Abstract
The evaluation of soil tillage quality parameters, such as cloddiness and surface roughness produced by tillage tools, is based on traditional methods ranging, respectively, from manual or mechanical sieving of ground samples to handheld rulers, non-contact devices or Precision Agriculture technics, such as laser profile meters. The aim of the study was to compare traditional methods of soil roughness and cloddiness assessment (laser profile meter and manual sieving), with light drone RGB 3D imaging techniques for the evaluation of different tillage methods (ploughed, harrowed and grassed). Light drone application was able to replicate the results obtained by the traditional methods, introducing advantages in terms of time, repeatability and analysed surface while reducing the human error during the data collection on the one hand and allowing a labour-intensive field monitoring solution for digital farming on the other. Indeed, the profilometer positioning introduces errors and may lead to false reading due to limited data collection. Future work could be done in order to streamline the data processing operation and so to produce a practical application ready to use and stimulate the adoption of new evaluation indices of soil cloddiness, such as Entropy and the Angular Second Moment (ASM), which seem more suitable than the classic ones to achieved data referred to more extended surfaces.
Highlights
Methods for the assessment of soil tillage quality parameters are often based on traditional practices like manual or mechanical sieving of ground samples for the determination of soil cloddiness produced by tillage tools
These methods are slow, hard-working and, anyway, inaccurate, when they refer to large areas, for they depend on the number of samples/measurements carried out. They can be replaced by multirotor Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), allowing collection of field data instantly available for evaluations [1], representing a first step towards Digital Agriculture [2]: the collection of aerial data and their processing by means of proper software can be usefully employed in the assessment of tillage quality parameters, with the aim of evaluating the field performance of farm equipment
The method commonly used for determining the degree of cloddiness resulting from tillage operations is the sieve analysis while as an alternative, image analysis techniques or others can be used for the determination of surface roughness [17]
Summary
Methods for the assessment of soil tillage quality parameters are often based on traditional practices like manual or mechanical sieving of ground samples for the determination of soil cloddiness produced by tillage tools. These methods are slow, hard-working and, anyway, inaccurate, when they refer to large areas, for they depend on the number of samples/measurements carried out They can be replaced by multirotor Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), allowing collection of field data instantly available for evaluations [1], representing a first step towards Digital Agriculture [2]: the collection of aerial data and their processing by means of proper software can be usefully employed in the assessment of tillage quality parameters, with the aim of evaluating the field performance of farm equipment. At CREA (Monterotondo, Italy) were carried out the tests to assess the performance of soil tillage machines in accordance with a specific protocol proposed by ENAMA (Italian Agency for Agricultural Mechanization), drawn up by national experts in the sector of the agricultural engineering and based on the current international reference standards (EN, ISO, ASABE). The test protocol is recognized in Europe through the ENTAM
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