A New Low-Cost Aerial Imagery Platform and Its Applications for Precision Horticulture

High resolution, multi-band aerial imagery can be used for many different applications in horticultural crops such as yield estimation, disease and stress detection. A new low-cost flying platform was utilized and equipped with a multi-band camera.  The platform has several unique features that make it ideal for applications in horticultural crops. It can take off and land vertically like a helicopter which allows it to be launched and land in any environment or terrain. The camera mount installed on this system can automatically correct for yaw and pitch angle and will keep the camera parallel to the ground. This will eliminate the need for post geometric correction of the images. It can be flown using a normal RC transmitter. It can lift a payload of about 5 lbs. The system has the capability of flying to a GPS waypoint or fly according to a pre-assigned flight path. This feature is important for flying the same flight path over and over again for comparison with previously collected data. The applications of this platform were investigated for different horticultural crops. An optical multispectral imaging sensor incorporated on the platform which measures the reflectance from the orchard in the visible and infrared regions of the spectra in two dimensions.  Vegetation indices computed based on visible and near-infrared wavebands provide additional information on the health of the plants. This platform provides a higher resolution than satellite and aerial images. This presentation provides information about this system and examples of its applications for several horticultural crops.