Abstract
Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) equipped with spectral sensors have become useful in the fast and non-destructive assessment of crop growth, endurance and resource dynamics. This study is intended to inspect the capabilities of UAV-onboard multispectral sensors for non-destructive phenotype variables, including leaf area index (LAI), leaf mass per area (LMA) and specific leaf area (SLA) of rapeseed oil at different growth stages. In addition, the raw image data with high ground resolution (20 cm) were resampled to 30, 50 and 100 cm to determine the influence of resolution on the estimation of phenotype variables by using vegetation indices (VIs). Quadratic polynomial regression was applied to the quantitative analysis at different resolutions and growth stages. The coefficient of determination (R2) and root mean square error results indicated the significant accuracy of the LAI estimation, wherein the highest R2 values were attained by RVI = 0.93 and MTVI2 = 0.89 at the elongation stage. The noise equivalent of sensitivity and uncertainty analyses at the different growth stages accounted for the sensitivity of VIs, which revealed the optimal VIs of RVI, MTVI2 and MSAVI in the LAI estimation. LMA and SLA, which showed significant accuracies at (R2 = 0.85, 0.81) and (R2 = 0.85, 0.71), were estimated on the basis of the predicted leaf dry weight and LAI at the elongation and flowering stages, respectively. No significant variations were observed in the measured regression coefficients using different resolution images. Results demonstrated the significant potential of UAV-onboard multispectral sensor and empirical method for the non-destructive retrieval of crop canopy variables.
Highlights
Applications of the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) platform in precision agriculture (PA) offered a precise and reliable solution for the optimisation of crop monitoring and management [1]
As a remote sensing platform, UAVs are ideal for mapping and monitoring in PA [9,15]
This study aimed to determine the optimal vegetation indices (VIs) derived from UAV multispectral images that could be used for the remote and empirical non-destructive estimation of biophysical parameters, such as leaf area index (LAI), leaf mass per area (LMA) and specific leaf area (SLA) over rapeseed crops at the different growth stages
Summary
Applications of the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) platform in precision agriculture (PA) offered a precise and reliable solution for the optimisation of crop monitoring and management [1]. UAV in PA is a new but reliable remote sensing tool that can acquire high spectral, spatial and temporal resolution data and has the advantages of low cost, flexible platform and bird’s eye view for rapid data collection [2,3]. Compared with other remote sensing platforms, UAVs can fly at low altitudes and can capture high-resolution imagery, which offers very detailed spectral and spatial descriptions of the field [1,4]. Remote sensing data produce repeated and useful non-destructive crop biophysical attributes for PA [7,10] Gathering these information required for the enhancement of agricultural production in PA is the key issue that requires the use of a proper design and decision-making system [2,11]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
