White paper on remote sensing priorities for targeted soybean management
A multi-institutional white paper initiative to prioritize remote sensing applications for managing soybean stressors. The effort brings together agronomists, pathologists, entomologists, and remote sensing engineers to identify impactful, actionable opportunities for precision crop management and guide future research investments.
Overview
This initiative produces a strategic white paper that defines priorities for using remote sensing technologies to enable targeted management of soybean stressors. Targeted or precision management means identifying crop problems locally so that inputs or interventions can be applied over smaller areas, reducing cost and environmental impact while improving outcomes. The white paper is designed for agronomists, plant pathologists, remote sensing engineers, and funding agencies, offering a prioritized list of opportunities specific to soybean profitability.
The effort addresses a critical bottleneck in agricultural remote sensing: a lack of strategic coordination across disciplines and institutions. By convening a multi-institutional, multi-disciplinary Steering Committee and Invited Contributors from the public and private sectors, the project aims to focus ongoing and future investments on the most impactful applications and near-term wins for soybean growers.
Technical specifications
Scope of stressors evaluated:
- Weeds
- Sudden Death Syndrome (SDS)
- Soybean Cyst Nematode (SCN)
- Frog-eye Leaf Spot (FLS)
- Poor stands
- Nutrient deficiencies
- Insect foliar feeding thresholds
- Stink bugs
- Aphids
Sensing and analytics focus areas:
- Emerging technologies such as thermal and hyperspectral sensing for disease detection
- Unmanned aerial system (UAS) platforms for field-level data collection
- Predictive analytics and spectral differentiation across crop stressors
- Identification of publicly-available data gaps that hinder progress in agricultural predictive modeling
Deliverable structure:
- A Steering Committee covering agronomy, plant pathology, entomology, and remote sensing/computer vision
- Invited Contributors from public and private sector organizations
- A graduate-student-led drafting process supported by online writing meetings
- A first draft targeted for distribution in May 2021
Technology readiness level
This is a coordination and knowledge-synthesis effort at an early stage of execution. The Steering Committee is being established, writing meetings are being planned online, and the first draft of the white paper is scheduled for May 2021. The deliverable is a strategic document rather than a deployable technology, intended to guide future research, investment, and collaboration decisions in soybean remote sensing.
About Progeny Drone, Inc.
Progeny Drone, Inc. was a Purdue-affiliated software startup that developed Plot Phenix, an agricultural technology platform designed to transform raw aerial photography from drones into actionable data for precision crop management. The software utilized high-resolution image analytics to process imagery at the field edge, enabling researchers and agronomists to generate real-time metrics such as plant stand counts, vegetation indices, and canopy size without requiring internet connectivity or labor-intensive ground control points. By making complex data analysis accessible to users without programming expertise, the platform aimed to improve the efficiency and accuracy of small-plot agricultural research and variety trials.
The technology proved valuable to plant breeders, seed companies, and crop protection researchers by reducing data processing times and infrastructure requirements, ultimately facilitating more data-driven decision-making in agricultural research. In 2024, the company's efforts culminated in the acquisition of exclusive global rights to its Phenix software by Corteva, which integrated the platform into its global crop protection field research operations to streamline digital assessments and improve the development of new agricultural products. Prior to this acquisition, the company, founded in 2018, received support from the Purdue Ag-celerator and the National Science Foundation I-Corps program to validate its technology and market viability.
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