The tour will visit the Maricopa Ag Center (MAC, located approximately 25 miles south of Phoenix) to learn about fieldbased phenotyping approaches used at MAC. After a brief welcome, the tour will visit two facilities.
The Dept. of Energy funded TERRA field scanner is a large robotic system deployed on rails and that can scan an area of approximately 22 m x 210 m. The system includes 3D laser sensors, stereo cameras, hyperspectral cameras, thermal imaging, and a novel photosystem II imager. This is the second such system in the world. The priority crop is bioenergy sorghum, but wheat and other crops will also be phenotyped during the off season (Dec.-March).
The system is intended to serve as a "reference platform" that provides high quality, high resoltuion data that can be used to guide development of phenotyping systems that can be deployed over larger areas at lower costs. While the immediate objectives relate to crop improvements and genetics, the basic tools and analytic methods are applicable to crop management and pest and disease control research.
In a visit to the newly estabished phenotyping center, the tour will see the range of tractor and cart-based proximal sensing systems used at MAC. A typical configuration includes multispectral reflectance sensors, infrared thermometers, and ultrasonic
distance sensors. An octocopter equipped with a digital camera also will be avaiable and if possible, flown.