Supervisors: Nicola Silvestri and Dr. Davide Moroni (CNR-ISTI)
Research field: Agronomy
Research interests: weed detection, image processing, precision farming, sustainable productivity
DAFE – University of Pisa, Via del Borghetto n°80, 56124 – Pisa – (IT)
leonardo.ercolini@phd.unipi.it
Leonardo obtained his master’s degree in Agrifood Production and Agroecosystem Management at the Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment of the University of Pisa, with a thesis on the use of drones for monitoring weeds on a maize crop.
Afterwards, he began his research activity as fellowship holder at the “E.Avanzi” Agro-Environmental Research Centre. The focus of the study was the analysis of radiometric properties of crops and weeds in the context of smart agriculture. During this period, he took part in other research projects (PRA_2022_iAgroforestry, Colline Digitali) that allowed him to explore other aspects of precision farming techniques.
Leonardo’s PhD project devoted to the evaluation of technical solution for the Site-Specific Weed Management (SSWM) is entitled “Application of precision farming techniques in weed controlling”. During the 3-year research period, the effects of different levels of weed infestation on the final crop yield (maize) will be evaluated in order to establish appropriate intervention thresholds. In addition, thanks to the collaboration with the CNR-ISTI, the contribution of computer vision applied to high-resolution RGB image for the weed detection will be explored. Leonardo’s PhD project is funded by the NRRP (The National Recovery and Resilience Plan) , within the Spoke 5 (Sustainable productivity and mitigation of environmental impacts in livestock systems).
