Camera Assisted Roadside Monitoring for Invasive Alien Plant Species Using Deep Learning.

Invasive alien plant species (IAPS) pose a threat to biodiversity as they propagate and outcompete natural vegetation. In this study, a system for monitoring IAPS on the roadside is presented. The system consists of a camera that acquires images at high speed mounted on a vehicle that follows the traffic. Images of seven IAPS (Cytisus scoparius, Heracleum, Lupinus polyphyllus, Pastinaca sativa, Reynoutria, Rosa rugosa, and Solidago) were collected on Danish motorways. Three deep convolutional neural networks for classification (ResNet50V2 and MobileNetV2) and object detection (YOLOv3) were trained and evaluated at different image sizes. The results showed that the performance of the networks varied with the input image size and also the size of the IAPS in the images. Binary classification of IAPS vs. non-IAPS showed an increased performance, compared to the classification of individual IAPS. This study shows that automatic detection and mapping of invasive plants along the roadside is possible at high speeds.

Estimation of the Botanical Composition of Clover-Grass Leys from RGB Images Using Data Simulation and Fully Convolutional Neural Networks.

Optimal fertilization of clover-grass fields relies on knowledge of the clover and grass fractions. This study shows how knowledge can be obtained by analyzing images collected in fields automatically. A fully convolutional neural network was trained to create a pixel-wise classification of clover, grass, and weeds in red, green, and blue (RGB) images of clover-grass mixtures. The estimated clover fractions of the dry matter from the images were found to be highly correlated with the real clover fractions of the dry matter, making this a cheap and non-destructive way of monitoring clover-grass fields. The network was trained solely on simulated top-down images of clover-grass fields. This enables the network to distinguish clover, grass, and weed pixels in real images. The use of simulated images for training reduces the manual labor to a few hours, as compared to more than 3000 h when all the real images are annotated for training. The network was tested on images with varied clover/grass ratios and achieved an overall pixel classification accuracy of 83.4%, while estimating the dry matter clover fraction with a standard deviation of 7.8%.

Dicotyledon Weed Quantification Algorithm for Selective Herbicide Application in Maize Crops.

The stricter legislation within the European Union for the regulation of herbicides that are prone to leaching causes a greater economic burden on the agricultural industry through taxation. Owing to the increased economic burden, research in reducing herbicide usage has been prompted. High-resolution images from digital cameras support the studying of plant characteristics. These images can also be utilized to analyze shape and texture characteristics for weed identification. Instead of detecting weed patches, weed density can be estimated at a sub-patch level, through which even the identification of a single plant is possible. The aim of this study is to adapt the monocot and dicot coverage ratio vision (MoDiCoVi) algorithm to estimate dicotyledon leaf cover, perform grid spraying in real time, and present initial results in terms of potential herbicide savings in maize. The authors designed and executed an automated, large-scale field trial supported by the Armadillo autonomous tool carrier robot. The field trial consisted of 299 maize plots. Half of the plots (parcels) were planned with additional seeded weeds; the other half were planned with naturally occurring weeds. The in-situ evaluation showed that, compared to conventional broadcast spraying, the proposed method can reduce herbicide usage by 65% without measurable loss in biological effect.

High-speed camera system for efficient monitoring of invasive plant species along roadways.

Invasive plant species pose ecological threats to native ecosystems, particularly in areas adjacent to roadways, considering that roadways represent lengthy corridors through which invasive species can propagate. Traditional manual survey methods for monitoring invasive plants are labor-intensive and limited in coverage. This paper introduces a high-speed camera system, named CamAlien, designed to be mounted on vehicles for efficient invasive plant species monitoring along roadways. The camera system captures high-quality images at rapid intervals, to monitor the full roadside when following traffic speed. The system utilizes a global shutter sensor to reduce distortion and geotagging for precise localistion. The camera system makes it possible to collect extensive data sets, which can be used for a digital library of the invasive species and their locations, but also subsequent training of machine learning algorithms for automated species recognition.