A Comprehensive Study of the Potential Application of Flying Ethylene-Sensitive Sensors for Ripeness Detection in Apple Orchards
<p>Relative rate of respiration, ethylene production, and growth in climacteric and non-climacteric fruits. Adapted from [<a href="#B5-sensors-19-00372" class="html-bibr">5</a>].</p> "> Figure 2
<p>General and detailed map of the study area. (<b>a</b>) Map of the selected study areas in Randwijk (A and B). (<b>b</b>) Sections of apple lines used for fruit load assessment in Study Area A. Some lines show discontinuities since trees were removed in that section. (<b>c</b>) Junami and Golden Delicious cultivar. (<b>d</b>) Natyra cultivar.</p> "> Figure 3
<p>Tests conducted indoors in a sealed environment with an ethylene emission source (apples) that was placed in the box at the green line and removed at the red line.</p> "> Figure 4
<p>The ethylene flying-detector system: (<b>a</b>) air-ground system architecture and (<b>b</b>) Phantom 3 Professional (UAV) with the sensor prototype attached.</p> "> Figure 5
<p>Distribution of the parameters used in the simulations: <math display="inline"><semantics> <mrow> <msub> <mrow> <mo>{</mo> <mi>e</mi> <mo>,</mo> <mi>E</mi> <mo>}</mo> </mrow> <mn>1</mn> </msub> </mrow> </semantics></math>, <math display="inline"><semantics> <mrow> <msub> <mrow> <mo>{</mo> <mi>e</mi> <mo>,</mo> <mi>E</mi> <mo>}</mo> </mrow> <mn>2</mn> </msub> </mrow> </semantics></math>, and <math display="inline"><semantics> <mrow> <msub> <mrow> <mo>{</mo> <mi>e</mi> <mo>,</mo> <mi>E</mi> <mo>}</mo> </mrow> <mn>3</mn> </msub> </mrow> </semantics></math> stand for pre-climacteric, entering climacteric, and climacteric stages, respectively. Moreover, <span class="html-italic">l</span> stands for fruit load per tree and h for height.</p> "> Figure 6
<p>CAD model and respective parameters set in GADEN.</p> "> Figure 7
<p>Wind flow simulations used as input for GADEN without considering the rotors’ airflow.</p> "> Figure 8
<p>Percentage of occupied cells (cells with ethylene concentration higher than zero) in the environment across all time steps and simulations for the z-plane.</p> "> Figure 9
<p>Relation between wind speed and average ethylene concentration in the four different zones. The colored lines represent the trend line for each zone, as given by the equation <math display="inline"><semantics> <mrow> <mi>y</mi> <mo>=</mo> <mi>a</mi> <mo>+</mo> <mi>b</mi> <mi>x</mi> </mrow> </semantics></math>, where <span class="html-italic">b</span> is the decrease in average ethylene concentration (ppb) per additional unit of wind speed (ms<sup>−1</sup>).</p> "> Figure 10
<p>Drone wind flow simulations used as input for GADEN.</p> "> Figure 11
<p>Maximum ethylene concentration in the <math display="inline"><semantics> <mrow> <mi>x</mi> <mi>z</mi> </mrow> </semantics></math>-plane (top plots) and <math display="inline"><semantics> <mrow> <mi>y</mi> <mi>z</mi> </mrow> </semantics></math>-plane (bottom plots) for the drone simulations in the climacteric stage: (<b>a</b>) omitting rotor wind flow; (<b>b</b>) Drone Position 1; and (<b>c</b>) Drone Position 2. The ethylene sources’ position and emission rate are also provided at the bottom.</p> "> Figure 12
<p>Average ethylene concentration across time in the vicinity of the drone position (<math display="inline"><semantics> <mrow> <mo>±</mo> <mn>0.2</mn> </mrow> </semantics></math> m in <math display="inline"><semantics> <mrow> <mi>x</mi> <mi>y</mi> <mi>z</mi> </mrow> </semantics></math>) for Positions 1 and 2.</p> "> Figure 13
<p>Percentage of occupied cells (cells with ethylene concentration higher than zero) in the environment across all time steps and simulations for the z-plane.</p> "> Figure 14
<p>Hovering and sampling at two different position per experiment: (<b>a</b>) low and high heights within the orchard; (<b>b</b>) samples on Study Field A over the two days; and (<b>c</b>) samples on Study Field B over the two days.</p> "> Figure 15
<p>Sensor voltage output for aerial measurements on different days.</p> "> Figure 16
<p>Sensor voltage output for aerial measurements at different heights.</p> ">
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Materials and Methods
2.1. Study Area
2.2. Ethylene Flying Detector
3. Determining the UAV Hovering Height
3.1. Environment Wind Speed Modeling
- Ethylene emission ( Lh−1 kg−1). Each apple in the tree can in principle be at a different maturation stage and, therefore, have a different ethylene emission rate corresponding with three maturity stages.
- Fruit position (height (m), direction (°)). Each apple in the tree can be at a different position in the canopy.
- Fruit load (kg). Each apple tree can have a different amount of fruit.
- Wind speed (ms−1). In any given moment, the local wind speed and direction might vary. For this initial evaluation, two wind speed directions were considered.
3.2. Rotors’ Airflow Modeling
4. Field Tests on the Orchard
4.1. Sampling Scheme
4.2. System Deployment and Sensitivity Tests
5. Discussion
5.1. Wind Speed and Rotors’ Effect
5.2. Theoretical versus Practical Optimal Sampling Height
5.3. Discrete versus Continuous Sampling
5.4. Ethylene Detection over the Season and Inferring the OHD
5.5. Feasibility of Using Flying Ethylene-Sensitive Sensors
5.6. UAV vs. UGV
6. Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
References
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# | Ethylene Emission | Wind Direction | Wind Speed (ms−1) | Drone Position |
---|---|---|---|---|
1.1 | Pre-climacteric | 2 | ||
1.2 | Entering climacteric | |||
1.3 | Climacteric | |||
2.1 | Pre-climacteric | 2 | ||
2.2 | Entering climacteric | |||
2.3 | Climacteric |
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Valente, J.; Almeida, R.; Kooistra, L. A Comprehensive Study of the Potential Application of Flying Ethylene-Sensitive Sensors for Ripeness Detection in Apple Orchards. Sensors 2019, 19, 372. https://doi.org/10.3390/s19020372
Valente J, Almeida R, Kooistra L. A Comprehensive Study of the Potential Application of Flying Ethylene-Sensitive Sensors for Ripeness Detection in Apple Orchards. Sensors. 2019; 19(2):372. https://doi.org/10.3390/s19020372
Chicago/Turabian StyleValente, João, Rodrigo Almeida, and Lammert Kooistra. 2019. "A Comprehensive Study of the Potential Application of Flying Ethylene-Sensitive Sensors for Ripeness Detection in Apple Orchards" Sensors 19, no. 2: 372. https://doi.org/10.3390/s19020372