Optical measurement instrument for detection of powdery mildew and grey mould in protected crops

This study presents an initiative aimed at developing a real-time optical measurement system for non-contact measurement of fungal spores in protected crops such as strawberries, tomatoes, and cucumbers. The measurement system is based on a modified microscope combined with automatic spore trapping and air sampling. The system has been used in field trials. Work is ongoing to develop image-processing and YOLO-based object classification network algorithms to identify and classify fungal spores in high-resolution microscope images in the presence of pollen, dust, and other aerosols.