Learning to Detect Vegetation Using Computer Vision and Low-Cost Cameras

Abstract

A problem of current agriculture is the large amount of agrochemicals used to boost production due to their cost and the environmental pollution they cause. A partial solution to this problem consists in developing selective spraying techniques through the measurement of a green index that allows the selection of the precise amount of pesticide to be applied according to the specific conditions of each part of the field. Some of the problems of the existing systems are the inability to discriminate between types of vegetation and to pinpoint its location, since they only detect general patches of vegetation. In this work, we introduce a system prototype capable of measuring the presence of vegetation in an area using low-cost devices combined with current computer vision techniques. The system allows to generate a mask with the presence of vegetation in a certain area and it is also capable of distinguishing between different materials unlike current methods, which only allow to distinguish between green and non-green areas. The presented method opens the door to future research which can allow distinguishing between crops and weeds to make an even more selective application. The output of the system can be used also to design another type of weeding method that is not based on the application of agrochemicals.