Smart Agriculture: A Fruit Flower Cluster Detection Strategy in Apple Orchards Using Machine Vision and Learning

This paper presents the application of machine vision and learning techniques to detect and identify the number of flower clusters on apple trees leading to the ability to predict the potential yield of apples. A new field robot was designed and built to collect and build a dataset of 1500 images of apples trees. The trained model produced a cluster precision of 0.88 or 88% and a percentage error of 14% over 106 trees running the mobile vehicle on both sides of the trees. The detection model was predicting less than the actual amount but the fruit flower count is still significant in that it can give the researcher information on the estimated growth and production of each tree with respect to the actions applied to each fruit tree. A bias could be included to compensate for the average undercount. The resulting F1-Score of the object detection model was 80%, which is similar to other research methods ranging from an F1-Score of 77.3% to 84.1%. This paper helps lay the foundation for future application of machine vision and learning techniques within apple orchards or other fruit tree settings.