AGRICULTURE Te JAI camera is a monochrome device


detecting from the ultraviolet into the near infrared. UV reflectance hasn’t been well explored in agriculture, according to Rovira Más, so the team are investigating that bandwidth. NIR is good for vegetation because reflectance is high. Te results in the NIR are promising for detecting vigour, he says. Te system is installed onboard a modified


tractor. Te vines are mapped during June and July when the grapes are changing colour. At this time of year in Spain, the temperature in the field is very hot, which the camera has to be protected against. In addition, cameras that pass through vegetation can be broken or the cabling damaged if they are not optimally mounted and located in the vehicle. But the main problem, according to Rovira Más, is with illumination and the strength of the July sun casting shadows. Tere can be very dark and very bright pixels in one image, which complicates the extraction of key information from saturated areas. Te system uses Edmund Optics’ lenses and


the research team was one of the winners of Edmund Optics’ higher education programme in 2011. ‘We wanted to use reliable hardware,


‘We’ve seen good correlation between vigour


changes and yield, although we want to carry out more testing,’ Rovira Más comments. ‘Some work from Australia has suggested that the relationship between vine vigour and yield is not always straightforward so we want to investigate further, possibly through mapping other parameters as well.’ Elsewhere, precision agriculture techniques


An imaging system developed by researchers at the Polytechnic University of Valencia is being used to determine vigour of vine plants, with an aim to correlate that with yield


including camera, GPS, and good filters from Edmund Optics to develop a high quality system,’ states Rovira Más. Edmund Optics’ NIR filters were used to separate the NIR reflectance from vegetation and to block the other wavebands. Te researchers have also developed algorithms for quantifying the vegetation in real time as the tractor is moving. Te images should give data on how vegetation is changing and relate vegetation changes with yield changes.


With 2µs Trigger Latency, you do not miss anything!


are being applied in Washington State in the US, where apple growers are interested in implementing robotics in the field. Te producers are even changing the way they grow apples and using a trellis, similar to grape vines. ‘Tey are changing processes that have been working for years in order to adapt to new technology,’ says Rovira Más. ‘We also see this trend with olive trees in Spain – the spacing between trees used to be huge and it used to take seven or eight years to get to full production. Now, olive trees are planted very close together, using irrigation, and getting crops in four or five years.’ Water is also a well-correlated indicator


of yield and a map of moisture in the soil is something that farmers could take into account


Smartek Vision – Business Class Products at Economy Prices!


Giganetix GigE Vision Cameras · 2µs trigger latency · 4 I/O ports


· 17 sensor types (Sony, Kodak, Aptina) · 35 x 35 x 48 mm housing


IPSC LED Controller · 20A @ 200V power pulse · 1µs to 1s pulse duration · 1mA trigger resolution · 1, 2, 4 or 6 channels


SMARTEK Vision · Phone: +49 (89) 3815330-57 · Fax: +49 (89) 3815330-58 · eMail: info@smartekvision.com · www.smartekvision.com


www.imveurope.com


June/July 2012 • Imaging and Machine Vision Europe 19


Polytechnic University of Valencia.


Oops, caught!


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36