PRE2019 4 Group2

Leighton van Gellecom, Hilde van Esch, Timon Heuwekemeijer, Karla Gloudemans, Tom van Leeuwen

Article 1. Subject: combat of unwanted plants using detection by deep learning

The combat against unwanted potato plants is an intensive and boring task for farmers, which they would gladly leave to robots. Until now this was impossible, since the robots could not distinguish between the potato and beetroot plants. Using deep learning, this has now succeeded with a 96% success rate. A robot was developed which drives on the land and makes pictures, which are sent to a KPN-cloud through 5G. The pictures are then analysed by the deep learning algorithm, and the result is sent back to the robot. This deep learning algorithm was constructed with a dataset of about 5500 labelled pictures of potato and sugar beet plants to train the system. Next, the robot combats the plants that have been detected as the unwanted potato plants using a spraying unit, which is instructed by the system. This development is already a big step forward, but the fault rate is still too large for the system to be put into practice.

Booij, J., Nieuwenhuizen, A., van Boheemen, K., de Vissr, C., Veldhuisen, B., Vroegop, A., ... Ruigrok, T. (2020). 5G Fieldlab Rural Drenthe: duurzame en autonome onkruidbestrijding. (Rapport / Stichting Wageningen Research, Wageningen Plant Research, Business unit Agrosysteemkunde; No. WPR). Wageningen: Stichting Wageningen Research, Wageningen Plant Research, Business unit Agrosysteemkunde. https://doi.org/10.18174/517141

Article 2. Subject: detection of plant disease using deep learning

Potato blackleg is a bacterial disease that can occur in potato plants that causes decay of the plant, and may spread to neighbouring plants if the diseased plant is not taken away. So far, only systems have been devised that were able to detect the disease after harvesting the plants. In this research, a system was created that had a 95% precision rate in detection of healthy and diseased potato plants. This system consisted of a deep learning algorithm, which used a neural network trained by a dataset of 532 labelled images. There is a downside to the system, however, since it was devised, and trained, to detect plants that were separate and do not overlap. In most scenarios, this is not the case. Further developments need to be made to be able to use the system in all scenarios. In addition, it proved to be difficult to gain enough labelled images of the plants.

Afonso, M. V., Blok, P. M., Polder, G., van der Wolf, J. M., & Kamp, J. A. L. M. (2019). Blackleg Detection in Potato Plants using Convolutional Neural Networks. Paper presented at 6th IFAC Conference on Sensing, Control and Automation Technologies for Agriculture, AgriControl 2019, Sydney, Australia.

(Karla: Working on the following articles:)

a. Hemming, J., Blok, P., & Ruizendaal, J. (2018). Precisietechnologie Tuinbouw: PPS Autonoom onkruid verwijderen: Eindrapportage. (Rapport WPR; No. 750). Bleiswijk: Wageningen Plant Research, Business unit Glastuinbouw. https://doi.org/10.18174/442083

b. Hemming, J., Barth, R., & Nieuwenhuizen, A. T. (2013). Automatisch onkruid bestrijden PPL-094 : doorontwikkelen algoritmes voor herkenning onkruid in uien, peen en spinazie. Wageningen: Plant Research International, Business Unit Agrosysteemkunde.

c. Bawden, O., Kulk, J., Russell, R., McCool, C., English, A., Dayoub, F., . . . Perez, T. (2017). Robot for weed species plant-specific management. Journal of Field Robotics, 34(6), 1179-1199. doi:10.1002/rob.21727

d. Duong, L.T., Nguyen, P.T., Sipio, C., Ruscio, D. (2020). Automated fruit recognition using EfficientNet and MixNet. Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, 171. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compag.2020.105326

e. Carvalho, L., & Von Wangenheim, A. (2019). 3d object recognition and classification: A systematic literature review. Pattern Analysis and Applications, 22(4), 1243-1292. doi:10.1007/s10044-019-00804-4

Articles currently working on Leighton:

a. Piron, A., van der Heijden, F. & Destain, M.F. Weed detection in 3D images. Precision Agric 12, 607–622 (2011). https://doi-org.dianus.libr.tue.nl/10.1007/s11119-010-9205-2

b. Dos Santos Ferreira, A., Matte Freitas, D., Gonçalves da Silva, G., Pistori, H., & Theophilo Folhes, M. (2017). Weed detection in soybean crops using convnets. Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, 143, 314-324. doi:10.1016/j.compag.2017.10.027

c. Alchanatis, V., Ridel, L., Hetzroni, A., & Yaroslavsky, L. (2005). Weed detection in multi-spectral images of cotton fields. Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, 47(3), 243-260. doi:10.1016/j.compag.2004.11.019

d. Yu, J., Schumann, A., Cao, Z., Sharpe, S., & Boyd, N. (2019). Weed detection in perennial ryegrass with deep learning convolutional neural network. Frontiers in Plant Science, 10, 1422-1422. doi:10.3389/fpls.2019.01422

e. Tang, J., Chen, X., Miao, R., & Wang, D. (2016). Weed detection using image processing under different illumination for site-specific areas spraying. Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, 122, 103-111. doi:10.1016/j.compag.2015.12.016

f. https://link-springer-com.dianus.libr.tue.nl/content/pdf/10.1007/s11119-017-9528-3.pdf

Tom's articles:

Two articles investigating the use of specific signalling compounds to mark desired plants, so that weeds can be removed. This created a way of marking the plants with a "machine-readable signal". This could thus be used for automatic classification of plants. According to one of the studies, an accuracy of at least 98% was achieved for detecting weeds and crops. --This is a good state of the art (very recent), but it hasn't actually been automated yet, it just shows the possibility of the method.--

a. doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biosystemseng.2020.02.011 b. doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biosystemseng.2020.02.002

This article describes how they modified farm environment and design to best suit a robot harvester. This took into account what kind of harvesting is possible for a robot, and what is possible for different crops, and then tried to determine how the robot could best do its job.

c. doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biosystemseng.2020.01.021

The next article created a vision and control system that was able to remove most weeds from an area, without explained visual features of crops and weeds. It achieved a crop detection accuracy of 97.8%, and was able to remove 83% of weeds around plants. This seemed to be in a very controlled setting, however, and still works with mainly simple farms.

d. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biosystemseng.2020.03.022

This last article tries to improve the functioning of vision-based weed control, and does this by taking a slower approach to visual processing and decision-making. It uses multiple cameras, but apparently uses overhead cameras, which aren't suited for all types of crops. It does use 3D vision, so the camera position might be modifiable. --It has been tested on sugar beets, so nothing too special yet. Also this thing is gigantic.--

e. doi: https://doi.org/10.1002/rob.21938