UAS-based Measurement of Crop Height and Biomass

Abstract

The authors of this article tested the usability of UAS RGB images for estimating crop heights and biomass. The assessment was done at eight growth stages to provide timely and reliable spatial information. Studying growth of crops throughout the growing season is a prerequisite for informed farming, decision-making and estimating yield production. Field-based data acquisition is able to give accurate results but is costly and time-consuming which can lead to under-sampling and thus compromise accuracy. Added to this, data acquisition in the field causes damage to the vegetation due to trampling. Therefore, non-destructive methods of measuring changes in crop height over time at high spatial and temporal resolution are essential.