Progress 08/15/17 to 04/14/18
Outputs
Target Audience:Critical stakeholder segments in the precision agriculture arena include wetlands monitoring (Department of Natural Resources), watershed monitoring (USDA, EPA, water districts, chemical/fertilizer companies, farmers), plant pathology (seed/chemical companies, farmers), and weed detection (DNR, DOT, farmers). During the course of the Phase I project, Sporian conducted interviews with organizations representing each of the stakeholder segments. For each market identified, Sporian has determined the market potential, growth trends, potential customers, and current competitors. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?
Nothing Reported
How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Sporian has briefed technical partners, CCAs/CPAgs, imaging service companies, agriculture data analytics companies, farm equipment OEMS, USDA program contacts, and potential transition partners plus other stakeholders including universities and national labs. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Work with technical and transition partners/customers to define key system requirements, data usage strategies, and foster commercial transition. Under this task, Sporian worked with a range of technical partners, CCAs/CPAgs, imaging service companies, agriculture data analytics companies, farm equipment OEMS, USDA program contacts, and potential transition partners to fully establish the operational, interface and usage requirements as much as possible. Notably for Phase I, Sporian worked with a data analytics company to identify not only how such a system could be put to use in an agriculture application, but also the type of data and analytics ultimately needed to be useful. In addition to leveraging prior working relationships, Sporian has been compiling and soliciting additional key players in the agricultural industry to familiarize the market with our technology and broaden our potential customer base including universities, national labs and the private sector. From these initial discussions, a basic framework for an application-suitable instrument was identified. This task also included working independently and with USDA-funded commercialization support services provider (Larta) to begin identifying: commercial ecosystem; customers' needs for targets, form factors, etc.; competitors (and their SWOTs); emerging competitive technology; related/adjacent markets, market growth trends, regulatory/legislative environment, supply chain, investors/licensees; and accepted standards, certifications, and references. Sporian also worked to identify strategic partners (public or private) for collaboration and support as the work progresses into future phases. Sporian interacted with a wide range of such stakeholders regarding further collaboration and testing opportunities. Each has offered to participate in/support the Phase II effort. Leveraging prior work on the miniaturized hyperspectral spectrometer, evaluate and develop a preliminary, imaging capable, total system design including optics, firmware, electronics, and packaging. Under this task, a detailed design of the spectroscopic hardware and the scanning front end (optics, electronics, and packaging) was developed for Phase I prototyping and testing, and was the basis for subsequent integrated system design efforts. This effort began with a component review of key optics and optoelectronics technologies, including the experimental verification of key components to determine viability. The effort also included the evaluation of beam steering technologies to enable whisk broom operation. Electronics design (schematic and initial PCB) was refined and improved upon, which included enhancing the custom operational firmware and user interface developed to support Phase I testing. The results of the optical component technology review were used to evaluate and successfully define a preliminary optical system design for Phase I realization that would utilize all of the same component technologies as those that would be used in long term totally integrated systems. This optical design evaluation included significant optical system modeling for both performance verification and system optimization. Sporian utilized the evaluation and experimental results from this task to develop a preliminary design for a complete small spectroscopic portion of the system. This included the evaluation and design of the telescopic section options (with and without scanning elements), as well as the preliminary design of an ultra-compact, fully integrated, system level optical system and associated system level electronics, firmware architecture, and packaging/integration concept to be the foundation for early Phase II efforts. The integrated system design, which included provisions for the optional inclusion of a battery and IMU/INS, emphasizes using low cost optical component technologies, miniaturization, and design elements that minimize the need for high tolerance features in order to keep cost and complexity down. The estimated size of the total spectroscopic system packaging was ~19 in3 and ~0.24 (w/o scanning element), ~21 in3 and ~0.31 kg (w/scanning element), and would meet all of the proposed performance and functional targets. This task also included the development of hardware cost estimates at various volumes (showing hardware and assembly cost <$4,000 at mid-level volumes), and the definition of a development roadmap for potential Phase II efforts focusing on total system realization and field testing in conjunction with technical/research partners. Construct a first-generation, bench-top scale version of the scanning hyperspectral imager, and conduct proof-of-principle experiments to demonstrate the performance characteristics. Following the optical component technology review, a Phase I benchtop proof-of-concept layout was realized using the same component technologies as those intended to be used in the long term integrated system. Three different input configurations where used to test and characterize the UV-SWIR spectroscopic section before a final configuration was chosen. This final input configuration will allow incorporation of a whisk broom scanning element to the front end of the spectroscopic section. Figures of merit that were looked at were wavelength range, spectral resolution, spectral bandwidth, wavelength accuracy and repeatability, noise equivalent radiance, in addition to preliminary leaf reflectance data being captured. Upon analyzing the benchtop system data, testing showed that Sporian nearly met all proposed long term figures of merit and many exceeded the proposed targets. Information gathered here was then used to aid in guiding a preliminary total system design and strategy for Phase II to fully meet or exceed proposed target. The target total integrated system performance and feature targets for Phase II realization are based on the results of the Phase I design, modeling, and experimental efforts, the feasibility of which was clearly demonstrated in Phase I. Based on Sporian's prior experience fielding compact spectroscopic systems and the results of the Phase I effort, Sporian is confident the proposed system can be realized and demonstrated during the Phase II timeframe. This constitutes a clear demonstration of the feasibility of the proposed technical concept. As a further proof of concept, the lab hardware was used to generate reflectance spectra for a range of crop samples (greenhouse) including corn, soybean, barley, and sugar beets under a range of conditions (water restricted, etc.), for which there are similar data reported in literature, but with notably higher spectral range and wavelength resolution.
Publications
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