Sugarcane Harvester for In-field Data Collection: State of the Art, Its Applicability and Future Perspectives

Sugarcane harvesters have a high level of embedded technology and the opportunity to expand applications to become an important high-density data collection machine. The acquired data, such as yield, losses, and quality, would provide valuable information for site-specific management of sugarcane. This review describes the current instrumentation used by sugarcane harvesters to map yield with the current technologies that have the highest potential applications for losses and quality mapping. In sugarcane cultivation, the harvester cuts and processes the product along a single or double row, which makes it easier to evaluate yield, losses, and quality at the row level. However, studies that explore the holistic potential of the sensors and data processing from the harvester for within-row detailed spatial information are scarce. Over the years, several studies focused on sugarcane yield mapping; however, yield monitors are far from being popular among sugarcane producers due to its low accuracy. Yield monitors need to be robust and accurate; the data generated from default factory-installed sensors is a potential alternative to improve data collection. Also, the integration of the current data available on the harvesters and the use of sensors to estimate sugarcane parameters (i.e., yield, losses, and quality) may represent an important advance in the agricultural operations. This article provides some information regarding the automation of the machines and the operational improvements, such as logistics planning and machine performance.