UAV-Based high resolution thermal imaging for vegetation monitoring and plant phenotyping using ICI 8640 P, FLIR Vue Pro R 640 and thermoMap Cameras

dlebauer — Tue, 05 Feb 2019 22:22:00 +0000

Feb. 7, 2019

The growing popularity of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in recent years, along with decreased cost and more accessibility of both UAVs and thermal imaging sensors, has led to the widespread usage of this technology, especially for precision agriculture and plant phenotyping. There are several thermal camera systems in the market becoming more available at a low cost. However, their efficacy and accuracy in various applications has not been tested. In this study, three commercially available UAV thermal cameras, including ICI 8640 P-series camera (Infrared Cameras Inc., USA), a FLIR Vue Pro R 640 Thermal Camera (FLIR Systems, USA), and thermoMap (senseFly, Switzerland) have been tested and evaluated for their potential for forest monitoring, vegetation stress detection and plant phenotyping. Mounted on multi-rotor systems, these sensors were simultaneously flown over different experimental sites located in St. Louis, Missouri (forest environment), Columbia, Missouri (plant stress detection and phenotyping), and Maricopa, Arizona (high throughput phenotyping). Thermal camera datasets were calibrated using procedures that utilize a blackbody, ground thermal targets, emissivity and atmospheric correction. A suite of statistical analysis including analysis of variance test (ANOVA), correlation analysis between sensor temperature and plant biophysical and biochemical traits, and genotype heritability test was utilized to examine the sensitivity of the cameras against selected plant phenotypic traits and water stress detection. Our results showed that (1) UAV-based thermal imaging is a viable tool in precision agriculture and (2) all these systems are comparable in terms of their efficacy for plant phenotyping. Overall, accuracy when compared against field measured ground temperature and estimating power of plant biophysical and biochemical traits ICI 8640 P-series performed better than the other two cameras, which was followed by FLIR Vue Pro R 640 and thermoMap. Our results demonstrated that all three UAV thermal cameras provide useful temperature data for precision agriculture, ICI 8640 P-series being the best among the three systems compared; but cost wise, FLIR Vue Pro R 640 is the most affordable than other two cameras compared providing a cheaper option for a wide range of applications.

Sagan, V., Maimaitijiang, M., Sidike, P., Eblimit, K., Peterson, K.T., Hartling, S., Esposito, F., Khanal, K., Newcomb, M., Pauli, D., Ward, R., Fritschi, F., Shakoor, N., Mockler, T.

remotesensing-11-00330-v2.pdf

Comparative Aerial and Ground Based High Throughput Phenotyping for the Genetic Dissection of NDVI as a Proxy for Drought Adaptive Traits in Durum Wheat

dlebauer — Mon, 04 Feb 2019 17:26:30 +0000

unmanned arial vehicles

trait data

genomics

June 26, 2018

High-throughput phenotyping platforms (HTPPs) provide novel opportunities to more effectively dissect the genetic basis of drought-adaptive traits. This genome-wide association study (GWAS) compares the results obtained with two Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and a ground-based platform used to measure Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) in a panel of 248 elite durum wheat (Triticum turgidum L. ssp. durum Desf.) accessions at different growth stages and water regimes. Our results suggest increased ability of aerial over ground-based platforms to detect quantitative trait loci (QTL) for NDVI, particularly under terminal drought stress, with 22 and 16 single QTLs detected, respectively, and accounting for 89.6 vs. 64.7% phenotypic variance based on multiple QTL models. Additionally, the durum panel was investigated for leaf chlorophyll content (SPAD), leaf rolling and dry biomass under terminal drought stress. In total, 46 significant QTLs affected NDVI across platforms, 22 of which showed concomitant effects on leaf greenness, 2 on leaf rolling and 10 on biomass. Among 9 QTL hotspots on chromosomes 1A, 1B, 2B, 4B, 5B, 6B, and 7B that influenced NDVI and other drought-adaptive traits, 8 showed per se effects unrelated to phenology.

Condorelli, Maccaferri, Newcomb, Andrade-Sanchez, White, French, Sciara, Ward, Tuberosa

Condorelli et al 2018

TERRA-REF - unmanned arial vehicles

UAV-Based high resolution thermal imaging for vegetation monitoring and plant phenotyping using ICI 8640 P, FLIR Vue Pro R 640 and thermoMap Cameras

Comparative Aerial and Ground Based High Throughput Phenotyping for the Genetic Dissection of NDVI as a Proxy for Drought Adaptive Traits in Durum Wheat