Night vision technology in farming – do we need them?

October 8, 2021

 

Developing the first-night vision devices for military purposes, scientists did not suspect that their invention would get a much wider application in the 21st century. Now NV technology is used not only in the armed forces of different countries. It is popular among hunters, wildlife watchers, security organizations, and so on. But it is no less useful for agriculture and farming. It's amazing how rational a human can be in making the work more productive and easier! How can night vision technology be used in farming, and does it have any sense to integrate it in this sphere? Read on.

Types of night vision technologies
Three different technologies allow you to see in the dark – night vision, thermal vision, and active illumination. The last option allows you to get an image with high resolution and clarity. But there is also one big drawback – for such devices to work, additional illumination is needed. Such technology provides a good image in complete darkness, but people or animals can see the user due to extra illumination. The naked eye cannot see the night vision, and thermal vision work, so they are often used. Night vision technology has gone through several stages of “faceting” so that we can enjoy the flawless work of modern NV equipment. Its work is based on capturing all available light, and shortwave radiation (photons) reflected from objects and turning it into one light stream. Photons turn into electrons and pass through the image intensifier tube, where their number increases several hundred times. The more electrons, the clearer and brighter the user's image on display. Thermal imaging is the last state-of-the-art in the night vision industry. A thermal imaging camera can be so tiny that it can be easily carried in a pocket. The camera has thermal sensors that capture thermal radiation from objects around the user, measure their temperatures, and then send this data to a built-in microcomputer. The computer processes the information and displays a thermal image of the surrounding space on the user's display. Capturing and processing data is so fast that the user sees the image without delay, that is, in real-time.

What problems do NV and TV solve in farming
Working on the ground and caring for plants is very time-consuming, expensive, and needs constant control. NV and TV technologies make it possible to avoid many problems and unnecessary expenses in farming if used correctly:

• Lower air temperature at night. It facilitates the work of both a human and a technics; soil cultivation, spraying, and other types of work are much easier and faster to carry out in comfortable temperature conditions.
• Ability to work in the fields during the day and at night, that is, to make flexitime for personnel. A flexible and convenient work schedule would reduce conflicts in the team.
• Minimal harm to bees during flower pollination. Bees pollinate plants from sunrise to sunset. During daytime fertilization and chemical treatments, farmers annually destroy thousands of these vital nature insects.
• Ability to kill more pests. Sometimes it is impossible to destroy pests. It happens because they are on the soil under the leaf's protection at the daytime spraying, and they climb up only in the evening. Spraying fields at night will destroy the maximum number of pests. Besides, farming at night reduces the risk of injuring wild animals and birds in the field during the day.

How night vision and thermal vision can be useful in farming
Modern technologies can do great harm to nature, resulting from which the human is suffering too. In many countries, wind turbines are installed on farmers' fields. Quite often, the birds are injured on their vanes during the day and at night – bats. But birds and bats save fields from an army of insects. So, when there are no birds and bats, there appear insects on the crop. Night vision and thermal vision allow farmers to effectively track the movements in the air to regulate the work of wind turbines.

These technologies have other fantastic possibilities:

• Determination of the state of the crop. The density of stems and leaves can determine the presence of diseased plants. Healthy plants almost do not transmit short and long waves, so the percentage of reflected energy is low. Also, green leaves contain a lot of chlorophyll, which makes it difficult to pass the waves.
• Determination of viable seeds. After sowing in the ground, viable seeds can be identified that will increase the harvest.
• Scheduling irrigation. Heat radiation and gas exchange of the soil makes it possible to determine the most humid and hottest places in the field. To save water, farmers use thermal technology to find dry areas that need urgent watering.
• Identification of plants infected with pathogenic bacteria. With the help of heat screening, it is possible to determine powdery mildew of barley, yellow rust of wheat, damages of cucumber leaves, and fungus.
• Yield assessment. Often the harvest and the profit from its sales do not meet the farmer's expectations. But modern technologies allow them to make a preliminary yield assessment to understand the possible sum of income. Such a prediction is possible not only for crops growing in the field but also for fruit trees. Thermal and infrared sensors allow determining healthy and diseased fruits, as well as their quantity on the tree.
• Determination of maturity. The intensity of the infrared radiation allows you to determine the degree of maturity of the crop. This can usually be done by visual, but if you need to know maturity over a large area, the above technologies will help.
• Determination of damaged fruit and vegetables before transportation. This helps to determine fruit and vegetables that may soon start to rot. Workers can spray fertilizers or pesticides on crops at any time from sunset to dawn. Spraying at night allows to better process the plants because there is usually no wind or its gusts are insignificant. Also, night farming has fewer problems with vision dust. Night vision allows protecting fields from wild animals. Farmers often suffer losses from hares, foxes, wild boars, and other animals that trample or eat their crops at night.

The future of NV and TV in farming
According to disappointing forecasts of experts, the fertile soil of the planet is becoming poorer year to year. There is a shortage of water for irrigation, pests that are not typical for a particular climatic zone attack the fields. But such “horrors” for many night vision manufacturers became just an impetus to invent and improve new technologies. How will NV and TV be integrated into the farm industry during the next 5-10 years? Scientists promise us fantastic developments. For example, wide-range thermal imagers will identify areas with dry soil. Then this data will be passed to a computer, and special software will compose the irrigation route to direct tractors primarily to problem areas of the field.
One more idea of developers is the automation of agricultural machinery. Tractors and harvesters of the new generation can be controlled remotely. Night vision cameras will show the direction, and thermal imagers can identify alive objects in the grass or plant stems. This will significantly simplify work on the field at night – it will be possible not to involve personnel at all, only a couple of operators are required for remote control.
Scientists are already developing high-resolution night vision devices. Such devices will clearly see lettering and small elements. The range of their view will also increase. Improving technology soon will enable farmers to fly over fields on a drone at night.
Thermal images can show soil temperature and soil zones with a low content of nutrients, areas with diseased plants. Special software will process this information to make farming more profitable and productive – workers will apply fertilizers and pesticides to the most problematic areas, identify areas with high soil moisture, and much more. Some farms have already purchased night vision optics for staff who works in the fields at night.
Farming is the fourth sector in terms of modernization and development opportunities in the world. It is much easier to integrate new technologies into it than into insurance, building, or catering. Companies such as John Deere, Syngenta, and Robert Bosch actively work on new technologies for the farm industry to make it more productive and high-yielding. Automated farms with well-coordinated day and night work are quite a real project for the next 10 years.