Abstract
Site-specific weed management requires sensing of the actual weed infestation levels in agricultural fields to adapt the management accordingly. However, sophisticated sensor systems are not yet in wider practical use, since they are not easily available for the farmers and their handling as well as the management practice requires additional efforts. A new sensor-based weed detection method is presented in this paper and its applicability to cereal crops is evaluated. An ultrasonic distance sensor for the determination of plant heights was used for weed detection. It was hypothesised that the weed infested zones have a higher amount of biomass than non-infested areas and that this can be determined by plant height measurements. Ultrasonic distance measurements were taken in a winter wheat field infested by grass weeds and broad-leaved weeds. A total of 80 and 40 circular-shaped samples of different weed densities and compositions were assessed at two different dates. The sensor was pointed directly to the ground for height determination. In the following, weeds were counted and then removed from the sample locations. Grass weeds and broad-leaved weeds were separately removed. Differences between weed infested and weed-free measurements were determined. Dry-matter of weeds and crop was assessed and evaluated together with the sensor measurements. RGB images were taken prior and after weed removal to determine the coverage percentages of weeds and crop per sampling point. Image processing steps included EGI (excess green index) computation and thresholding to separate plants and background. The relationship between ultrasonic readings and the corresponding coverage of the crop and weeds were assessed using multiple regression analysis. Results revealed a height difference between infested and non-infested sample locations. Density and biomass of weeds present in the sample influenced the ultrasonic readings. The possibilities of weed group discrimination were assessed by discriminant analysis. The ultrasonic readings permitted the separation between weed infested zones and non-infested areas with up to 92.8% of success. This system will potentially reduce the cost of weed detection and offers an opportunity to its use in non-selective methods for weed control.
Highlights
Managing patchy weed distributions is the challenge targeted by site-specific weed management
Manual and automated weed mapping technologies have been widely explored by sampling before management operations take place
They are generally expensive and not feasible for larger areas, since the weed management needs a fast reaction for weed control decisions during a single management operation
Summary
Managing patchy weed distributions is the challenge targeted by site-specific weed management.Site-specific weed control requires knowledge about spatially varying weed distribution within the field.Manual and automated weed mapping technologies have been widely explored by sampling before management operations take place (offline approach). The human eye can scan larger areas than most ground-based detectors These approaches rely heavily on human perception and have various other limitations: only presence/absence or limited levels (zero/low/high) of infestation are estimated and experienced observers are required for the sampling [2]. Image processing for weed species recognition needs long computing times and they are not available for on-line approaches yet [4]. The use of available optical sensors such as optoelectronic devices [8,9] have proven its possibilities These sensors are not able to differentiate weeds from crops, this is not a major problem under certain conditions: in the case of row crops, all plants in the inter-row area can clearly be identified as weeds. The measured travel time of an ultrasonic pulse from the emitter to the object reflecting the pulse back to the sensor is proportional to the distance
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