A Simple, Inexpensive Method for Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Photograph Analysis to Quantify Green Color and Enhance Ratings in Field Research Plots

摘要

Agricultural small-plot research is necessary to determine pesticide efficacy and develop integrated pest management programs for stakeholders. Many efficacy trials are rated visually using scales of foliage affected by a given pest. Human estimationsintroduce variability, and researchers continue explore methods of reducing variability in research trials. Recent developments in unmanned aerial vehicle technology allow novices to outfit inexpensive drones with inexpensive modified cameras to obtainaerial photographs that can be analyzed with any number of free image manipulation programs. Measuring reflected color from photographs provides data with lower variability that can be correlated with foliar disease ratings.