ABOUT KEYNOTE

  Professor Reza Ehsani
University of Florida, USA
   
  ABSTRACT
 

 

MOBILE SOIL AND PLANT SENSORS: TECHNOLOGY UPDATE

Data, technology, and management are three key elements for having a successful production system in today's global market. Precision agriculture, which is an information based management technique, relies heavily on site specific information. Conventional methods of soil and plant sampling are very expensive and time consuming. Lack of real time sensors for measuring soil and plant characteristics have been a major bottleneck for the adoption of precision agriculture. The purpose of this presentation is to provide an update on state of the art technologies and sensors for measuring soil and plant parameters. The presentation covers sensors that are developed or under development for the following applications:

- Soil physical properties such as soil texture, structure, and compaction
- Soil chemical properties such as soil nutrient content, and pH
- Plant biotic (disease) stress detection
- Plant abiotic (nutrition) stress detection
- Canopy geometric characteristics such height, volume, density and leaf area index

Also, there will be a discussion on different technologies that are used in these sensors such as visible, near and mid-infrared spectroscopy, differential mobility spectrometer, ultrasonic, light detection and ranging (LIDAR), vision systems, resistivity and electromagnetic induction.
   
  BIOGRAPHY
  Dr. Reza Ehsani’s main area of research is related to mechanical harvesting and application of precision technology for citrus production.  His current areas of research include developing a yield monitoring system for citrus mechanical harvesters, increasing the efficiency of the catching frame on citrus mechanical harvesting equipment, developing methods for expediting the canker decontamination process for citrus mechanical harvesting equipment, and the last is a project on evaluating the efficiency of citrus pick up machines.  Other research activities include applications of wireless sensor networks for citrus groves, application of hyperspectral imaging for detecting plant sensors and diseases.  He also works on developing education materials on the application of GPS/GIS and sensor technology to citrus production, and organizes grower conferences on precision agriculture and mechanical harvesting for citrus. He is specialized in Agricultural and Biological Engineering - Mechanical harvesting and precision agriculture technologies for citrus production.
   
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