parcels, using GNSS equipment. The aim of this validation approach is to provide a standardized
way for the estimation of the performance of tools for area measurement, which can objectively be
shown to perform correctly under specifc conditions, and considered therefore ft for the purpose
of measurements made in the context of feld checks noted in Commission Regulation 796/04,
Article 30.
Keywords: area measurement, GPS based, certifcation, subsidies, JRC
Introduction
Agricultural subsidies paid by the European Union add up to approx. 50 billion every year. How
much of this amount is paid to the individual farmer depends on the size of the area cultivated and
the crops. In a frst step, the farmers declare the area of the land cultivated. As the areas cultivated
are very large, even minor non-conformities may result in high repayments. This information is
then verifed on a case-by-case basis by the individual Member States in Germany, this is the task
of the individual German Counties and the EU, which selects a sample for on-the-spot checks.
In the previous years quite a huge amount of payments were under discussions. Farmland area
has been calculated by interpreting satellite images and aerial photographs and physical surveying
which is quite time consuming. Now the EC has for the frst time allowed to use GPS surveying
equipment for measuring areas of farmland. In its Regulation 972/2007/EC, the European Union
generally approved various approaches to farmland area calculation by this wording:
Article 30(1) Agricultural parcel area shall be determined by any means proven to assure
measurement of quality at least equivalent to that required by applicable tech-nical standard as
drawn up at Community level. A measurement tolerance shall be defned by a buffer of maximum
1.5 m applied to the perimeter of the agricultural parcel. The maximum tolerance with regard to
each agricultural parcel shall not in absolute terms, exceed 1.0 ha..
Certifcation
The Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the EU Commission recommends further for the frst time the
use of the GPS satellite navigation system for farmland calculation. On the basis of the criteria
specifed by JRC a test plan was developed together with a voluntary certifcation mark which
manufacturers can use to qualify their GPS surveying equipment for this particular application. The
complete accreditation process is depicted in Figure 1. In this process, an advisory body currently
the JRC, but to incorporate stakeholders from the wider community provides user requirements
and guidelines for testing A certifcation body will propose a test plan, in accordance with these
guidelines; the body will petition the advisory body for recognition of its plan, which, if successful,
will be made public via the advisory bodys web site. The certifcation body will in turn contract
with a test laboratory, which will operate under their control and supervision, to undertake tests
and produce data through equipment testing.
NavCert as part of the TV SD group has been selected to contribute to the requirements and
apply for the accreditation. NavCert is at the time being the only company accredited by JRC.
A certifcation of the equipment is recommended as only offcial verifcation provides reliable results
clear defnition of accuracy or performance to be expected of the system;
results within defned statistically predictable limits within defned limits;
reproducible measurements by all parties;
reliable results, usable in court;
a consequent beneft in terms of legal liability.
The certifcation process itself as shown in Figure 2 consists of four blocks of which two are more
hands on / laboratory oriented and the others two more desk / paper work oriented.
Test
The frst phase starts with a verifcation of the agreement as only based on a standard a certifcate
can be issued. Thus the agreement has to refer to the standard to be used. Then the verifcation of
the product starts. Data will be collected using the equipment to measure the reference parcels again
and again. Several people will work in parallel to test the same make with different units. Thus
statically relevant data is gained to validate the independence in the measurements of the tester, of
the specifc unit, of the specifc measurement method (clockwise, anti-clockwise) and the specifc
area (shape, size, shadowing). Then a statistical analysis is performed to calculate the buffer size.
At a later stage an inspection of the production facilities is performed to validate that all products
manufactured will generate the same measurement results due to implied quality methods.
Review
An independent person who was not involved with the data collection and analysis described above
has to review the work performed in the collecting and analysis phases. This person has to have at
Figure 1. Accreditation and Certifcation scheme.
least the same or higher technical qualifcation as the person in the validation phase. This person has
to review all activities performed by a close check of the produced documentation. The reviewer
has to document all steps of this phase as described in the requirements.
Technical evaluation
In the technical evaluation an independent person who was not involved with the data collection
and analysis described above has to review the work performed in the collecting and analysis
phases together with the work done by the reviewer. This person has to have at least the same or
higher technical qualifcation as the reviewer of the previous phase. He will based on the technical
knowledge perform an in depth analysis of the documents generated in the data collection /
validation phase and during the review. As a result the technical certifer has to be convinced that
the collected / validated data and the documents produced during the review are reliable. If the
technical certifer is convinced, that the equipment under test fulfls all requirements based on the
available documentation of the previous phases then the formal certifcation process will start.
Formal evaluation
A formal evaluation takes place by checking that all relevant documents have been generated
according to the specifc requirements and referred standards. Here also all references to specifc
requirements / standards are checked beginning with the order to the performed work. If no
inconsistency is identifed then the certifcate will be formally issued, printed and forwarded to the
requesting party. The technical certifer will sign the certifcate to indicate that he himself accepts
liability for all claims in the certifcate. The certifcate number and the company will be published
in the internet providing information to any interested party.
In the frst part of the certifcation process a test set up has been defned based on the ISO-5725.
Thus 8 to 12 independent sets of measurements per reference object are performed Each set of
measurements does include two repeated measurements of the objects. High emphasis was put on
the proper design of the reference acres to refect real life conditions with shadowing, irregular
shapes, narrow but long acres and multipath. Five parcels of different sizes across the intended
range have been defned. The range and shape of parcel sizes is shown in Figure 3. As within GPS
Figure 2. Certifcation process.
the factor which disturbs the signal is tree coverage, the design includes parcels with trees mainly
at the border to the south. The measurement is taken clockwise and anti-clockwise.
As a result of the certifcation a test mark is provided. The equipment is classifed into four
categories depending on the achieved accuracy. The test mark is shown in Figure 4 and contains
the below statement:
Production monitored
Production facilities are inspected on an annual basis to verify the implementation of the
prescribed quality management procedures and the compliance with all requirements of the
underlying standards.
Suitable for calculating the areas of agricultural parcels
Verifcation that the equipment offers suffcient accuracy (trueness and precision) for the
measurement of agricultural parcels. In this context, the equipment was also checked to verify
that the user interface and the documentation available enable an experienced user to perform
measurement correctly.
Cat B: buffer size <1.25m
The following categories have been defned:
Cat A: buffer size <0.4 m.
Cat B: buffer size <1.25 m.
Cat C: buffer size 1.25 m and >1.5 m.
Cat D: buffer size >1.5 m.
www.navcert.com/PPP80010
Web page with more detailed information about the certifcate.
Only equipment classifed as Cat A, B or C may be used for offcial measurement of parcels as
equipment in Cat D does not provide minimum requirements as defned in Regulation 972/2007/EC.
Figure 3. Shapes and sizes of areas with shadowing.
This new approach for certifcation provides at an early stage already to the manufacturers a
reliable process to get a certifcation and the confrmation that their equipment can be used for
calculation of agriculture subsidies. It is a guideline for the inspectors to review the quality of the
equipment used in the member states to calculate the area of parcels. Today there are certifcations
available for different equipment and techniques for rapid area measurements. Tools can range from
relatively cheap (< 1,000) up to considerable investment (~10,000 for differential GPS). Thus
all stakeholders the Commission, Member States and farmers may select the tools depending
on their specifc requirements to ft their purposes. Even equipment with usage of EGNOS has
been certifed already.
In the next step a certifcation of the user is foreseen as a user strongly infuences the results of
the measurements.
References
Commission Regulation (EC) No 796/2004 of 21 April 2004 with amendments, http://eurlex.europa.eu/
LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:32004R0796:EN:NOT.
De Bruin, S., Heuvelink, G.B.M. and Brown, J.D., 2008. Propagation of positional measurement errors to
feld operations. Available at: http://www.itc.nl/ISSDQ2007/proceedings/Session%202%20Spatial%20
Statistics/Paper%20Sytze%20de%20Bruin.pdf.
EU Directive 2004/22/EC on Measurement Instruments, http://eurlex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?
uri=OJ:L:2004:135:0001:0080:EN:PDF.
Hajmanowska, B., R. Palm, S. Oszczak and A., 2005. Validation of methods for measurement of land
parcels areas. Available at: http://mars.jrc.ec.europa.eu/mars/content/download/800/5268/file/
ValidationMethodFinalVer2_2.pdf.
Hajmanowska, B. and R. Palm, 2005. Validation of methods for measurement of parcel areas near-VHR imagery.
Available at: http://home.agh.edu.pl/~zfit/raporty_pliki/ue_raport_konc_22581200412F1SCISPPL_cz2.
pdf.
ISO 5725: Accuracy (trueness and precision) of measurement methods and results.
ISO 17025: General requirements for the competence of testing and calibration laboratories.
Oszczak, S. and A. Ciecko, 2006. Proposed procedure fo validation and certifcation of GNSS instruments
and observers, Geographical Information in support of the Common Agricultural Policy. Proceeding of
the 12th MARS PAC Annual Conference 2006. EUR 22160EN-2007.
Sima, A., 2008. Validation of GNSS receivers: step by step, poster presentation on 2008 MARS Annual
conference Geomatics in support of the CAP, http://mars.jrc.it/mars/content/download/1255/7259/fle/
Poster_Sima_Validation_JRC_updated.pdf.
Figure 4. Test Mark for category B.
URM as tool for Shared Environmental Information System
(SEIS)
K. Charvat
1
, P. Horak
1
, M. Vlk
1
, S. Kafka
2
and J. Cepicky
2
1
Wirelessinfo, Cholnsk 1048/19, 784 01 Litovel, Czech Republic; charvat@wirelessinfo.cz;
horak@wirelessinfo.cz; mavlk@helpforest.cz
2
Help Service Remote Sensing, ernolesk 1600, 256 01 Beneov u Prahy, Czech Republic;
kafka@email,cz; Jchym@bnhelp.cz
Abstract
The paper describes concept for a Sharing Environmental Information System Uniform Resource
Management (URM), which support validation, discovery and access to heterogeneous information
and knowledge. It is based on utilisation of metadata schemes. Currently, the URM models also
integrate different tools, which support sharing of knowledge. The URM concept was introduced
by the NaturNet Redime project as a tool for managing of educational context and now is modifed
for general sharing of information for the c@r project community. Uniform Resource Management
(URM) provides a framework in which communities can share information and knowledge trough
their description, which is easy understandable by the community. In order to effectively share
information and knowledge, a standardized scheme is needed, which supports uniform description
of information and knowledge including common vocabularies. The main objective of URM will
be easy description, discovery and validation of relevant information sources. URM will ensure
that any user can easily discover, evaluate and use relevant information.
Keywords: metadata, uniform resource management, catalogue, knowledge publishing, knowledge
discovery
Introduction
The main objective of URM will be easy description, discovery and validation of relevant
information sources. URM will ensure that any user can easily discover, evaluate and use relevant
information. The free text engine (e.g. Google) ca not be used, because in many cases a user obtains
thousands, if not millions, of irrelevant links. This happens because the free text engines does not
fully recognise the context of researched information. The context characterises any information,
knowledge and observation. Context strongly infuences the way how the information will be used.
There are different defnitions of context in existence. The important issues for the context are:
to identity of an entity;
to profle of an entity;
spatial information;
temporal information;
environmental information;
social relation;
resources that are nearby;
availability of resources.
Many context attributes characterize the environmental information or knowledge. From the point
of view of context, the information or knowledge could be divided into different parties:
Information or knowledge provider i.e. a party supplying the resource.
Custodian, accepts accountability and responsibility for the resources and ensures appropriate
care and maintenance of the resource.
Owner of the resource.
User, who uses the resource.
Distributor who distributes the resource.
Originator who created the resource.
Point of contact, instance or person to be contacted for acquiring knowledge about or acquisition
of the resource.
Principal investigator responsible for gathering information and conducting research.
Processor who has processed the data in a manner such that the original resource has been
modifed.
Publisher, i.e. party who published the resource.
Author, i.e. party who authored the resource.
Methodology
A possibility for solving the discovery problem within a context is to use metadata for standardised
description of any information, knowledge, data sources, sensors, etc. In combination with
standardised lists of terms (controlled vocabularies or thesaurus, standardised way of geometric
location, gazetteers and controlled list of categories), it will increase effciency of discovery of
requested knowledge, information or data sources.
Metadata is descriptive information about an object or a resource whether it is physical or electronic.
While metadata itself is relatively new, the underlying concepts behind metadata have been used for
as long as collections of information have been organized. Library card catalogues represent a well-
established type of metadata that has served as collection management and resource discovery tools
for decades. Metadata can be generated either by hand or derived automatically using software.
Metadata extractor
Technology description
The basic components, of URM could be divided into followings topics:
Metadata scheme, which defne structure, which could be used for description of information.
Thesaurus. These are well known examples of hierarchical systems for representing subject
taxonomies in terms of the relationships between named concepts.
Geospatial thesaurus. Geospatial thesaurus supported search about geospatial object (for example
gazetteers, GeoParcers, Geocoders).
Catalogue service. Service that provides discovery and management services on a store of
metadata about instances. The metadata may be for dataset instances, e.g. dataset catalogue,
or may contain service metadata, e.g. service catalogue. ISO 19115 is relevant to catalogue
service for dataset metadata.
For the purpose of NaturNet Redime and c@r project, the following profles are used:
ISO 15836-2003 (Dublin Core).
OpenGIS Catalogue Services Specifcation 2.0.2 ISO Metadata Application Profle (1.0.0).
The Dublin Core metadata element set is a standard for cross-domain information resource
description. It provides a simple and standardised set of conventions for describing things online
in ways that make them easier to fnd. Dublin Core is widely used to describe digital materials such
as video, sound, image, text, and composite media like web pages. Implementations of Dublin Core
typically make use of XML and are Resource Description Framework based. Dublin Core is defned
by NISO Standard Z39.85-2007. It could be used for description of any non spatial information.
OpenGIS Catalogue Services Specifcation 2.0.2 ISO Metadata Application Profle (1.0.0) defnes
elements for spatial data metadata for using in catalogue services. Defnitions come from these
standards:
ISO 19115:2003 defnes the schema required for describing geographic information and services.
It provides information about the identifcation, the extent, the quality, the spatial and temporal
schema, spatial reference, and distribution of digital geographic data.
Though ISO 19115:2003 is applicable to digital data, its principles can be extended to many other
forms of geographic data such as maps, charts, and textual documents as well as non-geographic data.
ISO 19119 provides a framework for developers to create software that enables users to access and
process geographic data from a variety of sources across a generic computing interface within an
open information technology environment.
Micka is a Czech designed metadata and catalogue system, currently existing in an English, Latvian,
German, French, Polish and Czech version. It has the following basic functionalities:
Online-LINE metadata editing.
Import / export tools.
Multilingual (both environment and metadata).
Context help.
OGC-catalogue 2.0 (CWS) support.
Extensible (user defned elements, standards, etc.).
Visualization.
The supported data standards are:
ISO 19115 Dataset metadata.
ISO 19119 Services metadata (in development).
ISO 19110 Feature Catalogue (data structure).
ISO 19139 XML exports.
Dublin Core other metadata.
Micka supports the following profles:
ISO.
INSPIRE.
Other profles could be defned.
URM supporting tools
The URM supporting tools are part of portals, for registered users, which support direct publishing
of knowledge in the URM portal.
Metadata extractor is a tool, which supports extraction of available metadata directly from different
fles (documents, presentation, etc.), editing of this metadata and publishing of metadata and fles
on the URM portal. Another possibility is to extract metadata (and then edit) directly from existing
URL addresses and store metadata on the URM portal. Access to information is this way trough
direct URL addresses.
DataMan (Figure 1) is application for management of spatial data. It supports management of data
in databases or fles. It supports export and import of this data, as well as publishing and updating
of related metadata. In the database, it is possible to store both vector and raster data, including
their attributes. Also for fle oriented storage, it supports both vector and raster data. For raster
formats, it currently supports IFF/GeoTIFF, JPEG,GIF, PNG, BMP, ECW, for vector formats ESRI
Shapefle, DGN, DWG, GML.
The Map Project Manager (MapMan) (Figure 2) is a software tool for users who want to publish
or create new map projects and compositions. It supports publication of spatial composition from
locally stored data (felds or database-stored in DataMan), with external WMS, WFS data services.
It supports visualization in web browser using such clients like OpenLayers, GoogleMaps, DHTML
client, Desktop viewer GoogleEarth, DIS Janitor or publish data as OGC WebMapService (WMS),
OGC WebFeatureService (WFS). All published data are also connected with metadata stored in
Micka.
Figure 1. DataMan application.
Figure 2. MapMan application.
Conclusions
The frst existing implementation of an URM was built on the base of an implementation of the
metadata portal for CENIA, which is part of Czech national portal. This was NaturNet-Redime
Portal for awareness, training, presentation and sharing of knowledge and tools about European
sustainability, which is built as an interoperable network, with effective exchange of information,
knowledge, services. Another existing implementation is the Czech version of the c-rural portal
for sharing information inside Czech Living labs, the Czech UNSDI portal and the BOSC Latvian
portal. All current portals are implemented using AJAX technology (WEB 2) and support easy
management of information inside the portal, as well as easy context awareness knowledge discovery
using the new concept of Uniform Research Management (URM). This URM concept is introduced
by the NaturNet-Redime project from research results and as today deeply elaborated by c@r and
supports sharing of knowledge inside the community using metadata and catalogue standards for
their description and discovery.
Authorisation is realised using a system, which supports sharing of authorisation information trough
all applications on the portal. After login into the system, the portal opens a list of all available
tools with a short description. After selection of a tool, it will open in new window and the user
is automatically logged in with his user name for this application. Every implanted application
automatically supports storing of metadata, when any outputs are published into portal metadata
system.
The knowledge discovery could be provided on the base of context awareness methods and
discovering knowledge is possible not only on the URM server, but on all registered servers, which
belongs to certain communities. Discovery of knowledge could be provided or using simple search
or using methods of extended search.
Figure 3. Figure 3.
The existing URM portals currently support:
Management of knowledge related to sustainable development.
Discovery of heterogeneous knowledge in distributed environment using URM concept.
Portals could be used by:
registered users with access to knowledge management and knowledge discovery.
non registered user could only discover and access information in heterogeneous environment.
Acknowledgements
The paper is prepared on the base of outputs from project: NATURNET-REDIME - the solution
was achieved with fnancial co-funding by the European Commission within the Sixth Framework
Programme (2002-2006) with registration number 004074 and name New Education and Decision
Support Model for Active Behaviour in Sustainable Development Based on Innovative Web Services
and Qualitative Reasoning.
References
Charvat, K. et al., 2007. Uniform Resource Management. Naturnet Redime Newsletter 6, December 2007.
Collaboration@Rural, Ontologies for rural environments, madrid 2007.
Collaboration@rural Design of context awareness information model and identifcation of components to be
developed, Madrid 2007.
Collaboration@Rural, Technical requirements of c@r rural scenarios end-users and metric related to css
components, Madrid 2007.
New Education and Decision Support Model for Active Behaviour in Sustainable Development Based on
Innovative Web Services and Qualitative Reasoning, D3.4.4, Release 4 of NaturNet-Redime portal fnal
release 30/10/2007,Praha.
New Education and Decision Support Model for Active Behaviour in Sustainable Development Based on
Innovative Web Services and Qualitative Reasoning, D2.1 Report on the elaborated service standards and
recommendations for the NaturNet-Redime system, 31/08/2005 Praha
OpenGIS Catalogue Services Specifcation 2.0 - ISO19115/ISO19119 Application Profle for CSW 2.0,
1, Open Geospatial Consortium Inc. Date: 2004-07-12, Reference number of this OpenGIS project
document: OGC 04-038r1.
Common Agricultural Policy and Spatial Data
Infrastructures
T. van der Wal
1
, W. Devos
2
and S. Kay
2
1
Portolis BV, Spoorbaanweg 23, 3911 CA Rhenen, the Netherlands
2
JRC-ISPC, GeoCAP action, Via Fermi 2749, I-21027 Ispra, Italy
Abstract
The European Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is already for many years relying on geo-spatial
applications in administering, managing and controlling farmers declarations. The CAP is under
constant change and over the years it has become more spatial explicit with more emphasis on cross
compliance to environmental regulations and the inclusion of landscape features in the subsidy
system. The implementation of the CAP regulations is left to the member states. National choices
have lead to different implementations of the same regulation. The INSPIRE directive provides a
regulatory framework for harmonising the reference datasets of these national implementations and
this leads to a reference model for land parcel information systems. Also Europes own satellite
navigation system Galileo is an opportunity for the agricultural domain to harmonise methods and
datasets for rapid feld visits and On The Spot Control. The authors present the opportunities these
European geo-spatial initiatives have to offer to the CAP and indicate how the agricultural domain
for regulated applications adopts the INSPIRE directive and Galileo programme in both the single
payment and the rural development schemes. The CAP can beneft and contribute to the European
SDI. These developments and challenges will be presented.
Keywords: INSPIRE directive, IACS processes, Galileo, GNNS
Introduction
Role of spatial data in CAP
The 1992 reform of the CAP introduced a control mechanism for EU subsidies that requires
the identifcation of agricultural parcels (Loudjani and Leo, 2004). Member States use cadastre,
topographic maps or aerial photographs to generate unique feld identifcation numbers for these
agricultural parcels and to quantify their area. The annual declaration by farmers contains the
land farmed together with supporting information, e.g. feld identifcation number, total feld size,
area cultivated and crop grown. Most countries registered a unique parcel ID and its area in an
alphanumerical database but regulation nr. 1782/2003 stipulates that, by 2005, each feld (or land
parcel) is digitized, checked and implemented in a GIS to support and validate claims.
Spatial data is applied in three ways in the CAP implementation since 2003. First of all, each
Member State created a Land Parcel Identifcation System (LPIS) that contains reference parcels
covering all agricultural land. Farmers must declare their agricultural felds within one or more
reference parcels and the area sum of declared felds cannot exceed the area of the reference parcel.
These farmer declared felds are the second way spatial data appears in the implementation of CAP.
The third way is the control of farmers declarations, either done by Remote Sensing or by ground
measurements. The latest CAP regulation 73/2009 from January 2009 (European Commission, 2009)
prescribes satellite navigation next to remote sensing as a possible means to control declarations.
Developments in spatial data
The developments in the application of spatial data in agriculture are going very fast. The spatial
sector is very active both on the governance of national datasets in to a Spatial Data Infrastructure
as well as on the satellite navigation for guidance and control. For both developments European
programmes are in place, INSPIRE and GALILEO respectively.
Objectives
In this study we present the impact of INSPIRE and GALILEO on the application of spatial data
in agriculture. We take a specifc interest in how these programmes can contribute to the future of
the Common Agricultural Policy.
European agriculture and the INSPIRE regulation
The 2003 CAP regulation (2003R1782) represents the frst piece of European legislation that
imposes the use of GIS upon the Member States. Originally, it focused on locating claimed felds
and quantifying the area of agricultural land (the Land Parcel Identifcation System or LPIS), but
as the CAP objectives broadened from the production support to include rural sustainability and
compliance with environmental and animal health and welfare conditions, additional geospatial
features entered the systems (Integrated Administration and Control Systems or IACS). Indeed, as
IACS is primarily a fnancial instrument for managing all agricultural aids, it became necessary for
the systems to expand and record additional spatial data, many of which belong to the environmental
domain.
In parallel, the European environmental policy makers had understood the value of spatial data
and they had realized that environmental issues dont stop at the national boundaries. Monitoring
European policy effects requires pan-European data and this need pushed the development of a
European Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) to facilitate exchange of environmental data and the
supporting reference data. The INSPIRE directive (2007D2) establishes this European SDI, based
on existing national SDIs and it covers the technical infrastructure, harmonized data specifcations
for selected themes, rules for the provision of specifed services and mechanisms for the disclosure
or exchange of the reference and environmental data.
Although these both policy domains share the topics of spatial data and environmental relevance,
the respective legislation remains strictly separated; the IACS LPIS theme is not mentioned as a
theme for harmonization under the INSPIRE Directive and the application of spatial environmental
data for the CAP is completely left to the discretion of the Member States. It would seem that
the CAP is not effected by the INSPIRE developments, but in practice is very much so. As the
INSPIRE development is an exponent of a more general tendency for more standardization in the
geo-information community, the underlying streams irresistibly found their way to the CAP actors.
Alignment of GI concepts
The obvious consequence of the parallel developments with overlapping thematic data sets within a
single Europe will inevitably mean that common concepts must share a common terminology. This
thematic overlap is much more wide ranging than the CAP regulation reveals at a frst reading. The
are only a few spatial features identifed by the regulation, such as reference parcel, agricultural
parcel and agricultural land, but to be able to represent this in a GIS, the administration needs to
resort to a variety of ancillary data. As an example:
Cadastral data, topographic maps and (agricultural) land cover classes are needed to construct
a reference parcel.
An agricultural parcel is essentially a land use feature that is often identifed and inspected on
orthophotos.
Soil data, elevation, hydrology, restriction/regulation zones are data layers that are indispensable
for verifying compliance with the European and national environmental conditions imposed
on the farmer.
The 9 INSPIRE themes with direct relevance for the IACS processes will soon have their defnitions
and categories laid down in European regulations, the Implementing Rules on harmonized
specifcations. This new European legislation should trigger a revision of the concepts and defnition
contained in the current CAP regulations.
For example, the CAP regulation defnition of pasture reads land used to grow grasses or other
herbaceous forage naturally (self-seeded) or through cultivation (sown). In plain English, the
term pasture suggests a land use of animal grazing whereas the corresponding defnition actually
addresses the land cover class of natural and managed grassland. INSPIRE implementing rules
will categorize both land use and land cover, so revision of the current CAP defnition seems
inevitable. Would such change be substantial or would it just represent an editorial detail? The
effect of an alignment could well be signifcant. Many farmers still claim subsidies for grazing
animals on forested land, whereas their payment is eligible only on grassland. Up to new there
was little incentive to the lawmakers to address this confusion, but conficting legislation must
trigger corrective action and a correct understanding by all stakeholders. It should help reduce the
occurrence of invalid aid claims by farmers. Similar considerations can be applied on spatial features
such as forests, trees or ditches that all infuence the eligibility of land for payment. Conficting
national and European legislation on such features occasionally cause disputes between the Member
States and the European Commission.
Sharing the technology and architecture.
Although the goals of the CAP IACS (managing area based payments) and INSPIRE (sharing pan-
European data) differ, both policies profoundly deal with geospatial data and can therefore apply
a common methodological and technological framework.
Developing a common infrastructure covering all Member States has been the great achievement
of the experts of the INSPIRE Drafting Teams and Technical Working Groups. This infrastructure
builds upon existing SDIs to create a European umbrella of services that enable disclosure and
access of a pan-European subset of the national data. The CAP orientation is different, there is
little or no need for the actual exchange of data from one Member State to another, but the primary
use of the data is truly identical for all Member States. The IACS databases are not obliged to
interface with and transform into a pan-European specifcation; essentially, there has been one
common European concept at the base of their creation. In addition, equal treatment of farmers
and compliance with the regulatory rules and procedures is rigorously enforced by the European
Commission. This can be considered as a kind of common quality audit. As a result, the potential
benefts for GI standardization are intrinsically much higher in the CAP regulations where they
would facilitate the exchange of information, documentation, and applications which are the same
for all Member States.
By contrast, in depth standardization is regarded to be conficting with the general EU principle of
subsidiarity, which is, understandably, an important political consideration with all Member States.
But recently, both the Commission and the Member States have become more aware that the
European Commissions activities on monitoring and auditing the IACS, requires an framework that
allows for an objective, systematic and quantitative assessment of the underlying GI data.. Since
quality is assessed by measuring compliance with a (common) specifcation, the CAP stakeholders
will fnd themselves faced with the same processes as those which led to the publication of the
INSPIRE harmonized specifcations.
Towards a joint quality framework
Although the Member States have not yet allocated signifcant resources for these processes, a
small JRC team with the help of a group of Member States organized in an SDIC, started bringing
in practice the INSPIRE methodology and other international standards of the ISO19100 series. A
frst milestone was the drafting of a frst cut LPIS core model (LCM) based on the requirements
laid down in the CAP regulations. This LCM served as a basis for the development of an Abstract
Test Suite, used to verify the logical consistency of each national implementation to the European
model. The test suite was tested on the Slovenian system and trials are now continuing with other
Member States to cover the wide range of implementation models.
Upon a request of the DGAgri, an Executive Test Suite is being developed, describing the assessment
of the actual GI data and values stored in the systems. The executive test suite comprises a number
of inspection procedures that have been defned upon LCM data components, so, prior to performing
the inspection procedures, the national data are mapped into LCM structures. Separate test procedure
and acceptable conformance levels exists for each data quality element, but only a single inspection
of each geospatial feature enables to collect all necessary observations. By, designing a standardized
environment, the Commission to can offer precise guidelines and complete data processing scripts
to guarantee a uniform application in all Member States. This effectively constitutes a joint quality
control and quality assurance framework at European level.
Collaborative data models
The CAP regulations require the use of up to nine thematic data sets covered by the INSPIRE
directive, but in some cases, IACS represents more than a mere user. For the themes of ortho-
imagery and land cover, the agriculture community is very actively involved in the creation and
management of data sets. The created data sets, at a scale of 1/5.000 to 1/10.000, are generally
much more detailed that what is intended to be covered for the European environmental policies.
There is however one exception to this: the cadastral parcel theme. For the rural areas, cadastral data
sets are very often created at scales compatible with the CAP requirements and if cadastral parcels
on the map represent the real terrain situation rather than a virtual ownership rights distribution,
both can collaborate through a true land administration system. INSPIRE targets only the spatial
component of cadastral and land registry systems, but it is the complete register, including all
rights and right holders that forms the scope of the developing ISO19152 standard. For beneft of
IACS-systems that apply cadastral maps as a source of the reference parcel, the LCM has been
transformed into a collaborative model that is provided as an annex of the ISO19152 standard. In
this form, ensures a smooth and universal collaboration between standardized cadastral registers
and IACS-GIS systems.
IACS systems that are not based on cadastral parcels and therefore have no use for the collaboration
model may still beneft from the full harmonization of cadastral registers as these reference data
offer a useful instrument for the holding identifcation of any farmer.
European agriculture and the GALILEO programme
GALILEO is Europes own Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS). The realisation is delayed
but an operational system is foreseen in 2014 (GSA, personal communication). Galileo will be
fully interoperable with the USA GPS-NAVSTAR system. So receivers can use almost 60 different
satellites to solve their position with. Molenaar et al. (2007) describes the benefts of the GALILEO
constellation for agriculture. In addition, Europe has an overlay system in place, the European Global
Navigation Overlay System (EGNOS) that provides augmentation signals, improving currently GPS
measurements up to sub-meter accuracy. EGNOS will become operational in 2009 (GSA, personal
communication) and will be Europes frst operational public GNSS service.
GNSS for area measurement
In the EU27 some 15 million farmers grow crops and depend upon 110 million hectares of land.
This land is divided in millions of parcels of different shapes and sizes. Approximately 5 million
farms in the EU25 are larger than 5 ha in size and 700 000 farms are larger than 50 ha.
For the farmer the location and size of his parcel is important information, for use in his commercial
information exchange (with contractors, suppliers and buyers) and in his information exchange
with the government for instance for subsidy application and environmental control. The use of
satellite navigation based parcel measurement is regulated for the control on agricultural subsidies.
Yearly, 5% of all farms claiming subsidies are controlled on the eligibility of their claims. This is
done by feld measurements, most of which are carried out using satellite navigation (Figure 1).
Both in the agribusiness chain and the policy-farmer relation there is a growing information fow
requirement, of which Geo-information and in particular, position is increasingly an explicit
component. In the complex, multifaceted relationship, specifc information relating to what happens,
where, and when, is required by both information chains. It is precisely here that GNSS technologies
and services must be employed.
Regulation and role of GNSS
Half of the EU farmers, approximately 7.4 million in total, are exchanging geo information at present
with their national or regional governments. For instance, the information of about 50 million
agricultural felds upon which subsidy crops are grown is already stored in digital Geographic
Information Systems. In the EU the introduction in 2005 of a GIS-based Integrated Administration
and Control System (IACS) for the CAP is a major driver for increased use and application of geo-
information at farm level that emphasizes the importance of an accurate and certifed positioning
system. For both the farmer and the agricultural government (that are granting agricultural subsidies
based on parcel area declarations) it is important to have and reliable and certifed GIS-system in
place. The IACS GIS-system is used for area checks, like double claims (two farmers claiming
crops on (parts of) the same parcel) on pieces of land and total area checks.
Parcel measurements and the combination of data from different sources require an accurate and
reliable positioning in the feld, a quality the EGNOS signal can provide.
According to Article 30 of EC Regulation 796/2004, agricultural parcel areas shall be determined by
any appropriate means defned by the competent authority which ensure measurement of a precision
at least equivalent to that required for offcial measurements under the national rules. Furthermore,
the competent authority shall set a tolerance margin taking account of the measuring method used,
the accuracy of the offcial documents available, local factors such as slope and shape of parcel.
Figure 1. Government offcial measuring feld boundaries using handheld GPS (photo taken
during GPS-Workshop, Wageningen 5-6 October 2005).
And the newly adopted agricultural policy regulation 73/2009 from January 2009 has included
satellite navigation as a means to control in the legacy document. Article 20 sub 2 of EC Regulation
73/2009 reads: Member States may use remote sensing and Global Navigation Satellite System
(GNSS) techniques as a means of carrying out on-the-spot checks on agricultural parcels. Again,
agriculture is one of the front runner domains taking up in this case satellite systems in
regulations.
The FieldFact project (FP6, www.feldfact.com) was investigating the role of GNSS in agriculture
and in particular the opportunities from GALILEO and EGNOS. The project has demonstrated and
tested GALILEO and EGNOS in the feld. For the test a test-parcel was laid out in the feld and
very precise geo-referenced. Figure 2 shows the reference points and results of the test. It became
evident that the current GPS-signal lacks the accuracy that is needed for exact positioning in the
feld. The results show both signal related errors and operator induced errors.
Bogaert et al. (2005) evaluate in their article the existing validation approach for area measurements.
The statistical basis for such an assessment has also been assessed in a Joint Research Centre funded
study
1
reviewed, with reference to industry standard approaches (e.g. ISO 5725) and the approach
is demonstrated by conducting the necessary feld experiments. The results show that although the
exact positioning in the feld does vary, the area measurements itself is less infuenced (Figure 3).
1
http://agrifsh.jrc.it/Documents/lpis/ValidationMethodFinalVer2_2.pdf.
Figure 2. Detail of GPS measurements.
Figure 3. Measuring a feld, simulation using Galileo EGNOS signal (from Bogaert, 2005).
Operator speed and signal accuracy and reliability are important factors for the accuracy of the
measurement.
Whilst farmers are the majority members of this community, they are not the only direct stakeholders
in the agricultural process stakeholders from the business and policy spheres complement the
community. There are nearly 8 million tractors in use in the EU15 (2002) and the share of agri-food
in the total value added in the EU represents 5-15% in 2000. The Common Agricultural Policy is
the conduit for nearly half of the EU budget.
To illustrate this relation of the farm with other stakeholders, we have chosen to represent the
agricultural user community is a two-direction fow (Figure 4). In the horizontal axis, farmers
are part of the agribusiness chain with suppliers, food industry, retail and consumers. The vertical
axis represents the relation between the same farmer and regional, national and EU policy
implementation. This relation is focussed on maintaining sustainable land use and the payment
of subsidies.
Both in the agribusiness chain and the policy-farmer relation there is a growing information fow
requirement, of which Geo-information and in particular, position - is increasingly an explicit
component. In the complex, multifaceted relationship, specifc information relating to what
happens, where, and when, is required by both chains. It is precisely here that GNSS technologies
and services must be employed.
In their daily production process and in relation to the rest of the agribusiness, farmers also make
use of geo information; from simple hand held GPS devices for instance crop scouting to dedicated
instruments for precision agriculture the use of positioning technology to assist in the effective
management of felds. This trend is developing fast; some large agricultural entrepreneurs and
early adopters already are using it. In some countries use of GPS receivers on driving machinery
is quite common. In the feld of tracking and tracing of agricultural raw materials, more and more
demands are being made by the retail sector; precise knowledge of source location is considered
more tangible evidence of quality than just brand name and E-numbers. Products have to be related
Figure 4. The Farm is the central entity in the agricultural sector at the intersection of two
dimensions: the agribusiness chain and the regulations chain.
back to the farmer and the feld where they were grown, and consumer interest in these developments
will continue to grow in the near future.
Figure 5 shows the encapsulation of the parcel and farm in the landscape in relation to geographical
traceability of the agricultural production. By adding a geographical source to the product, the
consumer (and other community partners) can trace back from product to source.
Experimental farms (e.g. Cranfeld in the UK) develop and test precision agriculture for practical
use. GPS receivers on driving machinery are more and more common, and routinely installed
by larger suppliers of machinery equipment like Agco, John Deere or Case New Holland. These
companies also provide management tools like yield sensors, which are essential to combine the
real time positioning and quantitative feld data in a manner that can be used for feld management.
For example, in order to optimize crop management, reduce inputs of nutrients and pesticides and
to make optimal use of soil, water and weather conditions, a good farm-feld spatial database (an
analogue map is insuffcient!) is necessary. Parcel information is also used for the hire of contract
farm workers and registration of lease contracts. In response to these demands, parcel information
is recorded and presented on GIS displays in some farm management systems (see Figure 6).
Until recently, the use and application of GNSS in the agricultural sector has been hampered by
two main issues:
(Too) high investment in knowledge, data, equipment, software and services, limiting the net
beneft to technology adopters.
Lack of successful applications showing direct benefts to the entrepreneur.
Today, a sharp decrease in price of positioning devices, in combination with higher accuracy and
reliability can be noticed. This should lead to an increased acceptance by society due to mass-
market navigation systems, such as car-navigation and leisure applications in sailing, biking
and mountaineering. Agriculture will not be immune to this development, but nevertheless at
present the sector niche by industry standards, but presenting a market of maybe greater than
a million users is unlikely to grow to meet the demands of its specialised users, unless specifc
actions are undertaken to show how best the technology may be applied.
Already at present there is an increase of simple affordable applications on PDA, sometimes even
with handheld GPS. This development will grow due to the availability of EGNOS compliant
receivers and even further integration of GNSS with mobile platforms.
Figure 5. Food traceability and Geographic reference.
Main opportunities and obstacles for GNSS
There is an increased pressure from both agri-business and government on farms to improve the
information quality along both chains, as well as the means of managing theses data. Digital geo-
information is increasingly an explicit part of this information, and becoming widely recognised
as the main way to resolve the information overload otherwise generated by analogue procedures.
The CAP now requires more and more detailed and timely information at the agricultural parcel
and sub parcel level: what felds are used by whom and where, for what crop, when, and with
what constraints. GNSS provides the means to navigate to, position, to measure, and to time-stamp
the actions taken either by farmers or subsidy inspectors in the context of this information fow in
an effcient (time/costs benefts) way.
In addition, due to decreased net costs and improved quality, farms have direct benefts from
using GNSS for their internal management, like precision agriculture. This is for instance linked
to improved effciency when using GNSS for tractor steering in a feld or for operating manure-
application devices based on soil maps.
Furthermore, farms are required to become more effcient in terms of capital, labour, resources
and administration. Precision Agriculture nowadays addresses that effciency: More effcient in
land preparation and crop management; more effcient in use of resources (machines, labour, crop
protection chemicals, fertilizers) and more effcient in registration and administration.
These actions have spin-offs that are in-direct drivers for GNSS take-up: in the same way that
wide-spread adoption of car navigation systems might be expected to reduce traffc congestion
and exhaust emissions, better positioning in agriculture combined with other spatial information
should permit signifcant reductions in fertilizers, pesticides and other environmentally sensitive
Figure 6. Example of internet based farm management system in the Netherlands.
chemicals. With respect to the CAP, each 1% improvement in feld size measurement across the
EU corresponds to a prevention of 250M in potential subsidy fraud.
In summary, the increased interest of GNSS for agricultural applications is driven by:
Increased demand for documentation from the agri-business chain for transparency, quality
control and traceability.
Increased demand for documentation from government for a Licence to produce.
Linking agricultural production to environmental impacts of activities.
Benefts to the environment, part of the so called Cross Compliance.
Decrease of costs, increase of effciency.
Conclusions
Both INSPIRE and GALILEO programmes have a standardising and regulatory effect on the use
of geospatial information in the agricultural sector in Europe. Although both programmes do not
specifcally focus on agriculture, the beneft from this sector can be signifcant if opportunities are
adopted. INSPIRE will standardise EU wide the maps concerning environmental policy and the
required supplying information. For farmers this can be benefcial, for instance to detect whether
their felds are within or near e.g. NATURA2000 areas. GALILEO at the same time will provide
improved means to locate oneself in the feld. Agriculture is rapidly taking up opportunities satellite
navigation is giving. The integrity message and the authentication (encryption) GALILEO is going to
offer are important features for agriculture, in particular in relation to the common agricultural policy.
As shown, agriculture is one of the frst domains to take up the regulated use of spatial information,
both on a policy development level, a policy execution level as well as at feld level with
measurements for subsidy declarations and their controls. Of course this may impose the fear of
farmers that these technologies are not always in their beneft, as they are means to control farmers.
At the same time, the effciency gains by the combined use of satellite navigation and GIS are
very promising.
A future opportunity is to allow farmers to set up their own schemes and controls based on geospatial
technology to defne and certifcate their work in accordance and compliance to regulations. This
may provide new ways of working and collaboration between farmers, suppliers and governments.
When GNSS mounted on sprayers can detect accurately the swaths, this can be used 1
st
to optimise
(minimize) the doses in the feld and 2
nd
to prove to authorities that the spraying was done with
respect to protected areas, etc.
References
Bogaert, P., Delinc, J. and Kay S., 2005. Assessing the error of polygonal area measurements: a general
formulation with applications to agriculture. Meas. Sci. Technol. 16, 1170-1178.
European Commission, 2003, COUNCIL REGULATION (EC) No 1782/2003. Offcial Journal of the European
Union.
European Commission, 2009, COUNCIL REGULATION (EC) No 73/2009. Offcial Journal of the European
Union.
Molenaar, K., D.A. van der Schans, T. van der Wal, T. Turecki and P. Trojcek, 2007. How Galileo improves
farming: assessment of existing and near future GNSS applications and services in agriculture. In: Precision
Agriculture 07, Wageningen Academic Publishers, the Netherlands.
Nolle, O., 2004. SDIs: potentials for agriculture. Database and Expert Systems Applications, 2004. Proceedings
of the 15th International Workshop on 30 Aug.-3 Sept. 2004, pp. 866-870.
Perez, J.M., 2005. Cadastre and the Reform of European Unions Common Agricultural Policy. Implementation
of the SIGPAC. CT/CATASTRO, July 2005. Avilable at: http://www.eurocadastre.org/pdf/jmironct54ing.
pdf.
Keword Index
A
accelerometer 257
accuracy 529
adaptation 559
agricultural
machines 521
robotics 857
robots 841, 849
agriculture 615
agrometeorological resources 675
agro-sensors 841
air-assisted seeding 127
analysis 313
apple
detection 293
orchard 287
application maps 349
arable farming 397
area measurement 961
ARMA models 567
artifcial neuronal network 501
automated
application 767
documentation 817
automation 899
autonomous
machines 521
robot 877
AYMMS 381
B
barley 339
bi-crop combinations 667
BIOCLIM 575
biological effcacy 715
biomass 55, 169, 485
boundary 741
breeding 211
bucket conveyor 373
buffer zone 741
bulk
density 461
goods 403
heap software model 595
C
CAI 133
calibration 279
canopy
density 785
refectance 23, 151
thickness 31
catalogue 967
cellular 795
Cercospora beticola 239
cereals 659
certifcation 961
CHRIS/Proba 133
climate scenario 559
colour 81
computational tool 759
concave felds 511
conditional random felds 229
conductance model 667
controlled traffc farming 603
controller 741
control system 683, 857
cooperation of agricultural machines 363
corn rotations 567
cotton 63, 699
critical zone 545
crop 397
development 715, 785
model 133, 927
patterns 89
production 193
row detection 877
scouting 833
thermography 63
D
data
collection 795
fusion 423
decision 893
rules 501
tree 749
defoliation 651
deformable object tracking 777
degrees of freedom 867
detection 313
DGPS 257
diagnostics 81
digital soil mapping 493
dimensionality reduction 249
directional semi-variogram 453
discriminant analysis 313
discrimination 203
disease detection 239
distributed control 585
dot sprayer 777
double coverage 759
dry
edible beans 373
matter 169
E
early recognition 203
echogram 169
economic and environmental impact
887
economics 927
edge detection 749
electrical conductivity 445
EM38 423
environment 927
Erysiphe betae 239
estimation 683
evapotranspiration 809
external drivers 915
F
farm
information system 389, 919
management 919
management information system 915,
935
farming
system 915
fertiliser granules 639
feld
cost price 363
dataloggers 389
server 801
tests 683
traffc 521
trial 501
fuorescence 265
FMV 381
foliage density 185
foliar disease detection 265
food safety 817
four-wheel steering 867
FP7 EU project 493
friction coeffcient 631
fruit yield map 381
Fusarium culmorum 203
future farm 907, 915, 943
fuzzy c-means classifcation 477
G
Gabor flters 639
Galileo 973
gamma
radiation 415
ray 423
geographic information systems (GIS) 553
Geophilus electricus 445
geostatistics 477
GIS 257, 381, 707
GNNS 973
GNSS 767, 953
goals 893
GPS 603, 741, 817
GPS-based 961
position control 595
grain 651
ground-based remote sensing 97
ground sensing 31
growing degree days 537
growth 659
variability 127
guidance systems 603
H
Haar detector 293
headland turning 867
herbicide reduction 321
high resolution 415, 493
hopper 403
hydropedology 545
hyperspectral
imaging 219
remote sensing 141
sensors 239
I
IACS processes 973
ICT 943
image
acquisition 279
analysis 113, 329, 339
processing 159, 219, 287, 349, 777
information
fows 935
management 899, 907
modelling 823
INSPIRE directive 973
intelligence 313
intercorrelation 639
interpolation 707
intra-row weeding 733
irrigation 63
control 809
ISO 11783 683
ISOBUS 683
ISODATA 477
IT 795
J
JRC 961
K
Kc 809
kinematics 615
knowledge
discovery 967
publishing 967
L
lag distance 453
laser sensor 177
law of the minimum 691
leaf
area index 177
diseases 229
recognition 321
roughness 249
rust 211
legumes 659
lidar 185
lupins 667
M
machine
learning 749
vision 219, 321, 725
management 893
information system 887
practice 927
zone 477, 699
mapping 529
mass fow sensor 373
maximum posterior classifcation 229
mechanical model 631
metadata 967
mixture 659
model 651
4-D 47
parametrization 545
predictive control 615
modeling 699
modelling 559
motion
descriptors 249
estimation 639
multi-agent systems 553
multi-angular remote sensing 133
multi-camera 279
multi-modal registration 293
multi-sensor fusion 841
multiple-look-angle 47
multispectral imaging 265
mutual information 293
N
navigation 615, 833
-aid systems 521
NDVI 23, 31, 55, 537
near-infrared 423
nematodes 699
net productivity 81
networked control 683
nitrogen 927
concentration 141
content 97, 113
sensor 23, 113
uptake 23
non-numerical simulation 595
nonparametric density algorithm 477
O
obstacles 511
open systems 935
operating
monitoring 389
recognition 801
optoelectronic sensors 355
orchards 185
organic
farming 725
forage 667
P
PAM 211
path tracking 615
pattern recognition 229
penetration resistance 439
performance 833
phase shift 445
phenology 559
photosynthetic effciency 203
phytomonitoring 809
Pisum sativum 575
plant
density 113
detection 733
disease model 707
virus 219
possibilities of canopy assessment 303
potato 675
precision
agriculture 71, 97, 193, 257, 389, 423,
749, 953
agriculture equipment 759
farming 321, 469
fructiculture/horticulture 185
overloading 595
spraying 741
viticulture 273
predictive control 585
pre-screening 439
probabilistic
forecast 675
robotics 841
process
interaction 823
modelling 823
production economics 919
project-based learning 849
PROSPECT 47
proximal
ground sensor 177
sensing 105
pushbroom camera 105
R
real time 185
reference surfaces 63
refectance 105, 265
refection
height 193
index 81
regional data management 795
regulations 899
relative humidity 707
reliability 857
remote sensing 39, 71, 89, 119, 329, 469, 485
RFID 801
risk maps 707
robot 833, 907
technology 849
robotics 363
row following 623
rules 899
Rumex obtusifolius L. 725
S
safety 857
SAIL 47
sampling
resolution 355
support 431
satellite image 119
screening 211
section control 759
seedling inspection 279
sensor 193, 203, 273, 313, 397, 683, 715, 785
fusion 293
networks 809
silo 403
simulation 431, 659
site-specifc
maps 273
spraying 265
site-specifc
mechanical weed control 339
slurry manure distribution 389
software 397
soil
coverage 339
electrical resistivity 537
moisture 89
properties 461
quality 461
sampling 431
sensing 423, 439, 493
sensor 415
strength 453
stress situation 439
texture 461
soluble solid content 273
spatial
autocorrelation 431
density 349
heterogeneity 445
mapping 431
modelling 529
variability 71, 287
spatialisation 553
spatial variation 699
Spearman rank correlation 567
species distribution modelling 575
spectroscopy 219
spout control 595
spray
distribution 715
technique 715, 785
volume 715, 785
spraying 511
control 767
spring barley 151, 303
standardisation 935
stand structure development 151, 303
status 97
structural growth 691
subsidies 961
subsoil compaction 439
SUCROS2 651
sugar beet 239
supply chain management 823
support application 801
sustainability 953
system
analysis 935
boundary 943
T
teaching 849
technological
development 127
scenarios 363
technology 893
temperature 707
response 691
texture classifcation 249
thermography 159
tiller differentiation 303
tilt sensor 257
timing 339
top soil mapping 415
tracking 585
traffc pan 461
trusted farming 953
turning
space 867
time 867
U
UAV 485
ultrasonic sensor 169
ultrasound 169
uncertainty propagation 575
uniform resource management 967
Uromyces betae 239
V
variability 675
variable rate
application 469
fertilization 39
variety 485
vegetation index 55, 119, 141, 469
vegetative vigour 31
vertical stratifcation 445
vine
grapes 63
vigour 177
vision 887
guided robot 877
visual odometry 623
W
water 651
watershed
algorithm 229
segmentation 159
wearable system 801
weed 313, 321
control 329, 777
detection 355
harrowing 339
identifcation 349
weeding robot 733
weight 273
wheat 105, 211, 339
varieties 23
winter 141, 151, 303
wheel traffc 453
wireless 97
working depth 683
Y
Yara N-Sensor 119
yield 559, 667, 675, 699
mapping 287
monitor 373
stability 567
variability 127
Author index
A
Acevedo-Opazo, C. 537
Achten, V.T.J.M. 715, 785
Adamek, R. 193
Aggelopoulou, A.D. 287
Alchanatis, V. 63, 159, 293, 329
Altdorff, D. 545
Andersen, J.C. 857
Andersen, N.A. 857
Andreassen, N.W. 777
Andujar, D. 355
Arn, J. 177, 185
Aronsson, P. 485
Arshad, M. 257
strand, B. 623
Azo, W.M. 667
B
Bachmann, J. 439
Backman, J. 615
Bguena, E.M. 273
Bakker, T. 833, 867
Baltissen, A.H.M.C. 219
Baret, F. 47
Bareth, G. 141
Barreiro, P. 273
Basso, B. 477, 893, 919, 927, 943
Bauer, S.D. 229
Bauriegel, E. 203
Bechar, A. 749
Beegle, D. 71
Beek, A. 817
Ben Shahar, O. 749
Berducat, M. 363
Berenstein, R. 749
Beuche, H. 203
Biber, P. 841
Blaauw, S.K. 833
Blackmore, B.S. 887, 893, 919, 927
Blanke, M. 857
Bochtis, D.D. 287, 521
Bodria, L. 265
Bontsema, J. 867
Boote, K. 699
Brjesson, T. 113, 119
Bravo, C. 265
Burgos-Artizzu, X.P. 877
Burks, T. 293
Brling, K. 211
Burtt, S.D. 453
C
Cafero, G. 927
Calcante, A. 31, 389
Camp, F. 185
Cannon, N.D. 667
Cariou, C. 363
Casadess, J. 809
Casa, R. 47
Castrignan, A. 477
Cepicky, J. 967
Charvat, K. 915, 967
Chatzinikos, A. 893
Chen, X. 141
Chosa, T. 127
Ciraolo, G. 47
Clarke, M.L. 89
Cohen, Y. 63, 159, 329
Cointault, F. 249, 639
Corner, R.J. 575
Corre-Hellou, G. 659
Crozier, C.R. 461
Cui, D. 97
D
Dammer, K.-H. 203
Davies, W.P. 667
De Benedetto, D. 477
De Boer, J. 785
Debain, C. 363
Dehne, H.-W. 239
Dellinger, A. 71
Destain, M.F. 249
Devos, W. 973
Dietrich, P. 493, 545
Dillon, C.R. 759
Doluschitz, R. 553
Domsch, H. 431
Dorado, J. 355
Dorna, M. 841
Dreger, F. 907
Drylov, T. 151, 303
Dubois, J. 639
DUrso, G. 47
E
Edan, Y. 749
Efron, R. 329
Ehlert, D. 193
Eizenberg, H. 329
Engstrm, L. 113
Erdlyi, . 559
Ericson, S. 623
Esau, T.J. 257, 381
Escol, A. 177, 185
Evans, J.R. 651
F
Fernandez-Quintanilla, C. 355
Frstner, W. 229
Fountas, S. 287, 893, 899, 919, 927, 943
Fraier, I. 795
Frazzi, E. 39
Fritz, M. 823
Fukatsu, T. 801
Furuhata, M. 127
G
Ge, C. 631
Gemtos, T.A. 287, 893
Gent, M. 691
Gerhards, R. 339, 349
Gerlich, R. 279
Giebel, A. 203
Giordano, L. 47
Gnip, P. 915
Gnyp, M.L. 141
Gobor, Z. 733
Golbach, F. 279
Gottschalk, R. 877
Goulevant, G. 659
Govers, M.H.A.M. 833
Gremmes, H. 841
Griepentrog, H.W. 857
Grove, J.H. 567
Gruvaeus, I. 113
Grzebellus, M. 961
Guastaferro, F. 477
Gundelach, V. 439
H
Hadders, J. 397
Hadders, J.W.M. 397
Hagner, O. 113, 119, 485
Hank, T. 133
Happich, G. 595
Harms, H.-H. 595
Harrison, M.T. 651
Heinemann, O. 857
Heiniger, R.W. 461
Heisig, M. 193
Hennig, Simon D. 141
Herppich, W.B. 203
Hetzroni, A. 795
Hijazi, B. 639
Hoefer, G. 439
Hofstee, J.W. 313, 511, 833
Hoogenboom, G. 699
Hoogmoed, W.B. 423
Horak, P. 967
Hunsche, M. 211
I
IJken, H. 511
Intre, J. 203
J
Jaggard, K.W. 89
Jansen, R.M.C. 833
Janssen, H. 817
Jasper, J. 23
Jeuffroy, M.-H. 659
Jia, L. 141
Jones, H.G. 47
Journaux, L. 249
Jukema, J.N. 469
K
Kadaja, J. 675
Kafka, S. 967
Kaivosoja, J. 529
Kalmari, J. 683
Kanash, E.V. 81
Kay, S. 973
Kempenaar, C. 725, 785
Kleinhenz, B. 707
Klose, R. 841
Kluge, A. 321
Koenderink, N.J.J.P. 279
Kor, F. 229
Kostamo, J. 849
Koutsostathis, A. 287
Krause, A. 953
Ken, J. 151, 303
Kroulk, M. 603
Kvz, Z. 603
L
Lagacherie, P. 537
Lamaker, E.J.J. 725
Lane, G.P.F. 667
Lang, T. 595
Lapen, D.R. 453
Lehmann, R. 823
Lenain, R. 363
Levi, A. 159, 329
Li, F. 141
Li, M. 97
Lindn, B. 113
Link, A. 23
Linkolehto, R. 683
Linz, A. 841
Li, X. 97
Loch, T. 603
Lokers, R.M. 953
Loonstra, E.H. 415
Lopez-Lozano, R. 47
Lorn, N. 113
Lotz, L.A.P. 725
Lck, E. 439, 445
Luecke, W. 403
Lukas, V. 151
Lund, I. 777
M
Madsen, T.E. 857
Magrisso, Y. 795
Mahlein, A.-K. 239
Mahmood, H.S. 423
Malagoli, P. 659
Maltese, A. 47
Marinelli, M.A. 575
Martin, R. 631
Masip, J. 177, 185
Mazzetto, F. 31, 389
McLaughlin, N.B. 453
Meijer, A.D. 461
Mena, A. 31
Mendelsohn, O. 795
Meron, M. 63, 795
Meuleman, J. 313
Miao, Y. 141
Michielsen, J.M.G.P. 715, 785
Mickelker, J. 741
Ma, P. 151, 303
Miteran, J. 249
Molin, J.P. 767
Moneta, A. 477
Moore, A.D. 651
Moshou, D. 265
Mller, J. 867
N
Nams, D. 381
Nanos, G.D. 287
Nanseki, T. 801
Nash, E. 893, 899, 935, 943
Naudin, C. 659
Neudert, L. 151, 303
Nielsen, J. 857
Nieter, J. 431
Nieuwenhuizen, A.T. 313, 833
Nikkil, R. 935
Ninomiya, S. 801
Nissen, K. 113, 119
Noga, G. 211
Nordmeyer, H. 321
Nrremark, M. 777
Nsch, A.-K. 493
O
Oberti, R. 265
Oerke, E.-C. 239
Ojanne, A. 683
Oksanen, T. 521, 615, 683, 849
Olsen, H.J. 777
Omine, M. 127
Oppelt, N. 133
Ortiz, B. 55, 699
rum, J.E. 919
Osipov, Y.A. 81
Otten, G. 279
P
Paindavoine, M. 639
Palacn, J. 177
Palombo, A. 47
Pascucci, S. 47
Pedersen, S. 893
Pedersen, S.M. 857, 919, 927, 943
Pena-Yewtukhiw, E.M. 567
Percival, D.C. 257, 381
Peristeropoulos, A. 55
Perry, C. 55, 699
Pesonen, L. 893, 919, 927, 935, 943
Pettersson, C.G. 119
Piron, A. 249
Piron, E. 631
Pisante, M. 477
Planas, S. 185
Polder, G. 219, 725
Povh, F.P. 767
Prigojin, A. 159
Proek, V. 603
Q
Queiroz, D.M. 373
R
Raatjes, P. 397
Rabatel, G. 105
Rahe, R. 841
Ramon, H. 265
Ravn, O. 857
Resch, R. 841
Reusch, S. 23, 169
Reynaldo, E.F. 767
Ribeiro, A. 355, 877
Ritchie, G. 55
Rodemann, B. 203
Rosell, J.R. 177, 185
Roth, A. 553
Roumet, P. 105
Ruckelshausen, A. 841
Rucker, K. 55
Rueda-Ayala, V. 339
Rhlmann, J. 439, 445
Rydberg, A. 485
S
Salomoni, F. 389
Salvi, J.V. 767
Samaniego-Eguiguren, L. 545
Samsom, J. 725
Sanz, R. 177, 185
Sartori, L. 927
Sauer, U. 493
Saue, T. 675
Schepers, H.T.A.M. 715
Schiefer, G. 823
Schirrmann, M. 431
Schmidt, J. 71
Schultze Lammers, P. 733
Schumann, A.W. 257, 381
Schwarz, J. 907
Seginer, I. 691
Sester, M. 659
Shani, U. 329
Shapiro, A. 749
Shearer, S.A. 373
Sderstrm, M. 113, 119, 485
Solanelles, F. 185
Srensen, C.G. 893, 919, 927, 935, 943
Soroker, V. 159
Sort, X. 273
Spangenberg, U. 445
Sptjens, L.E.E.M. 511
Speetjens, S.L. 833
Sripada, R. 71
Stallinga, H. 715, 785
Steiner, U. 239
Steinmeier, U. 403
Stern, H.I. 293
Steven, M.D. 89
Stigter, J.D. 833
Stombaugh, T.S. 373, 759
Sugahara, K. 801
Sugiura, R. 127
Suomi, P. 683
Svensson, S.A. 741
Svobodov, I. 151, 303
Swain, K.C. 257, 381
T
Taylor, J.A. 537
Teye, F. 683
Thiel, M. 841
Tisseyre, B. 537
Tiusanen, J. 849
Torres, M. 273
Trautz, D. 841
Troccoli, A. 477
Tsipris, J. 63
U
Ubalde, J.M. 273
Uyterlinde, M. 817
V
Valero, C. 273
Valls, J.M. 177
Van Asselt, C.J. 833, 867
Van Dooren, H.-J. 725
Van Doorn, J. 219
Van Egmond, F.M. 415, 493
Van Evert, F.K. 725
Van Henten, E.J. 313, 423, 833
Van Rossum, J.A. 817
Van Straten, G. 833, 867
Van Velde, P. 715, 785
Van Willigenburg, L.G. 833
Van de Zande, J.C. 313, 715, 785
Van de Zedde, H.J. 279
Van den Berg, W. 469
Van der Heijden, G.W.A.M. 219, 725
Van der Lans, A. 715
Van der Schans, D. 785
Van der Schoor, R. 219
Van der Wal, T. 817, 953, 973
Van der Zalm, A.J.A. 725
Vangeyte, J. 639
Vatsanidou, A. 899
Vellidis, G. 55, 699
Vercesi, A. 31
Verwijs, B. 785
Vigneau, N. 105
Viil, P. 675
Vijn, M. 725
Villette, S. 631, 639
Vincini, M. 39
Visala, A. 615
Vlk, M. 967
Von Hoersten, D. 403
Von Wulffen, U. 431
Vougioukas, S.G. 265, 585, 893
W
Wachs, J.P. 293
Wagner, P. 501
Weis, M. 349
Weiss, U. 841
Wendl, G. 733
Werban, U. 493
Werner, A. 907, 927
Wigham, M. 279
Wijnholds, K.H. 469
Wulfsohn, D. 857
Y
Yang, F. 639
Yang, W. 97
Z
Zacharias, S. 545
Zaman, Q.U. 257, 381
Zandonadi, R.S. 373, 759
Zauer, O. 431
Zeuner, T. 707
Zhang, L. 89

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Precision agriculture 09

to drive variable rate application of plant growth regulators and

ALS and Crop Circle

ALS and Crop Circle

to drive variable rate application of

(NTech Industries, Ukiah,

to drive variable rate application

sensors mounted on the spray boom of the JD6700 high

Figure 1. Modelling concept of PROMET (Mauser 2008).

was a part of each imaged scene to normalise the refectance of radiation

(l,q) the Fourier transform of f at

Figure 4. Site-specifc yield map for vineyard A.

= i E , and Figure 2b presents the distribution of the percentage errors

(Labsphere, North Sutton, NH, USA) 50%

(Labsphere, North Sutton, NH, USA)

1.7GHz CPU and

Figure 1: Processing algorithm flowchart

is an active optical sensor

sensors were mounted on the

controller panel on a bare (weed free) area of ground in each

sensors were input to the

9.2 (ESRI) software.

controller panel, tablet PC and

) applied to the spatial error component

) applied to the spatial error component.

Software: Changes and enhancements through release 6.12. SAS Institute,

= u . In all experiments the vehicles were identical, with wheelbase L=2.4 m,

= s, and the velocity time-lag to 1

; cos sin ) 1 ( cos

= and is the vertical angle of each wall of the V-profile vane.

; cos sin ) 1 ( cos

= and is the vertical angle of each wall of the V-profile vane.

; cos sin ) 1 ( cos

= and is the vertical angle of each wall of the V-profile vane.

; cos sin ) 1 ( cos

= and is the vertical angle of each wall of the V-profile vane.

M T S , (demand-limited growth) (15) 179

T m T h C I p M f M T C I R . (demand-limited growth) (16) 183

M T S , (demand-limited growth) (15) 179

T m T h C I p M f M T C I R . (demand-limited growth) (16) 183

M T S , (demand-limited growth) (15) 179

T m T h C I p M f M T C I R . (demand-limited growth) (16) 183

M T S , (demand-limited growth) (15) 179

T m T h C I p M f M T C I R . (demand-limited growth) (16) 183

M T S , (demand-limited growth) (15) 179

T m T h C I p M f M T C I R . (demand-limited growth) (16) 183

4, from literature) and

4, from literature) and

. The preceding winter crop was rye

Core2 computer. Images were sampled using Matlab

Image Acquisition Toolbox and saved

, Maq. Agric. Jacto S.A.), and was equipped with an electronic

EZ-Boom 2010). The command module is directly connected to the

500) was used to insert data and to manage

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