DRONE TO MONITOR THE PLANT HEALTH ON A LARGE SCALE (ESPECIALLY COMMERCIAL OR PLANTATION CROPS) WITH PROPER ELECTRONICS. AS 20 - 40 % OF MAJOR CROPS ARE WASTED GLOBALLY EVERY YEAR, HERE WE CAME UP WITH THE SOLUTION.

1. Plant Health Monitoring
Drone

2. There is no suitable technology to monitor the health of the plants (especially
commercial or plantation crops) on a large scale. So build a drone for this
problem with proper electronics.
Problem Statement

3. SOLUTION
 Monitoring the health of the crops and plants in commercial and
plantation farming is crucial as 20-40% of major crops are wasted globally
every year resulting in the loss of capital and posed a potential threat to
food security .
 Here we come up with the solution of monitoring the health of plants
using drone which carries the following primary payloads
 Hyperspectral sensor
 Thermal sensor
 VOCSA(Volatile Organic Chemicals
Signature Analyzer)

4. Hyperspectral Sensor
 Hyperspectral imaging is a technique of capturing and processing of an
image at a very large number of wavelengths.
 HSI can assess narrow wave bands in the visible (VIS) range of the
electromagnetic spectrum from 400–700 nm, the near-infrared (NIR) range
from 700 to 1,000 nm, and the shortwave infrared (SWIR) range from 1,000 to
2,500 nm.
Hyperspectral imaging
shows different kinds of
spectrum for various crops

5. Working – Hyperspectral sensor
26,9%
4,1%
11,6%
57,4%
 Plant health is detected by using Normalized Difference Vegetative Index
(NDVI) which uses detailed color information to indicate plant health.
 The spongy layers found on the backside of leaves reflect a lot of light in the
near infrared other than visible light spectrum.
 Whenever the plant is dehydrated or stressed
when infected, the spongy layer collapses and
the leaves reflect less NIR but same amount in
visible range which can be clearly captured by
Hyperspectral sensor with more accuracy.

6. Hyperspectral Imaging shows citrus
trees affected with phytophthora (a
fungal disease). This indicates areas
which may be deficient in chlorophyll
(lower values in red, higher values in
green).
HIS depicts the stressed region of
a corn field which is infected by
bacterial stalk rot caused by
Erwinia dissolvens
(Red-stressed, green-healthy)

7. Thermographic sensor
 Infrared thermal imaging (ITI) is a process of detecting radiation emitted from
an object which uses thermographic sensor to determine the temperature of
an object.
 Thermography allows imaging the differences in surface temperature of farm
lands to detect moisture and water distribution.
Monitoring field conditions
using ITI - Picture depicting
moisture content of soil

8.  Plants undergo transpiration, a process of eliminating excess water in gaseous
form through stomata which is a condition of health which gets affected on the
onset of pathogens or gets affected due to excess salinity.
 By thermographic imaging the amount of water transpired can be determined in
the air as humidity through emitted radiation.
[A] No salinity
[B] slight salinity
[C] moderate salinity
[D] severe salinity
ITI data of land surface temperature
(LST) under different salt stress

9. VOCSA
 VOCSA stands for Volatile Organic Chemical Signature Analyzer.
 VOCSA is device a device composed of
 VOCSA is used to analyze the concentration and type Volatile organic
compounds released by the plants during respiration to detect the disease
with more specificity.
 Micro air sucking motor
 Activated carbon filter
 Novel air sensor

10. Principle
 Every plant produces Volatile organic
compounds as they breathe.
 The amount and type of the compound changes
when crops exposed Biotic Stress.
 The biotic stress may due to infectious disease
attack or pests attack.
 Generally, plant releases VOCs as a result
infectious attack to alert the non-infested
neighboring plants.
 VOCSA analyzes these changes in the chemical
signature to ensure the plant health.
Infected Corn crop releases
VOCs to signal the nearby plant

11. Working
 The device intake the ambient air near the canopy of crops in the infected
region .
 The sucked air is directed to the activated carbon filter.
 The VOCs produced by the plants at the time is adsorbed by Activated
carbon filter and the remaining air is removed through outlet valve.
 Now, the adsorbed VOCs come into contact with the novel air sensor.
 The novel air sensor consists of a chemical reagent embedded color
changing strip made specifically to the respective crop and a RGB color
sensor.
 When VOCs come into contact with the strip, the color of the strip changes
which is analyzed with correspondence to the different VOCs.
 The specific disease can be found and required actions can be undertaken.

12. Observed Specimen
Plant name: Tomato
Scientific name: Solanum
lycopersicum
Disease: Gray mold
Pathogen: Botrytis cinerea
Result: Increase in the emission of
methyl salicylate in large quantities.
Detection: Methyl salicylate in
reaction with sugar produces
triboluminescence in blue color.
Tomato

13. Plant name: Tobacco
Scientific name: Nicotiana tabacum
Pathogen: Tobacco mosaic virus
Disease: Tobacco mosaic
Result: Increase in the emission of
methyl salicylate.
Detection: Sugar reagent producing
triboluminescence in blue color when
reacting with Methyl salicylate
Tobacco
Methyl salicylate reaction
with sugar (sucrose)

14. Plant name: Maize (Corn)
Scientific name: Zea mays
Pathogen: Ostrinia nubilalis
Disease: Larvae attack
Result:
Linalool, Benzyl acetate, Methyl salicylate,
Indole, methyl anthranilate, and other
VOCs were released in large amount as a
result of biotic stress.
Reaction of grape
flavor (methyl
anthranilate-an
ester) with glucose
solution
Maize
Detection: VOC - Methyl anthranilate
Colour – Glowing violet(Triboluminescence with
sugar)

15. Drone is set
up & and lifted
to required
altitude
Hyper
Spectral
Imaging
Infrared
thermal
Imaging
Disease is
specified
Analysis of
VOC’s by
VOCSA
Descendance
in the infected
region and
collection of
VOCs
Flow
chart
-
Process

16. Process
 At first, the PHM drone is set up and made ready for flight.
 The drone is lifted to a requisite altitude to cover a huge piles of farm land
 Now, the drone captures an image of a particular field using high resolution
RGB cameras
 The drone carry out Hyperspectral Imaging of the same field to detect the
stressed or diseased region.
 Infrared thermal imaging is carried out through thermal cameras to analyze
the field conditions simultaneously.
 Finally, the observed data from both sensors is computed through spectral
computing and conclude the region to be further analyzed.

17. <
 Now the drone is descended near the infected area within perimeter of one
meter in altitude.
 Once the drone descended, the VOCSA opens the inlet valve begins the intake
of ambient air for 5-10 minutes.
 The sucked air is directed to the activated carbon filter.
 The Volatile organic compounds get adsorbed in the carbon filter and the
remaining unnecessary air will be removed through the outlet valve and both
the valves are closed.
 After that, the adsorbed VOCs came into contact with Novel air sensor which
contains the color changing strip which is embedded with the specific
chemical reagents and gold Nano particles in accordance to the respective
crops.

18. <
 When the VOCs come into contact with the strip, it changes color based on
the concentration and specific organic compounds.
 Finally, the sensor analyzes the changed color and transmits the observed
data to the application on the user device.
 The application inspect the obtained results with the information stored
about the specific crop diseases and provide the statistics and details about
disease and the infected area.
 Once the user get the necessary data, the farmer can undertake the essential
actions to prevent the infected region by fertilizers or other medicines and
prevent it from spreading further.

19. Wheel base : 1600 mm
Wingspan : 2350 mm
Endurance: 55min/ 5kg payload
35min/ 10kg payload
MTOW: 25 KG
Max payload: 10KG
Max cruise speed: 72km/h
Anti wind capability: 12m/s
Hyperspectral sensor: 1.75 – 2 kg
Thermal sensor: 350 - 380 g
VOCSA : 1.25 – 1.5 kg
Total Payload Weight : 3.35-3.80 kg
YYANGDA YD6-1600M LONG ENDURANCE
HEAVY LIFT HEXACOPTER
(Reference drone with required
specifications for Plant Health Monitoring)
Features & Payloads

20. Advantages
 Simple process and no human cooperation is needed.
 No lab or big instruments are needed.
 Disease of crops can be identified specifically with accuracy more than
90% in a matter of minutes.
 Loss of crops due to pests and micro-organisms can be drastically
reduced.
 Comprehensive insight about the field.
 Helps to increase the productivity.

21. Limitations
 Data about VOCs of each and every crop should be recorded and
documented
 Chemical reagent of every VOCs should be identified.
 Relatively expensive.
 Small scale farmers are impotent to get hands on the drone but the plant
health monitoring can be provided as a service for wider reach and
mutual benefit.
 Hyperspectral sensors aren’t available commercially which can be
replaced with relatively less expensive and commercially available
multispectral sensors.

22. CREDITS: This presentation template was created
by Slidesgo, including icons by Flaticon, and
infographics & images by Freepik.
PRESENTED BY
TEAM GAME OF DRONES
THANK YOU
FOR MORE DETAILS: OFFICIAL - godoffical1608@gmail.com
DONE BY - sarooth.b@gmail.com / mohamedrafee2002@gmail.com /
lovelymemeeditor@gmail.com