Using robotic cameras for greenhouse plant monitoing

In a recent article published in the journal Future Internet, researchers proposed a low-cost linear robotic camera system specifically designed to automatically capture images of plants growing within a greenhouse. Their system aims to streamline plant growth monitoring and data analysis for researchers and growers interested in precision agriculture and plant phenotyping.

In this paper, the authors designed and implemented a low-cost, one-degree-of-freedom (1-DOF) linear robotic camera system tailored to capture top-view images of plants growing inside a greenhouse environment. Their setup consists of a 3.5-meter aluminum rail supported by two tripods, along with a carriage platform propelled by a stepper motor and timing belt mechanism.

Additionally, the system incorporates a stereo universal serial bus (USB) camera module complete with red-green-blue (RGB) and infrared (IR) sensors, two infrared light-emitting diode (IR LED) boards, an LED strip, two distance sensors, two limit switches, and a Raspberry Pi 4 serving as the central controller. To safeguard against environmental elements, a water-resistant plywood box cover encases the components.

The device is designed to monitor plants growing in plastic pots arranged linearly along the rail. Leveraging color segmentation and contour analysis algorithms, it adeptly detects and pinpoints the plants, subsequently capturing high-resolution images using the camera module.

Read more at azorobotics.com