A measurement system for on-line estimation of weed coverage

Author

Parvis, Marco ; Pirola, Marco

Author_Institution

Dipt. di Elettronica, Politecnico di Torino, Italy

Volume

48

Issue

5

fYear

1999

fDate

10/1/1999 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

990

Lastpage

994

Abstract

This paper describes two different solutions for the estimation of weed coverage. Both measuring systems discriminate the weed from the ground by means of the color difference between the weed and ground and can be used to on-line control tractor sprayers in order to reduce weedkiller use. The solutions differ with respect to the sensor type: one solution is based on a digital camera and a computer that analyzes the images and determines the weed amount, while the other simpler solution makes use of two photodetectors and an analog processing system. The camera-based solution provides an uncertainty of a few percentage, while the photo detector-based one, though extremely cheap, has an uncertainty of about 5% and suffers from changes in light conditions, which can alter the estimations

Keywords

agriculture; measurement systems; photodetectors; sprays; video cameras; analog processing system; color difference; digital camera; light conditions; measurement system; on-line estimation; photodetectors; tractor sprayers; weed coverage; Analog computers; Control systems; Crops; Digital cameras; Image analysis; Image sensors; Pollution measurement; Sensor systems; Spraying; Uncertainty;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Instrumentation and Measurement, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9456

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/19.799659

Filename

799659