Intra-class terrain differences such as water content directly influence a vehicle's ability to traverse terrain, yet RGB vision systems may fail to distinguish these properties. Evaluating a terrain's spectral content beyond red-green-blue wavelengths to the near infrared spectrum provides useful information for intra-class identification. However, accurate analysis of this spectral information is highly dependent on ambient illumination. We demonstrate a system architecture to collect and register multi-wavelength, hyperspectral images from a mobile robot and describe an approach to reflectance calibrate cameras under varying illumination conditions. To showcase the practical applications of our system, HYPER DRIVE, we demonstrate the ability to calculate vegetative health indices and soil moisture content from a mobile robot platform.

Fuel moisture content (FMC) is a key predictor for wildfire rate of spread (ROS). Machine learning models of FMC are being used more in recent years, augmenting or replacing traditional physics-based approaches. Wildfire rate of spread (ROS) has a highly nonlinear relationship with FMC, where small differences in dry fuels lead to large differences in ROS. In this study, custom loss functions that place more weight on dry fuels were examined with a variety of machine learning models of FMC. The models were evaluated with a spatiotemporal cross-validation procedure to examine whether the custom loss functions led to more accurate forecasts of ROS. Results show that the custom loss functions improved accuracy for ROS forecasts by a small amount. Further research would be needed to establish whether the improvement in ROS forecasts leads to more accurate real-time wildfire simulations.

With the rapid increase in wildfires in the past decade, it has become necessary to detect and predict these disasters to mitigate losses to ecosystems and human lives. In this paper, we present a novel solution -- Hyper-Drive3D -- consisting of snapshot hyperspectral imaging and LiDAR, mounted on an Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV) that identifies areas inside forests at risk of becoming fuel for a forest fire. This system enables more accurate classification by analyzing the spectral signatures of forest vegetation. We conducted field trials in a controlled environment simulating forest conditions, yielding valuable insights into the system's effectiveness. Extensive data collection was also performed in a dense forest across varying environmental conditions and topographies to enhance the system's predictive capabilities for fire hazards and support a risk-informed, proactive forest management strategy. Additionally, we propose a framework for extracting moisture data from hyperspectral imagery and projecting it into 3D space.

Quick and reliable measurement of wood chip moisture content is an everlasting problem for numerous forest-reliant industries such as biofuel, pulp and paper, and bio-refineries. Moisture content is a critical attribute of wood chips due to its direct relationship with the final product quality. Conventional techniques for determining moisture content, such as oven-drying, possess some drawbacks in terms of their time-consuming nature, potential sample damage, and lack of real-time feasibility. Furthermore, alternative techniques, including NIR spectroscopy, electrical capacitance, X-rays, and microwaves, have demonstrated potential; nevertheless, they are still constrained by issues related to portability, precision, and the expense of the required equipment. Hence, there is a need for a moisture content determination method that is instant, portable, non-destructive, inexpensive, and precise. This study explores the use of deep learning and machine vision to predict moisture content classes from RGB images of wood chips. A large-scale image dataset comprising 1,600 RGB images of wood chips has been collected and annotated with ground truth labels, utilizing the results of the oven-drying technique. Two high-performing neural networks, MoistNetLite and MoistNetMax, have been developed leveraging Neural Architecture Search (NAS) and hyperparameter optimization. The developed models are evaluated and compared with state-of-the-art deep learning models. Results demonstrate that MoistNetLite achieves 87% accuracy with minimal computational overhead, while MoistNetMax exhibits exceptional precision with a 91% accuracy in wood chip moisture content class prediction. With improved accuracy and faster prediction speed, our proposed MoistNet models hold great promise for the wood chip processing industry.

Residential outdoor water use in North America accounts for nearly 9 billion gallons daily, with approximately 50\% of this water wasted due to over-watering, particularly in lawns and gardens. This inefficiency highlights the need for smart, data-driven irrigation systems. Traditional approaches to reducing water wastage have focused on centralized data collection and processing, but such methods can raise privacy concerns and may not account for the diverse environmental conditions across different regions. In this paper, we propose a federated learning-based approach to optimize water usage in residential and agricultural settings. By integrating moisture sensors and actuators with a distributed network of edge devices, our system allows each user to locally train a model on their specific environmental data while sharing only model updates with a central server. This preserves user privacy and enables the creation of a global model that can adapt to varying conditions. Our implementation leverages low-cost hardware, including an Arduino Uno microcontroller and soil moisture sensors, to demonstrate how federated learning can be applied to reduce water wastage while maintaining efficient crop production. The proposed system not only addresses the need for water conservation but also provides a scalable, privacy-preserving solution adaptable to diverse environments.

This paper proposes a Semi-Centralized Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning (SCMARL) approach for irrigation scheduling in spatially variable agricultural fields, where management zones address spatial variability. The SCMARL framework is hierarchical in nature, with a centralized coordinator agent at the top level and decentralized local agents at the second level. The coordinator agent makes daily binary irrigation decisions based on field-wide conditions, which are communicated to the local agents. Local agents determine appropriate irrigation amounts for specific management zones using local conditions. The framework employs state augmentation approach to handle non-stationarity in the local agents' environments. An extensive evaluation on a large-scale field in Lethbridge, Canada, compares the SCMARL approach with a learning-based multi-agent model predictive control scheduling approach, highlighting its enhanced performance, resulting in water conservation and improved Irrigation Water Use Efficiency (IWUE). Notably, the proposed approach achieved a 4.0% savings in irrigation water while enhancing the IWUE by 6.3%.

Wildfires have significant impacts on global vegetation, wildlife, and humans. They destroy plant communities and wildlife habitats and contribute to increased emissions of carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides, methane, and other pollutants. The prediction of wildfires relies on various independent variables combined with regression or machine learning methods. In this technical review, we describe the options for independent variables, data processing techniques, models, independent variables collinearity and importance estimation methods, and model performance evaluation metrics. First, we divide the independent variables into 4 aspects, including climate and meteorology conditions, socio-economical factors, terrain and hydrological features, and wildfire historical records. Second, preprocessing methods are described for different magnitudes, different spatial-temporal resolutions, and different formats of data. Third, the collinearity and importance evaluation methods of independent variables are also considered. Fourth, we discuss the application of statistical models, traditional machine learning models, and deep learning models in wildfire risk prediction. In this subsection, compared with other reviews, this manuscript particularly discusses the evaluation metrics and recent advancements in deep learning methods. Lastly, addressing the limitations of current research, this paper emphasizes the need for more effective deep learning time series forecasting algorithms, the utilization of three-dimensional data including ground and trunk fuel, extraction of more accurate historical fire point data, and improved model evaluation metrics.

Advanced modern technology and industrial sustainability theme have contributed implementing composite materials for various industrial applications. Green composites are among the desired alternatives for the green products. However, to properly control the performance of the green composites, predicting their constituents properties are of paramount importance. This work presents an innovative evolving genetic programming tree models for predicting the mechanical properties of natural fibers based upon several inherent chemical and physical properties. Cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin and moisture contents as well as the Microfibrillar angle of various natural fibers were considered to establish the prediction models. A one-hold-out methodology was applied for training/testing phases. Robust models were developed to predict the tensile strength, Young's modulus, and the elongation at break properties of the natural fibers. It was revealed that Microfibrillar angle was dominant and capable of determining the ultimate tensile strength of the natural fibers by 44.7% comparable to other considered properties, while the impact of cellulose content in the model was only 35.6%. This in order would facilitate utilizing artificial intelligence in predicting the overall mechanical properties of natural fibers without experimental efforts and cost to enhance developing better green composite materials for various industrial applications.

Accurate estimation of sub-surface properties like moisture content and depth of layers is crucial for applications spanning sub-surface condition monitoring, precision agriculture, and effective wildfire risk assessment. Soil in nature is often covered by overlaying surface material, making its characterization using conventional methods challenging. In addition, the estimation of the properties of the overlaying layer is crucial for applications like wildfire assessment. This study thus proposes a Bayesian model-updating-based approach for ground penetrating radar (GPR) waveform inversion to predict sub-surface properties like the moisture contents and depths of the soil layer and overlaying material accumulated above the soil. The dielectric permittivity of material layers were predicted with the proposed method, along with other parameters, including depth and electrical conductivity of layers. The proposed Bayesian model updating approach yields probabilistic estimates of these parameters that can provide information about the confidence and uncertainty related to the estimates. The methodology was evaluated for a diverse range of experimental data collected through laboratory and field investigations. Laboratory investigations included variations in soil moisture values and depth of the top layer (or overlaying material), and the field investigation included measurement of field soil moisture for sixteen days. The results demonstrated predictions consistent with time-domain reflectometry (TDR) measurements and conventional gravimetric tests. The top layer depth could also be predicted with reasonable accuracy. The proposed method provides a promising approach for uncertainty-aware sub-surface parameter estimation that can enable decision-making for risk assessment across a wide range of applications.

The agricultural sector currently faces significant challenges in water resource conservation and crop yield optimization, primarily due to concerns over freshwater scarcity. Traditional irrigation scheduling methods often prove inadequate in meeting the needs of large-scale irrigation systems. To address this issue, this paper proposes a predictive irrigation scheduler that leverages the three paradigms of machine learning to optimize irrigation schedules. The proposed scheduler employs the k-means clustering approach to divide the field into distinct irrigation management zones based on soil hydraulic parameters and topology information. Furthermore, a long short-term memory network is employed to develop dynamic models for each management zone, enabling accurate predictions of soil moisture dynamics. Formulated as a mixed-integer model predictive control problem, the scheduler aims to maximize water uptake while minimizing overall water consumption and irrigation costs. To tackle the mixed-integer optimization challenge, the proximal policy optimization algorithm is utilized to train a reinforcement learning agent responsible for making daily irrigation decisions. To evaluate the performance of the proposed scheduler, a 26.4-hectare field in Lethbridge, Canada, was chosen as a case study for the 2015 and 2022 growing seasons. The results demonstrate the superiority of the proposed scheduler compared to a traditional irrigation scheduling method in terms of water use efficiency and crop yield improvement for both growing seasons. Notably, the proposed scheduler achieved water savings ranging from 6.4% to 22.8%, along with yield increases ranging from 2.3% to 4.3%.