Location: Vegetable Research
Project Number: 6080-22000-031-039-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Sep 1, 2024
End Date: Aug 31, 2028
Objective:
To develop a hand-held portable 3D scanner designed to monitor plant health and early disease development on vegetable crops affected by biotic factors, including pathogens, insects and nematodes.
Approach:
Several projects at the unit work on biotic stress induced by plant pathogens, insects and nematodes in vegetable crops. The proposed innovative device will incorporate a multi-spectral camera to capture detailed images across various wavelengths, crucial for detecting subtle differences between healthy and diseased plants. The scanner will have an edge device capable of capturing images and running advanced machine-learning models in real time to make early disease diagnoses on vegetable crops. Using a pre-trained deep neural network will accurately classify the plants into damaged/damaged-free categories allowing timely and accurate decision-making for evaluation of breeding lines as well as field diagnosis. The device will store the scanned data within its deep neural network framework along with the ambient temperature, humidity, air quality, and types of pesticides used for monitoring the foliage. The proposed hand-held portable 3D scanner aims to help with plant health monitoring and early disease diagnosis by, providing a robust method for identifying insect/nematode-damaged roots and virus-infected plants, combining cutting-edge imaging technology with sophisticated machine learning algorithms. Successful development would be further extended to support farmers in maintaining healthy and productive crops.
