School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Sydney Institute of Agriculture, The University of Sydney, Brownlow Hill, NSW, Australia.
Sci Rep. 2022 Jan 7;12(1):170. doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-03858-9.
The use of a fallow phase is an important tool for maximizing crop yield potential in moisture limited agricultural environments, with a focus on removing weeds to optimize fallow efficiency. Repeated whole field herbicide treatments to control low-density weed populations is expensive and wasteful. Site-specific herbicide applications to low-density fallow weed populations is currently facilitated by proprietary, sensor-based spray booms. The use of image analysis for fallow weed detection is an opportunity to develop a system with potential for in-crop weed recognition. Here we present OpenWeedLocator (OWL), an open-source, low-cost and image-based device for fallow weed detection that improves accessibility to this technology for the weed control community. A comprehensive GitHub repository was developed, promoting community engagement with site-specific weed control methods. Validation of OWL as a low-cost tool was achieved using four, existing colour-based algorithms over seven fallow fields in New South Wales, Australia. The four algorithms were similarly effective in detecting weeds with average precision of 79% and recall of 52%. In individual transects up to 92% precision and 74% recall indicate the performance potential of OWL in fallow fields. OWL represents an opportunity to redefine the approach to weed detection by enabling community-driven technology development in agriculture.
休耕期的利用是在水分有限的农业环境中最大限度地提高作物产量潜力的重要工具，重点是清除杂草以优化休耕效率。重复进行全场除草剂处理以控制低密度杂草种群既昂贵又浪费。目前，专门的基于传感器的喷雾梁可实现针对低密度休耕杂草种群的定点除草剂应用。利用图像分析进行休耕杂草检测是开发具有作物内杂草识别潜力的系统的机会。在这里，我们介绍了 OpenWeedLocator（OWL），这是一种开源、低成本且基于图像的休耕杂草检测设备，可为杂草控制界提供对这项技术的更多访问机会。我们开发了一个全面的 GitHub 存储库，以促进社区参与到特定地点的杂草控制方法中。通过在澳大利亚新南威尔士州的七个休耕田地中使用现有的四种基于颜色的算法对 OWL 进行了验证，这四种算法在检测杂草方面同样有效，平均精度为 79%，召回率为 52%。在各个样带中，精度高达 92%，召回率高达 74%，这表明 OWL 在休耕田中具有良好的性能潜力。OWL 为农业中通过社区驱动的技术开发来重新定义杂草检测方法提供了机会。
