Skip to main content
ARS Home » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #219929
Title: Crop pest management with an aerial imaging system

Author
item Lan, Yubin
item Huang, Yanbo
item Martin, Daniel - Dan
item Hoffmann, Wesley

Submitted to: National Agricultural Aviation Association Meeting
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/8/2007
Publication Date: 1/6/2008
Citation: Lan, Y., Huang, Y., Martin, D.E., Hoffmann, W.C. 2008. Crop pest management with an aerial imaging system. National Agricultural Aviation Association Meeting. ASABE Paper No. 07-005.

Interpretive Summary: Remote sensing along with Global Positioning Systems, Geographic Information Systems, and variable rate technology has been developed, which scientists can implement to help farmers maximize the economic and environmental benefits of crop pest management through precision agriculture. An integration multispectral camera was coupled with a specifically designed camera control system to develop a cost-effective tool for airborne remote sensing in pest management. The automated multispectral imaging system consistently produced precise images for the spatial analysis of pest infestations. Through image processing, data from the system was converted into input for the prescription of variable rate application in site-specific pest management. The systems and techniques used in this work will increase the speed of image acquisition and enhance the use of aerially-acquired images for precision application in pest management.

Technical Abstract: Remote sensing along with Global Positioning Systems, Geographic Information Systems, and variable rate technology has been developed, which scientists can implement to help farmers maximize the economic and environmental benefits of crop pest management through precision agriculture. Airborne remote sensing is flexible and able to achieve different spatial resolutions with different flight altitudes. Although the use of airborne hyperspectral remote sensing in agricultural research and applications has been steadily increasing in the last decade, the airborne multispectral technique is still a good source of crop, soil, or ground cover information. A multispectral camera produces and aligns images from four different wavelength bands of energy with built-in devices. Data can be analyzed from the composite image or the images of individual bands. For automatic operation of the multispectral camera to control roll, pitch, and yaw camera stabilization, a camera control system was prototyped. This paper describes the automated airborne multispectral imaging system and image processing using sample imagery to demonstrate the capability and potential of the system for crop pest management.