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Precision Agriculture and Sensor Systems—2nd Edition

A special issue of Sensors (ISSN 1424-8220). This special issue belongs to the section "Smart Agriculture".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (3 August 2024) | Viewed by 7823

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Bioresource Engineering, 21,111 Lakeshore Road, Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, QC H9X 3V9, Canada
Interests: development of soil and plant sensor systems; geospatial data processing; navigation of agricultural vehicles; implementation of precision agriculture
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
Precision Soil and Crop Engineering (Precision Scoring), Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, Ghent University, Coupure Links 653, Blok B, 1st Floor, 9000 Gent, Belgium
Interests: proximal soil sensing; soil and water management; soil dynamics; tillage; traction; compaction; mechanical weeding; soil remediation and management and precision agriculture
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

You are invited to submit a manuscript to a special issue of Sensors. This issue will summarize cutting-edge research on the development and application of new sensor systems to support precision agriculture. We are especially interested in contributions on novel approaches to characterize soil, plants and animals as well as new ways to use sensor data to support the decision-making process.

Prof. Dr. Viacheslav Adamchuk
Prof. Dr. Abdul M. Mouazen
Guest Editors

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

21 pages, 29836 KiB  
Article
Sensorizing a Beehive: A Study on Potential Embedded Solutions for Internal Contactless Monitoring of Bees Activity
by Massimiliano Micheli, Giulia Papa, Ilaria Negri, Matteo Lancini, Cristina Nuzzi and Simone Pasinetti
Sensors 2024, 24(16), 5270; https://doi.org/10.3390/s24165270 - 14 Aug 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1009
Abstract
Winter is the season of main concern for beekeepers since the temperature, humidity, and potential infection from mites and other diseases may lead the colony to death. As a consequence, beekeepers perform invasive checks on the colonies, exposing them to further harm. This [...] Read more.
Winter is the season of main concern for beekeepers since the temperature, humidity, and potential infection from mites and other diseases may lead the colony to death. As a consequence, beekeepers perform invasive checks on the colonies, exposing them to further harm. This paper proposes a novel design of an instrumented beehive involving color cameras placed inside the beehive and at the bottom of it, paving the way for new frontiers in beehive monitoring. The overall acquisition system is described focusing on design choices towards an effective solution for internal, contactless, and stress-free beehive monitoring. To validate our approach, we conducted an experimental campaign in 2023 and analyzed the collected images with YOLOv8 to understand if the proposed solution can be useful for beekeepers and what kind of information can be derived from this kind of monitoring, including the presence of Varroa destructor mites inside the beehive. We experimentally found that the observation point inside the beehive is the most challenging due to the frequent movements of the bees and the difficulties related to obtaining in-focus images. However, from these images, it is possible to find Varroa destructor mites. On the other hand, the observation point at the bottom of the beehive showed great potential for understanding the overall activity of the colony. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Precision Agriculture and Sensor Systems—2nd Edition)
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17 pages, 3815 KiB  
Article
Site-Independent Mapping of Clay Content in Vineyard Soils via Mobile Proximal Gamma-Ray Spectrometry and Machine Learning Calibrations
by Ralf Wehrle and Stefan Pätzold
Sensors 2024, 24(14), 4528; https://doi.org/10.3390/s24144528 - 12 Jul 2024
Viewed by 658
Abstract
Vineyards hold considerable soil variability between regions and plots, and there is frequently large soil heterogeneity within plots. Clay content in vineyard soils is of interest with respect to soil management, environmental monitoring, and wine quality. However, spatially resolved clay mapping is laborious [...] Read more.
Vineyards hold considerable soil variability between regions and plots, and there is frequently large soil heterogeneity within plots. Clay content in vineyard soils is of interest with respect to soil management, environmental monitoring, and wine quality. However, spatially resolved clay mapping is laborious and expensive. Gamma-ray spectrometry (GS) is a suitable tool for predicting clay content in precision agriculture when locally calibrated, but it has scarcely been tested site-independently and in vineyards. This study evaluated GS to predict clay content with a site-independent calibration and four machine learning algorithms (Support Vector Machines, Random Forest, k-Nearest Neighbors, and Bayesian regulated neuronal networks) in eight vineyards from four German vine-growing regions. Clay content in the studied soils ranged from 62 to 647 g kg−1. The Random Forest calibration was most suitable. Test set evaluation revealed good model performance for the entire dataset with RPIQ = 4.64, RMSEP = 56.7 g kg−1, and R2 = 0.87; however, prediction quality varied between the sites. Overall, GS with the Random Forest model calibration was appropriate to predict the clay content and its spatial distribution, even for heterogeneous geopedological settings and in individual plots. Therefore, GS is considered a valuable tool for soil mapping in vineyards, where clay content and product quality are closely linked. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Precision Agriculture and Sensor Systems—2nd Edition)
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17 pages, 2879 KiB  
Article
Prediction Accuracy of Soil Chemical Parameters by Field- and Laboratory-Obtained vis-NIR Spectra after External Parameter Orthogonalization
by Konrad Metzger, Frank Liebisch, Juan M. Herrera, Thomas Guillaume and Luca Bragazza
Sensors 2024, 24(11), 3556; https://doi.org/10.3390/s24113556 - 31 May 2024
Viewed by 3392
Abstract
One challenge in predicting soil parameters using in situ visible and near infrared spectroscopy is the distortion of the spectra due to soil moisture. External parameter orthogonalization (EPO) is a mathematical method to remove unwanted variability from spectra. We created two different EPO [...] Read more.
One challenge in predicting soil parameters using in situ visible and near infrared spectroscopy is the distortion of the spectra due to soil moisture. External parameter orthogonalization (EPO) is a mathematical method to remove unwanted variability from spectra. We created two different EPO correction matrices based on the difference between spectra collected in situ and, respectively, spectra collected from the same soil samples after drying and sieving and after drying, sieving and finely grinding. Spectra from 134 soil samples recorded with two different spectrometers were split into calibration and validation sets and the two EPO corrections were applied. Clay, organic carbon and total nitrogen content were predicted by partial least squares regression for uncorrected and EPO-corrected spectra using models based on the same type of spectra (“within domain”) as well as using laboratory-based models to predict in situ collected spectra (“cross-domain”). Our results show that the within-domain prediction of clay is improved with EPO corrections only for the research grade spectrometer, with no improvement for the other parameters. For the cross-domain predictions, there was a positive effect from both EPO corrections on all parameters. Overall, we also found that in situ collected spectra provided an equally successful prediction as laboratory-based spectra. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Precision Agriculture and Sensor Systems—2nd Edition)
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19 pages, 5382 KiB  
Article
Development of a Quick-Install Rapid Phenotyping System
by Roberto M. Buelvas, Viacheslav I. Adamchuk, John Lan, Valerio Hoyos-Villegas, Arlene Whitmore and Martina V. Stromvik
Sensors 2023, 23(9), 4253; https://doi.org/10.3390/s23094253 - 25 Apr 2023
Viewed by 1854
Abstract
In recent years, there has been a growing need for accessible High-Throughput Plant Phenotyping (HTPP) platforms that can take measurements of plant traits in open fields. This paper presents a phenotyping system designed to address this issue by combining ultrasonic and multispectral sensing [...] Read more.
In recent years, there has been a growing need for accessible High-Throughput Plant Phenotyping (HTPP) platforms that can take measurements of plant traits in open fields. This paper presents a phenotyping system designed to address this issue by combining ultrasonic and multispectral sensing of the crop canopy with other diverse measurements under varying environmental conditions. The system demonstrates a throughput increase by a factor of 50 when compared to a manual setup, allowing for efficient mapping of crop status across a field with crops grown in rows of any spacing. Tests presented in this paper illustrate the type of experimentation that can be performed with the platform, emphasizing the output from each sensor. The system integration, versatility, and ergonomics are the most significant contributions. The presented system can be used for studying plant responses to different treatments and/or stresses under diverse farming practices in virtually any field environment. It was shown that crop height and several vegetation indices, most of them common indicators of plant physiological status, can be easily paired with corresponding environmental conditions to facilitate data analysis at the fine spatial scale. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Precision Agriculture and Sensor Systems—2nd Edition)
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