Non-contact monitoring crop and other vegetation condition, for determining fertilizer requirements, uses flash lights for the reflected light to be received by a single photo-diode giving digitized signals for processing
A non-contact system for monitoring crop and other vegetation condition, especially for local applications of fertilizer, uses artificial halogen or xenon light in at least two channels to illuminate the growth from a moving vehicle. The non-contact system for monitoring crop and other vegetation condition, especially for local applications of fertilizer, uses artificial halogen or xenon light in at least two channels to illuminate the growth from a moving vehicle. The light is delivered by a narrow band flash (6), with the wavelengths set by filters (9). The energy of each flash is measured by a reference detector (12), and temperature-related changes in the light spectrum are compensated by thermal measurements. The reflected light from the vegetation is received in rapid succession by a single photo-diode (14) through a bandpass filter to remove unwanted wavelengths, with temperature corrections to maintain its sensitivity. The reflection signals are digitized for an evaluation and signal processing unit (21), which computes the amount of fertilizer to be applied.
