The reliability of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) equipped with multispectral cameras for estimating chlorophyll content, plant height, canopy area, and fruit total number of Lemons (Citrus limon)

Abstract

Monitoring  lemon production requires appropriate and efficient technology. The use of UAVs can addressed these challenges. The purpose of this study was to determine the best vegetation indices (VIs) for estimating chlorophyll content, plant height (PH), canopy area (CA), and fruit total numberas (FTN). CCM 200 was used as a tool to measure the chlorophyll content index (CCI), the number of fruits was measured by hand-counter, and other variables were recorded in meters. The UAV used was a Phantom 4 with a multispectral camera capable of capturing five different bands. The VIs was obtained via analysis of digital numbers generated by the multispectral camera. Then, the VIs was correlated with the CCI, PH, CA and FTN. VIs tested included the following: the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), the normalized difference vegetation index-green (NDVIg), the normalized different index (NDI), green minus red (GMR), simple ratio (SR), the Visible Atmospherically Resistant Index (VARI), normalized difference red edge (NDRE), simple ratio red-edge (SR_RE), the simple ratio vegetation index (SR_VI), and the Canopy Chlorophyll Content Index (CCCI). The best model for predicting CCI was obtained using the NDVIg (R²=0.8480; RMSE=6.1665 and RRMSE=0.0908). Meanwhile, SR turned out to be the best model for predicting PH (R²=0.8266; RMSE=15.6432 and RRMSE=0.0883), CA (R²=0.6886; RMSE= 0.8826 and RRMSE=0.1907), and FTN (R²=0.6850; RMSE=24.5574 and RRMSE=0.3503). The implication of these results for future activities includes establishing early monitoring and evaluation systems for lemon yield and production. This model was developed and tested in this specific location and under these environmental conditions.