SpectraCam
Crop sensor for chlorophyll content, plant stress and biomass development
The SpectraCam measures the chlorophyll content, biomass and stress levels in crops. Contrary to existing crop sensors, the SpectraCam is able to distinghuish between crop ans soil pixels and to remove the soil pixels from the measurement. Therefore it is possible to measure non-covering crops such as onions. The camera is newly introduced to the market in 2018 and five systems have been successfully implemented in practice at growers of potatoes, brussel’s sprouts, onions, wheat and green beans.
Due to the strong flash light, the camera can be used 24/7 and accurate measurements can be obtained in the early morning and late evening. De camera is mounted to a sprayer or tractor, thereby avoiding any manual control. All data and GPS locations (sensor included) is directly transferred to web server using 4G. You can directly investigate the data after spraying. As result you can take appropriate action for irrigation, fertilization or spraying.
Another unique selling point of the sensor is the availability of analyzed data in a portal and mapping sysytem. Here you can track the chlorophyll and stress development along time and determine the effect of spraying or fertilization. You can easily compare plots and decide which plots requires your attention. As a result you can keep an overview of your plots.
Development
The SpectraCam is collaboratively developed by TechNature and TK-Agrotech. Furthermore, several students of Wageningen University and Research provided their support along the project.
TTW Systemen B.V. and Novifarm provided measurement data and user requirements for the development of the sensor. TTW provides extentsion to growers since many years and requested us to develop the SpectraCam, to fulfil a number of strongly desired aspects, such as a greater accuracy, a better in non-soil-covering crops such as onions, and a fully automated data processing pipeline. Would you like to recieve more information or a quotation? Please contact us for further assistance.
Would you like to know how our current customers think about the SpectraCam? Please read our news letter through the following link.