TOAS: New remote sensing technologies for optimizing herbicide applications in weed-crop systems
An EU initiative developed intelligent drones that detect weeds on crops, enabling herbicides to be targeted to infested areas only.EU policy encourages farmers to limit the use of herbicides by applying them exclusively to infested areas instead of entire crop fields. In the past, infestations were detected by satellite imagery, but this technology has very limited resolution capabilities. To address this issue, the EU-funded TOAS (New remote sensing technologies for optimising herbicide applications in weed-crop systems) project developed unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, that can detect weeds on crops fast and accurately. The focus was on maize and sunflower crops, as well as olive and poplar trees.The specific objectives will concentrate on the evaluation of the specifications (sensor type, imagery characteristics, crop-weed phenological stage) required for each type of crop and on the development of advanced algorithms for crop assessment and weed mapping using the captured remote images. The ultimate objective is to generate geo-referenced weed infestation maps for making in season site-specific herbicide treatments in early weed stages. The successful implementation of the TOAS project would lead to a 15-35% reduction in farm costs and a 20-30% decrease in the use of crop protection chemicals,
See also: https://smart-akis.com/SFCPPortal/#/app-h/technologies?techid=83
Smart-AKIS: European Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation Systems (AKIS) towards innovation-driven research
in Smart Farming Technology
Ongoing | 2016-2018
in Smart Farming Technology
- Main funding source
- Horizon 2020 (EU Research and Innovation Programme)
- Geographical location
- Greece