Multispectral Imaging of Crops in the Peruvian Highlands

through a Fixed-Wing UAV System

Donato A. Flores, Carlos Saito, Juan A. Paredes, Fedra Trujillano
Unmanned Aerial Systems Laboratory – Pontifical Catholic University of Perú, Lima, Perú
dflores@pucp.edu.pe, csaito@pucp.pe, a20100445@pucp.pe, fedra.trujillano@pucp.pe

Abstract — Agriculture is one of the main sources of income
for many families in the Peruvian Highlands. However, due
to the rugged terrain of said region and the extension of
croplands along mountainsides, it is difficult to supervise
the entirety of the terrain and, subsequently, identify
stressed and unhealthy crops to improve their production.
In order to facilitate this task, a Fixed-Wing UAV
(Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) System with Multispectral
Cameras is proposed for identifying stressed crops over a
determined zone. This system features an aircraft capable
of 50 minutes of flight time at high-altitude with windy
conditions. The payload is a multispectral camera system,
and an embedded system coupled to the autopilot to trigger
the camera system and store the resulting georeferenced
images. Afterwards, the images will be processed with the
purpose of calculating vegetative indexes and determining
the status of the crops flown by the UAV.
Keywords— Agriculture Technologies, Image Processing,
Aerospace Technology, Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, Avionics
Systems.
I. MOTIVATION
The world has experienced a continuous growth of population.
It is estimated to be 7.3 billion people and by the year 2050 it
will reach 9.7 billion [1]. This projection indicates that in the
near future food demand will be higher. However, crop
production does not show an increasing trend because
agriculture is being affected mainly by climate change [2]. The
most feasible solution to solve this issue and prevent a food
crisis would be adopting new farming techniques to increase
yield and quantified cultivated areas in order to secure an
adequate food supply for years to come.
Agriculture is an especially important activity in Perú,
considering that it is the main economic income for 30% of
Peruvian households and 80% of those are located in rural
areas, it is one of the major employment providing activities in
the country and allows an important number of rural farmers to
keep their families fed [3]. Such is the situation in Ancash, a
region located at the central west part of Peru that has
approximately 70% of its area in the highlands (above
3500masl), which means that crops are sowed at different
altitudes, rugged terrain and harsh weather conditions. In this
region, crop production is basically for self-supply except for
wheat, barley, corn, among others [4]. Even though, data
regarding the extension of cultivated areas was collected by
ground surveys, it may have not been accurate enough since
each settler has limited knowledge of the extension of the fields
they looked after. Furthermore, many communities are far from
roads and can only be accessed by walking several hours which
hinders censuses. Aside from that, agricultural techniques have
not changed in Ancash over the last decades. This results in a
situation in which the status of vegetation areas is mostly
unknown and yield is low compared to other regions and
sometimes not enough to stock up the local market.
For that reason, a new methodology is proposed to enhance
yield in this region by improving crop production monitoring
services. Satellite images are commonly used to monitor large
areas of crops; however, the quality of said images will depend
on the weather conditions over the area of interest and their
acquisition is expensive and not suitable for small area coverage
[5]. Therefore, an alternative method for aerial imagery is
proposed by employing cameras installed on UAVs to attain
aerial images of areas of interest. UAV systems have been used
in several applications such as mapping, industrial, Geographic
Information System applications among others [6].
Furthermore, multispectral cameras could be used to obtain
images that can be processed for crop identification, which
could contribute to estimating the vegetation areas, improve the
production process and make better decisions to ensure the
crops’ health.
UAVs coupled with multispectral cameras have already been
used for similar endeavors. In Greece, investigators from the
Interbalkan Environment Center and the Aristotle University of
Thessaloniki used a Vulcan hexacopter with a Tetracam
multispectral camera attached to it to retrieve images and study
water management in a pomegranate orchard [7]. Another
group from China used UAV-based multispectral imaging (an
octocopter with a Tetracam device) to compare nitrogen
monitoring methods in wheat crops [8]. Furthermore, members
from the Utah Water Research Laboratory in the USA have
previously attempted to quantify the spread of Phragmites in
Utah’s northern wetlands with a multispectral imagery system
mounted on a custom-made fixed-wing UAV [9]. The present
study aims to apply this technology in a Peruvian context.
In this paper, a Fixed-Wing UAV System is proposed for
acquiring multispectral aerial images of crops growing in the
Peruvian Highlands. The prototype was tested in the Ancash
region and the obtained images were used to calculate the NDVI
(Normalized Vegetation Index), which uses light reflection in
Red and Near Infrared bands and can help discriminate

l-))) 
vegetation from soil and find stressed vegetation or infected
crop areas.
II. SYSTEM OVERVIEW
A. Flying Platform
The proposed system features an X8 - Skywalker aircraft frame.
It is described as a flying wing UAV model made out of highly
dense foam and it has three main components: one fuselage and
two wings. Figure 1 shows the frame of the current prototype.
Fig. 1.- X8 - Skywalker UAV model for multipurpose appliances.
This type of UAV does not have a horizontal and vertical
stabilizer or tail; instead, it uses the control surfaces on the wing
as ailerons and elevators (also known as elevons) to control roll
and pitch during flight. The vertical surfaces at the tip of the
wings are called “wing-tips” and their main function is to
reduce the induced drag during flight; also, they help with the
vertical stabilization of the aircraft. The fuselage or main body
was modified to house the Avionics, Propulsion and the Image
Acquisition Systems’ components. Figure 2 shows an overview
of the entire system.
Fig. 2.- An overview of the Fixed-Wing UAV proposed system. Both the Image
Acquisition and Avionics Systems are displayed as well as which components
interact with each other.
B. Avionics System
The Avionics System is built around the Pixhawk autopilot
from 3D Robotics ®, whose tasks include the control of all the
actuators of the UAV, reception of sensor information for state
feedback for the system control algorithm, trajectory planning,
signal reception from the Ground RC Controller, among others.

The Pixhawk controls each surface of the aircraft to follow the
flight plan that is uploaded before each flight. The control
algorithm used is based on PIDs that synchronize the
movements of the electric servos on each control surface on the
wings to follow the designated waypoints on the flight plan.
Each waypoint has a known altitude, latitude and longitude
coordinate that it is used to guide the UAV. For this purpose,
the Pixhawk uses several important components, which will be
described in the following paragraphs:
x A GPS Receiver, to get the UAV’s geographical location and
heading in the world.
x An Airspeed sensor, to get the current wind airspeed (and
consequently the UAV speed) and calculate the altitude from
pressure data.
x A telemetry radio, to inform a Ground Station about the
current status of the UAV and the mission.
x A RC Receiver, to get the RC signals from a ground
controller for manual control of the UAV and to receive the
command to start autonomous flight.
x An embedded IMU, for information regarding UAV attitude.
x An embedded barometer, to calculate the pressure altitude
over sea level.
C. Propulsion System
The Propulsion System is responsible for generating the thrust
required by the UAV to move forward and control the speed of
the aircraft, which is important to generate enough lift during
take-off operations. Its main components are one Turnigy
Motor ® 700KV brushless motor, one 4S - 6000mAh Li-Po
battery and a 14” x 8” foldable plastic propeller.
D. Image Acquisition System
For the task of acquiring and storing the multispectral images,
a PCDuino v2 embedded system was chosen due to its
processing capabilities, its ARM-Cortex A10 core and its Linux
OS (Lubuntu), which allows the installation of the necessary
libraries to perform this task. The cameras are Point Gray
Chameleon monochromatic with 1.2 MP resolution (1280 x 960
pixels), with a Red Band and a NIR Band filters attached to each
one. Both cameras are connected through a USB hub to the USB
Port of the PCDuino, which allows for image transfer. The
embedded system is also connected to the Pixhawk through a
serial communication port and a digital signal port; the
PCDuino uses the serial port to request data about the location
and attitude of the UAV for georeferencing purposes and the
digital signal as a trigger sent by the Pixhawk to indicate that an
image should be stored. A MDF structure was manufactured to
hold the system’s components and attach them to the X8 –
Skywalker frame. A shield was also designed to connect the
Pixhawk and the PCDuino in a reliable manner. This can be
observed in Figure 3.
III. METHODOLOGY FOR DATA ACQUISITION AND PROCESSING
A. Flight Planning (Trajectory Determination)
The data used in this study was obtained during several flights
of the X8 UAV. Each flight plan was made using the Mission
Planner software considering a 75 percent overlap between
images and flight lines. The terrain and weather are important
factors to take into account during the preparation of each flight
plan. The place of interest is difficult to fly mainly because of
it being located at a ground elevation of 3500 m.a.s.l. (flight
requires more energy due to the air density diminishing at high
altitudes) and being surrounded by the Andes mountain range
(which limits maneuverability). Pre-flight planning normally
takes between 10 – 20 minutes depending on the difficulty the
terrain may pose for take-off and landing operations. However,
once this has been done for the first time, the planning time is
reduced for operations in the same area.
Fig. 3.- [Up-Left] Image Acquisition System from above. [Up-Right] Image
Acquisition System from below. [Down-Left] Image Acquisition System
attached to UAV. [Down-Right] Camera positioning from below.
In order to overcome these difficulties, the flight plans are
designed so that the UAV will fly alongside the direction of the
wind and against it when the wind speed is relatively low in
order to save energy. However, if the weather proves to be too
windy, the UAV should fly across the wind, which will require
more energy from the aircraft battery, but will not compromise
the quality of the images taken. The weather was calm during
these tests.
The next step requires knowing where the photographs will be
taken along the trajectory. For that purpose, a distance-based
system is employed, meaning that the cameras will be triggered
each time the aircraft travels a determined distance inside the
area of interest. This allows the images to maintain the desired
degree of overlap since they are taken at regular position
intervals, unaffected by wind speed or aircraft velocity.
Finally, flight trajectory is also determined by the image
resolution of the camera. In order to illustrate this point, a
comparison will be made between the flight paths designed for
the multispectral cameras and a Sony NEX-7 camera (since this
kind of payload can also be carried by the modified aircraft)
during tests in the Ancash Region. The flight plan for the Sony
NEX-7 camera (24 MP) at a relative altitude of 150 m covers

120 ha with a total number of 422 images. Meanwhile, the flight
plan for the multispectral payload at the same altitude covers 20
ha with a total number of 480 images per camera. Thus, with
greater resolutions, more territory can be covered with less
images. Figure 4 shows both trajectories.
Fig. 4.- Flight trajectories during testing in the Ancash Province. [Left] Flight
Plan for the multispectral cameras. [Right] Flight Plan for the Sony NEX-7
camera.
B. Image Acquisition, Storing and Georeferencing
Before using the cameras for image acquisition, a few
considerations have to be taken into account. The aperture and
the focus of the cameras’ lenses have to be manually set in order
to prevent the resulting images to be blurry. In previous
experiments, a low aperture caused the images to be more
sensitive to camera movement and present blurs; therefore, a
high aperture is needed for aerial imagery using a fixed-wing
UAV. Also, the focus determines whether or not the long
distance shots will keep focused during operation. These values
were configured using the Point Grey FlyCap2 in order to see
the effect of the changes on the images. Finally, in order to
prevent the images from being influenced by quantity of
sunlight shed on the environment, both cameras must be
programmed to use an automatic shutter, which changes camera
shutter to balance brightness in the taken images.
The image acquisition process requires the Pixhawk Flight
Controller to be programmed with the flight plan over an area
of interest (in this case, a crop field), to determine the position
where each photo should be taken to completely map the field,
given the chosen camera parameters. After the Pixhawk is
properly configured and while the aircraft is flying over a crop
field, the PCDuino receives a “Relay” signal (rising edge) from
the Pixhawk when a couple of pictures need to be taken. Then,
a signal is sent consecutively to both cameras in order to
retrieve the current image buffer from both. At the same time,
attitude, location and altitude data is retrieved from the Mavlink
messages sent from the Pixhawk Flight Controller and stored in
a text file. The images and the data text file are to be saved in a
SD Card attached to the PCDuino; however, due to the size of
the images, saving each one as they are buffered may slow
down the saving time and cause the loss of a significant number
of images. To prevent this, the image bytes are buffered in an
array and they are saved and stored as binary files. This process
is represented by Figure 5 shown below. After the flight has
finished, the SDCard is retrieved and a program is used to
extract the images embedded in the binary files. Finally, a
photogrammetry software like Pix4D or Photoscan is used to
build georeferenced maps from both sets of images (NIR Band
and Red Band filter images), ready to be processed for the
extraction of vegetation indexes.
Fig. 5.- The image and data acquisition and saving procedure is represented
here. The acquisition process happens every time the Pixhawk sends a relay
signal.
C. Image Pre-Processing and Segmentation of Vegetation
Image Pre-Processing consists of the mosaicking and alignment
of both sets of images (Red and NIR bands). The Photoscan
software was used to orthorectify said images and create
mosaics from both sets, using GPS position and attitude data as
well. The mosaics in Red and NIR bands (displayed in Figure
6) had some spatial differences due to the orthorectification, so,
12 pairs of control points were selected manually in both
images to generate a transformation function to align one of the
mosaics to the other.
Fig. 6.- [Left] Result of the Red images’ mosaicking. Dimension: 7076 x 7971
pixels. [Right] Result of the NIR images’ mosaicking. Dimension: 7857 x 9698
pixels.
Segmentation of the vegetation was based on NDVI
information and the Region Growing algorithm. The NDVI of
each pixel was calculated with the Red and NIR mosaics using
the following formula:
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ேூோିோ
. frames. This issue could be solved by using cameras and an
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Values of NDVI are in the range [-1,1]; in areas of vegetation,
NDVI is expected to display values from 0.3 to 1. This index is

widely used to discriminate planted area from soil. After this
procedure, the Region Growing algorithm is used for
segmentation. In this approach, the value of 0.4 was used as a
threshold to generate a seed matrix. In each seed position, all
the neighbors that satisfy a threshold of 0.2 are considered to be
part of the seed’s region. Segmentation of vegetation has
included regions where vegetation is still growing. The results
are presented in Figure 7.
IV. DISCUSSION
The UAV System was capable of flying for over 50 minutes
during the test held at the Ancash Region. It was also capable
of taking georeferenced Red and NIR band images with enough
overlap to create mosaics from them. Finally, the resulting
images were used to calculate the NDVI and a segmented image
was obtained which can be used to determine where the areas
of vegetation in this zone are located. That being said, several
points need to be addressed in order to create a more robust
system. These will be discussed in the following paragraphs.
First of all, by inspecting the Pixhawk’s flying logs, it was
determined that the frame vibrates while cruising and loses a
significant amount of altitude while taking turns due to the lack
of a vertical stabilizer, leading to unnecessary energy
consumption. This will be addressed by tuning the PID
parameters for better performance and, in future work, by
designing an aircraft better suited for high-altitude flight.
Fig. 7.- Result of the segmentation of vegetation using NDVI information and
the Region Growing algorithm.
Furthermore, while the Image Acquisition System works fine
under the circumstances in which it was tested; several changes
can be done in order to improve its performance. The most
obvious improvement would be to use cameras with greater
image resolution to cover greater distances; nonetheless, this
would require a different interface than USB to connect the
cameras, since the image data transfer would be limited, which
would slow down the procedure and cause the possible lose of
embedded system that are capable of connecting through a CSI
port, since this serial communication would make the image
transferring process faster. This alternative is certainly
attractive, but further research must be done before acquiring
the needed hardware in order to determine an optimal
combination between the camera and the embedded system,
suited for the mission. Furthermore, it could be more efficient
to use a light sensor to determine the required shutter to regulate
image brightness instead of letting the cameras’
microcontrollers determine this value, although this would have
to benchmarked in future tests.
Finally, even though a segmented image of areas of vegetation
was attained, its accuracy cannot be corroborated due to the lack
of ground truth GPS location data regarding the vegetation of
the area of interest. Furthermore, more data is required to get
meaningful conclusions from these maps regarding the status of
the crops. These observations will be addressed through future
developments.
[6] E. Raymond, "Remote Sensing with Unmanned Aircraft Systems for
Precision Agriculture Applications", in International Conference on Agro-
Geoinformatics (Agro - Geoinformatics), Aug. 2013, pp. 131 - 134.
[7] P. Katsigiannis, L. Misopolinos, V. Liakopoulos, T. Alexandridis, and
G. Zalidis, “An Autonomous Multi-Sensor UAV System for Reduced-Input
Precision Agriculture Applications”, in the 24th Mediterranean Conference on
Control and Automation (MED), June 21-24, 2016, Athens, Greece.
[8] Y. Liu, T. Cheng, Y. Zhu, Y. Tian, W. Cao, X. Yao, N. Wang, “Comparative
analysis of vegetation indices, non-parametric and physical retrieval methods
for monitoring nitrogen in wheat using UAV-based multispectral imagery”, in
the 2016 Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS), July 10-15.
[9] B. Zaman, A. M. Jensen, M. McKee, “Use of high-resolution multispectral
imagery acquired with an autonomous unmanned aerial vehicle to quantify the
spread of an invasive wetlands species”, in the 2011 Geoscience and Remote
Sensing Symposium (IGARSS), July 24-29.

V. CONCLUSIONS
A Fixed-Wing UAV System for Multispectral Imaging of
Crops in the Peruvian Highlands was developed, tested and
presented in this paper. In the conducted tests in the Ancash
Region, the Flying Wing UAV attained a flight time of over 50
minutes while covering an area of 20 ha, taking 480 Red and
NIR band images and storing the necessary data for later
georeferencing. Finally, the stored images and data were used
to create orthorectified mosaics, from which a segmented map
highlighting the areas of vegetation was obtained using NDVI
information. Future work will aim to improve the performance
of the flying platform, optimize the image acquisition process
and to develop more complete image processing and
segmentations algorithms in order to get more meaningful data,
so that this information may assist in crop supervision tasks and,
ultimately, help increase crop yield.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors would like to thank the support of the PNIA
IE9684-2015 grant and the Unmanned Aerial Systems
Laboratory Research Group from the Pontifical Catholic
University of Peru.

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