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Abstract. Regular monitoring and assessment of crops is one of the keys to optimal crop production. This paper presents the development of a monitoring system called, Crop Monitoring and Assessment Platform (C-MAP). The C-MAP is composed of an image acquisition unit which is an off-the-shelf unmanned aerial system (UAS), equipped with a multispectral camera (Near-infrared, green, blue), and an image processing and analysis component. The experimental apple orchard at the Parma Research and Extension Center of the University of Idaho was used as the target for monitoring and evaluation. Each segment of the orchard is randomly treated with different water and nitrogen input. The image processing and analysis was based on the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). Initial results showed that there is a correlation between NDVI, water input, and canopy cover. The C-MAP showed a very good potential as a monitoring tool for orchard management.
Bulanon et al. (2014) studied this question.