1.

Suggest a few application (minimum 3 examples) using the image processing

in agriculture automation.

● Irrigation management
○ Can assess plant water stress levels (Fig. 1).
○ Determine optimal timing and amount of irrigation needed.
○ Promote efficient water usage.
○ Prevent excess or under-watering results in water conservation.

Fig. 1 shows the map of a farm captured by a thermal camera to see the crop
water stress index on specific areas. The higher the value in pixels, the higher
the degree of crop water deficiency (Aslan et al., 2022).

○ For example: A monitoring of flooding in irrigation system of rice farming done

by Solodunov et al., (2019):
Imaging system, the pixel arrays having XYZ coordinates provide the aerial
images of the external orientation of farm irrigation system parameters. This
creates a high-resolution orthophoto maps instantly.
● Weed detection and management.
○ Can detect the presence of weeds and apply targeted herbicides (Fig. 2).
○ Reduce the widespread of herbicides.
○ Minimise crop damage.

Fig. 2 show the percentage of spraying herbicides on a field. This helps the
farmer to conserve the input cost of purchasing herbicides by tracking the
amount of usage across the field (Zanin et al., 2022).

● Quality Fruit grading

○ Can evaluate characteristics size, shape, colour, and if have any defects
○ Enables precise sorting and grading of produce.
○ Ensure high-quality products.

● Pest and disease detection

○ Can aid in early detection of plant diseases.
○ By comparing images of healthy and infected crops.
○ Helping farmers to prevent the spread of diseases and mitigate crop loss.
 2. Name techniques or steps to process the image?

Figure shows outline of techniques used in processing an image.

Techniques General Functions

1) Acquisition 1. Photoreceptor which is the 2D plane captures both visible and invisible light
spectrums.
2. The spectrum is then received by the sensor and then the sensor converts it into
electronic signal which will then be amplified.
3. The amplified electronic signal is then transformed into a digital image by the
processor of the device.
2) Preprocessing This involves:

1. Restoration: Restoring/ recovering the degraded image by means of an inverse

process (priori knowledge of degradation phenomenon) to reconstruct the original
image.

2. Enhancement: The image is improved visually with the aid of human visual system.

3. Compression: Eliminating the unnecessary data involve in representing the image.

3) Segmentation Segmentation involves:
● Identifying real objects, pseudo-objects, and shadows or actually finding anything of
Note: the interest within the image.
simplest ● Measuring the level of homogeneity and contrast by assessing these factors: grey
segmentation is level, colour and texture.
black & white ● Then perform the algorithm (of either one or combining these processes: modification
contrasts, the and extension).
values are 1 & ● Assessment of higher image properties such as shape, perimeter can follow up after
0 respectively. the above steps have been done.
● Then a preliminary segmentation applied to the image.
● Then these segments (or pixels) are connected to form an object.
● One of the techniques used in segmenting is Clustering Technique which involves
complex processes such as divisions and thresholding.
 4. Spatial ● Done to:
Filtering 1) Remove noises in digital images
2) Enhance the image
● Three types:
Mean filter Median filter Enhancement filter

*See Fig. 1.4 above

The mean filter adds “softer” look to an image.

Mean and median filters: primarily to conceal or remove noise. It highlights edges and details within the
image.

5. Features ● To extract information useful for solving application based problems

Extraction ● 1st step: Reducing the amount of image data with the tools such as image
segmentation (allow us to look at object) and transforms (provide us with features
Note: The data based on spatial frequency information).
cleaning we ● 2nd step: Extracting features that are useful or of interest in solving computer imaging
have done is problems.
actually the
feature
extraction. Then
if we do data
analysis of the
cleaned data
and then we
algorithm=feature
reprocess the extraction or
data by renewing segmentation
or readjusting
the inputs (to get
a better output)
then this is
called as
programming.

6. Features ● One of the important aspects of feature analysis is to determine exactly which
Analysis features are important, so the analysis is not complete until we incorporate
application-specific feedback into the system.

data analysis
= part of post processing
= applying specific feedback into the
software system or modeling the
data to achieve a better goal.
3. What is the most challenging factors in image processing for agricultural
automation and application?
I. Agricultural and field applications usually require outdoor imaging hence facing
varying lighting, occlusion, and clustering of objects (e.g., fruits)
II. The continuous expansion of application fields - The application of computer vision
technology in agriculture is still in the initial stages of development. Hence, it still
cannot overcome every obstacle in agricultural production.
- Existing computer vision techniques are limited to detecting a single species
of pest.
III. Growth in the demand for professional talent - Require professionals to continue to
promote innovation and development of new technology, especially with new
concerns.
IV. Robust performance in a variety of complex situations - Most experimental results
are tested in laboratory environments/ environmental platforms. Thus, results from
the actual natural environment can differ.
V. Slow Image information acquisition and slow response to the different environmental
systems.

References

Aslan, M. F., Durdu, A., Sabanci, K., Ropelewska, E., & Gültekin, S. S. (2022). A
Comprehensive Survey of the Recent Studies with UAV for Precision Agriculture in
Open Fields and Greenhouses. Applied Sciences, 12(3), 1047.
https://doi.org/10.3390/app12031047
Mavridou, E., Vrochidou, Ε., Papakostas, G. A., Pachidis, T., & Kaburlasos, V. G. (2019).
Machine vision systems in precision agriculture for crop farming. Journal of Imaging,
5(12), 89. https://doi.org/10.3390/jimaging5120089
Tian, H., Wang, T., Liu, Y., Qiao, X., & Li, Y. (2020). Computer vision technology in
agricultural automation —A review. Information Processing in Agriculture, 7(1), 1–19.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.inpa.2019.09.006
Tian, Z., Ma, W., Yang, Q., & Duan, F. (2022). Application status and challenges of machine
vision in plant factory—A review. Information Processing in Agriculture, 9(2),
195–211. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.inpa.2021.06.003
Zanin, A. R. A., Neves, D. C., Teodoro, L. P. R., da Silva Júnior, C. A., da Silva, S. P.,
Teodoro, P. E., & Baio, F. H. R. (2022). Reduction of pesticide application via
real-time precision spraying. Scientific Reports, 12(1), 5638.
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-09607-w