RESEARCH Science Agriculture

FARM TECHNOLOGY
Remote-sensing lab aims to foster growth of precision farming

Jim Barlow, Life Sciences Editor
(217) 333-5802; b-james3@uiuc.edu

5/1/2001

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — It is 5 a.m. A Midwest farmer sips coffee in front of a computer.
Up-to-the-minute satellite images show a weed problem in a field on the northwest corner of the farm. At 6:30 a.m., the farmer drives to the exact location to apply a precise amount of herbicide.

Seem impossible? Not for long, say University of Illinois scientists at the new Illinois Laboratory for Agricultural Remote Sensing, which was dedicated April 18. Working with scientists from the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, National Aeronautics and Space Administration and researchers from other universities and agribusiness companies, they plan to create prototypes of new software and products that industry can deliver to real farmers.

"This laboratory will get us on the leading edge of a technology that is poised to take off," Terry Wolf, past chairman of Illinois Council for Food and Agricultural Research, said at the dedication. CFAR has provided almost $1 million over five years toward the lab and precision-farming research.

"Our mission is to develop real world applications for agribusiness, conduct basic
agriculture-related sensing and data-management research and establish a first-class agricultural information technology program," said Lei Tian, a professor of agricultural engineering and lab director.

Precision farming and remote sensing, tied in with a satellite-based global positioning system, are far from new ideas, but their application in the real world has fallen below expectations, Tian said. Since then-President Clinton last May ordered the U.S. military to stop scrambling satellite signals used by civilians to improve GPS accuracy, researchers now can develop low-cost data-collection systems that have higher accuracy and will enhance farm mapping capabilities, he said.

"Precision farming makes both economic and environmental sense, but it has been oversold," Tian said. "With present sensing technology, it is not likely to reach its full potential. Technologies like remote sensing will make a big difference. In the future, a farmer will be able to see exactly what is happening in a field. This technology will provide a way to capture precisely where a crop is stressed so that in specific areas application rates can be adjusted."

Tian said that he envisions the development of less-than-seed-sized sensors, which when placed throughout a field as a sensor network, will collect layers of data in real time. That data then could be analyzed swiftly by intelligent data-management and decision-making software.

More accurate and strategically placed sensors will boost remote sensing accuracy and, in turn, enhance a farmer’s ability to raise quality crops and a state’s crop-projection ability, Tian said.

The College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences is host to the lab, which is located in Room 142 of the Agricultural Engineering Sciences Building. More information about the laboratory is accessible on the Web (www.age.uiuc.edu/remote-sensing/index.html).