Award details

Image acquisition and analysis techniques tolerant to natural lighting

Reference	BBS/E/S/00000424
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Professor J Marchant
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors
Institution	Silsoe Research Institute
Department	Silsoe Research Institute Department
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	404,536
Status	Completed
Type	Institute Project
Start date	01/04/1998
End date	31/03/2001
Duration	36 months

Abstract

The work aims to develop techniques for closed loop control of image acquisition to maximise the quality of information in the images. The meaning of 'information quality' will depend on the eventual use of the images and measures of quality will have to be developed. Both monochrome and multiband (colour plus, possibly, near infra red) systems will be investigated. We will investigate applying the techniques in an outdoor problem - tracking features in images of cereals and small weeds. the use of parallax will be investigated to differentiate between plants and weeds on the basis of height differences. Outdoor machine vision is a generic capability that can contribute to sustainable and efficient crop production processes through technology such as plant scale husbandry (reducing pesticide use), animal and fish monitoring and crop inspection. Thus it is relevant to the BBSRC Agri-Food Committee remit (productivity, sustainability, efficiency, safety of food materials). Also to Technology Foresight priorities especially sensors. The desired outputs are image analysis techniques specifically designed to deal with the lighting variations typical of out door conditions, where the range of intensities is 100 to 1 between bright sunshine and a gloomy day. Other effects difficult to deal with in machine vision are shadows and highlights that appear and disappear, and apparent colour changes. Our image analysis research underpins MAFF work on animal monitoring which is now being taken up commercially, and work on vision guided vehicles for inter-row cultivation funded by SBREC. There is great potential for other applications in robotics and sensing for control.

Summary

unavailable

Committee	Closed Committee - Agri-food (AF)
Research Topics	X – not assigned to a current Research Topic
Research Priority	X – Research Priority information not available
Research Initiative	X - not in an Initiative
Funding Scheme	X – not Funded via a specific Funding Scheme

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