A programmable aerial multispectral camera system for in-season crop biomass and nitrogen content estimation

Abstract

The study introduces a prototype multispectral camera system for aerial estimation of above-ground biomass and nitrogen (N) content in winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). The system is fully programmable and designed as a lightweight payload for unmanned aircraft systems (UAS). It is based on an industrial multi-sensor camera and a customizable image processing routine. The system was tested in a split fertilized N field trial at different growth stages in between the end of stem elongation and the end of anthesis. The acquired multispectral images were processed to normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and red-edge inflection point (REIP) orthoimages for an analysis with simple linear regression models. The best results for the estimation of above-ground biomass were achieved with the NDVI (R2 = 0.72-0.85, RMSE = 12.3%-17.6%), whereas N content was estimated best with the REIP (R2 = 0.58-0.89, RMSE = 7.6%-11.7%). Moreover, NDVI and REIP predicted grain yield at a high level of accuracy (R2 = 0.89-0.94, RMSE = 9.0%-12.1%). Grain protein content could be predicted best with the REIP (R2 = 0.76-0.86, RMSE = 3.6%-4.7%), with the limitation of prediction inaccuracies for N-deficient canopies.