Precision farming in crop and livestock production

Title

Entwicklung eines intelligenten UAV-gestützten Unkrautmonitoringsystems für den selektiven und teilflächenspezifischen Herbizideinsatz

Acronym

weed-AI-seek

Start

28.05.2021

End

27.05.2024

Coordinating Institute

Leibniz-Institut für Agrartechnik und Bioökonomie e.V. (ATB)

Coordinator

Partner

Allocated to research program

Summary

The objective of the weed-AI-seek project is to develop an intelligent real-time monitoring and mapping system for the detection of weed distribution in cereal stands. For this purpose, high-resolution aerial image data is captured at low flight altitude and classified directly on the drone using optimised onboard AI image recognition during the overflight. The innovative method enables species-specific recognition at the level of individual plants. With the help of derived application maps, the application of herbicides is to be more precisely localised and selectively adapted to the real and species-specific weed distribution in cereal stands. In this way, the project makes a significant contribution to reducing the use of plant protection products in arable farming and thus promotes sustainable agriculture. The Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Engineering and Bioeconomy e.V. (ATB) is involved in all aspects of the project. (ATB) is involved in all project modules. A major contribution will be the development of an annotation database for training and testing AI models for species-specific recognition of weeds. This database contains both the image data extracted from the UAV images and metadata generated by experts. This comprehensive database will represent the diversity of plant species and background in wheat stands and thus go beyond the characterisation of leading weeds alone. The ATB is also significantly involved in the creation of the image recognition model for an embedded system.

Funding

Funding agency

Grant agreement number