| Literature DB >> 26225982 |
Thuy Tuong Nguyen1, David C Slaughter2, Bradley D Hanson3, Andrew Barber4, Amy Freitas5, Daniel Robles6, Erin Whelan7.
Abstract
This paper demonstrates an automated computer vision system for outdoor tree crop enumeration in a seedling nursery. The complete system incorporates both hardware components (including an embedded microcontroller, an odometry encoder, and an uncalibrated digital color camera) and software algorithms (including microcontroller algorithms and the proposed algorithm for tree crop enumeration) required to obtain robust performance in a natural outdoor environment. The enumeration system uses a three-step image analysis process based upon: (1) an orthographic plant projection method integrating a perspective transform with automatic parameter estimation; (2) a plant counting method based on projection histograms; and (3) a double-counting avoidance method based on a homography transform. Experimental results demonstrate the ability to count large numbers of plants automatically with no human effort. Results show that, for tree seedlings having a height up to 40 cm and a within-row tree spacing of approximately 10 cm, the algorithms successfully estimated the number of plants with an average accuracy of 95.2% for trees within a single image and 98% for counting of the whole plant population in a large sequence of images.Entities:
Keywords: homography transform; perspective transform; plant counting; projection histogram; tree crop enumeration; uncalibrated camera
Mesh:
Substances:
Year: 2015 PMID: 26225982 PMCID: PMC4570329 DOI: 10.3390/s150818427
Source DB: PubMed Journal: Sensors (Basel) ISSN: 1424-8220 Impact factor: 3.576
Figure 1Tractors are performing the fertilization step at the same time as the counting, at Sierra Gold Nurseries, CA, USA.
Figure 2(a) The ATV with an arm to mount the camera, the wheel encoder, and the microcontroller to activate the camera via a relay; (b) the vehicle in operation capturing pictures of plants; and (c) manual counting of plants by a staff person.
Figure 3Flowchart representation of the algorithm.
Figure 4An image before (a) and after (b) performing a perspective transform for plant straightening. The (red) solid lines show the plant inclination. The average inclination angle (with respect to x-axis) of the ten plants in the original image (a) is 74.81°; and it is 82.77° in the corrected one (b).
Figure 5A green-segmented image (a) and its Gaussian smoothed image (b) where plants are isolated.
List of datasets and their detail information for experiments.
| Set 1 | Set 2 | Set 3 | Set 4 | Set 5 | Set 6 | Set 7 | Total | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All | 121 | 127 | 93 | 150 | 150 | 150 | 150 | 941 | |
| Containing shadows | 18 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 21 | |
| Containing green material on the background | 6 | 10 | 46 | 150 | 150 | 150 | 150 | 662 | |
| Containing other objects on the background | 3 | 5 | 0 | 13 | 13 | 6 | 9 | 49 | |
| Containing small plants | 18 | 21 | 12 | 6 | 5 | 11 | 34 | 107 | |
| In individual images | 1469 | 1481 | 1154 | 1398 | 1402 | 1505 | 1506 | 9915 | |
| In the image sequence | 609 | 505 | 525 | 160 | 136 | 94 | 149 | 2178 | |
| With shadows in individual images | 46 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 53 | |
| Of small size in individual images | 26 | 42 | 13 | 6 | 5 | 15 | 53 | 160 | |
| 59.2% | 64.7% | 53.8% | 89.4% | 91.1% | 93.8% | 90.4% | |||
Figure 6Sample images of green objects in the background (a) where there is plant residue on the soil and plants in the next row; and small plants (b).
Average counting accuracy and the estimated image overlap using a homography transform.
| Set 1 | Set 2 | Set 3 | Set 4 | Set 5 | Set 6 | Set 7 | Avg.* | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| w.r.t. individual images | 95.8% | 95.5% | 96.4% | 93.8% | 93.6% | 95.8% | 95.3% | 95.2% | |
| Avg. count errors per image | 0.51 | 0.52 | 0.44 | 0.57 | 0.60 | 0.42 | 0.47 | 0.51 | |
| Std. Dev. of count errors per image | 0.82 | 0.67 | 0.67 | 0.74 | 0.83 | 0.59 | 0.63 | 0.72 | |
| Excluding the case of shadows | 96.2% | 95.8% | 95.4% | ||||||
| Excluding the case of green objects on the background | 95.7% | 95.5% | 96.7% | - | - | - | - | 95.4% | |
| Excluding the case of other objects on the background | 95.6% | 95.6% | 93.9% | 93.7% | 96.1% | 95.8% | 95.3% | ||
| Excluding the case of small plants | 95.8% | 95.4% | 96.5% | 94.0% | 93.9% | 96.2% | 95.4% | 95.3% | |
| 99.2% | 98.2% | 99.2% | 96.3% | 95.6% | 99% | 98.6% | 98% | ||
| 57.1% | 62.1% | 58.7% | 87.6% | 88.6% | 91.7% | 88.6% | |||
*: The final average values were calculated across all datasets.
Figure 7Tree counting errors in 941 images.
Accuracy and system characteristics comparison of the proposed method to [4,6].
| The Method of [ | The Method of [ | The Proposed Method | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| w.r.t. individual images | 86.9% | 71.4% | 95.2% | |
| Avg. count errors per image | 1.38 | 2.05 | 0.51 | |
| Std. Dev. of count errors per image | 1.34 | 1.96 | 0.72 | |
| 77.8% | 71.9% | 98% | ||
| V3 to V4 growth stages * | Early to V3 growth stages * | Early growth stage to 40 cm height | ||
| Top view | Top view | Perspective view at an angle of 60° | ||
| 85% | n/a | 54% to 91% | ||
| Image sequencing | Block matching (substituted by our image sequencing method without perspective transform) | SIFT feature matching, homography transform | SURF descriptor extraction, RANSAC feature matching, homography transform | |
| Plant segmentation | Bayesian classification on color spaces | Bayesian classification on color spaces | Excessive green | |
| Plant counting | Iterative rules based on the number of pixels and positions | Skeletonization for plant center detection | Perspective transform, Gaussian smoothing, projection histogram | |
*: The V3 growth stage in corn implies three leaves with visible leaf collars.
Figure 8Sample image of rows for the purpose of counting multiple rows simultaneously.