Mapping Gaps in Sugarcane Fields Using UAV-RTK Platform

Abstract

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) equipped with a global real-time kinematic navigation satellite system (GNSS RTK) could be a state-of-the-art solution to measuring gaps in sugarcane fields and enable site-specific management. Recent studies recommend the use of UAVs to map these gaps. However, low-accuracy GNSS provides incomplete or inaccurate photogrammetric reconstructions, which could easily generate an error in the gap measurement and constrain the applicability of these techniques. Therefore, in this study, we evaluated the potential of UAV RTK imagery for mapping gaps in sugarcane. To compare this solution with conventional UAV approaches, the precision and accuracy of RTK and non-RTK flights were evaluated. To increase the robustness of the research, flights were performed to map gaps found naturally in the field and with plants at different stages of development. Our results showed that the lengths of gaps identified by both RTK and non-RTK UAV imagery were similar, with differences in precision and accuracy of about 1% for both systems. In contrast, RTK was much more efficient and provides stakeholders with guidelines for accurate and precise mapping gaps, allowing them to make confident decisions on site-specific management.

Challenges of Digital Solutions in Sugarcane Crop Production: A Review

“…In terms of digitalization in sugarcane production and automatic intervention, several studies have been conducted (Figure 5), mostly related to sensing and predictive approaches, for example, biomass [67][68][69], gaps [1,3,53,[70][71][72][73][74], lodging identification and classification [75], yield estimation [76][77][78][79][80][81][82], nitrogen application [69,83], sugarcane disease detection [84,85], weed control [52,86], improved cropland use [87], harvesting planning [88,89], and prediction of seed replenishment positions [90]. [68], improved cropland use [87], image classifier [52], gaps [73], lodging identification [75] a yield estimation [79].…”

“…The use of sensor systems with GNSS in sugarcane crop production has been growing, mainly due to the benefits provided by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) [70], which are powerful tools that can collect digital data at high spatial resolution. Real Time Kinematic (RTK) positioning solutions can provide higher accuracy to support decision makers to cope with field variability at a high spatial resolution, i.e., at the resolution of the sugarcane planting lines based on which sugarcane gap maps can be obtained as shown in [74].…”