Localization of Crop Damages Utilizing a Wake-Up Gas Sensor Network

This paper reports the initial demonstration of on-field crop damage prediction through a network of low power gas sensors that were deployed in an actual sorghum field and detected crop stress molecules, specifically hexanal. Such detection could replace current farm-scouting methods that are mostly manual and help reduce production loss of biofuel crops during a farming period. The initially-deployed gas sensor network consisted of a 2×3 array with a 7-meter interspace. When the leaves of sorghums were cut at a random location within the network, three sensors in the gas sensor network responded at 45, 62, and 72 minutes, respectively, allowing us to estimate an origination zone within an area of 21.7 m² out of the total monitoring farm area of 294 m². This demonstration proves the potential of precise localization of plant damages through the use of the gas sensor network.