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MU creates camera system to monitor crop temps

A USDA ARS researcher with the University of Missouri and a graduate student have developed a camera system that allows farmers to precisely irrigate their crops according to the individual needs of plants.

Dr. Ken Sudduth tells Brownfield Ag News says they’ve come up with a better say to sense crop temperatures, “The goal that we had was to come up with something that was small, lightweight and relatively low cost but would have some additional capabilities.”

Sudduth says they combined a long wave infrared camera and a standard camera, “What that allowed us to do was to, with image processing technology, take out the portions of the image that weren’t plant and then just calculate the temperature of the plant itself.”

Sudduth says they need to fine-tune the system before it can be sold to farmers and the device might eventually be incorporated into drones.

Sudduth is adjunct professor of bioengineering at MU’s College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources (CAFNR).