Integrating Unmanned Aerial System in Agricultural Remote Sensing to Assess Biofuel Feedstock Quality of Native Warm-season Grasses
Unmanned aerial systems (UAS) have great potential to be incorporated into the next-generation remote sensing (RS) tools and precision agriculture (PA) practices. However, the major challenges for using UAS in agriculture include lack of integrated research combining image processing, spectral bands selection, economic analysis, and crop management; insufficient training and educational program; stringent federal regulation on UAS operation, and public skepticism and misinformation. This project will combine field-level multispectral cameras with adjustable band filters calibrated by hyperspectroradiometer and generate preliminary classification models using machine learning approaches to monitor botanical N concentration of major warm-season feedstock grasses.
Institutions involved:
Middle Tennessee State University
University of Tennessee at Martin
Increasing the Resilience of Agricultural Production in Tennessee through Efficient Water Use
Institutions involved:
University of Tennessee
University of Memphis
Tennessee Tech University
Middle Tennessee State University
This project proposes to increase the resilience of agricultural production in the Tennessee and Cumberland River Basins (TCB) by promoting the adaptation of agricultural production to realized and anticipated climate-related changes in water availability and growing conditions by investigating the impacts of climate changes, land use and industrial and consumer demand on the quantity, quality, and availability of water for agricultural use in the TCB. Particularly, our group here at MTSU will be conducting educational and outreach activities as well as investigating the drought sensitive spectral bands using advanced computational algorithms and spectroscopy analysis on native warm-season grasses.