This paper presents a study regarding fuel consumption, distance traveled and aggregate operation time during agrotechnical harrowing operation with and without a navigation system in the company. ...The measurement was carried out on an area of 32.41 ha, which was divided into two equal parts (16.205 ha). The researched area was divided into two equal parts using SMS Advance Software. The tractor-machine aggregate consisted of a Claas Axion 830 tractor as the driving part and a harrow as the working part of it. Fuel consumption was monitored via the tractor's display and the volumetric method. A significant difference in fuel consumption was determined for the volumetric method with navigation (9.97%) and without navigation (6.45%). Higher fuel costs were determined when the unit was operated without a navigation system.
U ovoj studiji istražena je klasifikacija usjeva i tla korištenjem algoritma strojnoga učenja Random Forest, temeljenoga na crveno-zeleno-plavoj (RGB) i multispektralnoj kameri integriranoj na ...bespilotnome zrakoplovu. Područje istraživanja obuhvaćalo je dva podskupa poljoprivredne čestice kukuruza dimenzija 10 x 10 m u blizini Koške. Najveća ukupna točnost klasifikacije postignuta je u kombinaciji rubnoga crvenog (RE), bliskoga infracrvenog (NIR) kanala i indeksa normalizirane vegetacijske razlike (NDVI) u oba podskupa, s ukupnom točnošću od 99,8 %, odnosno 91,8 %. Provedena analiza pokazala je da je RGB kamera postigla dovoljnu točnost i da je prihvatljivo rješenje za klasifikaciju tla i vegetacije. Međutim, multispektralna kamera i spektralna analiza omogućile su detaljniju analizu, prvenstveno za spektralno slična područja. Ovaj je postupak temelj i za izračun gustoće usjeva i za otkrivanje korova s pomoću bespilotnih zrakoplova. Kako bi se osigurala učinkovitost klasifikacije usjeva u praktičnoj primjeni, potrebno je dodatno uključiti klase korova u trenutačnu klasu vegetacije i podijeliti ih na klase usjeva i korova.
This study investigated a crop and soil classification applying the Random Forest machine learning algorithm based on the red-green-blue (RGB) and multispectral sensor imaging deploying an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The study area covered two 10 x 10 m subsets of a maize-sown agricultural parcel near Koška. The highest overall accuracy was obtained in the combination of the red edge (RE), near-infrared (NIR), and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) in both subsets, with a 99.8% and 91.8% overall accuracy, respectively. The conducted analysis proved that the RGB camera obtained sufficient accuracy and was an acceptable solution to the soil and vegetation classification. Additionally, a multispectral camera and spectral analysis allowed for a more detailed analysis, primarily of the spectrally similar areas. Thus, this procedure represents a basis for both the crop density calculation and weed detection while deploying an unmanned aerial vehicle. To ensure crop classification effectiveness in practical application, it is necessary to further integrate the weed classes in the current vegetation class and separate them into crop and weed classes.
This study analyses the importance of the connection between the development of smart agriculture and sustainable digital transformation (DT) of the agri-food sector. The sustainability of DT depends ...on a number of complex components, especially information and communication technologies (ICT), and economic systems. The increase in the number of studies in this area indicates a complex nature as well as interdependencies. Over the last few decades of innovation, ICT, artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT) have significantly affected human activities in all aspects. This includes the rapidly changing and difficult-to-predict agricultural sector in the context of global development, indicating the need to address these challenges. The global trend of DT has included all sectors, opening space for the contribution of smart agriculture to sustainable DT, but also to find appropriate "tailor-made solutions" for every challenge we face.
The paper depicts agricultural robots that can perform complex tasks. Fast development and application of agricultural robotics is a result of increased development of agricultural machinery. Robots ...are complex and intelligent systems with a significant role in agriculture that are becoming an integral part of both the technological and scientific progress. The paper presents some important roles of robots and robotic systems in various agricultural areas and explains the deployment of new technologies supported by the examples of their application in arable farming, horticulture, and forestry. Robotics application decreases the deployment of human resources, enables significant production cost savings, and increases production capacity. The application of robotic systems facilitates high precision levels and repetition speed regarding time and space, which cannot be replicated by farmers
Soybean is regarded as one of the most produced crops in the world, presenting a source of high-quality protein for human and animal diets. The general objective of the study was to determine the ...optimal soybean land suitability and conduct its mapping based on the multicriteria analysis. The multicriteria analysis was based on Geographic Information System (GIS) and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) integration, using Sentinel-2 multitemporal images for suitability validation. The study area covered Osijek-Baranja County, a 4155 km2 area located in eastern Croatia. Three criteria standardization methods (fuzzy, stepwise and linear) were evaluated for soybean land suitability calculation. The delineation of soybean land suitability classes was performed by k-means unsupervised classification. An independent accuracy assessment of calculated suitability values was performed by a novel approach with peak Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) values, derived from four Sentinel-2 multispectral satellite images. Fuzzy standardization with the combination of soil and climate criteria produced the most accurate suitability values, having the top coefficient of determination of 0.8438. A total of 14.5% of the study area (602 km2) was determined as the most suitable class for soybean cultivation based on k-means classification results, while 64.3% resulted in some degree of suitability.
Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) in precision agriculture (PA) represent a cornerstone for field mapping, machinery guidance, and variable rate technology. However, recent improvements in ...GNSS components (GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, and BeiDou) and novel remote sensing and computer processing-based solutions in PA have not been comprehensively analyzed in scientific reviews. Therefore, this study aims to explore novelties in GNSS components with an interest in PA based on the analysis of scientific papers indexed in the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC). The novel solutions in PA using GNSS were determined and ranked based on the citation topic micro criteria in the WoSCC. The most represented citation topics micro based on remote sensing were “NDVI”, “LiDAR”, “Harvesting robot”, and “Unmanned aerial vehicles” while the computer processing-based novelties included “Geostatistics”, “Precise point positioning”, “Simultaneous localization and mapping”, “Internet of things”, and “Deep learning”. Precise point positioning, simultaneous localization and mapping, and geostatistics were the topics that most directly relied on GNSS in 93.6%, 60.0%, and 44.7% of the studies indexed in the WoSCC, respectively. Meanwhile, harvesting robot research has grown rapidly in the past few years and includes several state-of-the-art sensors, which can be expected to improve further in the near future.
In this study, we propose integrating unmanned aerial systems (UASs) and machine learning classification for suitability prediction of expanding habitats for endangered flora species to prevent ...further extinction. Remote sensing imaging of the protected steppe-like grassland in Bilje using the DJI P4 Multispectral UAS ensured non-invasive data collection. A total of 129 individual flora units of five endangered flora species, including small pasque flower (Pulsatilla pratensis (L.) Miller ssp. nigricans (Störck) Zämelis), green-winged orchid (Orchis morio (L.)), Hungarian false leopardbane (Doronicum hungaricum Rchb.f.), bloody cranesbill (Geranium sanguineum (L.)) and Hungarian iris (Iris variegate (L.)) were detected and georeferenced. Habitat suitability in the projected area, designated for the expansion of the current area of steppe-like grassland in Bilje, was predicted using the binomial machine learning classification algorithm based on three groups of environmental abiotic criteria: vegetation, soil, and topography. Four machine learning classification methods were evaluated: random forest, XGBoost, neural network, and generalized linear model. The random forest method outperformed the other classification methods for all five flora species and achieved the highest receiver operating characteristic (ROC) values, ranging from 0.809 to 0.999. Soil compaction was the least favorable criterion for the habitat suitability of all five flora species, indicating the need to perform soil tillage operations to potentially enable the expansion of their coverage in the projected area. However, potential habitat suitability was detected for the critically endangered flora species of Hungarian false leopardbane, indicating its habitat-related potential for expanding and preventing further extinction. In addition to the current methods of predicting current coverage and population count of endangered species using UASs, the proposed method could serve as a basis for decision making in nature conservation and land management.
Soil texture is a vital criterion in most cropland suitability analyses, so an accurate method for the delineation of soil texture suitability zones is necessary. In this study, an automated method ...was developed and evaluated for the delineation of these zones for soybean cultivation. A total of 255 soil samples were collected in the Continental biogeoregion of Croatia. Three methods for interpolation of clay, silt and sand soil content were evaluated using the split-sample method in five independent random repetitions. An automated algorithm for soil texture classification based on the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) in 12 classes was performed using Python script. Suitability classes for soybean cultivation per soil texture class were determined according to previous agronomic and soybean land suitability studies. Ordinary kriging produced the highest accuracy of tested interpolation methods for clay, silt and sand. Highly suitable soil texture classes for soybean cultivation, loam and clay loam, were detected in the northern part of the study area, covering 5.73% of the study area. The analysis of classification results per interpolation method indicated a necessity of the evaluation of interpolation methods as their performance depended on the normality and stationarity of input samples.
The high-precision positioning and navigation of agricultural machinery represent a backbone for precision agriculture, while its worldwide implementation is in rapid growth. Previous studies ...improved low-cost global navigation satellite system (GNSS) hardware solutions and fused GNSS data with complementary sources, but there is still no affordable and flexible framework for positioning accuracy assessment of agricultural machinery. Such a low-cost method was proposed in this study, simulating the actual movement of the agricultural machinery during agrotechnical operations. Four of the most commonly used GNSS corrections in Croatia were evaluated in two repetitions: Croatian Positioning System (CROPOS), individual base station, Satellite-based Augmentation Systems (SBASs), and an absolute positioning method using a smartphone. CROPOS and base station produced the highest mean GNSS positioning accuracy of 2.4 and 2.9 cm, respectively, but both of these corrections produced lower accuracy than declared. All evaluated corrections produced significantly different median values in two repetitions, representing inconsistency of the positioning accuracy regarding field conditions. While the proposed method allowed flexible and effective application in the field, future studies will be directed towards the reduction of the operator’s subjective impact, mainly by implementing autosteering solutions in agricultural machinery.
The determination of cropland suitability is a major step for adapting to the increased food demands caused by population growth, climate change and environmental contamination. This study presents a ...novel cropland suitability assessment approach based on machine learning, which overcomes the limitations of the conventional GIS-based multicriteria analysis by increasing computational efficiency, accuracy and objectivity of the prediction. The suitability assessment method was developed and evaluated for soybean cultivation within two 50 × 50 km subsets located in the continental biogeoregion of Croatia, in the four-year period during 2017–2020. Two biophysical vegetation properties, leaf area index (LAI) and a fraction of absorbed photosynthetically active radiation (FAPAR), were utilized to train and test machine learning models. The data derived from a medium-resolution satellite mission PROBA-V were prime indicators of cropland suitability, having a high correlation to crop health, yield and biomass in previous studies. A variety of climate, soil, topography and vegetation covariates were used to establish a relationship with the training samples, with a total of 119 covariates being utilized per yearly suitability assessment. Random forest (RF) produced a superior prediction accuracy compared to support vector machine (SVM), having the mean overall accuracy of 76.6% to 68.1% for Subset A and 80.6% to 79.5% for Subset B. The 6.1% of the highly suitable FAO suitability class for soybean cultivation was determined on the sparsely utilized Subset A, while the intensively cultivated agricultural land produced only 1.5% of the same suitability class in Subset B. The applicability of the proposed method for other crop types adjusted by their respective vegetation periods, as well as the upgrade to high-resolution Sentinel-2 images, will be a subject of future research.
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