Application of Deep Neural Networks for Weed Detection and Classification

Abstract

Weeds compete for natural resources both in forest areas, harming the development of native vegetation, and in agricultural areas, affecting crop quality. The need then arises to classify these species, so that mechanical or chemical methods can be applied appropriately to contain the pests. This research presents the application and comparison of machine learning techniques, with the aim of automating the classification of images for agricultural challenges, such as the detection of defective seeds, and weeds and the category between these and native vegetation, while finally, the architecture of a convolutional neural network is presented. As a differential, the network's self-learning ability stands out, as images are captured in less than ideal conditions at varying heights and lighting levels in most cases. This research is expected to provide important information on artificial intelligence techniques that can be used in the classification of weed images, a factor that will contribute to the forestry and agricultural sector.