A Computer Vision System for Early Stage Grape Yield Estimation Based on Shoot Detection

Counting grapevine shoots early in the growing season is critical for adjusting management practices but is challenging to automate due to a range of environmental factors.This paper proposes a completely automatic system for grapevine yield estimation, comprised of robust shoot detection and yield estimation based on shoot counts produced from videos. Experiments were conducted on four vine blocks across two cultivars and trellis systems over two seasons. A novel shoot detection framework is presented, including image processing, feature extraction, unsupervised feature selection and unsupervised learning as a final classification step. Then a procedure for converting shoot counts from videos to yield estimates is introduced.The shoot detection framework accuracy was calculated to be 86.83% with an F1-score of 0.90 across the four experimental blocks. This was shown to be robust in a range of lighting conditions in a commercial vineyard. The absolute predicted yield estimation error of the system when applied to four blocks over two consecutive years ranged from 1.18% to 36.02% when the videos were filmed around E-L stage 9.The developed system has an advantage over traditional PCD mapping techniques in that yield variation maps can be obtained earlier in the season, thereby allowing farmers to adjust their management practices for improved outputs. The unsupervised feature selection algorithm combined with unsupervised learning removed the requirement for any prior training or labeling, greatly enhancing the applicability of the overall framework and allows full automation of shoot mapping on a large scale in vineyards