Development of a portable photonic device for Greening (Huanglongbing - HLB) disease detection in citrus production

• Grant number: 12/50114-0
• Support Opportunities: Research Grants - Innovative Research in Small Business - PIPE
• Start date: November 01, 2013
• End date: October 31, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Physics - Condensed Matter Physics
• Agreement: FINEP - PIPE/PAPPE Grant
• Principal Investigator: Guilherme Cunha de Castro
• Grantee: Guilherme Cunha de Castro
• Company: Tagg Equipamentos e Serviços para Agroindústria, Agropecuária e Meio Ambiente Ltda
• City: São Carlos

Abstract

The main objective of this Project is the development of a portable spectroscopic platform of Citrus greening disease (Huanglongbing - HLB) detection in situ, and the construction of infestation maps. This innovative device shall enable the detection of infected trees in symptomatic and assymptomatic stage with high accuracy (more than 90%). Alongside with phytosanitary public policies, the equipment may contribute maintaining the disease in low infestation levels. For the equipment development the company AgriOS (Agricultural Optronics Systems) is working in partnership with EMBRAPA (Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária - Brazilian Agriculture Research Institute). The system utilizes a LED light source for excitation of Citrus leaves and na embedded miniature spectrometer for fluorescence espectra collection. Embedded electronics is responsible for data processing and tree diagnosis. Collected spectra is compared to a database via neural network processing and the tree is classified as Healthy or Infected. Prelimiary results in laboratory have demonstrated the classification of infected citrus leafs with more than 90% accuracy. (AU)