Challenges of UAV platforms

Challenges of UAV platforms

Lúcio André de Castro Jorge

lucio.jorge@embrapa.br

Challenges of UAV platforms

Lúcio André de Castro Jorge

lucio.jorge@embrapa.br

Beyond Diagnostics: Insights and

Recommendations from Remote Sensing

Mexico, 2013

Beyond Diagnostics: Insights and

Recommendations from Remote Sensing

Mexico, 2013

Evolution of Agriculture in Brazil

EMBRAPA EMBRAPA

Embrapa

Mission

To design research, development and

innovation solutions for the sustainability

of Brazilian agriculture for the benefit of

the Brazilian society.

Institutional Profile

» Established in 1973

» 9,801 employees

» 2,428 researchers

» 2,039 PhD researchers

» 47 Research Centers and Services

» International Cooperation: Americas,

Europe, Asia and Africa

» Yearly Budget: US$ 1 billion

Updated employee data, 03/31/2013, DGP

Embrapa

Source: Embrapa, DGP

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BSc MSc PhD/DSc

Institutional Capacity Building

Embrapa Instrumentation Automation, Nanotecnology, Precision Agriculture ...

National Precision Agriculture Lab

Nanotecnology Laboratory for Agriculture

Evolution of Agriculture in Brazil

UAV at Embrapa Instrumentation

UAV at Embrapa Instrumentation

Embrapa

Precision

Agriculture

Network

Grass

Crop

Soil

Weeds

Use of UAV to Crop Monitoring

Start in 1998

UAVs platforms

Toy Model

HELICOPTER

PROJECT ARARA - 2003

Patente EMBRAPA 2004

Control Station - 2004

Autonomous Operation - 2004

Taking off in Farms

PROJECT PRECISION AGRICULTURE - 2010

UAV 2012

Precision Agriculture Network

UAV QuadCopter – 2012

Small Farmers

UAV - BRASIL 2013

Evolution of Agriculture in Brazil

Sensors Sensors

SENSORS

Digital Câmera –

Visible bands

Digital Video Câmera

visíble

SENSORS

Cámara multiespectral NIR Cámara multiespectral – NIR + RGB

Multispectral 6 bands

SENSORS

• Hyperspectral

LIDAR Scanner

Lucier et. al (2012)

Evolution of Agriculture in Brazil

Images Images

Forest

Citrus

Soy and Corn

CORN - 30 Days

Sugar-cane

Evolution of Agriculture in Brazil

Image Processing Image Processing

Image Processing Applications

Sugar-cane

Grass

Soil

Spectral Analysis

LEGENDA

Doença - Nematóide

Solo nu

LEGENDA

Planta invasora

Solo nu

Soy bean – weeds and Deseases

Counting trees to yield evaluation

Shape analysis

LEGENDA

Palha

Cultura

Solo

Planta invasora

Corn production

NIR x NDVI

WATER STRESS

0 - 0.1

0.1 - 0.2

0.2 - 0.3

0.3 - 0.4

0.4 - 0.5

0.5 - 0.6

NDVI

Evolution of Agriculture in Brazil

Mosaics Mosaics

EMBRAPA Soy bean experimentation

Softwares:

- Agsoft

- Pixel4D

- SIFT (Embrapa)

MOSAIC - Soy bean

MOSAIC - Soy bean

NIR Mosaic – Sugar-cane

Visible MOSAIC sugar-cane

Mosaic + DEM

CITRUS images

Mosaic - CITRUS

Number of Images

Mosaic and photos positions

Mosaic Citrus

Mosaic with SIFT

MOSAIC HyperSpectral Citrus

LIDAR points

Wallace et. al (2012)

Evolution of Agriculture in Brazil

Flight Control Flight Control

Ardupilot - free

Precision on position – strong wind

Position With OctoCopter

Wallace et. al (2012)

Kinds of System

• For small areas: free systems or very cheap

– autonomous and visible flights;

• For big areas: industrial solutions, with

certification from regulators.

Evolution of Agriculture in Brazil

Challenges Challenges

Challenges

• OPERATION/SYSTEM – Quality of images

• Systems to control Distortion: Pitch, roll, etc. Wide angle lenses

• Maping pixels onto cm resolution model

– Registration • Need more higher altitudes to have good results

• 3D imaging cameras and 360 degrees pano images

– Lighting Conditions: • Clouds, Shadows, Weather

– Safety System • to avoid crashes and accidents;

– Airplanes Certification • Brazil all models need on

– Calibrations: • Solutions for easy correction geometric and radiometric

Challenges

• SOFTWARES – Complex softwares to process Multi and HyperSpectral Images,

not for a researcher, but for farmers and final users;

– Data management and extraction are a challenge;

– Cloud processing could help to process a big volume of images but need permit big datas uploads;

– Recomendations for final users are not available;

– A complete solution for a final user is a big challenge, and could be done for each application.

Lúcio André de Castro Jorge, PhD Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation

lucio.jorge@embrapa.br

Lúcio André de Castro Jorge, PhD Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation

lucio.jorge@embrapa.br