High Speed Crop and Weed Identification in Lettuce Fields for Precision Weeding

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DOI

  • Lydia Elstone
    University of Manchester
  • Kin Yau How
    University of Manchester
  • Samuel Brodie
    University of Manchester
  • Muhammad Zulfahmi Ghazali
    University of Manchester
  • William P. Heath
    University of Manchester
  • Bruce Grieve
    University of Manchester
Precision weeding can significantly reduce or even eliminate the use of herbicides in farming. To achieve high-precision, individual targeting of weeds, high-speed, low-cost plant identification is essential. Our system using the red, green, and near-infrared reflectance, combined with a size differentiation method, is used to identify crops and weeds in lettuce fields. Illumination is provided by LED arrays at 525, 650, and 850 nm, and images are captured in a single-shot using a modified RGB camera. A kinematic stereo method is utilised to compensate for parallax error in images and provide accurate location data of plants. The system was verified in field trials across three lettuce fields at varying growth stages from 0.5 to 10 km/h. In-field results showed weed and crop identification rates of 56% and 69%, respectively. Post-trial processing resulted in average weed and crop identifications of 81% and 88%, respectively
Original languageUnknown
JournalSensors
Volume20
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 14 Jan 2020
Externally publishedYes
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