UAS, sensors, and data processing in agroforestry: a review towards practical applications

ABSTRACT

The aim of this study is twofold: first, to present a survey of the actual and most advanced methods related to the use of unmanned aerial systems (UASs) that emerged in the past few years due to the technological advancements that allowed the miniaturization of components, leading to the availability of small-sized unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) equipped with Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) and high quality and cost-effective sensors; second, to advice the target audience – mostly farmers and foresters – how to choose the appropriate UAV and imaging sensor, as well as suitable approaches to get the expected and needed results of using technological tools to extract valuable information about agroforestry systems and its dynamics, according to their parcels’ size and crop’s types.Following this goal, this work goes beyond a survey regarding UAS and their applications, already made by several authors. It also provides recommendations on how to choose both the best sensor and UAV, in according with the required application. Moreover, it presents what can be done with the acquired sensors’ data through theuse of methods, procedures, algorithms and arithmetic operations. Finally, some recent applications in the agroforestry research area are presented, regarding the main goal of each analysed studies, the used UAV, sensors, and the data processing stage to reach conclusions.

Acknowledgements

This work was financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through the Operational Programme for Competitiveness and Internationalisation - COMPETE 2020 under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement, and through the Portuguese National Innovation Agency (ANI) as a part of project “PARRA -  Plataforma integrAda de monitoRização e avaliação da doença da flavescência douRada na vinhA” (Nº 3447) and ERDF and North 2020 – North Regional Operational Program, as part of project “INNOVINE&WINE – Vineyard and Wine Innovation Platform” (NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000038).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through the Operational Programme for Competitiveness and Internationalisation - COMPETE 2020 under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement, and through the Portuguese National Innovation Agency (ANI) as a part of project “PARRA - Plataforma integrAda de monitoRização e avaliação da doença da flavescência douRada na vinhA” (Nº 3447) and ERDF and North 2020 – North Regional Operational Program, as part of project “INNOVINE&WINE – Vineyard and Wine Innovation Platform” (NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000038).