Multispectrum sensor / cameras... low budget?!?!

[infiniteConciously]

Not sure if this is in the right sub-forum to post in but has anyone had any success hacking together a decent thermal multi spectrum sensor camera setup? The DJI stuff is priced stupidly high for obv commercial reasons. There must be an easier hack out there, just wondering if anyone has come across anything more recently? Theres some decent stuff and scientific journals from 2013-2016, and one from 2018 but I can't see anything more recent than that. The slight issue with these journals is that they don't walk you through their setup but they do talk about comparative results. But at least there's info out there.

Anyway, Just wondering if anyone has managed to do something like this to monitor crop health. Or has any advice to point me in the right direction.

Cheers

 

[PSQ]

We host a pair of 'post doctoral' researchers who fly their drone quite regularly. I'm sure one of them said his bespoke multi spectral sensor package cost "around £60k".

Interesting that you mention 'thermal', as the effect of 'cold' soils doesn't get a mention in the press or scientific literature, and perhaps it should.

 

[infiniteConciously]

I wouldn't be surprised if they did pay that much, especially if they were early adopters. To be honest I was just looking at recent commercial products and copied the thermal part from a spec list for a google search - I've not really thought about soil heat to be honest, but I think your right! someone should look at its impact....

I've soo much to learn I need to start small

Theres quite a few options out there now I believe, but there's no way the likes of DJI and Parrot will bring these price down to the level where an average farmer can afford them. Say like £500. Stuff like this drives me mad, its capitalism gone mad with such a negative global impact on everyone else barring said parties; if you consider that in some way or form 90% of the globe has a dependancy on agriculture yeild. Its madness!

Anyway, I'm shattered so can't go into too much detail and I've not done that much research (to be honest) but here's an interesting link from 2016. https://www.instructables.com/id/A-Raspberry-Pi-Multispectral-Camera/
I couldn't tell you how reliable the setup is but with an upgrade to 2020 kit would be interesting see a good bespoke UAV builder put something together, whack some solar panels on the wings. and with some good drone legislation you could have daily data.

Edit: Just found this link as well. The future is bright I think! So many clever people passionate people tackling this stuff... I love it. Just wish there was a bigger gitHub open source hacker community.

ArduPilot powered hybrid UAV used with hyperspectral payload in precision agriculture

In the last year i was able to design and build a hybrid VTOL UAV. The Hybrid is named after Odin’s two ravens (Norse mythology). I used both names for the double functionality of the UAV, it is able to perform vertical flying like a helicopter and energy efficient flying like an airplane...

discuss.ardupilot.org

 

[DanniAgro]

Please report back if you'd like to share your discoveries.

 

[Bruce_D]

Why are you trying to use a hyper spectral camera? While these are good for identifying crop stresses, particularly if you’re able to take images in the near-infrared spectrum, but there are plenty of indices formulas out there which can give you an indication of crop health with just a simple RGB camera. VARI is achievable with just a cheap DJI Phantom or mavic. Using a software package such as DroneDeploy this can be really quick and easy to achieve.

Then if it works for you but you want more accurate data then look at NIR and NDVI with a sentera, slantranger or a micasensor.

 

[Bruce_D]

I’ve got a DJI, and I’ve played around with dronedeploy, so depending where you’re based, I’d be happy to meet and demonstrate what you can achieve with just a cheap DJI drone.

 

[udderly-ridiculous]

How are you getting on with dronedeploy? Is it worth using?

 

[infiniteConciously]

I’ve got a DJI, and I’ve played around with dronedeploy, so depending where you’re based, I’d be happy to meet and demonstrate what you can achieve with just a cheap DJI drone.

Why are you trying to use a hyper spectral camera? While these are good for identifying crop stresses, particularly if you’re able to take images in the near-infrared spectrum, but there are plenty of indices formulas out there which can give you an indication of crop health with just a simple RGB camera. VARI is achievable with just a cheap DJI Phantom or mavic. Using a software package such as DroneDeploy this can be really quick and easy to achieve.

Then if it works for you but you want more accurate data then look at NIR and NDVI with a sentera, slantranger or a micasensor.

Hi man, So Sorry I haven't replied to either of your posts! this covid thing has knocked my whole 2020 for six...
I'm based in Essex, but no farm in the UK. Maybe day I'll have a farm in th UK! I can but dream! My farm is in India. Your welcome to come out if you fancy it? Or a farm between Norfolk/Essex works for me also... obv after this covid stuff goes away and life returns to normal.

Sounds like you seriously know what your talking about when it comes to image capture... my skillset is in fudging robotics, hacking and coding. So I am not familiar with DroneDeploy but very familiar with FPV Racing, Custom drones, PixHawk & ArduPilot etc. ( Edit; from a quick glimpse it looks like ArduPilot could do with DroneDeploy does quite easily and for less money long term.)

But later this year I think UK drone laws change drastically in November.. so yeah would deffo love to meet up before the laws change! And we need certs to fly anything over 250g or something that has a camera.

Please report back if you'd like to share your discoveries.

Sure 100%!

 

[Bruce_D]

How are you getting on with dronedeploy? Is it worth using?

To be fair to drone deploy it is really simple to use and get something back. Particularly if you don’t need to fly very often, or need high quality images, you can get a large field map done for free. Especially to trial it before you start paying.
I think there are probably cheaper offerings out there now but drone deploy is good because it does most of the hard work automatically.

 

[Bruce_D]

I’m the same. Primarily a robotics engineer doing hacking and coding, but played around with drones and bits when they first came out to see what the hype was about. I’ve built pixhawk and DJI drones, terrible at FPV flying. Spent more time putting on new props then I did flying. Lol.