Deep learning techniques for estimation of the yield and size of citrus fruits using a UAV

Accurate and early estimation of citrus yields is important for both producers and agricultural cooperatives to be competitive and make informed decisions when selling their products. Yield estimation is key for predicting stock volumes, avoiding stock ruptures and planning harvesting operations. Visual yield estimations have traditionally been employed, resulting in inaccurate and misleading information. The main goal of this study was to develop an automated image processing methodology to detect, count and estimate the size of citrus fruits on individual trees using deep learning techniques. During 3 consecutive annual campaigns, a total of 20 trees from a commercial citrus grove were monitored using images captured from an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). These trees were harvested manually, and fruit sizes were measured. A Faster R-CNN Deep Learning model was trained using a custom dataset to detect oranges in the obtained images. An average standard error (SE) of 6.59 % was obtained between visual counting and the model’s fruit detection. Using the detected fruits, fruit size estimation was also performed. The promising results obtained indicate that this size estimation method can be employed for size discrimination prior to harvest. A model based on Long Short-term Memory (LSTM) was trained for yield estimation per tree and for a total yield estimation. The actual and estimated yields per tree were compared, resulting in an approximate error of SE = 4.53 % and a standard deviation of SD = 0.97 Kg. The actual total yield, the estimated total yield and the total yield estimated by an expert technician were compared. The error in the estimation by the technician was SE = 13.74 %, while the errors in the model were SE = 7.22 % and SD = 4083.58 Kg. These promising results demonstrate the potential of the present technique to provide yield estimates for citrus fruits or even other types of fruit.