Vegetable Plant Stand Counting: Using RGB and NIR Cameras

With Aerial imagery and UAV (unmanned aerial vehicles) technology increasing, finding field applications has been an eagerly accepted challenge. Naturally, there has been much interest in combining this technology with the agriculture industry. One thing we aim to simplify is assessing plant stand counting. Generally, estimating stand counts would use a manual measurement technique by physically counting plants within small plots. We are able to assess these fields via the use of aerial images to save time and labor.

There are now a variety of cameras that are available for use with a UAV. We compared a visual camera (red blue green wavelengths) with a Near Infrared camera using NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) to determine stand counts to benefit growers. We evaluated the altitude required for stand counting while at the same time considered battery use efficiency and post flight image processing.

While using the RGB and NIR cameras, we were able to determine stand counts and other key parameters from the crop (ex. size, shape and area). Although the RGB camera does not provide the same level of detail as the NIR wavelength, RBG does allow stand counting in certain conditions. We believe that capturing the NIR wavelengths is a superior method for its ease of processing and future benefits as technology increases. We feel that these approaches could benefit growers and enable them to quickly problem solve.