Design of a Multimodal Light Sheet Optical System for Multivariate Applications in Phytopathology

The design of optical instruments is an active subject due to improvement in lens techniques, fabrication technology, and data handling capacity. Much remains to do to expand its application to phytopathology, which would be in particular quite useful to improve crop growth monitoring in countries like Mali. An optical multimodal system for plant samples has been developed to improve the characterization of leaf disease symptoms, provide information on their effects, and avoid their spread. Potentially inexpensive components (laser, lens, turntables camera and sample, filter, lens, camera and computer) have been selected, assembled and aligned on an optical table into a multimodal system operating in transmission, reflection, diffusion and fluorescence. The illumination and observation angles can be adjusted to optimize viewing conditions in the four modes. This scientific contribution has been an initiation into the design and implementation of an optical instrument. Initial results are shown and will now be extended in cooperation with agronomic laboratories in African countries for tests on specific plant diseases in relation with prevailing climate conditions.