UAV Photogrammetry-Based Apple Orchard Blossom Density Estimation and Mapping

Abstract

Thinning is an important routine for apple growers to manage crop load and improve fruit quality, which can be accomplished through manual, chemical, or mechanical manipulation of flowers and fruitlets. Traditionally, blossom thinning relies on human experts’ visual evaluation of the flower load, a leading indicator of crop load, which can be imprecise and prone to errors. This study aimed to develop an apple blossom density mapping algorithm utilizing point clouds reconstructed through unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-based red-green-blue (RGB) imagery and photogrammetry. The algorithm was based on grid average downsampling and white color thresholding, and it was able to generate top-view blossom density maps of user-defined tree height regions. A preliminary field experiment was carried out to evaluate the algorithm’s accuracy using manual blossom counts of apple tree row sections as ground truths, and a coefficient of determination (R2) of 0.85, a root mean square error (RMSE) of 1307, and a normalized RMSE (NRMSE) of 9.02% were achieved. The algorithm was utilized to monitor the blooming of the apple tree rows and was demonstrated to effectively show blossom density variations between different tree rows and dates. The study results suggested the potential of UAVs as a convenient tool to assist precise blossom thinning in apple orchards, while future research should further investigate the reliability of photogrammetry techniques under different image qualities and flight settings as well as the influence of blossom distribution on algorithm accuracy.

Plant phenotyping relevance

UAV RGB画像とフォトグラメトリからリンゴ樹の開花密度を推定・マッピングするアルゴリズムを開発し、手作業カウントで精度検証しており、植物形質取得法が中心である。

Code and data availability

The supplied blocks describe UAV RGB imagery, point clouds, manual blossom counts, and a MATLAB mapping algorithm, but contain no data availability statement, repository deposit, or public URL for the paper's datasets, images, point clouds, or code. Only generic/cited references and the article's own license/DOI links,

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