Laser in Agriculture

A special issue of Agriculture (ISSN 2077-0472). This special issue belongs to the section "Agricultural Technology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 December 2023) | Viewed by 5478

Special Issue Editor

Department of Automatica, Federal University of Lavras (UFLA), Caixa Postal 3037, Lavras CEP 37200-900, MG, Brazil
Interests: optical metrology; biospeckle laser; agricultural engineering; sensors; image analysis

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The use of lasers as a tool of measurement and assistance has been a valuable asset within broad areas of knowledge such as medicine, industry, agriculture, and the military. Material cutting is also an active area of their application, for instance, in medicine and in industry. In agriculture, lasers can be used as sensors, for instance, to assist land levelling and the identification of the height of crops.

With broad potential applications as sensors, lasers can also be used to measure small changes in biological material through dynamic laser speckle, or biospeckle laser (BSL). The evaluation of seed viability and vigour or the identification of bruising in fruits and potatoes are some examples of biospeckle laser usage.

Similarly, the adoption of BSL to determine the bruising or maturity of fruits and the growth of roots in tissue cultures is often found in the literature. Other applications, such as the identification and control of parasites in wastewater from agricultural processes, can also be pointed out as a reliable use of biospeckle laser.

Besides interferometric techniques, it is possible to envision the application of a laser sheet (or line) to create a profile of samples and soil within a dedicated and commercial laser scanner or similar equipment developed in universities, as well as its use as a stimulating light to activate seed germination and other biological samples. Therefore, the influence of lasers in different wavelengths must be considered throughout research and tuned according to the envisioned applications.

This Special Issue of Agriculture welcomes novel works regarding the use of lasers in agriculture, without any restrictions of their applications.

Prof. Dr. Roberto Alves Braga Júnior
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Agriculture is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • lasers in agriculture
  • optical metrology
  • land levelling
  • dynamic laser speckle
  • seed germination stimulus
  • bruising
  • maturation in fruits
  • laser scanning

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

13 pages, 3030 KiB  
Article
Analysis of the Effect of Tilling and Crop Type on Soil Structure Using 3D Laser Profilometry
by Bianca B. Barreto, Fernando P. Rivera, Blair M. McKenzie, Katharine Preedy, Yangminghao Liu, Lionel X. Dupuy, Elisângela Ribeiro and Roberto A. Braga, Jr.
Agriculture 2023, 13(11), 2077; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture13112077 - 31 Oct 2023
Viewed by 774
Abstract
Background and aim: Soil structure is an important indicator of the quality of soil, but detecting the early signs of soil degradation from soil structure is difficult. Developing precise instruments able to diagnose soil structure quickly is therefore critical to improve management practices. [...] Read more.
Background and aim: Soil structure is an important indicator of the quality of soil, but detecting the early signs of soil degradation from soil structure is difficult. Developing precise instruments able to diagnose soil structure quickly is therefore critical to improve management practices. Here, the objective is to develop an instrument analysing the roughness of surfaces resulting from the fracture of soil cores, and to test the instrument’s ability to detect changes in soil structure cause by crop type and tillage. We have designed and constructed a 3D laser profilometer suitable for analysing standard soil cores. The 3D soil profiles were first assembled into a 3D surface using image analysis before roughness indicators could be computed. The method was tested by analysing how soil surface roughness was affected by crop varieties (barley and bean) and tillage (conventional tillage and no tillage). Results showed the method is precise and could reliably detect an influence of crop type and tillage on the roughness indicator. It was also observed that tillage reduced the difference in soil structure between the different cultures. Also, the soil in which barley grew had significantly lower roughness, irrespective of the tillage method. This could indicate that the roughness indicator is affected by biopores created by the root system. In conclusion, roughness indicators obtained from the fracture of soil cores can be easily obtained by laser profilometry and could offer a reliable method for assessing the effect of crop types and soil management on soil quality. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Laser in Agriculture)
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15 pages, 2795 KiB  
Article
Assessment of the Use of Infrared Laser for Dynamic Laser Speckle (DLS) Technique
by Ellem W. N. Contado, Moacir Pasqual, Joyce Dória, Rolando J. Gonzalez-Peña, Lionel X. Dupuy and Roberto A. Braga, Jr.
Agriculture 2023, 13(3), 546; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture13030546 - 23 Feb 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1548
Abstract
Dynamic laser speckle (DLS) analysis is a very sensitive technique to measure biological activity within samples. In agriculture, the technique is applied to monitor seed germination, but external light, water content, and pigments affect the measurements. DLS systems use visible light sources, typically [...] Read more.
Dynamic laser speckle (DLS) analysis is a very sensitive technique to measure biological activity within samples. In agriculture, the technique is applied to monitor seed germination, but external light, water content, and pigments affect the measurements. DLS systems use visible light sources, typically red lasers, which may exacerbate their influences. The main objective of this work is to assess whether infrared (IR) lasers improve the robustness of DLS measurements in seed germination applications. We develop a system where DLS analysis can be performed simultaneously on visible and IR light. Using the system, we quantify how the DLS signal is affected by pigments and scattering. The results show that the use of IR light reduces the variability of the measurements acquired. DLS systems based on IR light appear to be less sensitive to pigments, and the greater penetration of IR light into samples, which is due to reduced scattering, may contribute to the signal collected being correlated to relevant biological processes within the inner tissue. Additionally, water activity provides less influence on the DLS signal when an IR laser is used. These findings support the wider use of IR lasers in DLS-based instruments for applications in biological samples. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Laser in Agriculture)
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