SENSORS ROLE IN
AGRICULTURE
Prepared by Ryan Turner
Introduction
• What is a sensor
• Common Types of Agricultural Sensors
• Yield Monitor
• GreenSeeker®
• Veris®
• EC
• pH
• Sensor uses
• Conclusion
What is a sensor?
• Sensor: “a device that responds to a physical
stimulus (as heat, light, sound, pressure,
magnetism, or a particular motion) and transmits
a resulting impulse (as for measurement or
operating a control)”
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sensor
Yield Monitor
• Mass flow
• Uses a force sensor to measure
impact of grain on pressure plate
over time
• Optical
• Uses laser to measure grain flow
• Weight
• Uses a force sensor to measure
impact of grain on pressure plate
• Capacitance (Not a yield
monitor)
• Used to check moisture content
http://www.bae.uky.edu/precag/PrecisionAg/Exten_pubs/pa1.pdf
GreenSeeker®
• Measures NDVI
• Ranges from 0-1
• NDVI is calculated by
• NDVI =
𝑁𝐼𝑅−𝑅
𝑁𝐼𝑅+𝑅
• NDVI can be used to tell
the health of the plant
http://www.cropoptics.com.au/Greenseeker.htm
Veris® EC
• Used to test soil electrical
conductivity (EC)
• One pair of coulterelectrodes emits a known
voltage into the soil, while
the other coulter-electrodes
receives the signal and
measure the time it took to
travel and the voltage drop
from the signal.
http://www.veristech.com/products/soilec.aspx
http://www.veristech.com/products/soilec.aspx
Veris® pH
• On a typical 2.5 acre grid
sample, samples are taken
330’ apart. With on-the-go
pH mapping approximately
10 times more are taken.
• Three point hitch, pull
behind, and four-wheeler
attachment are available
http://www.veristech.com/products/soilph.aspx
http://www.veristech.com/products/phdetector.aspx
Sensors Uses
• Yield monitor
• Make yield maps of fields
• Break fields into zones for better
management
• Know actual yields from fields
• Veris® EC
• Make EC maps of fields
• Break fields into zones for
better management
• Better understand field soil
• GreenSeeker®
• Make NDVI maps of fields
• Be used for on the go nitrogen
application
• Plant growth regulator and
harvest aid (cotton)
• Can be correlated to most any
parameter that is related to
plant health.
• Veris® pH
• Make pH maps of fields
• Have better defined pH maps
• Apply variable lime based off
of maps
Conclusion
• Without these types of sensors we wouldn’t be as efficient
and effective with crop management practices as we are
today.
• These sensors help the farmer and producer better
understand their fields and how to manage them.
• With further development of new sensors and bettering
the current ones, sensors will be a major key player in
precision agriculture in the time to come.
Question?