UWB Radar System for Yield Monitoring of Sugar Beet

Abstract

The objective of this research was to develop a yield monitoring system primarily for sugar beets by applying ultra-wideband (UWB) radar technology. Like radar systems used in geological engineering, these devices acquire data via electromagnetic waves. The basic idea was to use such data to identify sugar beets in agricultural soils, which would provide non-invasive in-soil detection of sugar beets in order to enable counting of individual sugar beets and determination of single sugar beet root mass. Further goals were to enhance the methods and procedures of the UWB radar technology for other applications in agriculture, as a general goal, and to define applicability restrictions of the system for sugar beet and other root crops. In the first phase of the research, laboratory experiments were used to develop, test, and consequently improve the data acquisition and processing procedures. In this first phase, the feasibility of detecting sugar beets in soil in laboratory conditions using the reflected energy with a simple threshold approach was confirmed. In the second phase, the potential detectability and size estimation of sugar beets based on the distribution and consistency of backscattered energy amounts obtained in field conditions was researched. Based on the data recorded in field conditions, visual detectability was above 90%, with good correlations between sugar beet positions and energy peak positions. The best correlations between mass of sugar beets and the amounts of backscattered energy exceeded 80%.