Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
9.1 INTRODUCTION
Nutrition management and automation plays an important role in the whole agri-
culture automation system. In this chapter, we will introduce nutrition management
and automation in the following three aspects: (1) nutrition acquisition methods and
instruments relating to crop growing information, soil information, satellite remote
sensing system, aerial photography remote sensing system, radar, and lidar systems;
(2) nutrition management relating to sampling methods and managements, nutri-
tion disputation map based on geographic information system (GIS), and nutrition
automation systems; and (3) nutrition control and automation systems with several
specific examples in agriculture.
9.2 NUTRITIONACQUISITION
Nutrition acquisition is important for nutrition management and automation. In this
section, we will mainly talk about nutrition acquisition variety based on area size,
crop nutrition acquisition methods and instruments, and soil nutrition acquisition
methods and instruments. We will also introduce recently developed technologies
and application examples for these new technologies.
9.2.1 N
UTRITION
A
CQUISITION
V
ARIETY
B
ASED
ON
S
PATIAL
D
OMAIN
We developed a new concept of nutrition acquisition method using the spatial
domain. Based on the spatial domain, we separate nutrition acquisition into the fol-
lowing varieties: individual point, field of view, region, and zone. The individual
point is defined as the measurement that is mainly focused on a small area, such as
the area using SPAD by Konica Minota in Japan. The field of view is defined as the
measurement whose main focus is an object, such as the area of a single plant or
crop canopy using cropscan by CROPSCAN in the United States. The region size is
defined as a similar area of garden or farmland. The zone size is defined as the cross-
regional area of plant nutrition management using remote sending using unmanned
aerial vehicle or satellites.
9.2.2 S
ATELLITE
R
EMOTE
S
ENSING
It is an important goal for researchers to automatically and intelligently manage
agricultural processes for maximizing the yield of crops and reducing the costs.
Among many modern technologies, remote sensing is considered a potential method
to monitor and estimate the growth of crops so as to increase yield from crops.
Remote sensing is generally defined as the indirect measurement of emitted elec-
tromagnetic energy using a camera or sensor. A wide range of instruments on the
basis of remote sensing is used in the application of agricultural processes, from air-
borne cameras to sensors mounted on orbiting satellites. The use of remote sensing
provides valuable insight into agronomic management, salinity, and nutrient status.
A better understanding of how leaf reflectance changes in response to leaf thick-
ness, canopy characteristics, leaf age, and water status can be achieved by using
