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Publications

Publications by Raul Morais

2022

VineInspector: The Vineyard Assistant

Authors
Mendes, J; Peres, E; dos Santos, FN; Silva, N; Silva, R; Sousa, JJ; Cortez, I; Morais, R;

Publication
AGRICULTURE-BASEL

Abstract
Proximity sensing approaches with a wide array of sensors available for use in precision viticulture contexts can nowadays be considered both well-know and mature technologies. Still, several in-field practices performed throughout different crops rely on direct visual observation supported on gained experience to assess aspects of plants' phenological development, as well as indicators relating to the onset of common plagues and diseases. Aiming to mimic in-field direct observation, this paper presents VineInspector: a low-cost, self-contained and easy-to-install system, which is able to measure microclimatic parameters, and also to acquire images using multiple cameras. It is built upon a stake structure, rendering it suitable for deployment across a vineyard. The approach through which distinguishable attributes are detected, classified and tallied in the periodically acquired images, makes use of artificial intelligence approaches. Furthermore, it is made available through an IoT cloud-based support system. VineInspector was field-tested under real operating conditions to assess not only the robustness and the operating functionality of the hardware solution, but also the AI approaches' accuracy. Two applications were developed to evaluate Vinelnspector's consistency while a viticulturist' assistant in everyday practices. One was intended to determine the size of the very first grapevines' shoots, one of the required parameters of the well known 3-10 rule to predict primary downy mildew infection. The other was developed to tally grapevine moth males captured in sex traps. Results show that VineInspector is a logical step in smart proximity monitoring by mimicking direct visual observation from experienced viticulturists. While the latter traditionally are responsible for a set of everyday practices in the field, these are time and resource consuming. VineInspector was proven to be effective in two of these practices, performing them automatically. Therefore, it enables both the continuous monitoring and assessment of a vineyard's phenological development in a more efficient manner, making way to more assertive and timely practices against pests and diseases.

2022

UAV-Based Hyperspectral Monitoring Using Push-Broom and Snapshot Sensors: A Multisite Assessment for Precision Viticulture Applications

Authors
Sousa, JJ; Toscano, P; Matese, A; Di Gennaro, SF; Berton, A; Gatti, M; Poni, S; Padua, L; Hruska, J; Morais, R; Peres, E;

Publication
SENSORS

Abstract
Hyperspectral aerial imagery is becoming increasingly available due to both technology evolution and a somewhat affordable price tag. However, selecting a proper UAV + hyperspectral sensor combo to use in specific contexts is still challenging and lacks proper documental support. While selecting an UAV is more straightforward as it mostly relates with sensor compatibility, autonomy, reliability and cost, a hyperspectral sensor has much more to be considered. This note provides an assessment of two hyperspectral sensors (push-broom and snapshot) regarding practicality and suitability, within a precision viticulture context. The aim is to provide researchers, agronomists, winegrowers and UAV pilots with dependable data collection protocols and methods, enabling them to achieve faster processing techniques and helping to integrate multiple data sources. Furthermore, both the benefits and drawbacks of using each technology within a precision viticulture context are also highlighted. Hyperspectral sensors, UAVs, flight operations, and the processing methodology for each imaging type' datasets are presented through a qualitative and quantitative analysis. For this purpose, four vineyards in two countries were selected as case studies. This supports the extrapolation of both advantages and issues related with the two types of hyperspectral sensors used, in different contexts. Sensors' performance was compared through the evaluation of field operations complexity, processing time and qualitative accuracy of the results, namely the quality of the generated hyperspectral mosaics. The results shown an overall excellent geometrical quality, with no distortions or overlapping faults for both technologies, using the proposed mosaicking process and reconstruction. By resorting to the multi-site assessment, the qualitative and quantitative exchange of information throughout the UAV hyperspectral community is facilitated. In addition, all the major benefits and drawbacks of each hyperspectral sensor regarding its operation and data features are identified. Lastly, the operational complexity in the context of precision agriculture is also presented.

2022

Modeling Stand-Alone Photovoltaic Systems with Matlab/Simulink

Authors
Baptista, J; Pimenta, N; Morais, R; Pinto, T;

Publication
PROGRESS IN ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, EPIA 2022

Abstract
In the upcoming years, European countries have to make a strong bet on solar energy. Small photovoltaic systems are able to provide energy for several applications like housing, traffic and street lighting, among others. This field is expected to have a big growth, thus taking advantage of the largest renewable energy source existing on the planet, the sun. This paper proposes a computational model able to simulate the behavior of a stand-alone photovoltaic system. The developed model allows to predict PV systems behavior, constituted by the panels, storage system, charge controller and inverter, having as input data the solar radiation and the temperature of the installation site. Several tests are presented that validates the reliability of the developed model.

2022

SEGMENTATION AS A PREPROCESSING TOOL FOR AUTOMATIC GRAPEVINE CLASSIFICATION

Authors
Carneiro, GA; Padua, L; Peres, E; Morais, R; Sousa, JJ; Cunha, A;

Publication
2022 IEEE INTERNATIONAL GEOSCIENCE AND REMOTE SENSING SYMPOSIUM (IGARSS 2022)

Abstract
The grapevine variety plays an important role in wine chain production, thus identifying it is crucial for control activities. However, the specialists responsible for identifying the different varieties, mainly through visual analysis, are disappearing. In this scenario, Deep Learning (DL) classification techniques become a possible solution to handle professionals' scarcity. Nevertheless, previous experiments show that trained classification models use the background information to make decisions, which should be avoided. In this paper, we present a study allowing the assessment of removing background regions from the grapevine images in the improvement classification using DL models. The Xception model is trained with a normal dataset and its segmented version. The Local Interpretable Model-Agnostic Explanations (LIME), Grad-CAM, and Grad-CAM++ approaches are used to visualize the segmentation impact in classification decisions. F1-score of 0.92 and 0.94 were achieved, respectively, for segmented-dataset and normal-dataset trained models. Despite the model trained with the segmented-dataset to achieve a worse performance, the Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) approaches showed that it looks into more reliable regions when making decisions.

2022

GRAPEVINE VARIETIES IDENTIFICATION USING VISION TRANSFORMERS

Authors
Carneiro, GA; Padua, L; Peres, E; Morais, R; Sousa, JJ; Cunha, A;

Publication
2022 IEEE INTERNATIONAL GEOSCIENCE AND REMOTE SENSING SYMPOSIUM (IGARSS 2022)

Abstract
The grape variety plays an important role in the wine production chain, thus identifying it is crucial for production control. Ampelographers, professionals who identify grape varieties through plant visual analysis, are scarce, and molecular markers are expansive to identify grape varieties on a large scale. In this context, Deep Learning models become an effective way to handle ampelographers scarcity. In this work, we explore the benefit of using deep learning vision transformers architecture relative to conventional CNN to identify 12 grapevine varieties using leaf-centred RGB images acquired in the field. We train an Xception model as a baseline and four different configurations of the ViT_B model. The best model achieved 0.96 of F1-score, outperforming the state-of-the-art convolutional-based model in the used dataset.

2022

Irriman Platform: Enhancing Farming Sustainability through Cloud Computing Techniques for Irrigation Management

Authors
Forcen Munoz, M; Pavon Pulido, N; Lopez Riquelme, JA; Temnani Rajjaf, A; Berrios, P; Morais, R; Perez Pastor, A;

Publication
SENSORS

Abstract
Crop sustainability is essential for balancing economic development and environmental care, mainly in strong and very competitive regions in the agri-food sector, such as the Region of Murcia in Spain, considered to be the orchard of Europe, despite being a semi-arid area with an important scarcity of fresh water. In this region, farmers apply efficient techniques to minimize supplies and maximize quality and productivity; however, the effects of climate change and the degradation of significant natural environments, such as, the "Mar Menor", the most extent saltwater lagoon of Europe, threatened by resources overexploitation, lead to the search of even better irrigation management techniques to avoid certain effects which could damage the quaternary aquifer connected to such lagoon. This paper describes the Irriman Platform, a system based on Cloud Computing techniques, which includes low-cost wireless data loggers, capable of acquiring data from a wide range of agronomic sensors, and a novel software architecture for safely storing and processing such information, making crop monitoring and irrigation management easier. The proposed platform helps agronomists to optimize irrigation procedures through a usable web-based tool which allows them to elaborate irrigation plans and to evaluate their effectiveness over crops. The system has been deployed in a large number of representative crops, located along near 50,000 ha of the surface, during several phenological cycles. Results demonstrate that the system enables crop monitoring and irrigation optimization, and makes interaction between farmers and agronomists easier.

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