eAGROBOT — A robot for early crop disease detection using image processing

Management of crops from early stage to mature harvest stage involves identification and monitoring of plant diseases, nutrient deficiency, controlled irrigation and controlled use of fertilizers and pesticides. Although the number of remote sensing solutions is increasing, the availability and ground visibility during critical growth stages of crops continue to be major concerns. eAGROBOT (a prototype) is a ground based agricultural robot that overcomes challenges existing in large and complex satellite based solutions and helpdesk form of solutions available as m-Services. It provides a small, portable and reliable platform to automatically survey farmland, detect diseases as well as spray the pesticide. In future, the farmer can obtain a consolidated view of the farm along with decision support statistics for planning purposes. The development of eAGROBOT, real time testing results obtained from cotton and groundnut plantations and future focus has been detailed in this paper.