ASABE Technical Library - Abstract

Abstract. In order to monitor the crop growth status nondestructively, an intelligent spectral measurement system was developed. The system mainly included two parts with the optical sensors and control unite. (1) The optical sensor was developed to measure the spectral reflectance of crop canopy. It was designed with four optical channels including 550nm, 650nm, 766nm and 850nm. After processing by signal adjusting circuit the data was transferred wirelessly by ZigBee network. (2) The control unit was a field platform for the software install, data process and storage. It was developed with three basic capabilities including the equipment parameters setting, data display and storage. The GPS (Global Position System) data was collected and used to indicate the sampling position in the field. The measuring and control units were installed on an on-board mechanical structure so that the detection system could measure crop spectral characteristics on-the-go and in real-time. The field experiment was conducted in Yangling district of Shanxi province. The system was applied to measure the spectral information of wheat canopy. The results showed that the developed system could acquire NDVI value of crop canopy steadily and operate easily. It provides a feasible system for crop monitoring.