Home - News - A new system for remote assessment of plant condition developed at UNN

29 July 2020

Разработанная система

A project of the Lobachevsky University research team was announced the winner of the Russian Science Foundation competition as part of the action "Research conducted by research groups under the guidance of young scientists”. The team is led by Vladimir Sukhov, Associate Professor of the Department of Biophysics at the UNN Institute of Biology and Biomedicine. "By using the method developed by our group, it is possible to diagnose the stress response of plants (in terms of photosynthesis) to adverse factors. The uniqueness of the proposed
method is that it can reveal problems at early stages, before they become noticeable to human eye", says Vladimir Sukhov. Nizhny Novogorod scientists have implemented and successfully tested the system for measuring and visualizing the spatial distribution of stress effects in plants. The system includes two synchronized digital cameras, which are equipped with interference filters that pass the light with the wavelengths of 531 and 570 nm. Thanks to the use of pulsed yellow-green measuring light, distortion from the background lighting has been minimized. With the help of this system, it will be possible to identify dry areas, lack of nutrient components for plants, and the development of plant diseases at the initial stages both in large open spaces and in greenhouses. A stationary version of the prototype is now available, and a mobile system will be ready in the near future. UNN scientists are planning to introduce this project in agro-industrial enterprises and agricultural farms.