A compact and low-weight LIDAR instrument has been developed for laser-induced fluorescence spectroscopy sensing of maize fields. Fluorescence LIDAR had to be installed on a small industrial drone so that its mass was <2 kg and power consumption was <5 W. The LIDAR instrument utilized a continuous wave diode laser (405 nm, 150 mW) for inducing fluorescence and a small spectrometer for backscattered photons acquisition. For field testing, the LIDAR instrument was installed on a quadcopter for remote sensing of plants in a maize field in three periods of the plant’s life. The obtained fluorescence signal maps have demonstrated that the average chlorophyll content is rather non-uniform over the field and tends to increase through the plant vegetation cycle. Field tests proved the feasibility and perspectives of autonomous LIDAR sensing of agricultural fields from drones for the detection and location of plants under stress.
