Accurate crop row detection is often challenged by the varying field conditions present in real-world arable fields. Traditional colour based segmentation is unable to cater for all such variations. The lack of comprehensive datasets in agricultural environments limits the researchers from developing robust segmentation models to detect crop rows. We present a dataset for crop row detection with 11 field variations from Sugar Beet and Maize crops. We also present a novel crop row detection algorithm for visual servoing in crop row fields. Our algorithm can detect crop rows against varying field conditions such as curved crop rows, weed presence, discontinuities, growth stages, tramlines, shadows and light levels. Our method only uses RGB images from a front-mounted camera on a Husky robot to predict crop rows. Our method outperformed the classic colour based crop row detection baseline. Dense weed presence within inter-row space and discontinuities in crop rows were the most challenging field conditions for our crop row detection algorithm. Our method can detect the end of the crop row and navigate the robot towards the headland area when it reaches the end of the crop row.
Autonomous navigation of a robot in agricultural fields is essential for every task from crop monitoring to weed management and fertilizer application. Many current approaches rely on accurate GPS, however, such technology is expensive and also prone to failure (e.g. through lack of coverage). As such, autonomous navigation through sensors that can interpret their environment (such as cameras) is important to achieve the goal of autonomy in agriculture. In this paper, we introduce a purely vision-based navigation scheme that is able to reliably guide the robot through row-crop fields without m…
Cornell AgriTech（康奈尔农业科技中心）；Cornell University（康奈尔大学）；USDA ARS Grape Genetics Research Unit（美国农业部农业研究局葡萄遗传学研究组）
Autonomous navigation is the key to achieving the full automation of agricultural research and production management (e.g., disease management and yield prediction) using agricultural robots. In this paper, we introduced a vision-based autonomous navigation framework for agriculture robots in trellised cropping systems such as vineyards. To achieve this, we proposed a novel learning-based method to estimate the path traversibility heatmap directly from an RGB-D image and subsequently convert the heatmap to a preferred traversal path. An automatic annotation pipeline was developed to form a tra…
PhenoBench -- A Large Dataset and Benchmarks for Semantic Image Interpretation in the Agricultural Domain
Center for Robotics, University of Bonn（波恩大学机器人中心）；University of Oxford（牛津大学）；Lamarr Institute for Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence（拉马尔机器学习与人工智能研究院）
AdaCropFollow: Self-Supervised Online Adaptation for Visual Under-Canopy Navigation
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign（伊利诺伊大学厄巴纳-香槟分校）；University of Bonn（波恩大学）；University of Oxford（牛津大学）；Lamarr Institute for Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence（拉马尔机器学习与人工智能研究所）
Smart weeding systems to perform plant-specific operations can contribute to the sustainability of agriculture and the environment. Despite monumental advances in autonomous robotic technologies for precision weed management in recent years, work on under-canopy weeding in fields is yet to be realized. A prerequisite of such systems is reliable detection and classification of weeds to avoid mistakenly spraying and, thus, damaging the surrounding plants. Real-time multi-class weed identification enables species-specific treatment of weeds and significantly reduces the amount of herbicide use. H…
Politecnico di Torino（都灵理工大学）；PIC4SeR (PoliTo Interdepartmental Centre for Service Robotics)（PIC4SeR（都灵理工大学服务机器人跨部门中心））
The development of precision agriculture has gradually introduced automation in the agricultural process to support and rationalize all the activities related to field management. In particular, service robotics plays a predominant role in this evolution by deploying autonomous agents able to navigate in fields while executing different tasks without the need for human intervention, such as monitoring, spraying and harvesting. In this context, global path planning is the first necessary step for every robotic mission and ensures that the navigation is performed efficiently and with complete fi…
Agriculture 3.0 and 4.0 have gradually introduced service robotics and automation into several agricultural processes, mostly improving crops quality and seasonal yield. Row-based crops are the perfect settings to test and deploy smart machines capable of monitoring and manage the harvest. In this context, global path generation is essential either for ground or aerial vehicles, and it is the starting point for every type of mission plan. Nevertheless, little attention has been currently given to this problem by the research community and global path generation automation is still far to be so…
University of Western São Paulo (UNOESTE)（西圣保罗大学）；Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul (UFMS)（南马托格罗索联邦大学）；Brazilian Agricultural Research Agency (EMBRAPA)（巴西农业研究局）；University of Santa Catarina State (UDESC)（圣卡塔琳娜州立大学）
In this paper, we propose a novel deep learning method based on a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) that simultaneously detects and geolocates plantation-rows while counting its plants considering highly-dense plantation configurations. The experimental setup was evaluated in a cornfield with different growth stages and in a Citrus orchard. Both datasets characterize different plant density scenarios, locations, types of crops, sensors, and dates. A two-branch architecture was implemented in our CNN method, where the information obtained within the plantation-row is updated into the plant det…
Embrapa Agricultural Informatics（巴西农业研究公司农业信息研究所）；University of Campinas（坎皮纳斯大学）
Agricultural applications such as yield prediction, precision agriculture and automated harvesting need systems able to infer the crop state from low-cost sensing devices. Proximal sensing using affordable cameras combined with computer vision has seen a promising alternative, strengthened after the advent of convolutional neural networks (CNNs) as an alternative for challenging pattern recognition problems in natural images. Considering fruit growing monitoring and automation, a fundamental problem is the detection, segmentation and counting of individual fruits in orchards. Here we show that…
BAWSeg: A UAV Multispectral Benchmark for Barley Weed Segmentation
Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering, The University of Western Australia（计算机科学与软件工程系，西澳大学）；Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD), Government of Western Australia（初级产业与地区发展部（DPIRD），西澳政府）
Site-specific weed management in corn using UAS imagery analysis and computer vision techniques
Center for Precision & Automated Agricultural Systems（精准与自动化农业系统中心）；Washington State University（华盛顿州立大学）；Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering（农业与生物系统工程学院）；NDSU Carrington Research Extension Center（北达科他州立大学卡灵顿研究推广中心）；North Dakota State University（北达科他州立大学）
When Ground-Truth Fidelity Matters: An Orchestrated UAS Framework for Wheat Streak Mosaic Virus Detection Using Vision Transformers and Machine Learning
The Ohio State University（俄亥俄州立大学）；USDA Agricultural Research Service（美国农业部农业研究局）
