Remote sensing for precision weed management

Authors: Huang, Yanbo; SUN, XIN - North Dakota State University; RAI, NITIN - North Dakota State University; Yao, Haibo; Reddy, Krishna; Jenkins, Johnie

Submitted to: Pest Management Science
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 4/2/2025
Publication Date: 4/17/2025
Citation: Huang, Y., Sun, X., Rai, N., Yao, H., Reddy, K.N., Jenkins, J.N. 2025. Remote sensing for precision weed management. Pest Management Science. 81:4190-4199. https://doi.org/10.1002/ps.8833.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/ps.8833

Interpretive Summary: With the advancement of precision agriculture, herbicides can be applied site-specifically with precision operations over the crop fields. Precision application of herbicides is crucial to ensure efficient crop productivity. To control and even remove weed interference in crop fields, remote sensing is and will take an important role to provide accurate site-specific information to guide spraying/weeding systems for precision weed management to improve crop production management.

Technical Abstract: BACKGROUND: Herbicides are important for controlling and avoiding weeds’ impact to reduction of crop productivity. Traditionally, herbicides are applied uniformly over crop fields. With the advancement of precision agriculture, it is possible to apply herbicides site-specifically with precision in the crop fields. Precision application of herbicides is crucial to ensure efficient crop productivity. To control and even remove weed interference in crop fields, traditionally, the weeds in crop fields were visually identified and removed manually or killed by chemicals. However, in commercial crop production, accurate applications of herbicides to the target weeds in the crop fields has been a challenge either from the sprayers on aircraft (manned/unmanned) or ground-based systems. RESULTS: To implement precision application of herbicides over crop fields remote sensing can be effective in identifying the weed targets and assess the effect of the applied herbicide and its drift. Satellite remote sensing was developed for weed mapping in the 1990s. At the beginning of the twenty first century airborne remote sensing was identified as a promising technique to offer a solution for rapidly identifying and mapping weeds in crop fields for precision weed management. In the early 2010s unmanned aerial vehicles was developed and used for weed management. Since then, there is growing interest in using UAVs as a platform for crop field mapping for precision weed management. The applications include weed mapping over crop fields, assessment of crop injury from aerially applied off-target glyphosate, identification and differentiation of glyphosate-resistant weeds from glyphosate-susceptible weeds, and assessment of crop injury from field applied dicamba. CONCLUSIONS: With the current advancements made in developing site-specific digital agricultural technology, it is possible to target weeds of interest for precision spot-spraying application. However, large-scale dataset plays a vital role in developing computer vision-based system that can accurately target weeds in any environment. The current challenge that the agriculture industry faces is not with regards to expert engineers or scientists to develop site-specific technology, but it is adaptability. For instance, a drone-based spot spraying approach developed in the state of California should be able to generalize and adapt to the environment in Michigan or other states. Only then can experts from multiple fields develop sustainable technology not just for one state or a place but scale it. Therefore, this study will help readers gain in-depth understanding of the approaches needed to develop a robust precision application technology for site-specific weed management.