Steward Camera

Details

Steward camera is a dual camera portable phenotyping platform. It uses RGB and NIR cameras to create vegetative indexes, and then uses those to track plant health over time. From these indexes, we can look for yield inhibitors, identify phenotypes, track the growth rate and identify plants that can survive higher heat and other extreme weather.

A phenotype is set of observable characteristics that result from a genotype interacting with an environment. If we know the exact plant strain and environmental data like temperature or soil pH, we can catalog the plant strains phenotypes. We can use this data for breeding better strains, finding better strains for a given environment, or finding strains that handle climate change.

Code is available on Github:

https://github.com/stewardai/camera

Components

1 × Raspberry pi compute module 4; 4gb 16gb wifi

1 × Wave share mini base board

1 × Arducam hawkeye

1 × Arducam NoIR camera

Project Logs

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Dashboard Prototype
Brad Davis • 08/09/2022 at 19:25 • 0 comments

Hello!
It has been a while since the last update. There has been a lot of debugging hardware and software. The big update is that there is now a functional dashboard...
Although it is not pretty, these are the three main components of the dashboard, the list of snapshots (with multiple images), the image view where you can switch between the different images, and the timeseries chart showing the growth chart.
I am working through some bugs and a practical example with real data. I am starting some pepper seeds that I hope can show a good growth chart and a good example of NDVI.
Parts Coming Together
Brad Davis • 07/06/2022 at 05:01 • 0 comments

The lid of the case has now been created! A couple tweeks and it will be all ready.
The base still needs some work. As you can see in the third picture, everything doesn't quite fit like I thought it would.
But it is enough to start collecting data. With any luck, the updates will start getting more interesting.
Final Hardware
Brad Davis • 06/19/2022 at 02:30 • 0 comments

I finally got in all of the hardware I want to include in the first version.
- [Arducam 8MP Autofocus NIR Camera](https://www.arducam.com/product/arducam-imx219-auto-focus-camera-module-drop-in-replacement-for-raspberry-pi-v2-and-nvidia-jetson-nano-camera/)
- [Arducam Hawkeye 64MP RGB Camera](https://www.arducam.com/64mp-ultra-high-res-camera-raspberry-pi/)
- [MLX90640 IR Thermal Camera Stemma QT/Qwiic](https://www.adafruit.com/product/4407)
- [VL53L4CX Time of Flight Distance Sensor Stemma QT/Qwiic](https://www.adafruit.com/product/5425)
Both cameras have been updated and two new sensors have been added. This makes it possible to do leaf area calculations and collecting better data on plant heat stress. We will get into this more as the software gets figured out as it will be easier to show.
The Stemma QT sensors may not make it into a production device but will help a lot with developing the prototype. I am excited to be able to test out the new case designs. I am hoping to finish them soon.
Hardware Prototype
Brad Davis • 05/31/2022 at 03:37 • 0 comments

Got the prototype together to start developing on the hardware. The only changes from here to the end of v1 should be the carrier/base board and the case.