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    Early Detection of Stripe Rust in Winter Wheat Using Deep Residual Neural Networks
    (Lausanne : Frontiers Media, 2021) Schirrmann, Michael; Landwehr, Niels; Giebel, Antje; Garz, Andreas; Dammer, Karl-Heinz
    Stripe rust (Pst) is a major disease of wheat crops leading untreated to severe yield losses. The use of fungicides is often essential to control Pst when sudden outbreaks are imminent. Sensors capable of detecting Pst in wheat crops could optimize the use of fungicides and improve disease monitoring in high-throughput field phenotyping. Now, deep learning provides new tools for image recognition and may pave the way for new camera based sensors that can identify symptoms in early stages of a disease outbreak within the field. The aim of this study was to teach an image classifier to detect Pst symptoms in winter wheat canopies based on a deep residual neural network (ResNet). For this purpose, a large annotation database was created from images taken by a standard RGB camera that was mounted on a platform at a height of 2 m. Images were acquired while the platform was moved over a randomized field experiment with Pst-inoculated and Pst-free plots of winter wheat. The image classifier was trained with 224 × 224 px patches tiled from the original, unprocessed camera images. The image classifier was tested on different stages of the disease outbreak. At patch level the image classifier reached a total accuracy of 90%. To test the image classifier on image level, the image classifier was evaluated with a sliding window using a large striding length of 224 px allowing for fast test performance. At image level, the image classifier reached a total accuracy of 77%. Even in a stage with very low disease spreading (0.5%) at the very beginning of the Pst outbreak, a detection accuracy of 57% was obtained. Still in the initial phase of the Pst outbreak with 2 to 4% of Pst disease spreading, detection accuracy with 76% could be attained. With further optimizations, the image classifier could be implemented in embedded systems and deployed on drones, vehicles or scanning systems for fast mapping of Pst outbreaks.
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    Primarily tests of a optoelectronic in-canopy sensor for evaluation of vertical disease infection in cereals
    (New York, NY : Wiley, 2022) Dammer, Karl-Heinz; Schirrmann, Michael
    BACKGROUND: Health scouting of crops by satellite, airplanes, unmanned aerial (UAV) and ground vehicles can only evaluate the crop from above. The visible leaves may show no disease symptoms, but lower, older leaves not visible from above can do. A mobile in-canopy sensor was developed, carried by a tractor to detect diseases in cereal crops. Photodiodes measure the reflected light in the red and infrared wavelength range at 10 different vertical heights in lateral directions. RESULTS: Significant differences occurred in the vegetation index NDVI of sensor levels operated inside and near the winter wheat canopy between infected (stripe rust: 2018, 2019 / leaf rust: 2020) and control plots. The differences were not significant at those sensor levels operated far above the canopy. CONCLUSIONS: Lateral reflectance measurements inside the crop canopy are able to distinguish between disease-infected and healthy crops. In future mobile in-canopy scouting could be an extension to the common above-canopy scouting praxis for making spraying decisions by the farmer or decision support systems. © 2021 The Authors. Pest Management Science published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry.