Radar Sensors - new technologies for precise crop management

摘要

Within the last years in radar technology remarkable progress was achieved to small devices with low radiation intensity. Such modern radar systems offer the possibility to record data about the distance, the speed and the dielectric characteristics of an object in a non contact mode. The trend goes to encapsulated, rain and dirt insensitive systems. For agricultural engineering purposes these technologies are checked depending on their use for a precise plant production. Especially the exact measurement of distances to both, soil and crop and of true speed over ground can be used for direct adaptation of cultivation work, fertilizer gifts or pesticide application. Further-more, with the measurement of relative crop density or soil surface moisture new approaches are given to adapt the work to the conditions found during crossing the field, what is the overall objective of precision farming.