SBIR Phase II: Field-deployable, hand-held spectrophotometer sensor platform for citrus growers to rapidly screen for HLB disease

该项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力是通过拟议的智能手机兼容作物健康传感器提高整体作物健康和产量。更具体地说，作物病害仍然是对全球粮食安全的重大威胁，拟议的平台能够进行预视筛选，从而能够对作物病害进行具有成本效益的定量检测，使农民能够采取行动减少疾病影响。最初，传感器平台为柑橘黄龙病的成本效益、高通量和预视筛查提供了及时的解决方案，使柑橘种植者能够有效地管理其果园中的黄龙病，并保持盈利。预视、经济高效和定量的检测能力也转化为对其他作物中的病害的检测。此外，开发的传感技术可用于作物养分和水分胁迫的定量评估，使农民能够优化管理作物健康，提供一种优化利润、提高作物产量和减少环境影响的手段。这对于确保国家和全球粮食安全，以及通过减少由于误诊和不当处理作物胁迫导致的水体富营养化来保护国家供水至关重要。这个小型企业创新研究(SBIR)二期项目建立在Atoptix？S专利紧凑型自参考分光光度计设计的基础上，该设计缩小了光学分光光度计的尺寸和成本，使其能够在现场使用并与智能手机技术集成。对于每一次光谱测量，传感器同时记录一个自参考光谱，保留了通常为成本更高、体积更大的分光光度计设计而保留的灵敏度和可靠性，但也使非技术用户能够通过按下按钮在现场收集数据。与表面反射方法不同，所提出的传感器能够对病原体进行预视检测，因为它只捕获穿透叶片内部并与内部结构相互作用的光。通过专利设计降低光学传感器的成本，通过智能手机提高易用性，并将光学光谱的精确度与基于机器学习的分析相结合，建议的传感器可以使疾病易发地区的种植者广泛采用，在这些地区，社区范围的筛查是保护种植者资产的关键。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this project is to increase overall crop health and production with the proposed smartphone compatible crop health sensor. More specifically, crop disease remains a significant threat to global food security, and with the ability to perform pre-visual screening, the proposed platform enables cost efficient, quantitative detection of crop disease, empowering farmers to take action to reduce disease impact. Initially the sensor platform provides a timely solution for cost effective, high throughput, and pre-visual screening of citrus Huanglongbing disease (HLB), enabling citrus growers to effectively manage HLB in their groves and remain profitable. The pre-visual, cost efficient and quantitative detection capability also translates to detection of diseases in other crops. In addition, the sensing technology developed can be used for quantitative assessment of crop nutrient and water stress, enabling farmers to optimally manage crop health, providing a means to optimize profits, increase crop yields, and reduce environmental impacts. This is critical to ensuring national and global food security, and protecting national water supplies by reducing eutrophication of water bodies due to misdiagnosis and mistreatment of crop stressors.This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase 2 project is built upon Atoptix?s patented compact self-referenced spectrophotometer design, which reduces the size and cost of an optical spectrophotometer to enable field use and integration with smartphone technology. For each spectral measurement, the sensor simultaneously records a self-referenced spectrum, retaining the sensitivity and reliability generally reserved for costlier and bulkier spectrophotometer designs, but also enabling a non-technical user to collect data in the field at the push of a button. Distinct from surface reflection methods, the proposed sensor enables pre-visual detection of a pathogen, as it only captures light that has penetrated inside of a leaf and interacted with internal structures. By lowering the cost of the optical sensor through patented designs, increasing ease of use via a smartphone, and joining the precision of optical spectroscopy with machine learning based analytics, the proposed sensor can enable widespread adoption by growers in disease prone regions, where community wide screening is key for protecting grower assets.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.