Multi-point synchronous ground truthing of air drone thermal imagery using ground based rover drones in a vineyard
CHALLENGE
In the Ontario grape and wine industry, the shifting and irregular climates have made measuring and monitoring micrometeorology a required element of good vineyard management. UAV data can objectively show vine health, vigor, and water stress. The difficulty with UAV data is that there is no ground-truthing and it only collects data from one perspective. UAV data allows the user to visualize relative heat, however, vineyard managers require absolute air temperature, and relative humidity.
SOLUTION
Sarapoint and Niagara College will address the need to collect dynamic micrometeorology data with a custom robotic prototype called the TerBot. The TerBot data will be sewn together with UAV outputs using the TerBot web tool, which will be developed as part of the project, to provide depth, and visulization to the data captured from the sky. The TerBot will gather air temperature and relative humidity micrometeorology data once per second. This absolute data will address the dynamic ground data that UAVs lack. The prototype TerBot will be developed and tested at the Niagara College – Niagara-on-the-Lake 40-acre campus vineyard. The TerBot data will support vineyard management decisions, and provide additional terroir data.