Location: Sustainable Water Management Research
Project Number: 6066-13000-006-030-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Aug 1, 2024
End Date: Jul 31, 2025
Objective:
There are two objectives to this project. Object 1 - Design and develop a cost-effective infrared thermometer (IRT) for crop temperature monitoring. Objective 2 - Demonstrate that the IRT system from Objective 1 can measure crop canopy temperature accurately in agricultural crop fields.
Approach:
The approach for this project has the Cooperator developing and constructing a low-cost infrared thermometer (IRT) for measuring crop temperature. The sensor will be robust enough to survive agricultural production environments, has a target cost of less than $500 and will include controlled electronics, wireless communication, global position system (GPS) and solar panels for charging in a single platform. The IRT system will be constructed to have a measurement range of up to 4 m from the target crop canopy. A Microsoft Windows application will be developed to read and display the data from a personal computer. After laboratory development the IRT system will tested for function and durability in an agricultural field.
